Morning Briefs and Outtakes for "Hump Day"

"Can you see me now ??"

Not really if you are going on vacation again.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as of noon yesterday, is off again to the far reaches of the world for some R & R, courtesy of some Special Interest. Villaraigosa has vacated the Third Floor to spend some "Nordic time" in Iceland, can you say fun and games with Keith Brackpool ??

No word whether Lu Parker was allowed to join the Mayor in his annual binge, errr, get together with the "Water Miner of Cadiz Valley", maybe spinmaster Matt can enlighten us with the details.

And if you are so inclined to ask the Mayor about his vacation upon his return, we have this for you.

From: "Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa"
Date: July 28, 2009 3:17:35 PM PDT
To: "dominovm@pacbell.net"
Subject: Have any questions?

Hello Angelenos, (especially campaign contributors)

I wanted to share with you the first installment of my new video feature, ("Tummy Love with Lu") "Ask the Mayor." Each week I will be delivering a webcam message directly responding to constituents' (Special Interest paid for requests) messages. You can watch my first video response here.

I'm beginning my second term with a renewed commitment to transparency (staged of course) and responsiveness (from spokes holes like Matt Szabo and my ninety + staffers), and this feature is a key part of that commitment.(like the commitment to your wife ??)

This is our chance to have an online dialogue. There is no monopoly, (if only I could monopolize campaign contributions), on good ideas, (the ones I steal like Connie Rice's "Summer Night Lights") and it's going to take the vision of all Angelenos (better us than you) to tackle the tough challenges (more since you became Mayor) facing Los Angeles (a Sanctuary City).

Each week, I want you to send me your questions, your concerns (many), your ideas (more ideas to take credit for), and (ahhh) yes, your criticisms (dump truck is ready).

So make your voice heard, (especially when you pay) use the form at www.mayor.lacity.org/MeettheMayor/AsktheMayor/index.htm , and stay tuned for my regular video messages.

Thank you, Antonio Villaraigosa

AKA. Tony "born to raise hell" Villar

Other News:

** Surprise, surprise, Mayor Villaraigosa did this ??

Stepping into a controversy over the city's business tax, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Tuesday for a procedural change that would prevent companies from being reclassified into higher tax brackets.

Rick Newcombe of Creator's Syndicate, who detailed in a Wall Street Journal article how his firm was reclassified, said the shift would cost him several thousand dollars more in taxes and would force him to consider relocating to another city.

"Mayor Villaraigosa is a man of his word who respects the rule of law," Newcombe said after receiving a copy of the letter. "He is committed to keeping and attracting jobs to Los Angeles."

Memo to Rick, STAY AWAY FROM THE "KOOL AID OF SPIN!!"

** City of Los Angeles is going to take a $200 million dollar hit from the State of California and how do the City Council respond ?? Link to read the quotes from the likes of "Councilman Potato Head", "Bitter Bernie" and the "Zorro Marxist".

** Ex Mayor Richard Riordan is endorsing Chris Essel for the CD-2 Council Seat. Did he also offer to pay for her carpetbag ??

** Take a deep breath for this one. The Los Angeles City Council is weighing a plan to issue a $30-million loan that would allow the owner of the Hollywood & Highland shopping mall to retrofit a theater so it can house a decade of performances by Cirque du Soleil.

CIM Group, which owns Hollywood & Highland but leases the Kodak Theatre within the mall, hopes to bring the acrobatic performances to the venue starting in 2011. In exchange for the loan, CIM and its partners would pledge to create at least 858 jobs, according to the proposal.

The audacity at City Hall!! BTW, who have they contributed to ?? Just a thought.......

** Beggars can't be choosers, but they sure can bitch when they don't get their way.

While crafting their budget earlier this year, Los Angeles city officials requested federal stimulus money to hire up to 450 new officers. But instead the city was awarded what City Council President Eric Garcetti called "a drop in the bucket" from the COPS Hiring Recovery Program -- a $16.3-million allotment that will allow L.A. to hire and retain just 50 officers for three years. He and other city officials questioned Tuesday whether the grant formula discriminated against big cities.

Eric, try stimulating a better business climate in the city before crying to the "Telepromptive President".

** Did you know that Mayor Villaraigosa can write Op-Ed pieces for your local fishwrap ?? This one appears in the "Old Gray Hag On Spring Street" regarding education. Don't expect to learn anything new.

** And our friend at Lincoln High 90031 has a great story on Mayor Villaraigosa's education vision in Watts. "Blacks need not apply and English need not to be spoken".

** Lastly, William H. Anton, former LAUSD Superintendent, past away at 85. He was the first Latino to hold the top spot.

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

And you wonder why businesses want to leave Los Angeles ??

"Maybe one has to pay to do business in Los Angeles ??"

For those who are well-versed with the inner-workings of the Journalism Community, then you have had some sort of dealings with Creator's Syndicate, which represents hundreds of writers and columnists.

Rick Newcombe, Founder and President of Creator's Syndicate has a great tutorial/ opinion piece, on our local business climate, that all in City Hall and the likes of local Chamber of Commerces should read.

Posted here in full.

"If New Yorkers fantasize that doing business here in Los Angeles would be less of a headache, forget about it. This city is fast becoming a job-killing machine. It's no accident the unemployment rate is a frightening 11.4% and climbing.

I never could have imagined that, after living here for more than three decades, I would be filing a lawsuit against my beloved Los Angeles and making plans for my company, Creators Syndicate, to move elsewhere.

But we have no choice. The city's bureaucrats rival Stalin's apparatchiks in issuing decrees, rescinding them, and then punishing citizens for having followed them in the first place.

I founded Creators Syndicate in 1987, and we have represented hundreds of important writers, syndicating their columns to newspapers and Web sites around the world. The most famous include Hillary Clinton, who, like Eleanor Roosevelt, wrote a syndicated column when she was first lady. Another star was the advice columnist Ann Landers, once described by "The World Almanac" as "the most influential woman in America." Other Creators columnists include Bill O'Reilly, Susan Estrich, Thomas Sowell, Roland Martin and Michelle Malkin -- plus Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonists and your favorite comic strips.

From the beginning, we've been headquartered in Los Angeles. But 15 years ago we had a dispute with the city over our business tax classification. The city argued that we should be in an "occupations and professions" classification that has an extremely high tax rate, while we fought for a "wholesale and retail" classification with a much lower rate. The city forced us to invest a small fortune in legal fees over two years, but we felt it was worth it in order to establish the correct classification once and for all.

After enduring a series of bureaucratic hearings, we anxiously awaited a ruling to find out what our tax rate would be. Everything was at stake. We had already decided that if we lost, we would move.

You can imagine how relieved we were on July 1, 1994, when the ruling was issued. We won, and firmly planted our roots in the City of Angels and proceeded to build our business.

Everything was fine until the city started running out of money in 2007. Suddenly, the city announced that it was going to ignore its own ruling and reclassify us in the higher tax category.

Even more incredible is the fact that the new classification was to be imposed retroactively to 2004 with interest and penalties. No explanation was given for the new classification, or for the city's decision to ignore its 1994 ruling.

Their official position is that the city is not bound by past rulings -- only taxpayers are. This is why we have been forced to file a lawsuit. We will let the courts decide whether it is legal for adverse rulings to apply only to taxpayers and not to the city.

We work with hundreds of outside agents, consultants, independent contractors and support services -- many of whom pay taxes to the city of Los Angeles. This spurs a job-creating ripple effect on the city's economy. Yet I suspect many companies like ours already have quietly left town in the face of the city's taxes and regulations. This would help explain the erosion of jobs.
Regardless of the outcome of our case, the arbitrary and capricious behavior of some bureaucrats is creating a lose-lose situation for everyone involved. If we win in court, the taxpayers of Los Angeles will have lost because all those tax dollars will have been wasted on needless litigation.

If we lose in court, the remaining taxpayers in Los Angeles will have lost because their burden will continue to swell as yet another business moves its jobs -- and taxpayers -- to another city.

As long as City Hall operates like a banana republic, why is anyone surprised that jobs have left the city in droves and Los Angeles is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy?

As it appears in today's Wall Street Journal

Wonder if the likes of LA's Chamber of Commerce Gary Toebben, David Fleming or VICA's Stuart Waldman will care to comment on this great dissertation regarding the negative climate for businesses in Los Angeles ??

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

**Newcombe was just on the Sean Hannity Radio Show. He was not afraid to mention the name of the city bureaucrat "Ed Cabrera" who he described as being "Out of Control", in regards to enforcing city edits.

Newcombe also mention that he talked to someone in the Mayor's Office, a "Gabriel" who stated that it was the City Attorney Office who was enforcing these actions against his firm.

Lastly, Hannity pledged to get Newcombe and Mayor Villaraigosa on his show to discuss this issue........, another chance for Mayor Villaraigosa to embarrass himself and the city on a national show.

**Newcombe is currently on the "John and Ken Show" (5 PM hour). He stated to them that he is on the hook for "hundreds of thousands" of dollars. Here is a good spot for City Attorney Carmen Trutanich to review this case and make any corrections in the interpretation of the tax codes.