News
Is the City Attorney’s Office Trying to Protect CD-12 Councilmember John Lee?
Why are Neighborhood Councils being warned not to pass motions regarding possible ethics violations?
After one neighborhood council called for the LA City Ethics Commission to begin an investigation into a current council member’s trip to Las Vegas in 2017 taken while working as a staffer, the City Attorney’s office interfered with similar resolutions by two more neighborhood councils.
THE BACKGROUND
This saga concerning pay to play politics came to light in March of this year when Mitchell Englander, who resigned his CD-12 position on the city council in 2018, was arrested on federal charges.
A federal grand jury indicted Englander on January 16, 2020, charging him with one count of participating in a scheme to falsify material facts, three counts of making false statements, and three counts of witness tampering.
But it wasn’t until March 9th that Englander surrendered to the FBI and the indictment was made public. According to the indictment, he had allegedly accepted money, hotel rooms, a lavish dinner, a $24,000 bar tab, and other gifts during a trip to Las Vegas in 2017. Englander admitted to taking $15,000 in cash from a businessman, identified in court documents as Businessman A, during trips to both Las Vegas and Palm Springs
The FBI attempted to conceal the identity of Businessman A, but during the March 13th hearing, the Assistant US Attorney said the man operated two companies, one that sold cabinetry and another that sold electronic equipment used in homes. The businessman was interested in selling his products to developers and saw developing relationships with council members as a way to accomplish that goal.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Englander had stated on an ethics disclosure form that he had received $250 worth of food and beverages on June 1, 2017 from a man named Andrew Wang. Per the LinkedIn page for “Andy Wang,” he has been the president for NextData Technologies since March 2016. The company’s LinkedIn page says the company’s mission is to “create value throughout the building development process for our clients” for “all their commercial and residential development project’s technology needs.” The website link from LinkedIn and Manta apparently no longer works.
A week after the Vegas trip, Businessman A and a real estate developer had a lunch meeting, arranged for by the council member.
Englander, who was elected to succeed his former boss Gregg Smith in 2011, suddenly announced in late 2018, he was resigning his seat on the council to take a job at the Oak View Group as its new executive vice president of government affairs. When he was arrested this March, many of his constituents wondered if the FBI investigation was the real reason he left the City.
On July 7th, Englander pleaded guilty to a single felony charge, one count of scheming to falsify material facts, after a plea deal had been made to dismiss the other six counts. Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for September.
The indictment: https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/65/5e/f78c45264b4baac3bb9b4525068c/city-hall-englander-indictment-1.pdf
CITY STAFF B
Among those accompanying Englander on the trip, paid for by Businessman A, was “City Staffer B,” who was described as working for Englander until June 2017, which coincided with the time that John Lee had left his position as Englander’s chief of staff.
Because there was still a little more than a year left on Englander’s second term of office, a special election was held on June 4, 2019. The two top finishers were Dr. Loraine Lundquist with 19.7% of the vote and John Lee with 18.7%. They met in a run off on August 13th, with John Lee winning 51.5 to 48.5%. The two ran again in the March 3, 2020 election for the full term that begins in 2020.
As this arrest came out after the election for the new council term was held, several residents were understandably not happy that voters weren’t told about the investigation beforehand. Also, many knew that Englander had endorsed his former chief of staff during last year’s special election to fill the vacancy as well as this year’s election. Within a day or so of Englander’s arrest, a petition was started to call on Lee to resign. Here’s the petition: https://www.change.org/p/council-member-john-lee-resign-immediately . As of July 19, 1,894 have signed it.
Following his former boss’s arrest, Lee did admit via a tweet that he had been on the Las Vegas trip, but said he “unaware of any illegal activities for which Councilmember Englander is being charged.” His tweet added that he “did everything in my power to pay for and reimburse expenses related to this trip.”
Lee told the press that in his 20 years of service with the City of Los Angeles, he has never had a single ethics violation. But while he served as chief of staff for Englander, there were a harassment charge toward him and his boss. The legal battle ended more than four years ago, with Lee himself being dismissed as a defendant before the city agreed to pay a $75,000 settlement.
As Lee is now serving on the Planning and Land Use Management committee, which reviews and makes recommendations on various ordinances regarding zoning regulations, conditional use permits and sign regulations, the idea of his accepting a trip just three years earlier from a contractor who wanted to make deals with developers, doesn’t seem kosher.
Also called into question was the fact that Lee, besides going on a trip that would be considered a pay for play adventure, was the fact that Lee didn’t immediately report the “gifts’ received to the LA City Ethics Commission.
According to the introduction to the City Ethics Handbook: The laws are intended to protect the integrity of the City’s decision-making processes. Often, even the perception that a City official has acted with bias can erode public confidence as much as if bias actually existed. Therefore, it is crucial that we, as City officials and City employees, are ever conscious of the governmental ethics laws.
The Ethics Handbook for City Officials: https://ethics.lacity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/City-Officials-Handbook-2019-with-Cover-1.pdf
THE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS TAKE ACTION, OR TRY TO
On June 4th, the Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council considered a resolution calling on the City Ethics Commission to investigate Lee as to whether he “violated ethics rules promulgated by the city of Los Angeles” regarding his participation in the 2017 trip and his subsequent actions. During the discussion at least 17 public comments were made in favor of the investigation while only two were in opposition. There was a spirited discussion among the board members with some very opposed. Two board members who said they had supported Lee during his campaigns, including the president of the board who said he felt betrayed by Lee’s trip to Las Vegas, voted for the motion. At the end of the meeting one board member announced her resolution because of the resolution. The vote was 10–6 with one abstention.
The Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council was going to consider a motion on June 24th regarding Lee. Item 6 was to be “Discussion and possible action to adopt the attached resolution that
1. Calls for the prompt resignation of Councilmember John Lee,
2. Urges all Neighborhood Councils within Council District 12 to take a position on this matter.
3. Urges City Council president Nury Martinez and the entire City Council to formally affirm their commitment to maintaining the highest legal, ethical, and moral standards when conducting City business.
4. 4. Urges the City Attorney Mike Feuer, to exercise its duty and enforce the City’s own laws against unethical conduct by City employees beginning with an investigation into Mr. Lee’s conduct a then high -ranking Council office employee, and to present his report to City Council in a public meeting.
But just before the meeting, it was announced that the meeting was cancelled. The agenda, with the proposed motion and supportive letter under consideration, has since been removed from the council’s website.
At the July 8 regular monthly meeting, the PRNC President gave an explanation before the public comment period about why the PRNC board will not consider the motion. He said one of the board members brought up his or her concern to the city attorney’s office. The city attorney contacted him for a discussion. Based on “that communication and the concerns they expressed, I pulled the agenda item.” He added that at this time, the conditions haven’t changed, so “at this time, there is no current plan…to put it on the agenda for the board.”
During the public comment period, two stakeholders expressed the hope that the motion will be rescheduled for consideration.
The Northridge East Neighborhood Council, in response to stakeholder requests at a previous meeting, decided to consider a similar motion. Its executive committee voted three to one to place a motion on the agenda for the July 15th general board meeting. This was the motion: MOTION (Mills/Kaiser) to recommend that the Northridge East NC send a letter of inquiry into whether Councilmember John Lee was “City Staffer B” referenced in a Federal indictment against former Councilmember Mitchell Englander; this is based upon stakeholder requests during Public Comment. (Passed 3–1–0 on 7/6/20)
But then, the item was pulled from the agenda not too long before the meeting was held.
The president announced during the meeting that the deputy city attorney who advises the Valley NCs contacted the president of the NENC and said the motion was out of the scope of the authority of the group. But given the number of those in attendance who expressed an interest, it was decided to allow public comment. Over the course of two hours, members of the public. Including many members of the West Valley Peoples Alliance, and board members discussed the item and finally a revised motion was introduced and passed.
During the public comment period, most speakers talked about the need for transparency, the appearance of interference by a city attorney to shut down a discussion about a concern held by residents toward an elected official, the need for the Ethics Commission to conduct an investigation into Lee’s involvement on the trip and subsequent actions including backdating a check, and the need for Lee to be taken off of important council committees, especially the PLUM committee until an ethics investigation clears him. It was also noted that the motion wasn’t about the neighborhood council conducting an investigation, but simply asking a question of the council member.
Renee Grace Rodriquez pointed out that according to the Empower LA bylaws that each neighborhood council follows, Article II says “The mission of the Council is to provide a forum for public discussion of issues and to advise the City of Los Angeles on issues concerning City governance, the needs of this Neighborhood Council, the delivery of City services, and matters of citywide interest.” She said “This is definitely a matter of city wide interest. The city attorney has no authority to dictate the neighborhood agenda items.”
Michelle Fowle said she is disheartened about what is happening, and asked, “Why is the city attorney getting involved?”
Assad Alnajjar, who was a write in candidate for CD-12 during this year’s election, said “Unfortunately, ethic violations investigations are not being conducted for many people, no just only John Lee.” He mentioned the previous harassment charge and the pay to play actions that Lee may have committed over his career. He had given the Ethics Commission details with dates, names, and times, but said no one wants to listen. He suggests that the current city attorney Mike Feuer is asked about his deputy’s gas orders during the upcoming mayoral campaign.
Pilar Schiavo said that it’s important to resolve the Lee situation as “we need someone to fight for us.” She explained, “CD-12 is in turmoil. We really don’t have a council member right now.” She said that the time he’s spending trying to prevent an investigation, he’s not spending on important issues during this time of a pandemic. “There’s zero trust in our council member.”
During the course of the discussion during which it was noted that sixty stakeholders were in the “audience,” an amendment was proposed: This council would request clarity from Councilmen Lee’s office as to whether Councilmember Lee is “Staffer B” in the FBI indictment against former Council member Mitchell Englander.
Furthermore, this council would request that the Ethics Committee look into Councilman Lee’s involvement in the PLUM committee considering his involvement in the current federal corruption investigation.
This amended motion was passed by a vote of 9 to 0 with 4 abstentions.
Maybe the next step for neighborhood councils is to remind deputy city attorney Elise Ruden that she should consider what the true mission of the NCs are. Stifling such a discussion by the neighborhood councils and the stakeholders will not serve the city well, especially when City Hall seems to be reeking of corruption.
DISCLAIMER: I had donated money and time to one of Lee’s opponents for LA campaign and to Food and Water Action/Ground-Game LA’s campaign