Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday

City Attorney candidate Carmen Trutanich has proven he'll be no shrinking violet in what will be a nasty campaign against fellow candidate Jack Weiss.  Of course as long as Weiss is involved, it will be nothing but nasty.  Weiss challenged Trutanich for contributions he received from pro-second amendment, gun rights groups and ordered his challenged to return the contributions.  To wit, Trutanich shot back "I tell you what, I'll return this money when Jack Weiss returns all the money he received from developers," Trutanich said. "I support reasonable gun laws. I think anyone who owns a gun illegally should go to jail. Anytime he wants to debate gun ownership I'll be happy to oblige."

Speaking of Jack Weiss at least the citizens of the 5th District can take some comfort in the fact that in a little less than a year, he will no longer be their City Councilman.  One of the leading contenders in what is turning out to already be be a competitive and contentious race to replace Weiss, former West Hollywood Mayor and carpetbagger Paul Koretz, has named as his campaign chief: none other than Sister City readers' favorite and Villaraigosa operative Park "Parque Esquelto" Skelton.  Could a Villaraigosa endorsement be coming soon for Koretz?

The Daily Breeze has come out in support of Bernard Parks' bid to replace Yvonne Burke on the County Board of Supervisors.  One of the key reasons for the paper's nod is their belief that "Parks would work to attract more market-rate housing and businesses other than fast food and auto-related enterprises."

Mayor Villaraigosa and Councilwoman Janice Hahn know better than to be the pitch people for their anti-gang property tax scam, Measure A,  on the November ballot.  They're turning to LAPD Chief William Bratton "the last public official with any credibility with voters." Think about that, it's really sad.  However count at least one no vote on Measure A if Bratton is the spokes-hole: celebrity diva Lindsay Lohan.

Truth to Power is an organization of former community organizers for the controversial political group, ACORN, that is calling for major reform within the organization.  Among ACORN's hypocrisy as stated by Truth to Power, "ACORN activists fight for Living Wages but management refuses to pay a Living Wage and forces organizers to work 54-80 hours a week." Doesn't surprise me.  Many of these professional non-profits (not all there are some very good ones), especially the ones that take government funds, are no more dedicated to the average person than General Motors.

In their biggest score since they closed a billboard deal with the City of Los Angeles, live entertainment firm AEG has scored the rights to produce and stage Britney Spears comeback tour.  No detals on when tickets go on sale but the pop diva is hoping for a worldwide tour, her first since 2004.

Don't forget our big Fourth Anniversary party Friday night at Casa Princesa in Highland Park.  By the way if you want to get me a present for four years of hard fought blogging you could bring me one of these.  Well, I can dream can't I? 

Citizens' Alert: You Can Kill the Transit Tax Scam

As reported here Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted against placing a half cent sales tax for Westside transit projects on the November ballot. This sales tax must be rejected because 1) It benefits only one part of the region but would be paid for by everyone in the County, 2) With the economy in dire straits the last thing people will need is a half cent sales tax when especially when the Governor is proposing an additional one cent sales tax, 3) You can't build enough trains to get us out of our traffic mess and 4) Mayor Villaraigosa is behind this.

In order to get this on the ballot, the MTA plans to spend more of your money including suing the County and potentially spending $10 million for an election of their own.

You need to contact the MTA board members and tell them to give it a rest. You do not want your tax money spent on lawsuits and elections in order to collect more taxes from you. Please email and call the following board members and tell them to vote to shelve the tax altogether. Feel free to send this post to your friends and neighbors.

These two board members voted against the tax the first time. Tell them to stand strong and continue to oppose it:

Michael D. Antonovich
Los Angeles County Supervisor
Fifth Supervisorial District
fifthdistrict@lacbos.org
(213) 974-5555

John Fasana
City Council Member, Duarte
fasanaj@accessduarte.com

These two members of the County Board of Supervisors either abstained or were not present for the MTA vote but voted against putting it on the ballot at Tuesday's Supervisors meeting. Call and email them to encourage them to vote against lawsuits and special elections:

Gloria Molina
Los Angeles County Supervisor
First Supervisorial District
(213) 974-4111
molina@bos.lacounty.gov

Don Knabe
First Vice Chair
Los Angeles County Supervisor
Fourth Supervisorial District
cpedersen@lacbos.org
213-974-4444

These board members voted for the tax the first time around but come from cities that the transit tax scam doesn't benefit. Tell them to stand with the rest of County and vote against spending any more MTA money on the scam:

Bonnie Lowenthal
City Council 1st District, Vice Mayor, Long Beach
(562) 570-6919
district1@longbeach.gov

Ara Najarian
Second Vice Chair
Mayor, City of Glendale
anajarian@ci.glendale.ca.us

The following are Mayor Villaraigosa's appointees to the MTA Board from the San Fernando Valley. Doubtful they'll cross the Mayor despite their reputation for being fiscally responsible but feel free to call them anyway and tell them not to screw the Valley:

David W. Fleming
City of Los Angeles Mayor Appointee
david.fleming@lw.com
(213) 891.7902

Richard Katz
City of Los Angeles Mayor Appointee
(213) 922-4605
Boardoffice@metro.net

The following board members are lost causes and are either shady or provincial or both:

Antonio R. Villaraigosa
LACMTA, Chair
Mayor, City of Los Angeles

Yvonne B. Burke
Los Angeles County Supervisor
Second Supervisorial District

Pam O’Connor
City Council Member, Santa Monica

Bernard Parks
City Council 8th District, City of Los Angeles Mayor Appointee

Zev Yaroslavsky
Los Angeles County Supervisor
Third Supervisorial District

Bad News for Bitter Bernie

** UPDATE: Click here for our correction on this story. **

City Councilman Bernard Parks - who is running against State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas to replace retiring County Supervisor Yvonne Burke - is apparently trying to distance himself from yet another minister alleged to have made anti-Jewish comments.

Parks was at an event to honor Jewish philanthropist Daphna Ziman at which the Reverend Eric Lee, President and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles, allegedly made a series of anti-Semitic remarks.

According to local blogs, On Wednesday Lee denied and then a da y later apologized for his words. Thursday, the Councilman's son and Chief of Staff, Bernard, Jr., told the questionable Pulitzer Prize winner of record that Bitter Bernie left the event prior to Lee's speech and that the 8th District Councilman was to "meet" with Lee later that day.

In other bad news for Bitter Bernie, the California Majority Report says that Ridley-Thomas received the endorsement of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Thursday.

Open Race to Replace Burke Draws Contenders

Yesterday was the filing deadline to replace Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke in the June primary election. Here's the list of the 9 contenders:

1. City Councilman Bernard C. Parks
2. state Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas
3. Antonio Alvarez, a real estate agent
4. Martin Luther King Aubrey, a maintenance painter
5. Drew Fenton, a physician
6. Morris Griffin, a maintenance technician
7. Thomas Neusom, an attorney
8. Delaney Smith Jr., a physician
9. Florian Thompson, works in dental medicine

Read the L.A. Times story.