Judy Bingham said she’s just a citizen looking out for taxpayers’ money.
In the wake of charges being filed against seven former city officials, others are offering far greater praise.
“She’s a local hero,” said Chris Mann, a political consultant and former state Assembly candidate. “If it was not for Judy Bingham, this corruption could still be going on.”
The 31-year Beaumont resident has spent more than a decade researching, talking and sometimes screaming about possible malfeasance in city government. Frequently addressing the City Council, she has shared the information she gathered regarding alleged wrong-doing by city administrators with numerous agencies.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s office listened, eventually leading to raids on City Hall and other locations in April 2015. That led to Tuesday’s announcement that the former city officials are collectively facing 94 felony charges, including embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, conspiracy and conflict of interest.
The charges stem from the suspected misappropriation of $43 million in public money over two decades, according to the district attorney’s office.
“I just had to do what I had to do,” Bingham said Wednesday, May 18, as she sat in an office at Bingham Wholesale Nursery, one of two family owned businesses. “I couldn’t let those guys get away with it.”
Bingham’s concerns centered on the relationship between the city and consultant Urban Logic, which employed many of the administrators who were indicted.
She has a large binder of letters and paperwork, dating to the first missive she sent in 2005 seeking copies of contracts. Since Bingham brought up conflict of interest claims among the city’s top officials, she says she has been harassed, arrested and sued, spending thousands of dollars defending herself.
She was arrested and eventually convicted of evading police, resisting arrest and making threats in 2005. She said the dispute started when the city took some of her property under eminent domain to build a road. She said she completed her probation and community service while also attending anger management classes.
Bingham can be loud, abrasive and combative, often raising her voice to get her point across.
“She’s been a polarizing figure in Beaumont, for sure,” Mann said. “Sometimes people are easily dismissed by the approach they take.”
There is perhaps no public record she hasn’t requested – then scolded city officials when they didn’t provide them quickly enough, or at all.
But Bingham said it hasn’t always been that way.
“I was nice back then,” she said of her early days asking questions. “I did everything the right way. I was quiet. We did the nice things, it did us no good.”
Most public boards have regular critics. But sometimes, like the case of John Moorlach, who predicted the Orange County bankruptcy in 1994, they are heralds.
“Once in awhile those gadflies are on to something,” Mann said.
And while Bingham was smiling quite a bit Wednesday, she knows the issue isn’t closed. There are still questions about where more than $400 million in bond money has gone.
“This is just the beginning,” she said.
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