Comments@THE GUSS REPORT-The ongoing FBI investigation into massive LA City Council corruption during the years when Councilmember Herb Wesson served as the legislative body’s manipulative, retaliatory president is finally pressuring the lawmaker to behave properly, which he steadfastly refused to do in the past, like recusing himself when he has a conflict of interest on agenda items.
“Manipulative and retaliatory” weren’t words in Wesson’s job title. Just in his leadership style.
What’s remarkable is that Wesson recused himself on an agenda item last week only after the insistence of this column, having ignored dozens of prior recusal requests. The difference being that this is the first recusal request since the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office put his City Council buddies Jose Huizar and Mitch Englander and some shady bag men in handcuffs, with more to come.
It’s funny how that happens, and not in a ha-ha kind of way.
The issue at-hand last week was the perfect storm of Wesson’s multitude of conflicts. It was about pollution controls at the Port of Los Angeles and China Shipping’s unfulfilled environmental mandates.
Follow the bouncing ball, if you will. Chinese land development bribery of LA City Councilmembers during Wesson’s time as its president is at the heart of the FBI’s racketeering investigation.
Wesson’s wife, Fabian Wesson, rakes in more than $250,000 per year in a gig at the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), a job she got after misrepresenting her educational qualifications without consequence. Councilmember Joe Buscaino, who represents the Harbor area where the Port of Los Angeles is located, is also a Board member of the AQMD, whose Chair is Dr. William Burke. . .who is married to retired Los Angeles County Supervisor and former Congresswoman Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, for whom Wesson previously worked as chief of staff, senior adviser and special assistant.
While none of these fine folks have been charged with any crime to date, it’s certainly a curious kettle of Herb Wesson Love Stew. But in this era of federal indictments, the porridge is too hot of late for Wesson’s self-dealing palate and he recused himself. Finally.
There are two other reasons I cited for Wesson’s recusal. One is that it is widely believed that his chief of staff Deron Williams is also on the FBI’s China corruption radar, though Williams has refused to state whether he has sat for interviews with the agency. Also, Wesson’s daughter-in-law, Alexis Marin-Wesson, who works for current Council president Nury Martinez, who refused to recuse herself, not long ago received a massive pay raise during this time of severe budgetary problems.
Just really poor timing, I’m sure.
Martinez, who continues to mishandle meetings, knew full-well of Wesson’s conflicts of interest but didn’t proactively force him to recuse himself. But when he finally did, the deliberation needed to restart from the beginning without Wesson’s influence or even his presence. Martinez failed to do that.
Wesson’s recusal raises this question: If he now recognizes the need for him to recuse himself from time to time, why did he fail to do so when this agenda item and other conflicts surfaced in the past?
It’s because he didn’t feel the heat or pressure like he does today. It’s the same reason why he failed to recuse himself on some past alcohol-related agenda items even though he had received money at the time from his former right-hand man Michael Bai related to the sale of “Gurkha/Spirits.”
You know who might have a lot to say on all of this? Jose Huizar, whose trial and its more than 100,000 pieces of discovery is now pushed out to June of 2021, at minimum, when the whole mess could wind up in a unified trial with multiple defendants, according to a recent federal filing.
That’s a lot of time for Huizar to strike a plea deal and spend less of the remainder of his life behind bars.
If you’re still not convinced that Wesson’s fingerprints are everywhere, consider the thoughtful op-ed authored last week by his former City Council peers and occasional adversaries Jan Perry and Bernard Parks, in which they expertly offer an inside look at Wesson’s manipulative and retaliatory redistricting, how it harmed the Districts they represented and may have enabled Huizar’s alleged criminal enterprise.
Now there’s some good timing!
There is only one reason why Herb Wesson would suddenly swallow his pride and recuse himself at this column’s request. He said it was out of an abundance of caution.
I say it is out of an abundance of fear.
Wesson, in case you haven’t heard, is running for LA County Supervisor.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, is nominated for a 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Political Commentary, and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers. Follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Image: KCBS-LA. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.