Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Thursday

American Processed Cheesehead

Gov. Scott Walker's Worst Nightmare- Progressive candidate Joanne Koppenburg has declared victory in the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice race over incumbent Justice David Prosser, a Republican and former state assembly leader. Prosser, not surprisingly, is not conceding and a recount will most certainly take place. Opposition to Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union budget bill has energized the state and Koppenburg, who had little chance of beating the incumbent a few weeks ago, now finds herself propelled into the winner's circle. Wisconsin Democrats are promising that this is only the beginning, as recall efforts for Senators who supported Walker's bill are well underway. If Koppenburg survives the recount and probable court challenges, Wisconsin's Supreme Court will shift from a 4-3 conservative majority to a 4-3 liberal majority.

UPDATE; 48 hours after the polls closed and 36 hours after all the votes had been unofficially turned in, a county clerk "found" another 13,000 votes stored on her computer. 7,000 of these votes went to David Prosser.  I've got a feeling this story isn't over yet.

Mayor Villaraigosa has signed into law an ordinance restricting the size of hillside homes. For years, community activists have worked to stop the developers of these oversize "big box" mansions from cutting into LA's hillsides and constructing these oversize structures.
Trivia moment; The source of these L.A. anti-McMansion laws and new hillside building restrictions originate in the community of Sunland-Tujunga, where, a few years ago, an amazing woman named Roberta Actor-Thomas worked with then Councilwoman Wendy Greuel to craft the original language and definitions that have led to today's desperately needed citywide ordinances.

LACityWorkers.com is very, very upset with Council President Eric Garcetti, going so far as to file a California Public Records Act Request seeking all emails between the councilman and a bunch of other people they appear to be very, very upset with. If anyone can explain what this is all about, please let us know!

City Maven posts a recent interview she conducted with Councilman Krekorian that looks at his current CD2 goals and his future prospects. Relax, Eric, you're in the clear for now!

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Wednesday

No more free tickets to events for Mayor Villaraigosa and other elected officials if the LA Ethics Commission has it's way.  The panel has voted that if an elected official wants to stay at Laker game, the Oscars, Latin Grammys after conducting an official presentation or making a speech they must pay for their tickets. Dopey Commissioner Nedra Jenkins was the lone dissenting vote thinking the City looks good if Villaraigosa is schmoozing George Lopez or Paris Hilton at events.

There's more...

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Boks’, Barth’s Last Stand at City Hall?

Go back 123 years ago this week, and you'll find that General George Custer was buried at West Point (That's Custer with his dog in the photo to the right)

In Los Angeles, on Tuesday, there will be a special evening meeting in Van Nuys City Hall of the City Council’s Personnel Committee to determine whether the Committee will ask Mayor Villaraigosa to terminate Edwin M. Boks and Linda Barth, the General Manager and Assistant General Manager, respectively, of the Los Angeles Animal Services department.

Judging by the nearly 100 city shelter employees, volunteers, animal rescuers and union leaders who recently appeared at City Council to demand that Boks & Barth be terminated, it looks like this will be Boks' and Barth's last stand.

Ironically, a few hours before this special meeting, Mayor Villaraigosa will hold a hastily arranged, and obviously pandering, press conference about neuter~spay, one of Boks’ and Barth’s greatest failings.

The invitation reads, “Mayoral Press Conference this Tuesday at 9 a.m. at City Hall. Come participate in this celebration of the new ordinance, which recently became enforceable October 1st. The Mayor will be there as will the entire City Council, featuring as well as expressing our appreciation to the law's co-authors CM Richard Alarcon and CM Tony Cardenas.”

Haikula is confused. Didn’t Mr. Boks say last week that Mr. Boks would not be enforcing the law? And didn't Bill Rosendahl say that if Mr. Boks had a handle on licensing, which he says he does not, the funding would be plentiful? Or is this yet another pandering press conference, where cameras count, and killing doesn’t?

Will Mr. Boks receive false praise just hours before the hammer falls on him and Ms. Barth? Or will the croissants, coffee and orange juice put everyone in too good a mood for terminations later in the day?

According to public records, Mr. Boks has a high school diploma and earns more than $170,000 per year.

If anyone attends these events, please let us know what happens.

(Special thanks to Binkie and Mr. Frog for helping us with this report!)

UPDATED "No Balls" has "No Teeth"

This morning's post is from a Mayor Sam reader and animal
shelter volunteer who is frustrated that the city has a neuter-spay ordinance going in to effect today, but who says that there is no tangible, clear plan to make its intended benefits a reality.

An email just received from the same party clarifies that the person supports the law, but without some "teeth" and a strategy for licensing, feels it is nothing more than a feelgood measure. Haikula agrees, and reiterates that if people have information on such services in SoCal, post it here and we will organize and share it. Mr. Ed Boks, the shelter general manager, has not responded to numerous requests for information.

From a reader:

Vanity. That is what the city's new spay-neuter ordinance is, as it comes into effect today. It is a law made for show only.

"We have no plan to go door to door to enforce the spay-neuter law." Those are the defeatist words from Edwin M. Boks, the general manager of the Los Angeles Animal Services shelter.

There is also no plan to get licensing under control, and provide massive on-demand spay-neuter and the shelters are packed with animals with no vigorous city plan to find homes for them.

The boardwalk at Venice Beach, South Los Angeles and Tujunga would be great places to start licensing and spay-neuter enforcement, but Mr. Boks has no formal plan per usual.

Could you let people know that next week's Personnel Committee meeting has a special evening starting time so that shelter employees and rescuers can take the next step in their request to get the general manager that Mayor Villaraigosa promised us, but failed to deliver.

Please do not post my name because I am a shelter volunteer, and Mr. Boks has already made an effort to intimidate us.

~~~~~

You said it well enough! The Personnel Committee meeting is going to take place some time next week in Van Nuys City Hall. If anyone knows the time, please post the link to the agenda here and we will re-post it in advance of the meeting.

If any readers can provide links to spay-neuter resources from the city or elsewhere in SoCal, please post them here and we will gather and re-post on a regular basis.

Here is some Van Nuys trivia that will bore everyone except Tom LaBonge.

1. 1872 Isaac Van Nuys builds first wood-frame house in Valley.
   
2. 1914 — Universal City opens as a studio-cum-town. Floods inundate Van Nuys and cut off Valley from Los Angeles.


3. 1966 — Busch Gardens amusement park opens in Van Nuys.


4. 1970 —Women join assembly line at Van Nuys GM plant. Bethlehem Star Parade ends due to waning interest.

A parade ending due to waning interest?

Can anyone say Hollywood Christmas Parade?

Mayor Villaraigosa Fibs about Layoffs Again?

It was just a few months ago that Mayor Villaraigosa told us more than 700 Los Angeles city jobs would be eliminated, only to have none of it come true. Then, the millions of dollars of fee waivers continued.

Now, Mayor Villaraigosa is saying that the already-projected hundreds of millions of dollars in budgetary shortfall is due....to the stock market.

Sorry, dude. No one is buying it this time.

From KFWB:

Villaraigosa Warns of LA Cash CrunchThe mayor of LA is predicting the economic mess from Wall Street will have a big impact on the city's budget. KFWB's John Brooks reports Antonio Villaraigosa says there may be more layoffs and service cuts. KFWB Big Story - http://kfwb.com

Say What?

Today, the Los Angeles Times has an article about the Mayor and City Council criticizing the Wall Street bail out plan. (quotes from the article are in bold, below)

This is all well and good, but time and again, the City Council admonishes public speakers that they are to talk about subjects that "are under the jurisdiction of the Council," and frequently cut the microphones of the speaker when they determine that the person is "off-topic."

So why then is the Mayor and City Council taking a position on the Wall Street bail out plan? It is a Federal plan, and has nothing to do with Los Angeles City Hall, other than, perhaps, some bad city investments.

Like the rest of us, you have to suck it up when times are bad. That's why incompetence running the City of Los Angeles during a good economy is intolerable.

"'No way do I want to give the secretary of the Treasury unbridled power,' said Councilman Bill Rosendahl."

Why is anyone from the Council making a public statement on a Federal issue, if it doesn't fall under the L.A. City Council's jurisdiction? And isn't it the L.A. City Council that mismanaged us into a $500,000,000 debt?

That's like, well, I don't know what it's like. But it sure as hell is hypocritical.

The article goes on to say that a lot of the City's nervousness comes from City officials having "voiced anxiety about their ability to borrow money to pay for upcoming initiatives."

A major reason that the City is unable to get better lending terms is because of its teetering credit and debt problems. If the Mayor and City Council did a better job of running the city when the economy was healthy, it wouldn't be in such a jam during tough times like these.

Unfortunately, the Times' Mr. Zahniser overlooked that point in his article.

A while back, I predicted even larger DWP rate hikes. In the article, Councilmember Tony Cardenas confirms that that's where we're heading. "If this continues in the way it has over the last few weeks, then it's inevitable that the department's going to have to look at our water and power rates," he said.

If we re-elect people who continue to sink the City of Los Angeles, and we expect a different outcome in their next term, we are by definition, insane.

Holy Guacamole! It's News of the Obvious! (a/k/a Not Quite the Wednesday Hotsheet)

1. Mayor Villaraigosa pulls out! Hopefully the writer confirmed this with Mirthala Salinas. San Jose Mercury News.

2. Mayor Villaraigosa can also issue a press release without saying a damn thing. KFI-AM640

3. Joe Biden has a loud mouth. Washington Post

4. Comedian Dane Cook is unfunny, but his eviction is! He lost his Los Angeles eviction appeal yesterday after his landlord booted him from for not cleaning up his dog’s poop. S. F. Chronicle

5. Clay Aiken and Lindsay Lohan each confirm they are gay, although Police Chief Bill Bratton made that abundantly clear a few weeks ago. Chicago Sun-Times. People Magazine

6. The FBI thinks that there may be some fraud in the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, Lehman and AIG meltdowns. Gee, do ya think??? Wall Street Journal

7. The California economy is going to go down much further before it gets better. But I think Reuters' editor means "worst" rather than "worse" to come. Reuters

8. Zuma Dogg is coming out of his shell, y’all.
(Click on the video screen in the middle, but turn the volume down if you're in your office!) Zuma Times.com

Former Commissioner's Blog

This may not be news, but an MS reader sent me the link to the blog of the former Los Angeles Animal Services Commissioner , Marie Atake, who resigned after Mayor Villaraigosa's office turned a deaf ear to her concerns last year about Edward M. Boks, the shelter GM.

KABC Eyewitness News did a story on her departure after, she indicates, the Mayor put out false information about the state of the department, and conditions within the shelters. The Mayor dismissed her concerns as a "difference of opinion."

Atake, who founded an animal charity in Marina Del Rey called Forte Animal Rescue, was telling the truth, as demonstrated when the shelter workers, veterinary staff, and officers made a demand earlier this week for Boks' firing.

Mr. Boks has yet to post a response on his rather colorful city blog, but we'll link it here when he has one.

Villaraigosa "Notably Absent" on Obama Latino Advisory Board

Mayor Villaraigosa's disloyalty to his wife, children, girlfriend, city and even his presential candidate is bearing sour fruit. He is "notably absent" from Obama's new Latino advisory board.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/19/MNKN12DESI.DTL&type=politics

Bill Clinton is on the panel. So are Henry Cisneros and Federico Pena. Do you THINK Villaraigosa was salivating for photo ops with them?

At least they're giving Villaraigosa a chance to speak at the Democratic Convention....NOT!

Jay Leno on Mayor Cholotonio

"Mayor Villaraigosa is vacationing in the U.K., which means that he's now cheating with a British news girl!"

--Jay Leno, The Tonight Show, 7/31/08

Since the Mayors from SF and LA are both cheaters and protectors of murderers, it's great to hear that Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, a veteran statewide leader, has decided to run for Governor.

Californians now have a great choice:

Jerry Brown or John Garamendi, instead of Greasy Gavin or Cholotonio.

From your friends at http://www.noblehaiku.blogspot.com/