The man who would be president or at least the governor, Antonio Villaraigosa, knows how to curry favor with those who matter and how to bestow favors on those who can help him matter more.
Take the case of Deputy City Attorney Capri Maddox, wife of lobbyist, political consultant and, according to the New York Times, “top Obama fund-raiser and party donor” Kerman Maddox.
He’s also a friend of just about everybody in LA politics and partners with Rick Taylor at Dakota Communications to peddle his influence at City Hall on behalf of such clients as Westfield malls, Brook Business Group, Central Parking, Delaware North Companies Travel Hospitality Services, Duty Free Americas, WesPac Energy Group bringing in $128,500 so far this year, according to city ethics reports.
As a member of Obama’s National Finance Committee and friend of the chairman of the Democratic National Convention, it’s only natural given the state of American politics these days that Maddox has a lot of favors due him for his devotion to duty, one of which came Tuesday when Villaraigosa appointed his wife to the city’s only paid civilian commission, the Board of Public Works.
“Capri Maddox has demonstrated her commitment to public service since 1992,” said Mayor Villaraigosa (MaddoxAppointment). “Her legal experience and her dedication to the residents ofLos Angeleswill be great assets to the Board of Public Works Commission.”
The press release notes she provides “legal advice to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, the Neighborhood Commissioners, and the members of the Los Angeles City Council on Neighborhood Council related issues” and A graduate ofFairfaxHigh School, Maddox is a native ofLos Angeleswhere she lives with her husband and five-year old son.
I emailed the mayor’s press secretary Vicki Curry with “two simple questions about the press release on Capri Maddox…is she leaving the City Attorney’s office, taking leave or what? Given her husband’s role as a lobbyist and major fund-raiser for the President, shouldn’t that have been included…”
“Capri intends to serve as a Public Works commissioner and will take the necessary steps to fulfill that role,” she answered without answering the questions.
Let’s give Capri Maddox the benefit of all doubt: In the name of public service she presumably is taking leave from her full-time job and giving up as much as $50,000 to take a $125,000 part-time job — a job that has been used repeatedly for decades as a payoff to wives, husbands, daughters, sons and other relatives of the politically-connected, people who will not ask too many tough questions about crooked contracting practices or outrageous cost over-runs.
It’s harder to ignore the failure to identify Kerman Maddox as her husband since she never would have gotten this cushy gig that will let her spend a lot more time with her 5-year-old if her husband wasn’t a key player in local and presidential politics.
Back in April, the New York Times reviewed campaign donations and White House visitor logs and found that “special interests have had little trouble making themselves heard,” often bringing lobbyists with them on their visits.
“The review showed that those who donated the most to Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party since he started running for president were far more likely to visit the White House than others. Among donors who gave $30,000 or less, about 20 percent visited the White House, according to a New York Times analysis that matched names in the visitor logs with donor records. But among those who donated $100,000 or more, the figure rises to about 75 percent. Approximately two-thirds of the president’s top fund-raisers in the 2008 campaign visited the White House at least once, some of them numerous times.
“The reasons someone might have gained access to the White House and made a donation are wide-ranging, and it is clear that in some cases the administration came down against the policies being sought by the visitors. But the regular appearance of big donors inside the White House underscores how political contributions continue to lubricate many of the interactions between officials and their guests, if for no other reason than that donors view the money as useful for getting a foot in the door.”
Among those lobbyists that the NYT focused on was Kerman Maddox who was hired a year earlier by the MTA, at the urging you can be sure of Villaraigosa and his allies, to “speed up local transit projects” — the mayor’s only partially successful 30-10 effort to use federal money and loans in support of borrowing against 30 years of Measure R sales tax revenue to spend in a single decade.
“We thought he could help our outreach in Washington,” Art Leahy, CEO of the MTA was quoted as saying.
In an internal memo justifying Mr. Maddox’s hiring, the authority wrote that he had “direct access to the Executive Oval Office” and cited his position on the Obama campaign’s National Finance Committee. Mr. Maddox’s company Web site prominently features photographs of him with the Obamas.
One day after the authority signed off on his contract, Mr. Maddox made a $10,000 donation to the Obama re-election effort; he donated an additional $6,000 in June. In August, Mr. Maddox landed a meeting for himself and the authority officials with Melody Barnes, then director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, one of several meetings the officials were able to get.
The administration had previously been supportive of Los Angeles County’s efforts to accelerate its transit projects, but the following month, Mr. Obama also announced, as part of his jobs package, a proposal to significantly expand a Transportation Department loan program. The plan, which has drawn bipartisan support, is something Mr. Maddox’s clients had sought. Mr. Maddox, soon donated an additional $11,250 to the victory fund. He said in an e-mail that his donations were tied to fund-raising events and had nothing to do with visiting the White House.
This is just small snapshot of how things work today in Los Angeles, California and America.
It’s not about the public benefit or building a public transit system or fixing what is broken. It’s all about money and power and privilege for the few at the expense of the many at a level that this country has never seen before.
I wonder if this began during the caveman days?
The man with the biggest club and most animal pelts controlled everyone else in the same way, and got his wife cushy jobs whereby she didn’t have to do any cooking over a hot, smokey fire, but was the supervisor and got the first and biggest portion.
Nothing more to say—L.A. is a ATM for the influence peddlers, crooks, and insiders. TIME TO MOVE AWAY BABY!!
It’s so sad. One important reform that can help to change this will never happen–elimination of campaign financing. Until it’s eliminated–corporate, PACS, individual, etc–things will continue down this God forsaken path.
My condolences to all who truly care.
The Devil made them do it.
Read Proverbs 22:1.NIV Bears repeating…
” A good name is more desirable than great riches”
Ron, and this is news because?
Of course this is how things are always done. The only difference is that the party controlled media (you know which party) and especially the two worthless rags in LA pretending to be newspapers would not touch this. Not when it’s reflecting unfavorably on Villar, Obama etc. of course if it’s Romney’s dog or horse or what he may have done 40 years ago – hey this is all big news and headlines. Corruption in LA? Nah
Ron, why are you surprised? Antonio has been selling the City since he was sworn in.
Ah, yes, the Board of Public works. Whose president, Andrea Alarcon, was appointed by Villaraigosa and approved unanimously by City Council probably because of her extensive prior experience in the field. Her father, Richard Alarcon who obviously had no influence whatsoever in her appointment, must be so proud.
One Poster called himself “MovingOut!” Since my 2012 “Get the Hell Out of L.A. 2012″ Campaign and struggle, isn’t it interesting that I’ve witnessed some changes:
1/ The tagging has ALL BEEN CLEANED UP AT MY JOB AREA
2/ Trash cans at the curbs by busstops HAVE BEEN REPLACED
3/ Bulky trash items at the Job and at the homesite HAVE BEEN REMOVED
4/ Pot shops WERE VOTED DOWN
5/ New replacement lights have been installed at the Job site and at home
6/ The homeless encampment under the freeway pass in Encino HAS BEEN COMPLETELY REMOVED AND THE AREA CLEANED
7/ The SIDEWALKS at Sepulveda park HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY REPLACED
8/ The entire Sepulveda park and the adjacent park and ride IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING COMPLETELY REBUILT!
9/ LAPD patrols in the Downtown area have TRIPPLED.
Yes, isn’t it A COINCIDENCE that all of this just started happening in the last 90 days or so? Then here’s the best one:
In CD15, San Pedro, the City was going to REPLACE THE PARKING METERS WITH THOSE NEW $5.00 PER HOUR ONES. New Council-Clown Buscaiano ACTUALLY HAD THE CLOWNCIL ORDERED THE PARKING METERS COMPLETELY REMOVED!!!!!! The new Clown for CD15 said “HE LISTENED TO THE LOCAL BUSINESS COMMUNITY WHO SAID THEY WANTED THEM GONE….”
Since when do the CouncilClowns give a God Damn about what any OF US say?
Yes, the 15 “Kings” are starting to realize THAT WE THE SCHMUCKS have had quite enough of THEM over all these years!
The only thing that would cause me to change my U-Haul reservation is IF THE 405 and 101 WERE DOUBLE-DECKED to move the traffic through. Instead, the CROOKS are going to add 1 or 2 “HOV” lanes (which is what the suffering over the 405 is all about) AND THEM SURPRISE–TURN THEM INTO PAY-PER-MILE TOLL LANES!!!
Wait till all the West Side and SFV dummies find out about this “widening” project being just a gimmick to steal more cash PER MILE of daily driving. Boy are they going to be surprised. BUT NOT HERE ON THIS BLOG. I attended the METRO special meeting where this was all explained to us 10 or so Encino Neighborhood Slaves who attended the meeting. They have this new transmitter to debit your bank account per mile ALREADY SET UP. They wouldn’t let me keep the one they brough to the meeting—They want $75 bucks for it. I SAID “That’s Okay, I wont need it….” They didn’t understand HOW THAT WAS POSSIBLE. HA HA HA!!!
Wayne,
In all honesty, I think a lot of your rants are over the top and kind of scary. HOWEVER, you are 100% correct in your postulation that the only reason the one (and it is only one) carpool lane is being added through the Sepulveda pass is so that it can be turned into a toll lane. Go ahead everyone and laugh at Wayne from Encino, but history will prove that he told your first, right here, that you will be paying a toll if you want to get through the Sepulveda pass a little faster.
And another thing…
I tried to post a comment to the previous post about the article about Villar on Yahoo news, but it wouldn’t post. Here it is…
If you want a good laugh, go read the reader comments on this article at Yahoo news. I think there are 9372 and 9371 are about what a incompetent loser Villar is. I guess the DNC machine decided to have Yahoo news and David Chalian do their PR work on this one instead of the New York Times. Remember that little gem the NYT put out on Villar after it was announced that he would be opening the Democratic Convention? It amazes me how some “journalists” will put their name on some of the crap they write like this. Chalian has a pretty good history with PBS, ABC, etc. I would love to know what went on behind the scenes to get him to write a PR piece like this.
Ron is on assignment, thus from the Newsdesk:
1/ Dow SURGES 217 points to move a bit past 13,000 points. Thus, if your invested in this market might WANT TO BAIL OUT NOW! It was down 300 points all week and one day it all comes back? This of course is what has been happening all year. Another HUGE MELTDOWN is just wanting to happen. If it doesn’t…
2/ Bruno the wonder Dog speaks his first word! Ron’s amazing dog’s first word? UHAUL! Yes even Dogs know they WANT OUT OF L.A!
3/ Kevin James is STILL running for mayor of L.A!!! WOW!! And he’s raised alot of cash too!!! So I think what this says is that his “braintrust” believes an Openly Gay Republican with an IQ over 110 and realworld Ability has a chance to be Mayor of Los Angeles in 2013? (This is part where Ron will delete my post—KEVIN SHOULD HAVE RUN FOR CITY ATTORNEY LIKE I KEPT AND KEEP SAYING—STILL TIME TO RUN VS. YOU KNOW WHO!!!)
4/ Carmen “Da’Clown” Dumbanich acts like he has a brain this week!! HE WROTE A LETTER TELLING THE LISTED AND UNLISTED POT SHOPS TO SHUT DOWN. You don’t know the homeowners and business owners who have to suffer at the hands of these rats.
5/ Wall Street Journal Tues—THEY LIKE ROMNEY! He apparently wowed most in his visit to Israel calling Jeruselum THE CAPITAL OF ISRAEL. FIRST TIME IN 4 LONG YEARS I’VE HEARD THAT! To all you Jewish voters—ANY QUESTIONS WHO TO VOTE FOR PRESIDENT? You have a serious Pro-Isreal guy running here!
WAKE THE HELL UP!!
6/ HOUSE-SELLER’S WHO HAVE A GAIN ARE RUNNING TO SELL THEIR HOUSES THIS YEAR!!! Why? Because Obama hasn’t put a LAW IN PLACE to stop A whopping 20% INCREASE IN CAPITAL GAIN TAXES IN JAN. 2013!!!! What does this do for the already weak and horrid housing market? IT FORCES LOWER PRICES EARLIER AND FORCES OWNERS TO CARRY PAPER TO CLOSE A LOAN which they may very well lose out on the loan NOW or wait next year AND SELL FOR LESS MONEY AND GET TAXED HIGHER ON THE LOWER PRICE! What a mess!!!
Yes, I was glad to give all this wonderful news to start your weekend.
The carpool lane on the 405 doesn’t save much time when on your way home on surface streets you have to stop and wait 4 or 5 times for 4 or 5 minutes for un-permitted hence illegal, rolling and opening gates placed at or near curb to open, so the car on the street can enter the 5-6-7 foot high walled, gated, fenced or hedged area on the public easement to reach their garage. These same people cannot see to pull out of the area behind the fence, gate, wall or hedge as the 3 1/2 ft height for safety is ignored.
Animal Welfare and personnel is hearing next week on safety for equestrian trails, what about pedestrian travel on residential streets with unsafe and dangerous fences, gates, walls, hedges etc.
The land grabs and encroachments are unsafe for pedestrians and vehicles traveling the neighborhoods.
Commercial properties require a queuing area for cars pulling off the street into a gated entry – the queuing area is 12 to 20 feet and should now be required for the “I want to call my house a gated estate wether or not there is room to turn around, exit or enter safely” home owners. Land grabbers are affecting your time and quality of life when driving residential neighborhoods.
maybe this is a project for city attorney Maddox as she would know how to interpret the building code, encroachment, easements, street sign damage, and fines to be issued. Looking for money Villaraigosa? I can show you 20 to 50 K per block in the Valley that should be fined and require permits if structures on public right of way and easements are approved.
Kim Il’ Ron’s back deleting my posts again! Don’t fret! Watch in the near future for my new Posting which will say “Wayne from Ventura.” Yes, it’s about to happen—FREEDOM! Now I really understand what Martin Luther King, Jr. felt when he gave his “I have a dream” speech. I’m living in a repressive, overtaxed, overpopulated, and overpriced City inside a County with the same issues in all it’s cities.
Delete, modify, edit…whatever you need to do Ron. I speak the TRUTH. Sorry you can’t HANDLE THE TRUTH. So you won’t allow a post about the MAYOR’S RACE IF I say a single word about ONE CANDIDATE but it’s okay on all the others? Yes, Ron, I know it sucks. But no one will get to see the post you deleted, thus you wont allow free speech or EQUAL TIME on the issue of Mayor of L.A. 2013. You’re actually hurting you-know-who’s chances by doing what your doing. That’s why the Kerman Maddoxes of the world keep winning and winning and profiting.
Wayne–you make intelligent comments, but you show your stupidity/naivete when you pretend that folks across the county line are more honest & wonderful. You will soon find that they are as corrupt as any in Southern California. LA is more media covered and data are more available compared to other areas. Scratch under the stone and there are snakes everywhere. We are all trying to fight corruption rather than escaping to an imaginary Utopia. Good luck.
Does Capri Maddox deserve this position that comes with a pay cut? Did she pay her way through undergraduate school, and graduate school, by working? Did she get accepted to an IVY league level law school and continue to work through? Is she partly responsible for the quality building of millions in low cost housing in Socal?
Did she win millions for the city of LA from corporate pollutors, including a food retailer who put your health and safety at risk. The answer to each is Yes! And by the way much of this was before she narried.
You say she may have more time with her son now. The son she has left many an evening to attend community meetings, hospital rooms and the funerals of LA crime victims, in order to comfort them or their families. Campaign donatioins? Should she and her husband not have supported the president. How much did you contribute? Do you have any idea how much more she and her husband would have if they withheld their contibutions to charities you know zero about.
I am no stranger to political corruption. I know it is everywhere. I also know this: Capri has always been a hard worker (since she was 10 years old) when she pushed carts back to the supermarket for a quarter a piece; and she’s been encouraged to always take the high road. Try getting to know her, instead of leaving her to the politicos you evidently feel can influence her. She belongs to you; have her remember that. Perhaps her training and your interest and support will bring a positive result.
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Best wishes Capri. The responder who noted scripture about a good name makes a pt.
You know the rule about the janitor and the principal.
Love,
Ma
Does Capri Maddox deserve this position that comes with a pay cut? Did she pay her way through undergraduate school, and graduate school, by working? Did she get accepted to an IVY league level law school and continue to work through? Is she partly responsible for the quality building of millions in low cost housing in Socal? Did she win millions for the city of LA from corporate pollutors, including a food retailer who put your health and safety at risk. The answer to each question is yes!
You say she may have more time with her son now. The son she has left many an evening to attend community meetings, hospital rooms and the funerals of LA crime victims, in order to comfort them or their families. Campaign donatioins? Should she and her husband not have supported the president. How much did you contribute to your candidate? Do you have any idea how much more she and her husband would have if they withheld their contibutions to charities you know zero about?
I am no stranger to political corruption. I know it is everywhere. I also know this: Capri has always been a hard worker (since she was 10 years old) when she pushed carts back to the supermarket for a quarter a piece (even then she was learning how to make it in America); and she’s been encouraged to always take the high road. Try getting to know her, instead of leaving her to the politicos you evidently feel can influence her. She belongs to you; have her, and all those who hold jobs in the public sector remember that. Perhaps her training and your interest and support will bring a positive result for the city of angels.
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Best wishes Capri. The responder who noted scripture about a good name makes a pt.
You know the rule about “the janitor and the principal.”
Love,
Ma
If any of you think this kind of cronyism only happens on one “side of the aisle” or political ideology, you’re not only sadly mistaken — but highly delusional.
As a 30-year city employee, let me tell you, EVERY administration — yes, including ol’ Dick Riordan — played these payback/back-slap politics. It’s all about getting whatever business you want done DONE by whatever means necessary. Altruism and good intent doesn’t cut it — money does. Remember, we ARE a capitalistic society.
As far as the L.A. Times being in on this evil, socialist scheme…c’mon, get real. That’s almost as laughable as the [mythical] “liberal media.”