This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I'm an ex-mayor. Los Angeles is a magnet for people from all over the world. Some of them run for public office. Inevitably some of them stray from the golden rule and rule for those that have the gold. That's when I go to work. My name is Yorty. I'm a dead pol.
Jay Leno once noted that today in America, we live in an era of lowered expectations. At a press conference in 1993 to state that he would keep the Tonight Show hosting gig and not lose it to David Letterman, Jay noted "What we're celebrating is I'm not being fired. It's very, very strange!"
The folks at the Wendy Greuel campaign have taken that one step further...releasing the GOOD NEWS today that the City Controller is one point BEHIND her opponent Eric Garcetti in a poll taken by her own supporters at the DWP.
The following is from Kristin Sabo, parks activist and caretaker for Amir's Garden at Griffith Park. No one in Los Angeles has more insight into how the City's Department of Recreation and Parks operates. Below, she details how the City is "double dipping," taking funds from the parks' budget in an effort to "charge" the department for "services" from the City. These chargebacks do nothing more than help the City hide it's budget deficit due to wasteful spending and take dollars - as mandated by the City Charter - from recreation for children, families and all residents of LA.
"Crippling "Chargebacks" covering other departments' budgets by taking funds from Rec and Parks) are killing our S-T parks and Hansen Dam. The Mayor's budget for 2013-14 is even worse, if that is possible.
Please read this documentfor an explanation of the "chargebacks" and the Recreation and Parks services we've lost so far. It's disgusting.
The $56 million in Chargebacks to Rec and Parks in FY 2013-14 being perpetrated on this City's children and parks users by the Mayor, CAO and the City Council is completely unconscionable.
The budget hearing for Rec and Parks is Wednesday May 1st. Please submit your comments to the Budget and Finance Committee ASAP.
Budget & Finance Committee Hearing
Wednesday, May 1, 1pm
John Ferraro Council Chamber - Room 340
200 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
If you can't attend that day, please contact the members of the Budget & Finance Committee and let know that you demand an end to Chargebacks and adequate funding for our parks.
Venice for Change, and picked up by LA Streetsblog, reports that City Councilman and candidate for Mayor, Eric Garcetti, happened upon the scene of a badly injured and bloodied man in Silver Lake Saturday night.
The witness to the entire event, a resident named Chris Cruse, didn't even recognize the good samaritan as Garcetti until it was resolved and Cruse asked his name.
Cruse posted his detail of the event on his Facebook page:
The nicest thing just happened.
I walked down my street to pick up some food, and came across a young guy laying on the sidewalk. His friend was yelling at him, slapping his face to wake up. The guy on the ground had a big gash and was bleeding out of his head. Not moving. I asked his friend if he was ok, but it was clear he needed help.
Right then, a black car pulled up on Silver Lake Blvd and a handsome businessman-looking guy rolled down the window. Asked if everything was ok. I told him this guy hit his head real bad. The car pulled over and 2 guys got out. They seemed to know exactly what to do. One brought a shirt and rolled it up and stuck it under the guy's head. Asked a bunch of questions. The other called the paramedics. The friend was worried that they'd be in trouble, and asked us to just leave them there. The handsome one said they work for the city, they can't just leave someone hurt on the ground. He hit his head, he needs to be checked out. The friend nodded ok.
Once the paramedics got there, they got the kid up and on a stretcher and into the ambulance. Seemed like he was in good hands. I was in awe that these two guys came in and handled this whole situation so quickly and solidly. As they headed back to the car, I stopped them and asked, "You said you work for the city, what's your name?" I wanted to know what city employee was being a civil servant and Good Samaritan even on a Saturday night. The guy shook my hand and said, "Eric Garcetti."
No joke.
The story has been since confirmed with the Garcetti team, however, as noted by Streetsblog, there is an interesting sidenote to the matter. Garcetti did not tell anyone about the event after; his own campaign discovered it via the blogosphere.
Contrast that to Wendy Greuel who would have had sent six press releases and a City film crew out.
Bloggin' PSA: Coalition to Sponsor Debate Saturday at RFK Community Schools
Who Should be the Next Mayor of Los Angeles? City Councilman Eric Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel will join us on Saturday, May 4 at our Los Angeles Mayoral Forum.
Alliance for a Better Community, HOPE, MALDEF, NALEO Educational Fund, NCLR, and media partner La Opinión have partnered to host a Los Angeles mayoral candidate forum with City Councilman Eric Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel on May 4. Join members of the Latino community as both candidates answer the questions that matter the most in advance of the upcoming mayoral election.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
COCONUT GROVE AUDITORIUM
These endorsements hardly speak to the public's confidence in Wendy Gruel. Especially when she is caught in some lie, exaggeration or obfuscation at any given moment.
- Campaigned out of City Hall and with City resources
- Continues to spend and re-spend an imaginary $160 million in waste, fraud and abuse even her own office says doesn't exist
- Did nothing to improve Valley Plaza in North Hollywood and sections of Foothill Blvd in Sunland that now look like slums
-Makes wide claims of credit for successes of Mayor Tom Bradley and President Bill Clinton for programs she was tangentially involved in at best
From our friends at the Downtown LA News
On the other hand, we have Eric Garcetti whose endorsements come from thousands of community leaders as well as four of Garcetti's and Greuel's former opponents in the Mayoral primary.
Wendy once worked for DreamWorks; perhaps when she loses this election she can go back to work there and create special effects for the next Spielberg blockbuster. Just make sure the accountants have tight reign, though.
Wendy Greuel Slimes a Good Man: The Nick Patsaouras Story
Pre-Mayoral Makeover Wendy and Nick, the man she slimed
When we think about the character of a person we might want to elect to office, we think about what they may have said about others.
Wendy Greuel's record of sliming other candidates is well known. During the Mayoral primary campaign, she threw all kinds of charges against her opponents, many of them personal. We all remember the attack on Jan Perry from the Greuel campaign on the personal bankruptcy Perry faced following the dissolution of her marriage. When presented the opportunity to apologize for her remarks, Greuel was recalcitrant and said "That's politics."
Go back to another campaign and you'll see more of the same. In her foray into running for City Controller, Greuel was faced up against businessman and philanthropist, Nick Patsaouras. Patsaouras, who immigrated from Greece as a young man over 40 years ago, is a real American success story. The kind you usually see trotted out at Republican and Democratic conventions. Nick got an American education, worked hard, became an engineer and built a very successful business. Because Nick was grateful for the opportunity his adopted country offered, he became a community activist, working with Mayors Tom Bradley and Richard Riordan on building the City's transit system, among other issues. Nick's contribution to the MTA was such that the transportation center at LA Union Station was named after him. His wife Sylvia is also a very distinguished community leader.
None of that mattered to Wendy, who in her quest for power, is known by City Hall mavens to "do or say anything" to get ahead. Let us take you back now to 2009, when the delightful pixie who has supposedly done so much for Sunland-Tujunga, NoHo, Studio City, Valley Village et al, at the last minute, made horrific charges against a good man:
City Controller Candidate Wendy Greuel is airing the ad below where she alleges that opponent Nick Patsaouras, as chairman of a local bank, ran the bank into the ground.
Patsaouras has issued a challenge to Greuel - prove the bank failed and he'll drop out of the race. However if she can not dispute Patsaouras' claim that the bank failed Patsaouras is calling on Greuel to withdraw.
We don't expect to Greuel to drop out even if she was wrong about Patsaouras' bank; its politics as usual in LA.
Breaking News!! Former City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter files Ethics Complaint against Mayoral Candidate Wendy "The Villar Greuel"
Former City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter files Ethics Complaint against former council colleague Wendy "The Villar Greuel" over her use of city office and email for campaign purposes.
Ruth Galanter (standing on left) and the 2000 cast of the Los Angeles City Council.
Mayor Sam has learned via Los Cerritos News Reporter Randy Economy that former Westside City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter has filed an Ethics Complaint against her former council colleague Wendy "The Villar Greuel".
In a complaint filed today with the City Ethics Commission, former Councilwoman Ruth Galanter challenged City Controller and mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel’s use of city computers for campaign purposes. Galanter based her complaint on revelations by the Los Cerritos Community News that Greuel routinely communicated with her campaign operatives from her city office and using city computers, a clear violation of the Municipal Code.“Ms. Greuel’s misuse of public resources is an insult to the voters and taxpayers of Los Angeles made even more egregious by the fact that we taxpayers are paying her approximately $200,000 a year (plus a car and a cellphone) to prevent just such misuse, “ Galanter said.
This initial complaint via Galanter, may be the first of many to be filed, come next week.
Your thoughts..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14
Will the Destruction of Parkland for USC, come before Memorial to Sal Castro at Historic Hazard Park?
As famed Chicano/ Education Rights Advocate Sal Castro is remembered, what will come first at historic Hazard Park, a completed memorial to him and thousands who joined together in marching for education equality ......., or the destruction of parkland for USC's Health Science Campus "Beautification/ Expansion Plan"?
The walkouts produced a new generation of Latino professionals and politicians who are aware of the debt they owe Castro and the blowout students. Politicians like L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who attended Castro's Latino youth leadership program. "I helped Tony when he was 15 get into UCLA," Castro said. Villaraigosa said Monday he backed federal recognition for the memorial.
But as historic Hazard Park is now, under threat from the expansion/beautification plans of the USC Health Science Campus Master Plan, we must ask Mayor Villar and CD 14 City Councilman Jose Huizar, whether they will stand up in preserving historic hollow ground for the thousands that stood with Sal Castro and preserving parkland that been use by multiple generations of working families?
Survey USA Reports Good Numbers for Wendy Greuel in Poll her Consultant Calls "Bogus"
What does private citizen/political consultant John Shallman say about Survey USA, which just reported some good numbers for his client, candidate for Mayor Wendy Greuel, from their latest robo-poll?
This poll is bogus and contrary to every public and private survey we've seen. Everyone knows that robo call polls are inaccurate. In fact, ABC's polling director Gary Langer was quoted in the Hill Newspaper in 2011 saying, "We don't regard autodialed, pre-recorded polls as valid and reliable survey research." The Survey USA poll is misleading and projects a 63% turnout which would nearly triple the voter turnout from previous municipal elections.
Of course, Shallman said that in January when Survey USA had Eric Garcetti up several points over his client. But still, when you get some good news, even if it's an anemic lead, you have to praise it and say that those Survey USA rascals must have their act together!
Of course, to be clear, past Survey USA polls giving an edge to Garcetti were praised by the Council Member's team, and now, Garcetti spokesman, Jeff Millman is poo poo-ing the latest survey.
The LA Weekly does point out some potential problems and unexplainable shifts in the current Survey USA poll and indeed, it's not at all in sync with a LA Times/USC poll, that shows significant problems for Greuel. The bottom line is that reality is somewhere in the middle, and confirms the ground observation of many political watchers that Garcetti has a lead with key groups and that Greuel is being forced to fight a ground game on turf where she is supposed to be strong and thus not able to concentrate in communities where she is weak and needs to pick up votes.
When more polls come out in next several days we'll see if the Survey USA poll has weight or is just robo-called noise in needs of lot of "sanity check" justification.
Today feels like a good day to beat "MEAT" on Facebook
We bring you this view of insider chatter on the 2013 Mayoral Election from the Facebook Page of former Mayor Sam Blogger and now insider errant boy Michael "MEAT" Trujillo.
Care to share with us MEAT why today is a good day to be a Wendy "The Villar Greuel" Supporter? From the Facebook Page of "MEAT" ** Take notice of the comments from the likes of "MEAT", Sue Burnside, Jeff Millman, and notorious former DWP insider Raman Raj
