The "COUNCILMAN LAST SEEN RESEARCHING AS JOSE HUIZAR" faces more Ethics Fines.
Maybe the "Southwest Society" did or would help to pay for this.The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission is scheduled to vote today on whether to issue nearly $15,000 in fines against Councilman Jose Huizar, after investigators determined that he improperly used a fundraising committee to conduct political research on former school board member David Tokofsky.
Huizar has already created two legal defense funds, which allow him to collect private contributions to pay the fines.
Under a proposed settlement with the commission, Huizar would pay $9,318 stemming from his decision in 2006 and 2007 to use his so-called office-holder account to pay the firm Varoga and Rice to perform research on Tokofsky, who was weighing a fourth run for the school board at the time.
Office-holder committees are designed to help city politicians communicate with or otherwise serve their constituents. Under the city's ethics law, such committees are prohibited from spending money on consulting, research and polling in the 12 months leading up to an office holder's election. Huizar was initially elected to the council in a special election in 2005 and was reelected in 2007.
Huizar attorney Stephen Kaufman (what do Kaufman and Villar cousin John Perez have in common??) said his client had accepted full responsibility for committing "administrative errors" and has already collected the contributions needed to pay the fines.(wonder who will get the favors for donating??)
This quote from Tokofsky is hilarious.
"There's a lot of creepiness to this," Tokofsky said. "A lot of people think when they give money to the office-holder account it will help the local Boys and Girls Club, so I'm sort of shocked at what the office-holder account ended up doing."
Let me guess that the revolving door for staffers coming and going will need lubrication in the very near future......
****One person who made it through the door is Huizar's former Planning Director Jessica Wethington McLean who is now the Executive Director of Huizar's "Bringing Back Broadway Initative".
Labels: "COUNCILMAN LAST SEEN AS JOSE HUIZAR", david tokofsky, Ethics Commission, Yolie Flores Aguilar
Posted by Red Spot in CD 14 @ 8/12/2008 08:15:00 AM
47 Comments:
Huizar is building his own little world in CD14 via the Mayor. Most Councilmembers have up to 22 staff, Huizar has 12. Intersting that one is a publicist and another is on "special assignment' in Downtown. I know he can use his money the way he wants but what about the people in the community who do not live on Mt. Washington, but need help without going downtown. The replacement for Jessica is another person going through another "long learning curve". Huizar is only concerned about making his empire at our expense.
But Jessica is still a staffer for Jose. How can she be the Executive Director of anything with a city email? Where is the money coming from? The CLARTS fund? Is Broadway the biggest issue in District 14? What are her qualifications for this job? More of the same BS but 14 times as bad as usual.
We need an ethics three stikes law.
Why doesn't someone do a PRA to the City Clerk's office and the Controller's office to find out how he has been spending the money from his office account and the other discretionary accounts he has?
Wait a minute...
Huizar gets fined for mis-spending contributed money and he gets to pay the fine with contributed money?
Incredible.
Better yet Michael, he needs TWO legal defence funds!!
What is a PRA? How do you request one?
Public Records Act.
Huizar are you going to post this on your blog website
Are you going to post that you held your constituents outside a town hall meeting.
Huizar come clean!
Asked about the research on Tokofsky, Kaufman called it a "confidential research project" -- one designed to help Huizar -- himself a former board member of the Los Angeles Unified School District -- find ways to "improve the schools in his community."
LOL!!!
Huizar today in the course of an LAUSD woman's presentation of "WE BUILD" continues to be a windbag, saying only self-serving outright propaganda.
About all he said was nothing new to her, his speech was all to advertise how much he knows about what's going on.
The praise for doing the building IGNORES what real costs have been compared to what it COULD have been if properly controlled.
Nothing is considered about how out-of-control the costs have been and of course, the only ones doing well are the contractors and materials suppliers. He could not mention that if this were work done at his or anyone else's property that there would be a whole new world of supervision happening for the projects.
He talked about overcrowding and IGNORED the actual decline in enrollment and projections for greater declines.
Also missing was potential turnover of some facilities to charter schools in the search for acceptable performance of schools.
He mentioned about his service on the LAUSD Board, but as they all do, keep out the bad, actual and embarrassing features of the projects.
Candor from all is rare, and Huizar is not about to break that tradition.
Zuma Dogg's comments for that item was about the only comment that demonstrated impact in the real world. They sure didn't want to hear all that or have that information reach more people.
The council persons should all make a diclaimer before meetings to tell you "it's only our opinion and objectives, not necessariy true or correct facts, that we present in course of the following meeting."
Maybe they could be sworn so all is done under oath, which NOTHING is subject to now.
LA RESIDENT
How sad that Huizar is so insecure he has to do research on an opponent to get slime to use but wasted other people's money. Look in the mirror Asshole! No wonder all the so called community meetings have turned into pr photo ops for Sleazy Weezy. Shows what a corrupt little jerk he is. Someone quoted something like 20 staffers have left because of Huizar's dictator type style dealing with employees. His female staffers dress like they are set for Sunset Blvd. No class at all and too young and inexperienced to know how to be cordial and work with the community. Ask anyone in El Sereno.
10:04: yes, if your biggest donor is the biggest wig that will benefit.
I would say there's at least one school that needs significant improvement in his district... that Academia whatchamacallit.
What say you, Spot?
Hey you all missing the biggest story today. Chick vs Delgadillo. Now I can't stand either one because they're both slimy but if I had to choose Rocky is the man. Chick has proven to be evil and sneaky. She's using the same crap against Rocky she did against Hahn. All for show and her running. I fell off my chair reading idiot Zine's comments. This city IS DYSFUNCTIONAL BECAUSE OF YOU IDIOTS COUNCIL MEMBERS. They had to pass a MOTION to ask them to stop fighting. What a bunch of morons.
.....The City Council approved a motion 12 to zero asking the two city officials to set aside the legal fight, calling it a waste of taxpayer dollars. The motion also requested that Delgadillo and Chick brief the council on the dispute in a closed session on Sept. 3.
Councilman Dennis Zine said the fight between Delgadillo and Chick "generates headlines" while giving the city government a look of dysfunction. "It's fodder for talk shows, but does it accomplish anything?" Zine said. "I don't think it accomplishes anything."
Not to excuse (or accuse) Huizar, but can anyone even NAME the last councilmember from district 14 who wasn't fined for various ethics violations, or else indicted, or almost so?
I sure can't. I'd be ready for the nursing home if that was the case.
Huizar, Villaraigosa, Pacheco.
Alatorre high-tailed it out just before the jail cell doors slammed. Snyder held the record for the city's most humongous ethics fine for years, even as a lobbyist after that. That's going back some 30 years without a ray of light shining through -- even once.
I don't think any district in the city has as dingy a track record when it comes to ethics as this far east corner of L.A. It's almost like someone took a little piece of Louisiana and parked it on the city's edge.
What is with that?
If would protest if this matter were discussed behind closed doors. It isn't a pending legal matter and it isn't a personnel matter. It's an embarassing moment, but that doesn't qualify under the Brown Act.
....His female staffers dress like they are set for Sunset Blvd....
Which ones???
Not to excuse (or accuse) Huizar, but can anyone even NAME the last councilmember from district 14 who wasn't fined for various ethics violations, or else indicted, or almost so?
Isaac Colton Ash was the first person to serve the 14th district of Los Angeles as city councilman when the district was drawn in 1925.
What's wrong with dressing like you're on Sunset Blvd.? I doubt any of Weezee's staffers make it west of LaBrea, let alone west of LaCienega, but if they did, they'd never fit in only because they're way too homely. "The Strip" is hip central and where the models, actors, agents and producers and those who wanna be, lunch to see and be seen. Sorry, but most staffers wouldn't be hired as waiters there -- on Sunset Blvd. in Echo Park or Boyle Heights, maybe?
They're all so darned flabby and dowdy, even the young ones -- and when they stuff themselves into too tight clothes like sausage casings, they're anything but hot. (That's a huge fashion faux pas of lower- class Latinas: thinking they're hot and wearing clothes 4 sizes too small and too short...)
Huizar and his staff sure know how to handle people! their people skills are so good that they put other people to do their dirty work! just ask Henry Casas - two faced jerk who likes to pit people against each other and goes around complimenting all the women so that his boss can have them all around when huizar needs to be protected from the community - watch jenny kruseo, maria brennes and all his young girl staffers just swirl around to protect him - too bad the mayor cannot see that this jerk huizar is so ineffective that decent people in the CD 14 will never again vote for the mayor or huizar. don't you feel sorry for his wife? knowing that her husband is banging his DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF of operations?
red spot/jose aguilar/scott johnson: are you pissed because huizar didn't hire you? what is your obsession with him?
cd 14 resident and happy with the consistent and dedicated staff at my local councilmember's office.
hiding behind "anonyomous" comments will only go so far. some will be sued for libel.
for you jerks writing unverified lies on here, shame on you. i know the huizar family. they are a beautiful family, and for you to write stupid lies on here is disgusting.
Sounds like Red Spot is really Rosanne Barr.
Phelps sets career mark with 10 gold medals
Michael Phelps won the men's 200m butterfly Wednesday, becoming the winningest athlete in Olympic history with 10 gold medals -- and counting.
Phelps touched in 1:52.03 his fourth gold medal and fourth world record in Beijing.
He is due later Wednesday to swim in the 4x200m relay. A victory there would mark his fifth gold of the 2008 Games, 11th overall.
Yet to come: the 200m individual medley Friday; the 100m butterfly Saturday; and the 4x100m medley relay, with prelims on Friday, the final Sunday.
Jamiel Shaw
A program intended to root out illegal immigrants in
Los Angeles County jails will start specifically targeting gang members, following a vote today by the Board of Supervisors.
On a motion by Supervisor Michael Antonovich, the board voted to direct Sheriff Lee Baca to modify his department's agreement with U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement to ensure that known gang members receive priority for interviews that would determine their immigration status before their release from jail.
``Every known gang member who is on the list for an interview should be interviewed prior to release back into our communities,'' Antonovich said.
Inmates are already subject to an immigration interview if they are self-declared to be foreign born, have been convicted and will serve out their sentence in a county jail as opposed to a state prison, said Anna Pembedjian,
justice deputy for Antonovich.
Of those inmates, known gang members will now be at the front of the line for interviews, she said.
The move follows public outcry after the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw Jr., allegedly by a reputed gang member, whom authorities believe
was in the country illegally.
The shooting occurred the day after the suspect was released from a county jail.
Shaw's parents were among the dozens of members of the public who
requested to speak on the subject before the board voted in what quickly became the most heated and drawn-out portion of the meeting.
``We tell our kids that nationality and colors don't make a difference, but when you have the illegal alien gangbanger come in and killing his brother,
or doing all kinds of harm to American citizens, it brings back up the color issue,'' Anita Shaw, Jamiel's mother, told the board. ``Something has to be
done.''
Other members of the public spoke out against the immigration
interviews, saying that they resulted in law enforcement officials targeting and deporting illegal immigrants who had committed only minor offenses.
Roughly 4,000 gang members are currently in county jails, according to Baca.
Council Asks Chick, Delgadillo to End Legal Spat
One day after the Los Angeles city attorney sued the
controller, members of the City Council sought to avoid a legal battle today
by asking the two sides to sit down for a September briefing.
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo filed the lawsuit against Controller
Laura Chick, asking that a judge affirm his position that the city charter
prevents the controller from conducting performance audits on programs overseen
by elected officials.
Delgadillo's office says such performance audits could become political
ammunition, while Chick argues that taxpayers have a right to know how city
money is spent, regardless of where the program is housed.
The council approved a motion asking that the two sides abandon the
lawsuit and participate in a closed-door briefing on Sept. 3.
``I don't think we can go to the public at this point in time and say
the best way to spend our taxpayers' dollars is to pay for outside counsel for
one elected official against another elected official to defend themselves. I
think that would be a fiscally irresponsible tactic,'' said City Councilwoman
Wendy Greuel.
A second motion to draft a charter amendment for the March 2009 ballot
was also approved and sent to the Rules and Government Committee.
Chick said clarifying the charter is more important than completing a
performance audit on the Workers' Compensation Program, which prompted the
lawsuit.
``If the city attorney drops his lawsuit, then I would agree to stop
trying to do this audit and rely on the vote of the public,'' she said. ``Until
he withdraws the lawsuit, I am bare -- I have no legal representation -- and
that is a problem.''
The city council must sign off on the funds for Chick's defense, but it
is not clear whether members will do so during the two meetings they have left
before their recess.
``Not a single one of the other elected officials would accept having a
lawsuit filed against them by another official of the city and they have no
representation,'' said Chick, adding she was sued for ``doing my job.''
In a letter to Chick, Delgadillo said he is willing to stop the lawsuit
while the council drafts an amendment.
``As I indicated to you last week before the lawsuit was filed, I was --
and I remain -- amenable to pursuing a non-litigation clarification of the
controller's performance audit authority under the charter, provided that you
voluntarily suspend your performance audit while the clarification process is
underway,'' Delgadillo wrote.
``Accordingly, I am prepared to abide by the council's request if you
agree in writing to suspend as well while the council considers a ballot
measure to clarify the controller's performance audit authority.''
Union Embezzlement
The 44-year-old former bookkeeper for the
International Longshoremen & Warehouse Union Local 26 was arrested today for
allegedly embezzling union funds, federal prosecutors announced.
Rosa Della Porta, of Highland Park, was arrested by federal agents four
days after a grand jury indicted her on a single count of embezzling union
funds.
As office manager and bookkeeper of ILWU Local 26, Della Porta was
responsible for receiving union dues and making bank deposits, U.S. Attorney's
Office spokesman Thom Mrozek said. Della Porta received cash from various union
sources then deposited less cash than the union received and kept the balance,
Mrozek said.
U.S. Department of Labor investigators believe Della Porta embezzled
about $108,000 in cash from ILWU Local 26, prosecutors said.
According to her indictment, Della Porta embezzled the union funds from
January 2003 through June 2006, when the union relieved her of her bookkeeping
duties, Mrozek said. Della Porta was fired from the union in November 2006,
Mrozek said.
ILWU Local 26 represents about 1,000 people who work for 28 industrial
companies in the greater Los Angeles area, prosecutors said.
If convicted, Della Porta faces up to five years in federal prison.
BREAKING NEWS
Pathetic gadflies and hostile gang sympathyzers disclosed today that they hide behind the ghost name "Red Spot" to mislead, spread lies and harm the community where they live.
Who are the cowards?
Jose Aguilar and Scott Johnson. Bonnie and Clyde.
"V"
That is what awaits.........
Why all the machinations over David "incremental progress" Tokofsky? He was a good quote for the media ("I put a jumper in the backyard for the birthday party") and anonymously sold out school district bureaucrats to reporters like they were disposable diapers.
All you're doing is defending a guy who tried to evict hundreds of families in Echo Park when the school distrct wanted to build on site 9A.
And everyone in Westchester remembers how eloquently Tokofosky recalled his upbringing in that community during the Feb 27, 2007, school board meeting. Tokofsky said: “I’d also like to thank you (Kelly Kane) for your involvement. Certainly your tone and message represents a different Westchester than the one I grew up with when, (it was) one of the few towns in LA where the American Nazi Party or the KKK found fertile grounds."
Hmmm?
And he can spin with the best of them. He says he voted for outrageous changes in the design of the Los Angeles High School for the Visual and Performing Arts because he thought Eli Broad would pick up the tab. However, the ADD-addled ex-ed boarder fails to say he's on a crusade again Broad because Broad targetd him for removal once upon a time.
So when Tokofslky whines and hides behind childrens' birthday parties and Boys and Girls Clubs know that he's not the Boy Scout the media makes him out to be.
Red Spot, i have your number and i'm coming for you. Watch your back!
-JH
Huizar's staff are all fat and ugly. You can't name one good looking girl on staff. That goes the same for his male staff, all fat and ugly.
whats going on with chick and delgadillo, whats with the fighting. do you think them might have a thing for each other? me thinks she likes to ride the brown stallion.
Hey Mayorsam why the hard-on for little ole Huizzy? me thinks you like to ride the brown stallion.
Spin Doctor said, "cd 14 resident and happy with the consistent and dedicated staff at my local councilmember's office."
Talk about libel!
7:41 pm- as another CD-14 resident, I don't have a problem with the staffers, but HUIZAR is completely unsatisfactory as a representative.
8:00 pm- It's not the "Huizar family" but JOSE that's the problem.
HUIZAR needs to cool it with the constant references to his Mexican background- WE ALREADY GET IT- AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, WHO WOULDN'T?
It was refreshing to see his return to using double-negatives like today, when he was so upset about the challenges raised to spending taxpayer money OUTSIDE of the U.S., believing it was an attack on the country (Mexico), "I won't say no more, this is just ridiculous."
He needs to be more careful with some of the vocabulary pronunciation errors that I've heard. Ouch. Just too pretentious.
OK so he used a double negative. A lot of people do. At least Huizar wasn't the one who mispronounced HYBERBOLE as Hyper-Bowl in council last week.
Jessica ? who is Jessica? What qualifies her for that position?
I heard Frank Aguirre, the most useless, ineffective and unreliable staffer to ever grace the CD14 (revolving) door is being brought back to Huizar's staff!!!!! What a joke. Can this possibly be true? Even this seems too crazy for Weezy.
$10,000 to get Tokofsky out of LAUSD, that is a very good deal... that is what Jose Aguilar spend to run for Neighborhood Council.
I wonder what the "research" found, since Tokosfky didn't run for re-election. Must be JUICY.
Does anybody know what the firm found out about the former school board member (Tokosfky) it will be interesting to know.
7:14 O.K., I wasn't going to bring it up, but....from somewhere in the last week or two, try this:
Ask Mr. Huizar to pronounce "apropos" (Hint: French derivation, not Greek). At least it was applied correctly.
Well, enough with the facades.
Does anybody know what kind of dirt was found on Tokosfky? Why didn't he run for re-election? Did the research find something on him?
Breaking News:
Tokofsky will be indited for helping Green dot Schools get City monies will on school board.
That is what Huizar's research found out
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