When crony capitalism and corruption is the order of the day at the top, what do we expect?

when the second highest public official in the land is overseeing a system that awards massive, no-bid contracts to the company in which he still holds large financial interests, what's to keep a mere city official from feathering his own nest...?

A high-level manager for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles directed nearly $800,000 in contracts to his brothers and three politically connected firms without competitive bidding or after rigged contests, a Times review has found.

The manager, Victor Taracena, oversaw more than 150 contracts worth about half a million dollars that went directly to companies his brothers created, contract files show.

Seven other contracts worth $289,000 were awarded to non-family firms, two of which had little or no expertise in the work they were hired to do.

These firms — all with ties to current or former Los Angeles City Council members from the Eastside — won their contracts in bidding processes fraught with irregularities. In one case, a losing bid was submitted by a nonexistent company. Other such bids came from actual companies which, when contacted by The Times, said they were surprised to learn that bids had been submitted in their names.

this is what we get when the ethics of public service has collapsed and there are no role models of public stewardship to point to... it's the very same dynamic that has given tacit permission for the wave of polarization, intolerance, name-calling, bigotry and hate that's eating at the very heart of human decency in the public dialog...

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