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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

UTLA Shoots Self in Foot, Then Bites Own Behind

Incumbent Tamar Galatzan
Challenger Louis Pugliese
Do you remember this Mayor Sam story? As it turns out, the UTLA did exactly as we predicted and made yet another bumbling endorsement for a school board seat. The Union backed insider Heather Hodge Kolodny, a UTLA loyalist and fierce opponent of reform. This time, we only had to wait two weeks before their decision bit them in the behind as Ms. Kolodny announced today that she is dropping out of the race. While this may make the incumbent, Tamar Galatzan, happy for the time being, a prompt shift of union support to Teacher Louis Pugliese may well pull them up from the certain nosedive they are in over the West Valley and send her campaign scrambling. UTLA, perhaps now a bit gun shy, and with a self inflicted pain in the ass, says it won't make another endorsement for School Board District 3 until January.

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14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Galatzan is very vulnerable in the Valley after wanting to vacate the school board seat for the failed city council run, and only doing the job part-time to begin with.

November 30, 2010 10:59 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Umm, 10:59, maybe you should read something longer than a horoscope before you speak.

Being a member of the LAUSD board IS a "part-time" job in every sense of the word. They're only paid for something like 1/4 time, for serving on the board.

You want them to work FULL TIME for 1/4 pay (or really, only about 1/6th of what someone like a City Councilmember is paid -- and less than half what a starting certificated LAUSD teacher makes)?

How about YOU try that at your work (assuming you're not on welfare). Tell the boss he can cut your paycheck 75 percent, but that you'll still work just as many hours.

DOH!

November 30, 2010 11:19 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

^
^
^
^

...which is why most LAUSD boarders just use it as a stepping stone to something else. No surprise Galatzan ran for council. She wasn't the first in recent years, and she won't be the last any time soon.

November 30, 2010 11:56 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Who cares?

Stop trying to make a news story out of a non-news story.

November 30, 2010 12:29 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Actually, 11:19, I wasn't referring to her pay. I was referring to her effort.

November 30, 2010 12:34 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

12:34

DOUBLE-DOH!

(Must be a LAUSD grad; worse, a TEACHER).

November 30, 2010 2:47 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

So, you mean, she's a "part-time" part timer?

If that's the case, she should have run for MAYOR, not City Council.

That's where people go to REALLY shirk.

November 30, 2010 2:49 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Maybe Pugliese will quite his full time job and work part times for LAUSD, for $25K a year.

November 30, 2010 3:42 PM  

Anonymous trojan2002 said:

I don't like Galatzan... she's an empty opportunist.
but there are 2 reasons why I would vote for her.
1. She's not liked by UTLA. As they say, they enemy of my enemy is my ally. And the UTLA is every non-teachers enemy. They have led the destruction of our education system with the insistence on no accountability and outrageous pay. I'd rather have someone that agitates the union than someone who lives to placate them.

2. She's the ONLY LAUSD board member to drive her own car, and has her staff drive their own cars, rather than like the others who drive leased vehicles on taxpayer dime.

November 30, 2010 5:57 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

November 30, 2010 6:12 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Council Candidate Supported Rolling Back Smoking Bans in Restaurants, Bars
Elections, Stories
November 30, 2010 3:05 pmA candidate running for the Los Angeles City Council’s Eastside district served as a spokesman and board member of a national organization dedicated to repealing anti-smoking ordinances in the mid-1990s, The City Maven has learned.

Rudy Martinez is running to unseat Councilman Jose Huizar in the 14th District.

The National Smokers Alliance was a group run by the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and funded by Philip Morris. Starting in 1993, members of the NSA lobbied to rollback restrictions on smoking in bars and restaurants. Philip Morris pulled its financial support for the group in 1999 in response to an ethics complaint NSA filed against Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., according to news releases and articles written at that time.

Documents from the National Smokers Alliance show that Martinez:

■Served on the NSA-California Advisory Board
■Received media training so he could act as a spokesman for Southern California
■Spoke to the Los Angeles Times for an article on regulating smoking
A statement from the Rudy Martinez Campaign states:

About two decades ago there was a big public debate about smoking in restaurants and bars. Rudy’s view on the topic at the time was to come up with a solution that protected the health of his customers and employees while balancing it with the needs of other customers. Since the measure became law, he has fully supported it and enforced it at all of his establishments.

Martinez also appeared on campaign mailers in support of Proposition 188, an initiative that would have preempted local smoking regulations and permitted smoking sections in restaurants, employee cafeterias, bars, private offices and business conferences. It would have also exempted gaming clubs, bingo establishments, race tracks and private boxes at sporting events from a complete smoking ban.

Proposition 188 was rejected by 71 percent of California voters in 1994.

Martinez also spoke out two nights before a state law took effect to prohibit smoking in bars, night clubs and gaming parlors.

In a PR Newswire release from Dec. 30, 1997, Martinez said: “This ban will have a tremendous impact on my restaurants and our employees. Who knows what my customers want better than I do? I should have the right to make these decisions.”

At the time, Martinez was an investor in the restaurants Cha, Cha, Cha and Cava.

The Los Angeles City Council has passed numerous ordinances to restrict smoking in public areas around the city. Most recently, the council agreed to ban smoking in outdoor dining areas. Huizar was absent for that vote, according to the council file.

In response to Martinez’s involvement with the National Smokers Alliance, Huizar campaign consultant Parke Skelton released this statement:

Rudy Martinez spent years working as a shill for Philip Morris and the tobacco industry in an effort to repeal locally enacted laws designed to reduce cancer deaths and protect people from exposure to second-hand smoke. Mr. Martinez put the profits of the tobacco industry ahead of the health of our families.

The city ordinance prohibiting tobacco at outdoor dining establishments goes into effect on March 8, 2011 – the same day Martinez and Huziar will face each other in the municipal election.

November 30, 2010 6:12 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Buh-bye, Rudy Rich.

Thanks for playing. It was fun to think for a minute that there might actually be a challenger this time, but that's OK. Now the incumbent can stop "pretending" he's in an "election" and get back to representing CD14.

As a consolation prize for sending in your nomination petition FIRST, RR, you can also be the first challenger of the March election to be YANKED out of contention before 2011 even starts, before the first debate, and before the holidays.

That head-spinning feeling is NOT from the second-hand smoke, by the way.

Take some meatpies home with you, from the deli table... they're "crow" from an ancient L.A. politics recipe.

Okay, buh-bye! You're "done" now. The good news is your cash infusion to you campaign was a "loan" so your can use it to speculate ALL over L.A., to your heart's contempt.

November 30, 2010 6:45 PM  

Anonymous one of many charter school haters said:

I will get everyone I know to write letters to Tamar and if she gives VRHS#4 to Granada Hills Charter or... she can't get the votes from the rest of the board, then I'll get on board with Louis.

December 01, 2010 2:26 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

How come neither of them are campaigning in the district? I have no idea who I would vote for since I've never seen either of them out and about.

December 01, 2010 11:43 AM  

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