Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

He's back! No, I don't mean me, but none other than the love of Betty Pleasant's life, Supervisor Mark "Don't Call Me Curly" Ridley-Thomas is showing his disdain for County taxpayers and treating their money as his. The Times is reporting that the former Mark Thomas allegedly charged various improvements on his home to the County, beyond a security system to which Supervisor is entitled to. The Times article states "John Thompson, who oversaw the work at Ridley-Thomas' property, said that in addition to an alarm system, workers installed a wall-mounted air conditioner and heating unit as well as a refrigerator and flat-screen TV." In addition to the County funded work, Ridley-Thomas allegedly converted his garage into an office without proper City of LA permits. You may remember that several years ago, Ridley-Thomas had spent nearly a million dollars on "renovation" of his county office.

This CAN'T be good for tourism - crime at LAX has jumped 10% so reports the Daily Breeze. The biggest jump appears to be in property thefts and larceny, while other categories ranging from violent assaults to unregistered vehicles appears about the same. The reports lead the head of the LAX police officers union to peg the spikes to cutbacks in the number of officers.

The end of two eras comes next year when longtime LA City Council Members Tom LaBonge and Bernard Parks will be termed out of office. And you can imagine that yes indeed a long line of comers to the thrones have signed up. For Parks 8th District that covers much of South LA, candidates filed so far include pot shop owner Paul Jonathan Scott, community advocate Leonard Delpit; Bobbie Jean Anderson, a former state legislative aide; and two nonprofit group executives: Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Forescee Hogan-Rowles (you may remember Hogan-Rowles, cheered on by Betty Pleasant, came close to unseating Parks in 2011). Over in LaBonge's CD4 which covers a nice part of Los Angle-leez, pulling papers are Tara Bannister, an executive with the National Apartment Assn.; Teddy Davis, a one-time aide to former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; developer and advertising agency owner Sheila Irani; Wally Knox, a former state assemblyman; Joan Pelico, chief of staff to Councilman Paul Koretz; real estate broker John Perron Jr.; Carolyn Ramsay, LaBonge's chief of staff; Oscar Winslow, president of the Los Angeles City Attorneys' Assn.; and Steve Veres, an aide to state Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles).  Do not be surprised if one more candidate gets into the CD4 race - former radio talk show host, mayoral candidate and current President of the Board of Public Works, Kevin James.

And finally, Mayor Garcetti was the Grand Marshal (not John Marshall) of Monday's Kingdom Parade, celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Our bloggin' friend Joseph Mailander offered up one of his trademark wry observations in telling Facebook fans "some aide in Mayor Eric Garcetti's office wants you to know that he actually unlocked his doors and went outside of his car in an African American neighborhood to-day." Fortunately, as is the practice of the Mayor's office, the entire moment was photographed and shared with all.