Sanctuary City Maywood: Majority Illegal, Heavily Corrupt, Going Bankrupt

                    

The city of Maywood is as corrupt as can be. The city is majority illegal, and the city council engages in nothing but illegal activity.

The city council has violated numerous open meeting laws. I have submitted FOIA requests in the past, but the city clerk and staff never responded to the inquiries.

The city council delays public comment on general issues to the very end of the meeting, and much of the time they make the audience wait until the very end. The whole scene is a scheme and a scam.

The city had to disband its police force in 2010. The city fired most of its staff, and then city hall entered into part-time status. This community served as a settlement for working class WWII veterans.

Now it's a haven for illegal aliens and corrupt politicians exploiting illegal aliens.

The latest Los Angeles Times story outlines the serious problems overwhelming this city--and one has to wonder if the city is going to last much longer:

A tiny city with huge problems, Maywood faces its biggest scandal yet

  

Two years ago, a state audit found Maywood was more than $15 million in debt

Two years ago. Now where are we?

 

A Los Angeles County investigation into possible corruption in Maywood has set its sights on a broad swath that includes four current and former council members, 13 companies, five current and former city administrators and one activist who dresses up as a clown.

The clown scares people, according to reports I have heard from other people connected to the city.

Investigators were authorized to search nearly two dozen vehicles, according to a search warrant obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Investigators also descended on City Hall, the homes of council members and a city contractor's office, seizing computers, videos and boxes containing documents ranging from personal bank statements to City Council agendas, a spokesperson with the district attorney's office confirmed.

The warrant suggests the wide-ranging investigation dovetails with the suspicion many Maywood residents have had about politics in the city for years.

If the city residents don't like the politics they see in the city, then why do they keep electing these corrupt losers in the first place? There was one good guy, Thomas Martin, and he ended up resigning to seek a position somewhere else.

Someone please tell me why this is happening?

It shows that prosecutors are looking at political recall efforts from 2015 through 2017, a city maintenance contractor and a deal involving city properties and plans for a 24-hour charitable bingo.

A percentage of the profits from the planned bingo, according to emails obtained by The Times, was slated to go to a nonprofit organization owned by Edwin T. Snell, an activist who shows up at City Hall meetings in a clown outfit.

Maywood is one of Southern California's smallest and most densely packed cities — 1.18 square miles with nearly 30,000 people squeezed into an industrial zone south of downtown Los Angeles.

Much like Cudahy. I wonder if Huntington Park is this compacted, too.

But for its tiny size, Maywood has suffered oversized problems for more than a decade. Seemingly always on the brink of financial collapse, the town played a role in a huge corruption investigation in neighboring Bell.

Maywood officials had hired Bell to manage key city functions, an arrangement that fell apart when that city became entangled in a scandal involving over-the-top salaries for council members and city administrators.

So that's how Bell got involved. What is happening?! We are seeing Bell politics all over again, with little corrupt officials looking to line their pockets in any way possible. How much does the city manager get?

Maywood once had a police department that became a haven for many cops who had been forced out of previous jobs or had brushes with the law. A 16-month investigation by the attorney general revealed that the culture at the department was "permeated with sexual innuendo, harassment, vulgarity, discourtesy to members of the public as well as among officers, and a lack of cultural, racial and ethnic sensitivity and respect."

WOW! No wonder the police department was disbanded.

Two years ago, a state audit found Maywood was more than $15 million in debt and owed money to its creditors. The City Council raised ire by hiring a city manager whom the mayor met through his auto mechanic shop and who had no government experience.

My goodness, you can't make this stuff up.

"What's happened in Maywood is like a battle between the forces of today and yesterday," said Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount), whose district includes Maywood. "It's like a zombie coming out of the grave that just won't die."

Perhaps in part because Rendon is part of this machine and is promoting this corruption in turn. Where has he been all these years? He has been in office for the last six years. One would think that he could show some leadership and drain the swamp.

He's not interested in doing anything about it, though, since he is part of the swamp!

Southeast Los Angeles County cities, including Maywood, have been mired in municipal corruption for decades. The collection of small cities along the 710 Freeway — Vernon, Bell, Huntington Park, Cudahy — have faced generations of political upheaval, with prosecutors claiming politicians take advantage of electorates who are not always plugged in to what's going on.

How many of the residents are illegal aliens? How many of their relatives are going to say anything, since they fear deportation? The corruption begins and ends with this third-world peasant culture invading these cities!

Despite having arguably the most consistently tumultuous City Hall in the area, Maywood officials have rarely found themselves facing criminal charges, at least for political malfeasance.

"If folks are eventually arrested, that will be six of the nine cities that I represent that have had former council members in prison," Rendon said. "Six of the nine, which tells us something about the depth of the problems."

And you're part of it, Rendon!

A spokesman for the district attorney's office could not comment on the ongoing investigation in Maywood. But sources familiar with the investigation told The Times that one aspect of the inquiry involves votes made by elected officials that could pose conflicts of interest.

In an odd twist, when investigators showed up at the city to serve multiple search warrants more than two weeks ago, investigators discovered about 40 roosters nestled in the corner of Mayor Ramon Medina's mechanic shop. They called animal control to take the birds away.

Medina said his 20-year-old son raised roosters.

LOL!

The same day, photos emerged of marijuana plants growing at his auto shop. Investigators found no plants when they searched the business. The mayor said his son had been growing the plants and that he asked him to remove them.

Sure, Ramon. Whatever you say ...

Roosters and marijuana plants were not mentioned in the search warrant, and there is no apparent link with the birds or the pot to the investigation.

A week after the raids, angry residents packed into City Hall to chastise the council members. Resident Lilia Mariscal, 63, didn't speak but held a sign that read, "You Bring Maywood Shame."

"Nothing is going to change here," said 75-year-old Salvador Romero. "I want to know what's going on. Is it corruption?"

Does this resident really need to ask?

Rendon said a lack of civic engagement and low voter turnouts, as well as dwindling media outlets to keep watch over elected officials, have contributed to some of the problems in cities like Maywood. The city has a large population of Latino immigrants, many of whom can't vote.

"Immigrants", Rendon says, when he really should say "illegal aliens." Shame on all of them.

In addition to the mayor, other officials named in the search warrant include Maywood City Atty. Michael Montgomery, Building and Planning Director David Mango and Reuben Martinez, the acting city manager.

Also listed are Vice Mayor Ricardo Villarreal and Sergio Calderon, a former councilman who resigned in January to settle a conflict-of-interest lawsuit filed by county prosecutors.

Calderon was serving on the Water District, which included the city of Maywood. "Conflict of interest" is putting it mildly.

Among the companies listed on the warrant is ECM Group Inc., which was the subject of a federal corruption probe in South El Monte that ended with the criminal conviction of that city's mayor in 2016.

South El Monte mayor goes to prison. OK, but what about Andre Quintero, too? When is he going to prison for aiding and abetting illegal aliens at the illegal alien forum in April last year?

The city of Maywood hired ECM Group that same year, despite repeated warnings from Councilman Eduardo De La Riva, who said that the firm's contract in South El Monte had ended because of questionable billing practices.

The month after Maywood hired the firm, South El Monte released an audit that accused ECM of submitting false time sheets and billing reports to the city. The audit said workers were reporting 27-hour workdays.

Oh brother! I wonder how many people in the ECM Group were friends of the Maywood City Council?

Also named in the warrant is V&M Iron Works, the city's maintenance contractor, which has made close to $1 million in a year, according to city records.

That's a lot of money. What did they do for the city, besides rob them blind?

The latest investigation raises a larger question about how Maywood can turn itself around.

In 2016, the state auditor found that Maywood had a "flawed governance and fiscal mismanagement" that prevented Maywood from recovering its financial health and made it susceptible to corruption.

It's worse than susceptible at this point. The city is beyond saving, a result of rampant corruption and illegal immigration. The answer is not amnesty. The answer is enforcement of immigration and public integrity laws. Los Angeles County has completely descended into abject chaos. Such lawlessness has become a destructive, dissembling norm, and it needs to be challenged at every level.

Legal residents in the city talk a great deal about the culture of fear and terror that afflicts residents, too. They are so afraid to speak out against the city council. I can't believe this is happening in the United States of America. Since when did law-abiding citizens have to fear for their lives to begin making a difference in their own city?

"The city council has made wasteful spending decisions that advanced the council members' personal interests to the detriment of Maywood's residents," the auditor's report said.

The problems at City Hall frustrate and embarrass residents, many of whom said they are not sure how to change things.

Maywood is 98% Latino, and 46% of the city's residents are foreign-born. It garnered national headlines a decade ago when it was one of the first in the country to declare itself a "sanctuary city" for those here illegally. Many residents are proud of this distinction and note that many other cities have since followed Maywood's lead.

There's part of the problem, folks! A huge part of it.

The city also received positive notoriety for supporting immigrant youth arts and culture, including a music festival.

"Part of the reason why we can't get rid of these bad politicians is because they have a grip on the city and they have that grip because no one has gone down for wrongdoing," De La Riva said. "If the district attorney does come and finds wrongdoing and files charges, then I think it will help the city get rid of opportunists who get on the council for the wrong reasons."

De La Riva said ultimately, the citizens need to show up, demand better leaders and hold them accountable.

Notice how he said "citizens". The rule of law is essential, and every person who wants to make a difference must do so because they live in the city and the country legally. Why is this so complicated for people? 

"I think people need to understand that they can change things and that they need to stop accepting things as they are," he said. "The power lies with them."

Final Reflection

The power lies with citizens, not with illegals, and definitely not with the Democratic Party. Right now, the Democrats are fighting over who can be more tyrannical and statist. They are struggling to get all the Bernie voters under their wing while bending over for corporate cronies.

The decline of Maywood should signal to anyone who is paying attention that lawlessness is not the way to go in our country, in our state. The sanctuary city nonsense has not made Maywood safer or less susceptible to corruption.

It's gotten worse, far worse, as this third-world perversity invades the wonderful United States of America. We need to take a stand against this lawlessness. Hopefully, we are seeing the decline and fall of the rampant illegal alien overreach in our communities and in the County of Los Angeles. It's going from bad to good, everyone, but Trump and his enforcement team have to do a much better job than they are now.

ICE has been cleaning out Northern California, but we need them to come to Southern California and start arresting these sanctuary cities lawmakers and officials who put illegals ahead of American citizens.