City Clowncil To Get Pay Raise
It will be the fourth time in less than three years, but the City Council is about to get a pay raise, bringing members' annual salaries to a level more than most business executives, nearly $180,000.The salary increase also triggers a pay raise for the City Controller, City Attorney and the Mayor who collectively make almost three-quarters of a million dollars per year.
Given tight budgets, tax schemes placed on the ballot and other misplaced spending priorities, this is the wrong time for Los Angeles' elected officials to take a pay cut.
Okay and listen up - everyone listening? The old, dead Republican Mayor is sending out major props to Mayor Villaraigosa for REFUSING HIS RAISE. You guys moan and complain that I never say anything good about the Mayor; well there you go. I told if the Mayor does something good, I'll recognize. The Mayor did something good here.
Now - will Rocky Delgadillo, Laura Chick and the the 15 members of the Clowncil follow the Mayor's lead and reject the increase? Who will be the first? Let me know - I will put it here for everyone to see.
Labels: laura chick, Los Angeles City Council, mayor antonio villaraigosa, pay raise, rocky delgadillo
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 11/15/2007 12:43:00 AM
66 Comments:
I too, most certainly applaud the Mayor for refusing his raise.
Great leadership and I hope everyone else follows.
This would be a boost those who complain about council members' misplaced spending priorities.
Excellent post Mayor Sam!
Kim - where you been? You should give me a call!
I've been in school, looking for a job and working on the opposition to Las Lomas team!
I have no time to read blogs. I barely have time to read the papers. I read textbooks and watch Spanish news stations. Me - who doesn't watch television at all. What the heck brought me here tonight? Hm, fate.
I will call you! You need a field trip...
now good 4 u.......get your cd 14 cronies, maria del angel's uneducated crooked ass and that quigley wiggley rudy montiel in check, and we might let you guys clean our toilets for another term boy villarrr...
Soon as I saw the article I just nu you were going to write criticizing them. I bet they all turn down their rasies so you can pat them on the back and tell them they can clean your toilets to make it back up.
The Mayor gets a free mansion, servants, bodyguards and lord knows what -- he can afford to turn down his raise because it doesn't cost him anything to live, it's all paid for on top of the salary. The rest of them are straight salary, and it's exhausting going to all those evening meetings. A few thrive on it, some don't. They deserve it. Well, except for a few I can think of -- Union kissup Alarcon, Jose Parade Huizar, Janice Never-met-a tax-I don't like Hahn and Bitter Pernie Parks and Cardenas his sidekick, I'm not too keen on.
As for executives' salaries, no, top exex are not paid less -- many corporations have huge perks, too. Not that the blogging burros would know about that world.
You know the mexican midget mayor is up to something shady. He does need a raise, because he has so many shady deals with large development companies. Zuma has told about all those front end loaded contracts which pay the midget mexican mayor under the table.
You can be sure those sneaky mexican politicos are as low down as shady as corrupt politicnas come.
Don't trust the mexican midget mayor for 1 second.
Listen to KFI for all the dirt on the mexican politicans od Los Angeles.
We need to get rid of the illegal aliens from our schools, especially our Westside Schools. The uneducated mexican kids are lowering the standards and test scores of all our Los Angeles schools.
Damned right, 3:10, that westside schools suck because they're full of bused in immigrants.
Until now, I thought you might have had a point about everyone dumping on "the Midget Mexican Mayor" for everything, but you've proven yourself a moron.
And if you work for him -- why else would you be blogging FOR him in the middle of the night -- you must be panicked that people will realize that hey, we've been paying to educate those illegals and other Hispanics in OUR local schools, and that's why our kids MUST go to very private schools. Private schools that are the most expensive in the country (except a few that really deserve to charge that much) because they have a captive audience of screwed victims.
Meanwhile your Midget Mayor said he's really, really upset that LAUSD has the fewest middle class kids of any major city. Duh, could it be because he's busing the poor Hispanics into the westside, even as he's building schools for them, and them only?
Let's see: an area with one of the 2-3 most expensive home prices in the country, has NO local kids in its public schools. Wonder why?
You're panicked because if parents on the westside realize we're entitled to a class action suit for years of fraud and diversion of tax monies, under false and strictly politcally biases pretenses, you'll be screwed forever in the eyes of the national public, in the area you've made your calling card.
Shut up, idiot -- if this is the advice you're giving your Mayor, he's dead in the water. Let him actually bring in the middle class by giving us back OUR schools, if he wants to do something useful and save his ass.
KFI = Keep Foreigners Incarcerated
Well I was going to say kudos to Antonio but read what someone posted. That he doesn't pay rent, car gas, electric bills, cable so his money probably just goes into the bank on direct deposit. So giving up 4% is better then paying his PR people to think of something to get his poll numbers up. Word is he has the lowest numbers of any Mayor in decades. I think the fact that Ed Reyes gave the dumbest logic for accepting is, "I have four kids and one in college and one in high school." SO WHAT!!! I like Ken Draper's idea of having a performance evalutation on how a council member is doing and promises made before giving these bafoons a raise. So how can they ask for pone tax now when all the money is going to their salaries???
JACK WEISS is a MORON.
He is the only one who had to ASK THE MAYOR about what HE is doing with HIS raise in order to determine what he (Weiss) will do with his own.
I wonder if Weiss has to ask the Mayor if he can wipe his rump after going to the can. Apparently not.
Kim, Mayor Sam - you guys are a bunch of morons, just looking to praise Antonio for something.
Didn't Riordan govern without taking any salary? Now that's honorable.
As for Antonio, the only people hurt are his kids!! After Corina's divorce case, where do you think that money was going anyway? His son is over 18 but his daughter still needs to receive paternity funds.
And Corina is losing out. Half that money was hers - does she have any say in this?
It is a calculated, selfish, Skeltonian move - once again - Antonio just thinking about himself.
At 4% that's over $10,000 - half of which should lawfully be Corina's and perhaps another chunk for her kids.
Corina already owns the house in Mt. Washington, so the only thing she would get from Antonio is half his cash worth - including any future earnings in his political career.
First Antonio falsely claims that his dad his an alcoholic to get elected now he cuts off his kids just to grab another few PR points. Is it any wonder Parke Skelton has no family?
Hello I am a third floor spinster from the Mayor's office. I have an important announcement!!!!
The mayor will accept his raise, and will donate it to the Westside residents to build a school. And further-more he will not allow any of those illegal alien mexican kids into the school!!!!!
A Westside school with NO mexicans !!!!!!!
A colorometer will be installed at the entry gate, and only pasty face kids will be allowed in the gate. Don't worry folks it can detect white-face makeup on any dark skinned kid. The colorometer uses the latest technology and can't be fooled.
We hope this will allow the Westside residents to sleep a little more comfortably at night.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Oooohhh Yeeeeeahh a school without Mexicans !!!! Can we install a colorometer at the entry gate to the state of California!!!
845am
PUT THAT ON THE BALLOT FOR NEXT YEAR AND I WILL VOTE FOR THAT !!
It's a great move by MAV. Refuse the raise now and get the PR. Then after a few months take the money and nobody will bother to check.
Best Idea on this sordid topic -
***** Re-introduce a ballot measure that voids out the current pay raise scheme attached to the judges and intoduce one tied to the average non DWP employees COLA MOU agreements***.
Stop complaining - change it
No kudos to Villar ... PR desperation move, nothing more. He knows he has and will get his from outside sources. This corrupt cholo is responsible for the continued destruction and Third-World-ization of Los Angeles and California and deserves NOTHING but the sh*tpile ... EVER ... PERIOD!
9:33
You have obviously never read the City Charter. It is virtually impossible for the public to get enough signatures in such a short period of time to place a measure on the ballot. But the City Council can do it easily.
It's amazing how after a valid point is made - like 7:20 - that the raving racists show up.
Parke, is this some more of your distraction practices. Call the mayor a cholo midget and the mainstream press won't touch the issue.
This is how Antonio has gotten a free press ride so far.
umm, let me see, wheelbarrows full of Grand campaign donations, or a measly pay raise.
its a classic mayor move, give up the penny to take the pound....
good one...
8:43: You are the best argument AGAINST your Mayor. The Westside and West Valley already don't trust him, and think his posturing as Mayor for all the pueblos was just bullcrap, that he's still a separatist Mecha like he was in college.
Keep making your idiotic point that the westside should continue to be overrun by the illegals and other immigrants, and that it's terrific public policy to deprive one of the wealthiest areas in the country of public schools for their kids. But to keep milking them to pay for your Mexicans, both in east L A and valley AND in what should have been their own local schools.
("Hey, come on over, poor and downtrodden Mexicans of the world, illegals especially welcomed -- we'll give our schools over to you, and make sure you can call us racist because English is the official language of the schools, sorry, that was put in by some racist fools who don't know that Spanish is really the world's preferred language... Well, we're kind of strapped from having to pay tens of thousands for private schools, private security and double for insurance because you poor things drive without licenses or insurance -- and, since there are so damned many of you, even our Granada Hills Hospital had to be seized for another school. Sure, we've turned into a third-world country, but we don't mind at all -- and if the rest of the country weren't so darned racist, they'd be looking to us as a role model, instead of with horror.")
That pretty much sums up your version of the Mayor's "vision." sounds no different from Huizar, Alarcon or the rest -- do you have any idea how much dislike there is for your Mayor on the westside at all levels? the famous liberalism has run out, they're fighting mad.
By the way, I'm not writing this for YOU, you're a moron -- but for the others who read in support. (No one has supported your Mecha views, I see.)
Keep trashing the taxpaying (white and Asian OR Hispanics and blakcs who can afford to live in the area -- I never mentioned race, moron, you did) milkcows you've squeezed too far for years, keep generating anti-Villar sentiment, you fool.
Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen (wipes mouth with napkin and has sip of iced tea):
Lunching today at a certain Club near the Library we are. (Takes bite of entree and sighs with satisfaction) A satisfied man always leaves a satisfactory tip, savvy? (Looks closely at sots) Aside from asking whats-in-your-wallet, I would ask you all whether or not you tip. Do you tip the garbage-man? (Whispers) Me mum tips the man and he lets her put her garbage bins out behind the house instead of down the drive and down the hill. She says that if she doesn't, he tells her that his union contract won't let him bring the truck up the hill, but that's a different story, savvy?
(Clears throat) Back to the topic at hand. Sots, do you tip? The post-man? The cable-man? The Avon-lady? If you tip, then let me ask you this...do you tip those whose salaries you pay? Would you tip your elected officials for a job most splendidly done? (Crew snickers) Or are you like some of those other captains on those ultra-large cruisers that demand the tips be paid up front before the voyage is taken, savvy? This is a hotly-debated topic amongst many who ply their trade within the maritime industry. For example, on my ship I tip when the job is very well done. Now I pay a decent wage, I do. (Crew snickers again) Oh sod off, you pissy packards. (Looks through narrowed eyes at crew) What say you about my NOT paying you and you serve at my leisure? (Crew quiets down)
Is this really a pay raise or is it an enforced "tip" up front? And if it is a pay raise, does the performance merit the raise in pay? This from a group of thugs and brigands who (a) put a brilliant piece of legislation on the ballot known as "Prop R"; (b) sat on their hands while an inner-city farm was taken back by the Slap-And-Tickle people; and (c) Happily went along and supported His Nibbs on what turned out to be an illegal takeover of the local school district.
I say we give them all a tip, only dip it in curare before you poke them with it, savvy?
Interesting that no one has spent time on considering the impact of COUNCIL's pay raise, since there are 15 council members and just one mayor. They fooled the voters with the term limits issue and probably wash their hands of the pay raise item, having insulated themselves from it's source- but that operation was crafted on their behalf.
Besides "common," the other sense that they are missing is one of "shame." They COULD work on changing the way raises are made, but the greedy nature of the politicians just overrides that posibility. It's a reflex action to preserve their being. Just like our reflex action when touching a hot pan- our hand moves back quickly, a react without actually any deliberation of the action first.
BTW, when Antonio and wife separated, one of serveral items of change was that INCOME after that date is generally treated as "separate" not "community" so Corinna would not be "entitled" to the raise through a division as a "community asset".
His "child support" ("paternity" usually is used in non-marital relationships) might be affected, though, but with all the other benefits these elected officials get up front and on the side, it's likely a relatively small share.
And we thought the DWP salaries were out of line? Council couldn't tell anyway as their raises just roll in rain or shine, windfall or deficit- they don't care...... they don't have to.
IN cd 14.
Daily News reports that LAUSD is the lowest performing of any of the other 11 big city school systems tested. And coincidentally, has the highest percentage of English learners, ie Hispanics. The Hispanics as a subgroup are up slightly from where they were 4 years ago, but none of the other groups is. In fact, DC and Atlanta (virtually all black) were slightly higher than 8th graders. So it's clear that despite the huge waste of funds being poured into LAUSD, only the Hispanics are benefiting nominally -- but still dragging the whole district down to the toilet.
Good thing we got rid of those awful white and wealthy Asians and Persians and all from the schools, especially on the westside.
Mayor Sam, thank you for getting rid of Red Spot. Everybody thought he sucked big time.
Now can you please get rid of Captain Jack? He is incredibly long-winded (he could probably set his own sails), taking way too long to say absolutely nothing of import or interest.
Thank you for listening.
aye aye, on Capt Jack being a windbag with nothing to say.
He thinks Council raises are a tip, like to the cable or trash guy? What a dummy.
But there's a lot of nonsense printed here about the raises. I don't trust the Mayor myself, not sure if a zebra can change his stripes, or if he's using the whole city to fund his "own people," the Mexicans.
But it makes no sense and is no body's business to ramble on about his child support payments and terms of separation from his wife, blaming him for neglecting his family for turning down the raise, then in the next breath people dump on him for raiding the coffers for his personal benefit. Leave his family out of it -- divorced and separated people have the same rights to keep the money or not.
Alarcon can use his raise to bail out one of his homeowners who can't speak English so didn't understand the loan agreement they signed -- that was one of his big arguments at a hearing he held on the matter.
Today's liberal L A Weekly disputes that his district is hardest hit, anyway -- says it's lower middle class black areas, like Hyde Park.
Jesse Jackson is in town holding press conferences saying so, so you know it must be true.
Those last dudes are spinnahs,
Gripe-in 'bout the winnahs,
And not gittin' any thinnah
'Cause no one wants 'em for dinnah,
Bring the Red Spot Back,
Same with Cap'n Jack,
Them other dudes is hacks,
Gittin' nada in the sack,
Wid fungus in the crack.
Ain't cuttin' you no slack,
'Cause you NASTY!
Well, that sucked, Bard...got anything else?
"Wanna Be A Tard" is more like it...
Good afternoon 2:08 (tips hat):
Please, keep your day job, savvy?
Antonio doesn't do anything for the good of anybody but himself. Him telling the media he won't accept 4% raise is a PR campaign to try and make himself look good. How the hell can council ask the homeowners to vote for the phone tax because this city is in a State of Emergency yet they gave DWP a hugeeeeee raise, are spending millions on an elephant and gorilla exhibit, STILL no audit of the $82 MILLION wasted on gang programs and they are the HIGHEST PAID MORONS IN THE US.
Will someone post one damn thing that these morons have done that has benefited the city? I can tell you all the corrupt, sneaky bullshit they have passed through the voters noses with lies...
Too bad the gang banging cholo mayor can't take credit for this one. THANK YOU FEDS...
...Capping a two-year investigation, federal, state and local law enforcement authorities this morning took into custody a total of 26 members and associates of the MS-13 gang, arresting the gang's No. 1 "shot caller" in the Los Angeles area, as well as top leaders of several cliques of the gang. Oscar Chacon, 29, the top member of MS-13 in Los Angeles
....This investigation was conducted by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Task Force on Violent Crime, which is comprised of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Probation Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The task force received the assistance of parole officers with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the United States Marshals Service and the United States Bureau of Prisons
One has to wonder of the legality of tying city pay raises with county employees. Since city business taxes are separate from county's, and the city gets its share of county drawn property tax, the logical question is why is the pay is connected and is it legal? Since alot of state ballot measures that pass are then challenged and overturned in the courts, has this been challenged, and do judges want their pay tied to sleazy local pols?
wonder if Corrina can demand the 2% share of the refused pay raise?
Since Barry Bonds was indicted for connection with steroids, will AV sue Bonds because he took AV share that would have made him look like a grown up? It's tough buying suits in the boys section of Marshalls.
Watching the mayor and his mini-me Weiss is like watching Bush and his mini-me Gonzalez.
Next, Weiss will approve waterboarding any NIMBYs who oppose the mayor's plans to invade his next city agency.
Only after he gets permission though. Quite the independent thinker...
Do you guys n gals remember Mayor Riordan? I read that he only took in a dollar a year for being mayor. He also paid for his staff, his security, his PR and his transportation. He didn't stay in Getty House. It was trashed by the previous mayors, so he established a non profit that raised money to renovate the place. Once fixed up, he used it for events. All this was done without taxing the public.
Okay, so the guy has bucks. I still say the man deserves credit for paying for his staff and so many other out of pocket expenses.
It's nice that he paid his own way, but he sucked as a mayor, too.
If only we could all be billionaires.
Arnold also turns down his salary but his fund-raising charity group raises money for his private jet junkets and luxurious travel -- he's not dumb enough to spend his own money, and neither was Riordan.
Megarich people are like the rest of us, except they can do stuff like that while making some gestures at saving money, while if people like Nunez try the same, they get raked over the coals. Not that they don't deserve it.
Both the megarich and megaliberals are clever at using Other People's Money, but at least rich Republicans like these two serve the public along the way.
Mayor Riordan did spend his own money. No nonprofit paid for salaries or his transportation. He used his own car and paid his staff out of his own pocket. The only non profit funds he used was to fix up the Getty house. He isn't a billionaire. Arnold might be. Riordan has a few hundred million. Poor guy.
If only we could get Clowncil, and anyone who gets a salary over a certain amount, to pay for their own transportation we might save a few more bucks.
With all these perks, raises, pensions and lawsuit settlements when will the city become broke? Isn't all of California experiencing the same? Isn't it a conflict of interest for Clowncil to vote in their own raises? I realize this last raise was via a court, but they have voted for their own raises before. What does Ethics have to say about this? Or, did they also vote for a raise?
Inquiring minds want to know.
7:03: Give your Inquiring Mind a rest already. Comparing people who get paid less than two hundred thousand, which is barely average for the westside (when people have to pay $50K for two kids in private school, for 12 years each because their local schools are full of bused-in immigrants, how much does that leave for mortgage and other expenses), to a multimillionaire old guy like Riordan, is truly ignorant. Then there's Reyes with his four kids and a household of relatives (like in Mexico), Huizar and Alarcon, Parks and Bernie, making investment money in cheaper neighborhoods, where that money IS a lot. They might as well live in different countries. Hahn living alone and Chick in a condo have leaner expenses, too.
(But Hahn, Huizar and some others waste maybe a million each a year on fee waived parties and block parties trying to buy votes in their hoods.)
What's your repeated reminder that he paid for some of his own stuff and wouldn't move into Getty House -- because his own was nicer and in a better area of Brentwood? That everyone who runs for office in L A should be a multimillionaire? You sound bitter but not too smart or aware of life. Get a perspective.
No, not bitter. Not sure how you came to that conclusion unless you are bitter.
Yes, having children costs money. Riordan made his millions after he had four or five kids in private schools. And yes, having millions makes it easier to be generous. Being generous is not synonymous with being a good mayor. That is another debate. However, generosity is not required and I give him credit for that. Bitter? No. Debating? Yes. There's a difference.
So, I guess you think it is okay to pay for cars for city officials. How much is each car the city buys from Galpin? Why don't they drive their own and get reimbursed for gas? People in the private sector do that. Maybe everyone in the private sector should work for the city. It sure pays better and the perks and pensions speak for themselves.
By the way, isn't the retirement age for city employees rather young these days? Didn't life expectancy increase by a couple of decades?
I don't mind being wrong. I just want to know.
I won't address your other comments again, there's no point. But if you knew the first thing about private sector, which you clearly don't, fact is ALL executives at a Jr. V P level and above (say at banks, the big accounting firms, builders, lawyers, any big corporation) get a company car, and expenses including gas, insurance. Paid travel, business class or above. The CM's are just at the similar level, and lower in salary and perks than the Sr. V P's of these firms. Who don't have to spend millions to get their jobs, and take all this crap from people, including people battering them over their personal lives.
Again, your gassing on about Riordan makes no sense or point -- if you want to recruit only old multimillionaires who don't need a salary, that's great public policy.
And notice, he never got scrutiny over his personal life. He now just got divorced from wife Number 3 (or 4?) and has 2 much younger mistresses. Which he probably had for years. Never read a word about it. The Mayor, with his puritanical but hypocritical, less educated and judgmental Catholic, Latino supporters, has been subjected to a different standard.
"Nunez try the same, they get raked over the coals. '
Nunez is a thief. Not even a smart thief. He deserved to be raked over the coals. He got caught!
No need to grapple. The point is that the old guy was generous and could have received a salary. He didn't.
Second, yes, some of your higher end establishments in the private sector do have company cars. There's nothing wrong with that. The smaller businesses do not have these perks. They do pay taxes too. They are the ones suffering. Additional taxes to them seem unfair. So, before doing that, why doesn't the city cut the fat beyond cutting services?
The city issues cars to many levels of management, far beyond what the high end corporations issue. Given that the city is cutting the fat, and mayors are declining raises, perhaps they should explore some of the other fat that is draining the coffers.
Regarding the old multimillionaire. I give him credit for establishing a precedence that other multimillionaires followed. That is, not taking a salary. Since then, many o' wealthy candidate have done the same. Give credit where it is due. He called the wealthy old guys on that one and they followed suit.
New York has had its current and last Mayors multimillionaires, too. last guy Bloomberg was fairly conservative but current one a limo lib who had to back off the drivers licenses for illegals. What other big group of old multimillionaires did Riordan recruit? Who cares? Point is, if you can stay on task, that it's easy to give money away when you're old and rich and don't have the living expenses and kids to educate of living in today's westside, and if you're not seventy years old and didn't make mucho money over decades. Judging officials by the standards of old multimillionaires is pointless, as would be recruiting only them for public office. It's exhausting, going in circles with someone who can't make a point. Anyway, cutting 8 thousand a year per CM wouldn't make a dent in anything.
Janice Hahn and Huizar spend more than the total raises combined with their endless fee waived block parties, parades and minor events that serve as personal electioneering campaigns. Bernie has his share too.
Bernie should have had his eye on the budget all year long, instead of letting everyone spend it while the gravy grain of tax increases from a booming sales market kept coming in. So he does nothing to balance the budget, then tries to steal the trash fee hike for cops.
If Villaraigosa and city council want to impress Angelinos, they should create an emergency and place a combined ballet measure, similar to Measure R, for February.
This measure would make it easier to recall an elected official including a mandatory performance evaluation on how elected officials are doing on promises made, to the stakeholders – not special interest groups, before giving them any raise, as mentioned by Mr. Ken Draper.
Let’s observe if Angelinos have any true public servant(s) who will spearhead this measure.
Sure, I'm sure all the "true public servants" will jump at the chance. So will their supporters, from whom each of them has to raise some million dollars, them's realities.
They'd love to show up at every HOA and NC meeting to be yelled at by all the old people who show up, and if they don't do just what they want there goes a recall.
Wendy got the city into the mess with HD lawsuit because she did pander to S-T, afraid they might go after her in a recall. Her Sherman Oaks NC was already mad at her over the Westfield expansion.
So you'll get your wish, and only old multimillionaires will run for any office, so they can their cronies can kick the butts of anyone who tries to take them out.
Ignoring the usual racist venom in this thread, there is so much misinformation here that it's almost impossible to know where to begin.
City employees' salaries are not tied to County employees. One side may use that as part of their argument, but the city salaries are still negotiated.
Mayor Riordan did not pay for his security (they were LAPD), his PR (he had city staff), or his staff's salaries. If he supplemented anyone's salaries from his private money, the employees would have to report that on their conflict of interest forms.
Galpin Ford doesn't sell cars to the city. The paperwork and the hassle is too much trouble for them.
In the private sector, some high-ranking people get company cars, but more likely they get mileage. Very high-ranking corporate officals don't get either. They get a big salary. Some CMs use their own cars and get monthly allowance payments. But as in the private sector, they and their staffs should keep logs. That would eliminate the abuse the occurs now when city staff use their cars for personal use.
“They'd love to show up at every HOA and NC meeting to be yelled at by all the old people who show up, and if they don't do just what they want there goes a recall.”
At least we the people will have an opportunity to create a check and balance between mayor and council. Sadly to say, there is NO CHECK and BALANCE with this legislative body. I realize that doing the right thing is not always popular.
I’ve been waiting patiently for a true public servant(s) to step up to the plate and exercise his/or legislative power.
11:10: Your correcting alleged misinformation just breeds a lot more. Every jr veep up gets a car and mileage, higher ups get nicer cars, depends on relative status. Only the CEO level may not get one, the guys who make over a million a year and have so much stock options etc. they wouldn't want to bother with the lease issues. you obviously spent your whole career as some low level city official, never in the private sector -- or the perks and salary would have kept you there.
Right of course about Riordan using LAPD security and city staff, that whole issue about old millionaires not needing a salary is a red herring to this whole issue anyway.
Point is, beneath this nonsense, that millions are wasted and now trying to make a case about the Mayor giving back 8 thousand or not and what the 15 others do, is much ado about nothing. (Why the Mayor's staff needs 36 cars is another matter, and those people should probably not all have cars.)
Odd how the LAT stirred things up over this increase which totals a little over a hundred grand, about what Gloria Jeffs got, with Bernie's blessing, for just going away because of incompetence and because people just plain couldn't stand her. Even more than the usually more critical Daily News, which has been focusing on the big bucks picture issues and agendas lately.
8:31 PM -
I know it's late and I'm tired but you just cracked me up with that comment about Riordan having two young girlfriends!!
IF that is true, it's surely because he got the second girlfriend because he forgot he had the first one.
And what is young to him? 40 year olds are "young" to him...
I applaud the Mayor for refusing his raise and that gets me called a moron?
Oh this is so funny...
11:10 p.m. does us all a favor by correcting some of the ridiculous BS spewed out by the ignoramouses posting in this thread.
Let's add a few more: the City Council does not vote on its own pay raises. They are responsible for them in one way - at least the 1991 edition of the Council is: when they put the original ethics and term limits measure on the ballot back then, they included the automatic salary escalator linked to the court judges' salaries. Ever since then, the salaries have climbed automatically. Kinda makes you wonder why the judges get so many raises!
Parke Skelton does have a family.
One Council staffer I know told me that to get reimbursed for driving their personal cars for City business they have to fill out complicated logs and forms that make it hardly worth the trouble.
And some of them have to use their personal cell phones for City business, which can turn into a tidy subsidy to the taxpayers every month. I know, I know, your penurious hearts bleed for City staffers' paltry bank accounts, but the point is that the cash flow isn't all just in one direction.
Those who invoke MeCHA and gang-bangers every time they see a Latino politician are gonna have to do better than crass denials to prove that they're not racists. If it walks like a duck...
Who is Kim Thompson? The only way she's a moron is for posting under her own name in this cesspool.
Did you see today's Daily News editorial about this issue? The people who get paid to write for that rag should be forced to take a basic civics exam before they're allowed in the building.
Same for the people who write letters to the editor. Some clown from Van Nuys thinks the mayor should be tossed out of office. His reason? He decided to pay for hiring more police and Bernie Parks wanted to divert the funds to other uses (over hizzoner's objection, no less!).
Maybe the City Council should divert the pay raises to paying for these brainiacs to move somewhere else and leave us alone.
I guess there really is too much air pollution in the Valley, because it certainly seems to be killing these peoples' brain cells!
Now if Bitter Bernie really wants to cut the budget and he got nailed by Antonio on the trash fee hike he wanted to raid, Bernie should go after the 26 city cars Antonio uses. Bernie should also let it be public knowledge how many staffers does Antonio have that are paid for by our tax dollars??????
Hmm...elected officials get raises while City departments are asked to absorb the cost of City employee step increases and cost of living increases through attrition and not filling vacant needed positions. Is this the new math?
6:16 am: You ARE 11:10 congratulating yourself, because you don't know anything about the cars and perks of the corporate world, so all you can do is agree with yourself. Who are you, and why do you bother?
Ah yes, and then we get the person who never lets up about the Mayor's 26 cars, as though that will solve the budget deficit.
But yes, voters, letter writers are often scary stupid, it would be nice to deport most of the city while you're at it. Like the staff of the Latinos who raid the pockets of the other side of town, and try to get them to back off by calling them racist. Always the last resort of those who have nothing to say, just try to scare them into silence and continuing to pay for their reverse-racist socialism.
People all over are speaking up and the Daily News, like it or not, seems to speak more for the working man and blue collar guy struggling.
It seems silly for the electeds to give back the raise since all together it's barely 200 grand, and unlike the Mayor they don't get all their living expenses, from house to cars to security, paid for.
The hoopla over it from both the Times and DN shows though how upset people are by all these taxes, and feeling someone else is getting the benefits of their money.
to 1:14 AM, the game keeps on going, none of the new salaries get close to what Montiel makes. The Times reported $220K a year but they forgot to mention the housing allowances and other bonuses that this joker gets. Villar only continues to ignore the problems at the housing agency. Today, a big luncheon is being thrown for the employees at a tune (only food) of over $60K!!! not to mention all other expenses, the bad part, all that food stayed on the tables!! No employee wants the thanks of the board or its director, even though it was required from the employees to attend! and later retracted!!! On another note, in the agenda for this months meeting, Montiel is asking for almost one million dollars for more audits and lawyers fees!! HUD are you watching? remember your own report? http://www.hud.gov/offices/oig/
reports/files/ig491002.pdf
The Board of Supes gets the same salaries and raises as Council, but they're not mentioned in Daily News or Times (except in passing in the Times Editorial, which says they all deserve the raises as a price for putting up with the crap and "mockery" they get over their decisions and whatever they do).
The Supes get away with too little scrutiny, but they also have drivers in addition to cars -- look at how Burke used her, to drive her from her house to a fake home in her district, then drove herself downtown from there. so the city car and driver were used to cover up her sham, wasting his time and money, too.
Burke and Molina have husbands with cozy jobs on city commissions -- where's the scrutiny on that?
How many millions are they wasting, how are they spending money and power? We only hear of it when something really big comes up, like the $1.1 billion-dollar project in NoHo. Which had no community input.
Bernie Parks is keeping all his raise, so are Cardenas and Alarcon, who all wanted to take the trash fee hike to balance the budget and got really mad at their opponents for calling them out on it. Hahn isn't taking hers but needs to know that her gang tax on homeowners is DOA or else her career is. Smith, Zine and Huizar keeping theirs, and Zine gets an $80,000 annual police pension too. Darn, that's nice.
If it were me, I wouldn't give up the extra 8-9 grand, since no one will remember it for longer than a week anyway. IF the Times is right and it's basically a fee for taking crap from the public and media, I'd say it's the least the city could do for me. (Unless I were Bernie or one of the big spenders -- you guys, go back to START and try again.)
Gotta love blogs. Our Los Angeles losers ooopppsss city clowncil members are being slammed from here to NY and everywhere in between. People can't believe in a city like ours we are stuck with this group of unethical, no class, no leadership, immature, unintelligent members. What the people need to do is DEMAND they at least sit in their damn seats during a city council meeting 3 times a week. Not much to ask for when you get paid almost $200K per year. But no these morons are never in their seats and disrespect chambers and the public more then any other group LA has had in decades.
Maybe if the regular commenters who show up weren't a bunch of whining, unintelligent looosssers, they'd be more likely to listen intently to all their drivel and idiotic criticism.
When people show up with legitimate concerns and something to say, they do listen. They also have a back room with monitors.
All the time they spend listening to idiots from the dogg to matt and hunt and the fat lady and the other one -- all of who think they're stars now, from seeing themselves on Channel 35 -- is time taken away from useful things.
It's only oddballs like that and the posters on this blog who think $175 thousand is a huge amount of money, many could make much more.
On the other hand, it is surprising how many lack education and ability to respond logically to the problems of the city: Alarcon, Reyes and Cardenas, Smith and Zine, Perry, Parks and Wesson, even Hahn and LaBonge, give they impression they can't rub elbows with their more educated and cosmopolitan counterparts back east. They're all more streetwise than wise.
The same with our Supervisors. Molina didn't even go to college, Burke has that bizarre subterfuge about her residence and thinks she's a grand dame, Antonovich says seem really head-scratching things.
When any of our officials are well- educated and more sophisticated, a lot of these bumpkins call them snobby.
If L A had more highly educated and classy voters and constituents, we'd have a different elected body.
And if wishes were horses then beggars would ride!
Actually, if LA had voters, we may have a different elected body.
2:03PM, some employees did go to this lunch, maybe lured by the $35.00 a head bribe or the consequence threat of not attending the lunch or.....plus raffle gifts!!!!! You fool, who gives employees no option but to go to a paid show and latter retracts from it? only at HACLA!!!!! the only rogue agency in town!!!! Montiel, are you living El Paso deja vu times?
this guy gets more than $300,000 a year!!! more than the the mayor!! the second highest paid Housing authority official in the nation!!!!
You know, I'm really beginning to see that there is some serious shit going down here.
Who the fu'k is Montiel, and why does he get 300 thou of city money?
Are you shitin' me, did they spend some sixty thou on some stupid lunch, and then also pay each employee some 35 bucks to attend?
Someone, spell out this shit -- trust me, not I nor the L A Times nor any major paper knows this shit. They're too busy ENJOYING their overpriced meals to know WTF is goin down over there way east of downtown. You gotta spell it out.
Los Angeles City Ethics Commission
November 13, 2007
Policy and Legislation Update
CF 06-1800-S1
Legal Challenge Pending:
Measure R / Proposition R
On October 15, 2007 David Hernandez and Ted Hayes filed an appeal. No briefing schedule has been set, and it could be months before a final resolution.
http://ethics.lacity.org/PDF/agenda/2007/November/111307_A6_Policy&LegislationUpdate.pdf
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