In the eternal spin wheel of political scandals in southeast Los Angeles County, the stock is now on Huntington Park – it looks like it will be stuck there for a while.

Blue-collar, overwhelmingly Latino cities faced lawsuits by former congressman Esmeralda Castillo, who claimed she was illegally removed from office in February after an investigation that determined Castillo was not residing within the city limits and was therefore not qualified. Mayor Arturo Flores is fighting a recall of opponents who claim to be "recky alcoholism" on social media and abuses women while providing no evidence to support the exaggeration.

His former congressman, Karina Macias, woke up Feb. 26 to a Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office investigator in a search warrant outside her apartment as part of Operation Dirty Pond. This is a survey of the $25 million aquatic center at Salt Lake Park, which was first announced in 2019, but so far there is nothing to show except half of the football field and fenced dirt and dying grass. Councilman Eddie Martinez, two former council members, city manager Ricardo Reyes and even Huntington Park City Hall, blocked the front entrance when investigators executed the evidence.

Then there is the long-term city of Atti. Arnold Alvarez-Glasman resigned at a special council meeting in early March, two days after the operational dirty pond raid. He claimed Flores and his council allies were “unreasonably difficult.”

Can it be easy for today's council meetings to dissolve more municipalities Disadvantages?

Although political malfeasance occurs across regions of Southern California, over the past three decades, the Skulduggery level, and sometimes even downright thievery level of the council members of the Los Angeles County City, has made the area’s politics notorious. There is South Gate, former mayor and treasurer Albert Robles was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in 2006 on corruption charges, while an elderly council member survived the unresolved case. Bell, in mid-2010, five former council members and two city staff were convicted for decades.

It's local politics, as WrestleMania.

Huntington Park was supposed to be different, a new generation of politicians who repeatedly took away the bad guys of the past and made the public break the corruption cycle. That's what they told me last year, when I did a series of Latino political history in Los Angeles.

OK, we're here.

At the April 7 meeting, Flores don't want Want (her) support,” the audience responded to the rumbling and murmuring of “Oh, God.”

A few weeks later, when Nancy Martiz was sworn in, filling Castillo's front seat Macias, just as someone was waiting for Uber to ride.

"Your background is just corrupt," Rudy Cruz told the council at a meeting on the public comment section on April 7. "It's like oysters onto the rocks. It's hard to take them off."

Afterwards, I asked him if he believed that the promotion of Flores represents a new beginning in Huntington Park. The 48-year-old resident smiled.

"There are others who are waiting for animals to die like vultures." "Here (in Huntington Park), immoral moralization, illegality is legal."

I interviewed Flores and Macias at their chosen location to make them big and decide who stands out and who fills it. Flores, a self-attractive one”Peleonero” - A fighter - His first term in office appeared in Salt Lake Park wearing a Kahart jacket with an urban seal and name.

Both are children of Mexican immigrants who grew up in a blue-collar community - Flores in South Los Angeles, and Marcias in Huntington Park. They work on jobs that require selflessness and attention to detail - Flores is an ocean bomb dog trainer who travels in Afghanistan and Iraq, while Macias becomes a full-time caretaker for her parents. They were former political allies who had previously conducted political campaigns for Efren Martinez, who and The consulting business is also searched as part of the Dirty Pond operation.

"This is the legacy of Karina Marcias, you know?" Flores, 36, told me as we walked in the Salt Lake Park. People jog around the fenced lot that used to be a skating park. “It’s a failed pool project, full of inconsistencies, full of suspicious behavior and questions of legitimacy and incompetence.”

“They (Flores and his allies) put a gray cloud on something that could change the lives of the community,” Macias, 38, replied as I shared his thoughts. She has been sitting on the city council since 2013. "There is no misconduct, or something hidden, or something misunderstood or stolen. What he is saying, nothing, you know?"

Both use “You know?” in our conversation, like any typical Latino Angelno. Both sides claim that the “community” is behind them and welcomes all reviews.

"I'm not panic, do you know what I'm talking about?" the 36-year-old Flores boasted. “I’m as cool as a cucumber.”

"If you don't have enemies, you won't press a button or try to prepare for the community," Macias, 38, said with a pride.

This is not her first scandal. In 2017, the DA investigated and eventually cleared her to raise funds for the Efren Martinez rally for the company trying to do business with Huntington Park.

This time, Macias introduced me to a folder that included a timetable for Salt Lake Park Water Center, which included all council votes, including a 2023 motion that empowered the city manager of Huntington Park to enforce all contracts related to the project. Is that a yes vote? Flores.

"The mayor decided to just get nothing because he started with the project." Later, when she handed me her business card as we walked along Pacific Avenue, she noticed it was outdated.

"It still says the mayor," said Marcias, with a small smile on her face. "Don't tell the mayor."

Flores didn't hand me the file, but something more powerful: regret.

After a decade of political work in Los Angeles County, including being the body of Antonio Villaraigosa during the failed gubernatorial campaign, Flores moved to Huntington Park in 2018.

He admitted: "I wouldn't say there is no political ambition there."

He provided a successful 2020 city council campaign for Eddie Martinez, Graciela Ortiz and Marilyn Sanabria; the latter two also saw their residence being searched as part of Operation Dirty Pond. Flores said they and Macias were originally sold in the Salt Lake Park Pool Project.

"I feel inspired. I think that's a beautiful thing," he said. "I thought, 'That's what we need. Latinos need this.' Why can't we have good things in our community, right?"

They told him that the watchdog's criticism was just "Los Hate. But Flores said his views changed once he was appointed to the city council in 2022, and he went to the city hall during the heavy rain.

"The staff had 30 gallons filled with water. There was mold on the walls. The roof was leaking. I went to the city manager's office and I said, 'Hey, hey, you know, sorry, my Frenchman, but F-What's going on here?'"

Compared to Macias' measurement answer, the subsequent fire hose he released during prolonged chats seemed to be accidental. Flores like "whenever they try to manipulate me against me, they get insurmountable reactions because I'm already expecting it's their tactic", which sounds like something someone asks to be hung up by the petard of their proverb.

However, Macias was not helped when she insisted that Efren Martinez "participate in" the Salt Lake Park Pool Project. One of his clients listed in the 2020 failed campaign disclosure form is a construction company Their The residences also searched for dirty pond operations.

Unless subjects were between each other, both Flores and Macias were pleasant. They were shocked by the seriousness of improving Huntington Park and were innocent of the opponents’ demands on them.

But one of them must be wrong, right?

As a decisive game, I called Hector de La Torre, former Congress bishop, who entered politics a quarter of a century ago to help clear his hometown south gate. He is now the Executive Director of the Gateway City Government Committee, which advocates 27 cities from Montebello to Long Beach to Long Beach to Cerritos and all Southeast Los Angeles County cities, and works with Flores and Marcias in that capacity.

De la Torre praised the two for their “dedication” to the better Better Huntington Park and urged them to let the dirty pond investigator operation get the job done. But he told me in a tired tone: "In Sierra, sometimes it's not about someone getting rid of corruption and cleaning up the city." (Sela is the nickname for Southeast Los Angeles.)

"Sometimes, these are two different factions, both as dark as the other," he said. "The waves are not from corrupt to good government;