Afternoon Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Tuesday

The setting sun on the "LA Antonio Times Era".

Great afternoon to all as the sun gets ready to set on two Los Angeles icons. First, LA Times Columnist Jim Newton raps up his two-part interview of self-musings on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, with the City Terrace native in "humbling attendance" at this Getty House conclave. We would like to remind the mayor's new media guy that shares the DNA of Recreation & Parks Commission President Barry Sanders, to remember not to incorporate self-thoughts  (humble that daddy got me this gig) into your interview prep with the mayor (BTW, humble and Tony Villar is a oxymoron). 

Second, to the editors of the "Old Gray Antonio Sancha on Spring Street" (especially in his fleeting CD 14 and first term era), realize as your thinning fishwrap heads onwards to its pending date with below 400,000 circulation (minus 5,000 per week), mixed with four days a week publication and a closing production plant in three years, these types of "journalistic rescue missions" to keep rejected politicos such as Villar relevant, will only accelerate the demise of an once-proud "newspaper of record".

** LA 90032 native Luis Sanchez has a great column in Carlos Morales "The Voice Newspaper" on the "David vs.Goliath (or Monica Garcia) victory" of Bennett Kayser over Luis Sanchez (Garcia's "mini-me") in the recent LAUSD District 5 School Board Race. No exaggeration here that Kayser's victory was the "Waterloo" of Mayor Villar and allies attempt to firmly control LAUSD.

** In Eagle Rock, Tom Topping of the Boulevard Sentinel provides the eyewitness musing to the SUCCESSFUL FUNDRAISER that the Friends of the Southwest Museum co-hosted with John Nese of Galco's Market. Political sightings included CD 1 City Councilman Ed Reyes and NO CD 14 Councilman Jose Huizar, 

** On a SERIOUS NOTE, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley is warning of a spike in crime as LA County Jails are force to release "non-violent criminals" to make room for state prisoners heading to a county jail near you in California, thanks to a "Ninth Circus Court" ruling on prison overcrowding.

** Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor Michael Antonovich has a "conflict of interest" pertaining to his proposed AEG Farmers Field Motion and has withdrawn it pending legal counsel.

** Lastly, we took note that CD 2/7 City Councilman Richard Alarcon's offspring Board of Public Works President Andrea Alarcon was the subject of a LA Times City Hall Beat Writer David Zanhiser profile today which did not go the Phil Willon "Antonio's "center of being route".(would hate to see the Z-man exile to cover the Echo Park crime blotter).

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

Something for everyone

It seems the race for CD 2 is shaping up to become an interesting and closely watched election for more than just those residing within its boundaries.

Just the enormity (in quantity of candidates -- 10 listed on the CD 2 Election blog) and scale (level of political activity) of those seeking the job: professional politicians and grassroots activists both appear (and with the annoucement by Louis Pugliese that he would be withdrawing his name from the race ... disappeared) from the September 22nd ballot.

There's not only the interest by those living within the Council District 2 proper, but those with other vested interests in the outcome as well.

For some of us who fall into the latter category, the biggest question forming between now and Sept. 22 is what will happen with the school board District 3 seat should Tamar Galatzan be elected to the council?

With Mr. Pugliese out of the running, rumor has it that perhaps if Ms. Galatzan successfully campaigns for the council seat vacated by Wendy Greuel, Mr. Pugliese might be easily pursuaded to run for Tamar's vacated school board seat, and could actually win it.

All this potential musical chairs playing makes my head spin...

~~~~~~~~~

While we were all busy this week waiting to see who indeed would pass the City Clerk's muster and get approval to be added to the ballot -- in another part of the City Hall, another political non-drama was playing itself out in the Op-Ed pages of the Los Angeles Times, penned supposedly, by none other than Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Himself.

On Aug. 25, the Los Angeles Board of Education will have the opportunity to take the first real step toward reforming our broken system and transforming our schools. Board member Yolie Flores Aguilar has proposed a measure that would fundamentally change the way we run our schools, giving organizations outside the Los Angeles Unified School District--charter school groups, teacher collaboratives and others -- the chance to compete to operate new campuses set to open in fall 2010.

Instead of merely handing these campuses over to the district, the school board would require prospective school operators to submit a detailed plan on how they would run the new school. The plans would be judged based on the operator's past record of success, the inclusion of metrics for measuring that success and the educational vision for the new school. The superintendent would evaluate each plan and recommend to the board the operator with the superior plan to run the school.

The Twitterverse was quick to respond:

@4LAKids: VILLARAIGOSA ADVOCATES SELLING YOUR CHILD'S LAUSD EDUCATION TO WHOEVER'S GOT THE 'SUPERIOR' PLAN www.bit.ly/140mjC

@CutsHurtKids: @villaraigosa Hey Mr Mayor: chillax on saying who's right or "wrong". We seem to recall YOU sir got an 'F' grade by YOUR Partnership schools

@SquashBlossom RT @LAist : @Villaraigosa @HamiltonSarah Semantics of winning bid to "operate" still boil down to passing the buck

Linday William-Ross at LAist also responded:

If it's broke, fix it, right? Only what happens when the people who are supposed to fix it are the ones who broke it in the first place? And they happened to have run out of the money it's going to likely take to do the fixing? Easy solution: Sell management of the school(s) to the highest--well, "superior"--bidder.

The Mayor apparently did not agree:

@villaraigosa: RT @hamiltonsarah: @LAist Your headline badly misleads. Reforming a broken system isn't "selling your child’s education”http://bit.ly/2ZxWKX

More hollabacks: @CutsHurtKids: @villaraigosa We applaud @LAist & @SquashBlossom for daring to give a critical analysis & refusing to be a PR doormat for privatization

~~~~~~~

After all the analyzing and finger pointing is done for the day, one other aspect of this Op-Ed piece becomes glaringly clear and in focus to others: Joseph you-know-who tells me that only Sue Horton could accept a piece from a sitting Mayor on schools in the hopes of swaying the local school board on an issue banal enough that it might even appear on her editorial page.

I suppose the Mayor's Op-Ed piece had enough of a little bit of everything to anger, annoy and amuse almost everyone.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and our Mighty Fallen Fishwraps -- The Great Uniters.

Memo to the "LA ANTONIA TIMES" from Walter......

This from the comment section at "L.A. Now" post on "Villaraigosa's fundraising".

You'd never know it from reading the L.A. Times, but there already IS an announced Mayoral candidate, who has raised over $101,000 so far, namely, me, Walter Moore.

I'm having a Rally in the Valley fund-raising event tomorrow, Saturday, June 28, 2008, at CSUN in the Shoshone room, and if you're reading this, you're welcome to attend.

Doors open at 1:30 p.m., and the presentation starts at 2:00 p.m.

For details, visit my website.
(No url's are allowed in these comments, but if you Google "Walter Moore Mayor Los Angeles," you can't miss me.)

Posted by: Walter Moore June 27, 2008 at 05:40 PM

"LA ANTONIA TIMES", R. I. P.

To Steve Lopez,

We at Mayor Sam can empathize with your plight.

After all, with the "ZELL MAN" at the helm of the "MOBILE TRAILER TRIBUNE", the pressure to produce quality news print is on the level with the quality of pole dancers on the roof(Roderick can be your "DOORMAN" to the roof, just a thought).

So you are in a funk over the fact that our esteem Mayor does not have the mental fortitude to focus on a "ONE ON ONE" with you.

You offer to walk with him around Skid Row to discuss the current state of affairs in the bowels of "EASTERN DOWNTOWN", nada?

Want to critique Mirthala on her new show at " MIGHTY RADIOBIMBO 690 AM"?, no go?

You want to ask the Mayor to respond to the Council's numbers cruncher who panned his budget proposals, no way??

Steve, I and the others who are in the decreasing ranks of daily readers of actual newsprint, love your style. Whether it is the "Esteem Cardinal" or "C.A. Rocktard", you "T.J." and Steve Harvey's "The Bottom Ten" are the only reasons I continue this daily ritual of reading the newsprint in hand.

But as a point of reference, when you piss off the "POLITICO FORMERLY KNOWN AS MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, tony villar, with what Tim Rutten wrote,

Perhaps the mayor simply hoped to demonstrate that he really is a "friend
to the department." After all, the ongoing reduction in crime in L.A. is one of
the few unambiguous achievements of a mayoral administration that seems to
generate more unfinished initiatives than an ADD clinic.

......and the Mayor (ADV®) responds with this,

"a cheap shot at people who have ADD" and added, "I think he knows my son
has attention deficit disorder."(M.O. of Mayor to hide behind family member when the "s..." gets deep).

...then rest assure, you (great find on Mirthala's radio show quote), Rutten and your "FISHWRAP OF RECORD" are in the "CASA DE PERRO". Maybe Helfand can plead your case, he is the Mayor's favorite P.R. writer.

In closing, with the endorsement of Obama, Rutten's missive on Mayor, and with the dishing of scribe Lopez, we announce the retirement of the moniker "LA ANTONIA TIMES"...........that is until the next mayoral election in 2009.