Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday
Buzz continues over an LA Weekly article that alleges that the location that former LA County labor leader Miguel Contreras died at, was later allegedly the subject of a prostitution bust. Questions abound as to an autopsy and if political influence was used with the Cornoer's office as well as the hospital to keep the circumstances surrounding his death quiet.El Segundo residents are upset that a signficant number of film productions are closing down their streets and limiting parking options. Read about it at El Segundo.net.
Mayor Villaraigosa will travel to New Mexico this weekend to campaign for a Democratic state attorney general, who is locked in a tight congressional race, the mayor's office said today.
Villaraigosa will head to New Mexico mid-day Saturday, and return early Sunday.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 10/27/2006 12:01:00 AM
25 Comments:
If David Z man Zahniser keeps doing these great investigative stories so well LA will lose him an TIME or Newsweek will steal him away. Lazy ass reporters should take lessons from him how to report and do some real research.
Whether the Contreas article turns out to be true or not, I commend the job that David Z. and the LA Weekly does. As we have stated numerous times on this blog, too bad the LA Times do not have enough integrity or creativity to deliver an intriguing piece.
It was written on this blog a long time ago that Miguel came and went at the same time. There was a high ranking African American County Fed official who had taken Miguel to this brothel, I guess a literal form of ass kissing. And this after Miguel was making the rounds with Gloria Romero and her chief of staff, Ruth Castro not to mention all those other whores. In fact it was well known that Miguel and Antonio would compare notes on the women they shared - starting with Maria Elena. These guys were and are stoned hard Marxist - they shared everything, even their women. So much for all this women's liberation crap they've been spouting.
And yet, Fabian Nunez and Miguel's groupies pushed for a high school to be named after this scumbag instead of Edward Roybal - this is why Latino politics is such a cesspool. Fabian and Marco Firebaugh were notorious for their parties at the Democratic conventions - complete with prostitutes and drugs. Marco got busted for DUI after his first Assembly victory and I guess they weren't screening those whores because Marco then died of AIDS, and he wasn't gay. But a person present at some of these parties just became a born again Christian, and he is about to confess all - he's even got pictures to prove his claims. Should have checked those cell phone cameras at the door Fabian, these pictures will make excellent campaign fodder when you go for Reyes council seat - you should think twice about that assembly/council swap you are planning - this individual comes from Ed's camp.
Personal behaviour translates into public hypocrisy - and it starts at the top with Mayor Villaraigosa.
AV should stick around for at least a little while to campaign to improve the lives of Angelenos, rather than going on another worthless political jaunt. He has done squat for Los Angeles. The words "miserable failure" come to mind.
The real issue is why the LAPD, (and the chief)failed to disclose that Contreras had died in a house of prostitution.
How long ago did the vice raid go down?
What led the LAPD to suspect that Contreras had died in a house of prostitution?
We need answers LA Times.
Great Job LA Weekly(the only thing you missed was that Senator Romero
was Contreras' mistress and the conflict it caused within the labor movement because most labor folks were loyal to Maria Elena Durazo)
funy how everyone quoted spoke highly of Miguel except for the Valtrex Beauty Queen. was she doing him too or just other other old guy?
It's only been a year, but already I am regretting my vote for the Mayor. My smart ass brother in law is only to happy to rub it in my face that he voted for Hahn. So did my bitchy ass sister. I hate to say it, but those fuckers were right.
It's going to have to go higher than Villaraigosa; start with the legislature and work on down. Like the pirate says, Nunez and friends have to go.
I read this in the LA Times this morning and thought that this was interesting...with Prop R, Prop H and the massage scandals. Geez, wish I had that kind of raise! Joe Ramallo's quote is the kicker - remember, the Mayor just got back from China and is now off to New Mexico. Before that he was in Europe.
With elected officials in Los Angeles already among the highest paid in the nation, the state recently delivered more cheery news to city politicians: they will soon receive an additional 4.98% cost-of-living boost retroactive to July 1, thanks to the California Judicial Council.
The money will come on top of an 8.5% raise they are getting Jan. 1. In total, that means that by early 2007 the 18 elected officials in the city will have each seen their annual salaries increase somewhere between $21,000 and $28,000.
If the 4.98% raise is applied first and then the 8.5% raise — as city officials expect it will be — the salaries for the 15 full-time council members will go from $150,696 currently to $171,648; for the controller, from $165,765 to $188,812; for the city attorney, from $180,835 to $205,977; and for the mayor, from $195,904 to $223,141.
The council is already the highest paid in the United States and will now make more than members of Congress, who are scheduled to receive a 2% raise on Jan. 1, bringing their salary to $168,500.
The increase also means that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will make more than the $206,500 that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would collect had he chosen to accept a salary, and more than Vice President Dick Cheney, who earns $212,000. (President George W. Bush is paid $400,000 annually.)
"Angelenos get a great value for their tax dollars from Mayor Villaraigosa," said mayoral press secretary Joe Ramallo. "He's the hardest-working mayor in America."
Other top official salaries include:
• $322,533, Ron Deaton, general manager, Department of Water and Power
• $257,999, Lydia Kennard, executive director, Los Angeles World Airports
• $256,156, William J. Bratton, police chief
• $255,884, William Bamattre, fire chief
• $246,026, Bill Fujioka, city administrative officer
• $244,797, Geraldine Knatz, executive director, Port of Los Angeles
• $234,357, Gerry Miller, chief legislative analyst
• $224,794, Andrew Adelman, general manager, Department of Building and Safety
Now tell me, doesn't that make you want to run out and keep these clowns in office for an extra term? Sure it does...
A lot of people I'm sure must know both why it was completely unseemly to go poking around Miguel's cadaver and why it really should have been done. The disgrace is not that there's healthy curiousity now---the disgrace is that this all didn't unfold eighteen months ago.
Blame both a Times City Hall team too green to get involved and a Daily News team that didn't want to sensationalize an untimely death at a critical time in the Mayor's race. It's possible that they made the right call, but the wall of hushhush surrounding the decease certainly enabled and legitimized later scrutiny.
Yes, as always, the Z Man keeps running circles around the rest of the City Hall and political reporters around town. And L.A. Times continues for the most part to be lazy/asleep at the switch/too cozy with their friends to do the kind of coverage they should be doing...
MEMO TO THE "LA ANTONIA TIMES"
"DAY LATE, DOLLOR SHORT"
"JOURNALIST BAQUET",
one of the reasons that your "OLD GREY HAG ON SPRING STREET" is losing readers is the neglect of local reporting. Again, your fish wrap plays catch up today in reporting on the fall out of the L.A. Weekly story pretaining to the death of Miguel Contreras. Today, the previous posts have brought more background to play that paint a picture of Labor and Polititians who acted in a questionable manner. It is troubling also when the "NEWSPAPER OF RECORD" cannot delve into the background on the behavior of a civic leader such as Miguel Contreras. The Times needs to be the truth bearer, not the spinster, when is issues of local concern need reporting.
11:41
If you want people who will be good at their jobs, you have to pay them something close to what they'd make in the real world.
If the Port of LA was owned by a private company...how much do you think the CEO or President would make?
9:06 PM,
Good point. Maybe we should give our GMs bonuses based on their department's performance (while giving all GMs flat salaries, of course).
The truth needs to be told. It appears that a labor leader dies and that the city's political power structure works to cover up the details surrounding his death.
Thank you LA Weekly for bringing this issue to the public. Mr. Contreras' death sheds light upon his life. He was a powerful public figure and his behavior, if it involved illegal activities, needs to be investigated and made public.
Anon 9:06
Most of these people wouldn't or couldn't cut it in the "real" world. None of these political hacks deserve competitive market place salaries, because they wouldn't have made it to that level on their own merits. They choose politics to augment their resumes for future big dollars in the private sector as consultants or lobbiests. You see previous generations of these never-were's all around City Hall and Sacramento.
They don't deserve raises, let alone some of the highest public service salaries in the nation.
Re salaries. The most important factor for these guys is how they affect retirement. Somebody more knowledgable than me will have to calculate it, but I promise you'd be stunned to see what Deaton eventually walks off with at a relatively young age. Why do you think he'd take that awful job? Bill McCarley did the same thing.
This week The LA Times, LA Weekly and LA Daily News have been coverning stories which if followed up with a real desire to get the truth out, could rock the Los Angeles political establishment.
The stories involving Miguel Contreas, Janet Humphries and Martin Ludlow and local unions lead right to the top.
So here is my challange to all those reporters who want to be the next Woodward and Bernstein. If you think you or your paper can stand the heat, then follow these stories to the end and you will be surprised who you will find once you turn on the lights.
Next trial: Federal Court 12-7-06, be there and pay attention.
It is not about sex, it is about absolut power and coruption in the name of the greater good.
I will be posting more details on this blog for your amusement or shall I say amazement.
Firebaugh had AIDS? I read that he attributed his liver problem, which supposedly killed him, to his drinking. That did sound a little funny to me since my aunt and father-in-law basically swam 7 days a week in liquor from the age of 18 and both of them lived until their late 60s.
Had the circumstances of Miguel Contreras' death been known before his funeral, do you think he would have been sent off in that blaze of glory at Our Lady of Mahoney? Right shut down that whole corner of Downtown, it did.
10:52
You're talking about Mahoney, a man who covered for, thus encouraging predator priests. What's a couple of prostitutes to him, afterall, Catholics are forgiven.
The Janet Humphreys case, Miguel's death, this is just the tip of the iceberg on the labor power structure in L.A.. Gil Cedillo was fired form Local 660 for using a union credit card at a whore house, Antonio still makes the rounds for easy women at labor events and meanwhille, the engineers get shut out. Is it any wonder that despite the most progressive mayor in the country, L.A. is still not a labor town like San Francisco? Incompetence reigns.
David Z Man Zahniser should go after the list of politicans who had massages on city tax dollars at the Bonaventure where Miguel Contreras also was on the list.
Did Miguel live in the Monterey Hills / El Sereno area? The reason I ask, is that there is a Collis Ave Holloween event Banner at Hunington and Collis promoting the event and dedicating it to Miguel C. ?
Okay Mr/Ms anonymous let me set the record straight. Me and Miguel were friends and friends ONLY. He dated my boss, I got to know him through her. He advised me on politcal stuff and running for office. I know it's good gossip to think I would have dated him too but it's NOT TRUE and he is also NOT the biological father of my 2 children. I don't read this blog because of trash like this but someone alerted me again and thought I should make my point.
Ruth Castro
Botanica Inca?
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