By: Libi Uremovic | Original Article at patch.com
At the September 1, 2015 Beaumont City Council Meeting Councilmen made statements alluded to a mysterious, magical alternative universe that past Councils clung to:
White: “Most people in Beaumont will never know what we know.”
Lara: “As Councilman White said; we’ll never know.”
Fox: “..we found out about it just like you did..”
Incorrect on all counts.
Council wants to pretend that no one knew of the City’s illegal activity until it was presented to them last week by a consultant, when in fact most people in the Pass Area know that Beaumont is a corrupt town.
The theory that it’s in the best interest of the City to continue a mantra of denial is incorrect. The illegal activity of the City has already been exposed, will be further exposed in the State Controller’s Report, and will be dissected throughout the trials.
Beaumont got away with a lot of corruption for long time, which created a long and ugly trail. Many people in town have been documenting the City’s illegal activity for over a decade. They have spoken many times before Council and they were ignored and/or ridiculed.
And yes, there are going to be Indictments with big ugly words like fraud, embezzlement, and racketeering. Beaumont’s white collar criminals had the same mindset as any other deviants; they thought they would’t get caught. Now that they’re caught they’re all telling themselves that they won’t go to prison, but they have to go to prison or they will never stop their deviant behavior.
Council approved every transaction. Council knew or should have known that the activities of the city government were illegal. Every private and public sector entity that contributed to the corruption in Beaumont will be held accountable.
Beaumont City Council Transcript September 1, 2015
80:00 White: Most people in Beaumont will never know what we know. I wish we could tell you everything that we know, but it’s in the best interest of the City that we do what is ‘right’. It would be irresponsible and a failure of our obligation to our citizens if we were to just come out and start firing people and suing people without looking at the best way to do it because if we do it wrong; it’s like this budget, we have one shot at it. If we do it wrong it can cost us millions more than if we do it right. I’m just hoping that you realize that I and my colleagues up here are looking out for what we think is the best interest of the City.
81:00 White: If we are not making the best decision for the City then we need to hear about it. There’s another election in 12, 13 months. We’re not frivolous, we’re paying our bills and it’s something we are committed to doing.
82:30 Lara: As Councilman White said; we’ll never know. The City will never know all the details. For the past 8 years we’ve spent money that we didn’t have and it’s going to take more than two months and cutting a bunch of contracts to solve and fix this fiscal issue. It’s going to take us some time and we’re going to need that time and we’re going to need that support from the City to work through these issues. It’s not going to happen overnight.
85:00 Fox: It’s a lot of sleepless nights, especially when we first found out about the situation and we found out about it just like you did, how bad it was. It’s not something that was put off or whatever.
95:00 Knight: We’re working diligently together and nothing could be worse than looking at laying off employees.