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| Supervisor Molina calls for issuing Restraining Order in Bell and placing city in temporary Receivership Monday, September 20, 2010, 6:00 am The Editor, WatchOurCity.com News Service Bell, CA - On Friday September 17, 2010, L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina presented a late addition to this week's meeting agenda of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. Supplemental Agenda item listed as "42-A" recommends action and immediate remedy for city of Bell's continuing egregious actions by city council, its city manager, and city attorney. County Board of Supervisors meet every Tuesday. Item 42-A, authored by Molina, recommends sending a "five-signature letter to Attorney General Jerry Brown urging him to use every legal measure at his disposal, including filing a temporary restraining order or writs of mandate or prohibition to immediately prevent any potential for continuing harm to the residents of Bell." Roxane Marquez, Press Deputy for Molina's office, stated to WatchOurCity.com News Service on Saturday that "this is a huge announcement". Supervisor Molina's action recognizes that "In fact, the Bell City Council continues to meet regularly— often in closed session. They still exercise direct authority over the very city affairs they have shown themselves to be unable to govern ethically, fairly, or competently—potentially further committing the city to future liability and other contractual obligations." Already, Bell city council has granted its city attorney James Casso powers of prosecution, an unprecedented and highly questionable move, on top of previous egregious and allegedly illegal moves council members have taken, still failing in their fiduciary duty. City Manager Pedro Carrillo is the lead "negotiator" with the Police Officers Association contract. None of this is any good for Bell residents for many reasons. In a report published by the Washington Times on Wednesday, September 15, 2010, investigative reporter Jeffrey Anderson notes that "Mr. Casso's own past, which includes close ties to Bell city officials, questionable service to other municipal clients and involvement in a Clinton-era political scandal, raises questions about whether he is suited to restore the public's trust [in Bell]". In a videotaped interview during a community meeting in Bell, a neighbor of George Cole approached James Casso informing that he has seen George Cole taking boxes of documents out of his garage and that perhaps Casso should look into this. City Attorney Casso responded that "it was probably stuff from the Oldtimers Foundation", implying presumably that it was not city related stuff, thus no action needed. Casso dismissed Cole's neighbor's comments by stating that he would refer the matter to the "proper authorities". There is no confirmation this was ever done. Casso was hired in the early 2000's by Robert Rizzo, and voted on by George Cole. A restraining order action would put a halt to all negotiations currently under way, potentially invalidating any contracts entered into by city council since new city manager and city attorney were installed by a city council with no credibility. Potentially, the city manager's and city attorney's contract would be affected, and invalidated, should Receivership be immediately instituted. Attorney General Jerry Brown stated at last Wednesday's press conference that his office had filed that day an "immediate" injunction action seeking Receivership for the City of Bell. AG Brown also announced that a civil lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against eight current and former elected Bell officials and top administrators seeking to collect "hundreds of thousands of dollars" owed to Bell residents from what is determined to be illegally issued salaries, benefits and loans. Molina's support for Receivership and a restraining order in Bell, coupled with legal steps already taken by the Attorney General's office, would instantly put a halt to negotiations currently underway between the Police Officers Association and Pedro Carrillo, Bell's city manager and city attorney James Casso. Both Carrillo and Casso worked for Robert Rizzo previously. Carrillo was hired by Robert Rizzo as a spokesperson for Bell, defending Rizzo's nauseating salary before live TV broadcasts. Such steps would instantly put a stop to BASTA's demands of a recall. However, in what is seemingly a race to beat the Attorney General's office, and beating Molina and AG Brown to the punch, is Bell city council action scheduled for this Monday evening, a closed session item for negotiations with the Bell Police Officers Association for a renewed contract. According to a meeting agenda posted in front of Bell city hall on Saturday, City Manager Pedro Carrillo is listed on the agenda items as the lead negotiator. During an August 16 Bell council meeting, Bell residents were puzzled by the appointment of Pedro Carrillo as the then-interim city manager, and grilled him publicly about this. One resident asked if Carrillo had ever been associated with Rizzo or George Cole. On the record, Pedro Carrillo denied such connections. WatchOurCity.com posted a report on August 24, 2010, exposing that in 2002 in a failed bid for a State Assembly seat, Carrillo had received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from George Cole, Robert Rizzo and from the convicted felon and former Bell Councilman Pete Werrlein, then hiding the donor identity of Pete Werrlein. In 2007, Carrillo was hired by George Cole as the interim Director of the Southeast Cities Schools Coalition. The Coalition's meeting minutes which are posted on line, clearly indicate that both George Cole and Pedro Carrillo attended meetings together. At the same time, Carrillo was working on contract basis with the city of Bell under Rizzo. While Director of the Southeast Cities Schools Coalition, Pedro Carrillo, under the direction of board members, whom included Bell council member Teresa Jacobo, Carrillo worked to create a "Foundation" placing George Cole as its Director. The Schools Coalition is attempting to break away from LAUSD. Board meetings are held in Vernon City Hall on a permanent basis. When the Coalition was seeking a replacement Director, it authorized Pedro Carrillo to negotiate a contract with the Coalitions' current Director, Ramon Miramontes. The Coalition has a staff attorney, but for some reason, the city of South Gate's city attorney reviewed the contract with Miramontes as negotiated by Pedro Carrillo. At the August 21 Board meeting of the Southeast Cities Schools Coalition, Raul Salinas, South Gate Attorney presents his recommendations on the employment contract. In attendance were Board chair McCormick (Vernon councilman); Felipe Aguirre (Maywood councilman), Teresa Jacobo (Bell Councilwoman), and Pedro Carrillo, Interim Chief Executive. Here's what South Gate's Attorney Salinas had to say about Carrillo's negotiating skills with Miramonte's employment contract: "It is a very dangerous contract". It is worth repeating that Carrillo negotiated this contract. Mr. Miramontes is still currently the Coalition's Executive Director. George Cole is still currently the Southeast Cities Schools Foundation's Chairman. The Coalition is still operating out of Vernon city hall, which it partly funds reportedly poised to drop $100,000 a year to sustain the group. Vernon's $300 million dollar budget, as the Times reported, could fund the entire city budgets of all southeast cities combined, their police departments, pension and bond obligations, and still have change left over for seed money to kick-start a breakaway school District in Souhteast cities. BASTA, the branded grassroots organization which sprang up out of nowhere in late June 2010, right when the Bell scandal made initial headline news, is exclusively funded by Bell's Police Officers Association (POA) and has been advocating for, and helping with on-going negotiations for a new contract. Bell Police officers are some of the highest paid in the nation, averaging over $123,000 in salaries. A Bell Police Department dispatcher alone makes over $90,000. Some members of BASTA's leadership, the most militant, have relatives in the Bell PD and Bell city staff, and have neglected to disclose this to Bell residents. It is clear that Bell is suffering from a political and municipal failure, not a public safety failure, as Bell Police and BASTA members would have residents believe. WatchOurCity.com has learned that Gilbert Jara, president of the POA, admitted paying out so far $56,000 to Leo Briones, its consultant, and creator of BASTA as a vehicle for POA advocacy within the community. The POA's effort to ingratiate itself with Bell community members through a BASTA campaign is faltering, and its money wasted on Briones. It doesn't help BASTA's propaganda efforts of supporting the POA when officers themselves admit to racial profiling in towing schemes to maximize sucking up fees from residents. Neither does it to ingratiate Bell PD to residents when Bell police officers also admit to taking part in voter fraud during election time. That money paid to Briones by the POA is not reported on Basta's website. Assemblyman De La Torre questioned "Where is this money going to?". De La Torre noted that Leo Briones was the highly paid consultant to the Confederacion de Clubes de Jalisco, of which De La Torre was a member of. He quit his membership along with scores of other members when they began noticing that funds collected were going to line the pocket of Leo Briones. To this date, the Confederation had still not recovered its membership base from the loss of confidence, and money, suffered under the Leo Briones contract. The Times issued a report Saturday exposing BASTA as a questionable grassroots organization led by Leo Briones and Cristina Garcia. Briones has in the past had business partnerships with George Cole, Bell's former mayor, and director of the Oldtimers Foundation in Huntington Park. George Cole is one of the former elected officials named in Attorney General Brown's lawsuit. A separate investigation of George Cole and Oldtimers Foundation is underway by the Attorney General's office. AG Brown would not comment at Wednesday's press conference about this second investigation, saying only that it was on-going. AG Brown's office alleges that Cole and Oltimers failed to report to the state nearly $3 million dollars received in government contracts from the cities of Huntington Park, Fontana and Norwalk. The financial officer for Oldtimers responded that it was an accounting mistake. A $72,000 loan by Rizzo to Cole's Oldtimers Foundation has not been accounted for, nor reported on Oldtimers books or tax filings. Is this too an accounting mistake? If so, it begs the question: what other "mistakes" is George Cole, Oldtimers Foundation and its accountant hiding? In a statement to WatchOurCity.com about pending receivership for Bell, Assemblyman Hector De La Torre noted that the state does not have a mechanism for receivership of a Charter law city such as Bell, and that "Perhaps the Attorney General has a way around this". Supervisor Molina's recommendation to the AG's office include "appointing an independent independent receiver to facilitate the operation of the City of Bell and to prepare a complete audit and accounting of all existing contracts, fund accounts, debts and receivables in Bell, and to make this information transparent to the public." Supervisor Molina's letter urging AG Brown to take "Immediate" action in Bell states: "MOTION BY SUPERVISOR GLORIA MOLINA September 21, 2010 - On September 15, 2010, California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a civil lawsuit against eight Bell City Council members and city officials, accusing them of fraud, waste of public funds, breach of their fiduciary duties, and violations of the public trust. "According to the complaint, Bell officials knowingly, intentionally, and for the purpose of private gain abused their positions of power and made contractual misrepresentations to the public. "Specifically, the Attorney General’s civil lawsuit claims that Bell cut services to residents while simultaneously orchestrating unconscionable pay increases for themselves. It has also come to light recently that in addition to illegally levied employee pension taxes, the City of Bell has also levied illegal sewer and business taxes that bring the total amount of funds illegally collected by Bell to $5.6 million. "This kind of blatant, pervasive, and unchecked corruption is made worse by the fact that Attorney General Brown’s claims are made against a majority of the current sitting members of the Bell City Council who have yet to resign their positions. In fact, the Bell City Council continues to meet regularly—often in closed session. They still exercise direct authority over the very city affairs they have shown themselves to be unable to govern ethically, fairly, or competently— potentially further committing the city to future liability and other contractual obligations." Molina's Item 42-A proposal makes the following recommendations: 1) Prohibiting the current members of the City Council from appropriating any funds or entering into any contracts on behalf of the City of Bell; 2) Appointing an independent receiver to facilitate the operation of the City of Bell and to prepare a complete audit and accounting of all existing contracts, fund accounts, debts and receivables in Bell, and to make this information transparent to the public; 3) Authorizing the independent receiver to enter into services and employment contracts on behalf of the City of Bell as necessary, until the lawsuit is resolved or Bell residents are provided a meaningful opportunity to select the representatives of their choice; and requiring that all contracts be independently analyzed, posted, and reported to the public at least two weeks prior to approval; 4) Designating the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk as the entity responsible for verifying signatures, conducting elections, and certifying the outcome of those elections in the City of Bell; 5) Directing the City of Bell to pay Los Angeles County $2.9 million to allow the County to provide tax refunds to City residents who were wrongfully taxed. (10-2150) (Source: L.A. County Board of Supervisors, Meeting Agenda: http://bos.co.la.ca.us/categories/Agenda/cms1_151768.pdf) Copyright © 2010 WatchOurCity.com WatchOurCity.com News Service |
| "Raul Salinas Attorney at Law wanted to comment to manners of the appointment to the Executive Director Position as action Item #5. He personally does not know him so wouldn’t want Mr.Miramontes to take his comments personally. He let the board know that he was asked by the city of South Gate to review his contract. Discusses that it is a very dangerous contract and considers the other city attorneys to read it as well. He believes there are two problems with the contract 1.) Management related issues and 2.) Conflict of issues. He does not believe that 20 hours a week are appropriate time to get work completed. The contract is too silent to what he needs to get done and it falls to disclosure because Mr.Miramontes already has a full time job in Pasadena. He also explains that the only way he can be terminated is if the coalition found any dishonest activity and believes this can be too difficult to prove at any given point. He would like to know who would prepare the agendas because he does not believe he has the availability to do so". |
| Monday, Sept. 20, 2010, 6:00 am, WatchOurCity.com News Service Possible Tampering of Electronic Voting Machines in City of Bell Elections The city of Bell uses a private contractor from Arizona providing electronic voting booths during elections. Sources say that overcharges are an issue. Evaluating system accuracy, security and internal hacking vulnerabilities may be of interest to the Attorney General. Under Charter Law, Bell ran its own elections without County intervention. Bell City Clerk ran elections under Rizzo. |