Dodgers Brand Slammed

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - The Azul is singing the blues these days as it discovers capitalism isn't always a home run.

Dodger Stadium - Photo: California by Choice

Until a few weeks ago, few institutions in Southern California had a stronger brand than the Los Angeles Dodgers, except perhaps the late legend himself, Vin Scully.

But make no mistake, this emotional embrace of the boys in blue is pure one-sided capitalism.  If the Dodgers could get you to buy oxygen, they would.

San Francisco pitcher Juan Marichal (27) swings a bat at Dodgers catcher John Roseboro as Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, right, tries to break it up on Aug. 22, 1965. (Robert H. Houston / Associated Press)

Yet its brand recently took it on the cabeza like John Roseboro took it from Juan Marichal in '65.

I explain in my latest free column on DanielGuss.Substack.com.   

Karen Bass's City Hall Is Already Rigged

@TheGussReport - A column that I wrote last year, "Honest Services Fraud - How City Hall Rigged Its Herb Wesson Vote," detailed how sleazy LA City Hall can get when it wants a certain outcome, but doesn't want the public to participate or know what goes on behind the scenes.  I will have more on what this column is doing about that incident in the coming weeks.

But for now, a change of mayors from Eric Garcetti to Karen Bass hasn't changed City Hall's culture of corruption and backroom communications, which continue to deprive the public of a fair, honest and transparent government.

To see the rest of today's new column, head on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com and sign-up for the free newsletter and share it with your friends.

EXCLUSIVE: Bass Commish Using Hidden Email Accounts, Blocking Access to Public Records

@TheGussReport on Twitter - Larry Gross, a holdover appointee of disgraced former LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, has been using covert, private email accounts to conceal city business and to also confirm to city officials scathing criticism of the new mayor, Karen Bass, as well as of animal pound critics and volunteers whose importance she applauded at her recent State of the City address.

Larry Gross - Photo: PBS SoCal

It's just the latest example of rules being ignored at every level of LA City Hall.

Gross, who has served on the Los Angeles Animal Services, LAAS, board of commissioners for nearly a decade, acknowledged exclusively to this column that he does use unknown email addresses to conduct city business.

"I am quite aware that any email address I use to communicate with city officials regarding my position as a Commissioner is subject to the Public Record Act.  I fully support that and have no problem with that.  I have nothing to hide."

Nothing to hide, it appears, other than identifying which private email accounts he uses for city business.

Gross's refusal to identify those email accounts maliciously makes it impossible for the city to comply with additional public records requests by this column.

And that's not all.

Paging my public records legal eagles.

To read this entire column, head on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com, and don't forget to sign up for my free newsletter and share it with friends.

LA's Paranoid, Paralyzed Governments, Part 1

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - With apologies to rockers Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe as I riff on their hit song title, but what's so scary 'bout truth, transparency and integrity in Los Angeles governments?

To some of us here on Mayor Sam, on DanielGuss.Substack.com and in similar outlets around Southern California, civic engagement means more than volunteering to clean up a park, handing out groceries at the food bank or comforting dogs at the animal pound.

It also means exploring politicians' and governments' truthfulness, transparency and integrity by examining public records, asking questions and calling out those who dodge direct accountability.

Shoot us a note if you ever hear a politician encouraging that type of civic engagement.

In the meanwhile, we've got examples of how asking LA politicians fair-but-probing questions has resulted in a costly and time-consuming cloud of paranoia and paralysis hovering over their offices after a slew of our recent stories.

To read the rest of today's column, jump on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com sign-up for my free newsletter and share it with friends.

Politicians, Media Suddenly Silent On Sanctuary City LA

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - We are 18 months from election day 2024 with a deafening silence from local politicians and media who spent years grandstanding about how California and the county and city of Los Angeles are sanctuary enclaves.

(Photo: Protestors at a 2017 rally where organizers called for a stop to deportations and to establish Los Angeles as a sanctuary city.  Photo: Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto via Getty Images via Vox.com)

Like their blue comrades in places like San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, New York, Boston, DC and Chicago, they finally got to be the cool kids in school, free to defy federal laws while grubbing for federal dollars to satisfy their political hard-ons for higher office and irrationally overpaid and unlikely employment for their families.

You're laughing or nodding because you know in your soul that this is true.

Oh, but the bills eventually come due.  Like Title 42, which ends at midnight tomorrow and even Joe Biden predicting "chaos."

To read the rest of today's column, jump on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com, sign-up for my free newsletter and share with friends.

Did These LA Officials Violate Federal Court and City Hall Rules?

@TheGussReport on Twitter - A few levels down the City Hall policy food chain, below City Council, the Mayor, Controller and City Attorney, still further down from the lobbyists, unions, departments and media, is the bottom rung of official Los Angeles political power.

Or whatever is left of it at that level.

It's where you will find LA's ninety-nine Neighborhood Councils, or NCs, overseen by the largely ineffective and appropriately acronymic DONE, or Department Of Neighborhood Empowerment, a bureaucracy that is largely in-place to keep the hoi polloi engaged but under control.

At least in theory.

For a few NCs, it seems that some re-education, as they fondly call it in Xinjiang, will be on the horizon.  Just don't hold your breath waiting for accountability.

To read my entire column on what went down at DONE, click on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com, and sign up for my free newsletter and share it with friends.

Keepin' 'em accountable.

Bass Pick Backs Out

@TheGussReport on Twitter - On Tuesday, a prominent Los Angeles attorney who had been nominated by Mayor Karen Bass to serve on the uber-mundane Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System (LACERS), was unanimously confirmed by City Council.

A few minutes later, city personnel sheepishly advised that the nominee withdrew his name from consideration, requiring their undoing the appointment and raising a few questions.

Not at City Council, but here.  Like...

• Why wasn't this accomplished attorney appointed to a logical post, like civil rights boards or the LA Police Commission?
• Why was this man nominated by Bass, confirmed by City Council, with no apparent qualifications to oversee LACERS' tens of billions of dollars?
• Why did City Council vote on his nomination despite his failure to provide financial disclosures, as is required by law?
• And what, if anything, does it have to do with this 1974 one-hit wonder? 

To read this entire column for free, jump on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com, and sign-up for my free newsletter.  

Hogwash and Hypocrisy

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - Words not matching actions are once again all the rage at LA City Hall.

When former L.A. Mayor Richad Riordan passed away in April, those with whom I spoke, without exception, said he was our last great mayor.

He didn't perpetually make a jackass of himself on a national stage like two of his successors, Eric Garcetti and Antonio Villaraigosa, did.  He didn't sloganeer like they did, and current mayor, Karen "Lock Arms" Bass, does.  And he didn't lose his first bid for re-election as James Hahn did in 2005, becoming the first alcalde to accomplish that feat since KKK member John Clinton Porter did in 1933.

Riordan was a moderate Republican, job creator and philanthropist who got LA through some of its deepest crises.  From time to time, he caused minor stirs by shooting from the hip, but at least he was authentic.

But, oh to have authenticity in LA City Hall these days, where post-pandemic words and actions once again gloriously misalign.

To read this entire column, head on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com, and sign-up for my free newsletter.  

Karma: Identity Crisis at LAPD

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - The Los Angeles Police Department finds itself in a genuinely catastrophic and dangerous situation, of which it is the sole architect with no good options.

It pains me to type this, but that's karma for you.

While wishing safety for them all, the flippant response comes from years of the LAPD's unapologetic efforts to intimidate and retaliate for columns I wrote about it, LA politicians and a City Hall that fails and cheats the rest of us.

Ironically, this crisis is a grander version of what the LAPD did to me, twice.

To read my entire column, jump on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com and sign-up for my free newsletter while you're there.  Also, follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

In Thick Of Bribery Scheme, Mark Ridley-Thomas Gave This Richly Ironic Advice

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - An amusing part of watching wonky and tedious government meetings is when agitating gadflies such as Zuma Dogg, Wayne Spindler and the late John Walsh make, and sometimes sing, obnoxious public comments that get under the skin of tightly wrapped politicians.

For example, there's the nugget from 2018 that we're going to revisit today, when then-LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who was convicted last week on seven federal corruption counts, interrupted Spindler's button-pushing for, what he described as, a "point of personal privilege."

If only Ridley-Thomas had followed his own advice.

If only all politicians did.

To read the whole column, head on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com and sign-up for my free newsletter.  Also follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

(White) Power Grab: Krekorian Disenfranchises District With Only 8% White Population

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - Paternalistic racism is back in fashion at LA City Hall.  Did it ever really go away?

This week, while voters in Council District 6 hold a primary to decide who will replace disgraced former City Council president Nury Martinez, things are being handled quite differently in Council District 10, whose leadership for the past two years, the next two years and perhaps for the eight years after that, will have the heavy-handed influence of current City Council president Paul Krekorian, who is White.

And the man he is trying to single-handedly replace, the now-federal felon Mark Ridley-Thomas, is Black.

Paul Krekorian (Photo; Los Angeles Times)

But why should that be, especially since the 10th District is 92% non-White?

Because it's LA City Hall, where it is business as usual, and the business is paternalism, racism and disenfranchisement.

To read this entire column, jump on over to DanielGuss.substack.com.

Last Week At LAPD Is Why Young People Increasingly Say ACAB

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - Stylish merch and insular, politicized law enforcement is how the Los Angeles Police Department loses the youth branding war, its officers and the future.

There's little doubt that the LAPD's passive-aggressive non-response to a media inquiry I made last week is due to its embarrassment, and perhaps feeling cornered, by my two latest columns.  They detailed how it and the LAFD covered up disturbing recordings of 2021 domestic violence and murder/suicide threats by LAFD Deputy Chief Kristina "Kady" Kepner against her then-live-in-love-interest and, in a separate alleged incident, against current squeeze, LAPD Detective Scarlett Martinez, all three of whom are women.

That's why today's column at my free Substack also explores why current anti-LAPD sentiment is as easy as 1312, or in the parlance of today's youth culture, ACAB, which means All Cops Are Bastards or All  Cops Are Bad.

And then there's the ill-conceived Twitter poll that the LAPD ran and subsequently deleted, but not before a critic captured and questioned.

Go check it out and sign-up for a free subscription, where I'll soon have updates and tinker with new features.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

LAPD Scrambles To Cover-up Its Cover-up

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - The Los Angeles Police Department, LA's thin blue line, lost track of the big, bold lies it told on behalf of the Los Angeles Fire Department in covering-up a domestic violence attack that a senior member of the firefighting agency, Kristina "Kady" Kepner, committed on her domestic partner, who is also a female, along with threats by Kepner to kill both of them. The incidents were recorded and the LAFD and LAPD have copies.

With City Hall abuzz from yesterday's column, the LAPD is now doing damage control as it suddenly decided to re-open its investigation into that case, as well as another one looking into an apparent scrap between Kepner and LAPD Detective Scarlett Martinez.

Good morning, y'all.

To read the rest of this column, jump on over to DanielGuss.substack.com and sign-up for my free publication.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

LAFD Command Staffer Made Homicidal, Suicidal Threats During '21 Domestic Violence Attack

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - During a presentation on March 8th celebrating International Women's Day, LA City Hall's most powerful women posed for photos and made inspiring comments about women in leadership.

Simultaneously, three of them, Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez and LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley, dodged this column's questions about disturbing videos in the LAFD's and LAPD's possession showing a female member of the Los Angeles Fire Department's command staff making repeated homicidal and suicidal threats during and after her violent attack on her then-live-in domestic partner, who is also female.

To read more, jump on over to DanielGuss.substack.com and sign up for my free publication.  Also, follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

LAFD Cheating Is Tip Of The Iceberg

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Last week, The Guss Report got its second-highest readership traffic since moving to the Substack platform, when I exclusively exposed a recent test cheating scandal at the Los Angeles Fire Department.  But the readership traffic title still belongs to the LAFD sexual harassment story I exclusively kicked off last October that resulted in the abrupt retirement of Chief Deputy Armando Hogan, who was likely going to be Mayor Karen Bass's next Fire Chief.

By staying silent on these and other issues, Bass, LA City Council president Paul Krekorian and Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who chairs the council's Public Safety Committee, our elected officials tip their hand that they prefer that the scandals - and this journalist - just go away so nobody would be the wiser.

But would you believe that there's an even deeper, darker scandal brewing over at the LAFD?  

Stay tuned.

To read today's entire column, jump on over to DanielGuss.substack.com, and sign up for my free publication.  Also, follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Bass and Garcetti are Identical Cousins on LA's Housing and Homeless Efforts

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - It's like 1963 all over again!

With LA Mayor Eric Garcetti finally out of City Hall for the first time since 2001, and his newly minted successor Karen Bass in control, and a homelessness emergency declared with a lot of fanfare, it seems that the big surprise is that Bass's homeless plan is essentially the same as Garcetti's.

So they're cousins! 

Identical cousins, all the way!

They laugh alike, they talk alike.

At times they even walk alike.

What a crazy pair!

You can read my take on this, or head on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com to sign up for the free newsletter while you're there.   And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

And Now Back To Eric Garcetti

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Now that the mid-terms have passed, LA's hometown weenie, Mayor Eric Garcetti, may soon get a vote on his long-stalled nomination to be the next Ambassador to India.

It was a long, circuitous and embarrassing road for Mayor Yoga Pants, but I break it down in this quick read on my Substack.

While you're there, please sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Odd Couple: Why Fed-Up LA Needs Mayor Rick Caruso and Controller Kenneth Mejia

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Los Angeles City Council is more responsible than any other government for the hideous conditions on the ground which have intensely bled into surrounding communities.  

If it has accomplished anything good of late, or even in recent years, shoot me a note; I am not aware of a single praiseworthy and thorough endeavor. Not-a-one.

At any rate, lying, neurotic Mayor Eric Garcetti, aka Mayor Yoga Pants, will soon be gone after more than 21 disastrous years in LA City Hall.

For this and many other reasons, fixing LA starts by flanking it with grown-ups from somewhere other than the government to serve as a check and balance system to its immense failures, corruption, waste and its once again exposed deeply rooted racism.

My suggestion?

For starters, cast votes next week for Mayor Rick Caruso and Controller Kenneth Mejia, both of whom come from somewhere other than government.  While they may at first seem like polar opposites, in fact, they are the best available starter kit that a fed-up LA needs most.

To read the rest of this story, jump on over to my free Substack and don't forget to subscribe.  You may also follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

City Hall's Past Abuses, Censorship, Lack Of Leadership Are Centerstage During Current Crisis

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Anyone who has ever been censored by an abusive politician at LA City Hall, or anywhere else really, is loving its City Council meetings these days.

Suddenly, the same politicians who dropped the ball in the immediate moments after the Nury Martinez - Gil Cedillo - Kevin de Leon racism scandal that erupted two weeks ago have suddenly been rendered impotent by boisterous groups, including The People's City Council.

Of course, there's more to the story than just that.

Including this bizarre tweet from the LA Times' David Zahniser.

To get the rest of the story, swing on by my Substack and sign up for the free newsletter.  Please be sure to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Notes From Cancerous And Chaotic LA City Hall

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - You asked, so I explored.

Where is Nury Martinez's city-issued car?

According to the General Services Department, one day after resigning in disgrace earlier this month, LA City Council President Nury Martinez handed over the keys to her city-issued car, a 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In, Modern Steel color, purchased for her for $41,551.30, including tax.

The taxpayers also covered her insurance, maintenance and gas up until then.

To find out what else this column discovered, head on over to my Substack and sign up for the free newsletter.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.