Longtime lobbyist and former Los Angeles City Hall staffer Morrie Goldman has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit bribery and mail fraud in the wide-ranging corruption probe centered on Councilman Jose Huizar and an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving real estate developers.
Goldman owns and operates the lobbying firm Urban Solutions LLC, which claims to specialize in negotiating and navigating City Hall approval for real estate projects, including hotels and high-rise apartment towers. Goldman’s firm represented San Francisco-based developer Carmel Partners on 520 Mateo, a proposed 35-story high-rise in the Arts District referred to in court filings as Project M. According to a plea agreement filed Tuesday, Goldman was a lobbyist for “Company M.”
Goldman was one of several people who had established a pair of political action committees, one of which purported to support a variety of causes but was created to benefit the City Council bid of Huizar’s wife; according to court documents, if elected, Huizar’s wife would help Huizar and his associates “maintain a political stronghold in the city.”
In the plea agreement, Goldman admitted that in September 2018 he agreed with Huizar and an executive from Goldman’s “Company M” that the developer would contribute $50,000 to the PAC supporting the political campaign of Huizar’s wife. In exchange, Huizar was to vote against a union appeal of the Company M project in the committee he chaired at the time – Planning and Land Use Management.
Court records show that Company M's projects benefited from the city approval process, being approved for a reduction in the project's low-income housing availability and yielding the company about $14 million in savings.
Of the $150,000 in donations the developer agreed to pay, about half was paid before an FBI search of Huizar's home and offices in November 2018.
“My client allowed himself to become part of the orbit of a very corrupt man, and he ended up participating in things that have led to his plea agreement. Now [Goldman] is reclaiming the moral ground he ceded to Jose Huizar, and my client will do everything he lawfully can, for as long as it takes, to make things right,” said Goldman's attorney, Steve Meister. “It’s a cautionary tale of how even for a person of integrity and a previously unblemished record, like Morrie Goldman, all of this can happen.”
Goldman is the sixth defendant charged in the FBI's investigation into corruption at L.A. City Hall. Four defendants have so far pled guilty and are awaiting sentencing, including former L.A. City Councilman Mitchell Englander. Goldman will make his first court appearance September 23. Upon pleading guilty to conspiracy, he will face a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.
Huizar’s trial date has been set for June 22, 2021 and the U.S. Attorney’s Office anticipates a grand jury will consider adding additional charges and additional defendants in a superseding indictment. If that happens, prosecutors will likely seek a unified trial date for all defendants.
Goldman is no stranger to L.A. City Hall, having served as Chief of Staff to two former City Councilmembers, including Hal Bernson (District 12) and Mike Hernandez (District 1), before transitioning to lobbying and consulting.