As I've watched the circus that passes for politics in L.A. over the years, that phrase often has popped into my head so it was amusing when I heard someone near me last night at the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association meeting murmur a similar sentiment.
It was near the end of Councilwoman Wendy Greuel's talk and she was answering a question about why for so long garbage collection was provided out of taxes like police and fire services, a basic commitment of City Hall to the people, and now the city is recovering the full cost of garbage collection.
Now here's the most capable member of the City Council talking gibberish as if no one in the room is smart enought to know the simple truth: The city squandered all its tax dollars and has no chance in hell of getting two-thirds of the voters to approve higher taxes so they're charging for services that have long been free.
That way the public doesn't get a say, which is the point to be sure. The less say the public has, the easier it is for the mayor and council to have sweetheart deals with city unions and sweetheart deals with Arab oil sheiks who want to profit from city-subsidized developments.
Oher videos of Councilwoman Greuel's talk to SOHA at http://www.youtube.com/user/ronkayela
When your real policy goals are to soak the middle class and pander to the rich and poor, it becomes clear why City Hall imposes garbage and other fees the way it does.
In the case of garbage, the poor for the most part live in apartments which get garbage pickup from private companies at a lower cost (and don't have to recycle) and the rich don't give a damn. In fact, the rich get the added bonus of not being charged the $11 million they should be paying for oversized refuse cans and extra cans -- an inefficiency that would do more to bail the city out of debt than many of the penny ante items Greuel cited in her talk.
When it comes to the policy only recently announced by the mayor that the city intends to recover the full cost of services, you haven't heard anyone suggest that gangsters, drug dealers, pimps and prostitutes pay for the cost of cops, gang injunctions, prosecution or jailing.
No, the target is always the middle class, which is why L.A. is headed down the dark path towards becoming "Blade Runner" city, a city of rich and poor.
That image also came into the discussion last night in the context of the new giant billboards going up everywhere with digital signs flashing new images every four seconds.
Greuel's engagement of the billboard issue had the same kind of disingenuous blather as if the city wasn't fully in the pockets of the big-spending billboard companies.
The worst part is that Greuel has the chance to be a real leader. She's smart enough and strong enough and knows what's really going on as well as anybody. But the political system of L.A. is so corrupt, so punishing of those who would challenge it, that it takes real courage to speak the truth and to do what's right.
So as one who is permanently outside the system, I'm happy to give the wannabe City Controller some free.
Stop positioning yourself with the unpopular Councilman Jack Weiss who wants to be City Attorney, stop dancing around the truth about what's going on at City Hall and start talking straight about how you are going to make the system work for the people.
I guarantee that if Greuel or any other elected officials stood up for what's right for the city as a whole, the people would rally behind them. The moment is ripe for a real leader to emerge out of the muck of City Hall but will any of them have the guts to step forward?
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the Naitonal Enquirer.
Ron, Great to see you last night and great to hear you speak. Keep up the good fight!
If Wendy (or anyone else takes your advice) they have my vote! Right now Walter Moore is the only candidate that fits your description.
You take on the issue of billboard blight and don't think that Wendy and the City are doing enough about it, and in fact say that all of City Hall is in the pockets of the billboard companies -- then you make one of your usual gratuitous attacks against Jack Weiss, the one guy on the Council who's been fighting billboard blight for years. And was behind getting the Council to order Rocky Delgadillo to tell the main billboard company behind the mess, ClearChannel/CBS Outdoors, to remove the illegal billboards, create a registry as they have in other cities, so that the public knows just where all their billboards are and who to complain to if needed; and to pay the inspection fees that are customary -- which would run into the millions of dollars.
Instead, Delgadillo did the opposite, negotiating a flat deal by which they could put up even MORE billboards, and failed to get them to take down their illegal ones (it's estimated there are some 4000 illegal ones, out of about 11,000). Worse, Rocky gave ClearChannel/CBS the right to convert some 800 of them into the gigantic LED ones that most infuriate people living near them, or having to race by them on a highway. ClearChannel/CBS gave Rocky some $500 thousand in free ads for his campaign for City Attorney, and recently threw him a ritzy Beverly Hills Party, for no alleged specific reason. Sure... ClearChannel is so embolded by their buddy Rocky that they're even suing the city over the issue, and other billboard companies are suing to have the same rights as ClearChannel.
I'm not an expert on the details, but you can get them in L A Weekly's excellent stories about this by Christine Pelisek with a supplemental one by Jill Stewart; David Zahniser has covered this in the Times, and Patt Morrison wrote an Op Ed piece praising Jack Weiss's work on this issue. This issue became especially personal for the Weekly when they had to sue to try to get the list of locations that the company is legally obliged to provide -- but still hasn't done so. (The Daily News never covered this -- except to have one very wrong and misleading editorial blasting the city for NOT letting the billboard companies put up more of these things, and losing that revenue.)
This is one issue that Wendy has supported Weiss on, and if she wasn't as clear and coherent about the issue at the meeting as you'd have liked, maybe she wasn't as familiar with the legal details, and maybe she didn't want to name Rocky as the one who is, arguably, "in the pockets" of ClearChannel. If she's aligned herself with Weiss as you say, it's no doubt because they have many issues in common, especially as his area in the Valley is adjacent to hers. Frankly, he's one of the smartest people on the council along with Eric Garcetti (actually, they and Wendy seem like the three I can most identify with), and has gotten a bum rap from some people who are generally disgruntled that their westside areas are changing as the city spreads out in their direction. I can sympathize with that, but genuinely think he's done a good job of managing the situation and picking his battles when it comes to the rest of the city's goings on, the forces of development that have gone on for decades, and now the problems of AB1818 that some people from other districts want to use in ways that he's opposing for the westside. And Century City is a great success, despite the battles against it of one local group; both new projects are considered brilliantly innovative, "green" and "smart" masterpieces by their architectural peers, and the HOA of residents who actually live in CC love the area and Weiss.
I live in the adjacent area and frankly, I'm pretty sick of the endless, mean spirited griping that goes on by some of those most active in my HOA -- they need to get real and cooperate on solutions, instead of opposing everything. Some of us who are younger and not part of that clique, don't feel we're represented and see their nitpicking as part of the problem. I'm also fed up with the Cheviott Hills group which has scuttled even the Expo Line from going along Pico, where it's most needed -- again. If they hadn't blocked the subway two decades ago, it would've been built by now. Ron, maybe you don't care about the subway and think it and the Expo Line are a waste of money, but I strongly disagree. I also need to point out that a lot of our traffic is from the Valley -- try going anywhere in the Canyons during rush hour, it's all Valley traffic. Traffic in general needs solutions now, I think that's one thing we can all agree on.
loved the comment by anonymous
I agree with David in Tarzana.
Walter Moore won't dance. He won't dance around anyone or anything, and has been, on occasion, accused of being too blunt.
But you know what? We're "grow'd ups". We can handle the truth.
When I think about it, Barack Obama must have taken a chapter out of Moore's playbook. No contributions from lobbyists or PACs, but small donations from a lot of people, therefore making us his real constituency -- not the big money people.
I agree that L.A. and the entire nation is on the road to becoming the rich v. the poor. (Actually, we are there now.) That is why this real estate "correction", manufactured by the greedy, scummy financial service companies, is a good thing the way that chemotherapy is a good thing.
They are both miserable to go through but the process may help the patients to survive.
The fallout from the greed and deregulation of lender services, brought to us by the Bush administration (many of whom should be in jail) is that cities like L.A. have lost millions of dollars in tax revenue.
Now what do we do? The city can't figure out how to have a garage sale so they start charging the people more money for stuff and services.
I am SURE there are other ways to reduce city costs and thus SAVE money, but the mayor and city council don't seem to THINK about those ideas.
For example, if the city would start charging fees for every plastic grocery bag they would make money - lots of money. Those who are too lazy to bring their own canvas bags for shopping could choose to pay .25 per bag.
The rich would do this. Many of them don't care one fig about fees for bags.
Reducing plastic bag waste in the millions of trash cans in the city would reduce the energy and man hours it takes to dispose of the trash, thus potentially reducing the need to hire more collection workers, buy more trucks, and find more landfill space. That would save money.
But will the mayor or city council listen to such tree-hugging good sense????
Well, they haven't so far. These ideas are too progressive I guess? And yet, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have inspired millions of people to get off their sofas and vote and they are BOTH progressive to some extent and have some wild and crazy ideas about energy independence and saving the environment.
Maybe once progressive becomes the new black the mayor and city council will feel more pressure to become fashionable?
Wait! Ralphs already sells black canvas bags! See? Progressive IS already the new black. The mayor and city council are hopelessly out of style---and we all sense that don't we?
I'm expect the LA Times magazine to do a 6-page spread on that faux pas any minute now. ;-)
"When I think about it, Barack Obama must have taken a chapter out of Moore's playbook."
Only Walter Moore, or more likely someone delusional enough to think he could be mayor of the second largest city in the United States, could be so delusional to go THAT far.
Yes, I'm sure that the multi-hundred million dollar, historic Barack Obama campaign is examining Walter Moore's playbook closely. They would be wise to follow in the great Walter Moore's footsteps. (That's sarcasm by the way.)
I think that saying trash collection was "free" before just gives the council wiggle room. It was a service provided by the city within the operations funded by their budget. Now, they are short and so they isolated an expense to start at zero dollars attributed to taxpayers (if you agree to using the term "free") and bring up a charges to some "actual cost".
The "actual cost" is whatever they say it is?
Saying other cities charge? Well, then use people whose business it is to collect trash be the providers. The city is clearly inept, and at a severe cost in dollars. The Mayor's plan on pay hikes was fouled up, he admits. Get services assigned to the most efficient providers.
Privatize. The city buries their goofs in the whole bundle of the city budget and can create whatever explanation they want to hide it. Each of the Councilmembers are not even on the same page when these bogus reasons are attempted to be explained- This video is an example.
On top of hiking the trash fees so high, it's not even sure the money will go for cops and public safety as promised -- this year, the Mayor's allies and pro-police faction on Council stopped Bernie Parks from swiping the money into the general fund, but what about next year, and after that? Same with Prop S -- to get around the 2/3 vote min. for designated taxes, these were written to go into the General Fund and rely on the integrity of the politicians who made promises to the people.
Then this week Alarcon jumped on the bandwagon wanting to raise fees for extra bins, except the blue ones, to $10/ month, which will hurt larger families who may not all be "rich" -- it's actually the middle class and working class who produce more waste lots of times, since they have to cook their meals at home and stuff from their kids, etc. (Anyway, let's not get started pitting the middle class against the "unconcerned rich," where do you draw the line between them? Sure we have more megarich than most other cities, people who will buy $3,000 handbags no matter what, but someone making $125,000 isn't "rich" at all, when factoring in expenses and if they have kids, private school tuition because the schools are so poor they have no choice except in certain parts of the Valley or one high school in the Palisades, etc.)
What they're NOT asking is, why isn't L A City and County getting money from our recyclables, like other cities which earn tens of millions this way? Asst. DA Steve Ipsen, who's challenging his boss Steve Cooley for a variety of reasons alleges that he intentionally turns a blind eye to major recycling fraud going on: when one of his crack DA's was getting too close to one such scheme, Cooley pulled her off the case, as he does whenever someone is protected by his network of criminal attorney friends/ contributors. Who's profiting from this recycling at taxpayer expense?