Karina La Korrupta of Huntington Park Caught in Corruption

The Los Angeles Times is exposing more of the local corruption eating away at Southeastern Los Angeles Count municipalities.

When Bell was exposed, almost every member of the city council was locked up, along with the city manager and the city clerk. The takedown of this pre-eminently corrupt city, overcharging city residents with high taxes and fees proved too much, even for the normally liberal-leaning Los Angeles Times to deal with.

The way a small-town politician used her relationship with city contractors to draw income could pose an important test of the state’s conflict of interest laws, good-government experts said.

FYI: We the People Rising have been reporting on these corrupt transactions for at least two years.

Huntington Park Councilwoman Karina Macias raised money for a 2015 state Assembly candidate who never actually filed to run, and she was paid a commission based on a percentage of the total. The district attorney’s office launched a review of Macias’ commission and her votes as a councilwoman after a Times article that revealed the arrangement.

Karina Macias got rich off of consulting fees for private vendors. Then she voted nicely on the contracts for these vendors. I call this whole scheme a conflict of interest!

Experts said last week that if the practice is found to be legal, or is otherwise permitted, it would provide public officials a loophole they could potentially use for self-enrichment.

Maybe I should be a consultant and help raise money for non-candidates, and then I can vote on nice rich contracts for corrupt vendors, too! YAY!

Macias raised money from people linked to companies that were awarded contracts by Macias and Huntington Park's council majority. Those included the city’s bus service and dial-a-ride operator, its street sweeping and bus stop maintenance vendor and a towing company.

Just because Kreepy Karina announced to the vendors

According to Macias, she informed these people that, if they contributed, she would receive a commission. In prior interviews with The Times, she could not give an example of someone who contributed and was not connected to a city contractor. She was paid $6,800 total for her fundraising work.

Macias has denied that the commission in any way influenced her votes on contracts.

WOW! This is the same lady who shot the middle finger at We the People Rising at a fundraising function near the city hall. Keep it classy, Karina!

There are two main conflict of interest laws on the state’s books that might apply to Macias’ situation. A violation of the law known as the Political Reform Act, which makes it illegal to cast votes that financially benefit sources of income, could mean a possible misdemeanor or an administrative fine.

Lock her up! LOCK HER UP!

What a creepy lady. What a crappy city council!

Steve Cooley, the former L.A. County district attorney who created the office’s public integrity division, said Macias’ commission and votes could have violated the more serious felony conflict of interest law.

The essential question for prosecutors, Cooley said, is whether Macias structured a “quid pro quo” deal.

If the district attorney's office files criminal charges, it would “send a message” that “this is a no-fly zone. Don’t go there,” Cooley said.

Thank goodness for Steve Cooley. There would have never been a public integrity division without Cooley.

Jessica Levinson, a government ethics professor at Loyola Law School, said such a precedent might encourage ill-disposed politicians in places where fewer people are paying attention. That would include relatively small cities and scores of often obscure agencies that make up the patchwork of governments in places like L.A.

Jessica Levinson has weighed on integrity and public interest issues a number of times. When is she going to start focusing on the corruption in local cities, like Torrance California? How about why city council members in the Palos Verdes Peninsula chose to abandon their elected offices? There is a lot of corruption going on in Hermosa Beach--or so I have heard reports about getting people employment by elected office.

Bob Stern, who coauthored the Political Reform Act, said that if there is a determination that what Macias did is aboveboard, then it would be clear that the Huntington Park councilwoman had found a loophole in the law he helped write.

Oh No! I want Karina Macias in prison for her corruption, for her lawlessness, for her hatred of everything that is American!

Final Reflection

When do they lock up Karina Macias?

How about the rest of her corrupt colleagues alone with her?

I am fed upw