Saturday Stroll Through Town
More fishwrap of record misery for LAUSD: the District can't operate its own payroll system, leaving thousands of employees strapped for cash. But what I wonder about most is why the article doesn't get into the purchasing issues. Who signed off on this system? (Answer: the Board itself) Who recommended it? Which software company was willing to deliver something so completely wrong to a school district---which software company was so willing to rip we the people off?
This is a diabolical purchasing/vendor story, and all the Times left out in its coverage was info about the purchasing and info about the vendor. I would bet that the original bids on this go back to the Huizar days, but that's just a guess.
And if that's the way they contract $95 million computer jobs, imagine how they contract all these pricey schools around town they're building.
Spread 'em: Daily News reports a big Valley raid on gangstas, targeting shot callas.
Downtown News this morning a little wispy on, er, downtown news. But it's that time of year---so am I. Lots in there however on Little Tokyo---a whole lot, including fragments of the New Otani sale drama (leaving me wondering why and especially how you hide the purchase price of a building---it's fruitless, and it's just viewed as more deception from a group you might already have reason to distrust). The top website story is on the greening of Skid Row.
That's Skid Row, dba and aka Don Garza's Central City East (which we link to because Notorious D-O-N has a link to the iPhone unlock guy, something the Times forgot to include in its own story about it---what's with the Times and giving up links anyway?).
You may not have heard, but Kathleen Nye Flynn left the Downtown News at the end of last month, to study at the prestigeous Columbia J School. Best of luck to Kathleen, who is very talented as a scribe, and best of luck to the Downtown News filling her Manolos (yeah, Manolos...she's a Manhattanite now!)
Madamina and I had dinner in Glendale last night. Does anyone know if that historic district motion passed? They're trying to make a preservation zone, Glendale's first, on Royal. But I didn't pick up the story---last I heard they were going to vote on it last Tuesday...
My opinion: Eli Broad's arts school at the base of Grand is shaping up as a complete eyesore. I know we can't argue taste, but the building he rehabbed at UCLA is a hundred times more fetching and dignified than this second cheesy Battlestar Galactica downtown. It's bad enough we already have one in the Cal-Trans building (call that one "100 Mayne").
And I'm no fan of the Disney Hall either; like most good sculpture, it's absurdly uncomfortable when used as furniture, and to sit in most space-strapped seats in the Disney Hall is to yearn for a concert to end, even when listening to music you like. Didn't we already learn everything we needed to know about Eli Broad when he brought thousands of homes to Orange County in which an oversized garage door is the signature architectural element?
This is a diabolical purchasing/vendor story, and all the Times left out in its coverage was info about the purchasing and info about the vendor. I would bet that the original bids on this go back to the Huizar days, but that's just a guess.
And if that's the way they contract $95 million computer jobs, imagine how they contract all these pricey schools around town they're building.
° ° ° ° °
Spread 'em: Daily News reports a big Valley raid on gangstas, targeting shot callas.
° ° ° ° °
Downtown News this morning a little wispy on, er, downtown news. But it's that time of year---so am I. Lots in there however on Little Tokyo---a whole lot, including fragments of the New Otani sale drama (leaving me wondering why and especially how you hide the purchase price of a building---it's fruitless, and it's just viewed as more deception from a group you might already have reason to distrust). The top website story is on the greening of Skid Row.
That's Skid Row, dba and aka Don Garza's Central City East (which we link to because Notorious D-O-N has a link to the iPhone unlock guy, something the Times forgot to include in its own story about it---what's with the Times and giving up links anyway?).
° ° ° ° °
You may not have heard, but Kathleen Nye Flynn left the Downtown News at the end of last month, to study at the prestigeous Columbia J School. Best of luck to Kathleen, who is very talented as a scribe, and best of luck to the Downtown News filling her Manolos (yeah, Manolos...she's a Manhattanite now!)
° ° ° ° °
Madamina and I had dinner in Glendale last night. Does anyone know if that historic district motion passed? They're trying to make a preservation zone, Glendale's first, on Royal. But I didn't pick up the story---last I heard they were going to vote on it last Tuesday...
° ° ° ° °
My opinion: Eli Broad's arts school at the base of Grand is shaping up as a complete eyesore. I know we can't argue taste, but the building he rehabbed at UCLA is a hundred times more fetching and dignified than this second cheesy Battlestar Galactica downtown. It's bad enough we already have one in the Cal-Trans building (call that one "100 Mayne").
And I'm no fan of the Disney Hall either; like most good sculpture, it's absurdly uncomfortable when used as furniture, and to sit in most space-strapped seats in the Disney Hall is to yearn for a concert to end, even when listening to music you like. Didn't we already learn everything we needed to know about Eli Broad when he brought thousands of homes to Orange County in which an oversized garage door is the signature architectural element?
Labels: a guy in la, lausd
Posted by Joseph F. Mailander @ 8/25/2007 07:41:00 AM
22 Comments:
Looks like Alarcon is in trouble. Another Latino crook.
....The councilman's proposal seeks to "preserve the residential character" of Wakefield. But the plan could provide another benefit to Montes de Oca, who plans to tear down her rental house and replace it with as many as nine homes.
Montes de Oca faces the prospect of giving part of her property to the city for a required street widening once she builds. But if Alarcon's request is approved by the council, she would be spared from forfeiting up to 2,850 square feet of her lot at Nordhoff Street and Wakefield.
Nothing legally prohibited Alarcon from writing the council motion; the state's conflict-of-interest law keeps politicians from acting on property owned by spouses -- not girlfriends or fiancees.
Mayor Sam don't make this site for gossip juvenile bs. There's a lot of news out there and by diverting attention away from the corruption of city hall is not helping this city. Good story in LA Slimes on Housing guy getting canned.
..Taracena supervised more than 150 contracts worth about half a million dollars that went directly to companies his brothers created, contract files show. Seven other contracts worth $289,000 were awarded to non-family firms, two of which had little or no expertise in the work they were hired to do.
These firms -- all with ties to current or former Los Angeles City Council members from the Eastside -- won their contracts in bidding processes fraught with irregularities.
PACHECO, VILLARAIGOSA, ALATORRE, HUIZAR, VICTOR GREIGO, GUSTAVO
Alarcon fixed it so that his pre-teen wife can become more of a slumlord? Why isn't that surprising. This corrupt culture all filters down from the top. One of Antonio's first motion as a newly elected councilman of the 14th District was to "sell" to his consultant, Parke Skelton - a previously public street so that Parke's properties would now be a cul-de-sac.
Such brazen disregard for ethics and the perception of law is enabled by their huge campaign bank accounts - another example of the little people not mattering at all. Leona Helmsley lives on.
http://www.sap.com/industries/index.epx
I don't know all the history of how LAUSD awarded the contracts to update their payroll accounting software.
But the LAUSD is not alone in this type of problem. I have worked at two fortune 500 companies when they switched to SAP accounting systems.
They were both big disasters with a capital SAP, for a while some vendors quit doing business with them because they would not get paid. I would get calls from angry vendors and invoices sent to me (not in accounting) and then walk the invoice over to a bunch of extra accounting people would cut checks by hand and send them out to the angriest vendors. All of us who normally relied on the accounting department to write purchase orders and pay invoices had to get involved with the accounting departments which had to do things manually.
And these two companies did an excellent job of managing hundreds of multi-million dollar construction projects and contracts but SAP bit them in the ass like a mean pit-bull. I’m sure you will hear the same story from others, this is not unique to LAUSD.
Laura Chick N Shit is an idiot. Now she's questioning the actions of council after being in office 8 years. She should have gone after the gang programs years ago but didn't. Millions are wasted in this city and as city controller she's done a lousy job of watching out for our money. She would lose if she ever ran for office again.
She makes this ridiculous statement in Daily News today "Chick said she's tired of city leaders wringing their hands over the same problems - gangs, affordable housing, traffic - without coming up with long-term solutions.
Who among us remembers when the city tried to implement the SMS purchasing system a few years ago?
We went to a series of seminars, got certificates and it didn't work so they changed it and we needed more seminars, OY!
It was so user unfriendly, the tech suppport people didn't understand it.
I remember stories of police officers buying pencils and bullets out of petty cash.
The name Oracle software comes to mind.
The LAUSD is awash in pedo. I think Monica Garcia should cut her ties with her buddy at Deliotte who pushed this project on Huizar and then her. Stand up for the low paid teachers, Monica, not your friend.
Why didn't the LA Slimes reporter ask for a comment on the Housing Authority fraud in CD14 from Antonio, Pacheco or Huizar? That's their terrirtory and why hasn't Laura Chick N Shit said a word about the corruption of those bids going to companies that didn't exist? Again not doing her damn job.
10:00
She didn't do this for the same reason she gave Antonio and Parke all that inside information on Hahn. She is just a puppet at the end of their strings. She would not have gone after the Housing debacle because the main person behind this was Gustavo Valdivia. Gustavo is well connected with Antonio and Huizar and before that he was an operative for the Miguel Contreras/Fabian Nunez SINdicate. Gustavo promised Huizar and Antonio support from all those Mexican State organizations, Club Zacatecas, Club Michoacanos, etc.,. in exchange for his loyalty,not that Gustavo knows anything about loyalty. Then Gustavo gets Cardenas to hire his wife, how is Chick going to meddle in Gustavo's affairs.
Gustavo Valdivia, Michael Trujillo, Jimmy Blackman, Ricardo Monroy, Joe Avila - just look at the scum these politicians hire. Surround yourself by pussy YES men and you'll always be infallible. Funny, Mike Hernandez and Richard Alatorre thought they were untouchable before they went down in flames.
More of what Los Angeles is famous for, producing trash like these gang bangers.
Hesperia woman killed in confrontation over gang graffiti
L.A. Times Story
A Hesperia resident is the second Southland victim in two weeks to be killed in a confrontation over tagging.
A 65-year-old Hesperia woman was shot and killed Thursday evening after she and family members confronted taggers spray-painting graffiti on their apartment wall and trash cans.
Authorities arrested the alleged triggerman, Ricardo Real, 19, of Hesperia, Friday afternoon on suspicion of murder and were searching for at least three other suspects, said San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jodi Miller.
The shooting comes two weeks after a 57-year-old Pico Rivera woman was gunned down after she tried to stop taggers from spray-painting graffiti in her neighborhood, a slaying that outraged surrounding communities. An argument turned into a fight, Miller said.
"All we wanted to know is why they were doing it," said Vasa Ptnesapele, Tausili's grandson, who said he was among the family members who approached the taggers. Tausili, who suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest, died about an hour later at Desert Valley hspital in Victorville, Miller said. "She was always there," Ptnesapele said. "She was everything a person could ask for. She took care of us.
Ptnesapele said the taggers had recently moved into the area from Los Angeles and lived on the other side of the apartment complex.
"Through the investigation, they were able to determine Real as the likely triggerman and arrest him."
Re: LAUSD
Well, geez, color me shocked...
Since her multi-million $$ campaign for a $24K/year job blamed former board member Lauritzen for the purchase and maintenance of the $95 mil LAUSD payroll system, I would have thought that Tamar Galatzan would have programmed the bugs out by now...
What's taking so long?
11:34pm,
LOL!
LAUSD has had similar problems with their inventory system. The LAT did a detailed series of investigations on this years ago, on how every time the Board was going to scrap the system, the vendor said, just give us another million and a little time and we'll fix it. With over 30 million invested/ wasted, the Board was in a bind. Believe them and throw more money at the problem, or scrap it and call it a big loss. The LAT also linked Alatorre's friends to some of these kinds of vendors, but I can't recall if this inventory system is part of it, but recent reports indicate the LAUSD still doesn't have a good inventory system so supplies are bought and wasted and literally MIA. The new Board should make sure all vendors are vetted, value for the money.
The penalty for tagging should be death. There's no way to accidentally pick up a can of spraypaint and scrawl your name on a wall.
Uh, gee, long overdue time to GET RID OF THE MEXICANS?!?!?!?!?!?!???
Get rid of all the corrupt Latino politicans. Time for me to register Republican. These democrat Latino corrupt assholes have ruined our city. Look at all the shit they have done and have the nerve to show their faces. I'm dying to read tomorrow's stories on the illegal march. I bet not one lazy ass reporter has the guts to report how much money these marches have cost the city of LA. Why aren't they reporting that? Then I hear the FEDS are soo pissed at the corrupt politicans in LA for supporting the illegals LA is not getting their fair share of federal funds. Example is transportation and homeland security. Antonio and his goons are hurting our city with their support for illeglas. This bitch Arellano is no Rosa Parks like the organizers said today and in fact that statement is pissing off the blacks. Rosa Parks was an american citizen and she didn't break the law. She was humble and had integrity and character. I'm Latina and admire that woman and how dare those damn illegals try to say that criminal woman is like her.
Al Norman is an activist who has made a career out of attacking Wal-Mart. His website is called Sprawl-Busters. Norman now runs "Battle-Mart" for the Astroturf group Wal-Mart Watch, which is funded by the Service Employees International Union. Pullman is listed as a featured "Site Fight" at Battle-Mart.
Through its Kids Recycling Challenge program, Wal-Mart today announced it is awarding $31,075 to 98 Orange/Ventura-area schools for students’ efforts to become responsible stewards of their environment. The company’s Kids Recycling Challenge effort is the largest plastic bag recycling program of its kind ever undertaken.
Wal-Mart's desire to build a store in Ventura faces stiffening opposition as a grass-roots group is urging city leaders to pass an ordinance controlling big-box development and vowing to press the issue during this fall's city election.
7:19 PM
Gee, if only the feds were pissed off about local government lack of cooperation over chasing these invaders out of our country! This Arellano dog and pony show is just like the "increased raids" and other activity on behalf of our federal government - a show of selective activity to quiet down the people. Our federal government is just as anxious to have these illegals here - and MORE - as Villar and his gang of Mexican enemy agents! You do recall the recent Amnesty bill treason and how, until the very end, the majority of traitors in Washington were supporting it IN SPITE of being keenly aware that the VAST MAJORITY of American citizens were rabidly AGAINST IT?
New computerization projects should NOT be managed by ANY city employee. 99.99% of city, computer related staff are second-rate hacks who should not be in charge of implementing new projects.
These new projects should be managed by real professionals, such as SAIC, as contracts with bonus incentives for on-time and per spec. Do you think JPL projects have a luxury of slipping schedule? Say for a asteroid encounter which happens every 100 years, they don't miss schedules!
Mayor Sam distorters, get off your ass. Here's a real issue. City employees should not be managing large scale, new software projects, at all. It's not easy for a hack. City employees don't know how it's done.
Oh please.
$95 million for software that doesn't work, costs another small fortune to hire substitues for teachers who have to go downtown to beg for their pay.
Who knows about who has been overpaid???
And now they're spending millions more with the same vendor for "upgrades" and "trouble shooting".
Try excel.
Fuck ups.
It's a bunch of retards that make LAUSD an abyss.
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