| The Con Artists in City Council; Friends Are Really Well Protected December 27, 2005 The Editor, WatchOurCity.com Huntington Park- Connect the dots and follow the money: council member Mario Gomez sponsored one of the strangest items on a city council agenda. On November 7, 2005, council member Mario Gomez placed on the agenda the following item: "City Clerk Ramirez presented for discussion and/or action a request from Council Member Gomez for waiver of the Performance Bond requirements in the Agreement for Graffiti Removal Services between the City of Huntington Park and Mag Sweeping. Following Discussion, Mayor Hernandez so ordered this item be placed on the next City Council meeting agenda under closed session." The owner of Mag Sweeping was a campaign contributor to the candidate slate of Noguez, Gomez, and Hernandez for their successful March 2003 campaign. Mag Sweeping happens to be one of a handful of city contractors that is friends with Rosario Marin, John Noguez, Ofelia Hernandez and Mario Gomez. The city awards Mag Sweeping one of its handful of most lucrative city contracts of $90,000 per month for city street sweeping services, according to public records on file with the city clerk’s office. The other city contracts that pay out nearly the same amounts per month are for (not including the $4 million transportation contract to Cole/Caballero): - Residential trash pick-up service paid to Waste Management ($90,000 per month). - Commercial trash pick-up service (about $90,000 per month). - Engineering services contractor ($5,000 campaign contributor). - City Attorney Services ($300,000 with over $1 million per year total legal fees alloted). Moreover, the owner of Mag Sweeping somehow manages to be awarded a graffiti cleanup contract. The city’s budget just for this service is quite healthy and almost matches the city attorney’s contract of $300,000 per year. Mr. Mag Sweeping is well connected to Rosario Marin’s city council in Huntington Park. Not only is he a friend, a campaign donor, but he also has the unique position among campaign donors-slash-city contractors: he was a hard-core foot soldier for the Noguez, Gomez, and Hernandez campaign of 2003. And now city council wants to help Mag Sweeping pocket a few extra thousands of dollars more by proposing to waive their Performance bond. WatchOurCity.com is not a wagering site. But if councilman John Noguez’s other campaign contributor/family relative, Leonardo’s Night Club on Alameda Street, gets his way with converting his club into a Card Club Casino, I would wager that the thousands of dollars in Performance Bond fees that Mag Sweeping would stand to save might just find their way into the campaign coffers of John Noguez, Mario Gomez and Ofelia Hernandez in 2007 when they are up for reelection. The D.A. Steve Cooley will not bother looking at any questionable ethics, conflict of interest, pay-for-play, and outright misuse of public funds here because his good friend Rosario Marin, the den mother of Huntington Park politics and mentor to all three senior council members, is his Republican friend. The Department of Justice won’t look either because, well, it won’t look good if Rosario Marin, ex-Huntington Park council member and former U.S. Treasurer appointed by Bush, is investigated for taking part in the manipulation of awarding millions of dollars in city contracts to campaign donors and friends, with strong public records evidence of pay-for-play activity in Huntington Park’s city council. Rosario Marin’s protégé slate is up for reelection in their upcoming March 2007 elections. However, do not hold your breath on the elections happening in March, though. Another Jiu-Jitsu move from the corruption bag of tricks Presuming they will all loose the 2007 election, the four-year reign of corruption is not long enough. Noguez, Gomez and Hernandez actually have on the agenda an item to postpone the regularly scheduled March 2007 elections until November 2007. The excuse is that it would be neat to coincide citywide elections with the General Elections in November. That’s a full eight months more that they get to serve as elected officials than their mandated four years in public office allows by law. This will only extend the misuse public funds, allow them to award more contracts to their buddies, then fix the contracts to avoid paying performance bonds and do more damage to the city’s coffers, never mind the public trust. For all you university Political Science students, add this to your notes on Corruption 101. The funny thing about all this corruption is this: con man, that is, council member John Noguez is a master of appearing polished, well spoken and a well-intended politician to others neither familiar with his mentor protégé connections to Rosario Marin nor familiar with his outright lies, campaigns of deception and outright corruption in the city of Huntington Park. Another wager I may make if Leonardo’s Casino were open for betting today: John Noguez is the perfect candidate for higher elected office, perhaps an Assembly seat or the L.A. County Assessor’s office. The more polished the con, the better the chances of fooling the voters. It happened here. Rosario Marin, John Noguez’s “Official” mentor, taught him all the tricks. The more corrupt one is the higher political office one attains. All the corruption bag of tricks are being practiced by protégés Noguez, Mario Gomez and Ofelia Hernandez (WatchOurCity.com is full of reports on all their bag of tricks). Regarding the two newest freshman council women, the two Elbas, well one was supported and openly endorsed by Rosario Marin (Elba Romo). The other was supported and openly endorsed by John Noguez (Elba Guerrero). Both were successful in their March 2005 city council campaigns. Corruption Pays…..and it pays big Con man, that is, councilman Mario Gomez’s proposal to waive Mag Sweeping’s Performance Bond should raise red flags all over the District Attorney’s office. Everyone will turn a blind eye, however. Nobody will be watching as they have been doing since Rosario was a council member here. Wait, there was that time when a council member here was investigated by the D.A.’s office. Ex-council woman Linda Guevara was convicted and served her term out under house arrest. Her crime: not living in the city where she is an elected official. It so happened that Linda Guevara was Rosario’s nemesis in city council. According to a statement from Linda Guevara, there was some bad blood between them both. Linda was in the way of Rosario’s agenda during most city council meetings. It so happened that the D.A. Steve Cooley is Rosario’s good friend and Republican Party chum. It so happens that Linda Guevara’s crime is lame compared to what is being committed with the use of public funds by Rosario Marin’s protégés, a lot of city council action is more egregious and damning. It so happens that the D.A. is not even batting an eyelash at John Noguez, Mario Gomez and Ofelia Hernandez. Mayor Ofelia Hernandez orders con man, err, councilman Mario Gomez’s motion to be placed on the next city council agenda as closed session item. Not only are they helping their buddy and campaign contributor pocket a few extra bucks, but they are doing it behind closed doors where nobody will be watching. Nice. Friends are really well protected Let’s see what surprises Rosario’s cons in city council spring for the residents here in their first January 2006 meeting. Perhaps they can vote themselves another $350 per month raise for themselves as they did two years ago on January 4, 2004. All three cons voting for it were unemployed at the time: Ofelia Hernandez, Mario Gomez, and Ed Escareno, the one-term ex-councilman, and once promising protégé of Rosario Marin before he self destructed and was voted out of office for the highest of corruption clouds cast over him and grand misuse of public funds in the thousands of dollars. Not surprisingly, D.A. Steve Cooley evidently looked the other way to avoid any damaging and embarrassing fallout for his friend Rosario Marin. He really conned the voters. Or perhaps they can award in closed session a new transportation contract to Victor Caballero's new taxi company, since he is no longer employed with Fiesta Taxi; besides, these are his friends in city council, not Fiesta's. Victor Caballero, along with George Cole and Rosario Marin were top endorsers for council member Elba Romo in March 2005. Pay back is a bitch. Victor's endorsement was not in vain, and he will do everything in his power to have the city swap out Fiesta Taxi's old sham contract for a new sham contract with his new taxi company. Anything can happen when you have Rosario Marin on your side. City council has an agenda item to review Fiesta's transportation contract. Watch what they do not what they say. Con man, err, councilman Mario Gomez and city Council once more seem to be saying by their actions: F#@k the public interest. The entire concept behind a performance bond is to protect the public interest. So much for Huntington Park's public servants/con artists. Happy new year everyone! |
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