Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Thursday

The City of Los Angeles wants to speed up the construction of rail lines and is seeking Obama era stimulus funds to do so.  The Mayor's office wants a proposed Federal program to advance money to the MTA for various projects. Deputy Mayor Jaime de la Vega said, "There are 12 major projects that we believe will provide over 127,000 construction jobs and 2,800 permanent jobs minimum."

With a looming disaster facing the City's pension funds the City Council is looking at getting a hold on the costs going forward.  A proposed ballot measure will drastically scale back the pensions offered to new City employees. According to reports public employee unions are already denouncing the move.

If Chris Essel was the Queen of SB1818 then Councilman Paul Krekorian is it's executioner.  One of the new Councilman's first moves was to propose legislation to limit the scope of the controversial measure.

Essel's Sinking Ship

Yesterday I told you that CD2 candidate, Downtown Chris Essel, once gleefully spackled SB1818 all over LA.  Looks like the proverbial chickens have hit the fan as a pro-developer/anti-neighborhood council screed penned by Essel for the powerful Central City Association hit distribution through the SLAP-Happy and NC networks.  All of this has led to several prominent neighborhood leaders in CD2 expressing sharp diasppointment in City Controller Wendy Greuel for endorsing Essel today.  The following is one such example from OurLA.org:

Hi Wendy,

I am dismayed to learn that tomorrow you will be publicly endorsing Chris Essel for your former Council seat. Many of us consider Chris' running to be an insult to CD2. She has no connection to CD2 whatsoever, and in fact has a record of standing with the "downtown" boys which flies in the face of our concerns here. One would be hard pressed to find many, if any, community activist or leader, whether it be Sunland-Tunjunga, Studio City, Valley Glen, North Hollywood, Valley Village, Van Nuys, Foothill Trails, or Sherman Oaks who finds Chris Essel to be a credible candidate. She hasn't a clue about our communities and has had no ties to the Valley for years. We need true representation in the Valley. We do not need another of the Mayor's plants on the City Council.

Not only does she take credit, while Chair of the Central City Association (CAA), for pushing forward SB 1818 in the state Senate, but she is also quoted as saying "As a result of our efforts, a citywide ban on condominium conversions is off the table, and neighborhood councils will now be required to submit economic disclosure statements before creating a council file." This does not sound like a person who is a friend to the empowerment of neighborhood councils or to providing protection for renters. Although SB 1818 is promoted as creating more affordable housing, it is a friend to the developers, not the communities. And if affordable housing was the issue, why would the CAA not support a citywide ban on condominium conversions as many more affordable housing apartments are lost than gained with condo conversions.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. Attached is a copy of the CAA newsletter where Chris takes credit for the leadership role that the CAA has played in these issues.

As a citizen you have the right to endorse a candidate, but as City Controller, I believe you are compromising your position by endorsing anyone publicly.

Sincerely,

Judy Price
Valley Glen

Chris Essel: The Queen of SB1818

UPDATE: Some readers have asked for a source of Essel's comments other than Mayor Sam. Fair enough. You can download the CCA Newsletter by clicking here. If for some reason it becomes unavailable please let me know, I have a PDF copy I can email you.

For those of you who like building up lots and lots of condos, adding density without infrastructure and growing the City even more, you'll love Chris Essel.

A thorn in the side to many neighborhood activists is SB1818 a State law that mandates municipalities to provide certain density bonuses and other incentives to projects containing affordable housing. Los angeles adopted an implementing ordinance that provides incentives in excess of the minimum guidelines provided by state law, however the implementing ordinance has been challenged in court and the LA Superior Court issued an injunction regarding some of these additional incentives. One activist told me that SB1818 is "a one-size-fits all solution that has been screwing up the quality of our neighborhoods. Developers come in and tear down a large moderately-priced building (say, 50 units) and build 100 market-rate units with say 10 affordable units. The end-result is a net decrease in affordable units and more density in our neighborhoods. More density means more traffic, bigger strain on infrastructure, etc." As you can see, its not a popular law around the NC nor SLAP-happy folks. And for good reason.

That however doesn't stop Chris Essel and the downtown develop at any cost crowd from backing such a flawed initiative like SB1818. Candidte Essel may be speaking the "smart growth - no growth" mantra in the development sensitive and vote rich areas of CD2 but when she gathers with her Downtown LA friends its a different story.

Essel - who has served as the Chair of the powerful Central City Association - touted her advocacy of capping local communties ability to block overdevelopment in the CCA's January 2008 newsletter by writing "Through our results-oriented advocacy, CCA was successful in pushing forward Senate Bill 1818, TFAR, and the Downtown Housing Ordinances, all of which enable developers to build more density."

Further Essel joined the Sleeping Greig Smith "We Hate Neighborhood Councils Club" by gleefully telling her Downtown buddies "As a result of our efforts, a citywide ban on condominium conversions is off the table, and neighborhood councils will now be required to submit economic disclosure statements before creating a council file." So yes, we have been triumphant in throwing up roadblocks for those pesky local panels.

The more we learn about Essel the more we see she is way out of touch with CD2. Are Downtown values Sunland-Tujunga or West Van Nuys or North Hollywood or Studio City values? I guess the "members" of CD2 will let us know.

Sunday Hotsheet First Edition

Mayor Villaraigosa has to be having buyer's remorse about appointing Jane Ellison Usher to the Planning Commission. Her pro-NIMBY memo screed will be exhibit A in Sandy Hubbard's lawsuit against SB 1818 - which is bad policy for another reason that I've discussed before. (By the way on a slightly unrelated note, here is an interesting article from almost 20 years ago about Usher's husband, Harry, a longtime LA power player. The story goes back to the days before Mayor Villaraigosa, even Mayor Riordan, Mayor Sam and the internet. Thought provoking to see what Usher thought LA's issues were in 1990.)

We posted it Saturday, even LA Observed covered it but crickets from the fishwraps of record, digital or otherwise, on the alleged anti-Semitic comments of Reverend Eric Lee, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles. Lee reportedly made the remarks during an event marking the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King at which Israeli-American philanthropist Daphna Ziman was honored for her years of activism on behalf of the poor. Blogger Ed Morrisey wondered "where the press was for this event. With the Mayor attending an event honoring King, one has to believe that the LA Times would have had at least a beat reporter there."

When a Westchester based blogger and Neighborhood Council member challenged DWP General Manager H. David Nahai as to why the utility transfered millions of dollars of revenues to the City of Los Angeles general fund instead of investing it in the Department's infrastructure, Nahai referred to the blogger as an "angry person." Glad to see Nahai gets it!

Captain Greg Nelson makes a good point about how developers can work with the community on their projects in order to blunt some NIMBY/BANANA/CAVE hysteria around their projects. I've mentioned this before, using the example of developer J.H. Snyder and his consultant Ira Handelman who did a beautiful job of engaging the North Hollywood community on several large projects that achieved significant and widespread community support.

The San Fernando Valley Democrats have another picnic-softball game next week. Tip to City Council Staffers: Don't drive your City owned vehicle to the picnic. Snoops will be watching.

Following Luke Ford's post that the Westside White Guy claimed credit for Pulitzer Prizes Ford believes he has no right to, David Markland had a brief interview with the blogger that Sherry (Shirley?) Bebitch Jeffee says is the only one she knows from Adam. Though he was discussing Ford's allegation, I guess the WWG decided it was an opportune time to lie about our blog and say "I don’t trust the accuracy or the ethics of anything at Mayor Sam, and I don’t know anyone in L.A. politics who does." Yea - sure Kev. That's why they all read it and that's why lots of send us tips, news and other items. What a waste of time to try to get stuff on a blog that no one reads or trusts.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

Our sources are telling us there was one barn burner of a session at Monday night's meeting of the Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council's Land Use Committee meeting. Tipsters say a representative of Councilwoman Wendy Greuel's office, in trying to explain the backroom deal between City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and Home Depot to place a controversial branch of the store in the mountain community, made essentially "circular comments" that provided no answers. Frustration and emotion ran so high that one committee member broke down in tears and expressed that she has "lost faith in the whole process." I suspect its going to get a whole lot uglier before the matter is resolved.

Following our big time expose that City Planning Director Gail Goldberg is allegedly a big time beer fan, the department is leaking like a sieve and lots of information is coming our way. It will take some time to parse it all but here's the latest tidbit: Planning Department employees who happen to be minorities say they're getting passed over for promotions and that an outside investigation and lawsuits may be in the works. Our sources tell us that Goldberg and her second in command, Michael LoGrande allegedly have frequent meetings at a local sports bar to drink beer and make changes to department staffing.

Last year the City Clowncil agreed to big time pay increases for city workers - more than the private sector would ever get - and now that the City is in a big budget crisis the Clowncil wants to reopen negotiations and take some of those raises back. But it seems as if the unions are not taking the Clowncil's calls.

A well known Valley NIMBY is griping in a local publication about SB 1818. You know that's the state law that basically allows developers to overrun local zoning laws if they provide some level of "affordable housing." Of course the NIMBY is up in arms but what she doesn't realize is that it's the NIMBY/CAVE/BANANA mentality that drives this very nonsense (as well as the need for developers to be shaken down by local politicians). If the market drove development, scams like SB 1818 wouldn't happen, there would be stronger reasons for developers to develop smart and it would create genuine "affordable housing." However in the current environment developers and land owners can not make the best and highest use of their land.

In the same article the same NIMBY is also aghast that the City has come to the conclusion that preferential parking districts "are turning neighborhoods with public streets into what are essentially gated communities accessible only to the residents and their guests." I've always felt that these districts - which limit parking only to those people who live next to the streets that they are created on - are on a shaky constitutional ground. When you consider that the streets are maintained with gasoline and property taxes paid by more than just the local residents, the preferential parking districts are unfair.

Tuesday Hotsheet at 3 a.m.

JM, Poppies, Scott & Alvarado Meridian, 2.26.08


Joseph Mailander a guy in la • elsewhere • email

From this perch: Hillary in three of four. The real Roger Simon nails her strategy: the victim who victimizes.

When it comes to the City, jurors hand make-up money out like cotton candy at the fair: now those poor white firefighters who were punished for hazing that poor black firefighter also get absurd million-dollar judgments. Now almost all of them---victim and perps alike---are a million plus richer for their involvement in a prank that wouldn't even make the paper on a college campus. Can't wait until the Latino guy sues for not being victimized enough to be a part of any lawsuit.

Doing its level best to protect itself from answering to curious taxpayers, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's office not only blew the defense of the City's deep pockets but then went the extra mile and declined all comment on the case.

You're so busted: Self-published books look a bit better this morning as the second work of fiction masquerading as fact in a month is recalled by a mainstream publisher. This one involved a Valley girl with a top-drawer family pedigree who faked living la vida loco with gangbangers in South LA for the sake of scoring a contract with Penguin.

If you missed the earlier incident, about a woman who claimed she was raised by wolves during the Holocaust, here's a good account.

CityWatch has a great piece regarding rumblings on repealing SB 1818, the State bill which turns affordable housing into a slush fund for developers. Shills use SB 1818 to bilk cities of billions (yes, billions) even while doing so little to create truly affordable housing. The Mayor of Los Angeles and his hand-picked, career-beholden Planning Chief, Gail Goldberg, (a woman with no knowledge of Los Angeles whatsoever prior to her appointment) have been the top performing prime offenders in the State. Most Councilpeople have also been complicit in handing over the City from the People to the Few, while rendering the streets unparkable and the lawns unplayable, all for the sake of letting developers rake cash off of a few crappy units per mega-development that do nothing to make housing afforable for anyone but the tiniest handful of lottery winners.

Money quote from the piece: "In fact, right now – throughout our city - sleeper cells of developers and architects are designing massive, neighborhood busting complexes of the type you and your neighborhood council – mistakenly – thought your community plan protected you against."

And the problem performance of yet another out-of-town Antonio appointment, Ed Boks, is the subtext of this piece by Rick Orlov, who informs his readers that the Animal Reg has let animals stand in the cold rain without adequate protection, and at last spent $118,000 (of $50,000,000 the voters pledged to them) to give the critters an adequate rainfly at last.