Upon reviewing Greuel’s calendar, LCCN discovered numerous activities dedicated to advancing her mayoral campaign. “Within the first few pages, we quickly found out why the Controller’s office was so hesitant to give us Gruel’s calendar”, said Hews. “The activities we found appear to show that she is in violation of the Los Angeles Governmental Ethics Commission Ordinance No. 172891 Section 49.5.5 (B).”
The ordinance states: “No City official or employee of an agency shall engage in campaign related activities, such as fundraising, the development of electronic or written materials, or research for a campaign or an elective office or ballot measure during the hours for which he or she is receiving pay to engage in City business; or using city facilities, equipment, supplies of other city resources.”
Several times Greuel had her city staff scheduled to attend mayoral campaign-related events after hours. Greuel even had her Controller Executive Team brief her for a mayoral debate on the Thai Community Development.
Further, on at least one occasion during regular business hours, Gruel met with people such as Rick Jacobs, a political organizer and founder of the California Courage campaign and past California chairman of Howard Dean 2004 presidential effort; Eric Bauman, Chairman of the LA County Democratic Party and Vice Chair of the California Democratic Party; Maria Elena Durazo, Chairman of the LA County Federation of Labor; Michael Bustamante of California Strategies, a political advisory firm; Michael Mand of Creative Artist Agency (a Talent Agency); John Shallman and Marty Cooper, campaign strategists; LA Grant Communications, a full service marketing, advertising, and communications firm; Donna Lucas, Lucas Public Affairs; Yashar Hedayat, known for fundraising for Hillary Clinton; Teray Stephens another local fundraiser; political consultant Lindsay Bubar; political consultant Myung Soo Seok; Douglas Herman a Democratic political strategist and direct mail specialist; Gary Belz, President of the House of Blues; Arturo Vargas of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials; Antonio Gonzalez of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.
Greuel even attended a wedding ceremony at the posh Terranea Resort during regular office hours.
“According to the calendar, Angelinos are paying for Wendy Greuel to run for Mayor. The names above are only a sampling. We found a majority of her time is spent fundraising, meeting for lunch, and attending parties all over town. Even more egregious is the appearance that she is using her Controller staff to advance her 2013 mayoral campaign,” said Hews.
Los Cerritos Community Newspaper was the publication that broke the story about the current criminal investigation inside the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office that has resulted in the arrest of Assessor John R. Noguez, multi millionaire property tax Agent Ramin Salari, and two other members of the Assessor’s inner circle.
LCCN also sent requests to both Garcetti and Perry on Monday to obtain copies of their official calendars as well.
As we ask other elected officials in Los Angeles who are running for office to exercise transparency, let’s hope they are less resistant to transparency than Greuel,” Hews stated.
“Los Cerritos Community Newspaper is also requesting that Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey review Greuel’s calendar to see if any possible laws were violated,” Hews said.
Copies of Greuel’s calendar can be found here:
To contact writer please call (562) 407-3873 or email the author at Randy@Cerritosnews.net.
