![]() A lack of oversight by the media and government watchdogs emboldens officials to take advantage of the electorate. Some say the town's instability is partly due to a lack of civic engagement and low voter turnout due to off-cycle elections, allowing candidates and council majorities to win elections with just a few hundred votes. Political infighting, lawsuits and scandals have often pushed the city to the brink of financial collapse. Four years ago, Maywood got a financial boost when it allowed cannabis businesses to operate, although at the disapproval of many residents. The city has few job opportunities and is dotted with fast-food chains, retail shops and factories. ![]() ![]() It has lived off thin budgets and frail civil services. Since then, Maywood has struggled as a city. "To have a neighboring city revert back to a level of corruption is jaw-dropping," said Tom Hogen-Esch, a political science professor at Cal State Northridge who has studied corruption in southeast L.A. The spotlight careened from Maywood to Bell, which led to multiple arrests for corruption amid national attention. Maywood gained a level of notoriety in 2010 after laying off almost every city worker, disbanding the Police Department and contracting city services to neighboring Bell, where a huge salary scandal eventually broke. "And we are all deserving of a clean government.” “Pay-to-play politics have no place in Los Angeles County," he said. George Gascón said public officials should be working to benefit people, not their own bank accounts. When he announced the charges, Los Angeles County Dist. Prosecutors said that in return, the men asked for a cut of the profits. According to a criminal complaint, both men along with Medina attempted to sell properties designated for affordable housing at less than half their fair market value to a buyer who wanted to build a bingo hall. None of the people charged currently work for Maywood.Īlso charged were former City Manager Reuben Martinez and former City Planning Director David Mango. Medina and his son, prosecutors said, also raised 40 roosters they trained for fights. He also directed staff to dismiss parking tickets that had been issued to friends and political supporters. They allege that for most of his time as mayor, Medina solicited bribes, embezzled and misused public funds. In a complaint, prosecutors allege that Medina, who served as mayor from May 2016 to December 2018, had been at the center of a pay-to-play scheme at Maywood City Hall. That might change after Medina and 10 other people were charged last month with a variety of crimes. Where other neighboring cities, including South Gate and Bell, embarked on reforms after high-profile arrests, Maywood did not face such a reckoning. The tiny 1.18-square-mile city that Medina once represented had rarely played the starring role in the corruption scandals that enmeshed neighboring towns, where criminal prosecutions from local and federal authorities sometimes rained down. But he was a politician in one of a warren of small cities in southeast Los Angeles County where scandals have long festered - and weren't always a knockout against political ambitions. That Medina believed he had a chance of being reelected despite the controversies swirling around him might seem like a surprise. Undaunted, he ran for reelection in November but lost. The following year, his home and auto shop were part of an anti-corruption raid. In 2017, he was caught growing marijuana as he pushed for a cannabis ordinance at City Hall. He voted on issues that raised questions of conflict of interest, including a 2016 pay raise for his sister, the city treasurer. Ramon Medina spent eight years achieving his small-town political dream and about half of that time tarnishing it.Īfter winning a seat on the Maywood City Council in 2015, Medina was engulfed in scandals.
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