Los Angeles scandal was rocked by the recent leak of a recording in which top officials made sexist comments about multiple racial or ethnic groups.

City Hall is not immune to scandal. Many elected officials and leaders are still dealing with the consequences of past missteps. Three former members of council have been charged with federal crimes.

This brief overview will give you a refresher on some of the most famous and infamous scandals that have occurred in L.A. politics in recent years. Get ready.

Scandal : Audio of a racist leak

Los Angeles’ political world was rocked this week by audio of a 2021 closed door meeting between some of the city’s most powerful Latino leaders. The meeting discussed the city’s redistricting process. While many have raised concerns about the group’s discussion on ways to increase their political power in a contentious redistricting, it was the racist comments they made that triggered outrage from Angelenos all over the country.

The clip shows Nury Martinez, then-City Council President, making a slur about a Black council member’s son. He used a Spanish phrase that meant “looks like monkey” and suggested the child should be beaten to get him to behave. She claimed that the council member treated his son as an “accessory” and Councilmember Kevin de Leon later appeared to compare Martinez’s treatment of his child with Martinez carrying a Louis Vuitton bag. Ron Herrera, the then-president of Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, was also present in the conversation.

Martinez also makes bigoted and crude comments about Oaxacans and Jews in the same conversation.

Although there have been loud and swift calls for council members to resign, De Leon and Cedillo still hold their seats. Martinez finally resigned Wednesday

Scandal : Herrera resigned Monday night.

The bombshell recording was made public by the California Attorney General. He said that his office would open an investigation into redistricting in the city, which resulted in the redefinition of lines last year for the City Council, with 15 seats.

Scandal :The USC Kickback Scheme

Mark Ridley Thomas, a suspended City Councilmember, was indicted last January along with a former USC Dean on federal charges of taking bribes from the latter in return for directing millions of public funds to the university.

Prosecutors claim that Ridley Thomas was part of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in 2017 before he joined City Council, from which he was later removed. The case is ongoing and he has pleaded not guilty.

Marilyn Louise Flynn was the ex-dean of USC’s School of Social Work. She recently agreed to a plea agreement, admitting to taking bribes in a case.

In order to conceal the source of the funds, she said that she had agreed to channel money from Ridley Thomas’ campaign through the university to his son’s non-profit.

She claimed that Ridley-Thomas had agreed to renew an L.A. County contract for USC’s online mental healthcare clinic. Ridley Thomas’ son was admitted to the university as part of the alleged “quid proquo”.

Scandal : Allegations against the Mayor’s Office

A Los Angeles police officer who was a bodyguard to Mayor Eric Garcetti filed a lawsuit against the city in 2020. He claimed that he had been repeatedly sexually harassed and abused by one of Garcetti’s top advisors. Garcetti was accused of witnessing some of the inappropriate behavior, including unwelcome touching and crude comments. The mayor refutes the allegations.

After Dolores Huerta, labor icon Dolores Huerta was criticized in a private Facebook group, Ana Guerrero became Garcetti’s chief staff officer. Guerrero resigned months later. Guerrero posted comments on the social media platform saying “I hate” and using a Spanish term which translates to “jealous elderly lady”.

After the June 2021 incident, Guerrero was placed on unpaid administrative leave by Garcetti’s office. However, she has recently returned to Garcetti as a top advisor.

Jacobs was also accused of the incident. This brought into question Jacobs’ workplace culture.

Scandal : ‘Pay-to-play’ scheme

One ex-council member was sentenced to prison for corruption charges. Another is facing criminal charges.

Mitchell Englander, a former City Councilman was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment in 2021 after he was convicted of lying about his dealings to federal authorities regarding $15,000 in secret cash payments as well as a night in Las Vegas.

Englander’s case is part of a wider probe into an alleged scheme to “pay-to play”, which has been focused on Jose Huizar, former Councilmember. The FBI raided the former Councilmember’s office and home in 2018. This case first came to public attention in 2018.

Huizar was arrested later and is now facing federal charges. He is accused of taking campaign donations and cash bribes from real estate developers to help get development projects through the city’s difficult approval process. He has pleaded guilty.

Huizar’s ex-special assistant George Esparza, his older brother and lobbyist, as well as two real estate consultants, have already pleaded guilty for federal crimes in this alleged scheme. Esparza admitted to receiving lavish perks, including trips to Australia and Vegas, and expensive meals and escort service, from a developer who wanted to build a skyscraper taller than 77 stories.

He also accepted $8,000 to $10,000 per monthly from the businessman who gave Englander cash. Salvador Huizar (the brother of the council member) admitted to this week that he had received cash envelopes from his brother. He told him to write checks from his bank account for the same amount.

Raymond Chan, who was Garcetti’s former deputy mayor, is also facing criminal charges. He focuses on economic development. Prosecutors claim that he is guilty of a variety of illegal activities, including the arrangement of “indirect bribe payment” to city officials through the securing of employment contracts for their relatives.

Scandal : Deals made by L.A. Water and Power officials

At least two people have been charged with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. One of these former top-ranking lawyers in City Atty. In a separate federal investigation, Mike Feuer’s office was charged along with an attorney hired to represent the city.

Prosecutors allege that DWP officials as well as city attorneys participated in various criminal acts, including aiding in extortion or bribery.

Feuer claimed he was unaware of any illegal or unethical behavior in his lawyers and immediately condemned them after the scheme was exposed.

Feuer’s ex-civil litigation chief Thomas Peters earlier this year confessed in a plea agreement that he orchestrated a payment to someone threatening with disclosing damaging information about the city’s lawyers handling a DWP suit over faulty billing. Prosecutors claimed that the city’s legal staff colluded with lawyers representing ratepayers of the DWP.

David Wright, a former top DWP executive, participated in a similar scheme. Wright managed a $30-million DWP deal with an outside company. In return Wright was promised a job at the company at a $1-million annual salary and access to a Mercedes-Benz.

Illegal developer donations

A Torrance-based developer donated money to more than seven local politicians. Most scandall of them were from City Hall. In the case of campaign money laundering, the developer was later convicted.

An investigation by the Times in 2016 revealed that Samuel Leung had a network of over 100 people and companies who were connected to him. They made more than $600,000.000 in political donations to seven politicians during the six-year period Leung was developing the project. Later, the apartment complex was approved.

The D.A. began investigating these donations. The D.A., FBI, the FBI, and the Ethics Commission investigated these donations. They found that many of the donations were from unreliable sources. Some of them claimed they didn’t know about contributions made in their names — a violation of campaign finance law.

According to records, Joe Buscaino and other Councilmembers, including Martinez, Huizar, Huizar, Cedillo and Englander, received significant donations related to Leung.

Sometimes, the money was given to them as they were poised for key decisions regarding the development.

Garcetti was not directly involved in the decisions made by an independent campaign committee, which received donations tied to Leung.

Leung pleaded guilty to the charges in 2020. The case did not involve any elected officials.

Federal and county investigate campaign contributions

Martinez, the former president of the council, was subject to both a federal investigation and a local investigation in 2015. However Martinez and her staff were not charged with any criminal offenses.

Martinez’s campaign was investigated by federal prosecutors in 2015. They issued subpoenas for many of Martinez’s staffers in 2015 and then questioned donors who had given small amounts to support her reelection bid.

Martinez’s campaign was made possible by these donors. They showed grass-roots support, which allowed Martinez to be eligible for a larger pool of taxpayer-funded matching funds. These smaller donations were also investigated by L.A.’s District Attorney’s Office, who are investigating an allegation that fraud was being committed.

The Public Integrity Division of the District Attorney’s Office determined that $5 donations were not made to the purported donor, but investigators stated that there was not enough evidence to prove who was responsible.

This report was contributed by Dakota Smith, Emily Alpert Reyes and Richard Winton, Times staff writers.

L.A. Times Today is live on Spectrum News 1 at 7 p.m., Channel 1 and via streaming on the Spectrum News App. On channel 99, viewers can see Palos Verdes Peninsula or Orange County on Cox Systems.

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