Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday

Tuesday a judge reduced the bail for jailed suspected murder Esteban Nunez, son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, from $2 million to $1 million. Reports at press time are that Nunez has raised the bail and has been released.

After a bungled attempt last week by School Board President Monica Garcia to oust Superintendent David Brewer the LAUSD Board of Education voted 5-2 Tuesday to buy out the remaining term of his contract, for about half a million dollars. Brewer told reporters earlier Tuesday that he believed racism was behind his termination.

As reported by Joe B.on Mayor Sam Tuesday, the retail hardware giant Home Depot has revived a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the City to allow the Atlanta based firm to open a controversial branch in the foothill community of Sunland-Tujunga. Interesting comments from readers of the trendy real estate blog CurbedLA who don't apparently understand why residents of Sunland-Tujunga don't want this store forced on them.

Mayor Villaraigosa joined with mayors from other big cities nationwide asking President-Elect Obama for major infusions of Federal cash for "infrastructure" projects. Would that include things like Grand Avenue or LA Live? How about properly spending the money you collect already and you would have sufficient funds for basic needs. President-Elect Obama - watch out for these shady guys!

When times are tough here at home, Sheriff Lee Baca has a goofy idea to send 350 LA County Deputy Sheriffs to provide security at the inaguration of Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. next month. It appears that at least a portion of the expense would be borne by LA County leading Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Mike Antonovich to question the wisdom of such a move.

LA CityWatch reports that the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition has re-elected President Leonard Shaffer over Mid-Town North Hollywod Neighborhood Council member Gary Barrata by "a lopsided vote" at their election meeting on Saturday.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

Rick Orlov logs School Board President Monica Garcia's bungled attempt to fire Superintendent David Brewer.  The article also chronicles Garcia's personal achievement as a poor youth from LA's eastside who worked her way through UC Berkely and USC to eventually become President of the Board of Education.  Despite her own record of accomplishment (surely obtained through years of hard work on Garcia's part) she's a purveyor of the politics of victimization which ultimately says that mostly minority poor and working class people are too stupid to achieve without government help  - despite the irony of her own tremendous rise from adversity.

Just in time for his campaign for City Attorney Council Member Jack Weiss has fired up a package of "anti-gun" proposals through his public safety committee (yet he won't move on Jamiel's Law).  Among the proposals are one that would make it easier for landlords to evict residents who own guns.  Of course, anti-gun laws have zero impact on gang members who don't follow them and smuggle illegal guns in from overseas.

He said he's not asking for a bail-out or a hand-out but Mayor Villaraigosa once again left town to go to Washington, D.C. to beg for Federal money.  You might want to send a letter to Congressional leaders that before they give a blank check to our 11% Mayor they may wish to examine all the fraud, waste and abuse that has LA in the mess it's in.

The campaign for City Controller is kicking into full gear.  Wendy Greuel has put up her website and is inviting folks to her campaign barbecue.  Nick Patsouras has qualified for the ballot as has minor candidate Suzy Evans whose first act was to slam Patsouras.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday

Mayor Villaraigosa wasn't asked to join the Obama Administration but reports say that Congressman Xavier Becerra will serve the new President as US Trade Representative.

Reports say that Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Admiral David Brewer's job is on the line. The Board of Education met Tuesday in closed session to discuss his fate, taking no action, and racial politics may have allowed Brewer to work another day: though the Board is said to have the votes to fire Brewer, members were reluctant to dismiss the Admiral, an African-American, while the board's lone Black member - Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte - was away at a conference. Can we just break up the LAUSD now? It's being done anyway one charter school at a time; time to pack it in.

What happens when a developer works with a community, lives in the community and makes a seemingly good faith effort to be a good corporate citizen? Hopefully the developer gets the support of local leaders and can move forward. In Valley Glen that is the case but there are still some NIMBY/BANANA/CAVES that won't leave well enough alone.

The United Way has issued a report that paints a bleak future for Los Angeles. One of their prescriptions is to spend less on LAPD and anti-crime efforts and unfortuanately, it appears former LAPD Chief and Council Member Bernard Parks agrees. That would be the worst thing you can as we head into uncertain economic times. In the meantime, Westsiders are upset about paying the highest in taxes while LAPD patrols in their areas have been scaled back.


President-Elect Obama continues to assuage the concerns of conservatives, perhaps to the chagrin of liberals. First it was retaining Bush Defense Secretary Robert Gates, then appointing pro-Iraq war Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and now Obama plans to call off that windfall profits tax for the oil industry. More cheap gas for all! So much for change.

Attention Mayor Sam comment spinners - the City of Los Angeles has a job for you! The City is looking for Public Relations Specialists and if you get assigned to the DWP you can make as much as $94,000 a year!

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

Releasing it late Friday thinking you might not notice (but we can run it first thing Monday morning of course), the City of Los Angeles paid nearly one quarter of a million dollars to for a junket to Israel attended by Mayor Villaraigosa, staffers, Council Members and several local community and business leaders. The Mayor defended the cost of the trip saying that he learned much about airport security in Israel and told the LA Times "I think the taxpayers of Los Angeles can go to bed knowing that the mayor of Los Angeles is doing everything he can to secure our airport and protect . . . the safety of the people of the city."

The City Council will soon be voting on a Hollywood condo development near the legendary Capitol Records building. The City Planning Commission has approved the project but Capitol and it's parent, EMI have filed an appeal as construction will temporary halt recording and potentially damage the famous studios at the site where records have been cut by everyone from Nat King Cole to Green Day. The clowns at the City Council really need to re-think this one. This would be like building condos next to The Louvre.

The Daily News opines that the Los Angeles Unified School District has two Superintendents, one the actual Superintendent Admiral David Brewer who they call a figurehead; the other Deputy Superintendent Ray Cortines who actually runs the show. The problem is we're paying big bucks for both.

The City has worked out a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers to offer shuttle service from Union Station to Dodger Stadium, providing public transit to the ballpark for the first time in several years. The City will pick up the $70,000 price tag for the service which will start after the All-Star break and the Dodgers will cover the costs of marketing. The City is hoping for an average of 1000 riders per home game.

Britney Spears is now an aunt! Marking the latest chapter in a saga of a fabulously wealthy yet still white trash family, the pop diva's 17 year old sister Jaime-Lynn on Thursday gave birth to a daughter - Maddie Briann - in Mississippi. Auntie Brit was on hand but has since returned home to Los Angeles to terrorize the freeways.

Now That's A Big No-No!

Ahh, the saga, the manipulation, and the rule skirting continues.

Less than a week ago, Home Depot sent out some fancy brochures to the residents of Sunland-Tujunga announcing what they call an "Open House" meeting on June 24th at Mt. Gleason School.

Home Depot intends to use this event to promote their controversial proposed store.

There's just a little problem with that though.

LAUSD facilities are not available for corporations or developers, or any other group that is not a legitimate non-profit organization.

According to the requirements of the LAUSD/Civic Center Rules:

"The major function of the Civic Center Permit Office is the issuance of the appropriate permit to allow for the use of school facilities in conformance with the California Education Code mandate and the Board of Education rules, which require that each and every public school facility be made available as a civic center to members of the community and non-profit organizations for
supervised recreational activities, meetings and public discussions, when regular school activities are not disrupted.

To qualify for a permit:
A group must be non-profit.
No money may be charged for admission, nor collected for goods sold. (exceptions exist-please call for requirements). The event must be open to the public."

Home Depot is clearly not a non-profit, and this event, if it is allowed to proceed, will set a precedent for other corporations or developers to use public facilities to advance their business interests.
The recent "Sunland-Tujunga Dialogue" was a City Attorney sponsored event.
This "Open House" is an attempt by a corporation to use school facilities to promote their proposed store.

Additionally, the application to use school facilities states;

"Any form of announcement or advertising regarding activities held on school property for non school purposes must include the following statement: "This meeting is neither sponsored by nor is in any way connected with the Los Angeles Unified School District. If announcement is in printed form, statement must appear in equally large and prominent type".

The brochure that Home Depot sent out announcing this "Open House", has no mention of this required disclaimer.

Home Depot is not a non-profit and is not permitted to use school facilities to promote their business.

Normally, when anyone wants to use a public school for a function, they first have to get the schools principal to sign off. In this case, the principal never had that opportunity, and was simply told by the LAUSD Civic Center Permit office that Home Depot was coming in.

Anyone sensing more collusion between those in power and those with the money?

Having said all that, and knowing how Mayor Sam readers really enjoy fighting the good fights, I'm going to ask a big favor.

Would you please contact the three LAUSD officials listed below, within the next 24 hours, and remind them that taxpayer financed school facilities are not available to corporations to promote their business interests?

Here is the list:

David Brewer
Superintendent of LAUSD
213 241-7000

Julie Korenstein
Board of Education
213 241-6388
julie.korenstein@lausd.net

Kathy Freeman
LAUSD Civic Center Permit Office
818 587-4350


Sunland-Tujunga will greatly appreciate your efforts, as will I.

Hump Day Hotsheet

Business as usual in Sacramento. Another mad taxer is sworn in as Assembly Speaker. Governor Schwarzenegger wants more borrowing to band-aid his bloody budget—and if he doesn’t get his way, a sales tax increase.

LAUSD is not “in the 21st century,” whines Superintendent David Brewer, and therefore needs another multi-billion dollar bond measure. What is this guy talking about? Substandard public education is so 21st century—and besides, who needs new computers when you’ve got a $95 million launch pad to nowhere?

But enough. Ron Kaye says pull the plug:

The issue for many years was the Valley's demand for breakup of the district into several more manageable districts. That's not good enough anymore. LAUSD must be dismantled and completely reorganized.

Congratulations are in order to John Tyler Hammons, 19, who will be sworn in next week as mayor of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Hammons—who won a landslide victory over incumbent Mayor Hershel Ray McBride—intends to continue his college education while governing the town of 38,000.

And finally, look out for a high wind advisory tomorrow afternoon. That’s right—Hillary Clinton is coming to town. Probably best to keep the kiddies indoors.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday

The Mini Mayor has chosen a superintendent for his mini school district. Once again he turns to San Diego to find a bureaucrat, this one, Angela Bass, an administrator in the San Diego schools has long personal ties to the superintendent of the big school district, Admiral David Brewer.

NBC Universal has big plans for their property - which means they need the support of politicians and the community. So why are they not playing ball and supporting the LA River Bikeway? They don't have to, but they should.

The LA County Republicans once again prove they're expert at eating their own. And continue to further relegate themselves to a permanent minority status.

Some geniuses in City Hall thought it might be a good idea to implement toll roads going into LAX. However, other bureaucrats and even a few Clowncilmen find it to be a really dumb idea.

If you want a Walter Moore for Mayor bumper sticker, you can get one for free if you send him a self addressed stamped envelope. Click here to get the details.

Into 2008, Weakly

Joseph Mailander a guy in la • elsewhere • email

The LA Weekly's city desk has been coming up with some backdrafting countertakes on LAUSD matters of late. The latest cover appears to be an instance of payback journalism where an earlier article went too far for the Mayor's office taste.

Remember this article in the Weekly from summer? A fairly responsible article, that. In it, large parts of Monica Garcia's so-called reform package were found to have been drafted by the Mayor's office. The accidental disclosure was a major mistake, a major embarrassment to the Mayor, and Weekly scribe Patrick Range McDonald called them on it. Monica shrugged, McDonald dug deeper and found that the Mayor's reformers had little experience at school reform.

That was then. One can only imagine the subsequent dialog that produced this week's extreme curtseying makeover of a cover story, a 5,000 word hatchet job on the LAUSD's Super Dave Brewer makes it look as though it's the Admiral who has dragged anchor for a year in transforming the District.

Although 50% of the Admiral's distractions, easily, are caused by the Mayor, and the Mayor's office and their crones have spent two years ramping up and cramming through their own agenda for the District, the Mayor's various broadsides are scarcely mentioned. Nor are the daily headaches of managing an inheirited building campaign that's $6 billion dollars more bloated than Boston's Big Dig, nor the original source of the daily conundrum of the enormous payroll problem.

All these problems were contracted during the Romer/Huizar years, when current prez Monica Garcia was Jose's Chief of Staff at the District, and presumably ushered most of these various problem contractors with a big smile into Jose's office, so Jose could make the recommendations to the Board necessary to seal their deals.

Nonetheless, the Weekly makes Monica out to be a whipcracker and Brewer a slacker. But to me, blaming the District's woes on one year of Brewer is a lot like blaming a player for not winning a bad chess position inheirited from a friend of the opponent, in which the ceaselessly bullying opponent keeps knocking pieces off the board all the while.

Brewer may be a little slow to move, but who wouldn't be, given the various scopes of the Herculean problems? Would you move to fix the payroll system if the Board were giving you bids that cost more than the whole damn Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to buy? In blowing the Brewer story out to a 5,000 word cover, the Weekly got pwned by Team Antonio.

Wednesday Hotsheet at 3 a.m.

When I first heard about the Glendale tree-trimming fiasco, it was from a friend, and I simply presumed she had her facts wrong. She didn't, and today Steve Lopez writes it up.

But it's not so very different from what goes on in the City of Los Angeles every day via its kleptocratic business tax program.

Many citizens of LA have been blindsided by the LA "business" tax in which the City Clerk fails to distinguish very well between an enterpreneur and an employee. If you have a desk in someone else's office and work for them, you're probably an employee, but if they pay you via 1099 the City presumes you're a "business owner" and liable to pay business tax.

Of course, the City doesn't bother to review your case or your claim if you simply dutifully pay your bill. So before you pay your bill, and even before you plead your case to the City, get some advice from an accountant about it.

Did you read that on the City's page linked above? "Revenue generated by this program will be used to fund future business tax reform and affordable housing." The money, in short, goes to perpetuate the kleptocratic program itself, and the rest of it goes to the same damn developers who sponsor your City Councilpeople and Mayor.

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LAUSD has hired two image consultants. Strangely, one of them will receive almost the exact same salary a City Councilperson receives: $178,000 for a year's work.

Supe David Brewer blames the expenditure on quotidien fishwraps; they "love to focus on all the negative going on in the district" he says.

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Transpo Committee Chair Wendy Greuel says that we need to get people out of their cars, and el Alcalde fully supports that, the Daily News says. And? Next steps, anyone? There aren't any, so it looks like they're going in for another big round of paperwork, probably driving in their cars to dozens of meetings and photo-ops to put a strategic plan together.

Remember, with the City, it's not actually doing something, it's creating the illusion of doing something that matters.

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The old NBC Burbank site is indeed being bought by M. David Paul and Associates, the biggest player in Burbank.

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I've never seen my name floated before for anything, so this was fun. But I could imagine Council voting up or down on yours truly.

LAUSD Sticking It To The Little League? The Sequel

Time for some public outrage. A few years back, the Los Angeles Unified School District tried to charge youth groups, sports teams, etc. for use of school facilities. Thanks to an outcry from the citizenry, the District backed off. Once again however school officials are making noise about charging youth groups substantial fees for using school campuses.

The problem with this - beyond the obvious hardship it will have on these groups - is that in recent years the LAUSD has built - at great impact on many communities - new campuses with the understanding of "joint use." That is that school facilities such as playgrounds, sports fields, classrooms, etc. could be used by the community for purposes that benefit the neighborhood when school is not in session.

So it's time to gear up again and let Superintendent Admiral David Brewer know this is just not okay.