Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday
Fishbowl LA is the latest blog to cover the dust-up between Mayor Villaraigosa and the LA Weekly. You may remember the Weekly published a piece in September that blew the lid off how little time the Mayor actually spends working. Then last week Villaraigosa boasted to Rick Orlov that the Weekly's piece was a slam based on the fact that he had not provided them with his actual calendar records. That led to Mayor spokes-flack Matt Szabo probably having to reach for some Maalox and issuing a retraction for the Mayor's comments. Stay tuned. Former Department of Neighborhood Empowerment director Greg Nelson recaps his predictions for 2008, mostly all dealing with great things the City could have done to take the system of Neighborhood Councils seriously, none of which came true. Hoping to be more accurate at the end of this year Nelson predicts "that 2009 will be another year throughout which the empowerment of neighborhood councils will be ignored."
Labels: done, greg nelson, la weekly, mayor antonio villaraigosa, neighborhood councils, rick orlov
Posted by Michael Higby @ 1/02/2009 02:00:00 AM
28 Comments:
Greg Nelson is the City's biggest hypocrite, bar none.
When he was at the helm of DONE, and had the support of the mayor that ousted his predecessor and appointed him (the same way he was then ousted), he did blessed be nothing to empower neighborhood councils.
In fact, he set up most of the infrastructure of DONE that strangles them now, and ran the appointed commission (BONC), like it was his own kitchen cabinet squashing any real outside-the box thinking that might come from a group like that.
He also told long-time historic communities where their boundaries were, pulling much of the reasoning for the delineations out of his arse. And, he used the exclusive, NIMBY pre-existing HOAs and other community groups in those communities as the skeletal framework for most of the existing NCs, effectively insuring that they would never become anything more than taxpayer-funded elitist cliques that perpetuated their previous non-inclusive nature.
Let's just stop listening to Nelson's "I coulda made the NCs contendas" BS tripe, and understand it for what it is. Sour grapes and absolute hypocrisy. Unlike many of the current crop of City critics who are "outside, pissing into the tent" -- Nelson WAS inside that tent for many years, and couldn't even get his Willie out of his Dockers long enough for even a symbolic trickle of constructive "pissing." He was simply Jimmy Hahn's "yes" man and flack, hell-bent on making it look like NCs were then being heard at City.
If he didn't do what needed to be done when he had all the power to do it and 2-3 times the staff of the current Dept, then his finger-pointed now is an insult to our intelligence.
Former GM Greg's best performance was here on Mayor Sam's some months back (sums it all up well):
http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2008/05/and-now-few-moments-with-greg-nelson.html
When the NC's have gone so far off the rails that Jim Alger needs to file a grievance just to make them comply with the law the entire system is a joke.
See for yourself: http://northridgewest.com/
Yikes. These guys aren't to bright plastering Jim's complaint on their site. He asks that they be forced "to follow all laws, rules and regulations that apply." It sure seems like they should be doing that without having to have someone file a complaint against them.
So what is the point of them plastering Jim's personal phone number on their site? Isn't that against the rules as well???
I say if they cant follow the law, just decertfiy them.
Good comments Jim.
Sorry Higby, but now what he's the main writer for Citywatch, Greg Nelson has become the "Andy Rooney" commentator on all things City Hall, a doddering, out-of-touch, deposed king among gadflies.
He's using his extra time now to recycle all the inane memos he sent upstairs while working for two mayors, and which all got promptly ash-canned because they were . . . well, inane.
- "Didja ever notice that 'Public Works' can be a noun and a complete sentence?"
- "Why is it that the notices from the city's EARLY Notification System, always come out in the LATE afternoon?"
- "BONC would be much better suited to do what DONE does, and have DONE do what BONC does now. I don't know why, it just looked pretty when I diagrammed it in crayon on my placemat at Denny's this morning."
- Neighorhood councils were created to teach stakeholders how to blow bubbles without getting soap on their shirts. Look it up; it's in the revised city charter."
- "They have neighborhood councils in Butte, Montana, you know, and their board members get to park their cars on sidewalks without getting tickets. We should try that."
Ignore him. Not like in "ignore him and he'll go away" - because he has nowhere to go, but you'll be less frustrated if you do.
Neighborhood Councils are a joke. They bitch about what the city does but as soon as they become part of the city they do the same shit. This crap in Northridge is just the latest in a series of bs going on. Old Northridge was de-certified for similar nonsense. The Northridge NC before that was denied certification for the same crap. If it were confined to Northridge you could say its something in their water, or maybe the heat but it is all across the city. Northridge does seem to stand out though.
Could the Northridge Council be any worse than Glassell Park under Bradley or LA32 under Commandante Hugo?
Jim's angling to run for City Council. This is his way to get the big boys to notice him.
Mitchell wins.
Jim is not running for City Council and has made that point repeatedly. Mitchell will win because he will probably run unopposed. That being said, Jim's point in his complaint is valid, the NC should be following the law. Not just Northridge, all of them.
Interesting discussion. I will let my complaint filed with the Neighborhood Council stand on its own merit. It doesn't seem to be an out-of-bounds request to ensure the NC follows its own rules as well as State Law.
As for the CD12 nonsense. Let me make this perfectly clear. I am not running for City Council, period. I understand the Mitch Englander, who has been angling for this seat for years, needs an enemy but I am not it. Mitch has been in fear of me running against him and went out of his way to ensure Greig Smith believed it, but it simply isn't true. Given my current carrier path, I wouldn't even consider a run. Hopefully, that is plain enough.
Do we really want to recycle another staffer for a Clowncil spot? Isn't that how we got into trouble as it is? Wendy, Alarcon, LeBong, Jan Perry, all recycled staffers. Smith too.
The only Council people who seem to get anything reasonably done came from somewhere else like Bernie or Zine.
So if not Alger, who? Ron Kaye? No he wants to play golf. Julie Korenstein? Maybe - but would that be better?
I've been reading up on the Northridge NC and I find what I see disturbing. Alger's complaint seems to have merit. I've tried to reach the President of the NC but it appears his email address is not valid or at least it bounced back.
If the NWNC wants to tell me their side of the story someone tell them to contact me via my email address or phone number listed in the masthead at Mayor Sam. Please don't call my personal number even if someone gave it to you. I HATE getting MS calls on my personal phone. That's why we have a hotline (and yes it's a real phone not just a voice mail) if you call it I might pick up if I'm there.
I just took some time to see what all the hoopla was about and holy shit are these guys running awry. The Northridge West NC has extended their terms to 4 years, eliminated students from their board and spent tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on questionable things. ($6,000 on DRAPES??????) WTF?!?!
Isn’t anyone watching what they are doing?
Wow! A Neighborhood Council worthy of CD14!
They spent $150 of your money on food for a mixer in Studio City.
Go to the Northridge West NC's website and look at their December agenda versus their December minutes. They voted on numerous items NOT on the agenda including spending money.
Alger is right; big time Brown Act violation.
Michael,
Filing a Brown Act violation does not qualify one to be CM!
Looks like they took down the minutes for December. Must not have liked what we were finding. Some of these expenditures are quite questionable. Little birdie is telling me they are diverting nc funds to their "friends."
Bunch of dirty crooks.
You think Northridge is bad take a look at the new Boyle Heights NC and others. They're giving Huizar thousands of dollars for HIS events instead of investing it back into the community. Is it legal for NC's to be giving money to City Council members? It makes a huge statement when a council member doesn't spend HIS own discretionary funds into the community he is suppose to care about. Is there another council member who does this?
Mitch has been in fear of me running against him.
Jim, no one has been in fear of you running. You put an end to that with your "Do It Center" kickback con game.
It didn't work. You got busted. And now you can say for the rest of your life how much Mitch fears you, but you are just way too successful in your career to even entertain it.
Oh thank goodness Jim. I know Mitch was so, so worried.
Higby can hopefully confirm this is not Mitch. Just someone who thinks you are an attention-hungry joker.
Jim does not have what it takes.
8:59 Can you not read? Alger isn't running.
Do it Center "Kickback" game? Get real OK?
The proposal that was never acted on was to encourage NC's to purchase supplies at retailers that supported their own communities That doesn't seem that difficult a concept. If a particular printer sponsored a local boy scout troop for example, i would encourage NC's (or any other organization) to shop their as opposed to someplace else all things being equal. The specific proposal with Do It Center would have been that a certain percentage of sales went to a cause the community supported in this case stopping Home depot.
These are COMMON fund raising techniques. (Our local Wendy's has a week when a percentage of all sales went to support the local High School so the school encouraged people to buy at Wendy's that week.)
You can spin it into a cheap political hit all you want but that is all it is Mr. Anonymous. If you feel so strongly about the issue, stop being a coward and identify yourself.
I thought so.
By the way, a "kickback" in your case would have meant the money was going to me, or my council. Neither was true, in fact I have and will continue to donate to the cause.
Alger I'm surprised you're bold enough to show your face after all that.
Are you really so desperate to attack Jim as to attack an idea that never went anywhere?
Our Girl Scout troop do these types of fundraisers all the time with local merchants. You're attacking Jim for it is nothing more than a transparent political hit by someone who doesn't have the guts to say it publicly.
The video, and subsequent hit came from Mark Siegal of the STNC. This twit who comes to meetings in a boy scout uniform (yes. i am serious. Shorts and all) hates Jim with a passion and turned against a cause he supposedly believes in just to take a shot at Jim. Now one or two other jerks suffering from penis envy have to attack Jim just to do it. It's no wonder people don't want to get involved.
And you thought that Jim posted anonymous comments.
I think the ratio is 2:1. For every one that he posts using his name, he posts two others anonymously.
Of course how would someone prove a negative Zuma?
Ever occur to you that we just like the guy?
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