Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday
Department of Animal Services General Manager Ed Boks isn't the only city department head in trouble. BongHwan Kim, the General Manager of the City's Department of Neighborhood Services - the department that oversees the City's system of Neighborhood Councils - is facing a complaint from the union that represents DONE's workers. Among other things, the complaint alleges Kim demoted a staffer for taking complaints to the union. You may remember that before Kim was given the GM job, we reported on a DONE management report that many of the department's staffers found Kim to be unqualified to take the position.In the hub-bub of the Presidential campaign, hopefully you have not missed some excellent reporting by Petrafried in the City with respect to important issues around Griffith Park, the most recent of those can be found here. Most notably, some bizarre ideas coming out of Council Member Tom LaBonge.
In case you missed it last night, rumors abound that soon to be termed out Assemblyman Lloyd Levine may be replacing controversial Department of Animal Services General Manager Ed Boks. Stay tuned.
Much has been said about the high class junket that executives of bailed-out financial firm AIG took to the tune of nearly $400,000. However one blogger tries to make the case that there's no connection to the bailout as the junket was undertaking by the insurance side of the house, which is not involved in the current mess. Hmmm, not sure most folks will get the distinction, still a poor choice by those execs.
We report a lot of bad news about LA so here's something good: The American Planning Association has chosen Echo Park as one of the great neighborhoods in America. By the way, according to CurbedLA, Echo Park Lake is stocked with trout and catfish at different periods of the year and, apparently, bass breed freely in the lake. So take your kids fishing and have a ball.
Don't forget Zuma Dogg's event Friday night at Casa Princesa Cafe in Highland Park. Karaoke, voter registration, public comment, karaoke, the $5 Gift Store and, of course, Zuma Dogg will be there. Who knows, maybe the old, dead Republican Mayor himself will make a cameo.
Labels: bonghwan kim, done, echo park, ed boks, griffith park, lloyd levine, petrafried in the city, tom labonge
Posted by Michael Higby @ 10/09/2008 04:00:00 AM
11 Comments:
Dave Elliott and Michael Higby in the same room?
As Daryl Zanuck once said, "Include me out."
You forgot one important thing, Higby.....
Valley Doll is leaving the blog for the umpteenth time. Christ, is she an attention whore! Can you please put up some sort of access so that she can only annoy us in the comments section, rather than annoying us in the front page section?
Bye, Valley Dip! Yes, yes, I know you're going! Don't forget to leave the keys on the table. Yes. I SAID, I know you're leaving! Good bye already!
GOOD BYE ALREADY!
Is this hypocritical or what from the clowns on council? They have the nerve to oppose this yet approved the blast of bullshit billboards all over our city.
....The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to oppose Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's idea to sell advertising on the freeway billboards that display Amber Alerts.
In a unanimous vote, council members said they were concerned about visual blight and that drivers will be distracted by electronic billboards on freeways.
Higby, Haikula and Red Spot did you see this YouTube Video
"Is Mr. Obama Using Hitler's Tactics on his Followers?"
We all know how the democrats and Obama are just like Hitler and terrorists, we must elect Palin/McCane to save our country !!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMlqEy3D_yw
What is an even poorer choice is that AIG says they're doing it again next week!
Crrrr-azy.
City council members are in a continual state of delusion if they truly believe that anyone in the know takes seriously the regular compliments to each other that they cough up routinely after concluding whatever item may have used up their council meeting time, "We also want to thank Council Member (x) for the fine leadership provided," or a variation of that platitude.
It's really setting the bar pretty high to consider that they would be able to handle all the inconsistencies on the existing billboard situation. Many of the goofs have been a product of their ineptitude and greed outweighing the need to minimize or eliminate the blight and highway hazards that billboards create.
For a "green" conscious council (and the mayor who boasts of L.A. being the “greenest” city at every opportunity) they certainly do nothing to benefit the public whom are supposed to represent in resisting the proliferation of more billboards and control of existing ones.
Although, at some earlier time, the council obtained other legal counsel for their business due to literally having no confidence in Rocky Delgadillo, the paid-for City Attorney, they WILL NOT challenge the results of Delgadillos's "settlements" that billboard special interests received after they bent him over as usual for more sweetheart deals and making us wonder which side of the case Rocky was advocating.
A billboard moratorium could be in order and electronic billboards need to have some special scrutiny applied due to their unique type of impact they create in comparison to the simple static display billboards. And wasn't there an issue as to many billboards having been erected WITHOUT any city permission? There's your lax enforcement and maybe THAT could be a revenue source, daily fines for illegal (or should I call them "undocumented"?) billboards until dismantled might move things along.
The city will clear brush as fire hazards and then bill the property owner who did not act in a timely fashion to get the job done, so why not try that method of handling billboards? After a cease and desist notice issued to the owners for illegal conditions, the corrective action is needed and expected. The city would remove the hazard that created the violation and charge for that cost. That would be more productive of the council's time AND give us better living conditions in the city than pursuing the tail-chasing idea of creating new CITY laws for fines to levy on vehicles having tinted windows that the STATE Vehicle Code already addresses in its provisions.
The council gets paid probably double the amount that they should be getting as salary, and that comes with lots of side benefits. When you consider what's getting done and NOT GETTING done, and what stupid outcomes are being produced more frequently than ever, the pay cuts might be in order. They’ve earned that.
Remember the Olvera Street matter reported in the L.A. Times where no one noticed for years that written rental agreements were not in place and the city was losing substantial money by that error? Or the situation on parking tickets issued that were not being collected by the contracting firm and shared with the city, costing tons of money? Or that animal shelter construction: After eminent domain took a real property site, plans were changed for some unclear reason, and the property re-sold to the prior owner, costing a million dollars or so by the relocation of the shelter site, BOOSTING the construction cost by another hefty sum without the construction even starting yet?
LAUSD has its Board and it financial disasters in real property and payroll and we have City Council for the rest of the opportunities to waste the tax money that they can appropriate.
An initiative re-structuring pay scales for elected city officials and their appointees could get people into these position who WANT to improve the city, and not just those working to suck it dry.
The current pay scheme is connected to state pay scales, an arbitrary basis, yet it allows council members to be blame free for their financial coziness that was INTENTIONALLY planned, automatically initiating pay raises. That device was planned to take off the heat from them personally so they could dodge responsibility for getting their raises. “We didn’t give ourselves raises, it’s by operation of law,” has been their excuse. That can be changed for a more responsive government to benefit US for a change and not themselves and their special interests people.
in 90041
BONG WATER KIM for Ass Clown of the month.
He's about to preside over the absolute WORST-attended Congress of Neighborhood Councils in the history of them. And, it'll be at City Hall, so expect every other person in the assembly halls to be City employees.
But even that won't buoy its attendance figures out of the basement, nor will having EVERY DAMN employee of D.O.N.E. sitting on the phone begging people to attend this debacle, as they have been for weeks now (using outdated lists of NC board members, BTW).
And that's mostly because more and more NC people have now realized -- D.O.N.E. is irrelevant.
It was never "useful" to the City's neighborhood councils. Now it's an impediment to progress.
THESE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS ARE THE PUPPETS FOR THE LA COUNCIL BONG HAS DONE NOTHING TO CHANGE THAT. WHAT A GIANT WASTE OF TAX MONEY THAT PROVIDES NO EMPOWERMENT. BONG WILL BE AT THE PORTER RANCH NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL ON NOV. 4 7PM LET HIM KNOW HOW YOU FEEL.
Here's a role model for Antonio and a new goal to achieve:
The Las Vegas Sun found that Jim Gibbons, the Republican governor of Nevada, has been in his office only 12 days in the last 9 weeks.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/oct/05/where-does-gibbons-work-apparently-not-his-desk/
3:50 - Gibbons has a better record of being in his office than Villar does.
Villar: 11%
Gibbons: 26.67%
Come up with something better, say how many times did Obama vote on something, and how many votes did he either miss or merely vote "Present."?
Putting Lloyd Levine in charge of LAAS would be pure madness & would prove that the Mayor & Council are truly certifiably nuts!
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