Latinos are plentiful in the Democratic Party – but they remain a rarity in the GOP. Which is why in California so many of them have permeated Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration, where they are busy stuffing their wallets.
To wit, “John Cruz, the appointments secretary for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, lives hundreds of miles from the state Capitol, where his staff scrutinizes candidates for California’s many boards and commissions. When Cruz works there, he goes by plane. He has charged taxpayers for his flights and for hotel bills of up to $382 a night on regular trips between his Orange County home and Sacramento, records show,” according to the L.A. Times.
Cruz has spent spent $4,196 traveling in one month. And Cruz is not the only one.
“Carrie Lopez, director of the Department of Consumer Affairs, charged taxpayers to fly from Sacramento, where she works, to Los Angeles, where she lives, to attend a Justin Timberlake concert with her daughter. She listed the trip on her expense report as a meeting with the energy company that paid for the concert tickets. Lopez also billed the state for meals on days she received those meals for free from corporations, according to state records.”
And, “Rosario Marin, head of the State and Consumer Services Agency, blamed a miscommunication for her failure to repay $582 the state spent to fly her to Washington in July to speak at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, an appearance for which she received $1,000. She reimbursed the state for the airfare after The Times inquired about the trip last month.”
All of these greedy Latino Republicans are involved with the Hispanic 100, a group that has funded lame Latino Republicans like Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante.
The OC Weekly’s Matt Coker wrote this in a post on the Navel Gazing blog, “Courageously, Cruz blamed a former assistant for mistakes on his expense reports. But the Times also discovered Cruz sought and obtained reimbursement for gas mileage to drive regularly from San Clemente to the governor’s LA office, even though employees are not supposed to be reimbursed for gas on trips between their home and office. Cruz blamed that on his own ignorance of state regulations.”
Cruz is a lawyer who works for our Governor. And he is ignorant of state regulations? Not good…
SAD to see that our students/education pay the price for STUPID (yes, that awful word in Spanish) self-serving government AG’GRANDIZERS.
I need to look back, but I’m near certain Rosario Marin was GWB’s pick to take on Boxer and maybe even some BS judicial post.
These guys are all crooked.
Rosario Marin, former Huntington Park Councilperson, did run against Boxer in 2004. Her slogan was “Adios Boxer”.
The Hispanic 100 has never had 100 members.
GREAT post, Art! I am relieved to see Rosario has resigned. There are others named in this post who should wisely follow her lead.
It is disgusting and scary to think of all the money spent and all the corruption that is flying around. We as Americans need to take a closer and longer look at not only Consumer Affairs employees, but the Boards employees that they oversee. i.e. Board of Behavioral Sciences, Pharmacy Board, Medical Boards etc…They have employees that fly around also.. a lot on our hard working backs!!!!
Carrie Lopez and her boss including Rosario Marin AND any else involve in this corruption should not only QUIT but should also be sent to jail. What they are doing is no worse than a shoplifter or a thief who attempted to get something for nothing, but yet when a shoplifter get caught, they were not given the right to give the stolen items back, they ended up in jail. While the shoplifter stole perhaps because they have no $ and that is the reason why they were stealing & may be forgiven for their crime. Yet, people like Carrie Lopez gets paid $149,000+ year plus benefits, that is a large salary. But yet, she still manage to attempt to steal by charging her unrelated expense to the state. When asked, she simply won’t talk but want to resign. NO!I say she should be sent to jail & then answer to all the charges & paid back everything! This is making me sick. Corruptions, what makes this worse is that they are doing this while knowing that the State of California is in a terrible deficit! Mai
Is Carrie going to jail??? That is all I want to know???