Dennis Zine: It just, it gets the blood boiling to say,
“How did someone get away with this?”
Tony Cardenas: They cannot walk away and say “I
don’t know.”
Wendy Greuel: It seems like there was no one in charge …
we need to get to the bottom of it.
How anyone could ever again vote for these ambitious
people as they seek higher office in the next year is beyond me.
All have held public office and been engaged in local
politics for more than a decade in which audit after audit, in which revelation
after revelation, has shown the billion-dollar-a-year Housing Authority (HACLA) is a scandal-plagued poverty agency in need of a sweeping overhaul.
Millions of dollars in lawsuits and settlements were paid
to employees wrongfully fired or otherwise abused even as the top
officials were being paid nearly $500,000 a year.
Vast sums of public money are unaccounted for. The
housing needs of the poor were not being properly met. Federal officials demanded refunds of tens of million of dollars that were misspent and cut off funding for some HACLA programs.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg of criminality
that could be uncovered if the contracting practices and payments to
contractors, consultants and developers were scrutinized by competent state or
federal investigators.
But Zine, the head of the audit committee who wants to be
the city’s fiscal watchdog as controller, never noticed anything until now.
Cardenas, the head of the housing committee and wannabe
Congressman, never inquired about why there were so many problems in his area
of responsibility, so much substandard housing for the poor, so little housing be built for them.
Greuel, the Councilwoman who became Controiller and wants
to be Mayor, dares to insult our intelligence by suggesting she just found out
no one was “in charge,” and after all her years in office, she thinks we believe she has the intention or the ability to get to the “bottom” of this.
No one more is more responsible for this scandal than the mayor who put Rudy Montiel in
charge with his lavish salary and perks, installed the commissioners who were
supposed to provide oversight, assigned a deputy to provide liaison for him, defended every act of wrongdoing sued to cover up Montiel’s failings and claimed he knew nothing was amiss, of maybe he was part of the conspiracy and cover-up that robbed not just the taxpayers but the poorest of the poor who too often were housing in slum conditions and harassed by HACLA staff if they complained..
District Attorney Steve Cooley supposedly has awakened suddenly — just like city officials — to the crimes at HACLA and has his Public Integrity Unit Investigating.
It’s too late.
A tough FBI and federal grand jury racketeering investigation is needed and it should be all inclusive. It would lead to indictments of major figures at conspirators and many others as unindicted co-conspirators who had knowledge of crimes and a responsibility to take action.
If this does bring down the corrupt political machine, nothing will. It’s an issue that ought to mobilize advocates for the poor, those concerned about fiscal responsibility, the Occupy L.A. movement that wants to stand up for the 99 percent against the 1 percent who are the crooks in this scandalous scheme.
Credit SoCal Connected, producer Karen Foshay and reporter Laurel Erickson with an assist from David Zahniser of the LA Times for breaking this story open.
It is a story I’ve been chasing virtually from the day I started this blog nearly four years ago, following up on nearly two decades of failures, abuses and scandals. I met with former officials, examined records, pitched the story to journalists. Here’s the record:
Sept. 9, 2008 — Troubled L.A. Housing Authority cooked the books — again; this time by $27 million – It was a story about the mayor boasting that HACLA under Montiel had reached “an important milestone in its efforts to reform … putting the department back in good-standing and ending federal oversight of the program For the first time in years, this agency is solvent, functional and in a strong position to deliver much-needed help to low-income families in LA.“ He ignored and so did the press a new federal audit showing HACLA had misappropriated $27 million in federal housing funds.
Nov. 23, 2008 — Read This and Weep: The City of L.A. is Worse Than a Slumlord -- The mayor’s lawyer Saenz – now head of MALDEF after President Obama reneged on an offer to put him in charge of the Civiil Rights Division and Gov. Brown shied away from putting him the Supreme Court — denounced as “capricious” and politically motivated HUD’s decision to cut off fund of various HACLA programs in housing projects. HUD tested Montiel’s reforms and found 43 of 68 units examined were substandard. The mayor sued.
Dec. 13, 2008 — Freezing Out the Public: Curious Goings On at the LA Housing Authority – A first person account from the head of a major property management of illegal abuses by HACLA staff at some of the 1,500 federally-subsidized it managed.
Jan. 15, 2009 – LA’s Housing Scandal: By the Numbers — The LA Weekly checks out the city’s claims “affordable housing” was its top priority during the housing boom and finds it’s all a lie – “90 percent of the units built during the construction frenzy were for those earning at least $135,000,” says then Controller Laura Chick.
Nov. 11, 2010 – Where’s Rudy?
LA’s Half-Million Dollar Official and the Public Housing Scandal – After low-income tenants protested at his Rancho Cucamonga mansion over his policies, Montiel took steps to evict the ringleaders — an action that led to a City Council hearing at which he refused to appear. The council’s butt-covering response was to request a later hearing and urge him to halt the evictions.but by alienating poverty pimps like Janice Hahn and Richard Alarcon, he signed his death warrant.
March 22, 2011 — Half-Million-Dollar
LA Housing Chief Axed — The Right Thing for the Wrong Reasons – The mayor’s board cited a “loss of confidence” in Moniel’s leadership, which prompted this analysis here: “The board did the right thing for the wrong reasons in firing Montiel and now should do the right thing for the right reasons in resigning themselves for failing to provide oversight to this state-created city agency — much like the Community Redevelopment Agency — and abusing their positions.The mayor naturally has been invisible throughout this controversy under his watch.”
There were dozens of articles and audits and reports in the media and in government files in the years before 2008 and many more since.
It wasn’t all public knowledge but enough of it was to have justified a thorough investigation, tough reform measures, constant oversight.
KCET has broken out the story. It must all come out. Those responsible — and those who were irresponsidle — must be held fully accountable.
COMING NEXT: PART 2 — WHAT DID THE MAYOR KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?
As long as the kiss asses on the neighborhood councils stick their heads in the sand they are just as guilty as these fools for failing to represent the people and not say a damn thing. This is why the corrupt politicians continue to be corrupt, everyone looks away including the media. This story should be at the top of the hour on every local station and its not. We need to start a boycott of our local media now. Why aren’t the NC’s storming City Council and demanding answers?
Another scandal in the making
L.A. spent more than $600,000 designing and building a pocket park in South Los Angeles. But the school district is now using the land for a much-needed campus. Exasperated neighbors wonder why neither side knew what the other was doing.
When did the mayor [and fill in the blanks of name after name of city officials including the city and district attorneys] know and when did they know it?
The list will be long, so they better start clearing the petty criminals from the prisons and jails to make room for the city elite who have been getting away with this crap for years.
Those are perp walks we’d all relish seeing!
Here’s the link to the L.A.Times (Sat. 12/10) story about the $600K pocket park:
“A park, a school — a lot of wasted money”
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-park-problem-20111210,0,5797018.story
Expense accounts are just the tip of the iceberg. Just imagine the corruption surrounding the granting of contracts. Just imagine how poorly run this agency is. But City Hall does not care. Washington is financing this charade, not the General Fund.
And do not forget the City’s corrupt Housing Department. it is just another Villaraigosa special.
How can we duplicate the City of Los Angeles’ “Iron Rice Bowl” phenomenon so we may fully employ California’s unemployed in the private business sectors? Busy Work, Corruption or Self Preservation? The government has actually figured out how to get the most out of the taxpayer during an economic crisis when you have less revenues….Read L.A.’s new Culinary Financial Cook Book
Add one failure of a leader, supported by 4 million grains of salt, “Pour” chicken “stock”, hundreds of unpeeled onions, a pinch of reality, a boot, use turmeric if you can’t afford saffron…don’t forget to skim the fat off the top…add more or less to taste…SERVE WITH A SMILE!
WE all know we have a failure of a City Controller Wendy Greuel who has been more concerned about pimping herself out to the media then doing her job and every week we have another scandal of abusing our tax payer dollars and she says she didn’t know. Where the hell is State Controller John Chiang on this? How did the City of Bell get audited by his office and we need to find out how to get him to AUDIT LOS ANGELES
great accumulation of historical data on the facts pertaining to “fraud, waste, and abuse” at L.A. Housing Authority.
it is exactly what is need, a little sunshine. far too long our poor have suffered because of, (and I have no idea how ignorant greedy people actually think, so I better stop here)
I agree with Jack on the grant issues. The FED will offset furture GRANT $$ so, by stealing it upfront, while it may not hurt the General Fund, it results in no housing- that’s what the money was used for
Now, on the Councilmen, and Controller and official Mayorial Candidates, why do the appear shocked, all the time? Wendy was shocked at LADWP, Wendy was shocked at stolen assets in the ITA dept., where does that money come from?
Fed Government should come in, rund the City, and we can elect a new group of leaders. Cause, that is the only way to get rid of these bamboozlers, (that includes, those who look the other way)
I do appreciate Bill Rosendahls efforts to find housing for those living in Vehicles. Bill found many homeless people a place to live, including Mayorial Candiate for 2013 Zumadogg. Least we forget, LAHD. Adape.
So THICK and THIN corruption is rampant. Ron, we need Voices to Rumble the Halls of City Hall and I mean Explosive Sounds to Shame them. Round up a FEW GOOD MEN and let’s get down to City Hall to school them on ethics and tax payer money.
The Feds will do nothing. This is not Bell-a backwater with a corrupt white fatso. Plus Brown was running for governor so he wanted to show he did his job as AG. Villar is different-nobody will have the guts to throw in jail this great Latino hope. Also Obama and dem party need Villar to get the Hispanic votes next year. So don’t have great hopes anything will happen. Look at indicted AlarCon. He bought another house (in his district!) to run for a state job. Shouldn’t he be on trial instead?
There will be cluckings of disapproval for a short period a time, after which some token department chief will be offered up, but no investigation of any councilman.
Remember when Garcetti was caught pocketbook deep in the $1.4 Million Appraisal Fraud with the CRA project a 1601 N. Vine (aka The Cesspool on Vine)? Was there an invesigation? Nope. His daddy is the ex-DA so Trust Fund Baby has an extra layer of protection.
Cooley is as corrupt as any felon-to-be on the city council. Cooley’s job is to cover-up all felonious activity by councilmembers and their mega-wealthy masters.
If someone should file a civil complaint, there’s a cadre of corrupt judges ready to shoot down any lawsuit. The city can commit perjury about evidence and conceal documents during trial and that’s OK with ex-judge David Yaffe.
When the municipal code says that “the Planning Director shall not process” any building application, Judge chalfant says that means “she may process the building application.” Yes, hence forth the word “shall” is no longer mandatory but permissive.
When Atty Richard Fine protested illegal behavior in the courts and complained about the CRA corruption, he is throwin into jail for 18 months. Yes, our wonderful judges actually jail people — with no trial — any atty who threaten to expose the entire corrupt machine that’s been looting Los Angeles for over a decade risk long term incarceration and bankruptcy.
Then there was crazy Judge Ditz Janvas who was such a nightmare that the public finally voted her off the bench only to have GOP Governator reappoint her to the very same spot.
Then we had the Ramparts Scandal which ended up with the LAPD being placed under the supervisor of the US Justice Department for about a decade. The LAPD was just low man on the totem pole. The corrupt judges ran the entire corrupt scam to imprison people with no regard to guilt or innocence as the judges worked for “law and order” politicos. They even allowed Judge Connor, who was one of the Rampart Judges, preside over the first trial of the low level corrupt officers. After the jury convicted them, Judge Connor revesed the jurty and let them go. Rumor has it, that the copes weren’t going to go down alone, and unless set free they wer going tor at on the judges just like Officer Perez turned on his fellow LAPD officers.
There were the judges in West District including Judge Connor who knew about and covered up the massive mortgage loans frauds from Countrywide, but the judges attacked the homeowners who complained. Had the judges not been henchmen for the corrupt mortgage industry, the entire nation would have been spared the 2008 Collapse of the mortgage market and the resultant world wide economic crisis.
The pennies innolved in LA Housing scandal will only serve as a diversion and pretext that something is being done about corruption. Nothing is being done and nothing will be done because the corruption infests all aspects of government including the DA, the judges and the Supreme Court justices who find that corporations are people, but human beings are not.
Regarding the comment about “ass kisses” on the NCs: there are those who are more interested in getting on the good side of elected officials than on dealing with the city’s problems. However, I have personally observed many members who are unafraid to put challenging questions to officials. The problem is with the lack of time NC volunteers have to follow up at forums and other gatherings, not to mention limited time in their personal lives and careers.
“Corruption and Incompetence” you are right on the mark. How does it all change? I’ve maintained campaign financing (including ads) must cease to exist for this madness to, at least, start to end. Barring that, since it probably will never happen, what else can be done?
On the HACLA issue:
Don’t such expenditures (pay offs) have to go through Council?
Wouldn’t a Council member on a particular committee follow (or even glance at) the agendas for the corresponding departments? I looked up HACLA’s and their past two agendas mention closed sessions for potential litigation. Given the red flags of HACLA, wouldn’t it be part of their duties to do this?
Agenda–at the end is closed session:
http://www.hacla.org/attachments/calendarevents/436/AGENDA%20-%2011.23.11%20LOMOD%20Corporations%20Annual%20Meeting.pdf
Minutes of another meeting. At the end is approval of a settlement:
http://www.hacla.org/attachments/wysiwyg/10/ActionMinutes-BOC-11-01-11.pdf
For Council members to feign ignorance, well, wouldn’t that be malfeasance or something along that line?
NC’s are compsoed of individual persons and so far, each NC shouold be judged based on its won actions. Evend ecent NC’s can be sabotaged by a stooge for Garcetti or LaBonge who will volunteer to write the letter or follow up on a matter, and the ditch everything until’s itgs too late.
Sometimes the NC’s catches on in time to correct the situation; other times they’re duped until it is too late.
If there is a problem that is rather common it is NC’s members who see kissing up to their councilmember as their sole and only reason to be on a Bd.
The other common problem is with Stakeholders who thinbk NC’s Bd memebrs have unlim,ited time and unlimited resource to research each and every issue so that the Stakeholders don’t have to do anything.
Stakeholders need to organize and gather facts and present those facts to the proper NC committee in time for the Committee to advance it to the NC Board. The NC can be a tool to express Stakeholder concerns to the City, but without the Stakeholders doing the grunt work, the NC lacks the info to do anything.
If I hear one more theatrical “righteous indignation” word from our city “leaders,” I think I’ll scream.
Is there really an FBI Public Fraud investigative unit in Los Angeles? If there is, the FBI and the US Attorney is completely sleep at the wheel. How is it that corruption and dishonestly continues?
12:22–the Feds will not touch Villar because they need him to get Hispanic votes for the democrats next year.
Story in LA Slimes today bout FEDS now investigating CRA and developers for abuse to people with disabilities. Mentions a couple of more FED investigations inside City Hall. Do you think the loser son council are running scared because you know it all points back to their failures.
6:15 am -
Are you kidding? Most people in the hispanic voting block are embarrassed by what a shallow do-nothing Villar has proven to be. Asking Villar to “help” turn out the hispanic vote would be like asking Jerry Sandusky helping to turn out the parents of junior school school athletes vote.
The FBI and US Attorney would generate way more votes for Obama if they initiated prosecution of Villar and his band of crooks.
6:15 am -
Are you kidding? Most people in the hispanic voting block are embarrassed by what a shallow do-nothing Villar has proven to be. Asking Villar to “help” turn out the hispanic vote would be like asking Jerry Sandusky helping to turn out the parents of junior school school athletes vote.
The FBI and US Attorney would generate way more votes for Obama if they initiated prosecution of Villar and his band of crooks.
6:15 am -
Are you kidding? Most people in the hispanic voting block are embarrassed by what a shallow do-nothing Villar has proven to be. Asking Villar to “help” turn out the hispanic vote would be like asking Jerry Sandusky helping to turn out the parents of junior school school athletes vote.
The FBI and US Attorney would generate way more votes for Obama if they initiated prosecution of Villar and his band of crooks.
The Mayor & most of the Councilmembers, especially the grandstanding Zine should be indicted & placed where they belong–behind bars.
This story has legs and Wendy can kiss the Mayor`s office good buy!
Dumb Zine has called Simmons to a hearing tomorrow at city council. They always jump on the bandwagon after the fact. I hope anyone who has the time to attend fill out a public comment card cause the media will be there in force and slam all those council members for being so corrupt. I never thought I would ask but where has Zuma Dogg gone. He needs to do his best dogging them tomorrow
I actually really like it!