Whipped Cream Difficulties

As noted previously, the trial of six former city council members from Bell has begun. The jury has been seated, opening statements have been stated, and the first testimony has been testified.

The first witness was Rebecca Valdez. Ms. Valdez was the former city clerk of Bell. The LAT notes that she has been granted immunity from prosecution in return for her testimony.

And what did she have to say? Basically, as city clerk, she was supposed to take notes on the council meetings,

including marking the start and end time of the various boards on which council members served, such as the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority.
“Were there City Council meetings where only some of the authorities met?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller asked.
“Yes,” Valdez said.
“Were there City Council meetings where none of the authorities met?”
“Yes.”

(This is significant because the charges against the members involve “taking huge salaries to serve on board and commissions that rarely met and did little, if any, work.”)

Valdez also verified salary documents for former council members. One listed former Councilwoman Teresa Jacobo’s monthly salary as $7,666. Another showed an increase that bumped her salary to $8,083 a month.
In contrast, [Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller] then showed the most recent contract for Lorenzo Velez, who was on the council when the salary scandal broke. Velez, the lone council member not charged in the case, was appointed to the council in 2009 and given a salary of only $673.

And:

Later, Valdez testified that at Rizzo’s request, she knowingly gave a document listing incorrect salary information for city officials to a resident who had filed a public records request.

The defense attorney for one of the former council members got Valdez to admit that Robert “Ratso” Rizzo, the city manager, loaned her $48.000 for a down payment on a house; he also asserted that the $48,000 was city money, not a personal loan from Ratso.

Later, [Alex] Kessel [defense attorney for former Councilman George Mirabal] said Rizzo “insulated himself from the council members. Any wrongdoing was done without their knowledge.”

It is still early in the trial, but it looks to me like the defense strategy is going to be “it was all Rizzo! We didn’t know what was going on! Ratso hid stuff from us!” We’ll see how effective this is. I’m thinking it probably won’t be very effective; if you’re taking $8,000 a month for meetings of boards that never meet, you’ve got to know something is up, and throwing Ratso under the bus isn’t going to help.

If I were Ratso, right about now I might be thinking about making a deal with the DA to testify against the council members, in return for a lighter sentence. If I’m the DA, I want Rizzo and Spaccia to do time, but I might be willing to make a deal with Rizzo (or Spaccia) if it means I can nail a bunch of corrupt elected officials. Ideally, I want everyone involved in the Bell scandal to be introduced to the joys of busting rocks, but sometimes you’ve got to make a trade. Personally, I’d rather send elected politicians to jail than appointed city officials, if I have to make a choice.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2013 at 9:36 am and is filed under California Über Alles, Clippings, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.