Rep. Richardson's home declared a 'public nuisance'

Laura Richardson just can't get get it together!

Today, the LA Times is reporting that Laura "Pimp my ride Richrson's Sacramento home (you remember the one that was foreclosed on, sold, stolen back by the bank that sold it and given back to Richrson... that home) has been sighted by Sacramento Code enforcement as a public nuisance.

First Rep. Laura Richardson was having problems making house payments, defaulting six times over eight years.

Then after a bank foreclosed on her Sacramento house and sold it at auction in May, the Long Beach Democrat made such a stink that Washington Mutual, in an unusual move, grabbed it back and returned it to her.This week, in the latest chapter in the housing saga, the Code Enforcement Department in Sacramento declared her home a "public
nuisance."

The city has threatened to fine her as much as $5,000 a month if she doesn't fix it up.Neighbors in the upper-middle-class neighborhood complain that the sprinklers are never turned on and the grass and plants are dead or dying. The gate is broken, and windows are covered with brown paper.

"I would call it an eyesore," said Peter Thomsen, a retired bank executive who lives nearby.

The city action was prompted by police action.

Police were twice called to investigate reports of a suspicious person in or around the house, perhaps a homeless man squatting there. Officers called the Code enforcement Department, which boarded up a broken door.

Code enforcement inspectors visited the house twice in July, finding "junk and debris" in the driveway and "rotting fruit on the ground in the rear yard which creates rodent harborage," according to department documents.

Ron O'Connor, operations manager of the Code Enforcement Department, said homes in the Curtis Park area seldom were tagged as a public nuisance.

"It's a really nice neighborhood," he said.

Asked about the house, Richardson's office released a statement that said: "Neither Congresswoman Richardson nor her attorney have received any information referring to this matter. Any additional information will be provided at a later date."

Richardson has few worries in the November election. The 37th District is so solidly Democratic that no Republican is running against her. Democrat Peter Mathews, who has sought the seat several times before, is mounting a write-in campaign.

Taxpayers pay $1300 per month for Laura "Pimp My Ride" Richardson's government vehicle

I wish I could say I was suprised to see Laura Richardson in the news again for her fiscal irresponsibility. But once again here she is.

Yesturday, the LA DailyBreeze.com was reporting that Richardson's $1300 lease of a 2007 Lincoln Town Car cost more than any other representative in congress:

When she arrived in Congress last fall, Rep. Laura Richardson sought out a vehicle that would match her newfound status.

She settled on a 2007 Lincoln Town Car - the choice of many representatives who
lease their vehicles at taxpayers' expense. But hers was distinct: at $1,300 a month, it was the most expensive car in the House of Representatives.

They go on to point out that the freshman congresswoman is a veteran when it comes to having others pay the tab for her transportation.

But her history with vehicles has been similarly fraught. When she was a councilwoman in Long Beach, she crashed her BMW, abandoned it at a body shop, failed to pay a prior repair bill, and then racked up 30,000 miles on a city-owned hybrid in one year - apparently violating a policy against personal use of city cars.

In her brief stint in the Assembly, she leased a 2002 Lincoln LS for $304 a month - all but $36 of it paid for by the state. So Richardson was already well versed in the use of government vehicles when she got to Washington.

And just like with all her other financial debacles, she is hiding from reporters, leaving her staff to defend the undefensable.

About 130 representatives leased cars last year, according to a report compiled earlier this year by Taxpayers for Common Sense. Most were in the range of $400 to $800 per month.

Richardson's 2007 lease costs show up on a more recent congressional spending report, because she did not pay the bill until February. According to the report, her first bill was for $1,299, and covered a one-month period from mid-October to mid-November. She then paid a prorated amount of $2,035 for the 45-day period from mid-November to the end of the year.

That makes her lease $300 more expensive than the costliest car in the Taxpayers for Common Sense report. As of last winter, the newest member of Congress had far and away the most expensive car in the House of Representatives.

"A $1,300 lease is a gold-plated lease," said Keith Ashdown, chief investigator for the watchdog group. "Because it's federal money and not their personal money, they're not looking for the best value."

Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, also leases a 2007 Lincoln Town Car, but she pays only $686 per month for it.

According to a former staff member, Richardson insisted that her Lincoln be specially customized, which may explain the high cost.

Richardson's spokesman, William Marshall, initially stated that Richardson is paying only $940 per month for her Town Car, but gave no documentation of that. After he was presented with the expense report showing the $1,300 lease amount, he declined to answer further questions.

"No comment," he said.

Oh.... But there's More!!!!!!

Richardson got the car from a local Enterprise Rent-a-Car office for her use when she needed to travel around her congressional district. The cost would not have been affected by her personal credit history, because it was paid for by the federal government. The price tag also did not include insurance, which Richardson agreed to pay for on her own.

At 8:30 p.m. April 3, a staff member was driving the car on the San Diego (405) Freeway, when he got into a crash. According to a California Highway Patrol report, the staffer, Henry Rogers, reported being struck in the rear by a white sport utility vehicle. The impact caused him to spin out and hit the center median and left major damage to the left rear of the Town Car.

The CHP report gives no information about the insurance on the car, other than to say that it was a "rental." But Richardson's subsequent actions suggest that Rogers may not have been listed as an eligible driver on her insurance policy.

According to the former staffer, after the crash Richardson required her district employees to buy additional insurance so they could legally drive the Lincoln. The former staff member did not want to be identified out of fear of jeopardizing future employment prospects.

Another former staffer said Rogers was not forced to pay for the damage to the car, but did not know how the issue was resolved.

Rogers referred questions about the crash to Richardson's spokesman, who did not return a call about the crash on Friday.

Richardson did not report the crash to Enterprise, but it is not clear that she was required to, given that she was self-insured.

Records also indicate that Richardson owes $83 for illegally parking the Town Car in Long Beach. The ticket was issued Jan. 23, in the amount of $40, but has since doubled because it was not paid on time.

One has to wonder, at what point will this disgraced Congresswoman offer her resignation? Knowing Laura Richardson, probably never.

But an even more interesting question is when will her fellow Democrats start asking for her to step down? Knowing Democrats, probably never!

Richardson even stiffs the Kids! THE KIDS!!!!

Let's see, she defalults on her mortages in three different cities, she doesn't pay her car repair bills, she uses a taxpayer funded vehicle for personal use, and now it's discovered that she flaked on promise to send school aged contest winners to Washington, DC?

Yep.... she's qualified to be in Congress!

Read this story from the Longbeach Press Telegram:

Rep.'s kids finally get trip

CONTEST: Airline,
councilman honor Richardson's promise to send winners on a trip to D.C.
By
Paul Eakins, Staff Writer

LONG BEACH - From 2004 to 2007, then-Long
Beach City Councilwoman Laura Richardson made a promise that 10 young contest
winners would get a trip to Washington, D.C.

While Richardson got her
own trip to the nation's capital, winning a seat in Congress last August, the
students stayed grounded in Long Beach, according to staff members of the sixth
District council office and one of the students.

The unrealized trips
are just a few of the unresolved commitments left behind by the Long Beach
Democrat during the year she ascended from council to state Assembly to
Congress's 37th District.

Recent published reports have detailed
Richardson's financial troubles, including multiple defaults on her three homes,
the foreclosure of her Sacramento house and bills owed to local businesses left
unpaid for years.

Now, some of the winners of the Martin Luther King Jr.
Unity Parade and Celebration contest will finally get a chance to fly to
Washington, or one of dozens of other destinations, thanks to JetBlue Airways
and Councilman Dee Andrews, Richardson's successor in the 6th District. Working
with Andrews, JetBlue is donating airline tickets to all of the winners.

William Marshall, a spokesman for Richardson, said Thursday that the
D.C. trips had taken place every year of the contest except in 2007, when
Richardson left the council.

"Not all of the kids may have gone, but
those trips did take place," Marshall said.

But that isn't what Andrews'
staff members and one of the contest winners believe.
On Thursday, staff
members gave a ticket to winner Midori Sanchez, 16, in Andrews' office at City
Hall. Her mother, Donna Cottrell, also received a ticket because she was
supposed to have been a chaperone in the original trip.

When Sanchez was
in eighth grade in 2005, she was one of four contest winners. The contest asked
children from kindergarten through 12th grade to capture the theme of the annual
Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in one of four categories: art/drawing, poem/
speech, essay, or sculpture/multi-media work.

Sanchez, who won the essay
category, said Thursday she felt like she finally had some closure to the
disappointment of never getting the trip.

"I've waited for a long time,
and I was really excited at the time," said Sanchez, who on Thursday completed
the 11th grade at Poly High School.

Cottrell said that she had given up
on her daughter ever going, and she felt like Richardson had lied to her. But
Richardson received publicity through the years for the contest, Cottrell said.

"I've sort of had this simmering anger the whole time, because she comes
out looking so great," Cottrell said this week. "Nobody knows that it never
happened."

The contest had been held for several years as part of the
parade, then Richardson began offering the Washington trip, which included
airfare and hotel, in 2002.

By all accounts, the contest winners in 2002
and 2003 went to Washington. But the two winners in each subsequent year - four
winners were named in 2005 - never went.

JetBlue, which has provided the
tickets now being given out, had donated tickets for the earlier trips that did
happen.

In addition to the unfulfilled trips, Richardson also left an
almost $5,000 debt from the last parade that her office planned in 2007. John
Edmond, Andrews' chief of staff, said the councilman has begun paying the money
back to parade sponsor Partners of Parks with outside donations.

During
the five months between Richardson's departure from the council and Andrews
taking office in May 2007, Mayor Bob Foster represented the sixth District and
attempted to arrange a trip for the 10 winners, but that didn't come together,
Edmond said.

Since 2007, Tonya Martin, an Andrews staff member who also
worked for Richardson, has been trying to locate all of the winners who are owed
a trip, she said. So far, she has reached eight of them and given out a handful
of tickets, though two have been difficult to contact.

The problem, she
said, is that so much time has passed, some of the winners have moved or left
for college.

Marshall said Richardson hasn't abandoned her promise to
the students.

"She has been in contact with Dee Andrews and has been
wanting to discuss that last trip with him," Marshall said of the reward for the
2007 winners. "She's very concerned and wanted to be a part of whatever took
place with the kids."

Edmond said Andrews and Richardson had "talked in
passing" about the matter in recent weeks, but nothing else. On Wednesday,
Andrews' office received an e-mail from Richardson offering her assistance in
planning the trips, but everything is almost resolved now, Edmond said.

Sanchez was emotional Thursday as she expressed her gratitude.

"I just really appreciate a lot that Dee Andrews, even though it wasn't
his problem, made a great effort to ensure that everything that was wrong was
right," she said.

Edmond said Andrews wanted the winners to get what
they deserved.

"We took on this responsibility because it's the right
thing to do," Edmond said.

paul.eakins@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1278

In Case you missed it: Foreclosed Sacramento home, with upgrades, may be returned to Congresswoman Laura Richardson

Just when I thought I heard it all. The forclosure saga of Conresswoman Laura Richardson proves once again to be the gift that keeps on giving.

Today the LA Times is reporting that the bank who foreclosed on Richardson has taken the house back from the new owner, presumably to hand it back over to the congresswoman:

Real estate investor James York bought Richardson's house in an upper middle-class neighborhood on May 7 for $388,000. He recorded the deed May 19. His crew has painted it, laid tile and landscaped the house, he said.

York said the lender, Washington Mutual, had contacted him to buy back the house and that he gave the bank a price. He said the next thing he knew, the lender filed a letter of rescission of the foreclosure sale June 2 with Sacramento County and asked him for the keys.

"They took the property back, and they didn't even send back the money," York said.

Please keep in mind that Richardson had stop making payments and owed more than $9,000 in back property taxes on the Sacramento home. And this was not her only property she was not making payments on:

Although the Sacramento house was the first of Richardson's to go into foreclosure, she has defaulted six times on houses in San Pedro and Long Beach, most recently March 28. Five defaults have come in the last 13 months, when she was lending her campaigns for Assembly and Congress a total of $177,500.

Did I forget to mention the two auto repair bills and the printing bill and…… you get the point.

I can’t wait to see what the House Ethics Committee has to say about this one…