As Ridley-Thomas is sentenced, Price’s case encounters a delay

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Julia Wick, back in City Land after a brief detour covering the wildfire on Maui. This morning’s edition arrives with help from my wonderful colleague Dakota Smith.

A major chapter in the ongoing saga of Los Angeles’ embattled leaders closed Monday morning, when former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was sentenced to a 3½-year prison term. The 68-year-old lion of local politics had hoped to avoid prison time and had asked the judge to instead sentence him to probation and other alternatives to incarceration.

But U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer had very different plans.

She argued that a “significant” sentence was necessary to act as a deterrent to other elected officials who might consider breaking the public’s trust. She contended that the public’s trust in its elected officials erodes each time a public official is found to have acted corruptly — a problem that “becomes more obvious with every news cycle,” she said.

As was case throughout Ridley-Thomas’ trial, supporters packed the courtroom, with more watching from an overflow room. At one point before the sentencing hearing began, the throngs of people waiting to enter broke into spontaneous applause when Ridley-Thomas made his way through the crowd.

It would be inaccurate to say there was a single moment of shock as Fischer read the sentence: The judge had already been speaking for about a half an hour, and there were sighs and murmured “no’s” throughout the gallery as she repeatedly sided with the prosecution’s sentencing arguments.

Ridley-Thomas — who was on the City Council when he was indicted on federal corruption charges nearly two years ago — was convicted of seven felonies in a scheme in which he extracted benefits from USC for himself and his son while on the powerful L.A. County Board of Supervisors, before his rejoining the council.

The former councilman argued during the sentencing that he hadn’t broken the law, saying the case “exists somewhere between what is clearly legal conduct on one end, and clearly illegal conduct on the other.”

While he disagreed that he had ever crossed the line into illegal conduct, he acknowledged that he belonged at the other “end of the spectrum where there would be little, if any, question of even the appearance of unlawfulness.” Ridley-Thomas must report to prison by Nov. 13, a week after he turns 69.

But as one L.A. public corruption case comes to a close, another remains open.

Councilmember Curren Price — who was supposed to be arraigned the same morning Ridley-Thomas was sentenced in a courtroom a block and a half away — once again had his arraignment continued, this time until Oct. 13.

“I appreciate that the District Attorney’s Office and Superior Court have agreed to continue the arraignment date. I ask the public to be patient and to reserve judgment until all the facts have been thoroughly presented, because I have faith in the legal process,” Price said Monday in a written statement. “The allegations against me are unfounded, I know that my name will eventually be cleared.”

Price has yet to enter a plea in the case and remains on the council. He was criminally charged by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office in June and stands accused of improperly receiving medical benefits from the city for his now-wife, Del Richardson Price, while he was still married to another woman. He is also accused of voting on projects while Richardson Price’s consulting firm was working for developers of those same projects.

In a new fight over documents in the case, the L.A. city attorney’s office recently moved to quash a subpoena from the district attorney’s office, arguing that providing the materials sought would violate attorney-client privilege and “interfere with the strong governmental interest in encouraging elected officials to seek out legal advice on possible conflicts of interest.”

City attorney spokesperson Ivor Pine told The Times on Friday that while his office is “committed to assisting the district attorney’s office to the fullest extent permitted by law and ethics,” it is not permitted to produce the “confidential and privileged information” the D.A. is seeking.

“It’s our duty to preserve the confidentiality of attorney-client privileged communications, and breaching this obligation would not only violate the law and professional ethics, but would make it impossible for the City Attorney to adequately represent the city of LA,” Pine said by email.

The subpoena seeks all records involving the city attorney’s office providing conflict of interest advice to Richardson Price, including advice described in an April 28, 2019, Times story, as well as all records where the city attorney’s office advised Price about potential conflicts of interest with Richardson Price and her company, Del Richardson & Associates.

(The D.A.’s office is referring to a story by my colleague Emily Alpert Reyes showing how Price had repeatedly cast votes that affected housing developers and other firms listed as clients of his wife’s consulting company. The story quotes an email Richardson had sent to a city employee, describing advice she had been given by the city attorney’s office.)

Casey Higgins, the deputy district attorney who filed the subpoena, said he disagreed with “the position the LA City Attorney has taken especially since they are asserting their client is the City not Curren Price or Del Richardson.”

“As I expressed in court, I am hoping my office can meet and confer with the LA City Attorney before the next court date to resolve this matter short of an actual hearing on it,” Higgins said via email. Price’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The matter is set to come before a judge Oct. 13, if it is not resolved beforehand.

State of play

— STILL NAMELESS? The official name of a new forthcoming Porter Ranch park, which was set be named after former City Councilman Mitch Englander and his relatives — until Englander went to prison — remains a mystery, the Daily News reports. However, Councilmember John Lee has proposed naming the site after Jane Boeckmann, the late wife of late philanthropist Bert Boeckmann, who owned Galpin Motors.

— ALISO CANYON WATCH: Climate activists and western San Fernando Valley residents are among those outraged that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s appointees on the California Public Utilities Commission voted this week to let SoCal Gas store far more fuel at Aliso Canyon. The facility, just outside L.A. city limits in the Santa Susana Mountains, was the site of a massive methane leak in 2015.

— COMMISSION SPOTS: The City Council approved Fabian Garcia‘s appointment to the Los Angeles Police Commission. Garcia — a crime prevention expert who serves as director of government relations for Homeboy Industries — replaces longtime commissioner Steve Soboroff, whose term expired.

— VANLORD CRACKDOWN: The council backed an effort to regulate the leasing of RVs and crack down on “vanlords” who rent them to homeless people. The proposal, which was introduced by Councilmember Traci Park, still has to be drafted by the city attorney and return to council for another vote before becoming law.

— ULA $$$: The council also passed a $150-million spending plan for funds raised by Measure ULA on Tuesday, marking the first time funds will be specifically allocated since Angelenos passed the so-called mansion tax in November. The expenditure plan will be directed to short-term emergency rental assistance and eviction defense, among other programs.

— HITTING BACK AT TEXAS: The council voted unanimously Wednesday to look into whether the city can sue the state of Texas and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for sending a busload of migrants to Los Angeles on June 14, and to investigate whether Abbott’s actions violated any criminal laws. Ten more busloads of migrants have arrived in the city since that first bus on June 14 — including one that pulled up to Union Station as the council was meeting Wednesday.

— ARTSAKH SQUARE: The Westside intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Granville Avenue — in front of the consulate of Azerbaijan — is now officially Artsakh Square. Street signs went up Thursday, unveiled by Council President Paul Krekorian and Councilmember Traci Park. Artsakh is how Armenians refer to the disputed territory Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian enclave that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

The L.A. City Council wanted to draw attention to the humanitarian situation there. The territory has been disputed for decades, with tensions occasionally breaking into war. Since December, Azerbaijan has blocked the only road between the territory and Armenia, a move that Armenia says has denied the population food, medicine and other necessities. Los Angeles County has been home to a substantial Armenian population for more than a century.

— HONORING A POLITICAL PIONEER: Former Assemblymember Cindy Montañez received moving honors during Tuesday’s council meeting, with the body voting unanimously to rename Pacoima Wash Natural Park in her honor. Montañez, an environmental advocate, is in the late stages of an aggressive cancer that has left her unable to walk.

— WAGE THEFT MOTION: Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martínez and Tim McOsker joined City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto on Friday morning to announce a proposal to strengthen enforcement of wage theft violations in the city.

— PROGRAM ENDS: The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor laid off 29 canvassers and 10 salaried employees will lose their positions at the end of the year. The layoffs are connected to the conclusion of The People’s Project, a grant-funded program for rental, utility and food assistance, the Federation said. The Federation will help the salaried employees transition into other job opportunities, said Fed President Yvonne Wheeler. Wheeler told The Times Friday that the union group “isn’t having financial problems.”

QUICK HITS

• On the docket for next week: Monday is Labor Day.