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Huntington Park Campaign Central:
Huntington Park City
Attorney is Holding Back
Public Records,
Damaging to Incumbents
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Editor, WatchOurCity.com

Huntington Park, Ca - Francisco Leal,
Huntington City attorney, has ordered the City
Clerk to not release public records seeking his
billing and invoicing records to the city.

On June 2010, a report by Pilar Marrero of La
Opinion newspaper exposed that Leal was
paid over $500,000 in fiscal year 2009-2010,
making him the second highest paid city
attorney in all of California, second only to
Vernon's attorney who is currently under
investigation.

However, according to Huntington Park City
Clerk Rossana Ramirez, Leal's salary is
actually closer to $700,000.

The City of Huntington Park has a total of
62,000 residents, and has the 6th highest
property taxes out of 88 cities in L.A. County.
Bell has the 2nd highest property tax rate.
Huntington Park is adjacent to Bell, and is just
as economically depressed with a per capita
annual household income of about $42,000.
Francisco Leal lives in a mansion in Hancock
Park.

In 2007, the City of Commerce fired Leal as its
city attorney for irregular and highly
questionable billing practices. The new city
attorney, Eddie Olivo, sued Leal's firm for
$300,000 in damages on charges of "unjust
enrichment", and won the case.

Several groups have in the past few months
requested public records from Huntington
Park, including, La Opinion Newspaper,
WatchOurCity.com and several other
individuals and two law firms. On one
occasion, public records took a total of 68
days to be released.

Sources within city hall reveal that during the
February 22 council meeting, the city attorney
directed the city clerk to not release the
requested public records of his billing invoices.

Reportedly, city clerk Ramirez responded that
she has no choice but to release the records.
That’s when City attorney Leal started
screaming at city clerk Rosanna Ramirez that
no public records are to be released. Normally,
attorney-client privilege is cited as a reason
for holding back release records. In this case,
Leal was quoted as stating that the only
reason for not releasing those records is
because the information is damaging and
would hurt the reelection chances of the
current incumbents.

It is suspected that the public records being
requested contain evidence that the city
attorney is getting paid a salary for work that
cannot be accounted for, charges which are
credible and substantiated in light of the the
"unjust enrichment" lawsuit successfully
brought against Francisco Leal by the city of
Commerce.

In court testimony during the pre-trial hearing
of the Bell corruption scandal, it was revealed
that Bell's city clerk issued false public records
on orders from Robert Rizzo. Huntington Park
does not have a Robert Rizzo making
$800,000. Instead it has city attorney
Francisco Leal making almost as much,
$700,000.

Huntington Park City Attorney Scandal:
City Pays Atty Francisco
Leal $700,000 in FY
2009-2010 without
invoices as backup for
work done, according to
City Clerk, an illegal
practice
Friday, March 4, 2011
Editor, WatchOurCity.com

Huntington Park, CA - City council has since
2004 paid handsome sums of cash on a yearly
basis to city attorney Francisco Leal.

Billings were approved by previous mayor
John Noguez, who is now the L.A. County
Assessor, and by the current city council
members Mario Gomez, Ofelia Hernandez, Elba
Guerrero and Andy Molina, who are all
unemployed, with the exception of Guerrero.

According to City Clerk Rosanna Ramirez, Leal
was paid close to $700,000 for fiscal year
2009-2010. The city is in a $2.4 million deficit.
Mayor Gomez and council member Hernandez
are running for reelection.

Reportedly, Francisco Leal threatened City
Clerk Ramirez with her job if she released his
billing information. Sources in City Hall reveal
that Leal directed City Clerk, in a screaming fit,
to not release any public information
regarding his invoices and to hold issuing any
public records request of his invoices due to
the potential damage it would have on the
reelection campaign of mayor Gomez and
council member Ofelia Hernandez.

Leal reportedly told the city clerk "I am the
attorney here!", just like Ed Lee was the
attorney in Bell and Maywood.

A former Huntington Park police chief revealed
to WatchOurCity.com that the city is being run
by Leal, not the city manager. It is Leal who
calls the shots.

In fact, City Clerk Ramirez revealed on
Thursday to WatchOurCity.com that invoices
have been submitted to the city by Leal for
work done to justify being paid $700,000. City
Clerk Ramirez finally released some
information yesterday along with Leal's
monthly cover letters referring to attached
invoices for payment by the city. However, the
actual invoices, the most critical element, were
not released to the public. Without the
attachments to the billing requests it is not
possible to determine if any actual work was
performed by Francisco Leal to justify these
payments. Leal has also the political factor to
consider, that is, for political reasons he is not
releasing the invoices as he is supporting the
incumbents Mario Gomez and Ofelia
Hernandez, whom, for over eight years now,
have maintained Leal under contract and have
approved an inflated increase to his contract,
from $300,000 in 2003 to $700,000 in Fiscal
Year 2009-2010.

Leal's contract stipulates a ceiling of just over
$300,000 per year. Most of city council
members are unemployed. One, Ofelia
Hernandez cannot read English. Court
testimony today in the Bell corruption scandal
revealed that mayor Oscar Hernandez was
signing documents given to him by Rizzo
authorizing illegal salary raises without council
approval. The Times revealed that Mayor
Oscar Hernandez cannot read and is
functionally illiterate.

Long time city manager Greg Korduner retired
in November 2010, replaced with the new
police chief, Javier Cisneros, recently a
Lieutenant with the Long Beach PD, assigned
to double duty as both Chief of Police and City
Manager by Huntington Park's city council, a
role for which Chief Cisneros is not prepared
for, since he comes with zero municipal
management experience. The Chief is
Councilwoman Elba Guerrero's friend.

L.A. County Assessor John Noguez is trying to
get Francisco Leal to become the Assessor's
legal counsel.

Monday, November 1, 20106:00 am
Washington Times,
Jeffrey Anderson, Investigative Reporter
S igns of municipal
corruption in Bell &
Vernon spread to
Huntington Park &
mayor Noguez

Thursday, November 18, 2010 6:00 am
WatchOurCity.com
Huntington Park Police
Chief Appointed as Interim
City Manager
Action led by councilwoman Elba
Guerrero, the PD Chief's
personal friend. Item was not on
Council Agenda. Possible Brown
Act Violations?

Monday, November 29, 2010
WatchOurCity.com
$10.1 Million
Amount George Cole's Oldtimers
Foundation has received in
payments and contracts from
city of Huntington Park since
2004, according to city clerk and
public records.

Monday, October 4, 2010 6:00 am
WatchOurCity.com
Mayor Noguez in bed with
George Cole: Awards
Multi-Million Dollar Housing
Redevelopment contract to
Cole, Recently Arrested by
the D.A. & sued by the AG
Huntington Park's
Redevelopment Agency awards
$3.8 million for Fiscal Year
2009-2010 to Cole's Oldtimers.

Breaking News:
Huntington Park Salaries
$630,000 to City Attorney
Francisco Leal in
Huntington Park
The Editor, WatchOurCity.com,
August 11, 2010
Huntington Park, CA - The
city clerk in Huntington Park
confirmed this morning that
city attorney Francisco Leal
has been paid a total of
$630,007 from July 2009 to
May 2010. L.A. City Attorney
Carmen Trutanich earns a
base salary of $214,000 (see
full report).

Question: How
much money do
you make?

Francisco Leal:
I make........well,
umm................

Socorro Cruz, Channel
62 KVEA news anchor
and rerporter,
interviewed the Editor
of WatchOurCity.com
and Francisco Leal,
Huntington Park's city
attorney, for an
investigative report on
political corruption in
Bell and Huntington
Park. This YouTube clip
is Part 2 of a 3-part
report which originally
aired during the 11
o'clock news on
Wednesday, Thursday
and Friday in late
November 2010. Below
is a translation of the
interview:

WatchOurCity.com:
That same city attorney
[Francisco Leal] is one
of the highest paid city
attorneys in the entire
state of California. He
makes close to
$700,000 per year. The
thing is, these are
public funds [from the
city of Huntington
Park].

Socorro Cruz
interviews Francisco
Leal: Well, so how
much money do you
make [as City attorney
of Huntington Park]?

Francisco Leal: I
make.......well,
um..........

[Editor's note: The
question was never
answered]