Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Thursday

 

Dopey Los Angles City Clowncil Members found yet another potential landmine in it's goofy boycott of Arizona's SB1070: They would have to end SuperShuttle service at LAX because the popular airport transport service has an office in Arizona. The Council voted for now to ignore that fact and let the shuttles run.  Oh and continue to pay the city over a million dollars in fees.

By way of Griffith Park Wayist we learn that Anthem Blue Cross CEO Leslie Margolin is resigning.  Anthem came under fire earlier in the year for allegedly raising rates on cancer patients.  Bonus points if you can remember the recent State Assembly candidate who benefited from a nearly $100K independent expenditure from Anthem Blue Cross?

Time for me and JoeB to have the last laugh. It's official Phil Jennerjahn announces that the goofy effort to recall Mayor Villaraigosa has failed.  Phil blames the economy saying political fundraisers aren't doing well.  That flies in the face of last Saturday's Clean Sweep kick-off turned out 200 locals in the heat and raised several thousand dollars. It's all about organization Phil.

Don't tell Carmen Trutanich but the City of Oakland has approved a plan to allow four industrial pot growing facilities to locate within the East Bay's city's limits.  Hundreds of applicants will compete for the license to one of the four spots with the hope of becoming the "Silicon Valley of weed." Speaking of Trutanich looks like Walter Moore, who is currently the target of a jihad by Villaraigosa flunky Mike Trujillo, is on his a jihad of his own against the City Attorney.

Members of one of Mayor Villaraigosa's favorite unions, UNITE HERE, plans to shut down traffic during rush hour Thursday evening on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood.  The union is pissed off that hotel janitors are not paid the same wage as computer programmers.  If that's on your commute, plan an alternate route.

Filmmaker Shawn Nee has produced a short documentary that tells the sad tale of an elderly gay man whose partner died and the man lost his home because Social Security does not recognize domestic partnerships.

Saturday Hotsheet

"♫ It's all about me.  It's all about me. Whatever I do the camera's there too.  I'm 5-foot-three! ♫"

A man who has been making violent threats against Mayor Villaraigosa has been ordered to stay at least 100 yards from the Mayor, Getty House and City Hall for the next three years.  Daniel John Molnar called City Hall last month threatening to "take out" the Mayor.  Molnar claims to be a former CIA agent and says Villaraigosa is trying to kill him.  Despite all of this District Attorney Steve Cooley has declined to prosecute Molnar.

Now that Phil Jennerjahn's recall of Mayor Villaraigosa has come to an end and a reported recall of Councilwoman Janice Hahn appears to be leaderless the focus on efforts to change leadership at City Hall now shifts to Ron Kaye's Clean Sweep program.  The effort which has caught the attention of a diverse array of community leaders seeks to recruit and groom solid candidates to challenge incumbent City Council members in next year's elections.

Contaminated ground water in the San Fernando Valley is spreading across underground aquifers at an alarming rate according to the DWP.  The number of wells closed at anytime has gone up significantly. While the EPA has designated several superfund cleanup sites and is actively working to clean the water the DWP has to increase it's purchase of water for the City from a rapidly shrinking number of sources. Stay tuned.

And here's your Ticketgate nugget for today.  We noted yesterday that in the wake of the Mayor's scandal over free tickets to various events that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck plans to now pay for free tickets he received to the Oscars this year.  The Enterprise Report has a photo of both the Mayor and the Chief at the Oscars looking so very dapper.

Councilmember Jose Huizar is blogging about his efforts to create more transparent government.  Ok you over there - stop laughing dum dum.  Ah geez Red Spot don't say "me am bepuzzled as Councilman last seen as Jose Huizar tries to bamboozle each the stakeholder."  Well anyway Jose has made a motion that the DWP, Port and Airport put their budgets online.  How about this Huizy why don't you and your colleagues put your campaign and officeholder books online for all to see and we mean the real books not the bullshit stuff the Ethics Commission chokes down?

Jennerjahn: Recall Going Nowhere

With scandals and investigations going on around Mayor Villaraigosa he goes into his holiday weekend with perhaps a little less stress.

Nearly three months to the day that our April Fools' post "predicted" it would happen, and for pretty much the same reasons, gadfly Phil Jennerjahn appears to be on the verge of dropping his efforts to recall the Mayor.

Writing at his Jennerjahn Report blog Phil states that the recall campaign is "facing some daunting obstacles, and if the situation does not change, this initial Recall attempt will not succeed."

Among the challenges against the effort according to Jennerjahn is that he has collected nowhere near the quarter million valid signatures required to put the effort on the ballot, that fundraising has been woefully inadeqaute and that there is little time to turn things around before the August 18th deadline required for filing the recall petitions.

Phil also complains about a lack of support and help on the campaign saying, "I can't do everything on my own, people...I can't help a City that won't cooperate."

Jennerjahn says he is open to starting over with a new recall effort but only if individuals and organizations with funds and resources step forward to join in.

Phil Jennerjahn Proves He's Not Serious About the Goofy Recall!

Phil Jennerjahn I thought this video was pretty cool. Recommended to me by Tony Robbins.

Media Geeks Advance Marketing Tech - Video - Wired

www.wired.com

Marketing media lab Obscura Digital specializes in projects like mapping buildings with light, and creating interactive pool tables and touchscreen displays of rock memorabilia.

16 minutes ago · Comment · · Share

Michael Higby

Phil when are you going to tell me how many signatures you have? You should have about 30,000 by now right?

14 minutes ago ·

Phil Jennerjahn

I have NO IDEA how many signatures we have. I'm not worried about it. You shouldn't be either.
We are only 11 days into a 4 month campaign. We have literally, thousands of petitions out in the field in peoples hands. Until we get them back, I couldn't tell you.

8 minutes ago

Michael Higby

Phil everything I know about business or politics is it's all about metrics. If you have no idea and you don't care that proves you are not in this to win and you have no clue at all about how to run something.

The Recall City Hall Campaign Update

Phil Jennerjahn wears his shades on a gloomy day.

The RecallCityHall campaign is now 9 days old. Led by 3 failed Republican mayoral candidates and a pothead, the recall campaign is refusing to reveal their signature count, their number of volunteers, or even who is in charge. The recall effort was started by Wisconsin transplant, former mayoral candidate, and "entertainer" (read: birthday party clown) Phil Jennerjahn and his girlfriend, marijuana activist Dege Coutee.

After a disastrous press conference held on the south lawn of City Hall on April 20th (no one showed up) and a weird attempt at a chest thumping announcement of the recall campaign during the LA City Council public comments segment by Walter Moore and Phil Jennerjahn, the campaign has gone into stealth mode. Very few updates at the RecallCityHall.org site, Walter Moore has all but vanished, Phil Jennerjahn has returned to posting self-promoting videos of himself at his site, and Dege Coutee is doing whatever Dege does. David Hernandez remains the sole voice actually trying to take the recall effort seriously.

So the question is;

How many signatures has the campaign gathered?

This is important because the campaign has to gather over 2000 valid signatures per day, every day, 7 days per week for 120 days to meet the 240,000+ needed to meet recall requirements. This means that as of today, Phil needs to have 18,000 + valid signatures.

If the campaign is not meeting these daily goals then they need to re-evaluate their strategy, their distribution of volunteers, their fund-raising needs, and they should share this information with the people who are donating their time, efforts, and money to the recall campaign. Instead... the campaign has only offered up silence.

Several disgruntled recall campaign volunteers have made it known that they have no idea how much money is being raised, how many signatures have been gathered, or had any strategy whatsoever shared with them except the standard "we can do it, you go get the signatures" pump.

Are the volunteers working to gather signatures being jerked around by an opportunist and candidate for congress who conceived this recall campaign in the hopes it would propel him all the way to Washington, D.C.?

For your consideration....


From Phil Jennerjahn's blog on January 28, 2010 announcing his idea for the recall campaign:

"Something happened to me today that I am eager to share with readers of The Jennerjahn Report, but I can't release the details just yet. I will soon, though.

It is an idea that is so big....so revolutionary, that I believe it is going to change American history and that it will put me into national prominence.

Tonight was a huge night in human history.
A huge step forward for personal freedom.
And you are going to be some of the first people to ever hear about it."



We'll keep you posted.

My Offer to Phil Jennerjahn

Please put this on KCAL 9 News.

As you know I've been dubious of Phil Jennerjahn's recall since he first brought it up a year ago and am even more dubious seeing how much of a bust his kick-off was.  I am also concerned by Phil's statement that the recall will propel him to "national prominence" and that fact that Phil can count up all the media hits he has so far but he can't tell me how many signatures he has.

However...

If by the time of the signature gathering period Phil gets close to 249,999 signatures I will personally come to City Hall, be the 250,000th signer and make my first ever, debut public comment performance before the City Council and personally admit that I was wrong and Phil was right.

I will also treat Phil to a dinner after at Richard Riordan's Pantry.

Game on, Phil?

PS: I've put this on Mayor Sam stationary so it's official.

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Wednesday

"One down."

Recalling his abuelito and hoping for sunny days ahead Mayor Villaraigosa laid out massive jobs and budget cuts for the City in his annual State of the City address.  The event was indeed somber; the Mayor only drawing applause when he made reference to historically low crime rates in the City.  Villaraigosa also lambasted critics as "clucking pundits" who were proven wrong by voters who approved the controversial phone tax, Measure S. However Clucker-in-Chief Mulholland Terrace recalls a 2008 op-ed piece he authored for the Los Angeles Times clearly outlining the fraud that Measure S was and how the voters were duped by the grandson of Pedro Acosta.

What was promised to be a big kick-off to Phil Jennerjahn's attempt to recall Mayor Villaraigosa turned out to be a big thud.  Phil reported earlier Tuesday evening to have completed one petition which if the version we have access to online is correct, the two page document only has space for five signatures. Among the latest questions about this effort - which could distract from other efforts to bring about reform in Los Angeles - are 1) if this is not about anyone's ego why is Walter Moore being touted as the first signer of the petition and 2) If Phil's strategy for victory includes pulling in disgruntled City workers why does he post commentary that "public employees are killing this country?"

When you're a carpetbagger running for a statewide seat in a state you didn't grow up in what do you? Bring in your former boss who happens to be a former President of the United States.  Andrei Cherny, formerly of AD40 here in the Valley is running for State Treasurer of Arizona is hosting a big campaign event featuring President Bill Clinton, for whom Cherny was once a wonderkind speechwriter for.  And to prove he's a man of the people, if you can't afford the $840 to meet the former philanderer-in-chief in person all you po' folks can ante up $25 for the chance to win a raffle to get into the party.  An insider recently told me that Cherny has little chance to win the race for Treasurer, an insignificant position in Arizona state government, but he's setting himself up for a Congressional race in 2012.

Now that he has succeeded in getting the final phase of the controversial Playa Vista development approved, CEO Steve Soboroff is stepping down.  The LA Times reports that the move appears to be voluntary and quotes the former Riordan administration insider as wanting to move on to his next big challenge.

Goofy Recall Afternoon Snaps on Facebook

Phil Jennerjahn Two televisions stations have confirmed they will be at City Hall tomorrow morning to cover the Recall. 9:30 a.m. City Hall, south side.

2 hours ago · Comment ·

Michael Higby

Who dat? Nickolodeon and Comedy Central?

7 minutes ago ·

Phil Jennerjahn

2 & 7

5 minutes ago

Michael Higby

Aren't they usually at City Hall anyway?

a few seconds ago ·