Review Of Councilman Bernard Parks' Residency Closed: No Wrongdoing Found

Bernard Parks.

"Hopefully this last bogus allegation is the final disgusting remnant of that 'smear campaign,'" the councilman's chief of staff, Bernard C. Parks, Jr., stated. "There are other very real and very serious investigations that the public should be concerned about."

Parks' office singled out the Wave newspaper for publishing the allegation, although the District Attorney's Public Integrity Division chief David Demerjian told the Weekly recently the accusation was still under review more than six months after it had first been made.

Bernard Parks, Jr. now says Demerjian has essentially declared the case is closed. According to the original citizens' complaint Parks allegedly claimed a live-in-homeowner's tax credit in 2006 and 2007 for an Onacrest Drive address in Windsor Hills, outside the city of L.A. and outside his district. He's supposed to live in his district.

And earlier in 2008, the complaint alleges, Parks put down an in-district Don Ibarra Place address as his residence when he ran unsuccessfully for county supervisor, but "he did not register to vote at his new address" -- a Don Milagro Drive residence inside Parks' 8th District -- " ... until October, 2008."

According to a statement from Parks' office:

Parks was deluged with the false residency allegations as well as other distortions of his character during his run for the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in 2008. Many of the "hit pieces" were funded by an independent expenditure group called the Alliance for a Stronger Community. That group spent about $8.5 million on the "smear campaign" against Parks--much of which came from dues paid by the poorest union members in the county. And to this date, none of the allegations have been proven.