Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Thursday

You make fun - yet I'm the one attempting to do some good. Or do you really want a neighborhood where people piss on your stoop every night? Bohemia, Bohemia's a fallacy in your head. This is Calcutta, Bohemia is dead. (with apologies to Jonathan Larson and props to Ron Kaye)

Democrats across the land, including Joe B, were pleased when the Obama Administration filed suit against the State of Arizona over their controversial immigration reform law, SB1070. However that's not exactly the case for Blue Staters within the Grand Canyon territory as nearly the entire Arizona Democratic Congressional delegation and the current Attorney General and Democratic nominee for Governor Terry Goddard expressed reservations about the DOJ suit. The Arizona Dems are fearful of a backlash within the state, where immigration is a hot issue, if it appears that Obama is meddling. At the same time these Dems should be concerned that Latino voters may see them as vendidos and either stay home or support other candidates. No doubt a tough place for them to be in and Obama could have probably helped them more by first making some stand on the border before calling out the lawyers and offering up red meat to the liberal base (as might be said about the Republicans who promoted SB1070 as well).

The DWP drama continued at City Hall Wednesday when interim General Manager Austin Beutner failed to show up to a joint Council committee meeting reviewing Controller Wendy Greuel's recent audit of the utility. The no-show by Beutner or anyone else of significance from the DWP incensed Members Paul Koretz and Greig Smith who both found the snub to be unprecedented. In other DWP news Councilman Tom LaBonge has cancelled the DWP's annual Holiday Light Show in Griffith Park due to water main construction.

No surprise here. A Rand Corporation study finds that the cost of pot could drop significantly if a ballot measure legalizing the crop passes in November. Among the low prices the move could encourage "pot tourism" in California as well as have an impact on smuggling from Mexico. In the meantime a group of African American leaders are calling on California NAACP President Alice Huffman to resign her post due to her support of the legal grass proposition.

If you're passing by LA Trade Tech College Friday morning and think that Al Queda has hit don't worry. It's actually a simulated homeland security exercise coordinated by the LA Sheriff's Department. The exercise will involve a Blue Line train and about 35 actors in a fake terrorist attack staged to test local responders. We send our props to the Sheriff's office!

Hooray for New Math

When does 1600 = 76 ?

When Antonio Villaraigosa is doing the math.

We already kind of knew this, but of the 1600 jobs the Mayor claimed would be lost with his budget, 1200 are vacant positions. Meanwhile, 324 of the 400 employees in filled positions will be transferred to other open positions in other departments. This leaves just 76 unlucky City employees who will actually become unemployed July 1.

This of course begs the question:

Besides the Bank of DWP who doesn't have to share any of the sacrifice with the rest of us losers, what other departments have open positions that weren't automatically scuttled with the Mayor's budget?

Weren't all unfilled positions except LAPD officers pulled as part of Tony's "shared sacrifice"?

LAPD has open positions, but your average City service worker will not be qualified for LAPD jobs. So where are all of these workers going? DWP?


(cue Tom Lehrer-like piano and equally plain singing voice)

Who is the biggest loser in this budget? Between loss of services, increases in fees, and a possible impending bankruptcy, the citizens of Los Angeles are the biggest losers in this farce.

People will probably come to realize this as they find they cannot put their kids in summer school since LAUSD has canceled that. Then they try to take the kids to the park or place them in recreation programs, but the parks are closed, filthy, and there are no open recreation programs because there is no money left in the General Fund for Rec and Parks. Then they get their new DWP bill and find themselves in Tier 2 all of a sudden. So they pack the kids up and head into the desert for a vacation but run into DWP bulldozing their favorite natural area for power lines. Then it's back into town where they find the temperature is 100 degrees F and their air conditioning is not working due to DWP rolling blackouts. So they miss work most of the summer caring for the kids in sweltering conditions since they have to stay home. Finally, eviction notices arrive at their home by Thanksgiving, while simultaneously DWP successfully lights up hundreds of thousands of garish bulbs for 6 hours each night in the repetitive Holiday Lights Festival. Almost a million cars idle for hours on end waiting to view this wonder. The resulting carbon load in LA spikes insanely for the 30 days the Festival is in operation, negating any greening of LA's power system that may have occurred in the months before the Festival commenced.

Looks like the Summer of Love 2 is gonna be a toughie, folks. Gird your loin-regions.



Additional:

Ron Kaye outlines more Prop B-'green energy'-Mayor-DWP shenanigans being voted on in today's Clowncil meeting. This time the CRA - a department chock full of financial tomfoolery all by itself - is involved.

Excellent flood of City employees pounding on the Clowncil about cuts to jobs and City services in public comment today! One firefighter just asked why DWP is sacred. Tune in if you can.