Behind Pothole Politics is a $3 Billion Bill!

Smile, boys!

Facebook pages were chock full of pictures of our Mayor and newest Council Members donning work vests and hard hats, filling pot holes as part of "Operation Neighborhood Council Blitz," where neighborhood council members were given some sense of "empowerment" in tabulating and submitting lists of potholes for repair consideration.

Potholes are a really good issue for politicians to go after because it's something simple to understand, creates great pictures for television and the papers and the idea of filling potholes generally offends no one.

Indeed, one local neighborhood council's video production company was on the scene where Mayor Garcetti gave a stand-up, impromptu speech on the effort of the day. Later, the Mayor "kicked it" with street services workers recounting the various neighborhoods they had visited filling potholes. 

We all appreciate any potholes that can be filled. LA is legend for them. In fact, after San Jose, LA has the worst graded condition streets of any city in the nation by international road condition standards.

The problem is when it's yet another photo opp with something worse lurking behind the corner.

That something worse is a currently on life support plan for the City to place a $3 billion - and yes that's billion with a B - bond measure on the ballot, one that is intended to repair our local streets, but we all know what happens with bond measures and blank checks. 

That filling potholes and maintaining city streets is not such an essential municipal function that the cost for such should be borne out of the city general fund from all the taxes and fees we are already paying is incredible. What are they spending this money on? Anyone who followed the Mayoral race knows that a huge piece of the City's debt comes from higher than industry average pay rates offered to the unions that support politicians and gold plated pensions the leadership of these unions have been able to get from elected officials. 

Jack Humphreville, a local business (he owns the Recycler Paper!) and an impassioned local advocate who is adept at rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in city government goes into deeper detail about the bond measure in this piece at The Fox and Hounds blog. Jack offers up what should be very strict rules and reforms IF such a bond measure is even to go through. 

Get ready to open up your checkbook!

Los Angeles Politics HotSheet for Thursday

Yes indeed, Amazon.com creates REAL jobs!
So, let's kill them!

The blogging dentist Flap reports that folks who like lots of taxes (probably employee and teacher unions who are addicted to pensions like Octomom is to pregnancy) are attempting a boycott of online retailer Amazon.com as retaliation for the e-commerce company's sponsorship of a ballot measure to overturn Californians's draconian taxes on internet purchases. The bad news for these tax lovers is that no one who shops (and saves money) at Amazon will even notice the boycott and the ballot measure will pass big on next year's ballot.

Los Angeles' City Treasurer Steve Ongele found a unique solution to the City's poor credit rating.  He cancelled the contract for the bond rating service.  Can't see me!

The panel empowered to draw up LA's new City Council districts is getting underway.  And the star attraction? Villaraigosa operative Mike "Meat" Trujillo who was appointed to the circus by Clowncilman Richard Alarcon (who knows a LOT about Council district boundaries!).  You may remember Mike was let go by CM Huizar for sending an email to the campaign team threatening to put a political bullet in the head of then opponent Rudy Martinez.

It's always a delight when the Downtown News' Jon Regardie fires up his keyboard. This time it's early game Mayoral election punditry.  Anyway, go there now!

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday

My dad reads Mayor Sam everyday and when I don't write he is concerned if I am okay.  Don't worry Dad, I was out of town on business and forgot to tell everyone.  I'm back now and ready to have fun with the dum-dums again.  Special thanks to all the Mayor Sam burros who kept the lights on, with a big welcome back to Red Spot.  Lots of good stuff from the team below my crap here.


What makes Council Member "Hamburger" Jan Perry annoying to the the Lincoln High 90031 blog? Perry's "arrogance on ethical issues."  Though she owns a home inches from the controversial Grand Avenue project and stands to see her property values increase Perry has failed to recuse herself from a number of votes on the matter.

The unions representing many of LA's public employees must be really scared of Carmen Trutanich becoming City Attorney as they plan to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of their members' money to oppose him.  In the meantime, a parade of activists turned public comment at Tuesday's Council meeting into a bashing session on Trutanich's opponent, Council Member Jack Weiss.

Is the Daily News' Rick Orlov getting lazy? A story about redevelopment at the fabled Laurel Plaza shopping center in North Hollywood contains a few rookie errors by the "Dean of City Hall reporters." First off Orlov says the property is located at Burbank and Laurel Canyon (it's actually at Oxnard about a mile north of Burbank Blvd) and that the former mall once contained movie theatres (it never did).  He also quotes a pipe dream of Tom LeBong's; that is to ask the developers to work with the MTA to extend the Red Line to the area.  That will never happen.

Voters who approve big government bond initiatives based on the promises of politicians should take the following bait-and-switch into consideration.  One of the promises of multi-million dollar bond measures offered up by the Los Angeles Community College District was to turn the site of the former Van De Kamp's Bakery in Glassell Park into a satellite campus of Los Angeles City College providing post-secondary education to residents of Northeast LA.  Looks like the LACCD is going back on it's promise and instead of a college satellite the facility will house a labor center and a charter middle school, both of whom will pay rent to the District.  Obviously, residents are up in arms.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

Walter Moore notes that Mayor Villaraigosa has opted not to participate in the City's campaign finance reform program and will not accept matching funds for his campaign.  Each candidate who participates in matching funds is required to debate and hence opting out the Mayor will not be required to debate Moore.  Moore's contention is that were the Mayor to debate him, the Mayor would lose the debate and those who watch the debate will prefer Moore.  Of course that depends on how many voters actually watch the debates.

Just days after voters approved a number of new taxes and new bond indebtedness, the City Council has placed a $3 billion bond on the March ballot to pay for solar electricity generating panels on the roofs of public and other buildings.  At some point piling on the debt has to stop.  The solar industry is just startig to take off and the market is responding.  Not only is this tremendous waste of money but it's yet another pork barrel boondoggle set to direct taxpayer funds to favored special interests.  Of course voters will fall for the trap of voting for this particularly when the city, unions and other special interests will be funding the campaign in favor of it. 

Changing demographics in the San Fernando Valley have shifted the region from one perceived to be a bastion of conservative voters to a Democratic leaning territory.  San Fernando Valley voters selected Barack Obama for President at a higher rate than that statewide. At the same time, San Fernando Valley Blacks and Latinos voted yes on the Proposition 8 Same-Sex Marriage Ban at higher rates than they did in other parts of the state.