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Federal judge unseals warrants in case of botched LADWP billing
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VOL. 12,
SoCal home sales cool as prices continue to rise By City News Service
By City News Service
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Los Angeles federal judge issued a final order Tuesday on an application to unseal 33 FBI search warrants and related documents that detail a probe into alleged unethical and illegal activity at the LA City Attorney’s Office and the Department of Water and Power. The government’s investigation came in the wake of the DWP’s botched launch of a new billing system in 2013 that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. As a result of the U.S. Attorney’s Office probe, which ended in November, a former high-level advisor to former City Attorney Mike Feuer, an outside attorney hired by Feuer’s office and two top DWP officials pleaded guilty to federal bribery and extortion charges. However, questions remain about the roles other key officials played in the city’s misconduct, including Feuer, according to the consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog. The FBI warrants and other materials were sought in a legal action filed in Los Angeles federal court by Consumer Watchdog and the Los Angeles Times. Jerry Flanagan, legal director for Consumer Watchdog, said the law states the public has a right to such documents when a government criminal investigation has ended. “The court’s order is a win for all those who believe sunlight is the best disinfectant,” Consumer Watchdog staff attorney Ryan Mellino said. “Unsealing these records sends a message that public officials will not be protected from public scrutiny.” A request for comment sent to a representative for the City Attorney’s Office was not immediately answered. “Public confidence in government — which lies at
Photo by Ken Lund / CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
H The Department of Water and Power building in downtown Los Angeles. | Photo courtesy of Neon Tommy/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
the core of a well functioning democracy — is shaken, if not shattered, when public officials and those operating on their behalf engage in criminal or unethical conduct,” U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. wrote in his final order Tuesday. “The nature and scope of misconduct in this case, resulting in convictions of high- level public officials at two municipal agencies, raise serious questions about a culture of corruption. These questions warrant public scrutiny to determine the extent to which wrongdoers have been held accountable and the extent to which the affected agencies have been reformed.” The judge wrote that the “need for scrutiny is only heightened where the corruption threatens the integrity of the judicial system and the safety of this nation’s infrastructure. Without disclosure of the identities of the public officials and others working for the city, the public would not be able to `properly evaluate the fruits of the
government’s extensive investigation.’” In a tentative opinion issued before a hearing last Friday, the court denied the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s request to redact the names of city employees and other officials, including private attorneys working on behalf of city. However, the court did not decide the issue of whether statements in an affidavit by FBI Agent Andy Civetti that Feuer lied to the grand jury would be released. The final order makes clear that those statements will be released, but that any references to the substance of grand jury testimony will be redacted consistent with federal rules. In late 2014, in an attempt to take control of the ever-worsening billing debacle, the City Attorney’s Office hatched a scheme to sue itself through a collusive “white knight” lawsuit, in which the office controlled the litigation nominally brought on behalf of DWP customers against the city. The lawsuit ultimately settled on terms favorable to the city.
According to government documents, following the collusive litigation settlement, an employee of Beverly Hills lawyer Paul Kiesel — who was retained by Feuer to represent the city — threatened to expose the city’s misconduct unless she was paid off, and unnamed “senior members of the City Attorney’s Office” directed the extortion payment to be made in the amount of $800,000, Flanagan said. Kiesel cooperated with the investigation and was not charged with any wrongdoing. Lawyers for Consumer Watchdog and the Times argued the public has a strong interest in assessing why prosecutors made the charging decisions they did, particularly where those decisions were made about highly influential and powerful public officials who were not charged, while lower ranking officials were charged, according to Flanagan. The DWP has estimated that the billing scandal cost the city more than $120 million.
ome sales dropped in Southern California and across the state last month, while prices continued to increase, according to figures released Wednesday by the California Association of Realtors. Unadjusted raw sales decreased on a year-over-year basis in all major regions except the Central Coast, and sales in Southern California experienced the secondbiggest drop from a year ago, declining 7.8%. Statewide, existing, singlefamily home sales totaled 267,470 in March on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, down 7.8% from 290,020 in February and down 4.4% from 279,700 a year ago. The statewide decline followed increases in January and February. “While home sales lost momentum in March, the housing market remains competitive as we’re seeing the statewide median home price reaching the highest level in seven months, and homes selling quicker than last year,” CAR President Melanie Barker said. “On the supply side, the market continues to improve with an increasing number of properties being listed on the market as more sellers begin to accept the new normal.” All major regions in the state registered an annual increase in their median price from a year ago, according to CAR. The median price of an existing single-family home
in Southern California jumped 11.1% year-over-year to $850,000, a 3% increase from last month. The median price in the Los Angeles metro area rose 1.4% from last month to $801,000, a 9% increase from last year at this time. The median price in Los Angeles County declined by 1.5%, however, dropping from $817,100 in February to $805,100 in March. Orange County saw its median home price increase 3.7% from February to $1.4 million, 12% higher than last year at this time. San Mateo County recorded the highest median home price in March at a whopping $2.17 million -- up 12.9% from the $1.922 million in February. Marin County’s median price was second-highest at $1.957 million -- up 21.6% from last month. Lassen County has the lowest median price in March at $247,000, down 6.1% from February. In Southern California, the lowest median price was Imperial County’s $349,000, down 1.7% from last month. The statewide median price recorded a strong yearover-year gain in March, climbing 7.7% to $854,490 -- a 6% increase from last month. The median number of days it took to sell a California single-family home in March was 19 days, down from 24 days in March 2023.