Frankly, I don’t give a damn about Antonio Villaraigosa’s latest seduction. It’s the corruption that bothers me and the failure of his political machine to deliver what the city needs.
Sure, the mayor loves hanging out with beautiful dolls like KTLA anchor Lu Parker and appear in the pages of Playboy, run up huge tabs at Mozza and other fancy dives where he indulges himself in fine wines and his fantasies of glamour.
That’s his business as long as he can pay the bills. (How does he afford his luxuries when he can’t afford to finalize his divorce from Corina?)
A friend notes the
Mayor’s top ally, the LA County’s Federation of Labor, is now asking its
members to flood LA Magazine’s website with a defense of Villaraigosa over its cover calling him a “failure period” and sees a parallel to the Taylor Machine in
Frank Capra’s “Mr Smith Goes to Washington.”
In that movie, the innocent Mr. Smith (Jimmy Stewart) faces removal from the U.S. Senate over trumped-up charges inflamed by the Taylor Machine into a public frenzy with its stooge Sen. Paine (Claude Rains) leading the charge. 
Personally, the parallel I see is from real life, New York’s playboy Mayor Jimmy Walker , a the puppet of the Tammany Hall political machine in the Roarin’ 20s.
Like marijuana dispensaries today, speakeasies proliferated under Walker who dumped his wife for a string of chorus girls. (Are women TV anchors the new chorus girls?)
He was the toast of New York and won re-election to a second term but was brought down by the Great Depression, forced from office and fled to Europe until the scandals surrounding his administration died down.
Today’s economic meltdown is doing the same thing to Antonio, exposing the corruption in the emerging public employee pension fund scandal and the failure of the City Hall political machine to serve the public interest as well its own interests.
Questions arise about who really runs this machine: Antonio? Maria Elena Durazo of the County Federation of Labor? Some behind-the-scenes players close to Antonio like Ari Swiller or Keith Brackpool?
It is one of the wonders of the City Hall political machine that came together in the latter years of Tom Bradley’s reign and evolved under the passivity of Jim Hahn before taking firm control in the Villaraigosa ear that nobody really seems to be the Boss.
And maybe that’s what is wrong with it.
When the Daleys are running the Chicago machine, the city thrives and regenerates despite the back room deals, sweetheart contracts, graft and corruption. When they’re not, the snow doesn’t gett plowed, cultural monuments don’t get built, neighborhoods deteriorate.
When Jimmy Walker fell from grace in New York, Fiorello La Guardia was elected mayor on a “Fusion Ticket, an anti-corruption coalition the Italian-American Republican put together with the city’s civic elite and ordinary citizens. He got rid of the mob, the machine, corruption and revived the fortunes of New York.
I think LA’s civic elite and its strengthening grassroots political movement could well take a lesson from that history and begin to come together into a force that can take back control of CIty Hall.
It’s a “field of dreams” scenario: If we build that coalition, a leader will come forward..
Ronkayela – you are totally my kind of reporter.
You are not slavish to so-called “important people”, your questions are to the point. True
reporting – “What are the facts, Ma’am?”
Getting honest in today’s society is extremely difficult – not too many honest people around.
But you help us to face the facts – then it is up to us to do something to effect change for the better. Thank you!!!
“It’s a “field of dreams” scenario: If we build that coalition, a leader will come forward.”
slowly but surely people are beginning to realize “Yes, we can”!
Next month is July – On the first of July, another tea party is planned. Fourth of July will be celebrated not by strutting troops past a tyrant, but by the Capital Fourth on the lawns of government buildings in Washington, D. C., it is on tv on stations like KCET Public broadcasting.
Ben Franklin was not President, but he helped write and sign the Declaration of Independence.
Any and all of us have talents to share. Let’s
go, Angelenos.
The city can’t afford the up keep of the Mayor’s mansion. Should be turned into a museum or a library. The current occupant will bring down the property values in Hancock Park.
This L.A. Times article is worth reading in its entirety and come up with your own conclusions.
Mayor Villaraigosa
Executive Directive No. 1
Ethics in Government
July 5, 2005
City Council Adopts New Ethics Rules
By Patrick Mcgreevy
July 06, 2005
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles City Council took steps Tuesday to tighten ethics standards to prevent city commissioners and other officials from misusing their power for political or financial gain.
The actions came as an ethics expert and others questioned the propriety of Villaraigosa’s inaugural gala, which allowed firms that have business before city officials to spend up to $100,000 to attend. The money from Thursday’s event went to a publicly funded charity that is run out of the mayor’s office.
The ethics reforms enacted by the mayor and council were praised by good government advocates as long overdue. But several, including Michael Josephson, president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics in the Los Angeles area, were troubled by the mayor’s decision to host a fundraiser that collected money from developers, city contractors and lobbyists, among others.
“They are giving the money to the charity to please the mayor,” Josephson said. “You ought not be soliciting anything from anybody who wants something from you.”
Villaraigosa based much of his successful campaign against Mayor James K. Hahn on his pledge to clean up City Hall and ensure that contributions were not influencing city decisions. Federal and county grand juries continue to look into whether city contracts were tied to Hahn’s political fundraising.
On Tuesday, the City Council adopted four new laws aimed at issues raised by the grand jury probes, including a ban on city commissioners participating in the process of evaluating and recommending city contracts that their commissions will eventually vote on.
There were complaints that some Hahn commissioners met with bidders for contracts at the same time they were raising money for him, creating an impression that bidders had to “pay to play.”
The council also banned commissioners Tuesday from earning money to lobby City Hall, and it required paid campaign consultants and fundraisers to register with the city Ethics Commission and take classes on campaign finance rules.
The council also required lobbyists to file their quarterly activity reports online to make it easier for the public to follow their actions.
“I believe the reforms passed today will hold political appointees and politicians to the highest ethical standards,” said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who wrote some of the changes.
Villaraigosa appeared before the council to urge support for the measures, saying he understood that some Angelenos viewed City Hall with suspicion. “I’m committed to making the changes necessary for local government to earn the public’s trust back,” he said.
Separately, the mayor signed an executive
directive Tuesday that requires his staff and his appointees to commissions to attend annual ethics training and sign an ethics pledge. He also ordered commissioners to excuse themselves from voting on matters in which they have a conflict of interest and to notify the Ethics Commission and the mayor’s office of every such recusal.
The issue came up recently in connection with the president of the Harbor Commission, Nicholas Tonsich, who removed himself from several votes on issues that posed a conflict of interest but failed to notify the Ethics Commission of his recusals.
Villaraigosa also named Thomas Saenz, a former attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, as his top legal advisor and ethics officer. Hahn had an attorney who served as a deputy mayor and advised him but did not carry the same title. Riordan was the last mayor to have his own chief legal counsel.
“Let’s be clear. Honesty and ethics in City Hall start at the top,” Villaraigosa said in his first news conference at City Hall. “We are the public’s servants. We must set a higher benchmark by our actions to restore the public’s faith and trust in local government. Today, we have begun to do just that.”
However, Josephson and others raised concerns about the black-tie gala dinner at which dozens of businesses paid up to $100,000 each for their executives to attend the exclusive event with the new mayor at the Music Center. The dinner raised about $2 million for LA’s BEST, a city-funded after-school program that serves 130 elementary schools.
One of the $100,000 donors was L.A. Arena Co., owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, who is also co-owner of Staples Center.
The company signed an agreement with the city in 2001 to participate in building a $1-billion entertainment and shopping district near the Los Angeles Convention Center. The project will include a 55-story hotel that would receive up to $177 million in city subsidies.
An affiliated entity, Anschutz Entertainment Group, is hoping to win approval from the mayor and the City Council for the final subsidy agreement in the next three months.
Josephson said he was troubled that businesses, at the behest of the mayor, were donating to a charity just before the mayor and the council were expected to take action on issues affecting those businesses.
“Whenever a person in power asks for something from someone they have power over, the person asked does not have complete freedom to say no,” Josephson said. “The concern is, whenever a company pays for anything, there is a reason: Either it is trying to curry favor or avoid punishment.”
The headquarters of LA’s BEST is in a City Hall suite assigned to the mayor’s office, and the program is largely financed through the city budget by the mayor.
Villaraigosa bristled when asked at his news conference whether the public should be troubled by the special-interest donations to the gala. “They should never be concerned when people are willing to support children in need and their after-school programs,” he said. “Without that public-private partnership, thousands of kids wouldn’t have an after-school program.”
But Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino and a Villaraigosa supporter, said the mayor should consider disqualifying himself from acting on issues involving big donors to the city-run charity. “It’s fine to use the bully pulpit to raise money for a charity, as long as he doesn’t weigh in on the decision,” Silver said.
When asked Tuesday whether L.A. Arena Co.’s donation to his favorite charity would affect his decision on the hotel subsidy, Villaraigosa said, “Absolutely not.”
Hahn proposed an ethics reform that would have prohibited city contractors and bidders from fundraising for or contributing to charities and campaign funds on behalf of elected officials.
The practice, Hahn said in a February 2004 letter, “creates the potential perception that fundraising influences the contracting” approval process.
Villaraigosa has not taken a position on the measure, which remains stalled in the City Council.
Besides the lucrative hotel subsidy, the mayor’s office could help Anschutz financially in other ways.
Another Anschutz company owns a pipeline through the city that is required to have a city franchise. In addition, the Department of Water and Power board voted last month to pay $300 million to Anschutz Pinedale Corp. in Denver to buy a portion of the company’s natural gas reserves in Wyoming.
“We’ve been big supporters of Antonio’s and have had a great relationship for years,” said Michael Roth, an Anschutz spokesman.
Others currently seeking favorable action from City Hall who bought tables at Villaraigosa’s dinner include developer J.H. Snyder, who is seeking approval of large commercial and residential developments in the San Fernando Valley, and Cerrell Associates, a lobbying firm with clients seeking City Hall approvals.
Don Schultz, a City Hall watchdog and president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., said the practice sounded to him like “pay to play,” even though the money was going to a charity.
“Any company that spends that kind of money for a city event when it has business pending before the city, you have to wonder if it passes the smell test,” he said.
L.A. Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jul/06/local/me-mayor6
Ethics in Government
http://mayor.lacity.org/stellent/groups/electedofficials/@myr_ch_contributor/documents/contributor_web_content/lacity_mayors_003960.pdf
Robin Kramer is the power in the administration as she is Chief of Staff. She is a fine administrator and served in the same position under Riordan.
I think the Mayor hasnt ben terrible but he has dissapointed people because there was such promise at the begining of his first term. His numerous and serious achievements ( 10,000 cops, increased funding for light rail and buses, cleaning up the port) are overwhelmed by his need for attention and overarching need to be recognized for more and more things. So he promises things he cant deliver-million trees, ‘smart’ growth, school takeover-and that plus his overpoliticization of his office due in no small part because of his political ambitions, cause people to resent him.
If he doesnt run for Governor, he can free himself of the need to please folks – be they developers, big labor, television reporters- he can pursue his very ambitious agenda to a reasonable end.
McGreevey’s 2005 story is laughable and highlights the hysteria and hypocrisy that surrounded that race. Laura Chick turned Hahn into her bitch and Antonio took advantage of the situation. Now what have you got?? Maybe boring wasn’t all that bad. Bratton, the most popular guy in town — and one of the mayor’s biggest assets — is somebody the boring guy hired.
It is time for all the different interests in the City to make contact and start discussing what’s right, what’s wrong and what needs to be changed in the City of Los Angeles. I’m been hearing many different concepts / desires on what needs to be addressed. The only problem is, we’re all in different rooms and that needs to be changed. We all need to meet in one room or one stadium or at one on-line column / blog.
Eventually, and I’ve mentioned this before, a City Charter Convention…a C3, needs to be held. The center point should be the Neighborhood Councils, already by Charter the Citizens have been given an instrument to use to get things done. The only group that is opposed to NC’s is Spring Street. If the City Council and Mayor could make them disappear…..they would in an instant….15 Yeas. They do not want to have their fiefdoms loose any power or control. They want to be served rather than have to serve. In this last election, there was only one Council seat in which a possible change of “modus operandi” could occur: CD5, yet NOT ONE past or present Council Member gave their endorsement to the Candidate from the NC’s. Instead they gave their endorsements and walked the district to support a career politician who will not rock the boat. Actions speak louder than words and their actions were to maintain business as usual at City Hall: developers, special interests and my next government job, take president over Citizens. Citizens are only there to supply the “gold in the gutters” (tax & fee revenues).
Here’s a prediction: soon there’ll be an election in CD 2 to replace a CM that has moved on. I’m sure there will be a candidate or two from the Neighborhood Councils and I’m also sure that a career politician will have rented an apartment in the district so they can run. MY PREDICTION: the career politician will get all endorsements from Spring Street; the NC candidate will get nada. The election will be held on the most un-opportune Tuesday they can find. Twelve % voter turnouts is good for City Hall, also check your polling places, they will all change or at least have some irregularities.
A City Charter Convention…a C3…………after the CD 2 election, after I’ve been proved correct.
Just read these comments and my conclusion is that things are heating up, people are getting serious and maybe one issue at a time, we can really Save L. A..
I hear that Jimmy Blackman has far more power than Kramer. It might be a guy thing.
None of them have any power at all. They are celebrities, plain and simple. People scoff at entertainers getting involved in politics- worse is when politicians get involved in politics.
Jimmy Blackman? What “power” could he possibly have? Robin Kramer? Getting someone to agree to this or that isn’t power- changing something or improving something or impressing the masses is power. The only thing these bogey(wo)men do is scare people into thinking that they might not get to scare people themselves unless they agree to something.
The time has come for people to work together for change. You can continue watching television, or you can get involved.
Local business is spineless and valueless: they just keep their heads down and hope to avoid being picketed. They plant billboards, build strip malls, ruin the roads and ignore public schools without the slightest regard for the city. Dick Riorden tried to make things better, and had some impact; Dick Caruso ought to try and he’s not; the lazy bankers, colorless executives do little. Eli Broad ought to forget the useless MOCA and focus on the city’s rapidly eroding muscle and bone. Skip the effete patrons of MOCA Eli: do some good instead.
Local municipal unions are comprised primarily of stupid and lazy people, that think ripping off the taxpayers is a art form that can be maintained forever–or until they retire and leave California for a no income tax state. No pride in doing their job well–ask anyone who drives over the mountains and thru the sinkholes called “road repairs.”
Automaticly resetting traffic lights? They exist, they spare taxpeyers the time and expense of waiting for union workers to re-set the lights after a storm or outage–but DOT has held them up for years. LAUSD? Nothing need be said about that hive of unionized automotons feasting on the lost education of children and the wasted taxes of LA workers.
The politicians? They don’t deserve the voters: people work, take care of their kids and trust that elected officials will do the right thing. Villagraosa laughs at their trust: he has stained the reputation of LA’s mayor’s again.
Last the LA Times: where we might have profited greatly from a paper that kept an eye on our politicians, the LAT lost its way.
The Chandlers ruined it and the city by their passive brie and wine liberalism; “some things will not be criticized.” The publishers and editors have been no help–instead of scorching Villigraosa, Weiss mushrooming unions and their ilk, they adopted a false neutrality and eschewed any role as the crusading local paper. After all, such minor things were not lofty enough for the Times. Still aren’t. Gay marriage, MOCA, …the stuff that really amkes a city…that’s what the Times likes.
If people don’t act, this will continue to drift: slick useless politicians, greedy unions and businessmen, a useless paper that thinks its based in New York.
“Like marijuana dispensaries today, speakeasies proliferated under Walker”
Who ran the speakeasies? The five families in New York. Al Capone in Chicago and various smaller operators in other cities.
So who’s running the marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles? How was it they sprang up so fast exploiting some bizarre municipal loophole? Some people must scrutinize things like municipal codes and rules with absolute obsessive attention. It would seem it would be WORTH their time to do this. Most people don’t care, right?
The proliferation of medical marijuana clinics in such a short period of time would suggest a very deeply entrenched drug trade and culture in Los Angeles. The dispensaries are just the tip of the iceberg.
Where is it that his daughter works for 68 grand a year. How many of you out there unemployed would like to have just half of that to save your house and feed your children.
KTLA – View Lu Parker’s cover story regarding “Betty” dye.
Get Your Betty Ready. Done up…Down There.
Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzl5OD6cXE
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