On the day before Tuesday’s primary, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Chief Bill Bratton got publicity all over the news media with their boasts that the LAPD had reached a record number of police officers – just 105 short of the less than magic 10,000 number and 244 less than we were promised when trash fees were tripled.
It took until Thursday before anyone bothered to ask Bratton how many more officers were actually on the streets protecting us. None, he had to admit, because most of the added officers were filling desk jobs since the LAPD has more than 500 fewer civilians on the payroll.
Of course, it was nothing but one in a long line of political stunts intended to deceive the public and hide the failure of Villaraigosa to deliver on his mountain of empty promises.
Political stunts like that are symptomatic of much more serious abuses that are going on.
Villaraigosa is systematically politicizing every aspect of city government.
That’s what political machines do to squelch all opposition, to corrupt public policy for their own advantage. It’s the kind of corruption that leads to graft and bribery and demoralization of the vast majority of honest city employees.
Numerous top city officials and commissioners have told me in recent weeks how every decision they make is being vetted by the mayor’s vast staff and political team and twisted for the benefit of the mayor regardless of the consequences to the quality of life of the people who live, work and do business in the city.
They understand that their positions are on the line if they cross the mayor, if the push too hard for what they believe is right.
It’s why people of integrity and courage like Jane Usher and Nick Patsaouras quit as commission presidents rather than participate in corruption.
It’s why it’s so dangerous that Wendy Greuel was elected City Controller when she has displayed no courage to stand up to the mayor.
It’s why Jack Weiss who is the mayor’s well-trained lapdog, must be defeated in the runoff for City Attorney against Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich.
It’s why the political advertising that Bratton did for Villaraigosa and Weiss, his endorsements of Greuel, Council President Eric Garcetti and Measure B and Measure E undermine the integrity of city government and compromise everyone involved.
It’s why the ordinary people rallied to fight Measure B and the city’s civic elite is ready to join the Pitchforks and Torches Movement.
The future of this city is at stake.
I’m not exaggerating. We are at the precipice, the point of no return.
Other than Laura Chick, who is reviled at City Hall for her courage, not one single city official has shown the strength of character to stand up to the machine.
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has become invisible and the City Council does what it is told – unanimously.
Intimidation has become standard practice. You will be punished if you get in the way, rewarded if you go along with what you know is wrong.
Business, labor and the council were all threatened that they would suffer if the came out against Measure B. Yet, some did in the end like the LA Chamber and the Carpenter’s Union and Councilman Smith, Zine and Parks when it was clear Measure B might lose.
We are at the turning point. We have shown by fighting Measure B to a draw that the machine can be beaten. It will break down in the face of public resistance. We have shown just how weak it is when all their millions and all their power cannot triumph.
There is strength in numbers. The ordinary people in Neighborhood Councils and homeowner groups showed the way. Now, it is the duty of the city’s civic leadership to rise up and take a stand with the people.
Unemployment in the city is over 10 percent officially and far higher in reality. The poverty rate is soaring as middle class jobs disappear.
We have been taxed to death with fees and rates soaring and more coming and yet we face cataclysmic cuts in public services with a budget deficit approaching $700 million in the coming fiscal year and far higher in following years.
Antonio’s machine is broken and weak. It will fall apart of city commissioners stand up to it, if the business and labor leaders refuse to look the other way any longer, if elected officials fulfill their oaths of office.
The people are aroused and have gotten organized. We are beyond being mad as hell. We are doing something about it and we are going to do a lot more in the days and weeks ahead.
There will be no backroom deal on solar energy. The mayor, in his arrogant contempt for the will of the people, will not get away with his boast that he’ll go forward with the DWP/IBEW monopoly on solar energy.
We can move forward quickly with a real plan but it must be done in the open with all stakeholders at the table.
We can get our arms around the budget deficit but city employee unions must face the reality that everyone in the private sector is facing. That means doing more with less, redoing contracts to a level of cost we can afford so that we maintain vital services while eliminating those that are unnecessary in hard times.
Stop the machine. Join the movement to save LA.
Ron, now we have to work on May 19th. But I think we have a team now and it will grow. Are
you going to stay with the city or will you take
on the State as well? I hope you will be able to
help us with it.
We all need to be letting the City Clerk know we are watching how the balance of the votes are counted.
The City Clerk’s office MUST be monitored and made aware we are watching.
We MUST hold City Clerk Karen Kalfayan AND Exec Officer Holly Wolcott personally accountable.
I vehemently agree with 10:25.
I seriously doubt anyone whose job can be taken from them by a wave of Antonio’s hand can be trusted as impartial.
By way of possible example, there were an awful lot of questions about how the City Clerk’s office handled the Jamiel’s Law petitions.
So many special interest deals were cut with Measure B proponents, including the Mayor and Council, you can be sure the DWP “plan” is being massaged to do the same thing. So much for the words about “mandate”. City Hall got their mandate–now they are going to do their backroom deal with the newly rigged DWP Board…the Neighborhood Councils need to be diligent…you can be sure that DWP won’t be coming out to make presentations and to obtain feedback. They’ve got their feedback, and as they have for years, they are going to ignore it.
Do I understand that the Police and Fire dept’s contracts are coming up in the very near future, e.g., this or next month?
David Nahai, GM of DWP, has blurred the ethical line by first saying that DWP cannot either promote or oppose Measure B. This is a legal requirement of the City. But in heated exchanges with Ron Kaye, Jack Humphreville and others opposing Measure B it was clear his position especially in defense of the Huron study and Measure B in general. Also most if not all of the current DWP Commissioners supported Measure B and one of the newest commissioners was in on the plan long before it came to city council (bypassing the DWP commission when Nick Patsaouras was its President). You can also watch the DWP Commission on channel-35 and it was interesting that the Commission still had questions about measure B. The Huron report was presented as a Powerpoint slide show and not a formal report. There was so much corruption and coverups. There should be an investigation in terms of Ethics, State and City laws, I hope that there is a push to clean up LA like was earlier in LA’s history.
To KK: The City contracts you refer to expire on June 30, 2009; March is the month for both sides to start talking.
The County of Los Angeles negotiated a standstill agreement with their sworn personnel, i.e. no increase in wages, no givebacks.
DWP employees, in addition to the 5.9% they received on Oct. 1, 2008 will receive an additional 3.25% Oct. 1, 2009. There is no discussion about a standstill agreement or givebacks, despite the extraordinary wages there.
Karen 6:00pm and any other stakeholder who wishes to do the same I urge you to go to Los Angeles Ethics Commission http://ethics.lacity.org/ click on whistle blower link on right and address the corruption of DWP GM H.David Nahai campaigning for Solar Plan Measure B.
I was down at the Piper Technical Center for about 4 hours today to observe what happens to the ballots and the records after election day.
On one hand, everything is done in one great big cold (as in temperature) warehouse type of room. When I say cold, the workers are wearing winter coats and scarves in there. So be prepared if you go to observe.
People are welcome to go and monitor – they will be checking the signatures on the Absentee ballots and going through the Provisional ballots this weekend. No counting has been done since the Election Night Final (Unofficial) count was given.
So there are 46,000 votes to count within about the next two weeks. And I was the only one there in one four hour period. So if you do not trust the process, then call the City Clerk’s office and volunteer to watch. But you cannot really see what they are actually doing except at a very few tables.
This is not like the access that the observers had in Florida during the “Butterfly Ballot” count. We are not aloud to go near the ballots.
From my experience with the people in Norwalk at the County Recorder, and after today’s experience for the City, I would say that the people in these counting jobs are interested in accuracy and Democracy just like we are.
Observing the ballot count was another aspect of “Your City in Action.” But if you trust the system, and if you have more imporatant things to do, then it is not work you time.
On the other hand, if you don’t trust the system, you better be down there – there were no observers there when I left.
If a person calls city ethics to report something, is their anonymity protected?
If I were one of the LA police academy graduates I’d feel cheated. They became Los Angeles Police officers for the nation’s second largest city. For their graduation they got an appearance by a campaigning Villaraigosa. The 25 graduates of the Columbus Ohio (nation’s 15th largest city) police academy got a campaigning Barack Obama. Does anyone else see the disparity?
In any event it must feel good to complete the rigors of training to be an officer of the law and then be used as the backdrop for prevaricating politicians. I’d feel better with having a real hero featured at my graduation, someone who could be a genuine inspiration.
I agree with Walter Moore’s latest email. Why are we jumping to the conclusion that there will not be a run-off for mayor before the 46,000 ballots are counted? As per Walter Moore, if he gets 29,000 or more of those, there could be a run off. The downtown political machine cannot have it both ways. If Measure B cannot be ruled out as a winner until the 46,000 ballots are counted, which is true–it follows that we should not be ruling out a run-off election until those same ballots are counted, since Walter Moore could presumably get 29,000 or more of those votes in his favor–or another mayoral candidate could get some or all of those votes, which may also force a run off. Why isn’t the mainstream media in this city jumping all over this? Why can’t we count on them to keep the process honest? One thought, because the L.A. Times and the local television stations are irrelevant; or as Walter Moore states, just plain fat and lazy. Or as Ron proposes, everbody in this city is afraid of the Mayor and the downtown political machine? The next question is, how can they count millions of ballots in less than 12 hours? Yet it takes 2 weeks to count 46,000 absentee and mail in ballots? Could the local media or anybody address that question???
11:24 – exellent points made. This could easily be explored further by LA Weeekly who report the FACTS.
Do you honestly believe Moore is going to get 29k votes out of the 46k?
yeah unless the remaining 46k are walter moore’s family or a white supremicist precinct I dont see why a guy who got about a quarter of the vote will get 60% of the remaining vote…let it go folks
It very much DOES count what votes Moore and the othes get from a statistical standpoint.
We need every bit of information to show that our knuckle head Mayor should not be running for Governor and how little support he has from his own constituents.
Angelenos complain and continue to reelect these same ineffective politicos over and over which is why the politicos do as he/she pleases with no accountability to their constituents.
I tried to warn Angelenos “Don’t be fooled by the colorful fliers and twenty second media sound bites during elections. Vote these same LA Politicos out of office on March 3, 2009.”
4:17 – It all depends on where the ballots come from. If there are absentee ballots, some of them may be from the west valley. The LAT ran an election map today that showed Antonio did abysmally there.
If top city officials and commissioners feel they are being coerced into doing things they would not otherwise, they should either come forward or resign from their jobs. Keeping silent means they are complict in illegalities.