Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Hump Day

As members of the Los Angeles City Clowncil Central Committee embrace the report by CAO Miguel Santana that calls for a half cent Sales Tax Hike to repair streets and sidewalks, we await statements from the likes of Mayor Eric Garcetti and his Board of Public Works President Kevin James whether they support (or oppose) burdening Angelinos with an additional tax.  

Will former Mayoral Candidate, now Board of Public Works President Kevin James and Mayor Eric Garcetti, jointly comment regarding the proposed half cent Sale Tax Hike to repair street and sidewalks?

Hey now Board of Public Works President Kevin James and Mayor Eric Garcetti, care to comment in support, or opposing the latest attempt to burden Angelinos with more taxes? 

It seemed like yesterday (it was) that we were commending City of Los Angeles Chief Administrative Officer Miguel Santana for his comments regarding holding off on new spending and employee pay raises for the next three years, while replenishing the cities fiscal reserves.

But as the sun rises on another Chamber of Commerce Day in Ciudad de Los Angeles, many within the business community and dwindling Middle Class must be pondering what Santana was smoking (or imbibing) as he crafted a report that calls for raising the City of LA's Sale Tax by a half penny to pay for street and sidewalk repairs over fifteen years.

While it should surprise no one that most of the LA City Clowncil Central Committee, especially its General Secretary/President/Dictator Herman "Mini Amin" Wesson, are collectively gleeful at the prospect of lavishing upwards of $4 Billion Dollars of Public Works Contracts to their Brothers and Sisters in Labor (in return for campaign contributions). Angelinos know all too well that past tax/fees hikes proposals (think increase trash fees for more police) originating from 200 Spring Street, end up paying for non-intended budgetary line items (can you say employee pay raises?).

That said, its fair to ask Mayor Garcetti and his former mayoral challenger, now Board of Public Works President Kevin James to state for the record, whether they support this latest "tax copout" to cover up for failed, long term planning and misplace fiscal priorities at City Hall. After all, leaders do take policy positions on occasions.

** If those in our cyber audience ever ponder why we have bestowed the gloss of "City Clowncil Central Committee" upon the fifteen elected officials within a horseshoe at City Hall, this next headline should tell you why, from the Drudge Report ........... 3 LA City Councilmembers Launch Study to Determine If Fracking Caused Earthquake. Maybe "Clowncilmans Moe, Larry and Curly" should be more worry about the price of a gallon of 87 Octane Gas approaching $4.00 again?

** We found this interesting response from a former LAFD Firefighter yesterday of Facebook in regarding the consultant-crafted report on the emergency response to the LAX Shootings as lauded by Mayor Eric Garcetti ............, Let me get this straight: LAX has the Contractor they hired to DEVELOP the emergency plans 15 months prior to the 11/1/13 active shooter to write the after action report on gaps in the plan... while still working on the plan after getting an additional 18 months of contract time? Obviously, I'm doing something wrong... or were the multitude of emergency drills at LAX an exercise in denial?

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

Scott Johnson in CD 14 

Downtown Chamber et al Backs Sales Tax Increase; VICA Says No

Last line of defense
against Herb Wesson?
VICA's Stuart Waldman

Well, duh.

VICA, though it has it's moments, is one of the last of the true business advocacy organizations out there.

Those "business" organizations that are supporting the sales tax increase pushed by Council President Herb Wesson (doesn't he represent a low income district?), giving the City one of the highest sales tax rates in the country, are part of the downtown cabal that have joined in a symbiotic and blood sucking relationship along with developers, out of town banks & corporations with a presence in Downtown LA, "community" organizations, unions, politicians and the "affordable housing" lobby to make sure each of them get their own crack at any combination of the following:

• Money.
• The ability to bed attractive lobbyists, staffers, commission members, whomever has something in exchange.
• Invitations to great cocktail parties, sporting events, awards shows, etc.

Sales tax, one of the most regressive forms of taxation, disproportionately impacting the poor and devastates small business. This particular increase would hit hard on communities like Sunland-Tujunga, North Hollywood, Venice, etc. that all border on cities with lower tax rates and where consumers can easily travel a few blocks to save some cash.

The Downtown interests, in this case driven by the real estate industry, want to shift this tax burden to consumers. Where is Occupy LA when you need them?

VICA presser after the jump...

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Tryptothan on the Stoop

Looks like Austin Beutner is thinking of becoming the Meg Whitman of Los Angeles and perhaps using his personal largesse to run for Mayor.  Will Mike Trujillo run the campaign?

"The Situation" attended the American Music Awards at the Nokia last weekend.  At first some folks had thought it was a recently elected State Assemblyman.

Getting harder to figure out what is illegal and where.  Plastic bags are on the way out but pot may be on the way back in the City of Los Angeles.  But not in Orange County and parts of LA County.

The City of LA wants folks to shop at car dealerships and malls within city limits.  However the sales tax is too damn high! On big ticket items you could save hundreds or thousands of dollars say buying those items in Simi Valley (Ventura County) for example where sales tax is a penny and half per dollar less than LA County. That's money folks could put towards savings or other purposes, fully jumpstarting the economy than handing it over to Tony Villar.

At MayorSam we're looking to meet and profile up and coming leaders in Los Angeles.  If you'd like to suggest someone you can email us at mayorsam@mayorsam.org or use this handy online form.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Sunday

Like a dumb old farmer who closes the barn door after the horse gets out, Council Member Wendy Greuel and Mayor Villaraigosa now are addressing the $10 million in fraud, waste and abuse going on with the city's fleet of "take home" vehicles following the releasing of a damning audit by City Controller Laura Chick.  Greuel has authored a City Council motion to ask for a "study" of the issue while the Mayor has ordered a freeze on the issuance of new vehicles and using City credit cards at gas stations.

Local pols are seeking to gain over $300 million in Obama era money for "infrastructure" projects in the San Fernando Valley. No word what those projects are but no doubt the lobbyists and contractors are lining up to built projects as cost effective as the Orange Line Busway and tbe Belmont Learning Center, to just name two.

If you really want to know what's going on at the OLD GRAY HAG ON SPRING STREET don't read what the Westside White Guy writes, be sure to visit Ed Padgett's excellent Los Angeles Times Pressmans 20 Year Blog, run and penned by the people who print the paper.  WWG has some inside buzz as to the possible moving of the Calendar entertainment section to the main news section but according to Ed the speculaton in (Anglo)LAObserved is all wrong. 

If you buy something in another state the state of California expects you to pay a "use tax" on the item.  The state, hungry for revenue like a crack whore jonesing for her next fix, plans to allow people to "voluntarily" register their purchases online or face potential audits.  According to the state Board of Equaliziation the use tax  "applies when a person or business in California purchases tangible merchandise from a retailer outside of this state that will be used, consumed, given away, or stored in this state and the retailer does not collect California tax on their sales."

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday

Villaraigosa political operative Ace Smith (who I was once accused of being by the way) is taking over the campaign to gain passage of the half percent Westside transit tax scam favored by the Mayor. We'll say it over and over again, you can't build enough trains to solve the problems in LA let alone the Westside and this is a massive pork laden boondoggle. As most of the County is opposed to this measure they'll pay for and won't benefit from, Smith will have his work cut out for him. And he's further sunk should Governor Schwarzenegger place his one own one percent sales tax on the ballot.

Workers at Los Angeles' animal shelters packed Tuesday's City Council meeting to demand the firing of Department of Animal Services General Manager Ed Boks. Among other issues, the employees said the City's shelters are overcrowded and that animals do not receive proper food or medical attention. City Councilman Dennis Zine said he would schedule a hearing on the issue in his Personnel Committee. In the meantime, there is one example of how the private sector could do a far better job of running animal shelters than the City.

Los Angeles-based publisher Rich Perelman is leading the battle Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks' plan to criminalize smoking in Los Angeles. Perelman says "If Councilman Parks has his way, (LAPD) officers will be able to cite you, or even arrest you, for using a legal product: tobacco." Perelman has created a website dedicated for his effort, www.WeAreNotCriminals.com.

It took being embarrassed when he went on a junket to Israel, but Mayor Villaraigosa has finally done something about illegal dumping in South Los Angeles. A new task force will identify areas for clean-up, but first they had to get a $500,000 grant from the state to do what they should have been doing all along.

Local Republicans are invited to step up and make the difference for the McCain-Palin campaign. The LA County GOP is sponsoring "Super Sarah Saturday" at a location near you.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

Rick Orlov has a piece on the Mayor's challenge to convince voters he deserves another term.  Though Antonio Villaraigosa is working hard to build momentum for next year's election battle, the shine is off the penny following the Mayor's previous mis-steps and lack of results.  Most notable about the Orlov piece is his using our "Summer of Love" catch phrase given to the Mayor's affair with Mirthala .



City Councilman Dennis Zine was supposed to be there but did a no-show; however at least a few hundred voters showed up to mayoral candidate Walter Moore's "Rally in the Valley" at Cal State Northridge Saturday.  Valley Doll provided on the scene reporting and said there was huge interest in the effort to get Jamiel's Law on the ballot.  Following up to inquiries from the Sister City, the Moore campaign reported raising nearly $5000 in small contributions at the event and is now close to having raised $110,000 as part of it's grass roots effort to unseat Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.



Rich Alossi of Curbed LA has an LA Times op-ed piece about the big boondoggle know as the Grand Avenue project.  With delays and missteps driving schedule creep on the project further and further, Alossi has a remarkable idea: let the free market handle the project.  Alossi says the yet to built and way portions of the project should be turned over to other developers as opposed to putting all the eggs in the basket of one city sanctioned and funded developer.



Activists in South LA are planning to oppose a ballot measure that would significantly increase sales taxes in the name of public transportation.  The activists say they're tired of funding projects on the Westside and in the Valley and not having input into the planning of transit lines that pass through their communities.



Reverend Lewis Logan is the President of the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, the City panel that oversees the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment and the City's system of Neighborhood Councils.  Turns out Logan moved into a new home without realizing it's outside the City of Los Angeles boundaries, hence making him ineligible to serve on the panel.  No problem though, all Logan has to do is say he shops in the City, thus affirming his factual basis for being a stakeholder right?



Goofy Jan Perry is about to go postal on fast food joints in the hood.  Apparently she thinks Black and Hispanic people are too stupid to make appropriate food choices, ergot she will make them for them.  Goofy Jan plans to attempt a permanent ban on fast food joints across a wide swath of South LA.





Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses are often not on time to their scheduled destination  - as much as 63% off schedule - especially in heavy transit dependent coordinators.  Studies show that MTA supervisors oversee far more buses than their counterparts in other cities.  In an attempt to address the problem the MTA Board of Directors have voted to add ten more supervisors to the lines with the worst schedule problems.





Arizona Daily Star reporter George Sanchez will be the new reporter on the beat at the LAUSD for the Daily News starting next week.  Sanchez has covered schools in Tuscon and reports that this final piece for the Star will be a personal recount of his experience with testicular cancer.



As rising gas prices send more and more commuters from their cars to public transit, many are frustrated that the MTA does not allow transit users to bring bicycles on board during rush hour.  Using a bicycle to get from home to the station and from the station to work makes public transit work for many attempting to take advantage of LA's patchwork system.  Therefore Council President Eric Garcetti has called upon the transit agency to find a solution to allow bikes during rush hour.



South LA wants a Trader Joe's store in their area.  Councilman Bernard Parks has been working on it for some time.  According to Bitter Bernie, Trader Joe's won't put a store in South LA because everyone who lives there shops at the Culver City Trader Joe's helping to make it the number one store in the chain.  So here's a tip to those in South LA who want a Trader Joe's: stop shopping in Culver City and soon you'll have one of your own.



And finally it's not another goofy charter school but an effort by actor Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith is inspiring just as much buzz.  The former "Fresh Prince" and current box office superstar is defending charges that the private school he and Mrs. Smith are starting is not a Scientology school even though New Village Academy in Calabasas will use teaching techniques pioneered by L. Ron Hubbard and some of the teaching staff are practicing members of the church.  Sounds like sort of a rich man's version of Academia Semillas del Pueblo.