Heads up. Lynwood Watch reports that the Montebello city council voted to hire Arnoldo Beltran as city attorney.
http://lynwoodwatch.blogspot.com/2007/02/montebello-city-council-selects-beltran.html
The LW people say that it's because a big developer lives in Montebello.
LA Weekly reports that Beltran is one of three lawyers involved in pulling out recall campaigns against unfriendly city council members.
http://puertorico.backpage.com/services/classifieds/ViewAd?oid=oid%3A196582&name=legal%20services
http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/the-town-the-law-forgot/15731/?page=3
According to the latter article: "The methods of Beltran, Leal and Olivas left a mark on their former law partner Jesse Jauregui, who broke all ties with the group in 2001. Jauregui has this — and only this — to say about his old colleagues: “I’m glad to no longer be a part of Tammany Hall–style politics. How far it goes, I do not know. It became a seamy situation.”"
So, watch out for things like turning city council members into city managers. Maybe Montebello will be able to disentangle itself from the machine.
addition - the race card
One way to trip up a potential attack from these power brokers - elect Latinos who aren't in their machine. They use ethnic politics to mobilize Latino votes.
Francisco Leal and Arnoldo Beltran
See this 1999 Los Angeles Times regarding Arnoldo Beltran, Francisco Leal and David Olivas at these two links:
http://sandiego.fox6.com/services/classifieds/ViewAd?oid=oid%3A1431190&name=legal%20services and
http://northbay.backpage.com/online/classifieds/ViewAd?oid=oid%3A569095&name=legal%20services
A blog regarding Lynwood issues (where Beltran is the City Attorney) also has a link to the recent LA Weekly article: see http://lynwoodwatch.blogspot.com/2007/03/beltran-and-leal-have-made-small.html.
Link to LA Weekly Article
The link to the LA Weekly article can be found at: http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/the-town-the-law-forgot/15731/?page=3
Beltran Fired In Lynwood
Montebello's City Attorney, Arnoldo Beltran, was fired as the City Attorney of Lynwood. See the article here: http://wavenewspapers.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=81&twindow=Default&mad=No&sdetail=6001&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1019&hn=wavenewspapers&he=.com.
This was also reported on a Lynwood-based blog. See http://lynwoodwatch.blogspot.com.
Francisco Leal and Arnoldo Beltran
You cal also see the article regarding Beltran and City Attorney Francisco Leal at: http://www.watchourcity.4mg.com