LA's Paranoid, Paralyzed Governments, Part 1

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - With apologies to rockers Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe as I riff on their hit song title, but what's so scary 'bout truth, transparency and integrity in Los Angeles governments?

To some of us here on Mayor Sam, on DanielGuss.Substack.com and in similar outlets around Southern California, civic engagement means more than volunteering to clean up a park, handing out groceries at the food bank or comforting dogs at the animal pound.

It also means exploring politicians' and governments' truthfulness, transparency and integrity by examining public records, asking questions and calling out those who dodge direct accountability.

Shoot us a note if you ever hear a politician encouraging that type of civic engagement.

In the meanwhile, we've got examples of how asking LA politicians fair-but-probing questions has resulted in a costly and time-consuming cloud of paranoia and paralysis hovering over their offices after a slew of our recent stories.

To read the rest of today's column, jump on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com sign-up for my free newsletter and share it with friends.

Bass Pick Backs Out

@TheGussReport on Twitter - On Tuesday, a prominent Los Angeles attorney who had been nominated by Mayor Karen Bass to serve on the uber-mundane Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System (LACERS), was unanimously confirmed by City Council.

A few minutes later, city personnel sheepishly advised that the nominee withdrew his name from consideration, requiring their undoing the appointment and raising a few questions.

Not at City Council, but here.  Like...

• Why wasn't this accomplished attorney appointed to a logical post, like civil rights boards or the LA Police Commission?
• Why was this man nominated by Bass, confirmed by City Council, with no apparent qualifications to oversee LACERS' tens of billions of dollars?
• Why did City Council vote on his nomination despite his failure to provide financial disclosures, as is required by law?
• And what, if anything, does it have to do with this 1974 one-hit wonder? 

To read this entire column for free, jump on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com, and sign-up for my free newsletter.  

Karma: Identity Crisis at LAPD

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - The Los Angeles Police Department finds itself in a genuinely catastrophic and dangerous situation, of which it is the sole architect with no good options.

It pains me to type this, but that's karma for you.

While wishing safety for them all, the flippant response comes from years of the LAPD's unapologetic efforts to intimidate and retaliate for columns I wrote about it, LA politicians and a City Hall that fails and cheats the rest of us.

Ironically, this crisis is a grander version of what the LAPD did to me, twice.

To read my entire column, jump on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com and sign-up for my free newsletter while you're there.  Also, follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Last Week At LAPD Is Why Young People Increasingly Say ACAB

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - Stylish merch and insular, politicized law enforcement is how the Los Angeles Police Department loses the youth branding war, its officers and the future.

There's little doubt that the LAPD's passive-aggressive non-response to a media inquiry I made last week is due to its embarrassment, and perhaps feeling cornered, by my two latest columns.  They detailed how it and the LAFD covered up disturbing recordings of 2021 domestic violence and murder/suicide threats by LAFD Deputy Chief Kristina "Kady" Kepner against her then-live-in-love-interest and, in a separate alleged incident, against current squeeze, LAPD Detective Scarlett Martinez, all three of whom are women.

That's why today's column at my free Substack also explores why current anti-LAPD sentiment is as easy as 1312, or in the parlance of today's youth culture, ACAB, which means All Cops Are Bastards or All  Cops Are Bad.

And then there's the ill-conceived Twitter poll that the LAPD ran and subsequently deleted, but not before a critic captured and questioned.

Go check it out and sign-up for a free subscription, where I'll soon have updates and tinker with new features.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

LAPD Scrambles To Cover-up Its Cover-up

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - The Los Angeles Police Department, LA's thin blue line, lost track of the big, bold lies it told on behalf of the Los Angeles Fire Department in covering-up a domestic violence attack that a senior member of the firefighting agency, Kristina "Kady" Kepner, committed on her domestic partner, who is also a female, along with threats by Kepner to kill both of them. The incidents were recorded and the LAFD and LAPD have copies.

With City Hall abuzz from yesterday's column, the LAPD is now doing damage control as it suddenly decided to re-open its investigation into that case, as well as another one looking into an apparent scrap between Kepner and LAPD Detective Scarlett Martinez.

Good morning, y'all.

To read the rest of this column, jump on over to DanielGuss.substack.com and sign-up for my free publication.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

LAFD Command Staffer Made Homicidal, Suicidal Threats During '21 Domestic Violence Attack

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - During a presentation on March 8th celebrating International Women's Day, LA City Hall's most powerful women posed for photos and made inspiring comments about women in leadership.

Simultaneously, three of them, Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez and LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley, dodged this column's questions about disturbing videos in the LAFD's and LAPD's possession showing a female member of the Los Angeles Fire Department's command staff making repeated homicidal and suicidal threats during and after her violent attack on her then-live-in domestic partner, who is also female.

To read more, jump on over to DanielGuss.substack.com and sign up for my free publication.  Also, follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Burglary Exposes Possible Underground Casino

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - A Reseda storefront that appeared to be a weight loss clinic may have actually been an underground illegal casino operation, according to the LAPD, whose investigation is ongoing.

The address looks like the kind of place that you drive past a thousand times without noticing.

But a closer look at this one and you might notice that it had red flags all over it.

To continue reading this column, jump on over to my Substack and sign-up for my free newsletter.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Scandal-Scarred City Hall Remains Opaque, Paranoid and Bureaucratic

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - LA City Hall has carved for itself an ignominious place in the recent annals of local political history.

Some of its politicians went, or are headed, to federal prison with their bag men or, if you prefer, their bag people of indeterminate identity.  Four other power players destroyed their lives when busted as racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic.  Agencies, like LADWP, LAPD and LAFD, to name a few, are embroiled in one scandal after another.

Things have been so bad that you would think that those remaining in, or rising to, power would opt for the simplest, cheapest way to build public trust.

Transparency.

But no...

To read the rest of today's column, head on over to danielguss.substack.com, where you can also sign-up for the free newsletter.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Shalom, y'all!

Hugo Soto-Martinez Deserves An Apology

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - At 2am on Monday morning, Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) veep Jerretta Sandoz was on Fox News Channel perpetuating a debunked story about socialist LA City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez.

Sandoz, a former LAPD detective, should have known better.

There's no way she didn't.

I'm neither a socialist nor proponent of defunding the LAPD, but her actions ostensibly speaking for the LAPD rank and file, is the type of law enforcement-related dishonesty that may be at the root of the ongoing ACAB (All Cops Are Bad), anti-police sentiment at a time when the LAPD is hemorrhaging officers.

LA City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez. Photo: Gary Coronado - Los Angeles Times

To read the story, jump on over to my Substack and sign up for my free newsletter.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

A Random Street Death Becomes Vivid And Real

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - However many people lose their lives on the streets of Los Angeles on any given day, it is easy to see them as statistics, perhaps as a coping mechanism.

Numbers are cold and one-dimensional, at least until you meet the family and friends mourning their passing.  Then their death can quickly go from random and gray to vivid and real.

This is the story of one of those people, and his name was David Isaac Soto-Toral.

To read about what happened to this handsome young man with the broad smile and clear, engaging eyes, jump on over to danielguss.substack.com, and sign up there for my free newsletter.   Also follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Another Day, Another Death. But Only Platitudes From Nithya Raman

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Chaos and death keep showing-up in Sherman Oaks, almost as frequently as the sunrise, while LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman keeps dodging this column's direct questions about a recent spike in deaths of homeless people and violent attacks by some of them upon the rest of her local constituency.

Now, yet another homeless person has died...

...while another yielding a knife was arrested after making death threats and climbing the roof of a local gas station, causing a major response from the LAPD and LAFD.

Because it's just about housing...right?

Raman's media flack has complained that instead of answering our direct questions, The Guss Report and Mayor Sam should quietly accept their prepared, gratuitous statement that speciously sidesteps accountability like so many Brooklyn trolley dodgers back in the day.

That approach may work in mainstream media circles, but not here, because we won't waste your time regurgitating press releases in lieu of direct questions and answers.

For the full story, jump on over to my Substack, sign up for the free newsletter and don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Why City Hall Paid This Journalist's $10,528 Legal Tab

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - It is getting to be an LA tradition.

The LAPD and LA City Attorney Mike Feuer cut this journalist's team yet another five-figure settlement after exposing dubious, corrupt or inept City Hall behavior that it prefers wouldn't surface.

In this instance, the LAPD refused to turn over a few public records from its Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD) to see what the hubbub is regarding an alleged "domestic incident" at the residence of one Eric Garcetti, the Mayor of Los Angeles, aka "Little Ricky," as the late, great City Hall gadfly John Walsh used to call him.

Oh, you better believe that there's a lot more to this story, because why would the LAPD want to pay this columnist's legal tab if absolutely nothing went down at La Casa de Garcetti?

It isn't the last you'll hear about this situation.

And apparently, it won't be the last check the big wigs cut.  It certainly isn't the first.

For more detail, jump on over to my Substack.

Sign-up for the free newsletter while you're there and follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Stay safe!

Stay warm!

We're Hearing Things

By Daniel Guss - Have it from several well-placed sources that a mucky-muck with close current ties to LA Mayoral candidate Karen Bass has a "situation" going on and it appears that powerful people don't want it known, at least not yet.

I once sued the LAPD for doing the same thing as it fought tooth and nail to prevent public records from exposing an embarrassing Eric Garcetti story.  City Attorney Mike Feuer wound up paying my legal expenses.

Anyway, my quickie column on this is over at my Substack.  While you're there, you might as well sign up for my free newsletter.   And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

NEW YORK MAGAZINE: "The Mayor Knew: Eric Garcetti's Top Aide Was a Serial Harasser, According To Multiple Accusers. The Mayor, They Say, Ignored it."

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Don't count on LA Mayor Eric Garcetti making his way to Bombay.

The city's beleaguered chief executive, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the next U.S. Ambassador to India, allegedly knew about, but ignored, serial sexual harassment by his right hand man Rick Jacobs.

That's at least according to a slew of people as described in New York Magazine.

The article says that Garcetti and Ana Guerrero, his disempowered former Chief of Staff, repeatedly ignored horrendous behavior by Jacobs, who is the subject of a sexual harassment lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles by the Mayor's former LAPD bodyguard.

"'He crushes me against his body, pulling me in with all his strength,' she says now, telling her story for the first time. 'I'm like a rag doll.  He's pulling me into him and kisses me on the lips for some long, uncomfortable period of time. He kisses me on the lips.  I'm trying to pull back, but he has my arms pinned down against the sides of my body so I have no leverage to push back.'"

That's from Naomi Seligman, Garcetti's Director of Communications on April 14, 2016, describing an encounter with Jacobs in front of a slew of witnesses in an excerpt from the article.

"'I'm surrounded by my entire team, and they've seen this act of dominance over me,' she recalls."

Yesterday, this column was first to predict that LA City Attorney Mike Feuer's mayoral campaign is DOA due to a federal corruption plea deal by Paul Paradis, a legal hire of his who admitted to a $2.2 million kickback scheme.  We now predict that Garcetti's nomination to become Ambassador will soon be down for the count, as well.

So when, exactly, does Guerrero get fired and the LA City Council take a vote of No Confidence, in Garcetti?  

At any rate, we look forward to Biden pulling Garcetti's nomination before too long.  If not, look to Senator Ted Cruz to deliver the knockout blow.

The story by Alissa Walker can be found here: 

(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and was a runner-up in 2021 too. He has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and The Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment Sections and Sunday Magazine among other publishers. Tell your friends to follow him on The Twitters @TheGussReport, and DM him there to join his distribution list for early story notifications, tips and more.)

Dan's Big Book Of Small Grievances, Volume 1

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - When I signed up to become City Editor for Mayor Sam, I promised a no-punches-pulled approach in easy, digestible bites with a healthy dose of snark where applicable 

To wit, there are a lot of Post-Its on the desk worth exploring, just not in a thousand words, at least not yet.  

As they say at the bakery, let's roll.....

Freebird Gets No Ink In LA Times

Disgraced LA City Councilmember Mitch Englander was released from federal prison in September, according to the LA Daily News, way ahead of his anticipated release in May 2022. He served no more than four months of a 14-month sentence. As I reported, the scheming ex-lawmaker made an array of curious corporate filings adding and deleting family as Board members before surrendering.  

Eric Garcetti and Mitch Englander

Photo Credit: OC Register

But you know what? He had great legal counsel. 

He faced decades in prison but only spent a summer in it, albeit a summer in Arizona.

The former LAPD volunteer can't vote, may have had to turn in his firearms and his crimes cost him a fortune in legal fees and fines.  But free is free, whether or not Englander wears a monitoring device at a halfway house in Long Beach or home in Santa Monica. That's how the system works. Take note Jose Huizar, Mark Ridley-Thomas and fellow indictees. 

But the grievance here is that the story does not come up in searches on the LA Times' website as of Thursday.

Restaurant Ripoff Results in Cancelation

At least in Los Angeles, it has become commonplace to find additional fees added to your local restaurant tab, presumably to offset higher minimum wages. While some restaurants fairly mention this on their menu, others bury it at the bottom of the tab.

And then there's what one of our favorite local eateries did.

In addition to raising prices, which is fair, due to inflation, they added vague fees to the tax line, so you can't tell how much is tax and how much is the "fee" without pulling up your calculator app. Moreover, there is no mention of it on the website for takeout.

But the grievance here is that on top of the increased prices and buried fees, they also try to guilt customers into a default 15% tip.....for takeout, part of which we otherwise would typically add in the COVID era.

They lost the tip, the fees, the order and the customer for good.

Why Nury's Vax Mandate Is A Load Of Hooey

The problem with vaccine mandates is that it could wind up costing big cities with defiant cops and firefighters more than it realizes.  

Consider how much time it takes and how much money it costs to locate, recruit and train a firefighter or cop just to get ready to serve the public. Then, multiply it by the hundreds or thousands of LA's first responders that LA City Council president Nury Martinez says "may" be fired if they dare to defy her order to get injected with a COVID vaccine by her further-extended deadline of mid-December. Note: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis actively recruits those quitting or retiring from the NYPD and NYFD with a $5,000 signing bonus. Don't be surprised if some of our best leave for the no-state-income-tax Sunshine State.

Florida's cost of living is a fraction of LA's, as well.

Nury Martinez

Photo Credit: Unknown

So here's the question.  

If Nury insists on a vax mandate for all City workers, not just LAFD and LAPD, to provide a safe workplace and safe interactions with the public, why does she still refuse to let the vaccinated public into City Council's meetings?

Is it because she is still too insecure being a leader who cannot articulate how she will fix LA's worst-in-the-nation homelessness and other things that rotted away during the Eric Garcetti era?  Is it because she is too thin-skinned to face critics, so she needs to lean on a hypocritical COVID policy that applies to some, but not all?

The grievance here is that keeping out of meetings even the vaccinated public strengthens City employees' defiant stance. Vaccines cannot be the solution for cops, firefighters and librarians but not be enough for critics who want back in to the meetings to let her and her City Council colleagues have it and good.

You won't find this hypocrisy reported in the LA Times, either.   

(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary (and came in Show in 2021 in another category) and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and The Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment Sections and Sunday Magazine among other publishers. Tell your friends to follow him on The Twitters @TheGussReport.)

 

The Seventh Game Morning Brief on a Historic Sports Day in LA

On this Seventh Game .........., Dodger Blue will be the Official Color of Civic Unity as Angelinos prep to view (and Law Enforcement secure) the FIRST World Series Game Seven in Los Angeles History. ** The Morning After: Props to the Houston Astros on their FIRST World Series Championship. 

The Calm before the Seventh Game.

** Blogger's Notes: As we keyboard these words, Mother Nature's Ground Crew is about ready to roll up the Morning Overcast Tarp, unveiling a BEAUTIFUL Dodger Blue of Civic Unity ........., on this Historic Seventh Game in LA.

Read more »

A Morning of Grieving for ALL affected by the Las Vegas Mass Shooting

Our Prayers and Thoughts are with those affected by "An Act of Evil", targeting attendees of the Highway 91 Country Music Festival in Las Vegas, that has left 58 Dead and 515 Wounded. President Donald Trump will visit Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Shedding Tears for the Victims of An Act of Evil.

Blogger's Notes: The ramifications of Sunday's night Las Vegas Mass Shooting, targeting attendees of the Highway 91 Country Music Festival are being felt here in Los Angeles. According to news sources, a LAPD Foothill Division Officer, two LAFD Fire Fighters and two LASD employees, were among the 515 wounded as the Death Toll reaches 58.

An extraordinary account of last night's Massacre has been posted by Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council Member Julie Jaskel Cuddihy who was attending the weekend-long, Highway 91 Country Music Festival with her children .........., and GLADLY, they are all well.

But in reading her raw, vivid (and fluid) account of the shooting and aftermath, she bares witness to a horrific act that will forever be a part of the lives of those directly affected.

For those wishing to help the victims, PLEASE call your local Blood Banks and consider donating, in lieu of the fact, that mass casualty shootings can put a tremendous strain on regional blood supplies----Scott Johnson. 

HOT (errr, Overcast) Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Monday

As thousands of Doyer Blue-clad Fans gather to celebrate Opening Day 2017 of Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball, LAPD will be drawing down (again) patrolling, traffic (and other) resources from ALL Divisions, to protect "Blue Heaven on Earth" ........, while subjecting the rest of Angelinos to longer waits for Law Enforcement Services.

LAPD patrolling Elysian Park on Opening Day.

** Blogger's Notes: As the Sun seeks to burn through a thick Marine Layer this A.M., thousands of Dodgers Fans are gathering in Elysian Park for the Annual Opening Day Pre-game Tailgating Festivities ........., and LAPD is ready (read advisory). From Traffic, Metro, Detective in Uniforms (for the day) and Patrol Divisions, CITY-WIDE, law enforcement resources will be stretched thin, to ensure that dastardly types such as ex. President Barack "H" Obama's favorite "JV Team", or recently-paroled Raiders Fans (in Springtime Blue), do not cause a ruckus. But as the "Thin Blue Line" deploys to protect "Blue Heaven on Earth", discerning Angelinos need to seriously ponder the adverse impact of large-scale deployments, in regards to sustaining adequate response to serious criminal incidents in ALL areas of the city.

** A SIMMERING LGBT COMUNITY BACKLASH/PROTEST OVER PENDING CLOSING OF DOWNTOWN LA's NEW JALISCO BAR? While 34th Congressional District Candidate Sara Hernandez markets herself as the best-trained to deal with "Bully President Donald Trump", its apparent that the recent Downtown LA District Office Director/Special Council for CD-14 City Councilman Jose Huizar, largely IGNORED the area's striving LGBT Community concerns about the future of The New Jalisco Club on Main Street. According to sources, anger is growing over the fact that Councilman Huizar will not help The New Jalisco Bar Owners .........., and may face a pending "Public Backlash" in the NEAR future.  

The New Jalisco Bar on Main Street.

Did Sara Hernandez and her Ex. Boss CD-14 City Councilman Jose Huizar ignore concerns about the pending closure of the iconic New Jalisco Club?

What's BLOGGIN Trending for the Last Week of March?

The last week of campaigning for the April 4, 34th Congressional District Special Election, kickoff of CD 1 Runoff Cedillo Campaign, return of STOLEN Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council Property ...... and the NEWLY-assigned Captain of the LAPD's Hollenbeck Division, are some of the TRENDING bloggin topics for this last week of March, 2017.

What is BLOGGIN Trending on Mayor Sam?? 

** Blogger's Notes: Great Sunday night to all as we return to our cyber musings ........., and with SO MUCH topics pending, we begin our bloggin week in briefly noting TRENDING topics, with more substantive coverage following later in the week-----Scott Johnson. 

** Bloggin Joy and Double Joy!! For us LUCKY constituents within the 34th Congressional District, we are little more than a week away from selecting the next Democrat to collect a Federal Pay Check for decades to come, as the replacement for now California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Surely, this week will a blue-tinted "Dust Storm" of attacks, counterattacks ........., and our bloggin expose on certain candidates (think ....... surprises to come), with political baggage.. 

** Its Runoff Cedillo 2017 Time!! Was the embattled CD City Councilman Gil "Runoff Cedillo" feigning his "Moment of Remorse" for his Election Night Personal Attack targeting May Challenger Joe Bray-Ali, considering recent comments from Cedillo Associates that includes, calling Joe a former Republican, insinuating he that can't pay his taxes ......., and cannot run a business. These comments, coming from the Campaign Team that features the likes of Mario "740 Club (and Sherrilynn's Pal)" Beltran and CONVICTED FELON Larry "I am NATIVO!!" Lopez.

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Another "Young Statistic" of Los Angeles "Embargoed (by Mayor Garcetti)" Rising Violent Crime Rate

As MIA/Second Term-seeking Mayor Eric "Gar-SOFT-ee" continues his EMBARGO on releasing the most recent Crime Stats, the Ramona Gardens Community mourns the senseless Murder of a Young Man (Jonathan Yanez), who's Death in a Saturday Mid-day (2:30 PM) Drive-by Shooting, is indicative of a continuing RISE in Violent Crimes within Los Angeles.  

Mayor Gar-SOFT-ee's continuing avoidance of Debates/Candidate Forums and the Disclosure of the MOST recent Crime Stats ....... is an Act of Political Cowardice.

** Blogger's Notes: The Barrio Grim Reaper reintroduce his evil self (taking the form of an alleged Drive-by Shooter), in a Mid-day Appearance on Saturday .........., and a family mourns a Young Man (Jonathan Yanez) taken too soon. 

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