The Antelope Valley Times

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Mayor commends terminated Section 8 fraud investigators

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Terminated Section 8 fraud investigators John O’ Neal, Alan Mullins, and Gary Brody received commendations from Mayor R. Rex Parris at Tuesday’s council meeting. Photo courtesy City of Lancaster.

LANCASTER – At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Mayor R. Rex Parris recognized the area’s three Section 8 fraud investigators, who were terminated after the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to cut their funding following a discrimination lawsuit.

According to a city news release, Lancaster has suffered an increase in crime since the dismissal of the area’s Section 8 investigators, who worked to eliminate program fraud in the Antelope Valley.

Parris and the City Council were compelled to show appreciation for the thankless job of the investigators who once had a significantly positive effect on minimizing crime in local neighborhoods, the news release states.

John O.Neal, Alan Mullins and Gary Brody received commendations from the mayor Tuesday night. Regarding the commendations, Parris released the following statement:

“The City’s fight against Section 8 fraud has been an uphill battle that has not garnered the support we had hoped for from agencies that are supposedly in place to help communities progress, and not set them back.

The increase in local crime and the corresponding ten percent of arrested Section 8 recipients associated with those crimes is proof of this area’s dire need for Section 8 program compliance enforcement. Section 8 fraud is not only criminal, but also directly ties to other criminal activities throughout the community.

There is  nothing being done to effectively investigate Section 8 criminals who operate under the radar of L.A. County’s two investigators who are responsible for evaluating more than 20,000 Section 8 cases countywide on an ongoing basis.

Do the math… it is ridiculous!

Having worked nonstop for several months now to combat a rising crime rate since the removal of our area investigators, the City and the Sheriffs hold an even higher appreciation and respect for the efforts of these individuals who worked hard to weed out the bad seeds in Section 8 housing.

These three individuals often went into hostile environments, and had the formidable task of investigating questionable conditions with dangerous Section 8 violators, in some cases even being shot at. Despite some of their horror stories, they continued to go out of their way to help those who were just dealing with difficult circumstances and needed a break. They protected our residents and our neighborhoods as best they could and, consequently, got thrown under the bus by a system which failed them and continues to fail us as a community.

We’d like to recognize these brave individuals who struggled to make the Antelope Valley a better place for residents. These men did their jobs by the law; put their hearts into their work; saved the Section 8 program millions of dollars in fraudulent cases; made our neighborhoods better places to live; and, ultimately, survived a severely undeserved mudslinging from some of the very people to whom they extended a helping hand… leaving them media-bashed and jobless.

My. John O’ Neal, Mr. Alan Mullins, and Mr. Gary Brody… from the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of the City of Lancaster and our residents who truly value all that you have done for our community, I’d like to say thank you.

The Antelope Valley was a much safer place when you men were able to mend a broken system.”

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Filed Under: Lancaster

52 comments for "Mayor commends terminated Section 8 fraud investigators"

  2. YAY HERE IS YOUR COOKIE FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING SORRY YOU HAVE NO JOB NOW BUT I AS THE MAYOR NEED TO LOOK LIKE IM DOING SOMETHING WHILE MY TOWN IS BECOMING THE OTHER HALF OF COMPTON.

  3. Mr. Brody’s professionalism is above reproach. He was a tremendous asset to our community an is greatly missed by those who had the pleasure of knowing him.

  4. Gary Brody – Good, Hard worker, Honest, Admirable.
    R. Rex Parris – Bad, Ambulance chaser, Totally dishonest, Disgusting.

  5. I lived at Woodlands West Townhomes in Lancaster. They accepted Section 8. I had to pay the almost $1000 a month rent. And I HATED IT! The section 8 people would stay up and drink all night on their back patio and I was trying to sleep so I could go to work. They threw their trash on the ground. A group of kids loved to go and knock on the doors at night and spray a type of confetti on your door. The apartment complex must have been trying to “save” money and the landscaping was dirt. They turned on their sprinklers on the dirt but the system itself was poor and was pointed toward the sidewalks…so in the winter in 30 degrees as you were trying to leave to go to work you would get soaken wet and I got pneumonia. The whole back section of the apartment complex smelled like urine and garbage. People had enormous dogs on their back patios like German Shepherds…and section 8 people DON’T CARE if their dog barks all day long and all night long, because I think they are too drunk to notice. The people that lived next to me I don’t even know if they fed their dog because he would drag his metal bowl against the concrete all night. I NEVER GOT SLEEP! I almost fell asleep at the wheel! I was a single mom and worked in Burbank. It took me 2 1/2 hours to commute to work. Another one of my friends in the complex was living in Valencia. She was informed by management she could no longer qualify for rent after living there 8 years because they were increasing the rent about $500 a month. She was a single educated black woman…and she had a daughter. She was so depressed. In the laundry room of this apartment complex, someone DEFECATED in the dryer. You cannot even go swimming in the pool there without a gang of scary guys staring you down. You wonder if you will be raped. I live in Palmdale now and the Section 8 renters in the neighborhood I live in…they don’t notify the landlord they have vicious dogs which requires special homeowners insurance…the dogs bark all day and all night…and they do not maintain the yard. When they move out, the homeowner has to gut the whole house..because they defecate on the carpet and they get so drunk they knock holes in the cabinets and the walls. So these men, if they are respectful and are doing their job, then they should be getting rid of the fraud. It is not fair that in some areas of our country, a woman who was beat up, her friend called 911 and the cops came and took her to jail and 7 cops came into her cell and forcibly removed her clothing and left her to naked detention. And these people are getting away with fraud? Every-time I go to Walmart in Lancaster I get behind someone on Food-stamps. And they give a load of cash for their alcohol and then when the cashier applies the remaining cash to part of the food, they throw the biggest temper tantrum and hold up the line for 30 minutes. If you got cash for beer, you got cash for rent and food.

    • How do people afford a dog, a big dog, on Section 8? Aren’t they low income and pets, even a cat, cost money for food, license and vet bills.

      • a dog? They most likely have 2 or 3 and one that they keep for unlicensed breeding to sell to other ghetto rats.

    • Sarah,

      Why wouldnt you stay up all night and party if you didn’t have to work the next day and the government was paying for everything including your housing, food and giving you cash to buy goodies?

      That is what these people are accustomed to and that is why the system we have now is broke!

  6. Thank you, Mr. Brody, for your honorable duties as law enforcement. Ace, I’m sure if the state itself handed you a million dollars, you’d bitch about it. You poor, black soul, you…Now go. Just go…..

  7. Hmmm.. This article is very interesting indeed. Its funny how Rex is giving these guys an award. Then he wants the say that crime has gone up since they got their funding cut? I thought violent crime was soupposed to be down in the AV. I guess Im wrong. And why does Parris harp so much about crime in the AV? He reminds me of the Macarthy era politicians always harping on the next big commie threat that was soupposed to be around the corner but turned out to never be there. Im not saying that there isnt crime in the AV that needs to be addressed, there is and Im not saying that there arent people in the AV who my be living frodulently off of govt. subsidised housing, all Im saying is that R Rex. seems to live for this kind of stuff. I mean, he’s always talking about it. Where I live in Palmdale our mayor is not always talking about crime and obcessing over it. Whatever crime there is the deputies deal with it and no one else has much to say about it. But why does R Rex spend so much time trying to create boogeymen for people to be afraid of. If you constantly conjur up negative things in your head then negative things may come at you in reality. Im just saying.

  8. In the last days right will be wrong and wrong will be right. Another example as the BIBLE say.

  9. Any chance of these guys getting their jobs back? There is still a lot of clean-up to do in this city.

  10. If you payed cash for your house or have a mortgage, why would you want someone living next to you or on the block getting Section8?

  11. another example of white kids getting preferential treatment. Young man advertised the party on FB. Girls free, guys $2 before 10pm and $3 after 10pm. Cars lined the street behind his house and a few out front. The cops were called by neighbors and when they arrived a “lookout” ran into the house yelling “cops”. House went silent and dark. Home owner’s son finally opened door to police and said he just had a couple of kids over. Only 3 or 4 kids remained in view. The rest were hiding in closets, and under the motorhome. Most of the kids had gone out the patio door, jumped the fence and hid in neighbors yards. Police saw about 20 of the 40 kids who were there. They were all drinking and visibly intoxicated with some passed out or sleeping as one deputy put it. One girl had yelled out earlier to someone that the event was a rave.
    No kids were arrested. I don’t think they even took names.
    Last time cops came to a loud party at that house, the cops and kids were calling eachother by first names and cops laughed when a drunk boy fell off the porch.

      • waaa!GetMEaTISSUE, I don’t even know where Compton is. I have never been there, have no need to ever go there. Are there alot of European women there? If so, I may fit in. If not, I probably wouldn’t fit in there anymore than I do in the butt crack of California, known as Lancaster.
        I do what I can to help and support my community and it bothers me to see people getting paid to do a job and not do it. Sorry, off topic again.
        The Section 8 Investigators should have been kept on the payroll. Since the raids on the section 8 houses were made public on the news, for everyone to see who was being targeted and how they were being treated. Minority families were usually the target. I wish other agencys would investigate fraud as vigerously

  12. These gentlemen should still have their jobs as they were the only hope we had in the great AV to rid this valley of the lying, cheating, pos’s who will continue to abuse the system. Discrimination….damn straight, against those who did their job, and tried to clean up our lost valley.

  13. Yes!!!!! Go Brody, Go Brody!!!!! This is your day and you are awesome along with all the others for protecting our streets!!!! If you are Sec 8 and dont respect were you are leave.

  14. Although I, too, commend the efforts of any enforcement official in trying to root out violations of law, I must protest the typically self serving comments of Parris (Not to mention the highly questionable veracity of his claims regarding crime that only started to rise on his watch as mayor). It is highly inappropriate to turn an awards presentation into a political attack platform and all that Parris has done is to degrade the honor that he was supposed to be bestowing upon these gentlemen.

      • If you want to accept his pablum for the idiots, that’s up to you. Me, I know what this guy really is about. I don’t ‘hate’ Parris, just what he’s doing behind the scenes and how people like you just blindly believe him. If he wasn’t occupying the office of Mayor, I would not have much concern about him.

        • How did I know that the Parris hating troll “Stinger” would be commenting on this!

          • How did I know that Parris’ trolls would be engaging in ad hominems whenever I mention a legitimate complaint on how this was done without addressing the issue brought up?

            Go drink your koolaid.

          • So you say you “know” Parris.. Interesting…did he shut down one of your “committees” that you started? Or better yet did you work for the guy and he saw your lame azz for what it was and fired you? Do tell “Stinger” fool!

          • Still avoiding the subject matter, I see. Typical Parrisite hijack attempt: do not respond to the issue and engage in ad hominem attacks upon the person that dares to disagree or question.

  15. I tend to think any group of people the sheriffs exclusively sit on could see a 10% amount of said group being criminals. Especially if the sheriffs are hoping they are criminals. Would be interesting to see what would happen to the kids here on the west side if the sheriffs put all their resources on “finding criminals” in that area.

    • This is true, but the argument is that the Section 8 recipients are doing so on the taxpayers dime and thus should be allowed to be monitored. TCAL/NAACP disagree with this and in lies the motivation for fighting the lawsuit brought up by them.
      So the real question is; If singling out a specific race is discrimination then is it also discrimination if a global non-discriminant action results in a single race being singled out?
      NAACP would want everyone to think so, but then the results of this would be that every act of moderation would result in a majority of a single race and thus discrimination against that race.
      Extending that to a real example would be that the US Census is a discriminatory act because it singles out white people more than any other race.
      This is not geometry and these are not proofs you can not invert the terms to produce the same result. Sorry NAACP/TCAL you are wrong in my opinion.

      • This is what floors me:

        It’s not “discrimination” when the County gives 70% of all Section 8 vouchers to African Americans, despite the fact that they only make up 9.3% of the county population according to the 2010 U.S. Census

        http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06037.html

        Yet, when the number of Section 8 voucher holders who compromise their vouchers by engaging in illegal activities turns up mainly African Americans, it is then “discrimination”? SERIOUSLY?

        I think that Los Angeles County Housing Authority needs to be investigated for favoring one race over others with regard to Section 8 vouchers.

        This is not fair to those of us who pay taxes who have elderly relatives who could use this program.

      • Excellent summation of the issue from both sides, Adam. Not sure if the language you used is too high brow for some here, but I follow you completely.

        In my day, I too had Section 8 while I was out of state. I signed documents stating that my residence was to be inspected regularly and, if I wasn’t living up to the terms of the agreement, I would be terminated from the Section 8 program. Pretty straightforward agreement if you ask me.

        The more I consider the matter, you’ve got to admit the current Section 8 rules and regulations need much needed oversight and overhaul. Accountability is the key to making it work. Without accountability, the whole thing falls flat on its face. That’s what we got here with the Section 8 investigators being involuntarily laid off. Right now the LA County Board of Supervisors have the backbone of a worm, and until that changes, the situation won’t either.

        • The points made by you, Adam, and T. Chen are well taken. I, too, believe that appropriate accountability is required for any program to weed out those that are simply milking the system without just cause. That just makes plain sense. The issue that I see is less about racism (yes, I think the NAACP and TCAL are on the wrong track here, too), but rather a form of class warfare based upon inaccurately reported and hyperbolized stereotypes without the statistical proof to support the particularly heavy tactics involved. This was exacerbated by Parris’ heavy-handed and ill-though out comments which made the issue stand out until it became an easy target for those who thrive on lawsuits.

          • Stinker, what you and others fail to realize about these Section 8 complaints is that Parris was not even the mayor when the majority of these whiners were “violated”. Henry Hearns was. Check your dates. The investigators that were so rightly commended this week responded to complaints from neighbors. Deputies had no input on what locations were visited. Those were chosen by the investigators , BASED ON PHONE OR WRITTEN COMPLAINTS! Cops didn’t call them up and say “what black family on Section 8 should we go screw with today?” T.Chen is right on the money! If you give 70% of the vouchers to blacks, why are you surprised when the majority of the crooks turn out to be black?

          • Obviously, you were so busy trying to go into attack mode that you didn’t pay attention to what I was saying. Try again.