Los Angeles Unified School District files ethics complaint against Villaraigosa and the massive AB 1381 fund-raising apparatus
REGARDING AB 1381: Here's something that pisses me off, and demonstrates how the Mayor inappropriatley advances his agenda like a three card monte dealer on Times Square.]
FROM: LA WEEKLY, The Z Files This Just In: Voters Snookered
(By DAVID ZAHNISER Wednesday, November 8, 2006)
As it turns out, those who want honest and accountable government have taken matters into their own hands. One day before Tuesday's election, the Los Angeles Unified School District filed an ethics complaint against Villaraigosa and the massive fund-raising apparatus he assembled in his drive to obtain power at L.A. Unified. [And this week, City Council voted to reserve the right to spend $100,000 to defend Antonio's AB 1381 court challenge, which ISN'T supposed to happen. See ZD story below.]
Villaraigosa raised $1.1 million, one-fourth of it from powerful Westside developers, for his Mayor's Committee for Governmental Excellence and Accountability, the political team of campaign consultants, opposition researchers and lawyers that helped him win passage of a bill in Sacramento that gave him new powers at L.A. Unified. The mayor registered his committee as the type that gives money to ballot measures, then spent the special-interest money on a Sacramento lobbying blitz instead, said Fred Woocher, an attorney representing L.A. Unified.
If Villaraigosa wanted to spend money on lobbying, he would have had to do so through his officeholder account which, under city law, can collect only $75,000 per year, Woocher said. Instead, Villaraigosa blew the lid off those fund-raising limits by raking in six-figure contributions for his ballot-measure campaign, said Woocher, who sent a letter to the Ethics Commission and the Fair Political Practices Commission asking for an investigation.
"This sham has permitted the mayor to accept huge campaign contributions from persons with business before the City of Los Angeles, circumventing the intent of city law to prevent precisely such "pay for play politics," Woocher wrote.
FULL STORY: http://www.laweekly.com/news/z-files/this-just-in-voters-snookered/14976/
FROM: LA WEEKLY, The Z Files This Just In: Voters Snookered
(By DAVID ZAHNISER Wednesday, November 8, 2006)
As it turns out, those who want honest and accountable government have taken matters into their own hands. One day before Tuesday's election, the Los Angeles Unified School District filed an ethics complaint against Villaraigosa and the massive fund-raising apparatus he assembled in his drive to obtain power at L.A. Unified. [And this week, City Council voted to reserve the right to spend $100,000 to defend Antonio's AB 1381 court challenge, which ISN'T supposed to happen. See ZD story below.]
Villaraigosa raised $1.1 million, one-fourth of it from powerful Westside developers, for his Mayor's Committee for Governmental Excellence and Accountability, the political team of campaign consultants, opposition researchers and lawyers that helped him win passage of a bill in Sacramento that gave him new powers at L.A. Unified. The mayor registered his committee as the type that gives money to ballot measures, then spent the special-interest money on a Sacramento lobbying blitz instead, said Fred Woocher, an attorney representing L.A. Unified.
If Villaraigosa wanted to spend money on lobbying, he would have had to do so through his officeholder account which, under city law, can collect only $75,000 per year, Woocher said. Instead, Villaraigosa blew the lid off those fund-raising limits by raking in six-figure contributions for his ballot-measure campaign, said Woocher, who sent a letter to the Ethics Commission and the Fair Political Practices Commission asking for an investigation.
"This sham has permitted the mayor to accept huge campaign contributions from persons with business before the City of Los Angeles, circumventing the intent of city law to prevent precisely such "pay for play politics," Woocher wrote.
FULL STORY: http://www.laweekly.com/news/z-files/this-just-in-voters-snookered/14976/
Posted by Zuma Dogg @ 11/11/2006 03:25:00 PM
6 Comments:
Now THAT's interesting!
Good for the LAUSD for pointing this out!
Query what the remedy is for a violation of this kind.
Walter there is no violation. The mayor didn't personally know the donors. They donated and so what!
I'm just commenting on what was reported in the posting. This isn't an area of the law with which I am familiar. However, if an attorney -- for the LAUSD, no less -- filed a formal complaint, he presumably has a good-faith basis for believing it's illegal.
As for your assertion that "there is no violation" because "the mayor didn't PERSONALLY know the donors," I will say I am unaware of any election law based on personal knowledge. Rather, in the laws I did review (i.e., those re running for mayor), what mattered was the identity of the donors and their employers, and the amounts donated. There was nothing about knowing the donors personally.
Time will tell.
This is going to be a really good fight. latimes.com
AIDE QUITIS JOBS WITH HUIZAR TO CHALLENGE HIM FOR CITY COUNCIL.
The first surprise of the March 2007 elections for Los Angeles City Council came Saturday morning when Alvin Parra, a deputy to first-term Councilman Jose Huizar, resigned his job and then filed to run against Huizar.
"I worked for him for about a year, and what became very clear to me is that Jose Huizar is not the person that he portrays himself to be," Parra said. "He has made it clear that what goes on in the district and field aren't his priorities. He's more concerned with City Hall."
The fight is going to be the ugliest in the city with everything Alvin knows about Jose.
Who tried to bribe Riordan?
You should also know that Fred Woocher is representing the District and that the LAUSD General Cousel (Kevin Reed) still has a partnership interest with Mr. Woocher in his law firm (Strumwasser & Woocher).
Can you say CONFLICT OF INTEREST?
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