Too Big To Arrest
Walter Moore, whom I voted for for mayor (against the ludicrously awful Tony The Teeth who most of the dim voters went for) blogs about city government justice -- how two building inspectors who took bribes to fast-track permits got jail time, and yet the mayor and four city council members who "receive 'gifts' from companies to who which they give fee waivers, subsidies, bonds, etc., merely have to pay minor fines":
Why are there no celebrity mugshots of Antonio Villagraigosa, Eric Garcetti, Jose Huizar, Tony Cardenas, and Herb Wesson? Anti-corruption laws should be enforced against those at the top, not just those at the bottom. Arrest the Ticketgate Five.
Links to the stories about the above sleazies are live at Walter's blog item. Does this go on where you live as well? And if so, is there any indication the voters care?
Voters in Austin certainly care. There's all kinds of open-records inquiries going on here right now, regarding conversations between the mayor/council members. People here are VERY politcally active. Of course, there's a shitload of lobbying going on at city hall- my husband's group had to hire a local lobbyist to get a permit through- but I'd say it's one of the less-corrupt cities. Some pretty f*cked-up stuff has happened in smaller communities in Central Texas, though.
ahw at April 9, 2011 11:46 AM
In LA, my husband's company hired a bunch of new employees. Less than two weeks after they arrived, most had their car towed from the company parking lot by LAPD (well, parking spaces paid for by the company, I'm not sure who owns the land). Why? Out of state license plates. The state gives you 20 days to get your paperwork done, but these people were towed at about 10 days. Complain about it? Sure. But they still make you pay that $240 for one day of impound and $40 every day after that day if you don't make it to the lot before 3pm when all the detectives leave - and yes only detectives can allow you to take your car since it's there with all of the drug dealer's cars.
His company wound up paying for everyone to get their cars back (and it took awhile since all the cars had to have CA smog tests and licenses/tags even if people had more time legally). No wonder the company is looking to move.
Anthea at April 9, 2011 11:57 AM
My mayor is currently under investigation by the FBI. They're looking into the handling of a federal grant that was supposed to be bidded upon. They didn't do a bid, and instead handed it to a private group to do the work. Only the mayor didn't remember to tell anyone that he's on this group's board, and that he's received sizable sums of money for his work for them.
Just like he didn't tell them when Honeywell was trying to peddle "smart" meters that his old law firm had been hired by Honeywell.
He didn't even have the decency to recuse himself from the vote.
Or when the city council decided that they should get deferred comp and that the city should pay for all of it. According to my understanding of the IRS rules, deferred comp can not be offered to elected officials. Of course, no one has returned the money.
There seems to be plenty of wink-wink nudge-nudge deals here.
I R A Darth Aggie at April 9, 2011 3:23 PM
It goes on everywhere, even up here.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/obrien-trial/index.html
Angel at April 10, 2011 6:52 AM
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