A crime may be occurring and the possible perpetrator is running amongst us, trying to divert our attention from possible unlawful acts so we can re-elect her to Congress. On the face of it, Rep. Laura Richardson may very well be violating the Hatch Act — that law which forbids federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity; that law which forbids the staff of federal officials from working to affect their bosses’ re-election or election to another office; that law which makes it necessary for federal elected officials to hire, at their own expense, campaign consultants to handle everything involving their political aspirations, from soup to nuts.

Richardson is running for re-election this year in the 37th Congressional District. Among her staff of federally paid employees is Eric Boyd, her district director, and Ken Miller, her press deputy/communications director or what-have-you. In her absence, Boyd was the congresswoman’s stand-in at the Gardena Valley Democratic Club’s endorsement meeting last month where his sole task was to convince the club to support his boss’ bid for re-election. He’s not supposed to do that. His job is to supervise the delivery of federal services throughout Richardson’s congressional district and she is supposed to hire somebody else to tout her candidacy.

I have ignored Miller’s feverish attempts to have me interview Richardson because all of my questions to her would have been harsh and would have reflected the stream of really unfavorable information about her coming from her staff, her constituents and other elected officials. For example, I was informed of Richardson’s commandeering of the county’s emergency helicopters as sightseeing vehicles for her entire staff long before my colleague Steve Lopez reported it in The Times. I chose not to write about it because I was embarrassed by her lapse in judgment.

Any interview I would have had with Richardson would have had to include that joy-flying thing plus several other issues that do not bode well for the congresswoman. But the persistent Miller got beside himself and e-mailed me a press release he had written April 1 enthusing about how his boss was “the big winner” at the Democratic Pre-Endorsement Conference in South Gate. He went on to detail how Richardson had trounced her challenger, Peter Mathews, and he threw in a few quotes from the congresswoman, talking about how she’s so “honored” and “thankful,” and blah blah blah. It was a good little piece. The only problem, however, is that Miller can’t write it and he can’t e-mail it to me!! It’s against the law for him to do so. Richardson has to keep her regular employees completely away from her election campaigns. She has to hire somebody else to write and distribute her political propaganda. All politicians know that and she knows it, as well.

I don’t think she cares though, because for some time now I’ve been getting complaints and comments from Richardson’s defected former employees (of which there are many) and other elected officials that she forces her staff to work on her political campaigns under threats of dismissal. I never raised the issue before because, frankly, I didn’t think it was that important. But now I see where such complaints could be pervasive, given that Richardson was a Long Beach City Council member when she ran for the Assembly and was an Assembly member when she ran for Congress. She’s always had a government-paid staff at her command whenever her name appeared on a ballot. I’ll have to go back and pay more attention to what these people are saying because what they’re saying to me is showing up in Steve’s column, not mine, and I’m not liking that. (I must be getting soft in my old age.)

A RECONSIDERATION — The Los Angeles City Council is not a bunch of (scatological terms); they are awesome!!! The body is standing up like people with (different scatological terms) and telling the DWP what it can do with its rate increase. The council members are on our side, for a change, and are telling the mayor and his DWP that they are not the boss of them — that the council is the boss of them! I love it so much. It feels good to have our elected officials fight for us, rather than against us. Stand firm, council; take it to the brink. We got your back — as long as you have ours!!

INGLEWOOD REPORT — Inglewood’s newly rehired chief financial officer, Jeff Muir, suddenly resigned Tuesday. You might recall that Muir was the underqualified fiscal person who popped into and out of the city’s administrative office at will and who was pegged by Councilwoman Judy Dunlap to become the chief administrative officer after she engineered the firing of Timothy Wanamaker. Well, they offered Wanamaker’s job to Muir Tuesday morning and he said, “Hell, No!” and quit.

Speaking of Dunlap, I was doing some light reading the other day of Dunlap’s state-mandated campaign finance filings (Form 460) over the past couple of years, as I was trying to determine from whence cometh her campaign contributions, and I noted a couple of interesting things. First of all, her contributions from people who reside in or do business in Inglewood are extremely scarce. The overwhelming bulk of her contributions come from San Francisco, Sacramento, Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles, Orange County, etc. People and companies in these far flung places are giving her thousands and thousands of dollars to run for city council and mayor of Inglewood, while a mere handful of Inglewood residents have given her $100 to $150 each.

Another thing which struck me as odd about Dunlap’s financial filings is the fact that she reported to have paid $49,484.93 to Addra Service Inc. in Inglewood for campaign literature during the period of Jan. 1, 2008 and June 30, 2008. There was no campaign in 2008. The Rev. Roosevelt Dorn had already been re-elected mayor in 2007 and Dunlap’s re-election campaign was waged in 2009. So why did she need to buy $49,484.93 worth of campaign literature from Addra in the middle of 2008? Did she pocket that money? I don’t know. I’m just reading.

DATEBOOK — Sheriff Lee Baca will lead a panel discussion on “The Crib to the Penitentiary Pipeline” at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Junior Blind of America’s facilities at 5300 Angeles Vista Blvd. The event is hosted by Great Beginnings for Black Babies which seeks to examine racial profiling and predictions for the future of Black babies.

The Paul Robeson Community Center, will celebrate the 112th birthday of legendary athlete, singer, actor and civil rights groundbreaker Paul Robeson on Sunday with a musical program featuring opera virtuoso KB Solomon in the Little Theater at L.A. Southwest College, 1600 Imperial Hwy. beginning at 3 p.m.

AND FINALLY — What’s this I keep hearing about Nazis coming to L.A.?! I heard that the NSM (whatever that means) is a group of openly racist Nazis which plans to hold a rally on the South Lawn of the City Hall at noon on April 17. Anti-Nazis are being summoned to gather at the Triforium statue at Temple and Main at 10 a.m. to form a picket line around the City Hall and yell at the Nazis. This had better be true because I don’t appreciate giving up my Saturday morning to go cuss out Nazis and Nazis don’t show up. (If it’s true, it’s gonna be good, yeah!)