Mid-Day Briefs on the Crumbling Los Angeles Political Machine for Monday

 Gabriel blow your horn on the Los Angeles Political Machine. As we enter the last year of the Mayor Antonio Villar's "Reign of Corruption", the walls are crumbling on the dirty dealings of the associates of the Villar Machine.

 LACCD Inspector General Christine "The Hotness" Marez.

Former Mayor Tom Bradley administration official Art Gastelum (gray hair in center) and his Gateway Science and Engineering firm, get generous column inches of attention from the Los Angeles Times as the expose of questionable financial dealings within the LACCD Capital Building Programs continues. But strangely absence from the LA Times latest missive on the antics of Gastelum's Gateway Firm are any mention of former five year Gateway employee and now LACCD Inspector General Christine "The Hotness" Marez (BTW, a friend tells me that Marez was creative with her "hotness" during her time at LAUSD). Were just speculating here but those in the know on the LACCD scandal wonder if Gastelum's former employee has turn on her former boss considering the controversy surrounding Marez's fitness to serve as LACCD Inspector General.

** The City Council out of no where filed evictions proceedings against the operators of the Los Angeles Theater Center as the Downtown News reports. The Latino Theater Company and the Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture have been feuding partners since winning the controversial contract to run the facility in 2003. We should note that former Los Angeles Pension Board Member Montezuma Eaparza is the Executive Board Chairperson of the Los Angeles Theater Center and the likes of Michael Delijani, Maria Elena Durazo and Art Gastelum serve on the General Board.

** A Mayor Villar appointee to the North Valley Planning Commission Victor Simpson has attracted the ire of City Councilman Tony Cardenas for operating two sidewalk recycling centers without the proper permits. as the Daily News reports, Cardenas finds Simpson's actions ..... well galling. For Cardenas, the violations are particularly galling given Sampson's longtime position on the area planning commission, a group tasked with development decisions. The Coldwell Banker executive, who owns numerous commercial sites in Sun Valley, was first appointed to the commission by former Mayor Richard Riordan in 2000. 

Your thoughts ..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14