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BELL
Supervisor Molina is Deathly Silent on Bell
The Editor, WatchOurCity.com
Monday August 9, 2010, 6:00 am
Bell, CA - The official website for L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky
gives special prominence to a Times report written by David Zahniser (8-5-10)
focusing on Nestor Valencia, a Bell resident who has been at the forefront of
exposing corruption in the city of Bell for many years now. Nestor's grassroots
community group, Justice for Bell, started out as the Bell Residents Club, and
had a heck of a time finding meeting spaces in the city of Bell. Zahnizer's
profile captures the lengths city officials would go to thwart Nestor's efforts.

WatchOurCity.com profiled Nestor Valencia in a March 2009 report noting
how George Cole, Bell's long time mayor and partner with Rizzo, also
threatened Valencia in his bid to run as an outsider for a Bell city council seat.
No one ran for Bell City council without George Cole's blessing. What is
striking and remarkable of Supervisor Yaroslavsky's gesture, presumably done
in solidarity with Nestor's plight, is that Bell, Maywood, Huntington Park are
not in his district. Bell is in Supervisor Gloria Molina's District. Supervisor
Molina endorsed Huntington Park's mayor John Noguez for L.A. County
Assessor, who's in a November runoff with John Wong (see Wong in below
report). John Noguez is implicated in the Bell fiasco, since Noguez gave
millions of dollars in rigged public contracts to Bell's then mayor, George Cole,
Both Cole and Noguez shared the same political consultants, including the
twice convicted felon, former councilman Mario Beltran from Bell Gardens.
Bell and Huntington Park have the 2nd and 6th highest property taxes.

Yaroslavsky's fellow Supervisor, Don Knabe, also endorsed Huntington Park's
John Noguez; Knabe's son, is a partner in Englander and Knabe, Noguez's
campaign manager. Supervisors Molina and Knabe have a lot of angry residents
in Bell and Huntington Park to answer to due to their endorsement of Noguez
and his connections to Bell. The property tax issue alone could suddenly deal a
death blow to Noguez's campaign for L.A. County Assessor. Molina and Knabe
have been deathly silent on the Bell fiasco. It now touches them. Endorsing
Noguez is endorsing voter fraud and deceitful taxation as in Bell and HP. Both
Molina and Knabe should at the very least rescind their endorsements.