One of the things you need to understand about the way City Hall works is that nothing is at it seems.
The public story you read about is invented to obscure what really goes on behind the scenes. That's where armies of political operatives, public relations staffers, consultants and a host of others work to cut backroom deals and make up stories suitable for public consumption.
By suitable for public consumption, I mean stories that keep the masses docile, confused, weak, apathetic, defeated. So while I rail against the corruption of City Hall, the real problem is us. We're so decent we're gullible. We can't believe that the system is so corrupt that nobody can stay honest after just a short time in office.
There are a few current events worth looking at again to try to figure out what really is going on.
One of my favorites is the Department of Water and Power's grandstand media play to put 400,000 black plastic balls iinto the century-old Ivanhoe Reservoir in Silver Lake to keep sunlight from turning chlorine and bromide into carcinogenic bromates that pose a serious health hazard. "For quality of water for all of Los Angeles!," cried the ever effervescent Councilman Tom LaBonge as the ball plopped.
Sounds like a clever idea to keep our drinking water healthy right? But
wait a minute, what if the public theater hid the truth about what's happened in the past?
if it's so dangerous today, what about in the past when the same problem existed and there were no black balls keeping the sun out? Was poisoned water served up on our tap?
I'm told that there have been episodes in the past when DWP officials were aware of clear health hazards related to similar problems but chose to conceal the problem as best they could without the public being the least bit wiser. That's what gutless leaders do.
A concerned citizens group could have some fun filing a California Public Records Act request for all DWP records going back a decade for information about bromates and other contaminants that were in the drinking water and how the problems have been handled.
Then, there's the endless cycle of ethical problems that politicians have to dance around with the help of the bureaucrats and network of spinners, obscurers and deceivers who live so well off the system of political money taken from special interests.
The public story you read about is invented to obscure what really goes on behind the scenes. That's where armies of political operatives, public relations staffers, consultants and a host of others work to cut backroom deals and make up stories suitable for public consumption.
By suitable for public consumption, I mean stories that keep the masses docile, confused, weak, apathetic, defeated. So while I rail against the corruption of City Hall, the real problem is us. We're so decent we're gullible. We can't believe that the system is so corrupt that nobody can stay honest after just a short time in office.
There are a few current events worth looking at again to try to figure out what really is going on.
One of my favorites is the Department of Water and Power's grandstand media play to put 400,000 black plastic balls iinto the century-old Ivanhoe Reservoir in Silver Lake to keep sunlight from turning chlorine and bromide into carcinogenic bromates that pose a serious health hazard. "For quality of water for all of Los Angeles!," cried the ever effervescent Councilman Tom LaBonge as the ball plopped.
Sounds like a clever idea to keep our drinking water healthy right? But
wait a minute, what if the public theater hid the truth about what's happened in the past?if it's so dangerous today, what about in the past when the same problem existed and there were no black balls keeping the sun out? Was poisoned water served up on our tap?
I'm told that there have been episodes in the past when DWP officials were aware of clear health hazards related to similar problems but chose to conceal the problem as best they could without the public being the least bit wiser. That's what gutless leaders do.
A concerned citizens group could have some fun filing a California Public Records Act request for all DWP records going back a decade for information about bromates and other contaminants that were in the drinking water and how the problems have been handled.
Then, there's the endless cycle of ethical problems that politicians have to dance around with the help of the bureaucrats and network of spinners, obscurers and deceivers who live so well off the system of political money taken from special interests.
Rookie Valley Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes needs all the help he can get to extricate himself from a blatant attempt to provide special legislation to benefit developer Mark Handel who, not surprisingly, contributed handsomely to Fuentes and employs a colleague of the Assemblyman when they both worked for Alex Padilla.
At issue is Fuentes' now infamous AB 212 that would undermine L.A.'s control of land use decisions, in this case specifically to clear the way for a massive housing development where the much loved Verdugo Hills Golf Course is.
Now an honorable caught taking money and doing favors might say something like "I don't give a damn what the community says or the city, this guy is my friend and I like cheap housing more than golf."
One of my all-time favorite City Hall spinners is LeeAnn Pelham, long-time executive director of the City (Lack of) Ethics Commission.
The commission voted this week to fine Councilmen Herb Wesson and Richard Alarcon a total of $5,650 for various flagrant campaign law violations -- which is chump change to these high rollers -- and $1,000 each to lobbyists Dominic Rubalcava Amy Forbes for donating illegally to Councilman Jose Huizar (who was not fined for taking their money).
The problem with lobbyists donating to campaigns is Measure R, the phony ethics reform ballot proposition that allows council members live off the public dole for 12 years instead of 8. Given the incomes these lobbyists make for corrupting the political process, the fines are a joke. But not to Pelham.
"The commission's enforcement actions today signal our commitment to upholding voters' efforts to limit undue influence of paid lobbyists in the governmental process," said Pelham.
Heaven help us. Here's the supposed watchdog on crimes against the city pretending that voters actually got tough laws to limit lobbyists' influence when what they got were fines that amount to less than what these people spend to entertain politicians for a night on the town.
I can't help but wondering what these investigations cost the taxpayers. You can bet it runs into the tens of thousands of dollars so the fines don't even recoup the costs. Whatever happened to the fee for service policy that's being used for garbage fees and everything else ordinary citizens get from City Hall?.
At issue is Fuentes' now infamous AB 212 that would undermine L.A.'s control of land use decisions, in this case specifically to clear the way for a massive housing development where the much loved Verdugo Hills Golf Course is.
Now an honorable caught taking money and doing favors might say something like "I don't give a damn what the community says or the city, this guy is my friend and I like cheap housing more than golf."
Not Fuentes: "It's not about this particular project. It's about the city of Los
Angeles...To avoid criticism, we decided not to apply it broadly because Los
Angeles is very different than Northern California. We wanted to make sure the
process is working in the city of Los Angeles and then figure out how to back
into the rest of the state."
One of my all-time favorite City Hall spinners is LeeAnn Pelham, long-time executive director of the City (Lack of) Ethics Commission.
The commission voted this week to fine Councilmen Herb Wesson and Richard Alarcon a total of $5,650 for various flagrant campaign law violations -- which is chump change to these high rollers -- and $1,000 each to lobbyists Dominic Rubalcava Amy Forbes for donating illegally to Councilman Jose Huizar (who was not fined for taking their money).
The problem with lobbyists donating to campaigns is Measure R, the phony ethics reform ballot proposition that allows council members live off the public dole for 12 years instead of 8. Given the incomes these lobbyists make for corrupting the political process, the fines are a joke. But not to Pelham.
"The commission's enforcement actions today signal our commitment to upholding voters' efforts to limit undue influence of paid lobbyists in the governmental process," said Pelham.
Heaven help us. Here's the supposed watchdog on crimes against the city pretending that voters actually got tough laws to limit lobbyists' influence when what they got were fines that amount to less than what these people spend to entertain politicians for a night on the town.
I can't help but wondering what these investigations cost the taxpayers. You can bet it runs into the tens of thousands of dollars so the fines don't even recoup the costs. Whatever happened to the fee for service policy that's being used for garbage fees and everything else ordinary citizens get from City Hall?.
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.
"...episodes in the past when DWP officials were aware of clear health hazards related to similar problems but chose to conceal the problem as best they could without the public being the least bit wiser."
Is that synonymous to the old saying, what you don't know won't hurt you (much)?
Ron, it would be fun indeed to look into the old DWP records...were we not so afraid to look.
There are so many people in our Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and Echo Park communities who have contracted some form of cancer over the past few years---it's virtually one of every five people we know who live here for a long time. I'll not mention my neighbors, but among the more public writing community, let's not forget Cathy Seipp, a longtime Silver Lake resident who contracted lung cancer but yet never smoked, and who succumbed to her malady in March last year. Among those who are currently fighting in the neighborhood, and fighting very well: our friend Diane Wagman, the novelist and talented Times book reviewer. And of course my own gal Lynn, who just completed her chemo treatments two months ago and is back at work four days a week.
I think this ultimately will be the biggest local story of this decade. The numbers from an epidemiological standpoint don't look so large, I believe, because so many people have moved to these neighborhoods within the past five years. But they will grow as the community becomes more anchored. But among residents who have been here ten years or more, if you censused them, I believe you would find a disproportionately high incidence of cancer, pointing to some environmental influence.
Even the way the reservoir was taken offline was suspicious. It was determined that it should be drained in December 2007 because...it tested poorly in July 2007. Huh? Why wasn't it drained immediately, in July?