NBC 4 in Los Angeles reports on the city of South Gate in Mayor Punches Councilman At Her Last Meeting: Audience Members: 'Arrest The Mayor':
In a dramatic ending to her tenure as mayor, Xochilt Ruvalcaba tried unsuccessfully to ram through millions of dollars in city loans and punched a fellow council member before exiting what will likely be her last city council meeting.It was the last for hurrah for a cast of characters that was also notable for their behavior in the recall election as the LA Times reports in The Freebies Pile Up as South Gate Goes to Polls:
Ruvalcaba, one of three City Council members booted from office by voters last week after being accused of depleting city coffers of nearly $8 million, had called one last meeting to vote on several costly measures.
Vice Mayor Raul Moriel, Councilwoman Maria Benavides and Treasurer Albert Robles also were recalled.
Before a packed audience Monday night, the council's three outgoing members failed in their bid to award more than $1 million in low-interest federal loans. Earlier in the day, a Superior Court judge issued an order blocking the council from awarding the money.
They did succeed in promoting at least 12 employees, including four top officials in the city's department of public works.
At the end of the meeting, an amateur video tape caught Ruvalcaba in a shoving match with Councilman Henry Gonzalez which ended when the mayor hit him across the side of his head with a black purse and then punched him in the head.
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After watching the altercation, audience members shouted, "Arrest the mayor! Arrest the mayor!"
Julia Barraza knew campaign season had arrived in her Mexican pueblo when politicians in open-bed trucks rolled by offering sombreros, sarapes and food for votes.Actually the residents of South Gate, by turfing out the turkeys, showed a more refined sense of good government than the citizens of most US big cities.
She moved to South Gate years ago, but Barraza sees a similar thing happening: free trash service, free boxes of food, and even a free three-bedroom house for one lucky resident.
"Igualito ... igualito," -- the same, the same, Barraza said. "It's like I never left Mexico."
Have Third World politics come to South Gate?
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The four recall targets portray themselves as misunderstood reformers whose efforts to improve services have met with vicious resistance by the city's old guard.
Critics call them self-dealing "klepto-crats" who have awarded sweetheart deals to cronies while spending almost all of the city's $8-million reserve.
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Recall proponents, led by the city's two police unions, tick off a long list of reasons to oust the four. In the last two years, the council majority has tripled their salaries, stripped the elected city clerk of most of her duties and have a convicted embezzler working as their litigation specialist. Last summer the council hired an officer once fired from the city Police Department for tipping off suspects of a federal drug investigation.
The city has spent more than $1 million on the legal fees for Robles, who last month stood trial on charges of threatening to kill four people, including two state legislators. (Robles was appointed to the $111,000-per-year post of deputy city manager after his arrest last spring.) His trial ended in a hung jury and the judge this month dismissed the charges.
It was while Robles was standing trial that many city-funded giveaways began, prompting jokes about Santa Claus taking up residence at City Hall. In December, the city offered residents free trash service for the month, and newly registered voters were signed up for a city-publicized raffle of a television set.
Next came the house raffle, held last week on the park-like grounds of City Hall. Amid a carnival atmosphere of rainbow-colored lights and thumping Mexican ranchera music, the recall targets played host to hundreds of residents -- many of them working-class immigrants -- hoping for a picket-fenced paradise.
