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Teddy Loza.
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Teddy Loza, chief of staff for Jim Graham, the DC councilmember who represents Ward 1, was arrested on Sept. 24 on two counts of bribery. He has been charged with accepting as much as $1,500 in cash along with at least one trip abroad and limousine rides to the airport, in exchange for pushing legislation favoring some in the taxicab industry.
Loza, 44, has served in the position since about 2000 and earned an annual salary of about $93,000. He had been under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the past year, according to law enforcement sources. Loza was secretly wiretapped, and according to law enforcement officials, the transcripts of the wiretapping suggest that he might have taken money from sources representing the taxi cab industry in exchange for urging Graham to support legislation that would exempt hybrid taxicabs from an overall limit on taxicabs in the city.
Graham is chairman of the Council’s Committee on Public Works and Transportation. His committee has jurisdiction over transportation issues, including Metro and taxicabs. He is also on the board of Metro and was at a board meeting while FBI agents were raiding his John A. Wilson Building office and going through Loza’s computer.
The councilmember has maintained that there is no connection to charges against Loza and legislation he introduced to limit the number of taxicabs in the District but with the caveat to grant an exception to those with medallions. Under the bill, medallions would go to those who bought licenses to operate cabs in the city. Those who operated “low emissions” or hybrid vehicles would get their medallions for free, according to the bill penned by Graham. This legislation appeared to please those who allegedly bribed Loza.
“He is someone I’ve learned to deeply trust and rely on,” Graham said of Loza. The two have traveled together to Central America where Graham was studying Spanish, in the past. They have also traveled to Ethiopia at the expense of members of the taxicab industry from that country. Loza is originally from Ecuador and is not a US citizen. He has said in the past that he had aspirations of becoming the city’s first Latino city councilmember, sources said. Instead of gaining a council seat, Loza could face up to 30 years in prison on each count, if convicted.
Many in the community have decided to withhold judgment on the Loza arrest and the ramifications for Graham. However, there is concern as to whether or not the legislative process, if not Graham himself, has been weakened.
Ward 1 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner William Jordan said that at this point, he wouldn’t call for Graham to resign from the council, but “I do believe the council’s Tax Commission oversight should be moved to the Committee on the Whole,” away from Graham and under the leadership of Council Chair Vincent Gray. Jordan also suggested that Loza be moved out of the chief of staff’s position pending outcome of the investigation. He is currently on a leave of absence with pay.
But most important of all, said the ANC commissioner, “The legislative and deal-making process should be made more transparent so that situations like this cannot occur in the future. … Clearly, the lack of openness leads some to believe that they could bribe their way through the legislative process.”
Parisa Norouzi of Empower DC said she is concerned about what her advocacy group sees as a “pattern of conflicts of interest and the possibility of illegal relationships between elected officials and certain interest groups. …We know that taxi drivers have been hurting financially in this city,” she stated, and that people react when they are impacted. Norouzi said that the spotlight should not shine solely on Graham but also on fellow Councilmembers Marion Barry (Ward 8) and Jack Evans (Ward 2). Empower DC found conflicts with these two as well, she observed, highlighting Evans’ position as Council Finance Committee Chairman and his employment with law firm Patton Boggs. “Don’t you think that he is valuable to them primarily because of his chairmanship of that very powerful committee?” she asked. “Conflicts exist within a deep level among legislators, including the mayor,” she added.
“I do feel that Graham has been diminished by this scandal,” the Ward 1 resident concluded. |
