The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted against censuring supervisor Tom Patti in response to the findings of a confidential report on ethics violations. Patti is a Republican running against Democratic Representative Josh Harder for House District 9."I respected the process and the board’s decision today," Patti told KCRA 3. In a 3-2 vote, the board decided to acknowledge the complaint against Patti without censuring him. Censure would not have translated to specific disciplinary action, but would have been the board's way of publicly expressing serious disapproval of Patti weeks before the election. The decision comes weeks after the board voted to censure Patti over a separate complaint Sept. 13, stemming from Supervisor Kathy Miller's former chief of staff. Miller also filed the other complaint at the center of Tuesday's vote in May of 2021. "Clearly what we’re seeing is a concerted political operation to damage my name and reputation," Patti said. "To say this is unimportant and petty is to disrespect the citizens of San Joaquin County who brought forward two of the charges to me and risked getting sideways with supervisor Patti," Miller said during the meeting. County leaders would not say exactly why Patti was facing the vote, citing attorney-client privilege. Patti said during the meeting ahead of the vote that part of the ethics investigation had to do with bribery, but he did not give specifics. In response, some supervisors briefly considered waiving the board's attorney-client privilege to provide the public more context into the situation, but ultimately decided not to at the advice of the attorney. "They looked at it; they found no substance to the complaint; they dismissed it and it was unsubstantiated," Patti told KCRA 3 after the meeting.The issue has been emblazoned on a billboard sitting off of a highway in Tracy put up by Harder's campaign. "Supervisor Tom Patti Under Investigation for Bribery," the billboard reads. Following Tuesday's vote Harder said in a statement, "Usually if you're under investigation for bribery you hire a good lawyer, you don’t run for Congress." Patti is now demanding Harder take down the billboard, which he considers to be libel. "I think it would be the right thing to do, otherwise we might escalate that to the next level," Patti said. Harder's campaign did not say if it planned to take down the billboard but pointed to reports of Patti saying part of the investigation was related to bribery.