Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Tuesday

He's back!

With July 1st, comes a new session for the Los Angeles City Council but the leadership of Eric Garcetti, Jan Perry and Dennis Zine remains intact, even though all three plan eventual runs for higher office; Mayor for Garcetti and Perry and City Controller for Zine.  That being said, Councilman Richard Alarcon was the sole vote for Herb Wesson as President Pro Tem of the Council.  Alarcon has an issue with Perry already being a declared for candidate for Mayor and continuing to serve in the leadership.

As the new session begins, some of our readers may find solace in the fact that Alarcon and Reyes only have two years left on the Council, you have four more years of Tom LaBonge, Tony Cardenas and  Bernard Parks though.

Read more »

Friday Free for All

Blogged on board Virgin America Flight 944 somewhere over Oxnard.

Eric Garcetti is bugged by potholes.

West Hollywood City Council candidate Mito Aviles likes mannequins.

In other West Hollywood City Council candidate Scott Schmidt is calling for an investigation into the finances of longtime incumbent John Heilman.  Heliman as reported spending $0 for his campaign yet folks are getting mailers and door hangers.

Pathetic! Appointed West Hollywood Council Member Shamefully Invokes Tuscon Shootings

OMG! I'm on the
@council! LOL

Lindsay Horvath is one of those overly ambitious, Gen Y, not yet ready for prime time politicians that was appointed to a West Hollywood City Council seat when the previous member passed away.  Before that she was a major player in local Democratic Party organizations such as NOW as well as blogger for the recently sold to AOL, Huffington Post.

Many within the City opposed Horvath's appointment, urging instead a special election to fill the seat of longtime member Sal Guarriello upon his death.  Horvath, a politically connected Notre Dame grad, has been in the seat since 2009 and now must run for a full term, facing the voters for the first time.


Read more »

Friday Free for All

A lot of attention has been focused on LA Council races, especially the hot and spicy politics in CD14 but there are races elsewhere, even in other cities.  West Hollywood has a contentious race with nine candidates going for three seats.  Among the issues include development in the compact but upscale city and the appointment to a vacant of youngster Lindsay Horvath to an empty council seat instead of a special election being held to fill the vacancy caused by the death of a Council member.  All nine candidates engage in a contentious debate Wednesday evening.

Speaking of the West Hollywood race, candidate Scott Olin Schmidt (formerly known as the Boi from Troy blogger) will be joining Frank Sheftel, David Hernandez and myself, Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. on latalkradio.com.  

Read more »

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet For Wednesday

We do Big Things with Smoked Salmon

The SOTU can be declared a great, forward thinking, and inspirational speech if only because the oil industry was so quick to pan it. In truth, Obama was doing Kennedy-lite, even invoking Sputnik at one point. The speech was very good, but not great. In a post-Tucson America, maybe it was exactly what was needed. The seating arrangements made for a refreshingly subdued, if not sporadically partisan audience that only managed to interrupt the speech about 20 times. My favorite was watching House Speaker John Boehner jonesing for a scotch and soda and a cigarette throughout the entire speech.

The official Republican response was given by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. The extreme Republican response was given by the American history challenged Representative from Minn., Michelle "The Camera's Over Here" Bachman.

UPDATE: Teabaggers throw Michele Bachman under the bus, "She has no right to speak for us".

The Mayors of 9 California cities, including Los Angeles, will meet with Gov. Brown this afternoon to weep,  moan, thrash about, and beg for him to abandon his proposal to disband CRAs across the state. I'm looking forward to his response.
Related; Our good friend, Ron Kaye, has had excellent coverage this week on LA's CRA scandal, and our very own Red Spot has reported on Huizar's absence from Council yesterday, that could be CRA related, no matter how hard his staffers deny it.


Read more »

Christmas Cancelled in West Hollywood

If you're a city worker in West Hollywood and expect that Christmas will be one of the 13.5 city holidays you receive annually, guess again.

Former Boi from Troy blogger and current WeHo Council Candidate Scott Schmidt points out that the City will be open for business on Christmas Eve, the legal federal holiday for Christmas this year as Christmas falls on a Saturday.

Should a city employee wish to take the day off to spend with their families they must take it as a floating holiday.

Imagine that?

However New Years' Eve is a WeHo city holiday and City Hall will be closed. No doubt to get an early start on the drinking and frolicking "the Creative City" is known for.

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Friday

 

While the battle between Carmen Trutanich, Jan Perry and AEG over the expense of the City for the memorial service for Michael Jackson continues one Los Angeles resident has stepped up in a unique way.  Jose F. Vallejo has filed a $3.3 million lawsuit against the Jackson estate claiming as a taxpayer he has standing to make the case.  Should Vallejo be successful any judgment awarded by the Court would go to the City general fund.

 

SLAP happy plan checking NIMBYs in Los Angeles go apoplectic over billboard advertising but the City of West Hollywood is considering a plan that might put a little cha-ching into the City coffers.  The owner of a building on Beverly Boulevard is offering WeHo $20K a month for the next twenty years, as well as some free public improvements, to hang supergraphics on two sides of the property. 

Here's yet another boondoggle the City is considering - putting a park over the 101 Freeway through Hollywood.  Just to speak to the cost is one thing, the safety is a bigger issue.  If the park goes Nimitz Freeway in the next big earthquake or little kids get cancer from diesel fumes who is going to pay?

Here's yet another rumor from an extremely reliable source.  Southern California ICE spokesflack Virginia Kice allegedly employed an illegal immigrant for years but fired her upon getting the ICE job. Shades of the Clinton cabinet!

Jay Leno may be coming back to late night, perhaps even to the Tonight Show.  With Leno's 10 pm show performing poorly in ratings, as well as the Conan O'Brien Tonight Show, NBC TV affiliates are screaming bloody murder.  Daily Variety reports NBC has confirmed that Leno has been offered either a half hour show at 11:35 daily or to just take the Tonight Show back. 

Open Thread for Friday

Rick Orlov: Chick goes with Trutanich: City Controller Laura Chick, who has battled City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo over her authority to audit his office, said Wednesday she is throwing her support to a city attorney candidate who would side with her position.

LA Weekly: Jan Perry's Grand Avenue Conflict: An L.A. politician votes for public subsidies that boost her home's value.

LA Weekly: Should LA City Council Agree to Slash It's $178,789 Salaries?: 15 richly paid politicians are happy to cut their pay — by 2.5 percent?

Curbed LA: WeHo Taxi Rates Set to Raise: Hey, drunkies, soon you'll have to pay more to come home from a West Hollywood bar.

Unbelievable!

Some joker in West Hollywood named Chad Michael Morissette has hung Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin in effigy outside his home. Imagine if this was done to Barack Obama?

(Photo is of Morissette)

To his great credit, West Hollywood Mayor Jeffrey Prang, condemned the act, saying "I strongly oppose political speech that references violence - real or perceived.Politics in America has become extremely polarized in recent years and we all have a responsibility to focus on our political differences in a thoughtful, and peaceful manner. I urge these residents to take down their display and find more constructive ways to express their opinion,"

Chad thinks it's some kind of Halloween joke but we're waiting for the punchline.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

This could be it for Hillary Clinton. Democratic primaries in South Dakota and Montana Tuesday are the last of the bunch and could be sufficient to push Senator Barack Obama over the top with a little bit of Superdelegate juice. The Senator's husband, former President Bill Clinton told crowds in South Dakota Monday that this could be the very last day he campaigns for a candidate. In a related story sources are saying that the Obama campaign is negotiating with Hillary Clinton, presumedly to get her to campaign for Obama this fall in exchange the presumptive nominee paying off some of the New York Senator's campaign estimated $40 million campaign debt.

Rick Orlov must be reading Mayor Sam and Street Hassle. First he mentions that Mayor Villaraigosa is taking heat for his junket to Israel. Next he mentions in light of the Israel trip, speculation is rife on the blogosphere that Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is running for Mayor. The only question is - Joe and I have been talking about these things for weeks - why did Rick wait until now to report this?

By way of Franklin Avenue we learn that Starbucks has picked LA to test a super secret new Italian style coffee beverage. Any idea what it might be?

The primary campaign season is over today and just in time for political consultants looking to get a new paycheck is the big battle over same-sex marriage. Both sides intend to raise upwards of $30 million in a likely ballot measure in November.

The City is planning to stick it to the tenants of Olvera Street, the many merchants who add to the flavor of the historic destination. Bill Rosendahl wants the vendor stalls to be raised to market rates even though many other tourist attractions are subsidized by the City. If the City is looking to balance it's books how about cutting back on the event waivers and leave the poor, mostly immigrant vendors of El Pueblo alone.

The mostly gay burg of West Hollywood is up in arms over a coming Walgreens. However Boi from Troy points out that a Walgreens in San Juan, Puerto Rico was the only business making a visible show of support for a gay pride event. Read between the lines of the anti-Walgreens screed it's more about supporting a union agenda and other liberal missions like impeaching President Bush.