But when it comes to the most corrupt counties, few if any can top the recent run that Los Angeles County is on — specifically, the cities and agencies in south and central L.A. County.

The latest example came last week when Luis Aguinaga resigned as mayor of South El Monte after admitting to taking bribes for seven years from a contractor paid by the city for engineering and construction services.

A Nexis search of stories by the Southern California News Group, the Los Angeles Times and Southern California Public Radio shows Aguinaga has plenty of corrupt company in neighboring communities.

Bell

In 2010, a  Los Angeles Times investigation found that the city was being run like a criminal enterprise to the benefit of city officials and City Council members who received huge salaries and relied on illegal taxes and deceptive accounting. Former City Manager Robert Rizzo was found guilty of 69 corruption charges. Five City Council members also were convicted over city schemes.

Carson

Mayor Al Robles is now under siege from Los Angeles County prosecutors for simultaneously serving on the board of the Water Replenishment District of Southern California and as Carson mayor. He faced a county grand jury rebuke over the water board’s move to pay his legal bills. He has also faced years of campaign finance allegations over his water board and Carson election campaigns.

Central Basin Municipal Water District

Political and legal fallout continues from a scandal involving an alleged $2.75 million slush fund created by the district to pay politically connected consultants such as former Assemblyman Tom Calderon, D-Montebello. Central Basin board member Art Chacon was allowed to collect car allowance and mileage reimbursements from the district from 2006 to 2014, an eight-year span in which he didn’t have a driver’s license. To avoid a potentially huge payout at trial, in 2014, the district settled sexual harassment allegations made by a female contractor against district Director Robert Apodaca for $670,000.

City of Commerce

In 2012, Councilman Robert Fierro resigned after he pleaded guilty to a felony conspiracy charge related to his attempts to dupe investigators looking into the financing of his 2005 campaign. In 2010, Councilman Hugo Argumedo resigned after he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. Argumedo concocted evidence to help an attorney sue his city for allegedly unpaid legal fees.

Cudahy

In 2012, City Manager Angel Perales, Mayor David Silva and Councilman Osvaldo Conde were arrested by the FBI after being caught seeking bribes from the owner of a marijuana dispensary. In 2014, then-state Controller John Chiang released a scathing report about city finances that found city credit cards were used improperly for meals, travel and entertainment; pay raises were awarded without explanation or justification; and that employees regularly received paid leave that they were not entitled to get.

Lynwood

In 2012, former City Council members Louis Byrd and Fernando Pedroza were convicted of illegally boosting their pay — by $330,000 and $160,000, respectively — by taking stipends for working on city commissions without any responsibilities, a crime with parallels to what happened in Bell. There were also reports that city officials used city credit cards to pay for entertainment, including “a $1,500 night out at a Guadalajara strip club, where dancers allegedly performed sexual favors” for two city officials, the Los Angeles Times reported. In 2007, Mayor Paul H. Richards II received a 16-year sentence for a long-running embezzlement scheme.

Maywood

County prosecutors are now investigating alleged illegal collusion to get around state open-government laws that may be related to questionable zoning changes made without proper scrutiny. There are also reports that the FBI is investigating possible bribery in the awarding of city contracts.

Montebello

In 2011, state Controller John Chiang issued a report showing that officials had improperly spent more than $31 million, helping prompt a city budget crisis. Redevelopment funds were used for many non-government purposes, including meals in Las Vegas.

South Gate

Former city councilman, city manager, mayor and treasurer Albert Robles was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in 2005 for public corruption, money laundering and bribery. Though several of the convictions were thrown out in 2013, Robles’ sentence was not reduced because of the seriousness of the bribery counts that remained.

Vernon

The tax-rich industrial city which long controlled who voted in the city by controlling who stayed in its very limited housing was nearly disbanded by the Legislature in 2011 after Donal O’Callaghan became the third city administrator since 2006 to face criminal charges. Mayor Leonis Malburg and his wife Dominica were convicted of voter fraud and conspiracy in 2009. The Malburgs lied for years about living in Vernon while actually residing at a Hancock Park mansion.

A major entry comes from Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood. Assembly Bill 1331 would place a $6.5 billion bond on the Nov. 2014 ballot.

It would replace the $11.1 billion California Water Bond currently on the ballot, but which has been postponed from the 2010 and 2012 ballots because of concerns voters would reject it because of the high cost. Rendon’s bond would be more modest and targeted at specific current needs.

“Both houses of the Legislature have engaged in substantial efforts to reanalyze and right-size a bond so that voters can be confident that it addresses California’s most pressing water infrastructure and program needs and is accountable,” a water committee background paper explained of AB1331.

In a CalWatchdog.com interview, Rendon explained that his bill includes:

• “$1 billion for maintaining and improving drinking water quality;
• “$1.5 billion for protecting rivers and watersheds;
• “$1.5 billion to fund integrated regional water management that will improve water delivery and help regions reduce the impact of climate change on water supply;
• “$1 billion to protecting the California Delta that is critical to the state water supply system and a key ecological resource;
• “$1.5 billion for water storage projects that will also reduce the impact of climate change on clean, reliable and affordable water supply.”

Rendon said the PPIC polling data showed a bond of $7 billion or less could pass, so the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee worked to formulate AB1331.

Dirty water politics

As surprising as it is, there are locations in California which have dirty drinking water. Rendon said in his district the city of Maywood has had historical problems with dirty water.

Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill authored by Rendon, AB240, which requires three mutual water companies in tiny Maywood to comply with open-meeting and open-record rules that apply to public agencies. The bill also said the Legislature’s intent was “to create a public agency that can consolidate drinking water services” in Maywood, according to the Los Angeles Times.

There are other problems. The Times reported, “[T]he Central Basin Municipal Water District, has been raided twice in recent months by the FBI as part of a corruption investigation that involves state Sen. Ronald Calderon (D-Montbello).”

Maywood recently has been a hotbed of water politics. Located in southeast Los Angeles County, residents have long complained about yellow and brown tap water smelling like rotten eggs. Rendon’s AB240 is intended to rid the city of dirty water — and dirty water politics.

The Central Basin Municipal Water District has jurisdiction in Maywood. Residents worry the Central basin agency is angling for more influence there, according to KPCC Public Radio. “A former Central Basin employee, Gil Cedillo Jr., ran for the board of Maywood Mutual Water Company No. 3 last year,” KPCC reported.

Watershed

Rendon said the water bond funding from his AB1331 also would go to protecting and restoring watersheds and aquatic ecosystems, including the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. He said the state’s watersheds provide regional and statewide benefits for cities, farms, manufacturing and wildlife. Benefits would include protecting water quality and sustainability, improving flood control and providing habitat for wildlife and recreation for citizens.

Rendon stressed that none of the bond money would go toward the governor’s Delta Water Tunnel project. 

Storage

One of the biggest concerns in the state is water storage.

Rendon said his bill would fund above and below ground water storage, with a focus on regional self-reliance.

“The County of Los Angeles has talked about storm water runoff and other things we should look towards in terms of regional self-reliance,” Rendon said. “We need to look at how we manage water in our own backyard.”

Cities and municipalities will be able to bid on separate projects to receive funding from the water bond, if passed by the voters.

Rendon said in a June hearing of the water committee:

“We need to maintain that focus and continue to ask fundamental questions like how do we use and reuse water in our regions? How do we manage the watersheds where we live?  How do we manage our storm water supply?  How do we manage our groundwater aquifers for storage and supply?  These are the questions that we will need to answer in the years ahead, and consistent with the 2009 statute we need to invest in that future in greater self reliance.” 

The Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee has already held five hearings on AB1331: One each in Redding and Seaside and three in Sacramento. Upcoming hearings will be held in Hanford, Eureka, Fresno, the San Gabriel Valley and Stockton.

“This is not an era to build large conveyance projects through a bond,” Rendon said. “Rather than a large bond directed by the state, these will be local decisions.”

Status

The latest revision of AB1331 does not yet have a legislative analysis. So far, there is no opposition. But it will compete with other bills, some of which were reported on earlier by CalWatchdog.com. Our site will continue to cover the bonds as the debate over them, and the drought, continues.