If you want to understand how public corruption works, the standard maxim is follow the money, which usually leads you to how palms get greased, back room deals get made and the public gets screwed.
Take the case of downtown L.A.'s biggest property owner, Richard Meruelo,
who has turned his family's shop specializing in quinceanara and wedding dresses into a staggering fortune with control of millions of square feet and dozens of properties.
Every CRA-subsidized downtown project enhances Meruelo's holdings, every extra tax dollar generated by those developments that stays downtown adds value to him .
Is it any wonder then the Meruelo has invested heavily in City Hall politicians, particularly Antonio Villaraigosa.
Apart from tens of thousands of dollars spread around city political campaigns in recent years by himself, his family, his colleagues and employees, Meruelo was the biggest single contributor to independent expenditure efforts that backed Villaraigosa in 2005 -- $193,000.
Even as he was boosting Villaraigosa's campaign warchest, Meruelo swooped in and bought the Taylor Yard property out from under the LAUSD which had offered $27 million and was prepared to go nearly $3 million higher. The community had worked long and hard to find a location for the underserved students in the Glassell Park/Cypress Park area and Taylor Yard was the only possible site.
An eminent domain fight between Meruelo and LAUSD ensued and the Downtown News today in an extensive report by Ryan Vaillancourt says the King of Downtown will profit handsomely in just three years under a $50 million settlement with LAUSD.
"The previously unreported agreement was approved in a closed session meeting of the board of education by a 6 to 1 vote on June 17,:" the story says.
The lone holdout was East Valley board member, Tamar Galtazan, who objected to the price. The $50 million settlement does not sit well with some, including Tamar Galatzan, the only member of the board of education to vote against the agreement.
"This is a lot of money for a property that the district could have purchased years ago and the run-up in price is based on the developer speculating that if the district didn't buy it, he could put a huge development on it and make double his investment," she said.
So Meruelo buys the property for a mixed-use housing development as the real estate market is nearing the peak of a boom period and sells it when the market has crashed and housing market has dried up and makes a profit of $20 million or so.
And the return on his investment in politicians is even better by far.
Take the case of downtown L.A.'s biggest property owner, Richard Meruelo,
who has turned his family's shop specializing in quinceanara and wedding dresses into a staggering fortune with control of millions of square feet and dozens of properties. Every CRA-subsidized downtown project enhances Meruelo's holdings, every extra tax dollar generated by those developments that stays downtown adds value to him .
Is it any wonder then the Meruelo has invested heavily in City Hall politicians, particularly Antonio Villaraigosa.
Apart from tens of thousands of dollars spread around city political campaigns in recent years by himself, his family, his colleagues and employees, Meruelo was the biggest single contributor to independent expenditure efforts that backed Villaraigosa in 2005 -- $193,000.
Even as he was boosting Villaraigosa's campaign warchest, Meruelo swooped in and bought the Taylor Yard property out from under the LAUSD which had offered $27 million and was prepared to go nearly $3 million higher. The community had worked long and hard to find a location for the underserved students in the Glassell Park/Cypress Park area and Taylor Yard was the only possible site.
An eminent domain fight between Meruelo and LAUSD ensued and the Downtown News today in an extensive report by Ryan Vaillancourt says the King of Downtown will profit handsomely in just three years under a $50 million settlement with LAUSD.
"The previously unreported agreement was approved in a closed session meeting of the board of education by a 6 to 1 vote on June 17,:" the story says.
The lone holdout was East Valley board member, Tamar Galtazan, who objected to the price. The $50 million settlement does not sit well with some, including Tamar Galatzan, the only member of the board of education to vote against the agreement.
"This is a lot of money for a property that the district could have purchased years ago and the run-up in price is based on the developer speculating that if the district didn't buy it, he could put a huge development on it and make double his investment," she said.
So Meruelo buys the property for a mixed-use housing development as the real estate market is nearing the peak of a boom period and sells it when the market has crashed and housing market has dried up and makes a profit of $20 million or so.
And the return on his investment in politicians is even better by far.
Maybe such contributions should be considered a legitimate business
expense since there's nothing wrong with them under the city or state
law; it's not even necessary to disclose what special interests like
Meruelo are especially interested in even when they throw around
six-figure donations.
Think about what was going on at the time.
LAUSD is trying to buy the property and in the middle of negotiations Meruelo puts in a better offer and the district is too slow and confused to counter or to seize the property by eminent domain.
For his part, Villaraigosa happily takes Meruelo's money even though he's running for mayor as the education czar, the candidate who is trying to take over the school board by electing a majority and take over the district directly through legislation.
But he has no qualms about Meruelo robbing the community of a badly-needed high school even as the Hahn campaign is raising ethical questions about the contributions.
The sad truth is this is how City Hall works all the time. These people aren't crooks. It's all legal because for all intents and purposes the only way a politician can get in trouble is by standing up in public, or getting trapped in a recording, admitting they did favors in exchange for money.
And that's a crime.
.
Think about what was going on at the time.
LAUSD is trying to buy the property and in the middle of negotiations Meruelo puts in a better offer and the district is too slow and confused to counter or to seize the property by eminent domain.
For his part, Villaraigosa happily takes Meruelo's money even though he's running for mayor as the education czar, the candidate who is trying to take over the school board by electing a majority and take over the district directly through legislation.
But he has no qualms about Meruelo robbing the community of a badly-needed high school even as the Hahn campaign is raising ethical questions about the contributions.
The sad truth is this is how City Hall works all the time. These people aren't crooks. It's all legal because for all intents and purposes the only way a politician can get in trouble is by standing up in public, or getting trapped in a recording, admitting they did favors in exchange for money.
And that's a crime.
.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the National Enquirer.
The corruption of Mexico abounds! The oily, unctuous Mayor of Mexico, aka Los Angeles, just gave his compadere, Meruelo, a $20M greasy handshake! Some of it will undoubtedly show up next year in Villar's campaign war chest!
Thank you Ron.
You left out how Meruelo may have dumped toxic refuse at Taylor Yards from a downtown building he illegally demolished - leaving LAUSD (ie: the taxpayers) with a multi million dollar clean up fee.
Or how he allegedly borrowed the money for this unhappy venture from CalPers - leveraging the teachers' and state employees' pension fund against the school district, children and - oh yeah - the taxpayers.
There have been allegations made and denied that Meruelo benefited from inside information from one or more elected officials re: negotiations between the LAUSD and the previous owner of the property.
There are unanswered questions about commercial use of city-owned public land adjoining the property.
THAT BEING SAID, the comments from anonymous ("The corruption of Mexico abounds!") are abhorrent. Mayor Tony is American born and bred. Meruelo is a Cuban-American from Miami. Corruption like intolerance are equal opportunity vices, knowing no color, creed or national origin.
Holy crud - I am sick of this!
To all this you have to add that Villaraigosa has had little, if any, real opposition to anything he proposes thanks to his disciples on the council, including his successor in CD-14- Jose Huizar who seems to have been schooled in political ethics by Antonio himself.
The current message from Mayor Tony V. is to generate more revenue (find more we can charge residents for). Today Alarcon did his jr. lawyer act, trying out the old cross-exam approach during a report presentation from a department muckety-muck, just about as angry as he could be because they had not been able to begin the collection of fees from residents already.
Yes, Richard, dump on these guys because you spend too much and you enjoy showboating at the expense of others.
It's all such a shell game to fool you and hide the real blame. Time for some new guys.
Good for Tamar! Someone with a backbone to do what is right.
Angelenos need to start connecting the dots.
Los Angeles City Ethic Commission – 2009 Municipal and LAUSD Election
Visit link:
http://ethics.lacity.org/efs/public_search_results.cfm?orderby=RPT_LNAME,%20RPT_FNAME&orderbydesc=no&showall=yes&requesttimeout=1000&SCHEDULE=A%2CB%2CC&rept_type=AllCon&election_id=37&cand_per_id=479&viewtype=pf