Los Angeles Mayor To IBEW: If you won’t
answer where the money went, here’s a subpoena for you…
By: LaborUnionReport (Diary) January 9th, 2014 at 11:00 PM
You know, in addition to the pattern of
spending-to-the-brink-of-bankruptcy, the problem with living in a
union-controlled state like California
is that there is very little accountability.
Since taking office in June, however, the mayor of Los Angeles
has been asking some questions of the International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers and, up until now, the IBEW bosses have given
him the proverbial finger.
Here’s the back story:
In Los
Angeles, the taxpayer-funded Department of Water and Power
has negotiated a contract with the IBEW that requires the City to fund two
trusts to the tune of more than $40 million since 2000.
Known as the Joint Safety Institute and
the Joint Training Institute, according to KPCC, both have “the same trustees, same
accountant, the same address and phone number.”
In 2011, the most recent tax return
available (see below), the Joint Training Institute’s included $348,000 on
salaries and $46,000 on office expenses. Another $631,000 was spent on
reimbursed administrative expenses and $663,000 was spent on unknown expenses.
That same year, the second trust, the
Joint Safety Institute, spent more than $128,000 on its salaries and $69,000 on
office expenses. Combined, the institutes spent about $140,000 on travel in
2011. And records show both entities are paying $23,000 a year to rent space at
the DWP lot. It’s unclear how many employees each of the trusts employ.
All of this, apparently, has not escaped
the attention of L.A. Mayor Eric
Garcetti’s administration.
For months, the city’s controller, Ron
Galperin, has asked for financial information only to be rebuffed by the IBEW.
After months of the IBEW bosses thumbing
their noses, Galperin’s office said enough is enough.
On Monday, Galperin’s office announced it
is preparing a subpoena for the records.
“If you receive and spend public money,
then it’s a simple principle of transparency,” said Galperin at an afternoon
news conference with Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Attorney Mike Feuer. “We need
to know how that money has been spent. We also need to know whether we’re
getting a good return on that investment.”
Needless to say, the IBEW and its
attorneys disagree.
Rather than show up for a Wednesday
morning meeting called by Galperin to discuss the trusts’ finances, an attorney
sent the controller a letter stating the entities are not public and therefore
do not have to make their financial records available. The letter cites an
opinion from the state Attorney General that determined the trusts are not
subject to the open meeting requirements of the Brown Act.
The city’s administrative code “does not
provide the controller the authority to audit JSI and JTI because the trusts
are not, by any stretch of the imagination, ‘charged’ with ‘safe-keeping or
disbursement of public money or securities,’” according to the letter.
Apparently, like other unions in other
union-controlled states, the IBEW believes that it does not owe the public any
disclosure on how it spends taxpayer funds in union-controlled California.
International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers
International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers was a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, and is a national partner
with America Votes.
Note: Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
George Soros
is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations,
a board member at the International Crisis Group,
and his nephew is Jeffrey Soros.
Victor
Pinchuk was a funder for the Bill, Hillary &
Chelsea Clinton Foundation, a board member at the International Crisis Group, and is a trustee at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
Bruce E.
Karatz was a funder for the Bill, Hillary &
Chelsea Clinton Foundation, and is a trustee at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
Jeffrey
Soros is the president emeritus for the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and George Soros’s
nephew.
Eric
Garcetti is a trustee at the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles (CA)
mayor.
Ari Emanuel
is a trustee at the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Los Angeles, Rahm I. Emanuel’s brother, and the co-CEO & director for William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.
Barbra
Streisand is a William Morris Endeavor
Entertainment client, and the founder of the Barbra
Streisand Foundation.
Barbra
Streisand Foundation was a funder for the Planned
Parenthood Federation of America, and the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Cecile
Richards is the president for the Planned Parenthood Federation
of America, and was the founder & president for America Votes.
International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is a national partner with America Votes, and was a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Rahm I.
Emanuel is Ari Emanuel’s brother, a member of
the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Chicago (IL) mayor, and was the White House chief of staff
for the Barack Obama administration.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory
A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Kathleen
Brown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
Jerry Brown’s sister, and was the California state government treasurer.
Jerry Brown
is Kathleen Brown’s brother, and the California state government governor.
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