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