Five current and former Lynwood City Council members were indicted Thursday for allegedly using hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds to illegally boost their salaries, pay for personal expenses and even hire an exotic dancer at a "gentleman's club."
The charges are the latest lumps for the working-class city south of downtown Los Angeles that for years has been plagued with accusations of graft and corruption. Last year, Lynwood's former longtime mayor received a 16-year federal prison sentence after being convicted of embezzling from city contracts.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday April 14, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 41 words Type of Material: Correction
Lynwood charges: An article in Friday's Section A said that five current and former Lynwood City Council members had been indicted. Indictment involves charges brought by a grand jury. In fact, the men were charged by prosecutors with misappropriating public funds.
Some of those charged Thursday had vowed to clean up City Hall. But the L.A. County district attorney's office now alleges that they used their positions to enrich themselves.
The indictments depict a city where politicians freely sought ways to boost their compensation, with some council members allegedly padding their official $9,600 salaries to receive as much as $100,000 for part-time service. Prosecutors said Mayor Louis Byrd and Councilman Fernando Pedroza used city credit cards and other city funds for personal expenses, including trips abroad and airline tickets for spouses, and in Pedroza's case, a session with an exotic dancer in Mexico, prosecutors said.
Both local and federal authorities have targeted corruption in the swath of small industrial cities that dot southeast Los Angeles County. Trials are pending for current and former Vernon officials charged last year, while prosecutors in recent years have scored courtroom victories against politicians accused of misconduct in Compton, Huntington Park, South Gate and Bell Gardens.
In an interview Thursday, Byrd, 75, denied any wrongdoing but acknowledged that he and other officials had tried to find ways to increase their compensation.
"We had to come up with some process to make a little more. This is a full-time job. They call it a part-time job, but that's bull----," he said. "For all the hassles we take, we can never be compensated enough."
The district attorney's investigation began more than three years ago, with prosecutors serving search warrants at Lynwood City Hall and several homes after The Times published an article highlighting the lavish perks enjoyed by politicians in one of the county's poorest cities.
