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Posted Monday, March 13, 2006
City Attorney Francisco Leal Accused of Violating Conflict
of Interest State Law

A City of Commerce Cross-Complaint lawsuit against Francisco Leal also alleges "Unjust
Enrichment and Breach of Contract"

Editor,
WatchOurCity.com

Huntington Park, CA. – WatchOurCity.com turns 2 years old today.

Police Chief
A Majority city council voted for a new Police Chief to replace Randy Narramore, the
recently ousted Chief.

The new Chief, Mike Trevis, was a City of Maywood part-time assistant Chief and
former City of Bell Police Chief.

Anonymous reports to WatchOurCity.com indicate that Councilman John Noguez was
seen as an unusually frequent visitor, as he nosed around Maywood City Hall recently,
prior to making the announcement that Mike Trevis would be Huntington Park's new
chief of Police.

City Attorney
The city of Commerce is the plaintiff in a lawsuit against Francisco Leal, Huntington
Park's current city attorney.

The suit stems from a legal action initiated by Leal's law firm after he was fired as
Commerce City Attorney. Leal's lawsuit alleges specific monetary damages as a result of
cutting short his city attorney contract.

Commerce's current city attorney, Eddie Olivo, filed a cross complaint against Francisco
Leal (Superior Court case no. BC 339482). The cross complaint alleges:
1)        BREACH OF CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 1090
(Conflict of interest)
2)        CONSTRUCTIVE TRUST
3)        UNJUST ENRICHMENT
4)        BREACH OF CONTRACT
5)        DECLARATORY RELIEF

When Francisco Leal's firm was an "appointed political body" in Commerce, that is, the
city attorney, Leal also conspired to cause the city to hire his Lobby firm as well, in
what the cross complaint alleges "was complete derogation of their duty to provide the
citizens of the City with honest services, in violation of their fiduciary duty and
California Government Code Section 1090.."

Code Section 1090 "generally provides that an officer or employee may not make a
contract in which he or she is financially interested".

Francisco Leal was the Commerce City Attorney. In that capacity, he personally lobbied
city council members to hire his other company, a lobby and advocacy firm.

"Any participation by an officer or employee in the process by which such a contract is
developed, negotiated and executed is a violation of Section 1090. An official
participates in the making of a contract if the official is involved with its preparation at
any stage in the process. The contract making process begins at the time the idea for
the contract is conceived and continues through the actual execution of the contract.
That means the planning, determining the scope of the contract, setting the terms,
evaluating applicants, and negotiating are all included".

Additionally, Commerce's cross complaint notes that "The City’s public officials,
including Leal placed themselves in a position of public trust and owed a duty of honest
service to the City and its Citizens. This duty of honest services included the following
obligations: (a) to act as trustees for the citizens, and in the best interests of the
public, without pursuing their own personal interests; (b) to refrain from taking official
action on any matter in which they might have a direct or indirect financial interest
without first disclosing any such interest to the public; and (c) to abide by the laws of
the United States, the laws of the State of California, and the laws of the City.

Leal was hired by a council majority no longer in power, selected in closed door session.

Same pattern happened in Huntington Park. In December of 2003, Leal is selected in
closed door session to be the city's attorney, in a highly questionable action that was
spearheaded by then Mayor, now convicted felon, Edward Escareno, and voted on by
current council members Ofelia Hernandez and Mario Gomez.

Then councilman Ric Loya was the only dissenting vote. John Noguez left council
chambers for an unexplained reason right before the vote was taken to hire Leal's firm
as Huntington Park's city attorney.

A few months after Francisco Leal is hired as HP's attorney, Leal lobbies his friends in
city council to hire his lobby and advocacy group. No one even blinked an eye about
conflict of interest issues as Escareno, Noguez, Ofelia Hernandez and Mario Gomez
voted to hire Leals' lobby firm, just like in the city of Commerce.

Francisco Leal is one of three attorneys retained by the Lynwood Unified School
District. Same pattern. He was just hired as the school district's lobbyist, too, after
Francisco convinces the Lynwood school board members to hire his lobby firm early in
2006.

Sure enough, everyone just looks the other way in the face of brazen and direct
conflict of interest and in seeming violation of California Code Section 1090.

Francisco Leal's seeming brazen disregard for California law, and the same pattern of
behaviour, not just once, not twice, but at least on three separate documented
instances (Commerce, Huntington Park, Lynwood USD) suggests that Francisco Leal
acts as if someone high up is covering his back, and as if he will not be investigated by
anyone for any conflict of interest violations.

In fact, the Los Angeles Times published an investigative report in 1999 written by Ted
Rohrlich exposing Francisco Leal's bullying tactics and his Modus Operandi for securing
city attorney contracts in local southeast L.A. County municipalities. The report also
exposed that Leal had plenty of Sacramento-based fire power to back-up his threats of
local elected officials, including then Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh and termed-out
State Senator Richard Polanco.

Flash forward to December 2003: in the case of Huntington Park, no threatening was
necessary. Council members Escareno, Noguez, Hernandez and Gomez willingly, and
even seemingly conspired to give Leal the city attorney contract, just like they also
conspired to give George Cole and Victor Caballero a $4 million transportation contract.

Francisco Leal is an intimate friend of Rosario Marin who is an ex-Huntington Park
council member, former U.S. Treasurer and current California State Secretary of
Consumer Affairs. Marin is close friends with fellow Republican Steve Cooley, Los
Angeles County District Attorney.

Edward Escareno, an unemployed Republican while a Huntington Park councilman, was
Rosario Marin's lackey in city council who would openly boast that Rosario Marin and
he were on daily communication while Marin was serving as U.S. Treasurer in
Washington D.C., and Escareno was making sure that Rosario's friends were awarded
lucrative contracts back home, selected in "Closed Door" session in the case of Leal, or
awarded a multi-million dollar contract, even if the contractor was rated the least
qualified, and even if once given the contract, covering the start-up costs of $100,000
to level the playing field, as was the case with the team of George Coles' Oldtimers
Foundation and Victor Caballero's Fiesta Taxi transportation contract.

A Francisco Leal staffer is termed out assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, who is seeking
the soon-to-be-termed-out State Senate seat of Martha Escutia.

A former employee of Leal's law firm is now State Assemblyman Dario Frommer, 43rd
Assembly District, Glendale, CA.

The current Speaker of the California Assembly whose District includes Huntington
Park, Fabian Nunez, is also intimate friends with Francisco Leal. So is L.A. Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa.

Nunez made a personal appearance at John Noguez's campaign kickoff in January 2003
and called Escareno and Noguez "men of integrity", and also stated that Huntington
Park should be proud to have such honest elected officials as John Noguez and Edward
Escareno at the helm in this city. And then look at what happened after they take
control of city council. Escareno, who was the campaign manager for Noguez, Ofelia
and Mario Gomez, pleads guilty to "Grand Theft" in L.A. Superior Court. Escareno is
now a convicted felon.

How effective will Leal be in countering Commerce's allegations?

Why doesn't the City of Huntington Park file lawsuit against Leal for exactly the same
allegations charged in the Commerce Suit? After all, exactly the same conditions apply
here as in the city of Commerce, forming the basis of the lawsuit against Leal.

Francisco Leal made direct campaign contributions to John Noguez and Ofelia
Hernandez during in 2003 of a few thousand dollars each. John Noguez paid for the
campaigns of council members Ofelia Hernandez and Elba Guerrero.

Even Leal's name gives him away. It seems that Francisco's last name is purposely
missing a consonant between the two vowels:

- Leal vs. Legal.

The former is Francisco's legal last name. The latter, with consonant "g" added, is
something that the Commerce lawsuit alleges Francisco did not bother adhering to.

By the way, Francisco Leal's firm is reportedly billing the city of Huntington Park
approximately three times the $25,000 maximum stipulated in his attorney contract. His
friends in city council, once again, willingly go along with it all and approve the brazen
and questionable use of public funds.

Also, if John Noguez has aspirations for higher political office, he will need Francisco
Leal's Sacramento connections to help fund his campaign.

In the meantime, however, council members John Noguez, Ofelia Hernandez and Mario
Gomez are gearing up for their 2007 reelection campaigns and will need Francisco
Leal's money.

Don't be surprised, folks, if some of that $85,000 monthly billings by Leal's law firm will
find its way somehow, directly or indirectly, into John Noguez and Ofelia Hernandez's
campaign treasure chest.

Given this political calculus, Huntington Park's council members are not about to
jeopardize their political chances at reelection by pissing off Leal, lest he turn around
and fund a recall campaign against them, allegedly, according to the Times report,
Leal's favorite weapon of choice when city council members go against his wishes.

The losers in this political calculus game are the voters of this city, the children and
families in need of city services for the public benefit. City council members just don't
have them in mind as a priority, unless it's election time, and then they just give them
two tacos for their vote.