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WatchOurCity
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Huntington Park, CA -
The cities of Maywood and Bell have now graduated to the big leagues in terms of media
exposure, making it to this week's edition of The Economist Magazine (July 10th - 16th, 2010,
page 32).

Under the heading '
Municipal Finances: There Goes Everybody - California city takes the most
drastic step so far'. The Economist notes that Maywood's only sign of economic progress are "the
new medians separating lanes on the main drag", locally known as Slauson Avenue.

In news that shocked this country's municipal government community, on July 1, 2010, Maywood
became the first U.S. city to go sans employees, with pink slips issued to all 100 employees and
police force. Its civil service structure is now completely dismantled, all directly the result of wildly
incompetent city council leadership, with the adjacent city of Bell picking up the municipal services
slack in its seemingly good neighborly gesture, with a price tag of its own.

Maywood councilman
Felipe Aguirre and mayor Ana Rosa Rizo, faced with this worst-case
public relations nightmare fiasco, take raw, egregious incompetence and spin it as premeditated
brilliant financial management strategy, even duping National Public Radio into reporting that the
city's troubles are really a well thought out new-fangled business model for local municipalities
facing similar financial troubles to consider. Really?

It turns out, the city was simply uninsurable due to inept city council action (or lack of) and lack of
basic decision-making ability. In other words, council members violated their fiduciary duty. A
legal argument could be made that such breach of public contract is grounds for dismissal of
council members, or worse. In fact, council members voted for dismantling of all city employees,
but kept their own offices intact.

Maywood's colossal municipal failure was not just financial, or fiduciary, but moral as well. City
council's collective failure to provide basic municipal insurance, coupled with severely strained
finances, led into this deep moral hazard, a point of no return. The mess Maywood city council
created had a solution, a simple one; the city, which was given ample time to act with months of
advanced warning, could have easily  prevented such dire straights and avoided the needless
dismantling of the community's only economic engine, city jobs, which fuel the local economy, and
sustains families and communities in a healthy civic balance. But that is now drained down the
city's (hopefully maintained) sewers.

There are many players in this drama, with complex but politically ambitious dynamics set in place
years ago by one big protagonist, city of Bell's former mayor, and Don of Southeast politics,
George Cole.

"We've already received inquiries from different entities saying what is Maywood doing? Why are
you doing this?" Maywood Councilman Felipe Aguirre said", noted the
L.A. Times.

Councilman Aguirre, evidently barely able to do basic math resulting in his city's financial collapse,
surely considers himself a genius at political calculus. According to Aguirre and Rizo, cities from
around the country are calling, asking for details of their new brilliant municipal management
strategy and "new business model" for cities; they want to know "how they did it". Simple. The
Times notes: "Maywood city leaders said their decision to confront fiscal and insurance problems
by laying off virtually every city employee and disbanding its Police Department could serve as a
business model for other struggling cities."

"How they did it" doesn't take a professor from Harvard Business School or the John F. Kennedy
School of Government to figure out. Not only is failure and financial collapse of a municipal
government not a business model, it isn't something even remotely studied in academia, or
government associations. It will now, with Maywood and Bell the case studies. In fact when a city
fails, at least in the State of California, statutes dictate process and jurisdiction for dealing with a
city's financial collapse. It is straight forward. Which brings us to the City of Bell, which, it
appears, isn't straight forward.

Bell city council was already operating sub-rosa inside Maywood city hall. The Times reports that
as early as March, before Maywood officials came out of the closet and declared themselves a
financial disaster zone, the Bell city financial manager was already embedded in Maywood's city
hall, running its finances, while all the while still a Bell employee. Such a curious arrangement did
not pass the smell test with the L.A. Times or the District Attorney's office, probably not either
with the State's Department of Justice or the FBI. Bell's preemptive action taking jurisdictional
right in Maywood is being looked into by the D.A.'s office which launched a preliminary
investigation, according to the Times.

Some interesting legal questions may arise that push the envelope of the rights of cities vs. County
vs. State, as Bell has done, to take over municipal services. Typically, per statute in the State
constitution, receivership of failed government entities, such as school districts, or cities, defaults
to the State. In the case of failed financial institutions, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC), takes over, even if temporarily, even when eventually, another bank is given rights to
absorb. In contrast, what Bell did in Maywood is like one bank taking over another bank without
a governing body's supervision; similarly when a school district fails, such as with Compton and
Oakland, the State took immediate control, not another school District.

Bell's action in Maywood is potentially in violation of the federal Honest Services Fraud Statute,
which prosecutes “any scheme or artifice to defraud citizens of their intangible rights to honest and
impartial Government.”

So who knew what, when in Bell and Maywood?

Bell, run by
George Cole and the city council candidates he sponsored, appointed, and whose
political campaigns he personally managed, is now running Maywood's day-to-day municipal
functions, and is reportedly being investigated by the District Attorney's office all the while. To be
sure, nothing will come of the D.A's investigation.

“We will become 100% a contracted city,” said Angela Spaccia, Maywood’s interim city
manager, who happens to also be a city of Bell employee. Maywood's yearly city budget is about
$10 million. Maywood Council members Aguirre and Rizo justify such extreme public policy
measures by stating to the Times that by contracting all city services, it projects to save annually a
measly $156,000 after the dust settles. The savings amount represents a mere 1.6% of
Maywood's total operating budget. The baby goes out with the bathwater. The Sheriff's contract
will cost $3.7 million per year compared to its own disbanded police force which cost $7.3 million
per year, or about 75% of Maywood's budget. Who's making out like a bandit here is the city of
Bell in outsourcing municipal services to Maywood and charging a huge premium. These details
were not made public: how much the city of Bell profits from Maywood's failure, nay, epic failure.

A casual observer of Maywood's fate needs only basic third grade arithmetic to see that
Maywood officials had only to rid itself of the police department, cutting it's losses with the
Cudahy joint police obligations, and inviting the Sheriff's in, instantly realizing a $3.6 million dollar
savings, and still keep its civil service in force. As it stands, it is most curious that Bell officials
(read George Cole) counseled Maywood's Aguirre and city council to rely on Bell, and at what
cost?  That $3.6 million savings? It seems to have been swallowed up by the city of Bell as
contract fees to provide municipal services. No wonder Bell council members can make
$100,000 per year, and it's city manager is one of the highest paid in the entire United states. It is
hard work looting a neighboring city's funds. Mega fiduciary duty fail on both sides.

Councilman Felipe Aguirre was profiled by WatchOurCity.com on November 27, 2006. He once
famously ordered that a flagpole in front of Maywood's city hall fly the Mexican flag over an
upside-down American flag. Aguirre once hired a convicted cop as Maywood's Chief of Police
(see WatchOurCity.com
Feb. 2, 2008).

Bell council members are not far behind Maywood's in shining brilliance.

In Bell on May 6, 2009, a "
Super Meth Lab" in the rear house of a rental property owned by
Oscar Hernandez, the city of Bell's mayor, was raided by L.A. County Sheriffs. It's worth noting
here that Bell has a its own Police Department, but evidently, it's top brass could not be trusted by
the Sheriff's office, since Bell council members have such a cozy relationship with PD staff, not to
mention undue influence on the Department's firing, hiring, promotions and pay raises. In keeping
Bell PD blind, Sheriff's officers prevented tipping mayor Hernandez about the Meth lab raid on his
property.

In a report by WatchOurCity.com posted on May 8, 2009, noted that "Responding to inquiries
about the Meth lab raid on his rental property, Mayor Hernandez told the L.A. Times that these
sorts of things [Meth lab raids] happen all over southern California, as if finding a Meth lab, like
the one in his rental property, was a common every-day
occurrence."

Then on November 17, 2009, councilman Luis Artiga, a reverend, was caught by the city's own
parking enforcement officer with
illegally switched car license plates. Councilman Artiga evidently
removed the expired license plate from his Toyota SUV, and swapped it with current plates from
his other car, a BMW Roadster.  Artiga originally was appointed to Bell city council by George
Cole upon
Cole's abrupt resignation from city council. George Cole then managed Artiga's re-
election campaign in March 2009.

All that pales in comparison to the grotesque and possibly criminal salaries Bell council members
secretly voted for themselves, including a massively outrageous salary for Rizzo, Bell's city
manager, despite state laws preventing such abuse of public funds for elected officials (
see
WatchOurCity.com's reports from September 8, 2005 on Assembly Bill 11, aka AB 11, a bill
sponsored by then Assemblyman Hector de la Torre). According to a June report in the Times,
Bell council members make over $100,000 per year in salaries each, for work amounting to no
more than two meeting's a month sitting in council chambers. Bell's city manager Rizzo makes
nearly $800,000 yearly salary, more than Vernon's city manager's $500,000 salary, besting city
manager salaries in the entire U.S., and perhaps worldwide. Bell has only about 40,000 residents.
Evidently, there is no state statute preventing how much compensation city council can pay
administrators.

In June, Bell city council floated a proposal to provide a Joint Authority police force called the
'Rancho San Antonio Police Department', which would have created a joint police force shared
with Maywood, but was immediately scrapped after Maywood's imminent descent into brilliant
management failure. Already Maywood had the city of Cudahy under contract to provide police
services. That contract expired early this year, with Cudahy going to the L.A. Sheriff's, leaving
Maywood officials nowhere to go and precipitating Maywood's showdown with its municipal
insurer, the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority. Bell's police chief makes nearly
$500,000 per year.

The Times reports that "the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority said excessive lawsuits
filed against Maywood's Police Department and the council's failure to meet a set of conditions
that included hiring a city manager and approving a police contract with its neighbor Cudahy, were
among the reasons for the cancellation."

Earlier efforts to consolidate local police departments from Bell, Cudahy, Huntington Park,
Maywood, and Vernon have failed. In a famous incident,
Randy Narramore, former Huntington
Park police chief, called a meeting of top PD brass and elected officials from adjacent cities to
pitch his idea of regional police department, naturally run from Huntington Park city hall. The other
cities were all curious to hear the proposal, but this was a deal breaker. Reportedly, all of the
other chiefs stood up in unison and walked out of the meeting en masse. None of the PD Chiefs
wanted to play second fiddle to Chief Narramore. The idea is still a valid one, albeit in concept
only. Huntington Park's only helicopter was crash-landed in nearby El Monte some years back
when the pilot, an officer, flew out of jurisdiction area to visit his girlfriend. The helicopter was one
of Chief Narramore's high-tech toys to entice the rest of the boys to play with him. Chief
Narramore actually presented a Masters thesis precisely on the subject of consolidating police
departments in Southeast cities. One main selling point directed then at elected officials was to
highlight the collective municipal savings this regional PD idea represented. And, presciently,
warned of the consequences, such as what is now Exhibit A: Maywood.

What the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority cautioned in contributing to Maywood's
demise,  excessive lawsuits against the Police Department, are already making headway in
Huntington Park. Several lawsuits are currently working their way through local and federal courts
alleging injury and naming top PD brass, detectives, and certain elected officials. Even if settled
out of court, the city of Huntington Park, currently running a $1.2 million deficit, could go the way
of Maywood. And Bell officials would be at the ready like ambulance chasers carrying away the
carcass. Huntington Park's deficit could have been avoided with prudent management of finances.
Evidently it was not. And Mayor John Noguez is directly responsible as accompanying report
illustrates ("Worrisome Descent"). Noguez is running for L.A. County Assessor as the front runner
on a ticket themed "Experience you can trust".  The Howard Jarvis Tax Payers Association has
endorsed him, even.

Any success in consolidating regional control of municipal services lays with George Cole. His
efforts in these cities has already led to creation of the Southeast Schools Coalition in an attempt
to break away from the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Not if, but when it does happen,
the Rancho San Antonio Unified School District would be larger
in terms of student population and operating budgets than the Santa Ana, California and San
Antonio, Texas school districts, at about 60,000 students, 60 campuses, and over half a billion
dollars in operating budget, larger than the budgets of all southeast cities combined, times five (at
$6 million per school, plus administrative, facilities, retirement & overhead costs). You begin to
get the idea why George Cole is just itching to get his very own school district.

A March 2010 investigative report by WatchOurCity.com revealed the wacky and shady ways
Cole's group interacts with the LAUSD and Ramon Cortines, its Superintendent. Board members
of the Southeast Schools Coalition are made up of city council members from each of the local
cities which provide operating capital for one staff member and an attorney. Though Cole is not an
elected official any longer, he nonetheless, found a way to control the elected officials and purse
strings of the Coalition by creating a shell game of an institution called the "Southeast Schools
Foundation" and named himself Director.

WatchOurCity.com noted in this March report that "The collective fiscal mismanagement of city
treasuries and contracting practices by members of the Southeast Cities Schools Coalition
borders on the criminal, and in some instances, is actually criminal as ongoing
investigations allege. And yet, these same elected officials demand
decision making authority and authority over school budgets? God help us
if the FBI won't."

George Cole's regional-maniac tendencies actually make some sense, as Chief Narramore tried to
warn. A regional police force would certainly bring efficiencies of scale to municipal budgets. But
now, it would be the city of Bell calling the shots on a regional PD, and looking more viable by the
day.

The intent with a unified school district for the southeast cities is a bit more complex in terms of
trade-offs. Already, the Southeast Schools Coalition has taken an even more serious step towards
breaking away from LAUSD by grabbing for Redevelopment Tax Increment monies for its own
use, diverting funds away from LAUSD. Reports the Wave Community Newspapers' Arnold
Adler on July 8 '
Coalition seeks funds earmarked for schools': “We are asking for a minimal
percentage of the $2.8 million [the six cities in the coalition] we'll have to give the school district
next year", said Huntington Park councilwoman Ofelia Hernandez.

Even more shocking, LAUSD's local District 6 Superintendent Marty Galindo
"supports the plan" according to the Wave Newspapers' July 8 report.

Dr. Galindo would go along with the plan hatched in Bell and Huntington Park city hall to grab
local property tax generated monies duly slated for LAUSD. Marty must be ignorant of the
State's constitution where it explicitly prohibits city elected officials from taking direct control of a
school board, its finances, budget and management decisions; Galindo knows that AB 1381, the
mayor's LAUSD takeover attempt, was struck down by the state's high court as illegal and
unconstitutional. The Southeast Schools Coalition's brazen grab for school district cash is
downright illegal. But here's George Cole and his team trying anyway, because they can get away
with it. Huntington Park's mayor Noguez stated that he "just loves it", the idea of taking tax
increment money slated for LAUSD. It is not hyperbole to state that this is outright thievery; it is a
matter of legal fact.

George Cole's clever attempt at sicking the Coalition's attorney brandishing such threats as this tax
grab goes against existing case law, flaunts the state's ruling against AB 1381, and poises to
foolishly challenge California's Education statutes. Such antics ring similar to the knuckle-headed
stunt he pulled at Miles Ave Elementary School in Huntington Park back in 2006, when George
did some ravel-rousing and media grab, all in a hidden effort to get his wife Judy appointed
principal of the school. LAUSD top brass wisely saw through the foolishness and resisted (see
report by WatchOurCity.com from May 8, 2006 "
Take a peak at how George Cole will manage
his breakaway unified school district in southeast cities").

The March 2010 report by WatchOurCity.com
exposing the Southeast School's Coalition as an
illegal sham outfit noted:

"The Southeast Cities Schools Coalition disguises itself as a "community group" so LAUSD can
allow charter school applicants to pass muster with their community outreach and partnering
requirements. This disguise is nothing more than a Trojan Horse created by Cole, city councils
and their slick city attorney......to create a back door entry with a direct pipeline connecting city
councils on one end with a school's budget and staffing decisions on the other. Precisely this is
what they were prevented from doing under Mayor Villaraigosa's unconstitutional AB 1381.
Distilled in simple terms, the state constitution clearly prohibits city councils, mayors and political
operatives, from "direct" control of public school district budgets, policy, staffing decisions and
contracting issues."

"In contrast, Martha Escutia's intent with SB 1380 was to create a legitimate mechanism for duly
molding a complete stand-alone break-away school district complying with all constitutional
requirements, not this shifty illegal, unconstitutional, and deceptive, back-door pipeline stuff."

The Southeast Schools Coalition can spin it anyway they want, with an attorney from Claremont,
or wherever, but that pig is still nothing but a pig, lipstick or not. The Coalition simply can't pass a
local city ordinance trumping state statute in justifying a grab for  LAUSD money. What part of
"illegal and unconstitutional" doesn't George Cole's Coalition understand? The only positive side to
the Coalition's keystone-cops wacky illegal antics, is that now we get a very clear idea where
George Cole's true intentions are with his Schools Coalition. George Cole's grabbing for locally
generated property tax base funds from LAUSD still does not improve student scores on any
campus, but will improve the coalition's take home pay.

Whew!......For a minute there, George Cole had us believing the Southeast Cities Schools
Coalition was in it just for the students. What a relief to know that it's only about the money.

Most curious of all is the total lack of visible involvement by the State Attorney General's office in
defending against a barrage of wild-eyed attacks, tests and challenges and usurpation of power on
state jurisdiction and statute matters by Bell, Huntington Park, Maywood and the Southeast Cities
Schools Coalition. The lack of any State response serves only to embolden and tacitly encourage
further incursions, weakening integrity of key state constitutional checks and balances meant to
prevent precisely the actions now underway here. The actions of city officials and George Cole's
group grow more brazen precisely because they carry no consequences.

This is why it is monumentally shocking that Dr. Galindo, a high ranking LAUSD local
superintendent, would side with George Cole against the very interests Galindo is charged to
protect; a fiduciary fail, but most importantly, a fail against the very failing students Dr. Galindo
represents. LAUSD's Inspector General's office may find Dr. Galindo's comments of special
import.

What does Galindo care, he's leaving the District anyway. This Wednesday's San Gabriel Tribune
published a report
"Basset Unified Selects New Superintendent". "The Board of Education voted
5-0 to approve Martin Galindo's contract during a special meeting Wednesday. It includes a
$180,000 annual salary and $500 automobile stipend. His track record in
L.A. Unified was very successful and we're hoping he's able to translate that to a smaller district
and bring that here," said board member Victoria Medina. All of us agreed that he would be a
good match." Basset Unified serves 5,000 students and 5,000 pre-school, and Adult Ed students,
all on 7 campuses.

Most egregious, those LAUSD tax funds George wants to grab from LAUSD, and which Galindo
says it's OK, about a quarter of a million dollars, is timed to coincide with the school District's
massive budget shortfall triggering thousands of layoffs of District staff, all the while, George
Cole's city of Bell spends exactly $2,100,000 on criminally inflated yearly salaries for just three
city employees and five council members at $100,000 each, city manager at $800,000, assistant
city manager at $325,000, and chief of police at $475,000.

If the city of Bell is so flush with money, and evidently it is, why do Southeast Coalition's members
cheaply expose themselves to a greedy grab from a pot of money not theirs?

Students go without books in the very schools George Cole's Coalition publicly feints to advocate
for, but in city council chambers and the Coalition's board room, Cole and the city council
members scheme to undercut such advocacy in the most brutally heinous way possible; Mayor
John "Juan" Noguez says he "just loves it" about Huntington Park's official directive to go after
District funds, little realizing that his words and intent are actionable as technically and legally
depriving the public of honest services, not to mention the very students whose failure they take as
opportunity to profit.

George Cole has proven that it is much easier to go regional with his non-profit Oldtimers
Foundation. Headquartered in Huntington Park, Cole has managed to get multi-million dollar
contracts from Huntington Park, South Gate, and now, contracting out Bell city services to
Maywood. When Maywood fired all of its employees, it simply brought in Bell city employees
under contract.

George Cole's regionalistic ambitions have also touched local water boards where it counts the
most: lucrative multi-million, multi-year contracts to provide low-flush toilet replacement services,
and has already tainted the
Central Basin Water District's contract awarding apparatus. Central
Basin's board member Montalvo is a former employee of George Cole in the Oldtimers
Foundation.

Not content with earning a  $100,000 salary as a city of Bell councilman (an amount which was
recently reported as eye-popping by the L.A. Times and touched of an investigation by the D.A.'s
office), Cole was also earning a salary as an official
simultaneously elected to the board of the
Central Basin Water District. That, evidently, was still not enough salary, so George was also
making bank as Executive Director of the Oldtimers Foundation where he was double dealing in
getting contracts from both the city of Bell and the Central Basin Water District. Someone must
have gotten to George about the very real conflict of interests, that's when
George abruptly,
without notice, quit his gig as Bell councilman and appointed Luis Artiga, the license plate
switcheroo artist.

Post Data: Wednesday July 14, 2010
The L.A. Times today published a report on grossly exorbitant yearly salaries paid to the city
manager ($787,637), the Assistant city manager ($376,288), the Chief of Police ($457,000) and
each city council member ($100,000). George Cole was behind all those raises as he was the
mayor at the time.

According to the Times, city manager Rizzo had, in 1993, a "starting salary of $72,000 a year. By
September 2004, he was being paid $300,000 a year. Ten months later, his salary jumped 47%
to $442,000."

In 2004, George Cole was the mayor of Bell. Rizzo's salary nearly doubled from 2004 to
October 2008. It was in early October 2008 when George Cole abruptly quit his Bell city council
position. By this time he left a very rich legacy in salaries to his top city lieutenants and fellow city
council members, scheming to start a regional powerhouse of corruption with richly healthy
budgets to tap into, such as LAUSD, West Basin Water District, and surrounding cities of
Cudahy, Huntington Park, Maywood, South Gate and Vernon.

Now, Cole wants to breakaway from LAUSD and take control of all 60 schools in the southeast
cities, yielding half a billion dollar yearly operating budget. What happened in Bell under George
Cole's leadership will extend to his proposed Rancho San Antonio School District.

Coming next:
The mechanics of how George Cole rigs multi-million dollar toilet replacement contracts with the
Central Basin Water District, which favors his Oldtimers Foundation against all odds. The
upcoming report will focus on just one of the most recent million-dollar contracts  awarded to
George Cole's Oldtimers Foundation by the West Basin Water Board contract. Magic happened
in the board room, and arm-twisting of West Basin staff by Board member Rudy Montalvo,
former employee of George Cole's Oldtimers Foundation.

The Times reported in Jananuary 4, 2007 that Rudy Montalvo's is George Cole's "friend from the
Union days".

Below is a map showing geographic jurisdiction of the West Basin Water District:
_________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday July 13, 2010
Huntington Park
in $1.2 Million
Fiscal Deficit

Huntington Park, CA - The
city is operating under a $1.2
million budget deficit,
announced city manager
Greg Korduner in June.

The deficit is directly a result
and precipitated by Mayor
Juan Noguez's public policy of
gifting public funds to friends
and campaign donors.

Noguez is running for L.A.
County Assessor in a
November runoff race against
John Y. Wong of Monterey
Park.

The city's deficit is almost
mathematically equivalent to
the amount mayor Noguez
has given to his friends in
multi-million contracts and
free gifts of public funds.
Folks like city of Bell's George
Cole, city attorney Francisco
Leal and businessman
Vicente Ortiz of Tacos Don
Chente and META 2000, are
all friends, political allies, but
more importantly, have
benefited mightily under the
Noguez regime. This
plundering of municipal public
funds now imperils the city's
financial stability.

Here's the math.
$500,000 -
The amount gifted to
META
2000, a shady Latino
business men's group,  since
2003 when Noguez was first
elected to public office here.

$400,000 -
City Attorney billings give
away an extra $400,000. The
city attorney's contract was
originally awarded in closed
door session out of public
scrutiny. The original contract
called for monthly billings not
to exceed $25 K per month,
or $300,000 per your;  
Reportedly, the city attorney
is over-billing the city three
times the contractual limit,
close to $80,000 per month
or $960,000, of tens of
thousands of dollars a month
over a four year period. The
difference is $660,000, then
discounting for probably
legitimate expenses, we
arrive at $400,000.

$100,000
Amount given to George
Cole's Oldtimers Foundation
in a special city council
session after Cole was
awarded Huntington Park's
$3.9 million bus
transportation contract.
According to meeting minutes
from April 2004, the amount
was gifted by Noguez to Cole
as upfront money so Cole
could hurry up and purchase
the buses already so as not
breach his newly awarded
contract. Two months after
award of contract, it became
painfully evident that George
Cole had zero buses and no
starting capital. Not to worry;
Cole had a friend in Noguez.
At the Special Council
Session, Noguez directed city
staff to provide front-funding
to Cole from public funds, a
benefit not given to the other
bidders, nor listed on the
RFP. Cole needed the buses
to make good on the rigged
contract. Then mayor Noguez
threw in $25,000, bringing
the total gift to Colt to
$100,000. Throw in an extra
$32,000 since that was the
difference between Cole's
proposal and the low bid
from the preferred
contractor, Southland Transit.
Southland already had buses
and was rated the preferred
contractor by bothy staff and
an independent consultant.
Southland was already
providing bus service to
other cities and had many
buses in service. So, that
brings this sub-total to
$132,000.

$110,000 -
The graffiti removal contract.
The difference in amount
between the lowest most
responsible bidder as
recommended by
professional city staff, and
the actual contract awarded
to a Noguez friend who was
rated the least qualified with
a premium of $110 k above
the low bidder.

The running tab is
$1,142,000, or $58,000 short
of the budget shortfall.

Then add about $25,000 per
year in travel expenses city
council voted for itself, now
over 5 years running, all
combined, now equalling the
budget deficit almost to the
dime.

Responsibility for Huntington
Park's $1.2 million serious
and substantial budget
shortfall rests squarely and
directly on mayor Juan "John"
Noguez Rodriguez- Marez.

Such recklessly wasteful
spending of limited municipal
resources by mayor Juan
Noguez is close to criminal.

_______________________
A WORRISOME DESCENT
Tuesday July 13, 2010, Post Data on Wednesday July 14, 2010
The Editor, WatchOurCity.com
Depriving the Public of Honest Services:
Bell, Maywood, Huntington Park, LAUSD
Maywood council members in breach of fiduciary duty to keep city insured? Bell violates State law in usurping State
jurisdiction by taking over Maywood's basic municipal services? Huntington Park operating in a $1.2 million deficit.
George Cole of Oldtimers and Southeast Schools Coalition, formerly a councilman in Bell, continues legal maneuvering to
break away from LAUSD. George Cole awarded $1 million dollar toilet replacement contract in Maywood by his former
employee, now board member at West Basin Water Board in rigged bidding conditions.
Correction:
The July 13 posting
of this report
incorrectly listed
the West Basin
Water District; The
correct reference is
"Central Basin
Municipal Water
District".