HACLA Rudy Montiel's "get rich scheme" garners unwanted attention

Mayor Antonio Villar (right) with his $400,000+ Executive Director of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles Rudy Montiel (left).

To say that corruption does not exist within the dysfunctional agency known as the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA), is to say that Mayor Antonio Villar has been a "transparent and ethical beacon" at 200 Spring Street.

Simply, the state of public housing under the control of HACLA is a legal and dysfunctional trainwreck, with its corrupt toxic fumes polluting the political air at City Hall. But lets make no mistake here, this stench has been around for years.

Now with Ron Kaye's latest missive on HACLA Executive Director Rudy Montiel's scheme for self-enrichment and his actions against tenants who protested outside his Rancho Cucamonga "mansion",the "big shining light of investigation" is pointed again at HACLA and what will be the end result? Maybe much-needed reforms.

The HACLA's Public Housing Projects are gang-infested fiefdoms that breed future generations of gang members and foster dependency on the largess of government (ie. WIC, Food Stamps, Welfare, mixed with subsidize, sub-standard housing).

Montiel's scheme to turn HACLA's housing projects into non-profit enclaves, is and will be exercises in corruption. Does anyone remember the Estrada Courts Non-Profit that billed HACLA $2,500 to install toilet bowls? And I seem to remember that the person who fronted this "home-improvement scheme", once worked for Councilman Jose Huizar. but I digress.

But where I differ with Ron Kaye on his excellent missive regarding Montiel's actions at HACLA, is the premise that Montiel acted alone in crafting this scheme. It is true that Montiel stand to gain financially but who was to "give his final blessings" on what non-profits, would get the contracts to run HACLA' housing domains? One should maybe look on the right of the picture above.

In the Ramona Gardens Projects, the new "Connected Non-Profit Legacy LA" was not only created to revitalize the Hazard Park Armory, but in the minds of community observers, was the "Trojan Horse" that would reinvent the Ramona Gardens Community to meet the needs of USC's future expansion plans.

Many have opine that Ramona Gardens would become the workforce housing location for future employees of USC's planned expansion of its Medical School Complex and the Biotech Corridor Project of the CRA Eastside-Adelante Redevelopment Area. This can be backed up with the past comments from the likes of USC Chief Lobbyist David Galaviz and CRA's Steve Valenzuela, who grew up in Ramona Gardens.

Most would agree that the Ramona Gardens area is in need of reinvention and the Mission of HACLA needs investigated vetting. But the issue of providing for our city's housing dependents and hopefully educating them with the tools to become future homeowners, should not be usurp by questionable legal dealings, that foster more governmental dependency.

Your thoughts................

Scott Johnson in CD 14