Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, discussed the recent arrest of Los Angeles City Council member José Huizar on federal racketeering charges on a segment of KPCC’s AirTalk. Huizar was arrested by special agents of the FBI in connection with an alleged “pay-to-play” scheme involving more than $1.5 million in bribes accepted from developers and others. According to the U.S. Justice Department, the criminal enterprise also included fraud, extortion and money laundering. Yaroslavsky described the City Hall scandal as the worst since the 1930s, when widespread misconduct ended in the recall of the city’s mayor. “It’s just mind-boggling as a former councilman. As a former elected official, this is the kind of thing that stains everyone,” said Yaroslavsky, who spent decades as a public servant in city and county government. “It really shakes that granite building we call City Hall to its very foundations.”