Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Tuesday

 An exclusive disposal contract with Athens was the start of the end of the "CD 14 East Era" in Montebello.

We are two months into 2012 and the Machine of Mayor Antonio Villar and longtime "labor sister" LA County Labor Federation Leader Maria Elena Durazo, are once again attacking your right to choose. This time it is business and apartment land lords right to choose the trash pick-up company of choice. If the fellow traveling duo of Durazo and Villar get their way, ten exclusive garbage zones would be designated city wide. Those zones would be awarded to companies with union staff, green trucks ....... and willing to pay the "franchise fees". But if I were Durazo , Villar, the Sierra Club and Madeline Janis, the Montebello experience may be the political barometer on the backlash brewing against this blatant attack on free market choices in the City of Los Angeles.

** CD 15 City Councilman Joe Buscaino mans up for his "yes vote" to raise DWP water rates.

On Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, the Los Angeles City Council voted to amend the water rate ordinance to allow increased collection for water quality improvement. The rate increase amounts to $1.14 for the average resident of Council District 15.  This was a very difficult decision for me, but this action was urgently needed in order to meet a deadline to comply with US EPA & State Department of Public Health safe drinking water standards.  Had the council not acted, the City would have been faced with costly fines, which would have also resulted in higher DWP rates.  "We can't afford to compromise on our water safety. For less than the price of a cup of coffee a month, we get peace of mind knowing that our water is clean, safe and secure for our families," said Buscaino. "While it may make sense to support this increase, I'm not so sure I will be able to support future rate increases and I will definitely want to see the new Ratepayer Advocate's analysis and recommendations." (We will wait and see).

** LA Weekly's Simone Wilson continues her quest to merge creativity and photoshop as she goes "poodle for CD 1".

** A spokesperson for the Korean American Coalition stated that 500-1,000 showed up for the Hands Across Koreatown Prayer for a Unied Koreatown. Yet not one mention in the Old Gray Hag on Spring Street or the Daily Moldy Green Sheet.

Your thoughts ..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14 .