Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday**
Janice Hahn is at it again. After parking in handicapped spaces, she's now calling citizens names. Animal activist Mary Cummins reports that a previous Council meeting Hahn allegedly referred to Cummins and other animal activists as "terrorists." Cummins tells us that Hahn apologized to her today.In the debate over the contract renewal over Sunshine Canyon, the issue of charging higher fees as a way to fund other options than keeping the landfill open has been discussed. In an unrelated action, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted to increase garbage collection fees from $108 to $152 per refuse unit per year for the Belvedere Garbage Disposal District, which includes Monterey Park, East Los Angeles and Whittier areas.
Assembly Candidate and Neighborhood Council President Jim Alger has his fans and detractors on this blog, and he will face the voters in June and perhaps November, but he's already won one accolade. It was announced that Alger has been chosen by the California Junior Chamber (Jaycees) and their charitable foundation as one of 13 Outstanding Young Californians for 2006. The award has been bestowed annually for several decades and honors men and women ages 18-40 who are outstanding in various fieldsd and have made an impact on the community. Among the past winners are LA Dodger Steve Garvey, San Fernando Valley attorney and power player David Fleming, former US Attorney General Ed Meese, baseball legend Willie Mays, boxer Sugar Shane Mosley and the winner of television's "The Apprentice" Kelly Perdew.
**UPDATE: In addition to Jim Alger, among some of those chosen as Outstanding Young Californians for 2006 include Oakland As pitcher Barry Zito, Huntingon Beach City Council Member Jill Hardy, Fox News Reporter Nischelle Turner and 2000 US Olympic kayaking team member turned motivational speaker Cliff Meidl.
This morning Mayor Villaraigosa will hold a news conference to discuss the city's budget deficit and steps needed balance the books. Later in the evening, he will be interviewed on Univision Channel 34.
Public Meetings for Wednesday
8:45AM - Trade, Commerce and Tourism Committee, SPECIAL MEETING
9:00AM - Energy and the Environment Committee Meeting
10:00AM - Los Angeles City Council
10:15AM - Los Angeles City Council, Special Meeting
2:00PM - Personnel Committee Meeting
3:00PM - Public Works Committee Meeting
3:15PM - Public Works Committee Meeting - SPECIAL MEETING
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 3/01/2006 12:05:00 AM
15 Comments:
Burke Confirms the Rumors: She Plans to Retire
One of L.A.'s first black politicians, the supervisor is ready to move on.
By Jim Newton, Times Staff Writer
March 1, 2006
...potential successors are circling. It is testament to the enduring importance of race in politics — and of her seat in particular — that all three leading contenders are African American even though the district is largely Latino. Los Angeles City Councilmen Herb Wesson and Bernard C. Parks and Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) each have their constituencies and supporters.
This is what our city council members think is a high priority.
Daily News....City's tree ordinance branching out
The City Council passed a tougher native-tree ordinance Tuesday that bars property owners from cutting four kinds of trees without a permit. ..The new tree law is among the strictest in Southern California because it applies to all property owners and requires protection for smaller trees.
It is about time that Burke retired. It is also time for those other four idiots to step down too. Burke had so much potential to change the world. Instead, she just sort of watched the world evolve without helping it along. Her protection of black doctors at King+Drew Hospital while they killed patients will be a permanent stain.
I LOVE IT.....THE LA TIMES AND THE LA WEEKLY ENDORSE ANA FERNANDEZ
CALL IT POLITICAL CASCADING. Antonio Villaraigosa left the City Council in June to become mayor; Jose Huizar left the Los Angeles Unified School District board in November to fill Villaraigosa's vacancy on the council; and this Tuesday, four candidates are vying for Huizar's now-vacant seat on the school board. None of the top three would-be replacements is particularly impressive. The best choice is the fourth, 23-year-old Ana Teresa Fernandez.
That may seem surprising at first, because it was not long ago that Fernandez was herself an L.A. Unified student, leading protests against overcrowding at the star-crossed Belmont High School. With tough issues facing the school board in coming months — raising students' still-underwhelming test scores, curbing the alarming dropout rate, picking a new superintendent and (most important) grappling with the mayor's possible takeover of school governance — voters need someone with independence, smarts and backbone. Fernandez, young as she is, impresses more in these areas than do her opponents.
An activist and the daughter of a district teacher and principal, she seems to eat and breathe education policy and community involvement. She's open-minded about governance issues yet notes that City Hall could do more to help students right now, such as improving school security and student transportation. She recognizes the role of charter schools (former school board President Caprice Young tapped her to run a grant program for the California Charter Schools Assn.), and she has tangible experience working for current board member Mike Lansing.
Fernandez would have a lot of on-the-job learning to do, but she would make a more independent-thinking board member than the more experienced Monica Garcia, a Huizar political and policy aide who is backed by her ex-boss and Villaraigosa and who is now looking for her own place on the political ladder. Garcia has been cagey — unconvincingly so — on the mayoral takeover issue.
Teachers union employee Christopher Arellano falls on the other side, with the backing of United Teachers Los Angeles and an unwavering opposition to mayoral control at a time that calls for open-mindedness. Former political aide Enrique Gasca, who now runs a public relations firm, is likewise too inflexible on school administration. He says he welcomes Villaraigosa's leadership on education issues but resists the mayor's encroachment.
Fernandez's stance on the still-stumbling district is that everything is on the table, as long as it's in the long-term best interests of students. That's a positive and pragmatic approach for any school board member, especially one who is to represent District 2's overcrowded and underperforming schools from the Eastside, South Los Angeles and Hollywood.
Ana Fernandez is all about Belmont this, Belmont That, Belmont ran over the chicken coop. No backbone in her body, pure BS. She is a political hack who yearns for more power.
Monica Garcia wants power, broker payments for land contracts, seal the truth from public, and to be the next Gloria Molina. They do have something in common-you know what that is. Villaraigosa Operative too.
Gasca-Villaraigosa operative. Speaks Jibberish.
Christopher Arellano- Good speaker, bad choice of back up-teachers union. Too bad.
Time to revolt and not vote this time, sit it out.
Anon at 6:22 a.m.,
That "tree ordinance" actually is a HUGE priority for conservationsists, and for people who live next to wild areas in Los Angeles. It will SEVERELY, and permanently, affect the way land is used in areas that aren't yet developed. Though I understand the conservationists' desire to preserve what is left of the wild landscape in the region - I think this protection takes things a bit too far.
This is a perfect example of where the environmental movement is with respect to everyone else in society. This is like an order from the soviet government about how you can use, and benefit from, your own private property. This is a big deal - and not the City Council wasting time. This is about as bleeding edge land-use, conservation, and personal property rights can get.
Wasn't there some corruption talk not that long ago with the Burke family??? Didn't Antonio try and appoint her husband to a commission? The conflict of interest I think is that Burke's husband runs the LA Marathon and in fact the city waves the over $100,000 special event fee. Now there has to be some kind of ethic violation in that.
Agree none of the black politicans or the Latino politicans have done a damn thing for their own communities. Its all about money and developers.
Say what you want about Ana, but she beat out Chris and Monica for two solid endorsements.
And, with Monica losing out on the County Fed endorsement even though she has AV's support, means her momentum (if she had any) is gone.
Unbelievable stuff here.
Archie, this is Meltron, King of Saturn. Please return home.
10:31 Tell me about it...whew!
I tapped my compadre Villaraigosa and told him
"Wait, we still have time to change our names and skip town"
LA WEEKLY on FERNANDEZ:
Right the Ship
Written by Administrator
L.A. Weekly’s choice for school board Endorsement
THE LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT in many ways resembles a sinking ship. Yes, there have been hard-fought increases in test scores at the lower grade levels. And, yes, the district is building schools, lots of schools. But the $19 billion construction campaign has distracted the district from its core mission — addressing a tragic dropout rate, halting the violence on its campuses and protecting the district’s long-term financial health.
What L.A. Unified needs right now is someone who gets it, someone who recognizes the district’s shortcomings and sees how urgently the board needs to work together to get resources to schoolchildren, many of whom are at the bottom rung of the economic ladder and don’t need new disadvantages once they enter the classroom.
With the March 7 special election to fill District 2’s vacant seat on the seven-member board, voters in the neighborhoods that surround downtown Los Angeles have an unexpected opportunity to select someone who has experienced the dismal conditions firsthand, someone willing to make the unpopular decisions and, quite frankly, be a hard-ass on behalf of the district’s 700,000-plus students. That person is Ana Teresa Fernandez.
The daughter of L.A. Unified educators, Fernandez is alarmed by the lack of improvement at Belmont High School, where she graduated in 2000 and where her brother is now a student. Fernandez led student walkouts as part of an effort to complete the Belmont Learning Complex. She then spent three and a half years as an aide to school board member Mike Lansing before joining the California Charter Schools Association, where she reviewed grant funding for start-up charter schools.
Fernandez grasps the workings of the school district, both its successes and failures, and knows that there is a hard road ahead. Unlike other candidates, she is willing to make tough choices about a ticking pension time bomb that threatens to siphon vast sums of money from the classroom. Fernandez has not ruled out a mayoral takeover of the district. But she is also open to more radical changes, such as breaking up the district if major changes do not take hold.
In short, Fernandez will provide an independent voice. She is neither beholden to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has made control of the district his No. 1 priority, nor to the United Teachers Los Angeles, which is spending $250,000 on a candidate who opposes such a move.
Villaraigosa deserves praise for his relentless focus on public schools, but it’s not clear that mayoral control is the panacea. After all, the mayor has given no assurances that he will stay in office more than a few years, and who knows what the next mayor will bring.
Fernandez, at 23, has room to grow. She needs to engage more in the civic life of the city and show a willingness to build alliances to get things done. She should also entertain an even broader menu of fixes for the district governance, including higher school board salaries and a larger board. But we came away impressed by the depth of her knowledge of L.A. Unified business, and see her youth as a strength.
One of the more encouraging signs of this election is that voters have a choice at all. Last year no one stepped forward to challenge three incumbent board members, including José Huizar, who left the District 2 seat almost immediately after his election victory to run for Los Angeles City Council. Mónica García, a one-time Huizar aide who is backed by Villaraigosa, is full of energy and well-versed in school matters. She insists, rather implausibly, that she has no view on whether the mayor should appoint the school board. Christopher Arellano, running as the UTLA’s designee, knows how to build alliances but sometimes sounds like he does not realize the cutthroat, highly politicized climate he has entered. A fourth candidate — Enrique Gasca, who owns an El Sereno public-relations firm — lacks basic knowledge about the school district, such as the size of its budget.
Ultimately, Fernandez has the voice that speaks most directly to the needs of her district, which stretches from Koreatown to Lincoln Heights and even takes in part of South Los Angeles. She speaks eloquently about the disparities that exist across the district’s 27 cities. And she rightly points out that the new campuses opening in District 2 need staffing and resources in place the minute they open, not months later, after district brass have scrambled to contain the fallout.
Some civic leaders have argued that Fernandez would be a terrific board member — in a decade, when she is more seasoned politically. Having heard her straight talk about the grave issues facing L.A. Unified, we see no reason, or time, to wait.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 28 February 2006 )
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Can Jose Huizar run for that position?
If he can... I think he will.
For County Board of supervisors that is.
Monica:
The ship is sinking...
Chris....you better to something right soon
Ana . . . keep it up.
Enrique....the answer is 3.
This is a great role model for our youth. All of a sudden he cares about the drop out rate. He didn't give a shit about it for years and years even as a CM he never once said a damn thing about the over crowding or drop out rate at his Alma Mater. Now he opens his mouth cause he wants control.......
Villaraigosa acknowledged that he dropped out of Roosevelt High temporarily after he was kicked out of a Catholic school.
The LAUSD needs "a culture of high expectations that understands that these kids are capable of ... finishing high school and going beyond, going to college," he said.
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