Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Thursday

Twenty years ago today, Rodney King got pulled over on the 210 freeway in Lake View Terrace. About a year later, Los Angeles went ballistic.

Tonight, LAUSD Board Seat candidates Tamar Galatzan and Louis Pugliese face off once again. This candidate forum is co-sponsored by the 31st District PTSA and the League of Women Voters and is being held at the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, 18605 Erwin St., Tarzana. Showtime is 7pm.

Responsible Mountain Bike enthusiasts understand that you can't go around carving out BMX tracks on Open Space protected parkland. Unfortunately, one or more irresponsible knuckleheads thought it was a good idea to butcher up such an area in CD2 for their own entertainment. Kris Sabo and myself visited the site, reported the destruction, and thanks to the rapid response and assistance by Parks & Rec and Councilman Krekorian, the BMX track is no more, and precious open space is happy once again.

Wisconsin Governor Walker is going rogue and now is in defiance of a court order to open up the people's house. On a related note; Is there a link between illiteracy and conservative voting? I hope you're sitting down;  Why yes there is ya morans!

Richard Alarcon is trying to steal money from the Lopez Canyon Amenities Trust Fund, again. This time to the tune of almost half a million dollars. The Trust Fund was established in 1991 to benefit the residents that live adjacent to the now closed Lopez Canyon landfill.  Unfortunately, very few of those dollars have ever found their way to where they were designated, instead they continue to fuel Alarcon's pet projects in areas far from Lopez Canyon. Alarcon's motion goes before the City Council on Friday.

Pugliese Accuses "Desperate" Galatzan of "Mudslinging," Galatzan Campaign "Denies"

Candidate for School Board Louis Pugliese is accusing his opponent and current incumbent, Tamar Galatzan, of being "desperate" following an alleged phone push-poll made to voters accusing Pugliese of defaulting on a student loan.








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If Pugliese Was on the Board

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday

Paul Krekorian Meets With Community Leaders

There are a few other races than CD14 in the upcoming primaries you may want to consider...

We haven't talked much about the Tenth Council District where Herb Wesson currently serves.  Althea Shaw, the aunt of Jamiel Shaw, the teen shot in cold blood by an illegal alien gang member, is seeking to grab the seat from Wesson.  Shaw, writing at her website, recounts a recent candidates forum where she said Wesson showed up at the last minute and did not seem prepared.

Over in CD6 three poorly funded challengers are going after incumbent Tony Cardenas.  Jamie Cordaro, Rich Goodman and David Barron have collectively raised less than 10% of what the incumbent has earned.  Still each of them say they're making the go of it. Each of them see major failings in Cardenas or the City government as a whole.  Cardenas enjoys filling potholes.

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Free for All Friday

Huizar Whitewashing

All the stories are after the jump...

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Support Louis Pugliese for LAUSD School Board Seat # 3

Support a true friend of education Louie Pugliese in his quest to defeat Tamar Galatzan.

Your thoughts..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Wednesday: The Bad Day for Jose Huizar Edition

It could not get worse, Tuesday, for Councilman Jose Huizar. How could such awful things happen to a Princeton educated nice guy?

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Louis Pugliese Makes Announcement Regarding His District 3 School Board Campaign

(A short while ago, MayorSam received the following communique from Louis Pugliese);

Dear Friends,

Last week, the city clerk's office verified my ballot petitions, qualifying me to appear on the ballot as a candidate for the LAUSD District 3 Board seat in the upcoming March election.

I had decided to enter the race knowing that there were a field of other potential candidates willing to face the incumbent. As it has turned out, a number of candidates did not qualify, and the UTLA favorite also withdrew her name, leaving only my opponent and myself in nomination. While a campaign against an incumbent is always tough, I am now in the position of running once again without the support of either the teacher's union or of community groups aligned with the Mayor.

I find myself left with a difficult decision- to either concede to my opponent and withdraw my name from the ballot by the deadline tomorrow, or to remain in nomination to promote what I feel are the best ideas for our city's children, and to ensure that voters will at least have a choice in this critical time for public schools.

Tonight I have chosen the latter. I am announcing my official candidacy for the LAUSD Board of Education seat in District 3. I look forward to seeing you all on the campaign, and expect that this third time will certainly be the "charm."

Thank you for your support. Please visit my website and contribute whatever you can.

Lou4Schools.com

Sincerely,

Louis Pugliese

UTLA Shoots Self in Foot, Then Bites Own Behind

Incumbent Tamar Galatzan

Challenger Louis Pugliese

Do you remember this Mayor Sam story? As it turns out, the UTLA did exactly as we predicted and made yet another bumbling endorsement for a school board seat. The Union backed insider Heather Hodge Kolodny, a UTLA loyalist and fierce opponent of reform. This time, we only had to wait two weeks before their decision bit them in the behind as Ms. Kolodny announced today that she is dropping out of the race. While this may make the incumbent, Tamar Galatzan, happy for the time being, a prompt shift of union support to Teacher Louis Pugliese may well pull them up from the certain nosedive they are in over the West Valley and send her campaign scrambling. UTLA, perhaps now a bit gun shy, and with a self inflicted pain in the ass, says it won't make another endorsement for School Board District 3 until January.

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Friday

 The Successful Model

Is Eric Garcetti flip-flopping on where medical marijuana dispensaries should or shouldn't be? The LA Weekly reports the Council President previously took a hardline on restrictions on location but is now taking a view that previously csidered restrictions could be onerous for patients. How about losing the pretense and get behind legalization. I am sure we could find a better use for Nuch's time.

Ron Kaye is calling for candidates to run for the City Clowncil spots currently held by folks like Tom LeBong, Jan Perry, Greig Smith, etc. What say you? Who can run and be competitive against these special interest funded candidates? The succesful model is not vanity candidates like Walter Moore but solid citizens who are willing to run a campaign such as Louis Pugliese.  Who are these people in all the even numbered districts?

Since when is an opera in financial trouble an emergency? Ask the LA County Board of Stupidvisors who agreed to give $14 million of your money to the LA Opera which is struggling.  We're closing hospitals and other city services but Westside cranks will still get to drink chablis and listen to toy-ho-ho-ho. I am sure I'll get called a cretin for that but you know I'm right.

New Year's Eve 2010 party train to Vegas? I'm there.

Here in Van Nuys reports a 99 unit condo property on Sherman Way was sold for $6.2 million or about $62K per unit.  Such a deal!

Pugliese Endorses Krekorian

NORTH HOLLYWOOD – Louis Pugliese, a leader in the education community for more than 15 years, announced this week he has endorsed Los Angeles City Council candidate Paul Krekorian in his bid for the Second District.

“As a former school board president in Burbank, I can fully appreciate the contributions Louis has made to better our community and am proud to welcome him in this campaign to reform Los Angeles,” Krekorian said. “I have much to gain from Louis' in-depth grasp of LAUSD and will be proud to work closely with him as we seek new and innovative ways to improve our education throughout the Valley and Sunland-Tujunga. With Louis at my side, we are one step closer to ensuring our schools get their proper funding and making certain every child has as much opportunity to succeed as possible.”

Pugliese, 58, a CD2 resident living in Sun Valley, was heavily praised for his two school board runs in which he garnered widespread community, parental and neighborhood support.

“It is clear to me that Paul has what it takes to shake the Downtown power structure and get the job done for our children and families throughout this district,” said Pugliese, who now teaches education courses at Cal State Northridge while also serving on the city's Commission for Children, Youth and Their Families. “Paul's leadership throughout our state on education issues shows he is more than able to navigate the city's educational maze to help fix our broken system. I have been thoroughly impressed with the grassroots support he has already garnered and look forward to working in close concert with him as I know the second council district will benefit from his leadership, ingenuity and responsiveness.”

Mid-Day Briefs for Lunch Time Contemplation

"You miss me ??"

** CD 2 Special Election Blog has a statement from former CD-2 Council Candidate Louis Pugliese, who withdrew from the race to replace now City Controller Wendy Greuel.

Dear Friends,

Thursday afternoon, after much consideration, I reluctantly withdrew my name from nomination in the upcoming City Council election after qualifying for the ballot.

Simply, in spite of strong encouragement and support in the district, with such a crowded field of both neighborhood activists and high-profile candidates in this race, I see no clear path to victory for myself.

Props to Home Depot nemesis "Joe B." for the insight to create this medium/ blog to disseminate information on this important election.

** According to the Daily News, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and City Controller Wendy Greuel have "broken bread" and come to a resolution over the Controller's wish to have audit oversite in the City Attorney's office.

"We welcome the audit," Trutanich spokesman John Franklin said. "We're glad she responded to our letter about it."

** ......and another dubious honor for the Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa reign at City Hall, "bounced checks" to city vendors.

But the city is not to blame according to the Daily News.

Instead, they blamed the problem on a processing error by Wachovia Bank. City officials are telling companies who received city checks that bounced that they should redeposit the checks, which are now cleared for payment.

City Controller Wendy Greuel said her office was informed of the problem on Monday by Wachovia and took steps to notify as many vendors as possible of the problem.

But in the words of Harry Truman "the buck stops here".

Your thoughts and great weekend to all.......

Louis Pugliese Withdraws from CD2 Race!

This is a stunner, as Louis was considered to be a formidable candidate. He is admired and respected throughout CD2.

NEWS CITY OF LOS ANGELES
CITY CLERK - ELECTION DIVISION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2009

Arleen P. Taylor City Clerk - Election Division
Contact: (213) 978-0444 555 Ramirez St., Space 300
E-mail: clerk.election@lacity.org Los Angeles, CA 90012

REVISED CERTIFIED LIST OF CANDIDATES RELEASED AFTER CANDIDATE WITHDRAWS FROM COUNCIL DISTRICT 2 RACE
Los Angeles City Clerk June Lagmay released a revised Certified List of Candidates late Thursday afternoon after a candidate walked in to withdraw his name from the ballot for the 2009 Council District 2 Special Election. All candidates had until 5:00 p.m. Thursday, July 30, 2009 to withdraw their name from the ballot (emphasis mine-Joe B). The revised certified list contains a total of 10 candidate names all of whom will appear on the September 22, 2009 ballot.
For further information or assistance, please call the City Clerk-Election Division at (213) 978-0444 or toll-free at (888) 873-1000. Candidate information is also available via the internet at: http://cityclerk.lacity.org/election/ under “Candidate Information.”
--End--

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday

The Enterprise Report runs a piece that claims that two LAPD officers allegedly left instructions that should they be killed in the line of duty they did not want Mayor Villaraigosa to appear nor speak at their memorial services.  Villaraigosa showed up and spoke anyway.  According to the report Officer Landon Dorris killed while investigating a traffic accident and Officer Spree Desha killed in the Chatsworth Metrolink crash had allegedly both indicated in a form reportedly used by LAPD to allow officers to leave instructions following their deathsthat the Mayor was not welcome at their funerals.  Both the LAPD and the Mayor's office would not comment on the matter.

Still too close to call in the race for the 6th District LAUSD Board of Education seat.  Former San Fernando Mayor and protege of Council Member Richard Alarcon and Mayor Villaraigosa Nury Martinez was about 500 votes up on former LAUSD teacher and current CSUN lecturer Louis Pugliese.  Thousands of provisional and absentee ballots remain to be counted which could have an impact on the race's final outcome.

On the City Council agenda for Friday: A events fee waiver for a "Beauty and the Beast" event at the cost of $13,000 to be absorbed by the City.  Also, discussion of a program for "car sharing."  Car sharing is sort of a system of short term car rental that can be used, for example, by users of public transit.  Sounds like a great idea but it's one for private enterprise to handle, responding to a market need, not a program for the City to run, screw up and skim funds to favored folks.  Makes me think of the DWP's awesome electric scooter program.

More fallout from the tragic Metrolink crash in Chatsworth last September. Metrolink has fired two supervisors following revelations that engineer Robert Sanchez allegedly regularly allowed teenaged friends to ride in the engineer's cab and would send hundreds of text messages while operating trains. We reported in December that an inside source had told us that top Metrolink was official was allgedly dismissed after reportedly showing up intoxicated to meetings.  We may very well be scratching the surface of a culture of apparent mismangement at the railroad; an organization that has the most fatalities of any commuter railroad in the US.

Local pundits are apparently suprised that Jack Weiss only received 36% of the vote in Tuesday's election for City Attorney, forcing him into a runoff with opponent Carmen Trutanich. Jaime A. Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A. told the Times  "It's a blow -- there's no way around that. He had the most money, the most mailers and definitely the most TV time."  Frankly I'm surprised he performed as well as he did.  Prior to the election some insiders were putting Weiss at 31% and were even discussing the possibility he would not make the run-off.

He's not saying that he is, but if Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is planning to run for Governor he has his first donor lined up.  Downtown Central City Blogger Don Garza says he's saving his money for that race.

It was one thing that the City stealthily raised parking meter fees and cut back on parking hours hampering businesses and others all over Los Angeles.  Now over-aggressive DOT parking officers are writing tickets for motorits before the meter even expires.  One North Hollywood patron of a local gym was ticketed 52 minutes into her parking hour by an officer who claimed she must have fed the meter - except she has proof from the gym of her arrival and departure.

The Times profiles Dearden's Department Stores which have been around for 100 years and is one of LA's oldest businesses.  The recession is having some impact on the retailer but in it's history has weathered not only recessions but depressions, wars and disco by consistently remaking itself and providing excellent service to their customers.

Patrick Range McDonald's great LA Weekly article about LA's $300,000 a year City Council members makes a Denver journo realize the Mile High's City Council is nowhere near as bad as locals assumed.  When Patrick wrote that the LA City Council "assiduously avoids its actual job: dealing with overarching issues, such as traffic, a chronic lack of parks, and overdevelopment, which have residents fuming," Lisa Jones of the Denver City Hall Examiner asked "Why aren't citizens rebelling?"  Good question Lisa, you might read a little bit here.  But the revolution is brewing; has had it's first victory and is rolling on to the next battles.

And finally, the folks at the NoOnMeasure B Twitter page said they went to Pink's to order a Mayor Villaraigosa dog but the legendary stand said was apparently out of them.  The dog named for the Mayor is only served 11% of the time.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday

Superior Court Judge James Chalfant on Thursday ruled that San Fernando Mayor and LA School Board candidate Nury Martinez's ballot designation "as an educator is false" but that at this point reprinting ballots in her race against LAUSD teacher Louis Pugliese would be too costly and time consuming.  In the meantime Martinez is dealing with drama in her hometown as two members of the San Fernando City Council aligned with the Mayor were removed from office in a stunning recall election Tuesday.

Maybe too little too late but the Los Angeles Department of Transportation is working on a "memorandum of understanding" with the City's Neighborhood Councils. Of course this follows the DOT's disasterous roll-out of parking meter fare increases and other neighborhood related issues they undertake without community outreach.

The City of Anaheim has finally given up on their battle to force the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to take Los Angeles out of their name.  Two court challenges failed and the only real recourse would be to go to the State Supreme Court.  Perhaps Mayor Villaraigosa could charge the Angels to use the City's name in their moniker.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Christmas Eve

If you haven't been following Daniel Heimpel's excellent series at the LA Weekly's Blog about the secrecy drenched Mayor Villaraigosa's $24 million anti-gang program, be sure to read it here and here. According to Heimpel a "secret" panel doles out the tax money to various "anti-gang" programs; a group of people anti-gang czar Jeff Carr apparently can not identify. Apparently the program is so secret that City Council members don't even know what's going on. A US Department of Justice official tells Heimpel she's never seen anything like this.

This morning LAUSD Board of Education candidate Louis Pugliese will attempt to convince a judge that his opponent, San Fernando Mayor Nury Martinez has placed a misleading designation on the ballot. Martinez, whose day job is heading up the non-profit Pacoima Beautiful claims that qualifies her as an "educator" though Martinez does not work as a schoolteacher. Martinez' role with the organization appears to be primarily administrative. The City Clerk refused to address Pugliese's challenge hence the move to Superior Court.

I got my latest copy of The Businesss Perspective, the usual claptrap from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce which is far more interested in protecting and promoting the Downtown power structure than what is best for Los Angeles as a whole or even just what's good for the economy business as a whole in Los Angeles. The meandering rubbish was something about "leadership" in 2009 yet has the Chamber or the business community produced leadership to take over this City from the anti-business kleptocracy that is in power now? Nope, they embrace it hoping for a few goodies for themselves and the chance to hobnob with the likes of the George Soros of Los Angeles, Eli Broad. Come back folks when you have some ideas.

Lou Grant was the gruff, old school news director on Mary Tyler Moore but in real life Ed Asner is a committed, life-long left wing liberal. So it's no surprise that Ed's behind efforts that amount to essentially a government appropriation of private industry, that is forcing cable providers to supply psychics, charlatans and goofballs with television airtime and equipment. The surprising thing is that conservatives like Leslie Dutton and a man who I have the utmost fondess for, David Hernandez, are pushing this agenda which flies in the face of capitalism.

All of us here at the Sister City want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and wonderful holiday season. No vacations here so stay tuned to your favorite blog!

Battle Begins In LAUSD Seat 6

Last Friday a number of candidates filed for Seat 6 on the Los Angeles Board of Education, replacing the retiring and legendary Julie Korenstein.

Among the more well known candidates are San Fernando Mayor and Richard Alarcon protege Nury Martinez, San Fernando City Council Member Maribel De La Torre and LAUSD teacher and CSUN education professor Louis Pugliese.  Pugliese, with nowhere near the financial resources of candidates Tamar Galatzan and the late Jon Lauritzen,  previously made  a very strong showing in the last election forcing the two into a contentious run-off election.

This old dead Republican Mayor suspects that De La Torre will be offered a sweetheart deal to drop out of the race in favor of the political establishment's favorite, Martinez.  De La Torre's sister, former San Fernando Mayor and Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez was allegedly rewarded with two concurrent high paying positions with the DWP and the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board reportedly in exchange for her agreeing not to run for the City Council seat vacated by Alex Padilla when he was elected to the State Senate, clearing the field for Alarcon.  Should De La Torre drop out of the race, the two clear front runners will be Martinez and Pugliese.

In order to improve her electability, Martinez has opted not to use her title of Mayor as her ballot designation but that of "environmental educator" based upon Martinez' volunteer executive director role with Pacoima Beautiful, an organization that does neighborhood cleanups, plants trees, etc.

Pugliese intends to appeal this designation as he feels it misleading to the voters.  The candidate says that Martinez' role in the organization is primarily administrative and that environmental education is not the organization's primary purpose.  The Sister City has obtained a copy of the complaint Pugliese has filed this morning, the cover letter of which is below:

November 10, 2008


Dear Los Angeles City Clerk,


This letter is to challenge the ballot designation of "environmental educator" for Ms. Nury Martinez on the ballot for the March 2009 LAUSD District 6 primary election as misleading, and to request that it be removed from the ballot.


On the ballot designation worksheet, Ms Martinez stated that she is the Executive Director of Pacoima Beautiful, an "environmental health education organization", which she claims qualifies her as an "environmental educator."


According to the organization's Federal form 990 filing (attached), Ms. Martinez is an unpaid, volunteer, director for this organization, whose primary duties are administrative and executive in nature. While education is the tertiary purpose of Pacoima Beautiful, it is not the primary, or sole, purpose, and as the executive director, Ms. Martinez's primary duty is not one of "environmental educator", hence it is not a primary profession, vocation or occupation as defined in the election code.


Further, the National Center for Charitable Statistics reports the IRS classification for Pacoima Beautiful (attached) as "C50-Environmental Beautification", rather than "C60-Environmental Education."


Being that this is an election for the Board of Education, the use of the term "educator" in this case would be misleading by implying that Ms. Martinez's primary vocation is as an educator, which it is not, as she is concurrently the Mayor of the City of San Fernando, and the administrative Executive Director of this organization.


Accordingly, I respectfully request that the ballot designation of "environmental educator" for Ms. Martinez be disallowed.


Sincerely,
Louis Pugliese

Pugliese Sings "If I Was On The Board"

School board candidate Louis Pugliese's talent knows no end - teacher, college professor, businessman and musician. Rather than making yet another stale speech, Louie makes his pitch in song in a very creative and fun video.

Mayor Sam Turned Four

If you missed Mayor Sam’s fourth anniversary party last night, you missed an inspiring blend of activism and entertainment. Attendees included the No Home Depot crew, folks from Ron Kaye’s SLAP organization, advocates for the Southwest Museum, José Aguilar, David Hernandez, Louis Pugliese, Mayor Sam bloggers, and many others.

Host Zuma Dogg directed the rotation of artists and speakers with finesse—even delighting the crowd with his signature rendition of Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees. Other performances included Matt Dowd absolutely killing it on his 1962 strat, and Michael Higby’s stunning delivery of the pop standard, Fly Me to the Moon. Who knew Mayor Sam could sing?

The biggest highlight of the evening, however, was David Hernandez’ announcement that he is entering the race for mayor of Los Angeles. That’s right— things just got three-dimensional, y’all. Stay tuned, and blog away, Dum Dums.