The City of Bell’s former police chief Randy Adams and L.A. County Assessor John Noguez show indications of alcoholism.
Under watch:
In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine mentioned something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” I would add that those who don’t figure this out might benefit from greater introspection. In the spirit of The Economist’s discovery, recent stories follow for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the behaviors themselves.
Former city of Bell, California police chief Randy Adams, whose attempt to more than double his yearly pension to $510,000 was rejected by administrative law judge James Ahler, who determined it was never properly approved by the Bell City Council. Adams ran the tiny police department for barely a year, but his extraordinary annual salary of $457,000, far higher than either the Los Angeles police chief or the police commissioner of New York City, put him in a position to more than double his retirement pension. Ahler said that keeping Adams’ contract secret was part of a plan to hide city salaries, spear-headed by former City Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo and former assistant administrator Angela Spaccia, whose names graced these pages in issues # 56 and # 57. While we got lucky in being able to prove Rizzo’s alcoholism—he was popped for a DUI a few months before the Bell scandal broke, which at 55 years of age virtually confirms alcoholism—we haven’t been as lucky with Adams. However, consider: (1) he may have taken part in a conspiracy to hide salaries, (2) he more than doubled his salary after leaving the city of Glendale, California, which is six times the size of Bell, (3) he exhibited extraordinary greed at taxpayers’ expense by squeezing the purse strings of the much-lower income residents of Bell, and (4) he asserted his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination an astounding 20 times during the hearing. This all suggests a need to wield power over others in capricious fashion, which would be best explained by long-standing alcoholism.
Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez, accused of accepting bribes to reduce assessed valuations of properties represented by property tax consultant Ramin Salari, along with a top deputy of Noguez, Mark McNeil and a lower-level assessor’s office employee, Scott Schenter, all facing numerous corruption charges. Since the ongoing case (no one has been convicted—yet) involves bureaucrats and crapitalists, we will likely never get proof of psychoactive drug addiction in any of them. However, the behaviors of which they are accused (and for which the evidence seems overwhelming) speak loudly. In the meantime, Noguez is on paid leave and continues to collect his $197,637 yearly salary at taxpayers’ expense.