CommentsSOUTH OF THE TEN-Has Inglewood Mayor James Butts’ bullying encroached on neighboring city boundaries?
As the Chair of the newly formed Los Angeles County Second District Oversight Board to the Successor Agencies of Carson, Compton, Culver City, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale and Lynwood, Butts wields the power to set the agenda for the voting members to consider for an affirmative vote. The first meeting was held Tuesday, July 24, 2018, with a flimsy agenda with no supporting documentation available to the public. The Mayor knows how to promote music events and himself to the public, yet, when it comes to matters he doesn’t want us to know about, we, the pubic, aren’t notified.
It would appear Mayor Butts is trying to get some peculiar deals authorized that he has found himself defending in litigation. The deals center around property formerly owned by the Inglewood Redevelopment Agency (RDA), which upon being dissolved, was turned over to the Inglewood Successor Agency.
A couple of those deals involved select Inglewood business owners. Michael and Louise Koper initiated a lawsuit regarding land the mayor wanted developed into an Auto Mall. The state disallowed RDA transactions that went towards a new building built on Regent and there was a huge outcry over an $18 million loan made to Madison Square Garden (MSG) to rehab the Forum. The latest litigation surrounds Successor Agency-owned parcels on Century Blvd. At one point, MSG held a land lease that was subsequently broken, and the land was bequeathed to Murphy’s Bowl LLC to build a Clippers arena.
Mayor Butts appears to be going to extreme lengths to keep his shady deals from being fully revealed to the public. He has enlisted city staff to participate in his fraud, possibly under threats that they would lose their jobs or increased salaries if they went against him. Each of them makes more than $100k although it is unclear what their educational backgrounds or skill sets are. Both have worked for the city since the Dorn Administration.
Butts has city staffer Yakema Decatur signing staff reports, as opposed to the city manager. When former Accounting Manager Barbara Ohno discussed the switcheroo of Successor Agency property parcel numbers, Secretary to the City Manager, Tunisia Johnson’s signature was used to notarize the documents. All this is detailed in the exhibits to Ohno’s now settled lawsuit.
Eventually Mayor Butts will have his hat brought to him and Inglewood residents are anxiously awaiting the day he is removed from the dais by law enforcement.
A newly filed lawsuit by Inglewood Residents Against Takings and Evictions alleges violations of the Brown Act. Under state law, the Oversight Board cannot vote on land matters that are involved in litigation, which means Steve Ballmer will not be building anything in the city of Inglewood anytime soon.
2UrbanGirls wonders whether 2nd District County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas will cooperate in a federal investigation into Mayor Butts’ activities, given Ridley-Thomas’ probable need to get himself and his son Sebastian Ridley-Thomas out of a separate federal investigation surrounding a dubious campaign donation and USC’s role as an intermediary.
(2UrbanGirls has been cited in City Watch LA, Compton Herald, Daily News, Inglewood Today, Intersections South LA, KCRW, KPCC, Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, LA Watts Times, Mercury News and The Atlantic.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
Tags: 2UrbanGirls, Mayor James T. Butts, Inglewood, Inglewood Residents Against Takings and Evictions, Inglewood Redevelopment Agency (RDA), Madison Square Garden (MSG), The Forum, shady land deals
