Villaraigosa Stealing Credit?
Here at the Sister City, we got a press release from Tony Villar claiming credit for the "Smith-Villaraigosa" plan to add more police officers. However a Times report states it was a Greig Smith proposal with no mention of Villaraigosa other than his opposition to the sales tax increase for more cops.
Is Antonio stealing credit or is the Times not giving it to him? Interesting. (Hat tip to LA Observed)
Contact: Nathan James
213-687-7777
LA City Council Passes Smith – Villaraigosa Police Plan
Funding for New Officers Approved Unanimously
Los Angeles – In a unanimous vote, the Los Angeles City Council yesterday approved a plan to hire up to 300 new police officers as early as this summer using revenue from a statewide initiative.
After initially rejecting the plan as “Sacramento-style economics,” Mayor Jim Hahn flip-flopped last week and endorsed the popular police funding proposal.
Yusef K. Robb, a spokesman for Hahn's re-election campaign, said the plan relies too much on gimmicks and uncertain revenue sources.
``We're open to plans here and there, but we're not open to Sacramento- style economics,'' Robb said. ``This is the sort of plan that drowned the state budget in red ink.''
(“Hahn Ripped for Not Borrowing to Boost Force,” LA Daily News, January 4, 2005)
The funding plan, backed by Councilmembers Greig Smith and Antonio Villaraigosa, was endorsed by the Chief Legislative Analyst, the Chief Administrative Officer, and received unanimous support from the Budget, Finance, and Public Safety Committee of the City Council
Details on Villaraigosa’s plan to hire 1,600 new police officers are available at: http://www.antonio2005.com/vision?id=0002
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 1/27/2005 02:34:00 PM
19 Comments:
Man Mayor Sam is going full guns against Antonio lately. Wow! He must have MEAT spinning trying to spin. And the Hahn people must be loving it!
Read the quote in the press release. Looks like Tony V. was supporting the plan in early January -- enough so that Hahn's people took a swipe at him.
Antonio will say whatever to get elected. He has a history of exaggerating his accomplishments and here is how the LA Times covered it in 2001. All these legislators can't be wrong.
I see a pattern with this guy.
Greig Smith won't say anything because he is a classy guy, but everyone by now should know that Antonio will take your spotlight if allowed.
CAMPAIGN 2001; A Rapid, Sometimes Bumpy, Rise; Assembly: People skills aided Villaraigosa, now running for mayor. But inexperience showed. Series: CAMPAIGN 2001; [Home Edition]
RONE TEMPEST. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, Calif.: May 24, 2001. pg. A.1
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Helping Hands in the Legislature
From his six years in the California Assembly, including two years as speaker, Antonio Villaraigosa lists four bills as his greatest accomplishments. In each case, however, Democratic colleagues contend that at least some of the heavy lifting was done by other lawmakers.
HEALTHY FAMILIES (AB 1126): This 1997 bill, passed when Villaraigosa was majority leader, brought 250,000 California children from working poor families into a health insurance program. But Whittier state Sen. Martha Escutia contends that Villaraigosa took her bill, filed earlier, and morphed it into his own.
SCHOOL BONDS (SB 50): Villaraigosa calls this 1998 Senate bill the "crown jewel" of his term as speaker. But it is named the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act after another education-minded former Democratic legislator from Sacramento. After two embarrassing earlier failures, Villaraigosa finally succeeded in getting the $9.2- billion bond bill out of the Assembly, largely because of a compromise brokered by fellow lawmakers in a marathon weekend of negotiations.
GUN CONTROL (SB 23): This landmark 1999 legislation banning the manufacture, import and sale of assault weapons tops Villaraigosa's list in the crime and public safety category. Villaraigosa carried the bill on the Assembly floor, but it was mainly the result of a lifetime effort in in gun legislation by Alameda Democratic Sen. Don Perata. "It would have passed with or without Antonio," Perata says.
PARKS BONDS (AB 18): This 1999 bill, the largest successful parks bond in U.S. history, was mainly the product of a long legislative effort by Boulder City Democratic Assemblyman Fred Keeley to improve state parks. But Villaraigosa added the urban element with funding for city parks and forcefully powered it through the Assembly. Now part of the statute requires that signs at park construction sites identify it as "Paid for by the Villaraigosa-Keeley Act."
No where in any of the media today does it state "Smith-Villaraigosa's plan. They state is was Smith's proposal all along. Smith was the one making a stink that the neighborhood councils were having community meetings and not inviting him. Smith is the one who spoke at the Alliance of Neighborhoods not Antonio. Again, Antonio is trying to take credit for something he did not do. Hertzberg said he knows a lot about that. Antonio took credit for Assembly Bills Huggy said Antonio never even attended the meetings on.
The fact that Greig Smith never ever mentioned Tony Villar not once in council or in the media when speaking of his proposal. No one referred to Tony Villar in this proposal now all of a sudden Tony wants to take credit. We are not that stupid....by the way his cop plan says that he will help with budget effiencies and put money in Greuel's trust fund for more cops, but he hasn't put a dime in it. That's why Wendy only ended up with $500,000. She was the only one who put money where her mouth is.
Hey why isn't the press release on Tony's mayoral website? We'll see tomorrow how the papers write the story. If I was Greg Smith I would be very angry.
It's a ploy. The Villaraigosa people were hoping they would take trafic away from the Recall blogging. It's only posted here
FROM CD2:
I see that the Rye Street Bridge Blog hasn't been updated in a month and a half. Maybe Antonio can take credit for re-opening the bridge too.
Why is Hertzberg escaping criticism here? Its been one-two punches lately against the mayor and Antonio. Does anyone here not like Hertzberg? Maybe everyone loves Huggy! Maybe he will be in the runoff after all!
Hey, if Hugsberg wins and breaks a major campaign pledge let's recall him, too.
If you want to talk about stealing credit, take a look at SB 165 (2000)...the VICA Bond Accountability bill. You'll notice the SENATE bill is authored by Alarcon and Assemblyman Villaraigosa. Antonio held it for three days on the Assembly floor third reading so he could get a rule waiver from the Senate to allow his name to be listed as the Author.
HERE'S THE ANSWER. BACK IN NOV. 2004 FILE INDEX 03-2267 STATES...11-16-04 - Council Action - *Amending Motion - Smith Mover 2004 / Zine / Miscikowski / Greuel - MOVE that the matter of the Chief Legislative Analyst (CLA) report concerning a voter approved measure to generate additional funding for hiring police officers, Item 9 on today's Council Agenda, Council File 03-2267, BE AMENDED to approve in concept the use of $66 million in existing City Funds as a loan to pay for more police officers in 2005/2006 and 2006/2007----said funds to be reimbursed upon receipt of $66 million owed to the City by the State of California; and to instruct the Chief Legislative Analyst (CLA) and City Administrative Officer (CAO) to report to Budget and Finance Committee with specific recommendations to implement this effort as well as on the fiscal impact of this effort over the next five years.
NO ANTONIO ANYWHERE BACK THEN.
Man, what a cheap, stealing operator. I will support recalling Villaraigosa.
Will Nathan James have a job tomorrow? Villaraigosa's press guy sends out a press release to Mayor Sam and gets -------ZERO, NONE, NOT ONE favorable response. Did that piece of trickery backfire or what????
CITY HALL/LA TIMES/DAILY NEWS GOSSIP: FOURTH ESTATE PENS BEING DIPPED IN THE CITY COUNCILS INK...
Here's some juicy gossip for all you bloggers...LA Times' Noam Levey is dating Councilman Zine's staffer Jennifer Forkish and Daily News' James Nash is with with Councilmember Greuel's Leg. Deputy Leslie Pollner....awwww yeah.
Isn't that sweet they found eachother right around the corner from Valentines's Day. Hey what about cutie pie David Z. from Daily Breeze? Hope they can keep balanced stories and not think with their you know what..
CORRECTION:
Oooooops....it's the other way around...Levey&Polner and Nash&Forkish....
Sorry bout that.....
Maybe Antonio can't stand the heat but he's missing city council again next week. Gee, January is barely over. Wonder if he was excused for personal or city business...Latino forum to feature Los Angeles City Council member, by Ruben Hernandez
The Business Journal
A new forum for Latino issues will debut on Feb. 2 with a talk from Los Angeles City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, a former candidate for L.A. mayor
Dave Z dates an LA Times reporter i think.
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