Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday
Mayor Villaraigosa finally struck some paydirt on his attempt to take over the LAUSD, when he made a compromise deal with the unions in Sacramento. The Mayor didn't get everything he wanted, but enough for the LAUDS to condemn the deal as a "power grab" that would undermine the district. The Mayor didn't have to follow through on threats to stay in Sacramento all week, so he'll be chairing the MetropolitanTransportation Authority board meeting tomorrow morning and deliver opening remarks at the Los Angeles Film Festival.The LA Times "School Me" blog had a lot of fun with the Mayor's efforts including their "Predict-O-Meter" scale that ended Villaraigosa's Sacramento trip with an 83 rating, however, with a "Barry Bonds" asterisk.
Martini Republic has a good piece on the Anderson School at USC's latest real estate forcast. Bottom line is things aren't going to get terrible, but some rough spots are ahead.
Here in Van Nuys chronicles Burbank Boulevard in Burbank east of Buena Vista, which is nearly frozen in time.
City of LA Meetings for Thursday
8:30AM - PLN: CITY PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING
9:00AM - PER: Board of Civil Service Commission
10:00AM - LADOT: Board of Transportation Cancelled
12:00PM - LAHD: Internal Review Committee
12:00PM - LAHD: Affordable Housing Commission Meeting Cancelled
4:00PM - LAUSD: Presidents' Joint Commission on LAUSD Governance Meeting
4:30PM - PLN: South Valley APC - Commission Agenda
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 6/22/2006 12:05:00 AM
17 Comments:
School Me and LAT get it: Today was a huge win for Antonio. The Romer / Canter axis has no play except to defend the status quo -- 50% dropout rate and some of the lowest test scores in the nation. They were outgunned and outmaneuvered.
Now that CTA and UTLA are allied with the Mayor, this bill will sail through the legislature.
Want proof? Jackie Goldberg (former school board member), who called the mayor's reform plan "undemocratic" said today: "There are things in here that I think very much could get through this Legislature, including my committee with my support...Right now I'm very optimistic that they're going to write something that I can support."
Two words: Game over.
Uh, yeah, "huge win:" he wanted control of over 600 schools; he instead gets to manage the bottom 36, while the Board retains control of the budget and policy. With "huge wins" like that, who needs defeats?
The Anderson School is at UCLA, not USC. USC has the Marshall School of Business.
Wacko Walter wanted to be Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, but with barely 3% of the vote Walter still gives his opinion.
With a groundswell of support like that, who needs elections?
Give me a break, they threw Antonio a bone with a "COUPLE" of schools. Gotta love those school board members who were angry as hell saying so on every news channel. Fact is Antonio DIDN'T get the control he wanted and to many this isn't a WIN for him. He was saying "I WILL NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER." Even the rag LA Times's editorial states....AV said the deal he struck Wed. with unions and state lawmakrs is the best he could have hoped for. If that's the case he would have been better off leaving Sacramento declaring defeat and living to fight another day in LA.
These kiss ass LA reporters are the worse at spin.
Julie's bitterness ought to tell us all what really happened; Antonio won this one hands down.
HIS new Superintendent will have expanded powers that now reside in the dysfunctional board, including spending where he or she decides.
It is a huge win, not a total victory, but the nose is in the tent, and I sense Antonio is not through yet. There's another session next year, and more after that. He knows how to legislate.
Way to go, Antonio. Bye, Roy. Don't let the door hit you in the ass.
KABC poll shows 60% of people DON'T SUPPORT ANTONIO.
• Mayor's op-ed in LAT: "I didn't get everything I wanted...but it's a great deal for our kids."
• News coverage: "Significant sway [but] short of the total takeover he had sought." (L.A. Times); "Gives him greater say but falls short of the reform he had sought." (Daily News); "Inching closer to a milestone victory that has eluded every reformer since Ronald Reagan was governor (Daily Breeze).
• Times editorial: "This is reform?...Ill-advised plan that cedes too much to teachers unions, offers too little to students and relies too much on the mayor's talent for consensus."
""""including spending where he or she decides"""
OH SHIT, Meruelo in da house.
The District's high paid lobbyist, Darry Sragrow and former school employee Glenn Griztner, were the politicl geniuses who were blind sided by Antonio and the Unions. The District is paying these two knuckleheads $20k a month to be left on the sidelines while the politics plays otu. Teachers are lucky if they make $4,000 a month. This is an outrage.
Who ever hired these two idiots and wasted taxpayer money ought to be fired.
The only silver lining for the District is that for some inexplicable reason Antonio only shares in the power to hire a superintendent. AV can't fire him or her. Sounds like illusory power.
Phil - Thats if his boy Fabian stays in powr...there's a LOT of support in the Assembly to get rid of Fabian...many people don't view him as being a good Speaker and too tied into Antonio for his own good.
MAV was handed a great face saving gesture by the legislature. HE looks like he did something, they look like they got something -- a win-win or something like that.
It's the kids who continue to get screwed. Break the damn thing up--we needed that 10 years ago and still need it today. At least break it in two. That's what Bob H wanted and he was right.
The rest of this is political theatrics -- But the fact is that MAV was so busy in Sacramento that he didn't have time to convince Gloria Molina and the board to keep him in as Chair of MTA for another year (something he wanted big-time). So Gloria took over. Bye-bye Antonio.
A couple of people have been asking on this blog where the mayor stands on UTLA's proposal for an immediate 14% pay increase. I guess they don't need to ask anymore, do they?
Can you say "blank check"?!
No, no, that's right..... he's accepting this compromise so our kid's education will improve, not as a political payback.
He wants the legislature to prove their loyalty, I mean independence, by crafting complex legislation designed to disperse responsibility for LAUSD's performance so noone has to take the blame if it fails. That's why he doesn't want the public to vote on it.
And UTLA and CTA are going to back the Mayor who's actions will support the Governor they just spent millions to defeat.
And really, all of their actions are really just for the kids so that they can do better.
I have an idea. Can we just replace all the lightbulbs in the state capitol with red ones so the average citizen has a clue about where they're going when they visit?
How about replacing "I'm a Progressive!" with "Me love looong time!"?
(And all you staffers, I mean bloggers, can write about is whether this a victory for MAV? The only thing for sure is that it will do NOTHING to improve the management of the District and/or the education of our children. We should all be ashamed of ourselves.)
Antonio also spent money on lobbyists in Sacramento. He said he came from a committee he formed after he got re-elected. They're suppose to be from private funds. Now let's see who comes up with how much they spent on this fiasco. They're called KP Advocates. They had over $5 mil in billings last year. If Antonio is so great and everyone loves him in Sacramento why did he need help?
Well i think you'll recall that Alex Padilla played politics with this issue and wanted to make sure no taxpayer money was spent on this issue.
So i suppose the Mayor was merely honoring the City Council and brought in private folks to work on this issue.
There's nothing "honorable" about this B.S. "pay to play" scam. Everyone involved is looking out for their OWN interests, not the public's and certainly not the kids.
Why isn't the press asking about the Mayor and the UTLA pay proposal? LAUSD is his No. 1 priority right?
Oh, that's right... they're not paid to investigate, they're paid to write what they're told.
What an embarrassment to a once proud profession.
The bill is ready...
Here it comes. Walter this should be ther first post in the morning.
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