Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Tuesday

Your Los Angeles Department of Water and Power forget to bill a number of customers for several months and then hit them with back billing, some bills in the tens of thousands of dollars.  "We fell short," a DWP spokesman told KNBC.

LA City Clowncil members aren't too sure about the idea of a "collections sheriff" to seek unpaid City taxes and fees.  No wonder, they can't even get the DWP bills right; better to shelve this idea.

Metro is cracking down on individuals who illegally hawk merchandise on it's trains in Los Angeles. Everything from candy to pirated DVDs are offered up on board.  No word if they plan to crack down on board members who have cozy relationships with contractors.

The Church of Scientology is buying KCET's current studios as the former PBS affiliate looks to downsize.  A commenter at CurbedLA however would have preferred a Whole Foods Market.

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Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday

Former LA Department of Animal Services General Manager Ed Boks is up for a new job as the head of a Tacoma, Washington based animal welfare agency.  You may remember Boks was a key figure in a sexual harrassment lawsuit against the City that saw a $130,000 settlement.  Though cutting  a controversial swath during his time in LA, Boks has many supporters who view the settlement as frivolous and cheered his role in the City.

LAist thinks that the City's buses could be less crowded and more pleasurable if the MTA were to follow the lead of the City of Honolulu.  The island municipality recently passed a law that provides for a $500 fine and/or up to six months in jail if you ride the bus with bad body odor.

LA's Metro trains are taking a cue from the East Coast.  For the first time in the nearly 20 year history of the system the MTA has adopted turnstiles at stations posts Militant Angeleno.  No tokens but fancy shcmancy electronic debit cards get you in.

Latinopoliticsblog.com posits that NBC's hiring of Jenna Bush Hager, the daughter and granddaughter of former Presidents, has more to do with family and privilege than ability. Most likely but this is nothing new.  Media outlets have hired other political progeny ranging from Eleanor Mondale to Maria Shriver to Ron Reagan to Meghan McCain.

Forget Obama! Antonio Villaraigosa has his own health care plan!  In the meantime a blogger calls the Mayor an "asshole" and it wasn't me.  Blogger Josh Haden hits Villaraigosa on the recent move by LAUSD to turn a portion of schools over to private operators and accuses the Mayor of selling these schools to the highest bidder.

LA has "reformed" it's special event fee waiver program that has garnered much criticism.  However the reforms came under fire of Council Members Richard Alarcon and Paul Koretz who felt that - while big bucks events like the Oscars and Grammys will still get a City subsidy - many smaller community based events will be forced to be cancelled as fees go up.

Bong lickin' good. A medical marijuana shop has opened up in a former Kentucky Friend Chicken in Palms.

Video Louis has put up a countdown clock for the CD2 election over at the Downtown NoHo Blog.  Only 20 more days!

An ass has shown up to the County Board of Supervisors.  No it wasn't one of the five Supes.  Gidget a 29" inch high miniature donkey visited the board for an eloborate ceremony to kick off the LA County Fair.  And you thought Tom LeBong was funny!

Thursday Hotsheet at 8 a.m.

Alas, windstorms have a mollifying effect on my chronic insomnia, and I slept through the night, so there was no Hotsheet at 3 a.m.

There are some good ones on tap today. The CRA Board meets, and various project managers will be obliged to tapdance before it. But will they get around to discussing recent debacles in East LA? De La Hoya delivered a knockout punch to the Sears Building project, and the prospects for siting the biomed research center on the eastern fringe of the City now looks bleak.

Broad gave at the office again. Read the subtext: the fishwrap's special notice of how much he's given to charter schools over the years is important messaging---that way, it doesn't look so much like the Mayor's office pet project. Also worth noting: Eli made his fortunes off of non-union companies, and charter schools are non-union schools.

LA has one of the most beatable subway systems in the world, and nearly every time you see a guard checking for tickets, somebody gets nabbed. But installing $50 million dollars worth of gates won't even recoup the fare losses for over ten years. Put this one on the back burner, please.

Obama in the Valley. He jawboned Countrywide. Predatory home loans may become a leading Democratic issue in the west, where much more of it was done than in the east and midwest. Did it ever occur to anyone that Obama may be so popular not only because he's a good talker, but because he appears to be a great listener? Today, Hillary and Edwards are both in town.

Tonight, likely another good one at my own Los Feliz Library: both Gail Goldberg and Ken Bernstein will be there, presumably talking about Historic Employment Overlay Zones and their vision for LA as a metropolis on the brink of ruin, with only "enlightened" "smart growth" developers able to save us. Program at 6:30 p.m.

You would think it would be a bad week for Ken Bernstein to appear anywhere. The last nail in the Ambassador preservation-effort coffin was hammered in on Monday. The predatory organization spent ten years and vast resources on that one, and cashed out via another public agency, the LAUSD, in the end. Many, many real monuments fell by the wayside in that time.