The LA Podcast

Tag "John Lee"

A Co-Conspirator on City Council


by Scott Frazier
January 13, 2021

As City Councilmember Mitchell Englander drove in furtive circles through the thicket of one-way streets downtown, he turned to his passenger and whispered under the din of the radio. Moments before, he had boosted the volume to an ache-inducing roar, the better to hide his words if someone happened to be listening. It was imperative that no one should hear him roughly coaching the man sitting next to him to deliver short rehearsible falsehoods:

“You just say ‘I was so drunk I don’t remember calling.’”

“‘No I didn’t arrange a massage for anybody.’”

“‘He shook my hand and said hello, that was it.’”

“‘He asked me a couple times how much does he owe me, he and John owe me, and I didn’t have an amount.’”

“‘…he and John owe me…’”

“‘…he and John…’”

The passenger, Andy Wang, a purveyor of cabinets and so-called smart home electronics for new housing developments, was an agreeable companion. Englander spoke. And Wang repeated what he was told, rarely protesting. If […]

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Three Suits to the Wind


by Scott Frazier
June 12, 2020

Preface: What Makes Sense

On May 27th, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California released a plea agreement signed by George Esparza, a high-ranking former assistant to outgoing 14th district councilmember José Huizar. Esparza is only the latest among the members of what appears to be a vast bribery ring in City Hall who has agreed to plead guilty to charges including racketeering, bribery, and attempting to conceal criminal activity from federal investigators.

Over the course of the past three months, the still in-progress investigation led by the attorneys of the Central District’s Public Corruption Section has netted plea agreements from disgraced former District 12 Councilmember Mitch Englander and real estate consultants George Chiang and Justin Kim. The plea deals have thrust to the fore questions about the conduct and integrity of some of the city’s most prominent public figures.

At the same time, these early legal victories have bolstered the FBI’s claims of a years-long and much wider conspiracy […]

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John Lee: Resignation or Recall


by Scott Frazier
March 19, 2020

On March 9 – barely more than a week ago, but in a Los Angeles that nonetheless belongs to the irrecoverable pre-pandemic past – Mitchell Englander surrendered himself to federal custody in response to a warrant issued for his arrest. Englander, who, as a councilmember from 2011 until 2018, was until recently one of the most powerful people in the city, now has been formally accused of contriving during the final 16 months of his tenure to obstruct the ongoing FBI investigation into the corruption pervasive within City Hall.

If the indictment, handed down by a grand jury in January and unsealed last week, should prove true, Englander was exercising his influence as a member of the Planning and Land Use Management committee to connect a smart-home and cabinet vendor with some of the wealthiest apartment builders in the county. The indictment details trips to Las Vegas and Palm Springs, replete with clichés of low-rent criminality – gambling, lavish nightlife, transactional […]

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March 9, 2020 Episode 108

Election Day wrap-up: how did the new voting system go, and what were the results? The decision not to cancel the LA Marathon due to the threat of coronavirus. And a local nonprofit struggling in its goal to become an affordable housing provider.

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December 9, 2019 Episode 95

The chair of an air quality board scoffs at the Flyaway bus, the head of LAHSA steps down, Councilman John Lee goes on a tear, Trump appoints a homelessness czar who specializes in camps, and LA takes the case for arresting people who are homeless to the Supreme Court — Alissa, Scott and Hayes discuss all this and more.

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September 2, 2019 Episode 81

Scott and Alissa talk to LA Times reporter MAYA LAU about Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s busy couple months. Before that: John Lee gets right to work on the city council, the city wants to pull encampments off the hills, the Controller gives LAHSA a failing grade, and Paul Koretz opens up to Curbed about scooters.

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August 19, 2019 Episode 79

Alissa and Hayes are joined by the NRDC’s CARTER RUBIN (@CarterRubin) to talk about the results of last Tuesday’s special City Council election, the racist serial killer that didn’t make the news, the City of Industry kicking out a third of its residents for political reasons, the LA city planner who was too eager to become a lobbyist, the newest turns in the AHF/Amoeba Civil War, and Carter’s thoughts on the California Air Resources Board’s newest emissions report.

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August 12, 2019 Episode 78

What Stephen Ross-owned properties do we have to boycott in LA? What amenities can you expect in your new $7,000-a-month downtown one-bedroom? Whose house did Mayor Garcetti ask the fire department to check on during the Woolsey fire? Why are so many city councilmembers staying out of the CD12 race? Why did USC not respond to complaints about yet another rapist doctor? And what is the current status of the Kanye Domes and Emoji House?

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June 10, 2019 Episode 68

The homeless count results are in, and they’re brutal. Scott, Alissa and Hayes go through the numbers and look at how different LA public officials responded to them, then get into the fallout from Measure EE’s failure and Loraine Lundquist’s victory in Tuesday’s election. Plus: a bizarre Sheriff’s Department And 1.

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May 13, 2019 Episode 64

A labor shortage delays the regional connector to 2022! Zev Yaroslavsky gets his sources cited! We make our endorsements in the CD12 primary and the LAUSD District 5 runoff! Gun house!

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