"HAPPY FISCAL NEW YEAR!!" and Missives on the Political Landscape
Happy Fiscal New Year!!We want to wish all our bloggin friends in the public sector the fiscal best in 2008-2009. Feel free to share your public sector resolutions for this budget year.
Villar, Villar and more Villar today in the news with a little Garcetti and a "COUNCILMAN LAST SEEN AS JOSE HUIZAR".
****LA Times David Zahniser reports on Mayor Villaraigosa's new gang intervention program "Summer Night Lights".
The $950,000 program, part of the mayor's plan to bring social services to high-crime neighborhoods, will run from Wednesday to Sunday starting at 4 p.m.
It will bring sports, arts classes and movie screenings to children between 9 and 17 at eight of the city's 390 parks, mayoral aides said.
Parks in Pacoima, Cypress Park and Glassell Park will be involved. Jim Gilliam and Ross Snyder recreation centers and Mount Carmel Park in South Los Angeles will stay open, as will Ramona Gardens Park and Ramon Garcia Recreation Center in Boyle Heights.
Each park will be supervised by at-risk youths 17 to 20 years old, who will receive training and a stipend and work closely with adult gang-intervention workers.
****From Capital Alert, Rep. Laura Richardson is driving the most expensive car of any member of the House of Representatives -- at taxpayers' expense.
****Mayor Villaraigosa becomes the "Headmaster" of Santee and Roosevelt High Schools today as his "Partnership for L.A. Schools" begin their five year plan to affect change at the ten schools that signed on to the Mayor's Plan.
Many characterized their votes for the partnership as, essentially, a rejection of L.A. Unified.
"What are we getting ourselves into? We don't know," Lee said. "But I decided, 'Let's jump off this ship.' "Jumping ship is likely to mean more money.
Through philanthropy, the partnership plans to increase spending at those schools by about 5%. It's also negotiating with L.A. Unified for more control of dollars that are managed at the district's downtown headquarters. That adds up to as much as $1 million, depending on the school. The partnership envisions each teacher with a personal computer and high-tech projection equipment for every classroom.
Fundraising for the partnership has lagged, however, as gangs and gridlock have risen on the mayor's agenda, even as he focused more time on raising money for his reelection campaign. Attracting donors suffered another blow when Deputy Mayor Ramon C. Cortines, who is respected nationally, left the mayor's team for the No. 2 job at L.A. Unified. By its own accounting, the mayor's nonprofit needs to raise about $6 million this year and $46.7 million over the next three years.
****Mayor Villarigosa received a report on the status of illegal dumping in Los Angeles.
It's a complex issue, but we have been doing a fabulous job. Can we be more efficient? Absolutely," said Cynthia Ruiz, president of the city's Board of Public Works, who submitted the report Monday evening with the directors of the city's bureaus of Sanitation and Street Services. (Complex?? Just clean up the D...ed stuff!!!)
****City Council President Eric Garcetti wants safe, exclusive bike lanes.
****"COUNCILMAN LAST SEEN AS JOSE HUIZAR" has a brewing controversy in Boyle Heights. The City CRA and County have decided to merge their respective Redevelopment Zones despite the vote of the community oversight board. The Adelante Biotech and Whiteside Redevelopment Zone will be merge to create one area dedicated for the likes of USC to create a Biotech research area.
Labels: "COUNCILMAN LAST SEEN AS JOSE HUIZAR", eric garcetti, mayor antonio villaraigosa, Mayor Antonio Villarigosa
Posted by Red Spot in CD 14 @ 7/01/2008 07:28:00 AM
10 Comments:
The Summer Lights program is the dumbest one yet Antonio and his idiot so called "Gang Czar" Jeff Carr who knows nothing about gangs and is getting paid a fortune doing nothing has come up with. All this program will do is entice gang bangers to have a place to loiter until midnight. The program they say is being run by ex-gang bangers and parolees. How does the Mayor think these kids are going to get home after 12 midnight? And what idiots do they really expect kids 9 yrs old -17 yrs. to hang out at a park that is already known for gang violence? These parks will attract all the rival gangs to cause problems and who is going to help if there's a shooting or stabbing? Jeff Carr??
"The City CRA and County have decided to merge their respective Redevelopment Zones despite the vote of the community oversight board. The Adelante Biotech and Whiteside Redevelopment Zone will be merge to create one area dedicated for the likes of USC to create a Biotech research area."
Huizar will be running for Mayor after Antonio goes to Sacramento. Just remember that all this building is a precourser of "quid pro quo"
Look at the Daily News. I wonder what Rip Off will occur in the The Adelante Biotech and Whiteside Redevelopment Zones.
Mad about the Prop. 1C rip-off?
Article Last Updated: 06/30/2008 09:15:52 PM PDT
The Daily News' editorial Monday headlined "Bait and switch" hit a nerve among many readers who were appalled that the state Assembly voted to use millions of Proposition 1C funds to subsidize the luxury redevelopment of L.A.'s Grand Avenue.
It's bad enough that state leaders want to add $28.4 million in public bond money to the millions that are already coming from city and county coffers to help the rich Grand Avenue developers get richer. But what really outraged readers was that Proposition 1C was sold to voters as a way to provide housing for battered women and children, low-income seniors, the disabled and veterans.
That's what voters thought they were buying. But tucked inside the bond language was a loophole that allowed the Legislature and the governor to approve this atrocious rip-off.
Don't let them get away with it. Contact your local adminstration so you can let them know that the people are not that easily fooled.
TAKE THE CITY BACK!
"Summer Lights"? This is crazy! More like overtime for LAPD! I mean, there will be police there right?
Let's see: art programs or fireworks & guns for gang members over the weekend.
Which one do you think the gang bangers will choose?
This is nothing but a good-sounding program that is guaranteed to fail.
Lets revisit that: ARTS PROGRAMS for GANG BANKERS?
What's the over-under for murders between Thursday and Sunday?
The cost given is less than a $million which can't be right -- that must not count all the extra cops and security required to keep 8 parks open for an extra 8 hrs/night, 4-5 nights/ week. AND does it include all the salaries?
"At risk youth" ages 17-20 supervising at risk kids as young as 9 seems more a make-work project for them (something demanded by Alarcon, Reyes, Cardenas etc.) instead of something that makes sense. This includes the very worst areas like Glassell Park and Ramona Gardens -- what fantasy makes them think kids can control barely younger kids, "under supervision?" Doing this stuff for YOUNGER kids, incl. sports teams and coaching, would be different.
(Of course Alarcon keeps berating the city for not just handing these uneducated punks high-tech jobs, but this will have to do for him in a pinch. At least it's a net flow of money to HIS area.)
South L A can't keep a pool open without calling in lots of cops, because the older gangmembers feel it's "their" area. Unlikely these people will keep out the worst gangbangers, many from areas of MExico so bad the Mexican's couldn't handle them.
From the Eastern Group Publications.
Allegations of improper voting procedures and violations of polling-place regulations in the June 12 Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council election are being made in a complaint filed Tuesday with the Los Angeles City Clerk.
“We’re in the position right now that we’re trying to get the city clerk to check the election,” said Carmen M. Serrano, who ran for secretary of the council and lost. Other submitters of the complaint include her husband, Frank A. Serrano, who ran in the election as a community representative for a community-based organization (Sacred Heart Catholic Church) and lost, Jose Aguilar, who ran for an at-large area seat and won, and Hugo Pacheco, who ran for council president and lost.
The complaint alleges that there was no inclusive bilingual voting information and materials for the election, that voters 18 and over were discriminated against by the allowing of minors as young as 14 to vote, that campaign flyers advocating a slate of candidates were on display within the Lincoln High School auditorium polling location, that a memo with a Lincoln High School letterhead about the election was sent to Lincoln High School staff, and that some stakeholders were not provided with ballots, among other allegations. The complaints were to be sent to the City Clerk for review for violation of municipal, state, and federal voting laws. It has not been verified whether the City Clerk has received the complaint.
Former L.A. councilman Hugo Pacheco claims that his stakeholder status was confirmed by having his zip code checked, rather than the registration form which he filled out under penalty of perjury. He also claims to have observed an Action Team supporter handing an Action Team slate flyer to a voter within the polling place.
“The excuse has always been, ‘Oh, we’re new at this, we’re learning,’ but that excuse gets old,” he said of the election problems.
This was the first LHNC election that the City Clerk has managed. Responsibility for managing the elections was transferred to the City Clerk after recommendation by the Neighborhood Council Review Commission in its September 2007 report. The report cited difficulties that the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (D.O.N.E.) was having in overseeing neighborhood council elections due to a lack of staff.
Frank Serrano identified the central issue in the election as the Las Villas project, a banquet hall and arcade that would have been built next to Lincoln High School that he claims the Action Team was in favor of. The project has been dropped after facing opposition. Ben Wadsworth, a teacher at Lincoln who ran on the Action Team ballot and won, denies that the entire Action Team slate of candidates was necessarily for the project.
“It was, ‘Well, this looks like it appears to be a good thing for Lincoln Heights,’ he said, of the Action Team’s amount of consensus on the Las Villas project. “There was no monolithic everyone for it.”
Neighborhood councils were formed in Los Angeles in 2001 after being approved by voters in 1999. They typically are in charge of allocating approximately $100,000 annually for neighborhood enhancements to the projects of their choice. “Stakeholders” are those who are allowed to vote in the neighborhood council elections. According to a 2007 Neighborhood Council Review Commission report, the charter that established the neighborhood councils as “those who live, work, or own property in the neighborhood” minimally defines stakeholders. The report said the definition was left intentionally broad, “ in an effort to include groups that have been historically less involved, including non-citizens.” The councils are also given some flexibility as to stakeholder age limits.
Vera Padilla, counselor at Lincoln, is the neighborhood council treasurer. She said that the stakeholder definition in Lincoln Heights includes children as young as 14 who attend school in the area, as well as people who shop or have bank accounts there.
“You can shop in Lincoln Heights, you can bank in Lincoln Heights, and there are your voters,” she said.
Padilla, who authored and distributed the memo named in the complaint, claimed that her distribution of the memo concerning the election to school faculty was within her job duties, which include distributing memos to faculty about various neighborhood and school-related functions.
Eastern Group Publications obtained a copy of the memo, dated June 10, along with the complaint. (Padilla offered to submit a copy of the memo to EGP, but it was not received by deadline).
The memo reads “Abraham Lincoln High School” and “Inter-Office Memorandum” in bold letters at the top. It was to Lincoln staff, from Vera Padilla, Career Advisor. The subject is Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council Elections. It is not on letterhead stationery.
The memo begins by giving the time and place of the election. It urges voting, and reminds readers that all teachers, faculty, staff and students in grades nine thru twelve can vote. It then lists various donations from the Neighborhood Council to the school and the community, totaling over $168, 000 in value.
“This was my way, a reminder, to get out and vote, “ Padilla said. “To me, I did no wrong.”
D.O.N.E.’s General Manager BongHwan Kim did not return phone calls for this article. The department helps administer the largely autonomous neighborhood councils. Arleen Taylor, chief of the elections division of the City Clerk’s office, also did not return phone calls.
Huizar for Mayor? That's if he beat Garcetti or Nunez.
Nunez is thinking of running for Mayor? From Mexican-under-a-cactus to Mexican in Getty House?
Like most failed-ever City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's suck-ups have told him he's got a chance at State Attorney General?
They think this is Mexico -- the more corrupt and incompetent you are, the higher office you should hold. But there ARE non-Mexicans who don't just vote for Latino names no matter who they are.
OMG, That program won't work. What are those people thinking-not!
How about putting in more Jeopardy and/or Junior Achievementand Programs to help these kids learn something that will help them get jobs, and out of the "getto," instead of how to handle brass knuckles, knives and guns. We need to change this plan. This makes no sense!
Zuma Dogg bought a pack of Zig-Zags in Lincoln Heights. That's why I consider myself a stakeholder and care about the community!
Huizar 4 Mayor? Hell Naw...he doesn't want to work that hard. Send him to some other State elected position. Unless he has no choice than to run for Mayor so he can do what he did for Villar as CM...clean up his mess and try and stay one step ahead of the authorities. (keep things covered up.) Even though Huizar may want to break away from Douchetonio and be his own person...like any gang...you can't just decide you wanna quit. people have a lot invested in you and there is a lot to keep covered up. So you have to keep it tight knit, y'all.
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