July 2008 Archives

The ultimate back room deal: LAUSD's new $7 billion bond provides money for everyone but the kids and teachers

on July 31, 2008 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Waterless toilets and solar panels bought from friends of Antonio ... $1 billion for the incompetent internet technology division ... $1 billion for schools already built with previous bond money ... $450 million to get charter school operators to keep their mouths shut ... umpteen millions for new school kitchens to produce food kids won't eat and to buy high-tech radios for campus police as if that will help them take back control of schools form gangs....

Buoyed by polls showing the public is as gullible as ever, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's school board unanimously approved the fifth school bond issue in a decade -- $7 billion to be paid back by taxpayers over 30 years.

While the mayor's off partying in a faraway land, the seven board members and Superintendent David Brewer went off the Pacific Diining Car to celebrate their triumph.

And what a triumph it is. There's something for everybody but not one cent for kids or teachers, not one cent that goes toward ending 30 years of dismal failure, not one cent that offers any hope of reducing the 50 percent dropout rate or raising the achievement level of students.

But think about who benefits from this feeding frenzy at the public trough.

Certainly, it's tje army of bureaucrats who will get massive pay raises guaranteed. Certainly, it will be all the contractors who will provide the services and materials required to fulfill this massive shopping list. Certainly, it will be the unions since insists on paying the highest cost for labor.

But most certainly, it will be the mayor and the rest of the political entourage who will decide who gets all that money, your money.

And how, you ask does any of this educate kids or motivate teachers to do a better job?

It doesn't. That's not the goal of LAUSD. It hasn't been for decades. The district exists to serve itself -- and the circle of insiders of L.A. corrupt political culture.

The mayor promised to take over the school system and carry out massive reforms. In fact, he failed so completely at that he has control over just nine of 700 schools, barely 1 percent. Failure without accountability breeds contempt and that's what this is about, contempt for the public that is so gullible they can be sold a fifth bond issue without any sign of significant progress in educating children.

This is a fraud. And if you look the other way and buy it, you deserve the bill you'll get now and until 2044. You should live that long. You should live to see this produce a better educated generation of public school students than the last two generation. But don't hold your breath, it isn't going to happen.

It hasn't happen with the $20 billion already invested in LAUSD through four previous bond issues and a state bond issue.

Has anyone even seen an accounting of where that money went and whether the public got what it paid for?

Junkies will say anything to get your money for their next fix. And that's all this about: A system addicted to the public's money and desperate for more.

Here's the mayor's press release on passage of the bond issue:

Continue reading The ultimate back room deal: LAUSD's new $7 billion bond provides money for everyone but the kids and teachers.

Antonio takes a dim view of L.A. Harbor's sweetheart contracts with P.R. firm

Ron Kaye

on July 31, 2008 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Remember those $1.3 million in public relations contracts the L.A. Harbor Commission approved to promote clean air efforts at the port?

Well, with the prudence of King Solomon, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- released while he's on his faraway hideaway vacation -- found a way to split the baby.

He wrote (here's the link to the letter portsletter.pdf) Harbor Commission President S. David Freeman that he believes "it is critical that the department take measures to develop internal staff capacity to direct and manage a more robust public communications effort. Consistent with this goal, I suggest you swiftly reconsider the public education and community outreach contracts" approved June 19.

At the same time, the mayor wrote: "The contractor's work should be viewed as a temporary supplement with a scope of one year ... should be project specific and prohibit services related to obtaining media coverage; and...should be limited to one firm."

In other words, he decided to defuse the P.R. time bomb created by the commission's approval of open-ended contracts with the Rogers Group and Hill & Knowlton.

The contracts were widely seen as a replication of the $3 million a year deal the Department of Water and Power cut with the Fleishman-Hillard that led to scandal, controversy and ultimately federal court convictions of three P.R. executives.

Approval of the contracts six weeks ago raised questions about what role would be played by Steve Sugerman, the Fleishman-Hillard P.R. executive who got probation after changing his story and admitting he engaged in falsifying DWP billings.

A big question now is whether either P.R. firm is appropriate to handle a community relations effort rather than media manipulation.

Continue reading Antonio takes a dim view of L.A. Harbor's sweetheart contracts with P.R. firm.

NAKED CITY, a daily news report

Ron Kaye

on July 31, 2008 6:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Air quality regulators thwarted in effort to make air pollution worse in L.A. Basin

It's good to know that the public interest is protected by public

agencies staffed by high-minded public servants. Unfortunately, it's not true very often and clearly not in the case of the South Coast Air Quality board which was caught red-handed by Judge Ann I. Jones. She ruled that approval of 13 planned power plants was illegal because air quality regulators didn't require environmental and health studies on the pollution they will generate. Even worse, the Times says that last week regulators "lobbied by a host of former politicians, decided to sell the (banked air pollution) credits to energy companies for $420 million: about half the market value." Top air regulator Barry Wallerstein warns there will be blackouts as we keep building without enough power. And that's the key: If public officials obeyed the law and stopped giving away the people's money, we wouldn't have overdevelopment that pollutes our air, exhausts our water resources, clogs our roads and ruins our neighborhoods.

MTA's plan to cut a sweetheart deal to overdevelop Van Nuys thwarted by environmental hazard

The L.A. Weekly reports that the MTA board started playing its usual political games in considering approval of "a vast, 'transit-oriented' luxury-apartment complex sprinkled with 30,000 square feet of shops" on an Orange Line busway parking lot. The community hates the project that has several political heavyweights jockeying to get the lucrative deal. But Steven Leigh Morris reports the real problem is toxic chemicals emitted from "Chevron USA's Van Nuys Terminal -- a gas-storage, -reprocessing and -redistribution plant less than 100 yards away." So much for the value of human life when friends can make a buck.

Something you need to read and think about

Ron Kaye

on July 30, 2008 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

This will probably get me in trouble with the New York Times because I'm reproducing this OpEd piece whole. It's by a friend of mine, a cop I know well enough to say I respect a great deal. He's George Gascon. He was No. 2 under Bill Bratton at the LAPD until he quit to become police chief in Mesa, Arizona -- a booming middle class area east of Phoenix that in some ways is like a modern-day recreation of the San Fernando Valley or the San Gabriel Valley.
The reason you should read this in my point of view is that Chief Gascon tells what I believe is the truth: "Without a national immigration policy, a new culture of lawlessness will increasingly permeate our society."

Please read what he has to say, as a cop who is dedicated to protecting and serving the community as well as he can, and knows why gangs have taken over so much of L.A.

July 31, 2008

Op-Ed Contributor

The Laws Cops Can't Enforce

By GEORGE GASCÓN

Mesa, Ariz.

OUR next president faces a formidable task. He will be forced to deal with two difficult wars, an economic downturn, higher energy prices and a bankrupt federal immigration policy.

To some, immigration pales in comparison with the wars and the economy. But for others, especially police departments in border states like mine, it is all-consuming. The first priority of the next president should be legislation that addresses the legitimate concerns of both the people who believe our borders are out of control and those who want equal protection for everyone living in this country.

Immigration issues are tearing apart communities. Demagoguery and misinformation are shaping public opinion and in some cases public policy. In the absence of a clear federal policy on immigration, states and cities are enacting draconian and constitutionally questionable laws.

This patchwork of conflicting local immigration laws is creating an untenable situation for police officials who face demands to crack down on immigrants -- demands that contradict policing practices that have led to significant declines in crime.

For police officials, refusing to carry out policies that may violate the Constitution can be career-threatening. Both sides in the immigration debate accuse police departments of misconduct in dealing with immigrants. In this politically charged environment, some chiefs are making decisions based on bad politics instead of sound policing. In many cases, police officers are making illegal arrests with the acquiescence and sometimes explicit approval of their superiors.

Here in Arizona, a wedge is being driven between the local police and some immigrant groups. Some law enforcement agencies are wasting limited resources in operations to appease the public's thirst for action against illegal immigration regardless of the legal or social consequences.

America's 500,000 police officers are sworn to enforce the law. But we are increasingly unable to do so. Those who want to restrict immigration criticize us for not arresting immigrants for entering the country illegally. Yet others rightly wonder how we can do our job if some residents are afraid to report crimes or otherwise cooperate with the police for fear of deportation.

Without a national immigration policy, a new culture of lawlessness will increasingly permeate our society. In cities, politicians will pressure police departments to reduce immigration by using racial profiling and harassment. At the same time, immigrants who fear that the police will help deport them will rely less on their local officers and instead give thugs control of their neighborhoods.

Many top law enforcement officials were part of the community policing revolution of the 1980s and '90s. We have a deep concern for constitutional rights and social justice. We believe that effective policing requires residents, regardless of immigration status, to trust the police.

We are also students of the mistakes of our predecessors. Past police practices helped lead to the civil unrest of the 1960s, which tore our nation apart along racial and political lines. We do not want to repeat those mistakes.

If we become a nation in which the local police are the default enforcers of a failing federal immigration policy, the years of trust that police departments have built up in immigrant communities will vanish. Some minority groups may once again view police officers as armed instruments of government oppression.

A wink and a nod will no longer suffice as an immigration policy. Effective border control is a critical step. But so is ensuring that otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants have the same protections as everyone else in a modern, free society.

Presidential candidates need to specify the measures on immigration they would present to Congress after Inauguration Day. No doubt, the advisers to John McCain and Barack Obama are counseling them to be vague. That's the wrong advice.

America's police officers deserve thoughtful federal leadership so that we can continue doing our best to provide our country with the security that defines a civilized society.

My funny life in a three-minute video

Ron Kaye

on July 30, 2008 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's the video they played of my life at the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley's "Valley of the Stars Gala" on July 26. It was made by Randy Witt and captures the full irony and humor, I hope, of my search for meaning and happiness.

And get some uplift from the video about actress Sally Field, the real star of the Valley of the Stars Gala

NAKED CITY, a daily news report

Ron Kaye

on July 30, 2008 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Nothing but old (local) news in the incredibly shrinking (local) newspapers

City Hall's ban on new fast-food restaurants will mean denizens of the downtown district will have to make do with the few thousand outlets already there. Problem solved.

The Times remains preoccupied with the Century City stabbing murder of Pamela Fayed. Watch out if someone gets killed in Beverly Hills -- the last 700 reporters and editors will be all over the story.

Kevin Roderick, the Zell-obsessed media maven and ex-Timesman, admits he was duped by the Craig's List ad for laid-off journalists willing to work for free for the supposedly well-financed greatest newspaper ever that supposedly would launch in L.A. soon. That said. Roderick has links to the show he did on the Times this week and the one Warren Olney did on KCRW and there's no doubt the top pro of public radio got whipped on this one.

Forgive my obvious bias but the one bright spot was KABC morning talk show host Doug McIntyre's afterthoughts in a Daily News Oped piece on the Saving L.A. Project's Bastille Day rally at City Hall. "The real villain is apathy,'' McIntyre wrote, and he's hoping that some sparks from the rally will ignite the people and we'll actually do something "like crushing gangs, electing public servants who actually serve the public, stop treating taxpayers as marks to be rolled, create schools that produce citizens of this country, and stop allowing corporations to dictate the character of our neighborhoods."

Are you better off after eight years of these people? Is L.A. better off?

Ron Kaye

on July 30, 2008 4:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

If the power structure of Los Angeles had not foisted Measure R on gullible voters, these six City Council members -- Zine, Alarcon, Garcetti, Weiss, Perry and Hahn -- would be termed out of office and we would be having a real election next March.

Instead, we face a rigged election

The same powerful, self-serving interests that have been running the city badly for too long preserved their control of City Hall by spending millions to sell as ethics reform extending from two to three terms the limits on council service. They will spend whatever it takes to keep these political hacks in office and to bamboozle you into paying higher taxes for worse public services.

Against all odds, David Hernandez and other opponents of Measure R have kept alive a legal challenge and are scheduled for an appeals court hearing in August that could find it unconstitutional. This would open the possibility of restoring a measure of democracy to L.A. by throwing open the March elections to all challengers.

I support what Hernandez is doing and am speaking tonight at a fund-raiser for the legal challenge (information about the event is on my calendar and information about how to contribute after the jump).

Win or lose in court, those who care about democracy and good government need to mount a political campaign that will challenge these wannabe third-termers, which five of them are. The sixth, Jack Weiss, far and away the least popular in his own district, hopes to ride the coattails of the mayor into the City Attorney's Office -- a prospect that many people find frightening given his lackluster record.

These people know how to charm and song-and-dance many activists within their own communities, to hold out hope for them of some progress on their narrow agenda.

But their collective efforts in leading the city are disastrous. Taxes, fees and rates of every type have soared in the last eight years. Poverty has risen dramatically. Gangs still terrorize many neighborhoods and City Hall lacks the will to get tough even with illegal immigrant criminals. Desperate for cash to feed the sweetheart contracts they approved with unions and contractors, city leaders will do anything for money and that's why the L.A. is being overdeveloped without the roads, public transit, parks, water or other needed infrastructure.

For the lack of any other alternative, I floated the idea of the Saving L.A. Project (SLAP) as an umbrella coalition of community groups of all types. Activists from all over the city have joined in and are trying to turn the idea into an organization that can challenge City Hall, fight for local issues, develop a citywide agenda and back candidates for city offices who will turn L.A. around.

We staged a rally on Bastille Day at City Hall and we're holding an organizing Town Hall meeting Saturday in Glassell Park. Don't accept failure. Don't hide behind apathy and defeatism. Stand up and be counted. Get involved in your neighborhood council, residents group, service clubs, schools or wherever you can make a difference. Join SLAP and fight back.

Continue reading Are you better off after eight years of these people? Is L.A. better off? .

EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA!!!! See it for yourself ... Strong Earthquake hits L.A. but $300 million City Hall restoration saves City Council

Ron Kaye

on July 29, 2008 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

SHAKEN BUT UNDETERRED COUNCIL APPROVES MASSIVE TRASH FEE HIKE

Here's the video of what happened when the quake hit

Even by the standards of the do-nothing LA. City Council with all its blustering and self-congratulations and burlesque theater, Tuesday's session was pretty amusing.

It started late in a nearly empty chamber with a few sad souls lamenting as usual the big shots' lack of respect for the little people and then turned comic as the house the taxpayers rebuilt for $300 million rolled on its $100 million quake-proof rollers. Finally, it descended into farce as the council voted to squeeze tens of millions of dollars out of the citizenry to conceal their incompetence.

And in the end, it was tragedy. All that money to protect themselves and then a lecture from the bantamweight City Controller on how their wicked ways had endangered the lives of four million people.

The vote was 11-1 to jack up trash fees for homeowners to $36 a month with even the so-called conservative Chatsworth Councilman Greig Smith insulting his constituents intelligence by claiming they lived off the poor for 50 years, stealing the money out of their pockets with free garbage pickup.

Only Dennis Ziine was confident enough to cast an easy lone no vote, offering obscure logic on why he wasn't going along with everyone else even though the city -- having squandered the biggest increase in revenue in its history -- can't pay its bills without breaking the social contract dating back to Sam Yorty.

Then, God spoke and shattered the indefatigable self-assurance he earned as a traffic cop.

"There goes the earthquake. Earthquake. Earthquake. Earthquake. Earthquake. We got an earthquake. Still happening. The building is rolling...You're all safe in here so don't leave the building..."

It seemed fitting that not too much later, after the vote, Controller Laura Chick rolled in to the Council Chamber to make an urgent report on her latest audit finding that the mayor, council and bureaucrats have failed miserably as managers and keepers of the public trust in the most important of all their functions, emergency preparedness.

Think about it next time you fall into the sway of these people: They spent your money to protect themselves with the most advanced technology in the world and left all of you to fend for yourselves when quakes, brushfires, mudslides or other calamities hit as they so often do.

GOD WILL GET THEM: STRONG EARTHQUAKE JARS L.A. AS COUNCIL VOTES ON OUTRAGEOUS HIKE IN TRASH FEE

Ron Kaye

on July 29, 2008 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Qauake hit at 11:45 a.m. and reported to measure about 5.8 on the Richter Scale, which is quite strong but probably not deadly. It lasted about 30 seconds with strong rolls that intensified and was centered in the Chino Hills, 29 miles east of L.A. City Hall.

Council members made a few jokes and continued to talk nonsense. Tom LaBonge finally suggested they discuss evacuation plans to save their lives in case there's another temblor.

NAKED CITY, a daily news report

Ron Kaye

on July 29, 2008 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

READER BEWARE: You may get nauseous as the following items run together in your mind and cause an episode of vertigo

A proposal to increase trash fees by 30 percent, which Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says is necessary to balance the city's budget, will go before the Los Angeles City Council today.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials are considering asking voters to approve a $7 billion bond measure in November, more than twice as big as previously discussed and nearly half of it set aside for unspecified future projects.

While still opposing pressure to get tough on illegal immigrant gang members, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday proposed hiring six contractors at $500,000 each to manage gang-prevention programs in the city's hardest-hit areas - a move designed to reinvent L.A.'s gang strategy, but one sure to upset nonprofits that had relied on city contracts for years.

The California legislature took time out from the state budget crisis to pass a bill giving California pet owners the right to set up a legally enforceable trust to care for dogs, cats, horses or other animal

The City Council is scheduled to consider a moratorium today on new fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles.The proposal by Councilwoman Jan Perry would cover a 32-square-mile area, for one year, with two possible six-month extensions.

Home prices in Los Angeles continued their historic decline in May, falling 24.5% from year-earlier levels, according to the widely watched Case-Shiller index of home values.

The joint city-county board overseeing the much-delayed, $3-billion Grand Avenue project established financial penalties Monday that the developer must pay -- $250,000 a month -- if ground isn't broken by February. That works out to one-thousandth of one percent of the cost of the project a year.

L.A. County claims state's dirtiest beaches for 5 years straight.

The commissars of LAUSD are at it again

Ron Kaye

on July 29, 2008 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the darkly beautiful things about L.A. politicians is that they operate so much like the way Kremlin commissars in the Soviet Union did: They don't give a damn about the public, they do their best to keep the public in the dark and they do whatever is good for them and their pals.

The latest bond issue to support LAUSD's continuing failure is a case in point. It's not at all clear how the $3.5 billion (sorry, it's up to $7 billion now) to be raised by the fifth school bond in 12 years will be spent or what the public benefit will be; deals are being cut in back rooms that the public will never know about and, and apart from the grease typical of all public spending, there's a provision to enrich certain LAUSD employees.

Buried in the 144 pages of the proposed bond and supporting documentation is a provision that requires that all staff in the Facilities Division, including the extensive support staff, meet professional standards for major construction projects.

On its face, that is a reasonable requirement although how such standards are measured can be a pretty subjective thing and private sector workers don't get the same level of benefits as public sector employees and surely don't have the same total protection against job loss.

Here's the kicker: The bond proposal contains a provision that requires that every two years the district needs to conduct "a survey of compensation of major construction programs and managers of major public and private facilities in comparable locations across the United States in public and private sectors, and the Board shall make a finding that managers are being compensated at a level that will be competitive in the marketplace..."

In other words, voters who only want their own kids and the kids of others to get a decent education in decent facilities are being asked to write a blank check for LAUSD to pack in as many people as officials want into the Facilities Division and pay them whatever they want.

I know it's picky to complain about a few million here and there when they've already spent $20 to $30 billion dollars building failing and dysfunctional schools that now need billions more to break them into manageable pieces.

But I can't help myself. I voted for the last four bond issues hoping that somehow if we throw enough money at the problem, things will get better, that 700,000 other kids will come out of LAUSD with "comparable" educations and opportunities as my son did.

But my hopes were unfounded and I don''t know why this bond issue will make any difference at all in the dropout rate, the gang problem or the outcomes of the students.

NAKED CITY, a daily news report

Ron Kaye

on July 28, 2008 6:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Another day, another plan to tax people to death when they can't pay their bills

It's barely three months before the election and our public servants are frantically looking for new ways to tax people who don't have money to buy gas or food or pay the rent.

Only one explanation can't account for the feeding frenzy: A landslide at the polls for Obama and the belief the new or infrequent voters will say yes to almost any tax even if they are all regressive taxes in nature and hit those with the lowest incomes hardest. Of course, if you believe that, you believe our public servants are cynical louts who really don't give a damn about the poor or working class and just want to feed the maw of inefficient and ineffective government.

In the Daily News, Troy Anderson reports County Supervisors are scurrying to emulate the City with a phone tax cut that actually is a phone tax increase. Nothing cynical in that, is there?

The proposal is to cut the current 5 percent tax by a tenth but extend the reach of the tax to text messaging, paging, telephone conferencing and other services which over time will add revenue to the county. It also would make the long pending lawsuit against the current phone tax, imposed without a public vote in 1991, irrelevant.

More people flocking to food banks, fewer giving, so why not raise
taxes?

Catching up with other local news media, the Times reports a lot of people are suffering hard times as jobs disappear and prices soar. Some food banks report demand up as much as 60 percent and that some of those in need we're making $70,000 a year not very long ago.

The headline tells you a lot about what's going on: Job losses have hit the San Fernando Valley particularly hard as the economic downturn spreads beyond the poor and begins to affect middle- and upper-class families.

What better reason could there be to raise taxes, fees and hikes to support City Hall in the wasteful style it regard as an entitlement.

Taxes rise, poverty soars and city officials keep on living like royalty

Like Bruno the Beast with a juicy bone, I can't let go of the theme of the day: Our local officials' utter disregard of the public interest, utter contempt for the lives of ordinary people as they continue to live like royalty on the people's money and pat themselves on the back for their compassion and decency.

Beth Barrett in the Daily News reported over the weekend on the abuse of city-supplied cars to elected officials and their staffs.

The kings of gas-guzzling SUV riding abusers are Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and Councilman Dennis Zine who burn $8,000 in taxpayer-paid gas a year.

"Three councilmen -- Tony Cardenas, Richard Alarcón and Jose Huizar -- drive new Toyota Highland Hybrids that get 26 mpg and are decked out with leather seats, moonroofs and CD/DVD systems," the story says.

Cardenas says he needs the giant vehicle and its $5,900 a year gas bill to haul rakes and shovels to weekend community cleanup events and was forced to take the luxury accessories package by the General Services Department.

Alarcon claims he needs the same vehicle because he might have to sleep in it in case there's another earthquake like the 1994 Northridge Quake.

In all, the city supplies about 1,400 vehicles -- not counting police, fire, harbor, airport and ports workers -- with the mayor's staff getting 13, the City Attorney's 10 and council members eight each for their staffs.

Not bad for the nation's highest paid municipal officials.

An evening under the Stars

Ron Kaye

on July 27, 2008 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

What a night it was!

The Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley's 12th annual Valley of the Stars banquet Saturday night at the Disney Studios in Burbank.

The honorees are in the middle of the photo taken by John McCoy of the Daily News: Federal Appeals Court Judge Harry Pregerson with Oscar-winning actress Sally Field and Daily News Publisher Doug Haines, Pierce College President Bob Garber and me in back. The white coats are Alliance leaders Bruce Ackerman, left, and David Fleming with emcee Wink Martindale on his right.

It's a strange feeling to be the recipient of honors but my family was proud. The highlight for me was Randy Witt's video that captured the irony, and absurdity, of my life. I'm grateful.

Paparazzi, plastic bags, fast food -- what about gangs

Ron Kaye

on July 26, 2008 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBacks (0)

By Sandy Sand
Correspondent

This is pure snark, morgue humor, cop humor, newsroom humor...whatever you want to call it, so don't send me hate mail, and besides, it ties into what I'm going to say.

These damn little gangsters better take sharpshooting practice so they hit their "mark" and not innocent bystanders.

For the sake of public relations and political correctness, cops from the guys on the street all the way up the ranks, police will say they don't want to see any life taken, not even a gang banger's.

The truth is -- and I know because when I was a police reporter I heard them say it -- they don't give a rat's ass when one banger offs another one.

I don't care either. If they want to make war on each other, more power to them. As far as I'm concerned they can be rounded up, locked in the Coliseum and have at it.

Death to the finish just like the good ol' days in Roma. The city can even sell tickets to sweeten the coffers.

But their right to have their little turf wars ends at our right to walk our streets safely, or have our children play without fear in their own front yards or even in their own living rooms.

Continue reading Paparazzi, plastic bags, fast food -- what about gangs.

Where charter schools stand on proposed LAUSD bond

Ron Kaye

on July 25, 2008 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

By California Charter School Fan

Los Angeles Bond Update

We are engaged in vigorous discussions with LAUSD about a proposed bond measure they intend to put to voters in November 2008. We believe that such a bond would work only under conditions where LAUSD commits to a comprehensive charter school policy. A comprehensive charter school policy would be an integral part of an overall facilities master plan. This includes full compliance with our settlement agreement requiring LAUSD to conduct a facilities inventory that could begin immediately if the LAUSD board assigns money to complete it.

If LAUSD places a bond before the voters in November 2007, our support will be contingent on the following expectations, consistent with our desire for a comprehensive policy for charter schools:

Fair proportion of funding for public charter schools - 10% of the total bond; we are currently discussing $320 Million of a total bond of $3.2 Billion, though we understand the District is considering total bond amounts of $3.2, $6 and even $10 Billion dollars

Flexibility in the use of the funds (not just new construction, but modernization, loan guarantees and matching funds to innovative funding instruments - much like the flexibility that exists in the affordable housing sector and other public financing sectors).

Good governance: need to ensure that charter dollars are spent efficiently, effectively and transparently.

While the Board intended to vote on this issue yesterday, the vote was hastily delayed last Friday until Thursday, July 31, as the Board and Administration continue to ponder the total amount of the bond and the charter portion allocated to our school projects. We have been working closely with Mayor Antonio Villarraigosa's office as well as LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia and her staff, and several other Board members to ensure we can maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of new bond funds leveraged in this election. I'm also attaching the strong editorial in support of our position from today's Los Angeles Times, cut and pasted here also for ease of readability. Please be advised that we are re-organizing our turnout for Thursday's vote, to show a strong presence at the Board meeting.

NAKED CITY, a daily news report

Ron Kaye

on July 24, 2008 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Blame it on Bruno the Beast

. Blogging will be curtailed over the next few days. With family visiting to have a laugh at the irony of me getting a Valley of the Stars honor from the Economic Alliance of the Valley Saturday night, keeping the monster rescued from the bushes from savaging a loved one will be a full-time job.

$40 billion in taxes for a transportation plan that isn't a plan at all

The insider culture showed off its muscle Thursday with a 9-2 vote to approve a third half-cent-per-dollar sales tax for transportation.

There were face-covering whines from the San Gabriel Valley and South L.A. and even the North County but not a peep from MTA board members from the San Fernando Valley which will generate roughly 20 percent of the revenue over the next years and get a return of $1 billion to make it easier to get to the Westside -- but not for 30 years.

SHOCKER: Poor blacks and Latinos aren't getting along

Always delighted to foment racial conflict, the Times plays the County Human Relations Commission's report on hate crimes hard under the headline: Latino-vs.-black violence drives hate crimes in L.A. County to 5-year high.

Indeed, the 28 percent percent rise, mainly in vandalism and assault, in crimes between blacks and Latinos ought to disturb everyone because it's a sign we don't have our arms around the real issues: Policies that encourage poverty, poor education, illegal immigration, lack of good-paying jobs and on and on.

All point to the same problem: Failed leadership.

It's official: Wong's fall means politicians get a free ride and public corruption in L.A. is legal

With the conviction of Leland Wong yesterday of 14 counts, the corrupt political culture of L.A. has closed the book on the "pay to play" scandal that crippled the Hahn administration.

City Controller Laura Chick sparked a firestorm of controversy four years ago when she charged that she had information that city commissioners were selling lucrative city contracts for campaign contributions -- "pay to play."

A joint federal-county task force was established to investigate. Grand juries were impaneled. The result: Wong, a lobbyist and former city commissioner, and three Fleishman-Hillard P.R. executives have been convicted of crimes that have nothing to do with paying to play.

Only one juror talked to reporters after the trial, identifying himself as "Juror No. 9," he thought prosecutors used Wong as a scapegoat. "I think he was picked on," he said. "It looked like everybody threw everything at him. I don't think he's a bad guy."

Case closed. Four fall guys and no politicians or other public officials. It's officially not a crime in L.A. for them to do favors and take money. Pay-to-play is legal and the mayor is the greatest beneficiary traveling the country raising millions of dollars for his campaign and promising to look after the private interests of his contributors.

LIVE BLOGGING FROM MTA BOARD ON TAX HIKE

Ron Kaye

on July 24, 2008 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Follow developments at the MTA board meeting where a decision is expected today on seeking voter approval in November for a third half-cent sales tax for transportation. Dan Abendschein of the Pasadena Star-News is live blogging the meeting.

PULLING THE PLUG ON LAUSD -- MAY IT REST IN PEACE

Ron Kaye

on July 24, 2008 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

FUNERAL MARCH FOR LAUSD BY CHOPIN

LAUSD is dying.

Will no one shed a tear?

For 30 years, the nation's second largest school district with 700,000 ill-served students has suffered a fatal disease but somehow survived against all odds, against all the hopes and efforts of so many to put it out of its misery. Our misery really.

But the death vigil has started. Besieged by charter schools in every direction, the district that spent more than $20 billion overbuilding mammoth schools -- one alone that cost more than $400 million -- now knows small schools work better.

The district that survived because of the tenacity of its bloated bureaucracy has lost even the support of the teachers' union, which for lack of an alternative strategy, became complicit in its failure.

A nearly unbroken stream of school board members and superintendents without talent or imagination has lost the confidence even of those with real power in L.A. who had strived to reform it. And the current superintendent has been stripped of authority and left dangling in the wind.

LAUSD is dying of a thousand blows.

The latest came today with its director of innovation, the woman who left the private sector to take charge of the construction program when it was in chaos a decade ago, is joining the California Charter Schools Association.

Kathi Littman, who had served as LAUSD's executive director of innovation reshaping the district into small manageable academies, is jumping the sinking ship to become senior vice president for intergovernmental affairs for the charter school movement.

Given her background in construction and reforming LAUSD, Littman is positioned to help tear apart the mammoth district school by school and accelerate the takeover by charters which already is well under way despite the stonewalling and resistance of the entrenched education establishment.

Continue reading PULLING THE PLUG ON LAUSD -- MAY IT REST IN PEACE.

NAKED CITY, a daily news report

By
Ron Kaye
on July 24, 2008 6:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

DEPARTMENT OF HOW-DUMB-DO-THEY-THINK-WE-ARE

The mayor's own poll found that 53 percent of the people feel the city is "pretty seriously off on the wrong track," according to George Sanchez in the Daily News.No indication if anyone actually thinks the mayor is on the right track.

So what's the mayor's take on that: "Like all Americans, Angelenos are suffering the effects of the national mortgage crisis, high fuel and food prices, and are anxious for our national leaders to help hard-working families and not just the large Wall Street banks," said spokeswoman Janelle Erickson.

And LAUSD: 73 percent think it's doing a poor or just fair job.

Superintendent David Brewer's response: "That's nothing new."

LITTLE GIRL GUNNED DOWN IN LAWLESS GANG ATTACK IN SOUTH L.A. --
DO WE NEED A GANG TAX OR TOUGH TACTICS TO END THE VIOLENCE

iIt happened at 8:45 p.m. last night at 76th and San Pedro streets -- too late for out-of-date newspapers to do more than call the watch commander and get a few paragraphs online, no blaring headline, no outrage.

In an earlier era, there would have been screaming headlines with a black-and-white photo of the heart-broken mother holding her dying 8-year-old daughter in her arms and wailing in grief after two gang punks fired into a crowd of people and killed her child.

Put that image into your head and think about how our leaders, with our complicity, have done nothing for decades about the takeover of our neighborhoods by 50,000 armed hoodlums. Much as I despised him, it almost makes me wish punk-cop Daryl Gates was back, although for all his talk and bluster and battering rams, he was just as ineffective as everybody else.

A witness told KNBC-TV that she heard the gunfire and then saw the girl being held by her mother. Capt. Dennis Kato said it appeared that the gunmen were firing at a group of male youths nearby.

The gunmen reportedly ran off and escaped through a nearby alley. The corner, which is near the LAPD's 77th Street Division station, was soon flooded by scores of police officers, who cordoned off the area and began searching for the attackers and interviewing witnesses.

ARNOLD TURNS THE STATE BUDGET FIASCO INTO A CIRCUS WITH A PHONY PLAN TO MAKE STATE WORKERS (TEMPORARILY) PAY FOR POLITICAL INCOMPETENCE

Brilliantly running up a $15 billion budget deficit even as state revenue soared, the govenor and the state legislature are now a month overdue in meeting their constitutional responsibilities to write a spending plan for the new fiscal year.

So why not create a constitutional crisis about something else and distract public attention from the real issue?

Great minds have guided Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to come up with a scheme to reduce the wages of 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour to conserve cash in the treasury. The move, of course, is only temporary -- and probably impossible to do in actuality because of the way computers spit out paychecks -- and the workers will eventually get their full pay.

It's the big headline in the Times over a breathless story without context or irony -- a story that suggests exclusivity although Google counts 206 news articles on the subject already today.

The Democrats, innocent lambs and compassionate advocates of working people that they are, are outraged by the governor's stunt. They are prepared to defy his executive order. They are prepared to fight it in the courts and on the streets. They are prepared to do anything to distract attention from their own failure to act responsibly with the people's money.

Is it any wonder that many people are fed up with our government at all levels and most people have given up and pay no attention?

GANGS RUN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, OFFICIALS SQUANDER YOUR MONEY -- ISN'T THAT THE PERFECT TIME FOR THE MTA TO VOTE TO SEEK A TAX INCREASE?

Excellent breakdown today by Steve Hymon on the MTA board voting today on yet another half-cent per dollar tax sales tax hike -- the third -- to fund transportation projects.

The board almost certainly will vote to put the $30 billion, 30-year plan on the November ballot despite the fact there is no agreement on what it should be spent for, despite the fact it would not generate enough money to complete most of the projects, despite the fact it was designed to give something incomplete to everybody just to get votes.

Still, the MTA has spent a fortune on polls and focus groups to give them confidence they can hoodwink the public into approving the tax in the middle of a recession. Besides, the contractors are hurting and need the business.

NAKED CITY, a daily news report

By
Ron Kaye
on July 23, 2008 4:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

$14 MILLION IN YOUR L.A. HARBOR MONEY TO AMUSE CRUISE SHIP TOURISTS: IS IT A TRAFFIC STOPPER OR A TRAFFIC HAZARD?

With 100-foot high plumes of recycled water, the new one-acre, $14 million fountain at L.A.'s Harbor has San Pedro residents questioning the city's sanity. Officials, of course, think they've got a hit with cruise ship tourists who will love the opera music that accompanies the watery display at the main entrance to the terminals near the Viincent Thomas Bridge where traffic has come to a halt.

MONEY GOES DOWN THE DRAIN AND POOR KIDS HAVE NO PLACE TO SWIM -- THAT'S WHY WE NEED A GANG TAX

Two years ago, it took an audit of the Department of Recreation and Parks to show half the city's 54 swimming pools had serious infrastructure problems and six were closed altogether. Fortunately, the audit also "discovered" $21 million in loose cash in the department's books which helped make some repair. Some of that money went to replace pipes at the Reseda poolwhich was damaged in the 1994 earthquake and closed in 2001. "But when workers filled the pool last week, some 250,000 gallons of water leaked out of an old steel pipe that was not part of the repair program," the Daily News reports. So the repair money went down the drain because the fixed the wrong pipes and now Councilman Dennis Zine wants to use the proposed gang tax to build a new pool.

BAD NEWS: FREEWAY FIX WILL MAKE STREET TRAFFIC WORSE;
GOOD NEWS: THERE'S NO MONEY TO DO THE WORK

Proving the news media matters, the state has spent hundreds of millions of dollars fixing the wretched 101-405 interchange and now has agreed with environmentalists on a plan for a new bridge from the 405 south to the 101 west that protects a corner of the wildlife refuge. The problem is traffic from Burbank Boulevard will be pushed onto local streets and residents are upset. On the upside, it's all talk since the state is bankrupt and has to raid transportation bond and tax money to pay salaries.

SHORT TAKES:

Steve Lopez says Locke High School in Watts is off to a promising start under Green Dot charter school management.

The Wall Street Journal has joined the pack with straight-faced coverage of Councilwoman Jan Perry's proposed one-year ban on new fast food restaurants while the whole council moves ahead on banning plastic bags at supermarkets. Mayor Sam draws a connection with the city's failure to deal with illegal immigrants who commit murder and other crimes.

HIGH PRIORITY ALERT: L.A.'s phony city budget set to blow up under state raid on local funds

By
Ron Kaye
on July 22, 2008 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

L.A. city officials were warned Monday in a "high priority alert" from Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller that a deal is near in the state legislature that will cost L.A. $150 million this year and create a budgetary -- and political catastrophe -- when next year's budget is put together in the spring.

"On top of the $350 million gap the CAO projected for 2010 during the budget this past spring, that could mean a total hit to the City of half a billion dollars in fiscal year 2010," Miller wrote City Council members and their chiefs of staff.
"Below is some additional information about the proposal and strategies calling and writing the governor and legislative leaders. Anything you can do to contact the State and let them know how seriously this will impact us and all cities would be helpful. It is critically important to try and get the governor not to pass an emergency resolution, which is the first step in the borrowing. From the governor's statements, he is opposed to the borrowing. However, given the State's situation, there will be significant pressure to put a plan in placevery soon and it is important to communicate our strong opposition."

The State could run out of cash in early August, and legislators are considering borrowing against Prop 1A, but also Prop 42, Prop 63, Prop 10, and Prop 49. The state Department of Finance "has prepared a scenario where they could justify taking Prop 42 (for relief of transportation congestion) without any obligation to repay. No one has seen the text of that scenario." "One scenarios is that the legislature agrees to release far more Bond money than originally planned, in an effort to back-fill other local funds taken. The political problem is that voters were promised that this was additional money, not back-fill money."

Miller's advice to city officials is to send letters to the governor
and key legislators.

Why that sounds almost like ordinary people pleading for mercy from our
high and mighty government officials, formerly known as public servants.

One of the interesting elements of this is that I've heard public speeches
by three city council members from different parts of the city recently use
almost the exact same language in describing the city's own budget crisis
was covered up raiding every dollar lying around and various tricks of
papering over the problem.

Continue reading HIGH PRIORITY ALERT: L.A.'s phony city budget set to blow up under state raid on local funds.

Crime against the People: How City Hall trashes the law and wrecks the city

By
Ron Kaye
on July 22, 2008 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

"You got to meet Lucille Saunders." I must have been told that half a dozen times in the past few weeks. '"She's the one who gets things done."

At the Saving L.A. Project's Bastille Day rally at City Hall I did get to meet Lucille and spend a few minutes with her. My wife spent a lot of time with her and told me later, "You've got to really meet Lucille. She's amazing."

Lucille Saunders, psychotherapist in private practice and longtime community activist, has taken a bead on the No. 1 problem in Los Angeles: Out-of-control development without a coherent plan for making the city better for its residents, workers or businesses.

She's found the fatal flaw -- and she's trying to drive a stake through the heart of City Hall's corruption.

What has been going on for years as anybody who has paid the least bit of attention knows is that our public servants have been selling out the public interest to developers.

What Saunders has found is that City Hall is violating state law and the city's own general plan for development -- and the violations have been going on for a decade.

Saunders and the La Brea-Willoughby Coalition she leads sued the city last month with the help of attorneys Sabrina Venskus and Emilee Moeller. They don't want money, only for the city to obey the law. Here is the suit, click on the link to download:
labrea.pdf.

"We will not be diverted from what we're asking. We will not be co-opted," Saunders told me."There's audits and procedures required by law that must be done... or the city cannot know whether developing is outpacing infrastructure. The city hasn't followed the rules since 1998."

If Saunders wins, we ought to build a statue to her on the South Lawn of City Hall.

Victory would mean the judge imposes a moratorium on city approval of zoning changes and changes to specific community or the general plans until the monitoring and reporting is completed. It also would force officials to sit down at the table of power with the people and figure out what kind of city this is and how the quality of life can be improved for all and make sure new projects enhance, rather than degrade, the urban environment or face the consequences with an increasingly organized and effective electorate.

Continue reading Crime against the People: How City Hall trashes the law and wrecks the city.

Naked City, a daily news report

By
Ron Kaye
on July 22, 2008 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Naked City Rule No. 1: It doesn't matter what you know...It matters who you know
Tim McOsker, former chief of staff to Mayor Jim Hahn, has joined Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw in the law firm's government and global trade practice group, according to the Daily Journal. McOsker joins others at Mayer Brown with insider solid connections in LA. Former state legislators Bob Hertzberg and Dario Frommer and former Clinton Administration Cabinet member Mickey Kantor. McOsker cites the better commute for his move from Christensen, Glaser, Fink, Jacobs, Weil & Shapiro.

FORGET ROBBING THE RICH TO HELP THE POOR; IN L.A. WE ROB THE MIDDLE CLASS TO HELP THE RICH AND THE POOR

Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards joined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the Yankee Apartment building in downtown Los Angeles on Monday to announce creation of the New Generation Fund, a $100 million program for affordable housing. There has long beeen a lot of questions about just what that means in a town like L.A. with the highest ratio of apartment dwellers and soaring rates, fees and taxes that squeeze the struggling middle class. "Fifty percent of L.A. families can't afford the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment," the mayor told KPCC. "Housing is the cornerstone of the American dream. But it's slipping through the fingers of too many working families." I wonder if that includes Candy Spelling, widow of TV mogul AAron Spelling, who paid a record $47 million for the top two floors of a Century City residential tower under construction.

Naked City, a daily news report

By
Ron Kaye
on July 21, 2008 3:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BACK ROOM CITY HALL DEAL IN THE WORKS

Local neighborhood councils have had their eye on MTA's plans to turn the Orange Line parking lot into a mixed-use housing development but if they had a clue about what''s going on behind the scene they would be really worried. Rick Orlov in the Daily News reports JPL West is the front-runner to get approval from the MTA board. But there's heavy back room politicking going on with proposals from Henry Cisneros and Nick Patsaouras competing for the lucrative deal. And then there's the specter of the Valley's No. 1 fixer Councilman Tony Cardenas ready to step in. "They can choose who they want," Cardenas said. "But, when it comes down to it, the project has to go through the city planning process. That's where I will make my objections known."

WOULDN'T IT BE NICE IF WE ALL GOT PRIVATE WARNING LETTERS WHEN WE VIOLATE THE LAW -- LIKE LAWMAKERS

The state's (Un)Fair Political Practices Commission, in theory the public's watchdog on official corruption, has reached a new low with its decision to stop even the pretense of enforcing campaign finance laws. Patrick McGreevy in the Times reports the FPPC, now run by (who else?) ex-legislator Ross Johnson has decided electoral fraud isn't really worth more than a warning letter without public notice. Forget fines or prosecution. Under Johnson, the number of warning letters has jumped tenfold from 30 to 294, the amount of fines levied fallen in half.

IS THIS THE 21ST CENTURY? IS L.A. READY FOR BICYCLES ON THE STREETS?

The road rage incident that nearly killed a cyclist in Mandeville Canyon recently has sparked interest in whether L.A. ought to do something about safety on our broken streets. Martha Groves in the Times takes a look at the building controversy and notes the city has hired Alta Planning and Design, a transportation planning consultant based in San Rafael, Calif., to study the issue. "Los Angeles is a very challenging environment to ride in, given the condition of roadways, the storm grates that will eat your wheels, the lack of formal bike lanes or bike paths, and just a lack of respect and a lack of awareness from motorists about the rights of bicyclists," said Matt Benjamin, an Alta transportation planner. The starting point ought to be the Santa Monica's proposed transportation plan which seeks to slow vehicles, speed public transit and make the streets safe for cyclists and pedestrians of all ages.

DAN WALTERS GOES AFTER ANTONIO'S BROKEN PROMISE ON HIRING COPS
The top Sacramento commentator wrote about Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's vow to put 1,000 more cops on the city's dangerous streets and proposed to raise trash collection fees to provide the money. "Every new dollar residents pay for trash pickup," the mayor promised in a city news release, "will be used to put more officers on the streets." Walters think people ought to know he wasn't telling the truth.

Sandra Tsing Loh and Doug McIntyre at the Bastille Day rally

By
Ron Kaye
on July 20, 2008 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Dressed appropriately for the occasion writer, performer and NPR commentator Sandra Tsing Loh, author of "A Year in Van Nuys" and public school advocate, speaks at the Saving L.A. Project's July 14th Bastille Day rally at City Hall.

KABC morning talk show host Doug McIntyre speaks to the Bastille Day rally at City Hall.

Green Dot Charter School head Steve Barr speaks to Bastille Day Rally

City Controller Laura Chick's remarks at the Bastille Day rally

Noel Weiss, an attorney long active in community affairs, speaks at the ralley

City Councilman Dennis Zine speaks at the Bastille Day rally

Clean money advocate Wayne Williams speaks to the Bastille Day rally
Videos by Michael Cohen