Will The Folks at LAist "Get It" This Time When It Comes to Prop B?

Now I don't mean specifically to pick on LAist but in this instance we're going to because I want to challenge their very hip and trendy readers to look past the bling bling veneer of an oh so feel good proposal put forward by the Mayor and City Council which is nothing more than a big hunk of candy coated shadiness.

I'm hoping we can get past stories of "No Pants Day" and "The Lighthouse Ghost" to take a moment that if the fine readers of LAist (which really is a kick-ass blog) were to do so, they'll save themselves a few bucks.

Prop B on the March primary ballot here in Los Angeles tells you it's all about solar energy. Great! We're all for alternatives to fossil fuels and indeed, Los Angeles becoming the home to green industry could be the very thing that turns things arounds and creates the economic renewal we need.

Prop B doesn't do that.

Prop B's solar program in a nutshell changes City rules to allow the City Council to raise your electric rates without your vote, forces all installation of solar panels to be done by one union who has contributed hundreds of thousands to the Mayor and Council (instead of extending the opportunity and work to all workers including those in OTHER unions AND will use solar panels MANUFACTURED IN CHINA instead of here in LA.  In a nutshell, the same politicians who have raised your DWP rates three times in the last two years, raised parking meters and eliminated parking options for you and raised your cell phone taxes want you to rubber stamp a plan that will effectively kill any positive benefits solar energy could bring to LA.

We don't expect the very hip and happening youngsters who read LAist to waste their time with the usual admninistrivia of City government that excites the blue hairs to no end - all kinds of fun stuff like environmental impact reports, mitigated negative declarations and zoning changes.

This one however is important - and straightforward: Do you think that solar and green energy is important to Los Angeles' future? If yes, who do you trust to manage that future - the experts in the field or the politicians who can't even pave your streets? I believe the answer is clear - No On Prop B.

PS: By the way I tried to search LAist's archives to see if they've covered this issue.  Their search feature appears to not be working so if they've written about it, I'd love to read it.

Trujillo Serves Up Rancid Prop B MEAT to NC Panel

Ron Kaye reports the Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils Coalition took up the issue of Shady Measure B over the weekend. That's the City plan to raise DWP rates for the stated purpose of installing solar energy panels Citywide but to only focus it in the hands of the DWP and one union as opposed to a growing base of green businesses in LA employing both workers who are both from other unions and no union at all.

According to Kaye, Prop. B campaign manager, longitme Villaraigosa lackey and former Sister City blogger Mike Trujillo "dissembled, deflected and deceived so much when faced with a barrage of hard questions."  Trujillo tried to convince the assembled panel that B is simply up or down vote on solar energy with the type of spin he has become so well known for.  Kaye goes on to say "If they can get away with this fraud, they will be capable of getting away with anything. Putting $3.6 billion, probably far more than that, into a single pot totally under control of the council and mayor guarantees there will be massive corruption."