Herewith a local conundrum: Why has no Los Angeles politician been arrested, sentenced and jailed for corruption for almost 60 years? Is it because, ever since the 1937 Frank Shaw scandals that dumped a mayor, a police chief and, ultimately, most of a City Council, they’ve all been so clean and respectable?Or is it, as I increasingly suspect, that there’s a kind of permanent, free-floating fix in someplace – a gentleperson’s agreement in the spirit of “There but for the Grace of God Go We”? A collective awareness that all officeholders may now and then stumble, so let us therefore spare any undue impact for those who fall?Such thoughts are occasioned by the unfolding case of Councilman Richard Alatorre, who admitted in a custody hearing last week to “borrowing” $12,000 from that slippery, members-only Eastside entity known as TELACU. This money paid for rebuilding the roof of his new Eagle Rock house. TELACU, the L.A. Times reported, was at that time in the process of negotiating a big contract with the city for a shopping center. TELACU got its contract.
Source: Jail Time! – Or how to get higher-caliber L.A. public officials | L.A. Weekly