Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday

The Times recaps their endorsements for Tuesday's ballot.

Rich Goodman is running for City Council on $4,000. He might win. Okay, back to reality, his opponent, incumbent Tony Cardenas is backed by the developer-union holy alliance that owns this City. But then again Goodman got the endorsement of the LA Times and Cardenas won in 2007 with fewer votes than that which could fill the Nokia Theatre. So who knows.

While he tries to get a higher than allowed fence for his Mayoral manse, Antonio Vilaraigosa wants to scale back benefits for retired city workers.



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Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Tuesday

Another story that Council President Eric Garcetti is seriously considering running for Mayor.  Like Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney in Iowa, EGar has gone to Westwood.

When the real Mayor Sam had his TV show, his sidekick was none other than Wally George.  Franklin Avenue has pulled up an old video of Wally's show from back in the early 90s.  Wally was definitely the forerunner of most of the hot boiled cable political talk shows of today.

The Daily News' Mariel Garza sums up elections in Los Angeles.  Most folks who could vote don't pay attention and "the passionate people who run for elective office each year are an inspiring bunch, if occasionally wacky." How could both be true?

The City is still struggling with a medical marijuana policy following a court case.  Just legalize the stuff.

Last Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet of 2010

A group of public housing residents who had protested at the home of LA's Housing Authority head, Rudolf Montiel, and then found themselves evicted saw their evictions overturned by the agency Thursday. When the evictions first became public a few months ago, several members of the City Council expressed outrage.  In addition to overturning the evictions, the agency settle with the residents to pay their legal fees and provide computers onsite.

Councilman Dennis Zine will recuse himself from voting on an LAX contract because his girlfriend is an employee of one of the bidders.  Zine has been reportedly dating Veronica Becerra, who works for contractor Tutor Perini who wants a $270 million contract to build a utility plant at the airport.  Airport staff however have recommended to the Council the bid by a competing firm.

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Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Wednesday

The biggest threat to the LA oligarchy since Tom Bradley busted up the Committee of 25, Rudy Martinez, has opened his first campaign office.



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Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Wednesday

What day is today?

The DWP may find they screwed the pooch in pissing off the City Council, most notably new Councilman Paul Krekorian. The utility, which once was golden, has fallen victim to mismanagement, waste, fraud and abuse leading to systematic failure of it's water and power systems and it's credit rating shot to hell. With their arrogant attempts to raise rates and lying to the Council as of late the Council has now one-upped the DWP in advancing a plan that a long promised DWP rate-payer advocate would not be an appointed position accountable only to bureaucrats but an elected position with real power over the agency. Stay tuned.

One day after announcing his candidacy for City Council activist Stephen Box is finding reaction ranging from supportive to dubious to slanderous. Readers at LAist were generally positive but some wanted more detail from Box and others are daunted by the challenge of besting a sitting incumbent Councilman. In the meantime fellow CD4 candidate Phil Jennerjahn posted a blistering attack on his blog accusing Box of being a Scientologist and implying his campaign be funded by the controversial church which Jennerjahn alleges of having plans to take control of CD4 where the Scientologists have a significant presence.

Speaking of CD4 Councilmember Tom LaBonge may already be feeling the heat of contested election when he put on hold his plan to implement higher taxes on homeowners to pay for libraries. It may be LaBonge did not want to hand his opponents yet another issue to use against him in the current anti-tax environment.

Forget deficits, jobs, crime and non-transparent government. The folks at Franklin Ave - a blog targeted at hip young professionals in Los Feliz - thought that Tom LaBonge was a great Councilman thanks to his cleaning up trash at local Catholic churches and his passion for pumpkin bread made by nuns. But now the Franklins are not happy with LeBong for hassling the food trucks and cancelling the annual DWP Holiday Light Show in Griffith Park. Memo to Stephen Box, Phil Jennerjahn and anyone else running for CD4: This is what you will have to fight against if you are to best LeBong. Indeed the SLAP happy folks, Mayor Sam Dum Dums, Neighborhood Council types and friends of Griffith Park clearly understand the problem with this guy as Councilman. However they are few and far between. Don't say I didn't give you a heads up. Fight for the tacos.

You haven't heard about Ticketgate in a few days but things are still going on behind the scenes. The LA Times reports that a majority of members of the LA Ethics Commission said that elected officials should disclose all free tickets to events they receive, even if they consider attendance at the event part of their "official duties." Villaraigosa however isn't the only mayor getting free tickets to events. Curt Pringle, the Republican mayor of Anaheim, attended the annual Major League Baseball All Star Game hosted at Anaheim Stadium. The difference here however is that Pringle's tickets were purchased by Anaheim for Pringle and the mayor paid income taxes on the value of the tickets.

Looks like Michael Jackson not only got taxpayers to pick up the cost of his funeral but they may also be on the hook for a permanent shrine to the controversial artist. Los Angeles Assemblyman Mike Davis is pushing a plan for the State to buy the 2600 acre Neverland Ranch to turn into a state park. While the current asking price for the property is $100 million, CurbedLA notes by comparison legendary newspaperman William Randolph Hearst's estate San Simeon was donated to the state.

Congresswoman Jane Harman is coming under fire from her November opponent saying that Harman, a multi-millionaire whose husband made his fortune in the home stereo industry, is attempting to buy Newsweek Magazine which is currently for sale. Mattie Fein is saying that Harman wishes to seek to control the content of the newsmagazine on issues of importance to her; creating a clear conflict of interest.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday

Former State Senator and 60s sixties radical Tom Hayden writes in the redesigned LA Times his concerns about the ethical implications of William Bratton's departure as LAPD Chief.  Bratton is going to work for Michael Cherkasky whose firm was hired by the City of Los Angeles to monitor the LAPD's compliance with a use of force consent decree. Hayden wants an independent investigation of Bratton's relationship with Cherkasky and to determine if Cherkasky had already made plans to hire Bratton as soon as the consent decree was lifted. With investigations by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich this issues adds to the laundry list of questions that must be asked before Bratton leaves town for good.

Los Angeles County's Young Democrats endorsed Los Angeles School Board member Tamar Galatzan for LA City Council District 2 Thursday night. Results were 79% for Tamar Galatzan, 17% for Paul Krekorian, 4% all others/no endorsement. 

Good point by Jason  Burns at Metrobloging. California and Los Angeles citizens voted to tax themselves to build more rail lines.  Yet the train cars are being ordered from Korea, Italy and Germany, all countries whose collective asses we kicked in various wars.  With high unemployment, recession and Obama stimulus efforts why aren't these train cars being built in LA?

The always great Latinopolitics.com blog notes that Orange County Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez has gone beyond the town hall meeting plan.  Sanchez is involved in "prayer vigils" for health care.  Given some of the reports Latino Politics has had about Rep. Sanchez's "extracurricular activities" it appears she better attend confession.

In case you were wondering my view of the LA Times recent website redesign, you can read it here.

Congrats to Franklin Avenue bloggers Mike and Maria on the birth of their second son, Nathan Antonio (Antonio???) on August 11th.  Baby came in at 8 pounds, 3 oz. Mom and child are doing great as are Dad and big brother Evan, 4.5 yrs.  Our best wishes to the happy family!

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday

Assemblyman Paul Krekorian is looking more and more like he's running to succeed Wendy Greuel on the City Council following her ascencion to City Controller. We reported months ago the other Paul K was planning to run and now the Daily News reports he has rented an apartment in CD2 to establish residency while he mulls over the decision.  Stay tuned.


Great article by Jon Regardie in the LA Downtown News about Mayor Villaraigosa's Summer of Love 2.  Dating former Miss South Carolina and Betty styler Lu Parker it appears the Mayor has taken to saying "Y'all."  Despite the Mayor's protests,  Regardie says that Villaraigosa :has made the public almost as interested in him as they are in Octomom."

Speaking of Summer of Love 2, the box office returns are not the same as the original.  Eastside blog Franklin Avenue ran a poll and their readers - by 65% to 23% - prefer Mirthala Salinas over Lu Parker.  Also nabbing votes were write-in candidates such as Sharon Tay, Paul Moyer and Huell Howser; none of whom I was aware had dated the Mayor.


Janice Hahn was just re-elected to her third and final term and already potential successors are lining up to seek her seat in 2013.  Among those possibly interested are former CD15 Councilman Rudy Svorinich who thanks to Measure R could pull a Richard Alarcon one term return act and be an immediate lame duck; also considering former South Bay based school board member Mike Lansing.

The Worse TV Show Ever?

Franklin Avenue's always fun Retro Friday marked that the NBC television network is going through it's once-a-generation visit to the toilet as America's fourth place web.

The Peacock however has been there before and as the Franklins note it was the early 80s that they served up delightful trash such Harper Valley PTA, Nero Wolfe and The Brady Brides.

Yet FA forgot what is the defininitive worst ever NBC show, if not the worst show of any network.

Supertrain.



Supertrain, which was really nothing more than The Love Boat on rails, lasted barely two months and only 9 episodes.  As the most expensive television show to produce up that point, the program nearly bankrupted NBC and as Wikipedia notes the show is considered "one of the greatest television flops."

Supertrain featured a super-speed, extra-wide train that ran from New York to Los Angeles in 36 hours.

However, NBC need not worry.  History shows things will get better.  For every Supertrain, Sheriff Lobo, etc. there's a Cheers, Cosby, Seinfeld, ER and Friends.

And what of the then fantastical train itself? California may very well be getting something very similar.


 

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday

I guess it's one thing for City employees to buy bottled water on the City's dime when the DWP supposedly has perfectly good tap water; it's the height of hubris for the Los Angeles County Supervisors to pay someone to peel the brand name labels off water the County purchases and affix a County label to them.  Who's boneheaded idea was this? Zev's?

Mayor Villaraigosa wants to plant a million trees in Los Angeles.  He just planted another 55.  According to the LA Weekly, at the current rate, Villaraigosa will have planted his million trees sometime by the 2020s, well past his time as Mayor.  In the meantime, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is well ahead of schedule in his tree plantings.

Westside White Guy didn't get his invite.  Mayor Villaraigosa held a birthday party bash for former California Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (to get Willie's endorsment for Governor?) at Getty House recently. WWG assumes the Times didn't get an invitation either or forgot about because (GASP!) America's Favorite Suburban Crank had to read about the party in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Kevin, the question to ask is not what did the Los Angeles Times know and when did they know it but were any public resources expended on this non-City business event?

What was loaded on the iPod that President Obama gave Britain's Queen Elizabeth? Besides some photos of past visits to the US by Her Majesty, a greatest hits of oratory by The One, himself.

Efforts to rebrand a portion of Van Nuys as Sherman Oaks do not appear to be picking up much support outside the group behind the campaign.  Besides opposition from both the Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys Neighborhood Councils, Van Nuys based Councilmember Tony Cardenas is against it.  The area's other Council Member, Wendy Greuel is remaining neutral.  At a recent community event, I heard whispers that rebranding effort leader, LA's solution in search of a problem, Laurette Healey, is rumored to be using the effort to jump into the race to replace Greuel who will become City Controller in July.

LA Times archictecture critic Christopher Hawthorne is the first person to frame the billboard issue in a rational light.  While Hawthorne views that the city's policy is broken and that much signage is often schlock he does not see billboards as the latest scourge since Al Quaeda or Rock of Love Bus with Brett Michaels as do a small but very vocal band of billboard wackos.  Hawthorne also makes a point that I've made to local activitsts that crime and other issues in our city far outweigh the singage hysteria, which is refreshing.

Franklin Avenue picks up on Mickey Kaus' bizarre plea for someone to bankroll a Westside newspaper. I thought we had that, it's called the LA Times? And if you want a myopic Westside view that is more immediate than fishwrap, you can always find it here.  The Westside wants a newspaper? Yea, people in Hell want ice water.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday

If there is a tipping point for the City's controversial practice of offering special event fee waivers - that is covering the costs of traffic control, police, trash, etc. for events held in the City, history may show that it was Tuesday when the Council approved over $3K in waivers for something called :"Dyke Day." Many gays and lesbians were offended at the approval of an event that many feel includes a derogatory term; many other Angelenos were offended that Tuesday the Council approved another $75K in the waivers at a time when Los Angeles may be facing bankruptycy. The word of "Dyke Day" kicked up quite the meme in the blogs-LA-phere with coverage at LAist and RonKayeLA.

The Beckford Elementary School Parents Blog gives a good blow by blow of the scene from Tuesday's LA Unified Board of Education meeting where teachers' union members and other activtists were on hand to protest planned teacher layoffs. The District will send layoff notices to about 9,000 employees as a precautionary measure should the LAUSD actually have to reduce staff later this year.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is leading the pack in the number of people who are following his micro-blogging "tweets" on the Twitter service. Newsom has over 43,000 followers while potential opponent Mayor Villaraigosa has just 798. Your favorite old, dead Republican Mayor has 48 followers and I'm not even running for office.

We send our best wishes to Downtown Central City East Blogger Don Garza. As you may know Don has been living and blogging from Skid Row for several years and has experienced health problems due to his living situation. Don now has an opportunity to create a blog design firm and had his first presentation Tuesday. Good luck to Don who not only wants to earn a living but use the resources his business will provide him to help the homeless. That's not only admirable, it's the way things should be.

Franklin Avenue reports on a new local digital channel for New York City created by NBC, "New York Non-Stop." Of course comes the usual whine "Why don't we have this in LA?" But, as even the Franklins note, LA does have an NBC digital station, the excellent KNBC News Raw. The station is able to use the expanded time it has to cover imporant issues in-depth and has recently produced well-done reporting on the nonsense at City Hall and outshone all the local media in covering the recent elections. On the other hand, New York Non-Stop is the usual namby-pamby crap seen on shows like "2 on the Town" or "Eye on LA" that covers what yuppies had for dinner or some artist that is building the Mona Lisa out of trash. Nice stuff, but we already have that programming.

And finally, Valley Doll says she's heard a rumor that a member of the City Council we all know and love may have knocked up their "partner." Congrats on the coming bundle of joy!

Mayor Sam Takes a Dump

Franklin Avenue finds a YouTube clip of the old, dead Republican Mayor attempting to take his seat after an aide had removed it. They were nutty back then!

Mayor Sam's Hot Sheet for Wednesday

Cirque Du Soleil has signed a multi-year agreement to stage a new Hollywood themed show at the Kodak Theater. This agreement makes the exotic Canadian circus troupe the only other tenant at the struggling venue along with the Academy Awards. No event waivers though please. Of course Mayor V showed up at the photo op today; take a look at a weird ass photo of the Mayor and a "friend" from the LA Times via Franklin Avenue.

If you're part of the NIMBY, CAVE and/or BANANA movements this place sounds like utopia for granola loving liberals like you - a blogger lives in some unnamed city where Wal-Mart (mis-spelled Wallmart) is illegal, there's a Trader Joe's where one can sign petitions and developers who would build low-income housing are just not welcome.

If a department store put out a sign that said "No Wetback Documents Allowed" when it came to applying for credit there would be a firestorm. So why is it no one is disturbed by the actions of a furniture store near Washington, D.C. that is advertising "Credito sin papeles de gringo?" Racism is racism and both comments are equally offensive.

If you're thinking of deep frying your turkey, the LAFD suggests you think twice. Not only is it not that healthy, unless you have the right equipment, enough open space and know what you're doing its really dangerous. Every year we hear stories of someone who burns down their garage trying to cook their holiday bird in a vat of boiling oil. By the way, I like the way the LAFD is going about this - warning and educating people rather than the usual nanny state tactic of banning it.

Franklin Avenue Scoops Drudge; Is McIntyre on Way Out?

We mentioned it here but it looks like our favorite little bohemian eastside blog Franklin Avenue scooped mega linker Matt Drudge on the resurrection of Don Imus.

Drudge reports that the "I-Man" has inked a 10 figure multi-year deal with Citadel Broadcasting, the new owner of ABC Radio for a show on their new york outlet, WABC (apparently replacing morning hosts Guardian Angel founder Curtis Sliwa and civil rights attorney Ron Kuby).

The good news for Imus could be bad news for KABC morning man Doug McIntyre. KABC is also owned by Citadel.

We remember that Citadel went to the mat with KABC to bounce Marc Germain, formerly known as Mr. KABC, in order to air a two hour syndicated program from WABC hosted by right wing nutjob Mark Levin (I'm a hardcore Republican and even I don't find two hours of yelling at liberals or bashing Bill Clinton entertaining). As a domino effect this also led to the departure of Kevin James from KABC in order to air a syndicated and ill-fitting late night program by longtime morning man Peter Tilden.

Obviously Imus is a far bigger name than Levin and with a tens of millions of dollars on the line potentially, you've got to believe its only a matter of time before Citadel tells Doug McIntyre they're giving Imus his slot and if he wants he can have Al Rantel's 45 minute slot at 11:00 a.m. (maybe).

McIntyre - though hosting an intelligent, substantive and popular morning show - has never been able to break past the ratings behemoth that KFI's Bill Handel is. Handel has a years ahead jump on McIntyre on the slot and the benefit of a far more powerful signal that reaches most of Southern California as opposed to KABC's weaker signal that is concentrated on LA and most of Orange County. Though KABC's listeners skew higher demographically than KFI and gets them high end sponsors, Citadel still may find it more economically practical to air syndicated programming.

Companies like Citadel are turning to offering syndicated program on their local outlets as its more cost effective and can earn more profits. Nothing wrong with that and no we don't need a government solution for it.

What we can do is change the channel - and let KABC know that if McIntyre is let go, its hasta la vista baby. It probably won't work but they at least need to hear from us.