Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday
Zuma Dogg reports that the LA City Council was bamboozled by an Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes authored law that would remove much of the Council's control over planning decisions. Speculation is that Fuentes was inspired to write the law at the behest of his mentors, City Clowncilmen Richard Alarcon and Tony Cardenas in order to facilitate development at the controversial site of the Verdugo Hills Golf Course. I would imagine if the Clowncil spent less time on public proclamations for Mickey Mouse and cheerleaders and passing nonsense resolutions against the war they'd have more bandwidth to recognize shadiness right under their noses.The Daily News endorses Assembly Candidate Stuart Waldman and State Senate Candidate Fran Pavley in this morning's paper.
Mayor Villaraigosa gets behind the wheel in the Canoga Park Memorial Day Parade Monday. One blogger forgave the mayor's "ineffectiveness" in handling the City's finances.
KNX reports that City Controller Laura Chick says the city is doing a horrible job in promoting it's tourist attractions. Chick is pushing for the city to have multi-lingual greeters at LAX, neighborhood tours and more publicizing of the various festivals held around the City.
Los Angeles World Airports is working to grow service at it's LA/Palmdale Regional Airport but its finding tough going. Currently United Airlines has two daily flights to San Francisco. The City hopes to expand the number of flights by encouraging the use of more fuel efficient turbo prop airlines, yet some passengers are leary of the planes and prefer jets. At the same time airlines are reluctant to expand into Palmdale until there's more demand; yet demand is driven by availability.
LAist repots that the state's ban on talking on your cell phone while driving finally goes into effect on July 1st. However a loophole in the law technically allows you to still send text messages while driving.
Zev Yaroslavsky has put the wheels in motion for the County to meet the State Supreme Court declared date of June 16 to allow gays to marry and get marriage licenses. To facilitate the crush, the County will open up a special branch license office in WeHo. In the meantime, the Court's ruling will mean a cash bonanza for political consultants on both sides of a coming ballot measure seeking to overturn the Court's decision on the November ballot - donations are pouring in from all over to the yes and no campaigns.
Labels: felipe fuentes, Fran Pavley, LA Palmdale Airport, laura chick, mayor antonio villaraigosa, Richard Alarcon, stuart waldman, tony cardenas
Posted by Michael Higby @ 5/27/2008 03:00:00 AM
13 Comments:
The Laura Chick item was in Orlov's column yesterday. Can someone please explain why the controller wants to involve herself in that issue? She looking for her next job?
The Fuentes bill is far bigger than a cover to push through the Verdugo Hills project over the objections of neighbors, although that could be one example -- Alarcon was recently defeated on Las Lomas, too, after a nasty and public hatefest with Smith, so there's no doubt he supports his homie Fuentes, whose area overlaps.
The Daily News' article on this reported that they contacted Fuentes who told them that his bill was designed SPECIFICALLY TO MAKE IT EASIER TO PUT AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECTS INTO ANY AREA OVER COMMUNITY OBJECTION.
However, after that his staff wasn't being available to angry callers, hiding in their sleaze.
Alarcon and Cardenas were the two most anxious for the Council to delay a vote on the matter, hoping to stall until it's too late. Very obvious. Their TJ in the Hills and Valleys Reyes colleague, dangerous as head of PLUM, a MeCHA and totally stupid, wasn't there on Friday. Either a planned absense or didn't want to be caught lying that he didn't know the background. (He's even had his hands slapped by the working class Hispanics of Lincoln Heights over overbuilding.)
Cardenas admitted just getting off the phone with Fuentes, but refused to share what he'd learned with his colleagues, including an angry "Stacy" (as he called Wendy Greuel), pushing for an immediate reply to a bill that was written as "urgent." Something you only do for public safety or emergencies.
To their credit, Huizar (maybe the least dangerous of the Hispanics, more a pawn though), and Wesson agreed with the majority that it's "a bad bill."
Let's see if any of their colleagues have the guts to "out" Alarcon, Cardenas and Reyes as the slime they and their Fuentes homie are. They've always saying they want to put their ALL-affordable housing projects into the Westside and better parts of the Valley, but the local communities and CM's like WEndy, WEiss, Smith and even on occasion LaBong and wishy-washy Rosendahl, are such a bother!
But the dogg sure got this one wrong in Council, screaming it was a great day, that the Council's hands would be tied when it comes to development "like bad teens" being taught a lesson by their parents. Alarcon even complimented his "passion." Slime feeds on stupid...
Change of heart, zuma?
So, a newspaper no one reads any more because of the departure of one Ron Kaye endorses lazy manipulative liar Stuart Waldman whose endorsement is then promoted on a "political" blog no one reads any more because of one Ron Kaye -- Thanks. I'll wait for what Ron Kaye has to say on this one before making up my mind.
RonKayeLA.com carries the Fuentes/ AB212 story/ scandal in more detail, having done some homework as a longtime reporter.
Turns out Fuentes is beholden to Alarcon and Alex Padilla for his current Senate Seat, the one Alarcon held for all of 1 month before wanting to come back to Council for the higher salary and other perks; they got Fuentes elected to that job, and he's now their boy.
Ron lays out the unseemly history of this bill, and exposes Alarcon's phony naivity about it; confirms that Alarcon and Cardenas not only knew about this bill, but were behind it, and hoped to delay Wendy's motion to oppose. (Huizar doesn't seem to be in on this one, but there are probably others like Gil Cedillo, who are.)
Ron also confirms that based on Orlov's piece and everything we know, this is designed to put high-density, future slums into areas which most likely will oppose it IF they know and have a chance to fight it. The LAT hasn't done anything with this -- David Z really needs to nail the Alarcon/ Cardenas/ Reyes/ Padilla machine.
Councilmember Alarcon wants Council to support a state bill that creates a post-dating of registration for 16 and 17 year olds. He talked about how this would allow them to vote without having to do anything later to register.
They talked about how important it was to register and to vote, and Labonge thanked the one who wrote the bill.
The real point that the ALL missed was that if the right to vote is to be as valuable as they preach it to be, then the ones who register under the system as it is now are the RESPONSIBLE ONES- if the young people don't value it so highly, then why make more paperwork and expense?
The real reason is that they are pandering to voters and would-be voters, plain and simple. There is a process to register, forms are at post offices and libraries, it couldn't be easier. If someone can't do this small task, what importance are they attaching to the right to vote.
Leave this alone and get to real work, council.
Politics definitely makes for strange bedfellows... Until the recent election in which Alarcon and Antonio got Felipe to bow out -- based on their promise to get him elected to the Assembly seat that Alarcon had been elected to only a few weeks earlier -- the Padilla/Cardenas/ Fuentes team were not on particularly good terms with the Alarcon team. Now, voila, what a difference "power" can make, eh?
Since Alarcon came back to Council, it deteriorated by well over 100% overnight; he's giving the others like Cardenas and Reyes a hook to hang their hats on when it comes to a blatant pro-Mexican clique and what's good for them and their ability to use the Council to make money on development deals, and gang prevention money and programs, etc. (Fuentes was apparently tight with Mayor Hahn who's no stranger to crooked dealings, but has been bought by the Padilla/Alarcon machine.)
AB212 must be killed and get the attention it deserves -- hope Ron Kaye is doing more than blogging about it, needs to get it out at his community meetings and radio.
As for Alarcon wanting to make it even easier for Hispanic kids to register to vote and LaBong jumping to his support: poster's right that if they can't bother enough to register as easy as it is, they're not going to take the time to study the issues to vote. Oh, right, they don't have to: they'll just pick the Mexican names each time and do whatever La Opinion tells them to.
The idea of all these kids of illegals voting to raise our taxes on Props like Moron Janice Hahn's Gang Tax on HOmeowners, makes me livid. Ignorant and anti-"gringo" poor masses, many on welfare, making up the majority that votes to tax the homeowners and rest of us.
The four main political blogs of LA are all covering AB 212. Have the people of Sunland-Tujunga woken up to this bamboozle?
They need to align with folks in Pacoima and show them how their interest in local destiny is the same no matter how much Zorro Alarcon or the Fat Fuentes Family tries to hoodwink them.
Considering that the Valley liaison for the Mayor's office is Felipe Fuentes' sister, Yolanda, I wouldn't expect that she's going to be doing a lot to rouse the valley against this.
Ron Kaye reports that she was given that plum job when she was removed from the one public commission that pays its members, and "handsomely," Public Works: to make room for the brother of Tony Cardenas, Ernesto.
Wait this gets even better. Everyone is related to everyone else in office and they're all making sure their butts are covered and its all the most corrupt part of politics in LA. John Perez is related to Antonio who made everyone like Arturo Chavez who wanted to run against him drop out. Arthuro was once married to Cynthia Ruiz who is now the commissioner of Public Works that Yolanda Fuentes use to sit on. Cynthia is the only commissioner in the city making over $100,000. She's the godmother to one of Villaraigosa's kids so as much as dumb ass Antonio kept saying "he's going to clean city hall" its gotten trashed with mud since he's been in office. All these Latino politicans are scum of the earth. Oh I forgot to say that John Perez, cousin of Villaraigosa was roomates in college with guess who??? HUIZAR!!! There's another story there that you people will not believe if I told you.
T really appreciate the hornswoggle that Felipe Alar-Padil-denas is pulling, you need to compare the original AB-212 to the 5th amended version:
Fuentes AB212-orig
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0201-0250/ab_212_bill_20070717_amended_sen_v98.pdf
Fuentes AB212-amended to favor developer's specific project
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0201-0250/ab_212_bill_20080506_amended_sen_v95.pdf
I say, PLEASE:
1) Don't remove PLUM & CC as our only recourse to the (mayor's)Planning Comm's rubber-stamp-fest,
2) Somehow this is "urgent for public safety"?!? - C'mon!!! What a load of horsey-S**T! (My horses are offended),
3) Original bill was about law fairness & giving to the developers(Zoning at time of application s/b the ruling factor, not a later-proposed change to zoning or ordinance[fairness], & the right to change left-over zoning that does not conform to the current general plan (gift to devs)].
As amended, it is clearly such a laser-focused ploy/play to give the Verdugo Hills golf course to Mark Handel's development machine and any other piece of land not yet over-developed that does not match the land-use designation it's in. It's blatant, and it's wrong! Besides, Mark Handel doesn't do affordable housing and doesn't even apply for density bonuses. It's part of his modus operandi to do the maximum a zone allows, if possible to also find some ancient discord in the zoning he can take advantage of, and give local planning and NCs nothing they can legally complain about. That's why he nearly always gets exactly what he applies for. Gets it zoned, builds it fast and cheap, or sells it to DR Horton who builds it faster, cheaper and uglier, and moves on.
4) AB 212 is a two-faced pig, and both faces have nasty Tammy Faye-Bakker make-up on 'em. Fuentes, Alarcon, Padilla, & Cardenas, shame on y'all, champions of the poor imigrant and the wealthy gringo developer.
More connections:
Kevin DeLeon friends since childhood with Fabian Nunez- who got the political machine behind de Leon's election run (to the detriment of other Democrats running for election in other districts).
Antonio Villaraigosa, long-time best friends with Ron Martinex, husband of Supervisor Gloria Molina.
This just scratches the surface.
Sunland-Tujunga is on board and working up to speed on AB 212. We all need to work together for justice!
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