Cork the champagne, LAUSD's celebration of $7 billion bond plan was premature -- "Circuses are run better than this."
Superintendent David Brewer and the school toasted their unanimous agreement on a deeply flawed $7 billion bond issue last week with champagne at the Pacific Dining Car but already they are facing criticism that they must have been drunk when they planned it.
In a devastating interview last night on Which Way L.A.? on KCRW , Warren Olney got school board President Monica Garcia to admit the bond issue was more than doubled "without a plan" because Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had a poll that indicated he could get it passed.
As Garcia put it, "He wanted us to put more than paint on the buildings" -- in other words, for the kids to live in the same style he's become accustomed to.
Among the many things wrong with the bond plan is that $2 billion in spending is not even specified which should require it to need approval by two-thirds of voters instead of 55 percent if it only contained money for specific construction and equipment.
Caprice Young, head of the state charter school movement, and A.J. Duffy, head of LA.'s teachers union, both condemned the bond plan and left open whether they will support it on the November ballot but the real criticism came from Connie Rice, the civil rights lawyer who heads the Bond Oversight Committee.
"I have no confidence in the superintendent and the leadership of the district," she said, noting that "circuses are run better than this." I can only assume she means the animals are actually trained to do what they do and this board and superintendent have no training at all for what they're doing.
OOPS, there goes another million in unneeded PR contracts for city business
Followiing the directive of the all-powerful mayor, the Harbor Commission is set to withdraw its offer of $1.35 million in long-term public relations contracts to Hill & Knowlton and the Rogers Group for community outreach in support of the port's $1.6 environmental initiative.
Art Marroquin in the Daily Breeze reports the commission didn't even have to wait until Thursday's meeting to know Hill & Knowlton will be dropped and Rogers' contract cut to $350,000 for one year.
Ever sensitive to the hint of public scandal, the mayor bristled at criticism he was setting the stage for the kind of "pay-to-play" that brought down Jim Hahn
"Mayor Villaraigosa has every right to uphold a ban that Mayor Hahn had instigated, and he has every right to want to build up his internal communications team, so we understand the situation even though we are very disappointed," said Hope Boonshaft, executive vice president and general manager of Hill & Knowlton Los Angeles.
One big problem with the revised deal is the mayor ordered that the PR contract can only be used for community outreach and not media manipulation so it's up to the journalists to report any contact from Rogers' people with regard to the port.
SHOCKER: Allegations of "pay-to-play" prompts judge to throw out security contract with Antonio's pals
Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News supplies a new piece of evidence that everything is for sale at City Hall.
A judge ordered the city to rebid $7 million contracts for protecting Griffith Park Observatory, police dispatch centers and other facilities because its own practices were violated.
National security giant Wackenhut Corp. -- obviously not used to doing busiiness the L.A. way -- sued the city, claiming the SEIU used its close connections to the mayor to derail the bidding process.
Villaraigosa denied wrongdoing. "The allegation is bogus innuendo made up by plaintiffs who are apparently ignoring the basis of the judge's ruling," said Matt Szabo, spokesman for the mayor.
Superintendent David Brewer and the school toasted their unanimous agreement on a deeply flawed $7 billion bond issue last week with champagne at the Pacific Dining Car but already they are facing criticism that they must have been drunk when they planned it.
In a devastating interview last night on Which Way L.A.? on KCRW , Warren Olney got school board President Monica Garcia to admit the bond issue was more than doubled "without a plan" because Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had a poll that indicated he could get it passed.
As Garcia put it, "He wanted us to put more than paint on the buildings" -- in other words, for the kids to live in the same style he's become accustomed to.
Among the many things wrong with the bond plan is that $2 billion in spending is not even specified which should require it to need approval by two-thirds of voters instead of 55 percent if it only contained money for specific construction and equipment.
Caprice Young, head of the state charter school movement, and A.J. Duffy, head of LA.'s teachers union, both condemned the bond plan and left open whether they will support it on the November ballot but the real criticism came from Connie Rice, the civil rights lawyer who heads the Bond Oversight Committee.
"I have no confidence in the superintendent and the leadership of the district," she said, noting that "circuses are run better than this." I can only assume she means the animals are actually trained to do what they do and this board and superintendent have no training at all for what they're doing.
OOPS, there goes another million in unneeded PR contracts for city business
Followiing the directive of the all-powerful mayor, the Harbor Commission is set to withdraw its offer of $1.35 million in long-term public relations contracts to Hill & Knowlton and the Rogers Group for community outreach in support of the port's $1.6 environmental initiative.
Art Marroquin in the Daily Breeze reports the commission didn't even have to wait until Thursday's meeting to know Hill & Knowlton will be dropped and Rogers' contract cut to $350,000 for one year.
Ever sensitive to the hint of public scandal, the mayor bristled at criticism he was setting the stage for the kind of "pay-to-play" that brought down Jim Hahn
"Mayor Villaraigosa has every right to uphold a ban that Mayor Hahn had instigated, and he has every right to want to build up his internal communications team, so we understand the situation even though we are very disappointed," said Hope Boonshaft, executive vice president and general manager of Hill & Knowlton Los Angeles.
One big problem with the revised deal is the mayor ordered that the PR contract can only be used for community outreach and not media manipulation so it's up to the journalists to report any contact from Rogers' people with regard to the port.
SHOCKER: Allegations of "pay-to-play" prompts judge to throw out security contract with Antonio's pals
Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News supplies a new piece of evidence that everything is for sale at City Hall.
A judge ordered the city to rebid $7 million contracts for protecting Griffith Park Observatory, police dispatch centers and other facilities because its own practices were violated.
National security giant Wackenhut Corp. -- obviously not used to doing busiiness the L.A. way -- sued the city, claiming the SEIU used its close connections to the mayor to derail the bidding process.
Villaraigosa denied wrongdoing. "The allegation is bogus innuendo made up by plaintiffs who are apparently ignoring the basis of the judge's ruling," said Matt Szabo, spokesman for the mayor.
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 National Enquirer.
Great quote by Connie Rice: "circuses are run better than this." She could just as well have said the animals are running the zoo.
We all know what happens when the cork on the champagne bottle is popped too soon...we get a good swig of sour grape juice, which will translate to a resounding "NO" on LAUSD's rook the taxpayers and students again bond measure.
HARBOR COMMISSION
As to the Harbor Commission's PR contract, even for 350K I still want that cushy job that requires no work, no overhead, no upkeep, and no investment other than a computer and dictionary.
Wow. Great interview by Warren Olney.
Here's a link with the audio: http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/ww/ww080804seven_billion_dollar
Anyone who's observed LAUSD meetings can see that the Mayor made a misstep choosing Monica Garcia, just because she's loud and enthusiastic.
Another way she responded to criticism from fellow (supposedly also Mayor-endorsed) Board member Tamar Galatzan to pushing for this bond money in order to create new, charter-like (the operative word is "like" if it's still part of LAUSD) schools on a huge scale, while several huge schools are being or have just been built, instead of trying 1-2 test sites to see if smaller schools city-wide in fact do increase student performance and other quality measures: "It's true we don't have it all scripted out, in dollars and cents," but this is (I paraphrase the following from memory) "all about hope and change, the public's desire for change." (Since Obama got the nod, everyone from Janice Hahn pushing her property tax for gang programs to the LA Times to Garcia to XYZ, have copied his rhetoric and argue that it shows the public is willing to accept higher taxes in the name of "change.") Garcia also argued that if they don't push for the bond money now, they'll lose the chance to get anything like it for years, and while enrollment may be done now overall, it's likely to go up and LAUSD has to be ready.
The only thing to be said FOR this bond proposal is that AJ Duffy of UTLA is AGAINST it, which only happens when he fears that teachers will lose some of their stranglehold/ monopoly on schools. So maybe they WILL be real charters, or close to it? (We need more details.) But even so, I'd argue that independent charter schools -- the very things the entrenched Board Members like Julie Korenstein and Plotkin have been fighting tooth and nail and depriving them of court=mandated under-utilized classroom space and funds -- have proved over and over that they can do the job much better and more cheaply than LAUSD, so Monica should stop pushing to copy them and let them just do their thing.
To give the Mayor some due, he HAS taken on UTLA and the entrenched way of doing things (his "failure" to take over more schools was a legal judgment by that judge voted out but in hindsight, mistakenly reinstated by Gov. Arnold, Janivz), and most people told him messing with the worst schools in a poor district is a thankless job he should just avoid. He has Ray Cortinez in there looking after things over Brewer's shoulder. But this is definitely a committee that meant to make a horse and created a multi-humped, 7-headed camel that can't decide what direction it's going in.