Nefarious Political Behavior begins at the Grass Roots Tips in the Second Ranked Corrupt City in the United States

HACLA email on Ramona Gardens Housing Project Resident Advisory Council.

In light of the City of Los Angeles recent number two ranking as the most corrupt city in the United States, we stop to ponder where do aspiring politicos take their first "one hundred level course" in the art of nefarious political conduct. Chamber of Commerces? Little League Associations? PTA's? Museum Support Groups? Soccer Clubs? 

For the formerly Mayor Antonio Villar and CD 14 Councilman Jose Huizar allied Ramona Gardens Housing Project Resident Advisory Council (RAC), the document above provided by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) as part of a California Public Records Act request, shows that the former RAC board was engaged (allegedly) in the falsification of bank statements in an attempt to cover up financial graft.

The graft in this instance involved the bank account used by the RG RAC for its HACLA allocated budget of funding. Each of HACLA's housing projects has an elected RAC that operates semi-independently of the administrated office on site. A formula is use to determine how much funding is given by calculating occupied units, then the money is used for community activities, at least in theory.

But in some projects, money and other community resources are controlled by a selected few and become patronage for the associates of the controlling boards.Whether it is HACLA funds, turkey drives, field trips or jobs among others, past RG RAC's have spread the patronage among a selected few. Same families and friends would get jobs and seats on buses to field trips while the 90% plus of the rest of the housing project were never given opportunities. Then come election time when more resources appeared, the same chosen few were the anointed middle people who controlled the spoils.

In recent months while the corruption spotlight has been trained on the upper management of HACLA, lower level professionals have been working hard to change the patronage culture of HACLA's housing projects. In at least Ramona Gardens, HACLA's openness and accountability in providing documents will hopefully bring on a new era of fairness in dispensing HACLA's resources within the community. 

In the weeks ahead we will continue to disclose more documents and coverage of HACLA's actions in attempting to foster openness and transparency in its daily operations.

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

Scott Johnson in CD 14