Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Tuesday

Zasloff on Stewart: "NIMBYism,  libertarianism and anger management problems." 

Six staffers from Councilman Richard Alarcon's office will be called before a Grand Jury panel on Wednesday.  The District Attorney is currently investigating whether or not Alarcon falsified his voter registration by claiming residence at a home he does not live in while actually living in another home in Paul Krekorian's district.  If true, Alarcon could be guilty of a felony.

Now that it's pretty clear that the City's ill-thought out water conservation policy was the cause of multiple significant water main breaks throughout the City in the last year, the Council is voting on new procedures.  What's needed next is an independent investigation of the DWP and Mayor's office to determine if any DWP engineers warned that the policy could lead to the breaks and if those warnings were ignored. If the engineers didn't issue such advice, then they need to be fired at the very least.  William Mulholland must be turning in his grave.

Salt Lake City is the latest to say thanks, but no thanks to a boycott of Arizona over it's controversial but popular immigration reform law. Council members there are concerned about the "unintended consequences" of such a boycott. In the meantime Councilman Dennis Zine tells KTLA that the ramifications of LA's boycott were not researched prior to the vote and that the boycott is "a symbolic effort by two colleagues that wanted to generate controversy."

An environmental law blogger is accusing Mayor Villaraigosa of "betraying environmentalism again" following the departure of Planning Manager Gail "GPS" Goldberg.  Jonathan Zasloff claims that Goldeberg is a visionary who fell victim to a rogue's gallery of opponents including Jane Usher, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and LA Weekly Editor Jill Stewart whom Zasloff says has a unique combination of "NIMBYism,  libertarianism and anger management problems." Wonder what Mulholland Terrace's take is on this one?

And finally back when we had our Hollywood Police Chief he saw no need for the City to rein in crazy paparazzi because, among other things, celebrity Lindsay Lohan had "gone gay."  That was back when Lohan was dating disc jockey Samantha Ronson with whom she had a very public and dramatic breakup.  While there was some sign that Lindsay had gone back to guys it looks LA may be safe again as rumors are abuzz LiLo has once again hit the sapphic trail and has hooked up with a female Israeli soldier.

Alarcon Staffers Called to Testify

Six members of Councilman Richard Alarcon's staff have been called to testify before the County Grand Jury this week to answer questions in the investigation into claims that the Councilman may have registered to vote at a home that is not his primary residence.  The District Attorney is investigating to determine if Alarcon is actually living at another home, one in Councilman Paul Krekorian's District and not his own.

If Alarcon did indeed falsify his registration he could be charged with a felony.

Among those called to testify sounds like a who's-who of local Democratic party operatives including Chief of Staff Saeed Ali, Communications Director Becca Doten, Ackley Padilla, brother of State Sen. Alex Padilla and Alarcon cousin and district director John de la Rosa.