Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti protects negligent members of his city’s fire and police departments in exchange for support from the two departments’ unions, explained Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and senior contributor at Breitbart News, sharing revelations from his latest book, Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite.
Schweizer joined Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow for a special video edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily on Wednesday.
Marlow, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, said, “I’m obsessed with Eric Garcetti. We went to the same high school. He definitely wants to be president. He thinks he’s going to be president. I think he’s the worst mayor in America, even worse than Bill de Blasio.”
Schweizer explained how Garcetti established a “mayor’s fund” through which special favors and concessions for developers are procured.
“Garcetti realizes as mayor that one of the big levers of power that he has is all these developers that either want to renovate existing hotels or apartment buildings [or] build new ones, and they need to basically get his approval,” explained Schweizer. “It’s very, very hard to get big projects approved, so [Eric Garcetti] set up this mayor’s fund, which — that sounds great, let’s have a mayor’s fund — basically is another pocket into which large developers need to deposit money. They need to donate to his campaign, but they also need to put it in the other pocket, the mayor’s fund, which he then passes out — doles out — to people that endorse him, people that support his campaign.”
Schweizer added, “And what you find — I know this is shocking — that people that give [Eric Garcetti] money get their projects approved. “
Marlow joked, “Unbelievable. Stunning,” adding, “It’s basically a way for people to buy favors from him. You put some money in the mayor’s fund and you got to the top of the line. It’s a fast pass like you’re in Disneyland.”
Schweizer replied, “That’s right. We’re not just talking about skirting certain rules. Some developers will donate money to his fund. His fund takes in like $30 million a year [in] some years, which is a huge amount of money, which he then doles out.”
“The city is barely functioning,” remarked Marlow, sharing evidence of LA’s dysfunction. There is “an average of 373 days to make a hire for a city position; one-sixth of employees are on worker’s compensation; one-third in the police department and fire department are on worker’s compensation. Then they will say, ‘We don’t have enough money for the schools.’ We’re paying all these people not to work.”
Schweizer stated, “There are several cases involving people in the fire department that are supposed to be doing safety inspections of projects. What ends up happening, they weren’t actually doing them, but because the fire union endorsed [Eric Garcetti] and supported him, he just basically brushes that stuff away. It’s a protection racket. It’s basically a mafia-type system.”
Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
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