Long Beach 4th District candidate's connections to Melahat Rafiei run deep

 Long Beach 4th District candidate's connections to Melahat Rafiei run deep

Friday April 14, 1:30 pm 2023 

UPDATED 4/17/23 with updated Cory Allen website biography

Rafiei and candidate Herlinda Chico

Melahat Rafiei pleaded guilty to one count of federal wire fraud in the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on  Friday April 14, 2023. Rafiei had agreed to plead guilty in a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. Rafiei’s plea   agreement was released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on January 19, 2023   .   In that agreement, she admitted to trying to bribe two council persons over a cannabis store licensee.  

In 2009,  Rafiei started her political consultant company Progressive Solutions Consulting in Long Beach with offices on Broadway.    

The company quickly became the go-to firm for Long Beach races backed by the Long Beach Political Machine.

Long time Long Beach Machine political operative Cory Allen joined the firm in 2019.  

Allen as a local Democratic Party operative worked on many of the Long Beach Politcal Machine campaigns which often turned into staffing jobs. In 2014 after his former political boss Robert Garcia won the mayorship and Garica's 1st district staffer Lena Gonzalez took Garcia's council seat, Cory Allen became then-Long Beach 1st District Councilperson Lena Gonzalez's Chief of Staff. In 2019 Allen left that position to join Progressive Solutions Consulting. 

Archived  Facebook screen shot courtesy of The Irvine Watchdog

After winning the Irvine mayor's position in May  2021,  Khan put together a slim majority of the Irvine City Council to push though an increase to the personal officeholder accounts of the City Council  and remove barriers and safeguards on how that money was spent. 

In 2015, the Long Beach Political machine had orchestrated  a similar move  increasing the officeholder accounts by triple in 2015 in Long Beach. Then in 2017, the Long Beach Political Machine controlled  Long Beach City Council  voted to allow those increased officeholder accounts to be donated to  political campaigns.   

In 2021, Irvine Mayor Khan declared her intention to run for reelection. Progressive Solutions Consulting again  was hired to run the Khan campaign. Rafiei placed Cory Allen as the campaign manager.  

Then in an unorthodox move, in  September 2021, Irvine Mayor Khan hired Cory Allen as a City Council Executive Assistant despite his continued role as her campaign manager and his continued employment at Progressive Solutions Consulting.

The move to hire Cory Allen her campaign manager to also work in her official city office created a political controversy in Irvine .

Among his work on numerous Long Beach campaigns, Cory Allen was the campaign manager for Herlinda Chico in her 2015 run for the Long Beach 4th District Council Seat. Cory Allen also happened to be Chico’s roommate.

Chico had moved into the 4th District just  months prior to the election. Chico lost to Daryl Supernaw despite her having overwhelming endorsements and money from the Long Beach Political Machine.

During the 2021 Long Beach Redistricting Commission hearings, Allen submitted a self-created map that would separate Chico's and his home on Werhle Street west of the Traffic Circle from the 4th District and into a newly created district. Allen and Chico's neighborhood was then in the western part of the 4th District which was the only part of the 4th District that Chico carried in the 2015 election.

Area B of his Map # 47248 was Cory Allen's attempt at a personlized Council District 

Allen promoted his gerrymandered map #47428 at the October 20, 2021 Redistricting Commission meeting.  While addressing the Commission Allen mentioned his position as a Long Beach Human Relations Commissioner, but he failed to mention his day job- a political consultant with deep political ties to the local political machine.  

In the final redistricting maps, Allen and Chico's home on Werhle Street was redistricted out of  the 4th District into the 2nd District. 

In late 2021, Chico sold her Werhle Street home  (now in the 3rd District) and bought a condo  just east of the Traffic Circle at Clark and Stearns Streets in the 4th District were she and Allen moved.

According to Allen’s Linked-In profile, he left Progressive Consultant Services ( which he refers to on his Linked-In as only “PSC” ) in May 2021. That date is right after Melahat Rafiei’s FBI arrest was made public and she was forced to resign from her numerous appointed and elected positions. 

A month later in June of 2021, Allen left his position as Executive Assistant to Irvine Mayor Khan and joined another Orange County based political consulting firm- Presidio Public Affairs and Communications. 

Allen’s work biography on the  Presidio website  has no direct reference to his political work for Khan or his specific employment with Progressive Solutions Consulting:

Screen shot of Cory Allen biography on Presido website 4/5/23

Allen's Presidio website biography does include misinformation. At the posting of this article, his education on the Presidio website and on his Linked -In profile do not match.   On the Presidio website it lists his education as a BA in Political Science from Biola University:

Screen shot  Cory Allen education on Presidio website 4/5/2023

It is well known in Long Beach political circles that Allen was studying Christian ministry. As of the posting of this article, Allen's  Link-In page confirms that he studied "Biblical Ministries"  from 2020 - 2023:

Screen shot Cory Allen Linked In 2-5-23

Interestingly, the nine Presidio Team members listed on the website six including Allen are listed having a BA in Political Science.  One has a a law degree. The graphics person has a graphics degree listed while the communications person has a degree listed in communication.

With Allen starting with Presidio in 2019, and his Linked-In showing that he was studying Biblical Ministries from 2020-2023, it appears like a “George Santos moment” of some type that his Presidio biography list his education as a BA in "Political Science" and his LinkedIn personal profile has an entirely different degree "Biblical Ministries". 

UPDATE 4/17/23 LB4D contacted Presidio by the website contact about Mr. Allen's biography descrepncy. Presideo did not respond, but on 4/17/23 Mr. Allen's biography was updated to take away all references to his education. The other Presidio team members continued to list their education at the end of their biographies.

Updated biography 4/17/23:

Cory Allen Presidio biography updated 4/17/23

The Biola Biblical Ministries program was a 24 month completely online program. It is one of eleven completely online programs that Biola is phasing out and no longer accepting students.  

Biola's website describes the 24 month program  as:

The Bachelor of Science in Biblical Ministries is a program aimed at enabling adult learners to earn a bachelor’s degree and providing them with training for ministry in their local contexts. Intended for adults who already possess ministry experience and some college credits, this 100% online program provides a faster time to completion by utilizing Biola’s trimester system, thus enabling students to take courses year-round and allowing them to complete their degrees in as little as 24 months (assuming all of their general education requirements are completed before entering the program). The program combines excellent education in biblical and theological studies as well as training in practical ministry skills with professors from Biola’s Talbot School of Theology.

Biola's website further describes the course outcomes  which are not your typical Political Science course work:

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the Bachelor of Science in Biblical Ministries, students will be able to:

  1.    Identify the basic contents of all books of the Old and New Testaments, including the ancient world contexts of the Bible. Apply the biblical teaching for Christian faith and practice (ULO 1, 2).

 2.  Appraise the biblical, philosophical, and theological foundations of ministries within churches and parachurch organizations (ULO 1).

 3. Demonstrate skills in ministry leadership functions (e.g. teaching, evangelism/discipleship, counseling and administration skills) (ULO 3).

 4.  Formulate perspectives of God, self and others in order to internalize commitments and values for an integrated professional life and ministry (ULO 2).

LB4D has reached put to Presidio for a comment on the Allen biography inconsistency with his Linked--In profile.

LB4D will update this article with any explanations or communication from Presidio.