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POINT OF VIEW - Political malaise is a pervasive state of societal discontent and distrust in political institutions. It presently exists in government, and it implies that leadership is unable or unwilling to respond effectively to problems, to stop the eroding of democracy, and to cure an ailing state suffering from economic inequality, government corruption and polarization.
For years I have intensely observed the effects of malaise on our democratic system. I consider government leadership to be a stewardship of public trust and a commitment to the public good. When leaders act with integrity and transparency, public trust increases, and democratic legitimacy is strengthened. Absent effective and strategic leadership integrity is undermined, good governance erodes, and conditions are created in which corruption and fraud flourish.
That is where we find ourselves today. In the last decade, according to CalCoastNews.com’s reference of U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reports in 2024, over the last 10 years, 576 public officials in California have been convicted on federal corruption charges. That total exceeds the number of cases in states better known for public corruption, including New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.
Los Angeles has experienced a series of major scandals in recent years involving high-level corruption, fraud, unethical behavior including the 2022 audio leak with racist remarks by city officials, a number of council members in prison and a massive $22 million Los Angeles Unified School District contract fraud scheme.
Corruption within the Homeless Industrial Complex has already resulted in a number of indictments, with more to come.
This corruption is not necessarily just the work of uniquely evil actors. It is malaise driven. It is the result of the slow erosion of institutional ability to efficiently perform functions, solve problems, and achieve objectives. Gone missing is civic vigilance and structural accountability—all classic symptoms of governance malaise which makes it possible for corruption to flourish all around us.
California is a cash machine, wrote Christopher F. Rufo, Ryan Thorpe, Kenneth Schrupp, Haley Strack in City Journal on April 1, 2026. California imposes some of the highest income, business, and fuel taxes in the nation, with annual spending now exceeding $300 billion. Yet the state is falling apart. Roads are deteriorating, wildfires have destroyed communities, homelessness is at crisis levels, the cost of living is pushing out middle-class taxpayers, and welfare spending has not reduced poverty.
According to the article, California has become an empire of fraud. Discussed were a series of fraud cases, instances of sloppy management, questionable assumptions, and some ‘mysterious’ mathematics to allege that under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s watch, fraudsters, scammers, and organized crime rings have stolen at least $180 billion from taxpayers.
Multi-billion fraud in the Employment Development Department’s distribution of federal unemployment funds during the COVID-19 pandemic and the formal accusation of Newsom’s former chief of staff for facilitating bogus payments from a campaign fund and falsifying documents to obtain pandemic relief funds are two instances highlighted.
The governor’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, and four co-conspirators were indicted on twenty-three counts of bank and wire fraud, allegedly committed from 2022 to 2024.
Meanwhile Governor Gavin Newsom has been busy over the last year wasting taxpayers' funds to bolster his presidential aspirations.
Newsom`s Administration has hired New York-based public relations Edelman for a $19 million taxpayer funded campaign to improve the state`s national image. He would not have to waste that money if he had addressed the state`s challenges while serving as governor, including budget deficits, high cost of living, high crime in major cities, high income tax, high rent and housing crisis.
The California High Speed Rail project has been plagued under the governor`s watch with waste, fraud, and spectacular cost overruns, and as a result it is facing cuts in federal funding and undetermined date of completion.
"The Buck Stops Here" was a famous desk sign kept by President Harry S. Truman in the Oval Office.
It would be wise for Governor Newsom to display such a sign in his office.
More locally, a CBS Los Angeles report said the DOJ announced federal charges in a Southern California health care, hospice fraud investigation. Chelsea Hylton wrote that Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli identified eight defendants, including three nurses, a chiropractor, and a psychologist, who were charged with defrauding the health care system out of more than $50 million. They were accused of running fraudulent hospice care facilities that billed Medicare by using people without terminal illnesses as beneficiaries.
According to a CBS News analysis, over seven hundred of the roughly 1,800 hospices in LA County trigger multiple red flags for fraud as defined by the state.
"The Southern California region is a high-risk environment for hospice-related and many other forms of health care fraud," said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's LA Field Office. "The United States loses hundreds of billions of dollars annually to healthcare fraud at the expense of all American taxpayers, whose benefits decrease as premiums, co-payments and taxes grow."
Newsom claimed that California was cutting waste and improving efficiency, but his plan is hitting roadblocks amid a multibillion-dollar state budget deficit. So, he contracted with one of the world’s largest consulting firms, Boston Consulting Group, for up to $20 million to cut $2 billion in spending from the departments of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Social Services, and Health Care Services by the 2028-’29 fiscal year. However, the legislative analyst expects only $800 million in savings. Unsurprisingly, the consulting firm hired former Newsom cabinet Secretary and Department of Finance Director Ana J. Matosantos, a modus operandi in the Sacramento culture.
Correction strategies are being discussed at various circles, but if government malaise is not immediately addressed, no efficiency plan, reform blueprint, or modernization strategy can work. An already degraded and failed system cannot execute correction strategies.
Los Angeles’ split governance among city, county, agencies, commissions—combined with limited resources—creates conditions ripe for fraud and corruption. The numbers exemplify the situation. In a report to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last September by Oscar Valdez, the Auditor-Controller, the average number of days needed to investigate and close a case was 215 days.
The City Controller’s Fraud, Waste & Abuse Unit, responsible for oversight of more than forty departments and more than 40,000 employees, has only five investigators, an extraordinarily thin oversight structure. With weak institutions and oversight, corruption can take root and persist. I personally uncovered a multimillion fraud perpetrated over a number of years at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power due to lack of oversight and accountability controls.
Vice President JD Vance will lead a massive federal crackdown on financial crimes, officially designating him the nation’s “Fraud Czar.” He will oversee efforts to root out what has been described as “massive and pervasive” theft of taxpayer money, with a primary focus on California, Illinois, Minnesota, Maine, and New York.
Corruption and fraud thrive when effective and strong leadership does not exist. The system runs without a pilot. Lack of clarity, authority, and decisiveness are the results, and they lead to government dysfunction, to malaise, and to corruption and fraud. Justice becomes selective.
Malaise appears when strong leadership disappears. For us, today, this is a crucial slogan.
" If you look at great human civilizations, from the Roman Empire to the Soviet Union, you will see that most do not fail simply due to external threats but because of internal weakness, corruption or a failure to manifest the values and ideals they espouse". Senator Cory Booker.
(Nick Patsaouras is an electrical engineer, civic leader, and a longtime public advocate. He ran for Mayor in 1993 with a focus on rebuilding L.A. through transportation after the 1992 civil unrest. He has served on major public boards, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Metro, and the Board of Zoning Appeals, helping guide infrastructure and planning policy in Los Angeles. He is the author of the book "The Making of Modern Los Angeles.")
