California’s massive homeless program fraud stirs big controversy

OPINION:

Kenneth Mejia committed the cardinal sin of a government employee in California: He decided to do his job. As the Los Angeles City controller, he is supposed to pore over dusty ledgers to find swindlers who are pilfering money from the municipal coffers.

Recently, he did just that. He noticed that a “charity” going by the benign name Abundant Blessings had been using fake invoices to qualify for $23 million in funding from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. The cash was intended to provide 600 needy people with nutritious meals, but what they received were ramen noodles and a microwave. Mr. Mejia called Uncle Sam.

In January, federal prosecutors charged the outfit’s executive director with diverting $10 million into his personal bank account, helping himself to “a $7 million house in Westwood, $125,000 Range Rover, private school tuition for his children, private jet travel, and stays at luxury resorts.”

Los Angeles City Council members were furious when Mr. Mejia announced his own, broader investigation into homeless service providers that receive city grants. They also were irked when he described the “revenue shortfalls, liability payouts, and departmental overspending” in the city’s unsustainable and mismanaged budget.

Highlighting, for instance, the $500,000 Mayor Karen Bass spent adorning City Hall with Olympic flags didn’t go over well. So the city establishment fought back, attempting to gut his elected position by having its main duties transferred to a newly created chief financial officer function that would assume watchdog duties (but would operate under the council’s thumb).

The plan would have to be approved by an appointed Charter Reform Commission.

Mr. Mejia ran as a Democrat in 2022. Despite his far-left political views matching theirs, Ms. Bass and her minions didn’t want to wait until November to let residents decide whether he was worthy of reelection.

The attempt to silence Mr. Mejia crumbled after the public learned what was happening. Comments flooded into the commission, which retreated. It approved a limited rule change that blocks the controller from hunting for waste in council member offices.

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What’s happening in the City of Angels is happening throughout the Golden State. The CEO of United Council for Human Services was arrested in February for skimming $1.2 million in homeless grants in San Francisco. Investigators became suspicious when this nonprofit executive allegedly began driving around in luxury cars and living well beyond her reported means.

“When I got in, I created the homeless fraud and corruption task force to take a look at where the billions and billions and billions of dollars have gone that the state of California has spent on homelessness. We know it hasn’t gone to the homeless because their situation hasn’t gotten better,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli explained in a recent press conference.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, disagrees. He touts his throwing billions of dollars at the homelessness problem as a “national model” and a showcase of his managerial skills. “Together, we’re breaking cycles of homelessness that took decades to create, and we’re doing it with urgency, compassion and accountability,” he claimed.

Fortunately, independent auditors such as Mr. Mejia, independent journalists and diligent prosecutors such as Mr. Essayli have been exposing the lie that there has been accountability. California scheming is proving more lucrative than a Somali day care center in Minnesota.

Con artists who tug at emotional heartstrings to steal from the public purse deserve to be exposed with maximum transparency.

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