The Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council has approved a resolution calling on the City Ethics Commission to begin an investigation into Los Angeles City Councilman John Lee’s activities during a June 2017 trip to Las Vegas that was investigated by the FBI as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe.
The resolution, approved Thursday on a vote of 10 to 6, with one person abstaining, calls on the commission “to investigate council member Lee’s involvement in this incident, determine if he violated ethics rules promulgated by the city of Los Angeles and produce a full public report.”
Lee made an appearance during the Zoom-facilitated neighborhood council meeting, to give updates about what was happening in the 12th council district, but he logged off before the resolution came up. He also did not comment directly on the resolution, which was listed on the agenda.
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Lee, who represents the northwest San Fernando Valley district, has not been charged with any crime. Some neighborhood council members want to know if he is an unnamed city staffer mentioned in recent FBI indictment filings as allegedly accepting expensive gifts from a businessman during a June 2017 trip to Las Vegas.
The filings are part of a larger federal probe into “pay-to-play” allegations at City Hall.
Lee issued a statement Friday saying that he has “never had a single ethics violation” during his 20 years working for the city. His statement did not respond directly to the contents of the resolution, which directly tied him to alleged activities described in FBI filings.
Lee served as the chief of staff of Mitch Englander, a previous councilman for the area who recently agreed to plead guilty to obstructing a corruption probe. Lee has not said if he is that staffer, known as “City Staffer B,” who is mentioned in federal filings.
The unnamed Englander staffer worked for him until June 2017, the indictment said. Lee left his role as Englander’s chief of staff about that time.
That staffer was also accused of accepting expensive gifts from an unnamed businessman.
Lee was asked by a Los Angeles Daily News reporter during a news conference in late May, on an unrelated matter, whether he was the City Staffer B named in FBI filings, but he did not answer the question directly at the time. He said that the FBI investigation was “ongoing.”
Some believe Lee is the City Staffer B mentioned in various indictment filings, but he did not answer that question directly today. He responded by saying: "Again, it's an ongoing investigation and you know, hopefully, some time soon after … " (trailed off)
— Elizabeth Chou (@reporterliz) May 27, 2020
In early March, a Lee aide was asked to confirm whether the councilman is “staffer B,” but the reporter’s email went unanswered.
Lee also has not responded in detail about his trip to Las Vegas, a move that has appeared only to spark speculation among some constituents.
On Thursday night, several spoke in favor of the resolution approved by the Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council, including Heather Budman, who said there should be “transparency with our elected officials.”
“If we can’t trust them to represent our interests, then we have a problem,” Budman said.
Some were less comfortable with the resolution going forward. One commenter, John Ciccarelli, called the resolution a “bad example of guilt by association.”
He said he was “saddened” about what happened with Englander. He has “known Mitch (Englander) as a good friend for many years.”
“But that really has little to do at this juncture of pursuing an action like this,” he said. “I would strongly encourage the board not to pursue something like this.”
The resolution was drafted by David Beauvais, president of the neighborhood council, and the motion was made by member Mark Morris. Beauvais said he hoped to inspire other local neighborhood councils to take up similar motions.
Beauvais said Friday that he feels criminal charges against Lee seem unlikely. But he added that “there are some serious questions about his part in this incident which he has never satisfactorily explained and that merit investigation by the Ethics Commission.”
Englander was arrested March 9 in connection with allegations that he obstructed an investigation into accusations he accepted cash and gifts — which included a hotel stay, expensive dinner and escort services — during a 2017 Las Vegas trip.
Lee in March stated that he went on a trip to Las Vegas with Englander in June 2017, and that he “did everything in my power to pay for and reimburse expenses related to this trip.”
“I was unaware of any illegal activities for which Councilmember Englander is being charged,” he added in the written statement.
He also said that he “completely cooperated with the FBI when they contacted me for voluntary interviews in July and August 2017 and will continue to do so.”
Englander initially pleaded not guilty, but on March 27 he entered into an agreement announced April 20 in which he would plead guilty to a single count of scheming to falsify material facts, for which he could face five years in prison.
A federal court hearing in which Englander was expected to plead guilty to obstructing a public corruptions investigation has been postponed to July 7, after it was originally set for June 4, the day the resolution was approved by the Granada Hills South neighborhood council.
Los Angeles Daily News reporter Olga Grigoryants contributed to this story.
