Is Councilman Huizar meddling in upcoming Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council Election?

It has come to our attention here at Mayor Sam, that staff members of CD 14 City Councilman Jose Huizar, were seen meeting with the members of the Pro Hermon "Back 2 Business 4 ASNC" Slate, at the Hermon Community Church, raising speculation that Councilman Huizar is taking sides in the upcoming Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council Elections.

Our source tells us that a community member chance upon the private get together between a female (Zenay?) and male member (one of the Julio's from Huizar's El Sereno Office?) of Huizar's staff and the Pro-Hermon slate organized by Joe Riser. Riser told the person to leave the meeting location promptly, in a rude demeanor.

Councilman Huizar presenting Hermon's Wendi Riser with the 2012 Pioneer Woman of the Year Award.

It comes as no surprise to Northeast LA observers that Councilman Huizar would show favor to the little enclave of Hermon. Councilman Huizar is loyal to those that show (and score high on the list) an affinity to the political undertakings of the Princeton Graduate. Councilman Huizar graced Hermon with a rare State of Hermon Townhall Meeting, while ignoring larger communities such as El Sereno. Were also told that Councilman Huizar was a supporter of Hermon's fail bid to create its own breakaway neighborhood council. Plus, most important its within Councilman Huizar's "inner Nixonian, paranoid nature, to control every  public entity (NCs, PABs, CPABs) in his district. But despite Councilman Huizar's alleged controlling intentions, community members are speaking out regarding the dubious dealings of the Pro Hermon slate.

 Former ASNC Vice-President and longtime Mt. Washington Activist Eliot Sekuler wrote the following about Joe Riser's "unethical behavior".

An attempt by Hermon resident Joe Riser to win an Arroyo SecoNeighborhood Council board seat as a Sycamore Grove neighborhoodrepresentative in the upcoming council elections was called"unethical" by a former ASNC vice president at the council's September24 board meeting.Founding ASNC board member Eliot Sekuler, who served four years as aMount Washington representative and as the council's vice president in2007,  told board members and Los Angeles Department of NeighborhoodEmpowerment representatives that Riser's attempt to perpetuate hisboard membership by grabbing a Sycamore Grove neighborhood seat is a"misrepresentation" and a violation of the council's foundingprinciples.Riser has held an ASNC board seat since 2006, serving four years as aHermon neighborhood representative followed by a two year term asat-large representative for education and youth. Should he take overone of Sycamore Grove's two board seats, he would be serving eightconsecutive years on the ASNC board and would be the only ASNC boardmember to hold a seat for that long a tenure.  Noting that Riserneither lives nor works in the Sycamore Grove neighborhood, Sekulercalled upon him to withdraw his candidacy.According to Sekuler, Riser's attempt at "carpetbagging" by grabbingone of Sycamore Grove's two seats is especially alarming in light ofRiser's recent efforts to lead the Hermon neighborhood in secedingfrom the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council's confederation and formingan independent Hermon council. The city has ruled that Hermon'srelatively small population does not meet criteria for the funding ofits own council.Addressing the board and Department of Neighborhood Empowermentrepresentatives at the Sept. 24 meeting, Sekuler recounted the effortsby original ASNC organizers to ensure that no special interest groupwould dominate the council and that no single person would serve formore than four consecutive years."We were all in agreement that we didn’t want anyone to make a careerout of his or her ASNC board membership," he said."Because of ASNC’s unique five-neighborhood composition, we also tookpains to ensure the integrity of ASNC board membership. We agreed thatour geographical representatives would live or work in the areas theyrepresented, that they would be honest brokers on behalf of theirneighborhoods. So I am dismayed that one of the original organizers of thisneighborhood council has chosen to violate the spirit of ourorganizing group by misrepresenting himself as a voice for theSycamore Grove community, to which he has no genuine ties.  JoeRiser’s allegiance to his own neighborhood -Hermon- is well known, andthough we cannot know his personal agenda, it appears that he is usingchanges in ASNC bylaws to skirt the issue of term limits and create aperpetual place for himself on this council. Even if he is incompliance with the letter of neighborhood council bylaws, hismisrepresentation of himself as a Sycamore Grove 'stakeholder'certainly violates their spirit. I call upon Joe Riser to withdraw hisunethical candidacy as Sycamore Grove geographical representative."

Councilman Huizar may regret taking sides in this power grab. 

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

Scott Johnson in CD 14

Morning Briefs and Outtakes with Something about Missing Documents

Hey "staffer whats your name", have you seen some missing petitions ??

Memo to Councilman Jose Huizar,

Instead of having your staff role playing "lo jacks" whenever former Deputy Chief of Staff Henry Casas enter CD-14, why don't you maintain your constituent files ??

In this month's The Voice Newspaper, column inches are devoted to the multi-year saga of El Sereno residents who had been seeking help regarding some Caltrans property on Maycrest Avenue which has become a "shooting gallery" for local drug users.

And what help did they get from the El Sereno Office of Councilman Huizar ?? This is not good.

We now fast forward to 2009, three years later and the problem has not been resolved. Enrique Aguilera owner of Aguilera’s Hair Studio one of the businesses that is affected by this on going problem recently met with Councilman Huizar’s District Director, Arturo Gonzalez to get update on the project. Aguilera was shocked and could not believe the update he received at that meeting. Aguilera stated “I found out that the documentation we submitted including the signatures have been lost.” Aguilera said “According to Gonzalez the Councilman office
has lost the documentation during the move to the new El Sereno Constituent Center, the new home of Councilman’s Huizar office on Huntington Drive.

This is after all the work that was accomplish starting in 2006.

The stakeholders met with Councilman Huizar in 2006 to ask him for his assistance in resolving this problem and to take on the communities concerns. Huizar was well aware of this problem and used it as a wedge to gain votes for his re-election campaign and according to the stakeholders, during one of their meetings he promised them that he would take care of this problem if he were to get re-elected. A couple of the stakeholders allowed him to use their names on re-election campaign flyers and re-election website and list them as community
members who supported him. They stated, “We believed him and did vote for him.”

Seems to me that once Huizar won his first full term in 2007, all constituents concerns were put on the back burner of priorities.

Other News:

** The Los Angeles County Democratic Party recently bestowed the "Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Award" on worthy recipients in the respective Assembly Districts within the county.

Some of this year awardees will be familiar to Mayor Sam regulars.

44 AD Dolores Helen Hickambottom and Eliot Sekuler.

45 AD Carol Jacques and Bill Rumble.

46 AD Gloria Gasca and Ulisses Sanchez.

For the likes of Sekuler, Rumble and Jacques, This award is dedicated to their efforts in "sharing the wealth" of the Southwest Museum with the disenfranchised widower Jackie Autry.

** This question for the CD-2 "Cut and Pasters", is this comment in response to a LA Weekly story regarding the Special Election from former City Controller Candidate Nick Patsaouras, a indication of an imminent endorsement ??

From all the candidates Tamara is the only one with a concrete , SPECIFIC commitment; that is to fight for an IG/Ratepayer Advocate at the LADWP. Tired of platitudes such as, I am for efficient government, I have business experience , I will fight for NCs , I have been a Valley resident for most of my adult life etc etc;The scandalous, continually escalating utility rates are unsustainable, unless the waste,fraud and abuse are checked on a day to day basis. I hope the NCs take notice.

Comment by nick patsaouras from tarzana on Aug 26th, 2009, 23:51 pm.

** Former activist blowhard from South-Central Los Angeles Najee Ali, is piping for early release from prison where he is serving four years. Maybe he can serve out the rest of his sentence by working for Congresswomen Maxine Waters ??

** Celeste Fremon reports that Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz wants to be the next LAPD top officer. look for the likes of Councilman Jose Huizar and Ed Reyes to support Diaz.

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

Outtakes from CD-14: "The Cut and Paste Capital of Los Angeles"

Hola and TGIF from the "Cut and Paste Barrio of Los Angeles".

We start today's edition of CD-14 Outtakes with this from the "Dot, Dot, Dish" column at the "Downtown Garment and Citizen Fishwrap".

WONDERING ABOUT HUIZAR ALUMNI: Word on the street says that an ex-staffer who decided to sing to the feds started the investigation into a $30,000 consulting fee that current City Councilember Jose Huizar collected from a non-profit organization while still a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board. Bad news for Huizar, who has quite a few ex-staffers floating around after just four years in office. One of them is LAUSD board president Monica Garcia, who worked for Huizar before his election to the City Council and later succeeded him on the school board. Garcia has been summoned by a federal grand jury in the matter. Huizar says he followed the rules while on the school board, by the way, adding that he’ll co-operate with investigators (see related photo, home page)…

Question of the day for the CD-14 "Cut and Pasters" is this. What former staffer went singing to the Feds about Huizar's "work" with Miguel Contreras's "V.I.P". non-profit ?? There are 26 letters in the alphabet, plus we can use letters from the Greek alphabet to list all the ex. staffers, who would be candidates to rat out Huizar.

Other CD-14 News:

** Hey Homie, can you spare some change ?? Or in the case of Homeboy Industries, spare change, donations, grants and government contracts can go only so far. Father Boyle's non-profit is $5,000,000 in the hole and services are in danger of being cut. But City Hall is steering what they can spare as stated below.

City Hall has been trying to help, said Jeff Carr, director of the mayor's anti-gang office. Carr is turning over the $500,000 remainder of a federal gang-prevention grant to Homeboy and this summer gave the organization's silk screening shop a $250,000 order for T-shirts and jerseys. He even took 25 staffers to a going-away lunch at Homegirl Cafe.

Just wondering what campaign will get donations for this kind gesture ??

** For decades political leaders in CD-14 and in cities such as South Pasadena, Alhambra, Pasadena, have debated, litigated and study solutions to the 710 Freeway issue. The current flavor of the moment in regards to the 710 Freeway, is to "tunnel" the gap between the northern terminus in Alhambra and the 210 Freeway in Pasadena. But as Caltrans drills "test bores" west, north and east of the end of the 710, numerous community groups are voicing opposition to Caltran's "Tunnel Proposal".

** Just wondering what former Councilman Jose Huizar's Deputy Chief of Staff Henry Casas is doing these days when he is not being "lo-jacked" at community events.

A. Hanging out at the beach ??

B. Spending late nights blogging ??

C. In hiding as part of Federal Witness Protection Program ??

D. Working for the National Organization for Woman ??

E. Working for Assemblyman John Perez ??

F. Writing tell all book on his former boss ??

G. E-mailing advise to a certain female staffer who was berated by his former boss ??

** "Autry says that Southwest Museum in Grave Danger", is the headline of Eastern Group Publications story on the Autry's withdrawal of their expansion proposal in Griffith Park and what ramifications it has for the future of the Southwest Museum. And as in past stories, it does not surprise us to find quotes/spin from the "Southwest Society's Minister of Spin", Eliot Sekuler. That said, we highlight Eliot's latest "talking points" below, with rebuttal in (bold).

For another northeast Los Angeles resident who has followed the project closely, the decision did not signal any kind of victory. (It pays to follow closely the edits of your political allies)

Elliot Sekuler said the after reviewing Gray’s letter to the board on Tuesday, he is confident that the Autry remains committed to its operations of the Mt. Washington facility. As a member of the Southwest Society, Sekuler supports a proposal from the Autry that represents a scaled-down version of the proposal sought by the Friends of the Southwest coalition. (The exclusive vendidos and vendidas were most likely acting as a "focus group" to help John Gray craft his unprofessional letter)

Sekuler said the objective of the Southwest Society remains to partner with the Autry to maintain the Mt. Washington facility as community center with sufficient gallery space that would allow a sizable amount of the Southwest collection to remain at its historic home. He said he hopes that the Autry’s decision does not alter its relationship with the Southwest Society. (This reinforces Sekuler's claim to the title of "Spin Crafter/BS artist)

“I’m still hopeful to partner with them,” he said.(And your fellow exclusive vendidos and vendidas do not want to lose their "access to graft", which includes non-profit contracts, commission appointments, free public facilities and invitations to insiders conclaves/parties.)

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

Outtakes from CD 14, The "CUT AND PASTE" Capital of Los Angeles

Hola and a "GRANDE SI SE PUEDE" in honor of Cesar Chavez.

Many thanks to the man who kept the farm fields "LEGAL" and granted me a three day weekend starting tonight.

YES I CAN!!!, that is what the "COUNCILMAN LAST SEEN AS JOSE HUIZAR" is saying to those who thought that facial hair and "COUNCILMAN LAST SEEN AS JOSE HUIZAR" was oxymoronic.

Last Friday the "COUNCILMAN LAST SEEN AS JOSE HUIZAR" was sprouting facial hair that formed a "SOUL PATCH" and a dim outline of a "GOATEE".

Now I for one remember Chato, Juan, Memo and others who had facial hair in their second year of sixth grade, so not to bash on the "COUNCILMAN LAST SEEN AS JOSE HUIZAR", but hey man, welcome to the world of shaving.

On the subject of a different Chavez, that being Chavez Ravine. We in the very near future may need to create the weekly "CHAVEZ RAVINE AWARD".

This will go to the Special Interest who donates money to the "COUNCILMAN LAST SEEN AS JOSE HUIZAR" for the purpose of developement and the resulting displacement of the current populations to far off Section 8 ghettos. Candidates so far would include the "Fifteen Group", "El Mercado", and "USC".

ASSEMBLYMAN JOHN PEREZ??

This is looking like a sure thing with Ricardo Lara now accepting Laura Chick signed paychecks, and that other candidate who was married to Cynthia Ruiz???, but the Perez team will not take anything for granted. Former School Board candidate Enrique Gasca will run the campaign. This is the same guy who had a "REPUBLICAN" from Salinas, connected to the Chacon/Urteaga /Robles?? Machine in Southeast L.A., as a campaign manager for his school board race. Almost ran out of dots to connect.

Also as a Public Service, we provide the link to Cal Access so that you can follow the dinero. Here are some of the donors,

Thomas Calderon $3,600.00

Keith Brackpool $7,200.00????

Teamsters $7,200.00

Cecilia Estolano $500.00

Ari Swiller $1,000.00????

Assemblyman Portatino $3,600.00 among others.

CUTTING THE SPIN:

Link here to see how to cut and edit "SPIN", in this case provided by Eliot Sekuler.

ASK A MEXICAN "NO MAS":

The popular column by a "TIO TACO FROM ORANGE COUNTY" is no more. We hereby nominate "QUIXOTE/HIROSHI/CULO/PROFESSOR" to answer your questions on barrio popular culture from his/her multiple perspectives.

SATURDAY PRE GAME NOTES:

Did "LA GORDA/ROSIE O' GARCIA" sister just get appointed to a commission by the Mayor??

What Public Housing Project just fail their HUD inspection Jordan Downs or Ramona Gardens??

Big hint, future name could be "GARDEN OF TROY".

Outtakes from the "PEOPLE'S ENCLAVE OF MT. WASHINGTON"

File this under the "GOOD PEOPLE DO WIN" category.

"Friends of the Southwest Museum" co-chair Ann Walnum was the top vote getter in the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council re vote for the Mt. Washington area.

This re vote was called for when Eliot Sekuler challenge the previous election results siting faulty instructions printed on the ballots.

Results are below,

Averell Eshaghian / 35
Ann Walnum / 127
Hank Shaeffer / 119
Scott M. Folsom / 115

In other enclave news, "HUSBAND OF CAROL" Bill "Clinton" Rumble faces a crowded field in his re-election campaign for the 45th Assembly District Central Committee race, candidates are listed below.

William "Bill Clinton" Rumble
Scott Rufsvold
Hector Rivas
Paul Nueman
Robert Negrete
Robert Nakahiro
Renee Nahum
Ruby Yolanda Medrano
Carlos Jude Leon
Bill Kysella
Margaret Hoyos
Erika Gallos
Benita Duran
Colleen Colson
Cecilia Cabello
Christopher Arellano

This adds up to a bunch with illusions of power.

And lastly, is Jackie Autry the "Frank McCourt" of the Museum business?

For die heart Dodgers fans, we all know that McCourt bought the Dodgers with other peoples money. Now a report from the "Friends of the Southwest Museum" paints a picture of a cash poor Autry giving false information to the Board of the Southwest Museum about their financial standing during merger discussions. Thus do the Autry Museum have the financial standing to follow through on their commitment to the Autry Center Expansion Plans??

Makes more sense why the Autry set their sites on the collection at the Southwest Museum.

.....and the latest from Eliot

To: L.A. Weekly
From: Eliot Sekuler

Dear Editor,

When, in the story, "Villaraigosa's Autry National Center Hubbub," writer Max Taves glibly reported that Northeast L.A residents fear the historic Southwest Museum, the first museum chartered in the city of L.A., would become "a development of high-priced condos" he glossed over the current multi-million dollar restoration that is well underway at the Southwest Museum campus, a painstaking project that is being supervised by restoration architect Brenda Levin, whose work on City Hall, the Griffith Park Observatory, the Bradbury Building, Hollyhock House and the Wiltern Theater has won awards and the universal admiration of the historical conservancy community. (QUE?? Still waiting for Southwest Society fund raiser)

The story makes no mention of the plans contained in the compromise agreement brokered with the Autry by Villaraigosa and Councilmember Jose Huizar, a highly attractive and practical plan for reopening the 100-year-old Southwest Museum as a dynamic, rotating exhibition center for its original Lummis collection of Native Americana as well as a center for relevant contemporary art and performance.(Rotate out but never come back)

The Autry's plans and investment would result in Northeast L.A.'s most significant and compelling cultural attraction.Your writer missed the point completely in reporting that, as a co-founder of the dwindling Southwest Museum Coalition, I had "gone over to the over side."Instead, I joined with about half the original leadership of the Southwest Museum Coalition--activists from Eagle Rock,Glassell Park, Highland Park and Mount Washington--in creating a new group that would work in partnership with the Autry to help shape the Southwest Museum's future. (Dwindling = LAUSD math by Eliot, did Sierra Club just announce their support for the Museum??)

The Southwest Society, as the group is called, was joined by virtually the entire leadership of L.A.'s Native American community and the family of Museum founder Charles Lummis.

Neither I, nor the Native American community, nor Jose Huizar or Antonio Villaraigosa "went over to the other side." (lesser men would stand on their own and not hide behind Native Americans)

Instead, consistent with a successful negotiation outcome, the two sides met someplace in the middle.Rich in history and boasting some of L.A.¹s best-preserved architectural treasures, Northeast L.A¹s old streets, laced with their vivid patchwork of cultures and ethnicities, could become one of the city¹s most vibrant cultural and historic zones.(In the middle of Jon Grey's office)

In an era of dwindling public resources, the success of the Northeast's revitalization efforts will require partnerships with organizations that have the means and the motivation to put projects in motion.(Paragraph closet to the truth)

Partnering with the Autry to revitalize the Southwest Museum was a smart compromise, not a capitulation.(More like political calculation and contributions)

Eliot Sekuler
The Southwest Society
Los Angeles

March 25, 2008 1:12 PM