City Without Ethics
The Daily News ran an article Sunday entiteld, "LA's Ethical Void. " The article makes the claim that the City Ethics Commission is not doing its job to notify the city that bidders for some city contracts have been sanctioned by the commission for campaing contribution violations, and thus ineligible to get lucrative city deals.City Controller Laura Chick told the Daily News, "That's wrong, stupid and going against all the work I've put in on trying to make the city's process of both awarding contracts and having those contracts be impeccable."
The Daily News further reports that LeeAnn Pelham, executive director of the Ethics Commission, said the notification rule "fell off the radar" but will be corrected soon. "Sure we knew it was in the law. But you look at all the priority projects and some things fall to the bottom. We should be doing it."
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 6/26/2006 12:10:00 AM
21 Comments:
This is business in Los Angeles and is the very reason we need clean money. It's the ony way to rid the place of overzealous, capitalistic developers.
What is it about communication in government. All this time we the people have been clammoring for transparency in government and we have been missing the real cause: the government does not know how to communicate or even what the verb means! Ah-ha.
Ooh, a non-illegal alien post. Oh fuck, I just opened the door for all the John Birch Society posters, didn't I?
The City of LA has a standard clause in all of its contracts entitling it to cancel any contract "at will" with 30 days notice.
Here's a great opportunity to exercise that clause. Any contract with an entity that has been disciplined should just be sent the 30 day notice and canceled.
Are you listening, Laura?
"Capitalistic developers?" Getting handouts from the government is now "capitalist?" You need to read an essay someone around here wrote on L.A.'s "Capitalist Communism." It was in the Daily Journal.
Maybe Lee Ann Pelham should stop harassing lobbyists and start looking at her own operations.
Clearly she is expending the assets of the Ethics Commission pursuing the softest targets and trying to make a name for herself.
Mind the store Lee Ann, and clean up your own shop.
How hard can it be to notify city depts that someone has been fined? And the Daily News article points out that while two guys at Fleishman Hillard were convicted of overbilling, others who worked at the firm and participated in the alleged scheme, walked away without a scratch and now work on city business. And the guy who pled guilty is defended by Steve Soboroff! Wasn't this investigation suppose to be about pay-for-play? What's wrong with this picture??
Thanks Rocky and Chick-N-Shit
Daily Journal......story saying the City Attorney's office spent $10 million on an outside law firm to defend the city against a lawsuit over work at the Hyperion sewage treatment plant—and after losing the case may face up to $30 million in damages and legal fees....Daniel Carvin, then a special investigator for Controller Laura Chick, four years ago sounded an alarm that the politically connected law firm, Brown Winfield & Canzoneri, was bungling the case. But he was fired by Chick, and last year received a accepted a $490,000 settlement from the city for wrongful termination.
Capitalist - 1. a supporter of capitalism. 2. an investor of capital in business. 3. a person of great wealth.
Developers have been running the city of Los Angeles for years and years. It's the problem with our schools, our traffic, our lack of open space and every other woe we suffer. It all goes back to Planning.
Developers finance the campaigns of the politicians in Los Angeles, thus getting whatever they want.
The Ethics Commission can only do so much before they are rendered insignificant, then ignored by the politicians.
You call it what you want Walter but it is business in Los Angeles and in my opinion, we need to rid the city of overzealous, capitalistic developers.
Yes, rid the city of "capitalistic" developers...
1:11, believe it or not, a "capitalistic" developer built your home...a "capitalistic" developer built the building you work in...a "capitalistic" developer built all the buildings you shop in! If we never had developers, the City of Los Angeles wouldn't exist.
I'm not sure I understand why developers are singled out among the cadre of hard-working entrepreneurs who have made the United States the great country it is today. It's OK to run a grocery store, but not build one? Give me a break!
If the issue is campaign finance and so-called "clean money," fine. But developers are not solely to blame for the problems associated with "pay for play." Don't hate the player, hate the game.
1:11, are you advocating that private property be abolished and the government become the only developer in town? That's the only way we can be rid of developers. Some people might consider that communism. Maybe it's not such a bad idea...public housing has turned out to be such a rousing success!
Here, here!
Plus, not all capitalist developers are getting public subsidies. Rather, if you took the entire amount of revenues generated by the City's business tax, it is less than or around the amount of the subsidies provided by the "Community Redevelopment Agency." That means many honest, hard-working business people, who want nothing more from their City government than honesty and fairness, are getting "ripped off" to subsidize developers who contribute to politicians. Don't equate capitalism with pay-to-play corruption.
There is sooooo much money floating around this city and no one wants to go after it. Chick-N-Shit should start an audit with DWP. I thought Antonio's big campaign promise was to stop "corruption and pay to play" in city hall. That hasn't happened and in fact seems there's more of it. Since the feds found 8 DWP employees who were illegal they should go after ALL CITY EMPLOYEES to clean up.
Hey, Walter! I think it is supposed to be
Hear! Hear!
What Archie Bunker wants is all the Jews out of City Government
Archie suck my dick
That proves Archie is not Mitch
Ooh Archie, eat my pussy, you mutherfucking sexy cracker!
Archie is not mitch?
mitch who?
Ok ok Grow up you guys and stop with the crude language. Mayor Sam I can't believe you don't delete that stuff.
I'm sure there are developers who aren't capitalists and just want to build fine homes and communities. Unfortunately, they don't live in Los Angeles. Here, they've learned to contribute to local campaigns and then build whatever they want, ignoring zoning codes, causing more urban sprawl, building unsafe developments on unstable ground in the mountains or razing mountains for more homes without ever bothering to build the schools to go with the houses or mitigating the traffic that their homes will cause.
Guess what Walter? I would like one less grocery store and one less mall. We've got plenty.
I know the difference between developers and overzealous, capitalistic developers. If you don't, that's not my fault but you cannot just dicount what I'm saying.
Perfect example of developers using this city is the huge homeless development of Donald Sterling owner of the Clippers. Why all of a sudden was it halted after he committed spending millions to enlarge the mission? Something is up with that and the fact he didnt' want to give too much info on it. Hope a reporter looks into it.
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