JOSE HUIZAR IS USING CLARTS FUND MONEY TO PAY STAFF, INSTEAD OF PROVIDING SERVICES THE FUND WAS CREATED FOR!!! (Bell Style!)

[Pictured: CD 14 Godfather, I mean Councilmember, JOSE HUIZAR. Jose actually has the picture hung in his office. Keep reading and you'll understand WHY!]

L.A. CITY NEWS - EXCLUSIVE:

JOSE HUIZAR'S CLARTS FUND EXPOSED: Of the $1.6 million dollars missing from Councilman Jose Huizar's CLARTS FUND, of which there has been no explanation, $1.04 million was used for salary!!!

"Bell Style": The details are all buried deep into reports so to hide the mis-appropriation of public funds. The CLARTS fund is supposed to be for police and fire. (Battalion 7 in El Sereno is gonna be out of commission for a long time. CLARTS money could have kept it open.) BUT, IT WENT TO SALARIES!!! BELL STYLE! ZD wonders, WHO GOT WHAT?

EACH COUNCIL OFFICE, INCLUDING JOSE HUIZAR ALREADY GETS A MILLION FOR SALARIES. So he's cheating cause he's supplementing salaries with his CLARTS fund when the other districts don't have that luxury. He thinks it's his own personal slush fund and he's hiding it from the people. Also: The money is alleged to also be used to "PAY-OFF" FORMER staffers. (Once you work for Huizar, a lot to keep covered up.)

Jose Huizar’s Slush Fund Exposed
Over $1 million used for staff salaries

LOS ANGELES, CA (January 13, 2011) –   After more than ten months of
relentless pressure from community members, the media, and whistle
blowers. Jose Huizar’s personal slush fund has finally been exposed.

Documents obtained by the Rudy Martinez campaign and a letter from the City
Clerk’s office clearly outline that $1.04 million of the $1.4 million
in CLARTS funds that have been in question have been used to directly
pay staff salaries over the last three years; above and beyond the $1
million allocated to him by the city budget for staff salaries.

The CLARTS fund was originally established to mediate environmental
impacts and serve other vital community interests.

“Instead of using these designated funds to serve community interests,
Mr. Huizar used CLARTS as his personal slush fund to pay outrageous
salaries to his current staffers and used City of Bell style tactics
to hide the misuse of funds from the public,” said Eric Hacopian,
Campaign Consultant.

The funds could have been used to prevent the Fire Department
brownouts. The $1.04 million would have kept battalion 7, which serves
El Sereno, Ramona Gardens, Rose Hill, University Hills, Boyle Heights
and Lincoln Heights fully staffed for over 3.5 months. The funds could
have also could have paid for 12 more full time front line police
officers in the streets of our communities.

“The most common concern I hear from the community is the lack of
basic services, from potholes to graffiti removal, to tree trimming
and fixing sidewalks. This money could have made a significant impact
in improving the quality of life of residents of CD 14,” said Rudy
Martinez.

“We suspect that the funds used for paying staff might have been
illegally misappropriated, therefore we urge Mr. Huizar to show
leadership and turn all the relevant documents on how these funds were
dispersed to the Public Integrity Unit of the Los Angeles County
District Attorney’s office,” said Eric Hacopian.

We are anxiously waiting for the individual breakdowns of who received
these funds and for what purposes from the City Clerk’s office. The
Clerk’s office indicated that they would release the information by
Monday January 17, 2011.

[WOW...don't you local business and office operators wish YOU had
a million dollars of city taxpayer money to pay off your staff? A
NICE competitive advantage...OR TOTAL CORRUPTION! It WOULD be nice.
FEAR OF THE LAW AND INDICTMENTS is usually enough to keep MOST from doing
this. Huizar must feel COMFORTABLE in this type of corruption.]

ANONYMOUS COMMENT: "Huizar does the right thing and transfers $90,000 of
CLARTS money by way of council motions. However, he chooses to divert almost
a $1,000,000 (ONE MILLION DOLLARS) of the CLARTS money - not by the open and 
transparent council motion - but by hiding the almost $1,000,000 in a 
mid year adjustment!

And much of it for staff salaries! Aren't CD14 staffers already paid?
Just like all the other city staff? But, no, for Huizar, when people
at City Hall are laid-off, put on furlough, have their pay reduced,
Huizar INCREASES the pay for HIS staff (maybe it's for all the hard work
they put in for him campaigning!)"

PUBLIC NOTICE: Throw the ROBERT RIZZO of Los Angeles City Council
OUT ON HIS ASS, THIS MARCH 8, 2011: THROW JOSE HUIZAR OUT OF OFFICE!
PUT AN END TO THIS CITY HALL CRIME MACHINE!

MORE L.A. WEEKLY COVERAGE of CONTROVERSY Surrounding Jose Huizar and his (mis)use of CLARTS Fund.

From: LAWeekly.com (1.11.11)

Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar is in the middle of a politi-blog shitstorm set off by his unwillingness to disclose the spending history of a fund he oversees called CLARTS. It's a $1 million-per-year piggy bank designated to offset the downsides of the giant, foul-smelling Central Los Angeles Recycling & Transfer Station dump located in his district.

Citywatchers are accusing him of pumping hundreds of thousands of those dollars into projects that don't directly benefit the community. Many line items on the CLARTS report, which everyone finally located, say "Transfer to Council" or "Transfer to General City Purposes."

None of the charges are blatantly dishonorable, but a few really can't be argued into the category of physical neighborhood improvement to offset the garbage dump (Casa0101? Really?), and almost all transfers to the city's general fund can't be tracked much further than intent to go toward District 14 community amenities in the City Clerk records.

All the technical allocations are there in city paperwork, but the final hands into which the millions have fallen over the last couple years is completely unclear. The whole thing is vastly worsened by Huizar's inability to handle the criticism and his shady evasions of local press.

​Anyway, it's ironic that Huizar is begging the City Administrative Office for pothole and street-repair money when, by our calculations, the CLARTS fund appears to have tons of money left over. Huizar's put the cash toward Street Services, Public Works and CalTrans before, so why not now? And if it's not supposed to go toward road work in the first place, he's got a heap more explaining to do.

According to Tracie Morales, union spokeswoman for the Street Services workers, Huizar's motion today will "direct the Administrative Office to how we can allocate special funding in order to be able to provide crucial street services."

Robertson, head of Street Services, says there are plenty of funds -- just not enough employees on city contract to utilize them. However, he rules out the hiring of outside workers as an option.

"How do you do a contract with potholes?" he says. "It's something you just can't do. It needs to be managed in-house because it fluctuates so much."

L.A. City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana -- the guy Huizar hopes will bolster the Street Services worker pool -- is unavailable to talk at the moment, but we'll keep you updated as per his response.

Meanwhile, Operation Pothole is still in full swing. To be honest, complaining about L.A.'s pothole wasteland and getting air on the really juicy ones have always been some of our favorite ways to pass the winter months. However, Garcetti's user-friendly Operation leaves us little choice but to shut our whiny traps and report the devils to 311.

"What's really disturbing is people will hit a pothole for weeks and not call it in," says Robertson. "Just pick up the phone."

Update: Those potholes couldn't have known what was comin' to them. Councilman Jose Huizar made the big announcement this morning: Street Services filled 16,100 potholes last weekend.

Of course, even a snazzy number like that isn't enough for these perfectionists. Huizar uses to opportunity to tell ABC7,

"We used to fill potholes within 48 hours. Now, we do it probably within two to three weeks," said Huizar. "Why is that? Because we put some of our street workers on furloughs. They take less days off and less potholes are getting filled."

In the article, he cites a $630 million pot of federal stimulus money that the L.A. City Council "received to create jobs" as a possible source for paying more Street Services personnel. And how 'bout that CLARTS fund, eh?

CLICK THIS LINK TO REFRESH PAGE TO TOP OF HTTP://LACITYNEWS.COM TO READ ALL OF TODAY'S BLOG POSTS. A RECORD NUMBER OF BLOG POSTS OVER PAST 72 HOURS. SEE STORY ON "LAUSD: Pipeline to Prison - EXCLUSIVE - including what's next for Jeremy Marks."

CD 14 CLARTS FUND SCANDAL BREATHING DOWN HUIZAR, VILLARAIGOSA & WENDY GREUEL'S NECK (ClartsGATE 2011...THE DOWNFALL OF A POLITICAL MACHINE!)

[Pictured - HUIZAR'S BLACKBERRY. One day, I snapped a pic of Huizar's blackberry hoping to see CLARTS fund info...NOTHING BUT MESSAGES FROM HIS LOVER ON CITY TIME DURING THE COUNCIL MEETING. (See messages) I'd like to see the one about "Ramona Gardens."]

FAMOUS FIRST WORDS?:

 Zuma Dogg said:

Anyone reading this know about the CLARTS fund? It's been something I've been hearing about for the past year, but there is elevated bamboozle-chatter on it. How much rolling up of the sleeves is this issue going to require?

January 07, 2008 10:39 PM (ANSWER: I guess a lot!)

POTENTIAL CLARTS FUND LAWSUIT SIDEBAR:   

GOOD NEWS! Did you know if you want to sue the city for an issue, you have to go to the council meeting and complain ON-THE-RECORD to show you tried to take measures...OR ELSE YOU CANNOT SUE.

Luckily, Zuma Dogg attended the longest streak of council meetings of any single individual, during the course of all of this CLARTS fund shady money transferring. AND, yes...I went on the record A BUNCH OF TIME, detailing the shadiness...and asked for a "NO" vote from council.

So the second any wrong-doing has been discovered -- PLEASE CONTACT ZUMA DOGG TO JOIN THE LAWSUIT. (I need people for the lawsuit. You cannot just sue as an individual.)

JOSE HUIZAR'S CLARTS FUND PROBLEM:

BIG JOHN STEPPING IN TO THIS UGFC BATTLE TO DECLARE..."IT'S OVER!" 

Zuma Dogg has made the determination that this whole "Clarts Fund Mess" that Jose Huizar made on the east side of L.A. (CD 14) is not only gonna bring down Jose Huizar -- but take down the long-standing City Hall Corruption Racket that Antonio passed down the line to Huizar. 

LA Weekly & Mayor Sam's blog have been further exposing Jose Huizar on the Clarts fund issue. 

AND HERE ARE SOME INTERESTING COMMENTS FROM THE MAYOR SAM BLOG REGARDING THIS MATTER, FOLLOWED BY LINKS TO THE LA WEEK ARTICLES:

ANONYMOUS (but interesting) COMMENTS: (Take them with a grain of salt, but ZD is buying these!):

* Wendy thinks Huizar is going to help her get votes when she runs for Mayor. FORGET IT. Wendy has been one of the worse Controller's the city has had. What has she done except have tea parties and go all over the city with the meida. She's lost a lot of credibility with many. Read the other web sites asking the same question who does she represent. 

* There has been tremendous heat on Wendy to kill the CLARTS fund story from AV's office.

* That is the word from Wendy's office. Apparently AV was on the phone with her on Friday to kill the release of the CLARTS fund information.

* Greuel will also remember stating that the proceeds in the CLARTS Fund were only for usage within CD 14 (please refer to Greuel's attendance in The Voice Newspaper's CLARTS Fund story).

* As CLARTSgate garners more attention from objective observers in media and within the voting ranks of CD 14, it would be wise for Greuel to make all expenditures related to the CLARTS Fund available for review. Thus, ensuring that CD 14 voters can articulate an inform opinion on Councilman Huizar's oversight of the fund. 

LA WEEKLY COVERAGE: 

Community Voice Newspaper on Eastside Slams Jose Huizar On Missing $1.5 Million Pollution FundT

Jose Huizar, Los Angeles City Councilman, pressed to explain $1.5 million missing from Eastside pollution control fund

THIS WHOLE CLARTS THING HAS BEEN INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING FOR THE COMMUNITY. IT REPRESENTS EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG WITH CITY HALL AND JOSE HUIZAR. IT SICKENS ME. INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING THAT ONE LAZY-ASS, CLOWN LIKE JOSE HUIZAR RUNS HIS DISTRICTS LIKE SOME DICTATOR OF HIS OWN FIFEDOM. I DO NOT THING THE INVESTIGATING AUTORITIES WILL SEE IT THAT WAY. THEY WILL JUST SEE HUIZAR AS A COMMON CRIMINAL, WHICH IS THE WAY I SEE HIM. I WILL VISIT HIM IN PRISON TO LAUGH IN HIS FACE! (I WANT TO LAUGH IN HIS FACE, AND THAT WILL BE THE ONLY PLACE I WILL BE ABLE TO VISIT HIM, TO DO IT!)