Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass received into workplace selling variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) and promising to deal with homelessness and air pollution — however she by no means promised to empty the swamp.
Now she stands accused of including to it, via “legalized corruption” and a lot of eye opening scandals which have come to gentle after renewed scrutiny within the final two weeks following the revelation Bass and her cronies defunded the Los Angeles Hearth Division by $17 million, contributing to them being underprepared to deal with the wildfires at present destroying town.
These embody:
- The deputy mayor raided by the FBI over an alleged bomb risk in opposition to Metropolis Corridor.
- Endorsing a former councilor investigated over hush cash funds for congress.
- Awarding fats cat salaries of 750k to a pal, double the predecessor’s wage.
- Council members accused of embezzlement, perjury, racketeering, tax evasion and bribes.
“Corruption is ingrained in Los Angeles,” mentioned Jamie Courtroom, president of Shopper Watchdog, a non-profit public curiosity group.
“It’s the story of ‘Chinatown’, and it probably led to the depth of the fires.”
The 1974 Hollywood movie, which stars Jack Nicholson as a crusading personal detective, chronicles the corruption in LA’s public utility firm that controls water flowing to town.
At this time that very same firm — the Los Angeles Division of Water and Energy — is a sprawling forms in want of great reform, however has remained largely unchecked by politicians because it brings in billions from ratepayers to metropolis authorities, Courtroom informed The Publish.
“It’s a sacred cow and a slush fund for town, with a critical lack of accountability,” he mentioned.
DWP is managed by the mayor and metropolis council. Final yr, Bass employed Janisse Quinones, a fellow progressive who opaquely harassed her mission can be “righting the wrongs that we’ve completed up to now from an infrastructure perspective,” as CEO of the utility.
Bass pays her a $750,000 wage — virtually double what her predecessor was making.
Quinones has been blamed by some members of town’s fireplace division for failing to repair damaged hydrants, a lot of which ran dry because the Palisades fireplace consumed properties within the Malibu and Pacific Palisades neighborhoods on Jan. 8.
Shopper Watchdog and the Los Angeles Occasions launched a lawsuit in federal court docket final yr to unseal dozens of warrants in an extortion scheme involving the Los Angeles Metropolis Lawyer’s Workplace and the DWP.
The unsealed paperwork, some 1,400 pages, revealed the FBI believed Mike Feuer, the previous Metropolis Lawyer – the highest lawyer to town — had lied to investigators when he denied information of a hush cash fee to cover a litigation scandal in his workplace.
He referred to as the claims “absurd” and was by no means prosecuted.
Feuer had run in opposition to Bass for mayor in 2022 however dropped out of the race and endorsed her. In flip, Bass endorsed Feuer, calling him “a longtime colleague and pal” who would “ship for Los Angeles,” in a failed race for US Congress in 2023.
“Now we have a pay-to-play tradition in Los Angeles,” mentioned Susan Shelley, a member of the editorial board of the Southern California New Group, a columnist and vp of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Affiliation, a non-profit. “It’s legalized corruption.”
In Los Angeles, politicians can requested “behested funds” or donations from people and firms who’ve enterprise earlier than town. “This may be referred to as ‘extortion’ elsewhere,” mentioned Shelley, including the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles has obtained some $1.8 million in behested funds from firms resembling AT&T and Coca Cola, amongst others.
Bass, 71, initially got here below the microscope for attending the inauguration of Ghana’s president earlier this month as fires started to rage within the metropolis.
She has continued to deflect questions on her Africa journey, the place she was a part of a four-member presidential delegation, as pictures emerged this week of her attendance at a cocktail social gathering.
However the Los Angeles metropolis authorities has been beset by a sequence of a lot worse scandals together with embezzlement, perjury and racism – with some elected officers going through legal convictions.
Deputy mayor Brian Williams was chosen by Bass in Feb. 2023 to supervise town’s police division, fireplace division, the Port of Los Angeles Police, the Los Angeles World Airport Police and town’s Emergency Administration Division.
Nonetheless, in a weird flip of occasions, he’s suspected of ringing in a bomb risk in opposition to metropolis corridor final September. As a result of his relationship with the LAPD, the matter is being dealt with by the FBI, who raided his residence in December, after he was recognized because the “probably” supply of the risk. At that time he was positioned on administrative go away.
He has not been charged within the matter and Williams’ lawyer mentioned he “strongly maintains his innocence,” within the matter.
In the meantime, in June 2023 prosecutors charged Councilmember Curren Worth Jr. with embezzlement and perjury in a pay-to-play scheme.
In accordance with a legal criticism he was charged with receiving greater than $150,000 from builders in change for voting to approve their initiatives. He was additionally charged with having town pay for medical advantages for his girlfriend – all whereas he was married to a different girl.
“This alleged conduct undermines the integrity of our authorities and erodes the general public’s belief in our elected officers,” mentioned former LA District Lawyer George Gascón in 2023.
Curren has fiercely denied the fees and continues to be awaiting trial.
In the identical yr, Jose Huizar, a former Councilmember pleaded responsible to racketeering and tax evasion, and veteran metropolis politician Mark Ridley-Thomas — LA County Supervisor in 2022 — was sentenced to federal jail for a bribery scheme wherein he sought favors for his son from a college dean in change for political favors.
Ridley-Thomas’ case concerned College of Southern California’s (USC) former dean of Social Work Marilyn Flynn. She admitted to funneling $100,000 in scholarship money to Ridley-Thomas’ son in change for his intervention in securing a profitable County well being contract with the college. Ridley-Thomas is interesting the case.
Bass, who didn’t reply to The Publish’s request for remark, was one other recipient of a USC scholarship from Flynn in 2011, throughout what was then her first yr in Congress.
Bass was engaged on a masters diploma in social work, which she accomplished in 2015. In accordance with court docket papers, Flynn hoped to enlist Bass to acquire federal funding for the college.
Bass’s identify is redacted from the court docket filings, however the Los Angeles Occasions confirmed her id. Prosecutors later clarified she was not accused of any wrongdoing within the case.
Nonetheless, Bass – who served in congress till 2022 and was at one time floated as a possible operating mate for Joe Biden – later sponsored a invoice in Congress that might have expanded USC’s and different personal universities’ entry to federal funding for social work — “simply as defendant Flynn needed,” the submitting states.
In 2021, when The Publish first revealed Patrisse Cullors, one of many founders of Black Lives Matter, had gone on an actual property spending spree, shopping for up three properties regardless of claiming to be being an avowed socialist, Bass backed her in a Tweet on X.
“I stand with Patrisse Cullors in opposition to any and all well-funded, baseless smear makes an attempt,” Bass wrote. “I’ve labored with Patrisse for years and am proud to proceed to name on her for recommendation as she continues the battle to instill the notion on this nation that Black Lives Matter.”