Grab a Broom

"...governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government..."

The Declaration of Independence

More than 15 years ago I decided to get involved in my community to make it a better place. It became a hodgepodge of activities starting with the Coro Neighborhood Leaders program, training with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, starting a community economic development organization, getting involved with the Chamber of Commerce, starting the Jaycees chapter in North Hollywood and eventually winding up as that organization's State President. 

Through all that time I learned a lot. 

It didn't take long for me to figure out that these "great" politicians I used to admire turned out to be a bunch of slugs. If they weren't fradulent, they were incompetent. I found out that most employees of government officials or agencies charged to help our community were more concerned with self-preservation and avoid any work that might be "too hard."  Many of them not only didn't live in our community, they didn't even live in our city!

I found a system horribly broken and that most didn't care.  Los Angeles was such a mess that it seemed it could not be untangled.  Indeed my friend Stu remarked to me "the city's best days are behind it."  

However as time went on I saw little pockets of hope here and there.  Neighbors who banded together to preserve what they felt their community should be. Organizations who worked hard to bring some change even if it was small.  In some cases I might have completely disagreed with the objectives of these groups but I had to, even if grudgingly, admire their tenacity.

I found myself supporting a string of grass roots and sometime gadfly candidates with a naive hope that right could make might.  And I was foolishly shocked when these good people often came within miles of beating the entrenched, corrupt incumbents or political machine handpicked "newcomers."  I soon became a critic of most of those "alternative" candidates finding many of them were just as self-serving as the big names they seeked to knock out.

In the meantime an avuncular figure was toiling in the woods, an accidental anarchist or reluctant rabblerouser who knew something was wrong, that something had to be done, but was also realistic that revolution had to be methodical.  That was former Daily News editor Ron Kaye.

Over time and maybe some fumbles here and there Kaye pulled together a diverse collection of folks from around Los Angeles. Most of them were pissed.  Few of them were political experts.  Still they gathered consistently, working hard, meeting in community centers and the back room of a Dennys, giving their time, their money and their dreams to an effort to perhaps, finally, change Los Angeles.

The Clean Sweep Campaign launches tomorrow at a meeting house in North Hollywood.  The effort will draw all types.  But Kaye and his followers including veterans of community service such as David Hernandez, Nina Royal, Jack Humphreville and others have methodically crafted a program,  not around ideology or narrow issues, but behind guiding principles that seek to fundamentally change the way Los Angeles government does business.  They have developed resources, processes and plans to find, develop, train and fund solid candidates for office in Los Angeles.  The effort has attracted the attention of media figures such as radio talk show host Kevin James who is putting his microphone behind the cause.  Professional political consultants are donating their time.  Expert fundraisers are joining to raise the cash necessary to bootstrap grassroots campaign.  The effort may not be pretty.  It will still be rag tag.  But there's gas in the engine and the car is ready to run all the laps.

Back during the LA Riots in 1992 actor Edward James Olmos grabbed a push broom and walked alone into the streets and just started cleaning up the mess.  No pointing fingers, no waiting for anyone else, just doing what he thought he could do to help.

Los Angeles, it's time to once again grab a broom.  

The Clean Sweep Movement Launch Party is this Saturday, July 17th from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Mayflower Club, 11110 Victory Blvd in North Hollywood.  There is a $20 donation at the door; refreshments will be served.

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Thursday

Guess who jumped the shark?

How do LA's politicians such as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sell more influence than the law allows? By creating special committees dedicated to pet causes that special interests who wish to curry favor with the Mayor and other electeds can drop big bucks to. The Center for Governmental Studies released a study that shows Villaraigosa controlled committees and raised and spent millions for various efforts of the Mayor.

Making the case that LA City government is indeed riddled with fraud, waste and abuse is Ron Kaye's "Clean Sweep" campaign which kicks off Saturday in North Hollywood (yay!). Clean Sweep, birthed out of the Saving LA Project seeks to identify, train and support candidates for next year's City Council to boot entrenched incumebents and finally turn around the way LA does business. Kaye, the movement's spiritual leader, says "We need new leaders that will bring us together and work for the common good."

If there is a current incumbent that Clean Sweep might want to consider supporting that would be Council Member Paul Krekorian who received a good six month "report card" from the Daily News. So far Krekorian has impressed his constituents through careful attention to their issues and by doing things like voting to oppose LA's silly lawsuit against Arizona, fighting DWP rate increases, advocating against a truck driving school in Lopez Canyon and significantly reducing his Council office expenses compared to other members. In the meantime blogger/gadfly Phil Jennerjahn finally jumps the shark in seeking to boot Krekorian whom Jennerjahn says - despite everything I just told you - is a "budget destroying socialist (and probably a freedom hating liberal and dangerous enemy of free speech). Jennerjahn seems to think his only hope is to recruit former candidate Augusto Bisani to challenge Krekorian in March. It doesn't get more fun that that folks.

Can you believe it? The Metro Blue Line is now 20 years old. Militant Angeleno has video he shot on opening day, July 14th, 1990 as well as some news clips from the time. Lots of nostalgia! For the 90s!

Saturday Hotsheet

"♫ It's all about me.  It's all about me. Whatever I do the camera's there too.  I'm 5-foot-three! ♫"

A man who has been making violent threats against Mayor Villaraigosa has been ordered to stay at least 100 yards from the Mayor, Getty House and City Hall for the next three years.  Daniel John Molnar called City Hall last month threatening to "take out" the Mayor.  Molnar claims to be a former CIA agent and says Villaraigosa is trying to kill him.  Despite all of this District Attorney Steve Cooley has declined to prosecute Molnar.

Now that Phil Jennerjahn's recall of Mayor Villaraigosa has come to an end and a reported recall of Councilwoman Janice Hahn appears to be leaderless the focus on efforts to change leadership at City Hall now shifts to Ron Kaye's Clean Sweep program.  The effort which has caught the attention of a diverse array of community leaders seeks to recruit and groom solid candidates to challenge incumbent City Council members in next year's elections.

Contaminated ground water in the San Fernando Valley is spreading across underground aquifers at an alarming rate according to the DWP.  The number of wells closed at anytime has gone up significantly. While the EPA has designated several superfund cleanup sites and is actively working to clean the water the DWP has to increase it's purchase of water for the City from a rapidly shrinking number of sources. Stay tuned.

And here's your Ticketgate nugget for today.  We noted yesterday that in the wake of the Mayor's scandal over free tickets to various events that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck plans to now pay for free tickets he received to the Oscars this year.  The Enterprise Report has a photo of both the Mayor and the Chief at the Oscars looking so very dapper.

Councilmember Jose Huizar is blogging about his efforts to create more transparent government.  Ok you over there - stop laughing dum dum.  Ah geez Red Spot don't say "me am bepuzzled as Councilman last seen as Jose Huizar tries to bamboozle each the stakeholder."  Well anyway Jose has made a motion that the DWP, Port and Airport put their budgets online.  How about this Huizy why don't you and your colleagues put your campaign and officeholder books online for all to see and we mean the real books not the bullshit stuff the Ethics Commission chokes down?

Cut and Paste Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Scene for Tuesday

"Dedicated to the 12.6% of Californians who are unemployed"

The Telepromptive President of the United States (TOTUS) Barack H. Obama has lefted the City of Los Angeles.

This after flying into town in the forlorn hope of saving the political career of California's Junior Senator Barbara Boxer, who is going to face the hardest re-election challenge for her Senate seat.

No word if TOTUS met with Mayor Antonio Parkervillar during his brief money-raising venture to Los Angeles, but in the 9:00 AM KFI 640 Newscast, City Council President Eric Gartraitor, was heard pushing the Measure R "30 to 10" Proposal which would use an Federal Loan Guarantee, to compact the 30 years of transit projects paid for by Measure R tax money, into a 10 year time period. It seems from Gartraitor's comments, that he he some quality time with TOTUS via his Twitter, to discuss this scheme.

One interesting print media observation of TOTUS's brief Los Angeles visit, came via the Old Gray Hag on Spring Street aka LA Times "Top of the Ticket" Blog Writer Andrew Malcolm.

The good news for California Democrats is that their hero President Obama is returning to the Golden state this afternoon.

The bad news is once again they'll have to hand over big money to see or hear him.
Common Californians -- including the increasing 12.6% of whom are now unemployed -- will be unable to hear the president address the economy or mounting fears over his healthcare bill and its costs because his announced events on this West Coast trip Monday are political and closed to all but donors.

These cynical comments about TOTUS, earned Malcolm some uberattention from the West LA Blogger known as the "Westside White Guy", who is known well for outing the journalistic doings of those minute number of Times writers, who dare go against the elitist, left of center leanings of the likes of Tim Rutten, Jim Rainey, George Skelton, Michael Hiltzik and others.

OTHER NEWS:

** Mayor Antonio Parkervillar will preempt CD 14 Councilman Jose Huizar's "State of Boyle Heights" Speech, with his own today at 4:00 PM, on the "State of Los Angeles". One of the more newsworthy elements of his telepromptive, ahh, speech, will be the number of future layoffs that he will propose. Hint? Think triple digits..... and by the way, will LAUSD School Board President Monica Garcia be leading the cheering section?

** Memo to current political office holders. Your chance to claim unemployment when you get defeated in your next election cycle, is being closed with SB 1211, authored by State Senators Gloria Romero and Bob Dutton.

** Ron Kaye has the details on the workings of the "Clean Sweep Campaign", which is an endeavor of a "diverse group of Los Angeles community activists" ( ** with no apologies to the myopic "WWG"), to bring reforms to 200 Spring Street, with like-minded candidates for City Council. Here is the platform, which is still a work in progress.

LA CLEAN SWEEP PLATFORM

1. CLEAN UP CITY HALL -- We need a change of leadership. The failure of our leaders is clear to everyone, We need tough penalties and enforcement of ethics law violations and immediate and full disclosure of campaign contributions and interests even as new leaders develop reforms, including clean money campaign financing that break the power of special interests. The Department of Water and Power Commission, Community Redevelopment Agency and other commissions must have independence free of political control. All city agencies, task forces and Council committees must have representatives appointed by Neighborhood Councils. Transparency, openness, public access to all documents must be enacted under an open access law.

2. FIX THE BUDGET -- Spending must be brought under control for the benefit of the city's 4 million residents and hundreds of thousands of businesses. Salaries of city officials must be reduced along with Council and mayoral staffing, slush funds and office holder accounts eliminated. Adjustments must be made to the employee wage and pension system. Tax, rate and fee policies must be restructured to create a healthy economic environment.

3. FOCUS ON CORE SERVICES -- The focus of city government must be on basic services that benefit the whole community, not as a jobs and patronage programs. Protection of police and fire services and infrastructure. Parks, libraries, street maintenance, integrated planning to preserve neighborhood health, enforcement of building codes and fair share of city services are paramount. Services provided by city staff must be cost-effective with those of the private sector.

4. POWER SHARING -- Elect City Council members who put the interests of the whole city ahead of any special interest. Empower Neighborhood Councils to make the first decisions on all local development issues. Create a commission to develop a plan for a borough system of government. Establish that a key function of city government is to encourage public participation and treat all people with respect and courtesy.

Wonder how Mayor Parkervillar and the current City Council, will comment about these steps to clean up their ethical transgressions?

** BTW, that "three month" DWP rate increase approved by the shady actions of City Council President Eric Gartraitor?? Haha, it is looking like the DWP Commission punked the ratepayers again.

** Ooooppps!! I almost forgot to mention this. On the subject of Hahahahaha, wonder how that press event on the south side of City Hall is going, regarding the "total recall" of one Mayor Antonio Parkervillar?

** 11:00 AM update on the South Lawn proceedings via the Daily News.

A handful of former candidates and grassroots activists launched a recall drive today against Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Former mayoral candidates Walter Moore and Phil Jennerjahn and David Hernandez,, along with former City Council candidate Augusto Bisani are among the proponents of the effort.
Aides to Villaraigosa said he would have no comment

Even Deputy Mayor for Spin, Matt Szabo, knows when no words are warranted.

Your thoughts......

Scott Johnson in CD 14