The scandal rocked Los Angeles City Hall, spurred ethics reform and helped persuade voters to elect Antonio Villaraigosa mayor last year.
The case of alleged fraudulent billing of city government by Fleishman-Hillard Inc. bloodied one of the nation's premier public relations firms, costing it millions of dollars.
The principal players include political figures from the administrations of mayors Tom Bradley, Richard Riordan and James K. Hahn, and two former Fleishman-Hillard executives charged with conspiracy and fraud.
The U.S. District Court trial of Douglas Dowie, former head of Fleishman-Hillard's Los Angeles office and once managing editor of the Los Angeles Daily News, and his deputy, John Stodder Jr., has shown how readily public servants transform themselves into the consultants they once hired. Closing arguments are scheduled today, and the jury is expected to begin its deliberations Friday.
City Controller Laura Chick, who helped shine light on the corrupt practices, said reforms have changed the environment that spawned the scandal.
City contracting has changed for the better, she said, especially in public relations, as most city agencies already provide such work from their own staffs. City taxpayers now pay just a fraction of the $13 million expended for public relations five years ago.
"The whole game has changed," she said. "There's a whole different kind of attention and scrutiny before any departments in the city are engaging in contracting public relations firms."
How it all began is what jurors in the federal courthouse downtown will soon begin sorting out.
Monique Moret, a former Fleishman executive, spent 14 hours on the witness stand implicating Stodder in the overbilling scheme. She recounted the extraordinary pressure on the office from Dowie, through Stodder, to "make the numbers" -- to bill enough hours to meet monthly projections.
For two years ending in 2004, Moret testified, she regularly increased the hourly billing submitted by dozens of Fleishman-Hillard employees, at Stodder's direction. Half a dozen other employees -- some recruited by Dowie to high-paying jobs after City Hall service -- testified that they did the same.
The testimony has focused on reams of drafts, bills and invoices to city departments, and on 1.2 million e-mails Fleishman-Hillard surrendered.
