Mike Feuer's Pal To Plead Guilty to $2.2 Million LADWP Bribery. His Mayoral Campaign Is Essentially Over.

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - The press release late Monday afternoon from the Department of Justice was clear and striking but not at all surprising to this column.  It reads "Ex-L.A. Special Counsel Agrees to Plead Guilty to Accepting Nearly $2.2 Million Kickback for Arranging Collusive Lawsuit Against LADWP."

That special counsel, Paul Paradis of Manhattan-based Paradis Law Group, was hired by none other than L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer, whose office was raided by the FBI a year ago and who is believed to be under investigation by the State Bar of California.  It is believed that the Paradis plea deal is tied to the FBI raid and Bar investigation.

Mike Feuer

Photo Credit: KTLA

This, my friends, will mark what amounts to the end of Feuer's already flailing campaign to become the next Mayor of Los Angeles.   

The DOJ release goes on to state "the Los Angeles City Attorney's office was aware that (Paradis) was already representing Antwon Jones, a ratepayer who had a claim against LADWP arising from billing overcharges. Jones was unaware that his lawyer, Paradis, also represented his intended adversary."

In other words, Mike Feuer is responsible for hiring the guy who arranged a multi-million dollar kickback scheme and who is likely headed for a lengthy federal prison term. 

Feuer and his deputies had to know that Paradis directly benefitted from both the plaintiff and defendant sides of the LADWP lawsuit and that is the only reason why anyone would create such a collusive scam.

At minimum, this should disqualify Feuer from succeeding Mayor Eric Garcetti.  Whether or not Feuer profited from the bribery, it happened on his watch by his staff and proxies.  In a city reeling from one corruption scandal after another, Feuer has a lot to esplain, as it were.

It may also put Feuer in far greater legal jeopardy, as in potential disbarment and imprisonment.  It could, by extension, also hamper the remaining career trajectory of his wife, Judge Gail Ruderman Feuer.

As part of the plea arrangement, Paradis has agreed to cooperate with the federal government's ongoing corruption investigation.  Another attorney who Feuer also hired to handle the LADWP / PWC billing scandal, Paul R. Kiesel of Beverly Hills, has not been indicted, but has also agreed to cooperate with the feds.

To read between the lines, Paradis and Kiesel will need to spill their guts to keep their respective present statuses from going legally south from here.

What are the odds that Feuer, who went to Harvard as an undergraduate before going on to Harvard Law School, was somehow and suddenly not smart enough to know what was going on?  What are the odds that he didn't think to put safeguards in place, knowing the conflict going on right under his nose?

A better question might be, what are the odds that Feuer didn't, and why didn't he?

The odds are obscenely astronomical.

Look ahead to Feuer eventually putting out a press release stating something along the lines of In the best interest of the people of Los Angeles, and in order to spend more time with my family, I have decided to conclude my campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles and look forward to working with the next Mayor and City Attorney to keep the City moving forward.

To be clear, that is not a quote.

It's a prediction.

What are the odds indeed, Mr. Feuer?

For further reading, please see my October 12, 2020 column, "Mayor?  How Does 'No' Sound, Mike Feuer?"

(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and was a runner-up in 2021 too. He has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and The Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment Sections and Sunday Magazine among other publishers. Tell your friends to follow him on The Twitters @TheGussReport, and DM him there to join his distribution list for early story notifications, tips and more.)

Testing Positive, Eric Garcetti Was Always The Wrong Messenger On COVID Safety

 By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - The news just broke that LA Mayor Eric Garcetti has tested positive for COVID causing lots of I told you so messages given the Mayor's hypocrisy and utterly unscientific claims about his following the science.

Garcetti told one particularly big, bold COVID lie on May 11, 2020, declaring that "the science" said we could walk on the wet sand of a shore, but not lay on the dry sand of its beach.

His quote from the LA Times was "Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Monday that he supports reopening the city's beaches for active recreation, with some restrictions. Sitting or tanning in the 'dry areas of sand' would not be a good idea right now, Garcetti said.  'But the wet sand area - if you need to get in there to swim, to surf...that is something I hope we can earn again.'"

The LA Times didn't bother to report, or apparently even ask, what was the source for that "science."

It wasn't the truth.  

It wasn't science then.  

It isn't science now.

Recently, I did ask Garcetti that question and he untruthfully responded "that was the science at the time," though he would still not identify his source.

A neurotic megalomaniac, as Tucker Carlson pegged him, Garcetti forced upon much of Southern California his ill-considered and restrictive daily mandates with televised lectures reflecting only his personal neuroses rather than actual science.

Most LA media didn't bother to question his veracity despite his long public track record of dishonesty.

Further, Garcetti's hypocrisy was evident early on as he ignored his own mandated mask-wearing, including in highly dense crowds, because his life-long goal is to be seen as Kennedy-esque and deep in thought, which are born solely of his fanciful imagination and delusions of grandeur.   

It eventually caught up with him.

Eric Garcetti 

Masking Rules For Thee, But Not For Me

Photo Credits: Unknown

Garcetti felt it was safe for him to go maskless, but his aides must not.

A Mask For Thee, But Not Eric G.

Then there's the irony of Garcetti testing positive while with Joe Biden at the global warming conference in Glasgow, Scotland.  Having restricted the movement of millions of people with his brand of "science," it is Garcetti who is now restricted from returning to the U.S. until he is deemed by both governments as safe for travel and re-entry.  Now that is ironic.

Eric Garcetti

COVID is serious and has the ability to cause severe and long-lasting illness and death.  While we do hope for Garcetti's recovery, his testing positive after not following his own rules that he inflicted on millions of people proves that he was all along the wrong messenger for all of the above, and most of everything else.  

Garcetti's office will not disclose whether he got a COVID vax booster, for which he has long been eligible.

(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and was a runner-up in 2021 too. He has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and The Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment Sections and Sunday Magazine among other publishers. Tell your friends to follow him on The Twitters @TheGussReport, and DM him there to join his distribution list for early story notifications, tips and more.)

Just Say "No," LA

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Somewhere over the Halloween weekend, the ghost of Nancy Reagan reached out suggesting things to which Los Angeles should once and for all say no, including:

Just say "no" to whatever Mayor Eric Garcetti has left to say

He has held elected office in City Hall since July 1, 2001, when he was just 30.  He is now 50 and LA is in worse condition in virtually every way.  Only Eric Garcetti is the common factor.  Only he remains. 

(Garcetti's appendage, Ana Guerrero, was also along for the ride until recently when she was suspended and stripped of her Chief of Staff title with Garcetti after she was found serially cyber-abusing and harassing people, including iconic local Black and Brown leaders.  While most people would be fired, Garcetti didn't strip her of her $248,000 salary.  What might Guerrero have on Garcetti to be treated so differently?  Does it have anything to do with public records requests made of the LAPD by this column that City Attorney Mike Feuer fought tooth and nail in court to protect from public scrutiny?)

Enough of him.  Basta and arrivederci.

Eric Garcetti

Photo Credit: ABC

Just say "no" to "slavery"

On February 3, 2013, in Super Bowl XLVII, Colin Kaepernick came within five yards and about a minute of pulling off the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history and was rewarded with a $126 million contract extension.  Over the next several seasons, he was at the center of a storm about first sitting and then later kneeling during pre-game playing of the national anthem.

On January 1, 2017, Kaepernick played his last NFL game after a playoff loss and wound up breaking his contract with millions of dollars left on the table.

If nothing else, the man is principled.

Colin Kaepernick

Photo Credit: Netflix

In 2019, after almost three years out of the league, the NFL set up a private talent showcase for Kaepernick and invited all 32 of its teams, but the former quarterback skipped it due to the NFL demand that he sign a liability waiver.  Instead, he put on his own ill-considered talent showcase that did not result in his return.

Now, the abundantly clear theme in his new Netflix series "Colin in Black & White" is that the NFL is the modern-day equivalent of slavery.

One scene narrated by the former star shows young black men in a football training camp environment, then, the same men walk into a re-enactment of an 18th-century slave sale. There is no reason whatsoever to doubt that this analogy is Kaepernick's and co-producer Ava DuVernay's sincerely held belief.  

But if the NFL has all along been the modern-day equivalent of slavery, why spend so much time and energy trying to get back into such an immovable system, especially with skills diminishing each year?  When will the former star start visiting every major college football campus to discourage participation in an extremely dangerous sport with poor remuneration and owners who disregard people of color and instead encourage the players to go into medicine, law, accounting, engineering or tech?   

It will also be interesting to see how many of those college ballplayers agree that the NFL is slavery.

Assuming that Kaepernick reaches out to them.

Just say "no" to ill-advised accessory dwelling units

According to the California Department of Housing and Community Development, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) are "known by many names: granny flats, in-law units, backyard cottages, secondary units and more. No matter what you call them, ADUs are an innovative, affordable, effective option for adding much-needed housing in California." 

But leave it to the LA City Council to approve them, thus increasing neighborhood density, yet sometimes not resulting in additional affordable housing units on the market.

Take this ADU currently being built on top of the three-car garage of an old garden apartment rental complex which has seen better days.

It is going to become a gigantic two-bedroom, two-bath unit. But instead of creating more affordable housing, it isn't going to hit the market any time soon.  Word has it that the landlord, who presently does not live on the property, will move into it himself.  

So leave it to the predictably inept Nury Martinez-led Council and its Planning and Land Use Management Committee (PLUM) to increase density, increase property value (and jacking neighboring rents) rather than accomplishing the stated goal of bringing more affordable housing to the market.

Way to go.

Just say "no" to the unluckiest guy in LA

At one bustling LA intersection, this poor sap ran out of gas the other day and walked up and down the sidewalk until enough Angelenos coughed up a nice stack of cash, enabling him to buy enough gas to get home to the wife and kids.

The Unluckiest Guy In LA

Fortunately for him, he just happened to have an empty red gas can so motorists pulling up to the red light could throw him a few bucks since nobody deserves a break more than he does since he remarkably keeps running out of gas.....at the same intersection.....for years and years.

And he isn't homeless, either.

Perhaps the woman running into the same awful bad luck streak one major intersection to the east will find generous donors, too.

Just say "no" to child and animal exploitation

Nury Martinez has also jabbered a lot about stopping child sexploitation, but she has done nothing to prevent children and animals from being exploited for panhandling, especially in dangerous, highly trafficked areas with car exhaust filling their lungs.

Nury Martinez

The Council president has been non-responsive when asked about making a law to criminally ban panhandling with children or animals.

In March 2019, I wrote about Martinez and Councilmember Monica Rodriguez ignoring a woman who regularly appears on the Metro Red Line with different children who may or may not belong to her, exploiting them for cash. This unchecked child endangerment has led to verbal confrontations between exploiters and passengers given that LAPD officers, uniformed or not, are never present to address exploitation, dance and music performances or in-your-face sales of snacks and other goods on the subway.

Then there's the issue of families exploiting their children instead of one parent staying indoors with the tiny children, including a baby in this instance, while the other panhandles, works or finds different ways to provide for them. 

Clearly, LA has its share of people in need. But exploiting children and animals in the middle of heavily trafficked streets in all sorts of weather, needs a law explicitly and criminally banning it. 

It only requires political will.  Unfortunately, in LA, political will now begins and ends with Nury Martinez.

To quote the mixed metaphors that Councilmember Gil Cedillo offered last week upon being told of yet another City Hall micro-corruption, "we await it with bated breath" followed by "but don't hold your breath."  Words of wisdom from the man who spent a good share of his time with Morrie "Plea Bargain" Goldman. 

Maybe we should just say no to re-electing the same tired, disengaged LA politicians.

Now there's an idea to which we can all just say yes.

(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary (and came in Show in 2021 in another category) and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and The Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment Sections and Sunday Magazine among other publishers. Tell your friends to follow him on The Twitters @TheGussReport.)