Councilman Louis Byrd
Posted on 09/14/2003 9:39:09 PM PDT by Kay Soze
Lynwood Council Members Enjoy Lavish Perks and Pay
Big-spending leaders of one of L.A. County's poorest cities rack up six-figure incomes, often travel abroad and can tap two city credit cards.
By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer
7:36 PM PDT, September 14, 2003
Lynwood has a per capita income of only $9,500, but its elected leaders are among the best-paid part-time politicians in California.
A majority of the City Council enjoy six-figure incomes, lavish foreign travel and the generous use of city credit cards for meals and entertainment, including steakhouse dinners, a New York musical and a dance show in Rio de Janeiro.
Travel and credit card expenses by the five-member council have cost taxpayers more than $600,000 over the last five years, records show, and include city-paid trips to Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean and South America.
Councilman Louis Byrd
Councilman Paul Richards
Council members Louis Byrd and Paul Richards have each made more than 25 out-of-town trips in the last two years.
The travel, Byrd said, helps promote Lynwood, a city of 70,000 residents located at the junction of the Long Beach and Century freeways.
Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, representing the nation's second-largest city and one of the world's busiest ports, took nine business trips during the same period.
The council jobs pay annual salaries of $9,600, but three members — Byrd, Richards and Arturo Reyes — each earned more than $100,000 in 2000 and 2001, city records show.
Council members boost their salaries by serving on two city agencies, earning $900 for back-to-back meetings that often last only minutes. Council members also collect a $100 per diem to represent Lynwood at local parades, golf tournaments, beauty pageants and USC football's Salute to Troy.
The appearances and meeting stipends add up. In 2001, Byrd, a former elementary school principal, was paid $121,000; Richards, an attorney, got $110,000.
"We earn every penny of it," Byrd said.
By comparison, City Council members in Long Beach, which is six times larger than Lynwood and has an international port, are paid $26,000 a year.
Lynwood, one of the poorest cities in Los Angeles County, can hardly afford its big-spending leaders.
The city's $1.3-million budget gap in the current $13-million general fund had to be covered with emergency reserves. During budget deliberations, however, council members did not cut their own expenses.
Faustin Gonzalez, who resigned earlier this year as city manager, said he had trouble reining in his free-spending bosses.
"It was extremely difficult to control them," he said. "If you asked them to justify what they did, sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. If they didn't, what could you do?"
Lynwood council members do not have to routinely provide receipts for their credit card purchases, nor do they have to receive city approval for out-of-town travel or complete travel reports to account for their trips.
When Byrd was asked by a reporter how he justified charging the city $1,300 to attend his Kappa Alpha Psi college fraternity reunion at a San Diego resort, he said, "I don't know. You figure it out."
Critics say the council's arrogance and extravagant spending is, in part, driving the Sept. 23 recall election against Richards, and will figure in the political futures of Byrd and Reyes, who face reelection in November.
The recall petition, citing Richards' compensation, accuses him of using the city treasury as his "personal piggy bank."
"We know that they are wasting a lot of taxpayer funds, and that's got to stop," said Salvador Alatorre, who is running for city treasurer in November. "We have to slice the perks and salaries."
Richards, the city's dominant political figure during much of his 17-year council tenure, declined to be interviewed for this story.
He said in a written statement that much of his travel involves his membership in such groups as the Independent Cities Assn. and the League of California Cities. He said a 1999 stay at a beach resort in Ghana helped foster trade and cultural ties.
Local government experts say the council's pay and perquisites are unusual for a city the size of Lynwood.
"I'm not used to seeing those kinds of numbers," said Gary Milliman, the former Southern California director of the California League of Cities and the city manager of South Gate.
Lynwood's generous pay has evolved through a combination of voter apathy, scant media scrutiny and limited access to City Hall records, residents and political observers say.
Residents complain that they cannot keep track of how much their elected officials are earning or when they are traveling at taxpayer expense. Miguel Figueroa, a lampshade maker, had to file a lawsuit and wait two years to see city credit card records and council earnings information.
Reyes, who considers himself a reformer, said he agrees with critics who complain that the council is overpaid.
While serving as mayor last year, he cut the number of agency meetings in half. Even so, he and his colleagues still made more than $70,000.
"It's a flagrant abuse of the public trust," said Robert Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies.
"If this city were wealthy, rolling in dough, then at least the citizens would say, 'OK, we don't have to worry about it.' But this is a poor city that needs every dollar it can gather to pay for services."
Lorry Hempe, the current city manager, said the "primary reason" for the cards is to make it easier for elected officials to secure travel and hotel reservations.
But over the years, the rule appears to have been only loosely followed. Council members have used city credit cards for purchases at book stores, music stores and online retailers, as well as at restaurants such as Ruth's Chris steakhouse.
Because the credit card statements do not provide details, it is often unclear what was purchased and why it was a city-related expense.
Richards said, as far as he is aware, that none of his travel or credit card expenses — more than $80,000 since 1998 — have been questioned.
He has spent nearly $14,000 on rental cars from local agencies even though he receives a monthly $500 car allowance.
After inquiries by The Times, Richards wrote that the rental cars are for "security" purposes involving "serious personal threats." He would not elaborate.
Richards also has spent nearly $3,000 on hotel rooms in downtown Los Angeles, Garden Grove, El Segundo and other cities a few miles from his home. Richards wrote that he needed the rooms while attending local conferences.
He spent $300 for city officials to see a musical at New York's Lincoln Center because, according to his statement, the city was interested in recruiting one of the show's performers for a local concert.
Richards wrote that even if some of his past expenses are questioned, they can be reimbursed out of $56,000 that the city owes him in unpaid per diem allowances. The city did not provide an accounting of the debt. Richards wrote that he also has $6,000 on "deposit" with the city if any of his expenses require reimbursement.
Records show that some council members used city credit cards for what appear to be personal purchases.
Byrd, whose credit card statements total about $75,000 since 1998, bought a $620 airline ticket to Hawaii for a woman companion in 2000. He reimbursed the city $313, according to city records. He also spent about $1,800 on gasoline and online purchases. He said he could not explain what the expenses were for.
Some years ago, I served as mayor of a small town in California. My salary was $50 a month, and I was allowed $500 a year for travel. It was a lot like being president of the PTA, but it did have its moments.
I didn't get to hobnob with the governor or any Hollywood celebrities, but the President of the International Flat Earth Society, one Charles Johnson, did come to visit me one day. He was beating the bush looking for elected officials who would support his contentions about the shape of the Earth. I got the idea that he had started with the mayor of LA and worked his way down to me. I explained that I was a geologist in real life and knew from direct observation that the Earth was round, or close to it. He refused to believe me, naturally, and went on to explain that I had merely been duped by some sort of evil conspiracy. He was a charming man in many ways, despite his barking mad theories.
I also had some dealings with environmentalists in this job. They were not so charming. This was where I really came to understand that their movement has everything to do with power and control and nothing to do with preserving the natural world.
Like hell he's not. South Gate, as documented by many articles re-posted here, is just as corrupt or more. Even the successful recall of the mayor and city council hasn't removed the corruption, as most of the abusive parties have golden-parachute city-employee contracts they voted themselves, which would push South Gate further toward bankruptcy if they opened upon being fired.
Lynwood, South Gate's neighbor, isn't really a mirror image, but a variation on the theme -- since Hispanic people have gathered in South Gate, and black people in Lynwood, partly to (intuitively) avoid a very un-civil war. And to have an exclusive group of "their own," in each case, to loot -- without provoking accusations of ethnic bias.
Where I live, Downey, borders both cities, is about evenly mixed (one-fourth each white, Hispanic, Asian, and everyone else), is not run as a fiefdom, and is quite peaceful and productive. Thus belying recent attempts, by "National Review" writers and others, to tar all of Los Angeles County with the same brush. We shudder to look to the west, though.
Stay safe !
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