A concerned citizen is suing the Long Beach County Board of Supervisors for allegedly spending money on charities, parties, and the like to curry favor with their constituents, using the $3.4 million in discretionary funds controlled by each supervisor and not subject to public scrutiny. -db
Los Angeles Daily News
October 10, 2010
By Troy Anderson
Claiming they are throwing lavish parties and wasting money during tough times, a Long Beach resident is suing the Board of Supervisors alleging they are illegally spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for their own benefit.
In the lawsuit, Robert Glen Golightly alleges the supervisors have a “slush fund” they use to burnish their public image, pay for chauffeurs, throw parties for friends and lobbyists and support “personal pet projects that are intended to garner political support rather than provide material benefits to the citizens.”
“It alleges the county supervisors are making spending decisions in private and have violated the Brown Act,” said Paul E. Heidenreich, the Manhattan Beach attorney who represents Golightly.
“By making countless donations and spending the money in frankly some bizarre ways, they are wasting taxpayers’ money and are just being disrespectful, if not contemptuous of the people.”
The suit refers to the $3.4 million in discretionary funds that each supervisor controls and can spend without a public vote or discussion.
Century City attorney Skip Miller, who represents the supervisors, said the allegations are false and unfounded.
“The supervisors’ expenditures are completely in accordance with the law,” Miller said. “They are for social programs authorized by government code and there is nothing remotely illegal about any of this. This is just a lawsuit to generate some legal fees. There is absolutely no merit to their claims.
“What they spend the money on is nonprofits, charitable endeavors, the MLK hospital and communications with their constituents. This lawsuit twists and distorts the truth.”
The lawsuit was filed this spring but the supervisors discussed it in closed session last week.
Heidenreich said Golightly is a “concerned citizen” who asked his law firm to file a lawsuit to stop the expenditure of the funds. He works in the entertainment industry, writing, producing and directing independent films and documentaries.
“It doesn’t seek monetary damages,” Heidenreich said. “It’s asking them to knock it off, start treating the people with respect and to stop spending their money wrongfully.”
In 16,000 pages of documents he obtained through discovery, Heidenreich said the records show the supervisors have spent the money for parties, donations to charitable organizations and for other purposes.
“They are making gifts of the taxpayers’ money without telling the taxpayers what they are doing,” Heidenreich said. “I think giving away other people’s money in this fashion is wrong, pure and simple.”
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