Two disgraced former city officials in Baldwin Park and Commerce pleaded guilty to participation in a scheme involving bribes in exchange for votes and influence in Baldwin Park’s cannabis permitting process, the U.S. Department of Justice Announced late last week.
The charges against Edgar Cisneros, 42, a resident of Montebello who served as Commerce’s city manager from Nov. 2017 to Dec. 2023 and Robert Tafoya, 62, a Redondo Beach resident who served as Baldwin Park’s city attorney from Dec. 2013 to Oct. 2022 were unsealed on Dec. 6, according to a DOJ news release.
Federal prosecutors said that shortly after Baldwin Park began issuing cannabis permits in June 2017, then-Baldwin Park City Councilman Richard Pacheco began soliciting bribes from companies seeking those permits.
In an agreement where Cisneros would receive some $235,000, the former Commerce city manager helped a company obtain a Baldwin Park cannabis permit through an estimated $45,000 in bribes.
In Tafoya’s case, the former Baldwin Park city attorney facilitated a bribery scheme with former Compton City Councilman Isaac Galvan, who wanted to obtain Baldwin Park cannabis permits for a consulting client through bribes to Pacheco.
For his part, Pacheco pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in June 2020 that were not related to the marijuana-permitting scandal, but did admit to orchestrating bribes involving Tafoya and former San Bernardino County planning commissioner Gabriel Chavez, who pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in Nov. 2022.
Pacheco and Chaves are scheduled to be sentenced early next year.
Galvan and his client, Yichang Bai, were arrested in Sept. 2023 on a federal grand jury indictment alleging they paid Pacheco $70,000 in exchange for votes and cannabis permits Bai’s company.
Both of those men pleaded not guilty, with a trial scheduled for June 2025.
As for Tafoya, who pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges and evading $650,000 in federal taxes in Dec. 2023 and Cisneros who pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in Nov. 2023, both agreed to cooperate with federal officials during the ongoing public corruption investigation.
In an email to KTLA, Baldwin Park CEO/City Manager Enrique C. Zalvidar said that the city was aware of the recent plea agreement with Tafoya and Cisneros and released the following statement:
“Honoring and respecting the public trust is a most sacrosanct duty of any public official, whether elected or appointed. While the corrupt actions of former City officials from the past in dealing with the cannabis licensing program have been daylighted, the City has brought integrity to its management of the cannabis program by adopting uniform standards and consistent requirements for all cannabis applicants and operators, with all proceedings taking place in public Council meetings and being guided by a special legal counsel. The City is confident that we have ushered in a new culture of integrity and transparency to the conduct of all City business.”
Agents with the FBI and the IRS continue to investigate this matter.
Two disgraced former city officials in Baldwin Park and Commerce pleaded guilty to participation in a scheme involving bribes in exchange for votes and influence in Baldwin Park’s cannabis permitting process, the U.S. Department of Justice Announced late last week. The charges against Edgar Cisneros, 42, a resident of Montebello who served as Commerce’s […]
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