Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass entered office promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) while pledging to address homelessness and pollution—but she never committed to rooting out corruption. Now, she faces allegations of adding to it through “legalized corruption,” along with a spate of scandals that have surfaced over the past two weeks.
The wide-ranging scandals and corruptions gained renewed attention last week after it was revealed that Bass and her allies cut nearly $17 million in funding from the Los Angeles Fire Department, leaving it under-resourced to handle the wildfires currently ravaging the city. Bass has since been under fire for the poor handling of the catastrophic LA wildfires.
Multiple Accusations and Scandals
X
Of the many scandals here are a few: a) The deputy mayor being raided by the FBI over an alleged bomb threat targeting City Hall.
b) Supporting a former council member under investigation for making hush money payments to a congressman.
X
c) Granting a close associate a $750,000 salary—double that of the previous officeholder.
d) Council members facing accusations of embezzlement, perjury, racketeering, tax evasion, and accepting bribes.
“Corruption is ingrained in Los Angeles,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit organization focused on public interest advocacy. “It’s the story of ‘Chinatown’, and it likely led to the intensity of the fires.”
The 1974 Hollywood classic, featuring Jack Nicholson as a crusading private investigator, exposes the corruption within Los Angeles’ public utility company, which manages the city’s water supply.
X
Today, that same company—the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power—has grown into a massive bureaucracy in desperate need of reform. However, according to Court, it has largely avoided political oversight while generating billions of dollars from ratepayers for the city government, Court shared with The New York Post.
“It’s a sacred cow and a slush fund for the city, with a serious lack of accountability,” he said.
The DWP is overseen by the mayor and the city council. Last year, Bass appointed Janisse Quinones, a fellow progressive, as the utility’s CEO. Quinones, who vaguely emphasized her goal to ” righting the wrongs that we’ve done in the past from an infrastructure perspective,” was offered a $750,000 salary—almost double her predecessor’s pay.
Quinones has come under criticism from some fire department members for failing to repair malfunctioning hydrants, many of which were dry when the Palisades fire ravaged homes in Malibu and Pacific Palisades on January 8.
In response to this, Consumer Watchdog and the Los Angeles Times filed a lawsuit in federal court last year to demand the unsealing of multiple warrants related to an extortion scheme involving the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office and the DWP.
Her Allies Equally Responsible
The documents, which totaled about 1,400 pages, revealed that the FBI suspected Mike Feuer, the former City Attorney, of lying to investigators when he denied any knowledge of a hush money payment meant to cover up a litigation scandal in his office.
X
Feuer dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and was never charged with any crime.
Feuer had run against Bass for mayor in 2022 but withdrew from the race and backed her candidacy. In return, Bass supported Feuer, referring to him as “a longtime colleague and friend” who would “deliver for Los Angeles” during his unsuccessful 2023 campaign for U.S. Congress.
“We have a pay-to-play culture in Los Angeles,” said Susan Shelley, a member of the editorial board of the Southern California New Group, a columnist and vice president of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a non-profit. “It’s legalized corruption.”
In Los Angeles, politicians can ask for “behested payments” or donations from individuals and companies that have dealings with the city. “This would be called ‘extortion’ elsewhere,'” said Shelley, noting that the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles has collected around $1.8 million in such payments from companies like AT&T and Coca Cola, among others.
X
Bass, 71, first attracted attention for attending Ghana’s presidential inauguration earlier this month while wildfires were ravaging Los Angeles.
She has since avoided answering questions about her trip to Africa, where she was part of a four-person presidential delegation, even as photos surfaced showing her at a cocktail party.
However, the Los Angeles city government has been embroiled in even more serious scandals, including embezzlement, perjury, and racism, with some elected officials facing criminal charges.
