Some people are worried his election will go to Carmen Trutanich's head. Others are asking, "What's all this talk about Nuch already turning into an unapproachable <expletive>?"
Then, there's the matter that goes before the City Council on Tuesday to let him raise up to $100,000 from private interests to pay the costs of transition as he gears up to take over the City Attorney's office with its 700 lawyers engaged in civil and criminal matters and the legal affairs of the city's agencies.
As someone who owes his election to strong support from community activists and is the only city official carrying the torch for positive changes at City Hall, Trutanich has created high expectations, impossibly high expectations for that matter.
On the day after his crushing defeat of Jack Weiss, Trutanich told the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association:
"I'm not going to let you down...We're going to prosecute misdemeanor ethics law violations by politicians...We're going to change the way politics is played in the City of Los Angeles...The future of this city is going to be bright and clean...I want to be your City Attorney. I want to be the people's lawyer..I want to hear what you think is broken and I want to try to fix it. I'm not a politician. God forbid I ever become one."
That's the kind of talk that puts a guy in a fishbowl with everyone watching his every move.
His appointment of former Republican District Attorney Robert Philobosian and former Democratic Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg to head his transition team raises questions among some who note both are connected to powerhouse law firms
His commitment to use private money rather than city money to cover the costs of transition has some people asking whether that will make him beholden to the same special interests who control so much of what goes on in City Hall.
Others worry the City Hall power structure will get their arms around him, flatter his ego and lead him away from his stated goals. They are skeptical he can turn the mammoth law firm the City Attorney's Office represents into a legal engine that puts the public interest first.
All those concerns are legitimate and should come up no matter who holds high office. It's only through the vigilance and participation of the citizenry that public officials will stay true to the course.
For his part, Trutanich needs to bring a cross-section of the community into his world and operate transparently even when his decisions are controversial or disappoint one group or another.
He represents an opening in the great wall of City Hall but will quickly find, like former City Controller Laura Chick did, that you can only push so far without becoming maginalized in a system where power is so tightly held.
Still, he's going to have to keep the community involved and informed and be honest and straightforward in his communication. But he's also going to have to dance with the devils in City Hall to get anything done.
Already, the mayor and council are taking their measure of the man and the City Attorney's staff is gearing up to resist change -- a task no doubt made easier by outgoing City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's decision to put his senior staff on the tenure track that allows them to move from political appointments to civil service protected jobs.
The winds of change are blowing through City Hall but it's going to take a hurricane to clean out the stench of corruption.
Personally, I'm optimistic. Nuch is a start, the Council District 2 election is coming up Sept. 22 and the failure of the mayor and council to come to terms with the budget deficit is a timebomb.
We'll see soon enough what stuff Carmen Trutanich is really made of.
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Then, there's the matter that goes before the City Council on Tuesday to let him raise up to $100,000 from private interests to pay the costs of transition as he gears up to take over the City Attorney's office with its 700 lawyers engaged in civil and criminal matters and the legal affairs of the city's agencies.
As someone who owes his election to strong support from community activists and is the only city official carrying the torch for positive changes at City Hall, Trutanich has created high expectations, impossibly high expectations for that matter.
On the day after his crushing defeat of Jack Weiss, Trutanich told the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association:
"I'm not going to let you down...We're going to prosecute misdemeanor ethics law violations by politicians...We're going to change the way politics is played in the City of Los Angeles...The future of this city is going to be bright and clean...I want to be your City Attorney. I want to be the people's lawyer..I want to hear what you think is broken and I want to try to fix it. I'm not a politician. God forbid I ever become one."
That's the kind of talk that puts a guy in a fishbowl with everyone watching his every move.
His appointment of former Republican District Attorney Robert Philobosian and former Democratic Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg to head his transition team raises questions among some who note both are connected to powerhouse law firms
His commitment to use private money rather than city money to cover the costs of transition has some people asking whether that will make him beholden to the same special interests who control so much of what goes on in City Hall.
Others worry the City Hall power structure will get their arms around him, flatter his ego and lead him away from his stated goals. They are skeptical he can turn the mammoth law firm the City Attorney's Office represents into a legal engine that puts the public interest first.
All those concerns are legitimate and should come up no matter who holds high office. It's only through the vigilance and participation of the citizenry that public officials will stay true to the course.
For his part, Trutanich needs to bring a cross-section of the community into his world and operate transparently even when his decisions are controversial or disappoint one group or another.
He represents an opening in the great wall of City Hall but will quickly find, like former City Controller Laura Chick did, that you can only push so far without becoming maginalized in a system where power is so tightly held.
Still, he's going to have to keep the community involved and informed and be honest and straightforward in his communication. But he's also going to have to dance with the devils in City Hall to get anything done.
Already, the mayor and council are taking their measure of the man and the City Attorney's staff is gearing up to resist change -- a task no doubt made easier by outgoing City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's decision to put his senior staff on the tenure track that allows them to move from political appointments to civil service protected jobs.
The winds of change are blowing through City Hall but it's going to take a hurricane to clean out the stench of corruption.
Personally, I'm optimistic. Nuch is a start, the Council District 2 election is coming up Sept. 22 and the failure of the mayor and council to come to terms with the budget deficit is a timebomb.
We'll see soon enough what stuff Carmen Trutanich is really made of.
Ron Kaye
The San Pedro Chamber of Commerce will be presenting Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa the Leadership Award at their Annual Luncheon and Awards Ceremony this Thursday, June 12. Mayor Villaraigosa should VETO this attempt to raise $100,000.00 from private interests groups that will prevent the perception of Pay to Play and allow him to exercise leadership skills.
http://www.sanpedrochamber.com/content/luncheon1.pdf
Hasn't anyone actually READ the motion that is being discussed to request funding for Trutanich's transition? It's not like we are having people handing over fat envelopes under the table. They are asking City Council to approve it, with pretty tight restrictions:
Funds to be deposited "in a public benefit trust fund"
Limits on donations: " ... in a cumulative amount not to exceed $100,000 and with no gift from any one source to exceed $1,000."
Money to be spent "for reasonable costs and expenses associated with City Attorney-elect's transition, such as for staff, equipment, supplies, meeting space, parking, telephones, postage, and swearing-in events."
Spending controls: "City Controller is hereby requested to process any requests for disbursements."
Leftover money goes to the City: "deposit any unspent cash gifts on hand after payment of all of the costs and expenses associated with City Attorney-elect's transition into the City's General Fund."
Seems to me like a pretty transparent way to fund the transition costs with public donations instead of asking for money from the City Council. We just have to keep Kelly Candaele from organizing a fund raiser for this, but I doubt he will.
Read the motion yourself: http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2009/09-1302_reso_6-2-09.pdf
Last I heard is that the City of LA doesn't make any provision for the hiring of a transistion team and all that involves, i.e., offices, computers, etc. You'd think that would be a no brainer especially when a guy is coming in to take over the City's law practice!
And, I gotta say in parting - give the guy a break, he hasn't even been sworn in and the talk is beginning. Look it, he knows better than anyone else that the public will hold him accountable. Especially all of those who worked so hard to put a political unknown and novice in to defeat Jack.
As for the CD2 race, now that's where the focus must turn. Even if you don't live/work in CD2, you have a stake in this election. More on that later as the activist community is organizing.
What is a Sovereign?
What form of government does the United States have?
The viewpoint of a sovereign in relation to health freedom issues is that we as spiritual beings have a natural right of ownership of our bodies. This means that "self-medication" is a natural, human right. The current de facto government and the owners/controllers of the pharmaceutical corporations have been working assiduously to undermine and usurp this right. To understand what a "Sovereign" is from a constitutional basis one must first understand what form of government exists in these united States.
Politicians and the mainstream media have constantly inculcated people with the notion that they live in a "democracy". However, if you carefully read the Declaration of Independence ("The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America", In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776) and the Constitution for these united States of America, you may be surprised to find that the word "democracy" does not appear even once in either of these two founding documents. This is because the framers of the Constitution did not want to create a "democracy". On the contrary, they wanted to create a "Republic".
James Madison, the "the Father of the Constitution", stated: "Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." ["Economic Solutions", p. 35] Benjamin Franklin once quipped: "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote."
Article IV, Section 4 of the united States' Constitution, the "supreme Law of the Land", states: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government...."
Therefore, the united States is a REPUBLICAN Form of Government, slick-talking politicians and media talking heads to the contrary notwithstanding. Not only that, the citizens are guaranteed a REPUBLICAN Form of Government as a matter of constitutional Right. But just what does it mean to have a REPUBLICAN Form of Government? To answer that question simply look in Black's Law Dictionary under "Government" and you will see the following definition:
"Republican government. One in which the powers of sovereignty are vested* in the people and are exercised by the people, either directly, or through representatives chosen by the people, to whom those powers are specially delegated." [Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth ed., p. 695]
Black's Law Dictionary defines a "Sovereign" as: " A person, body, or state in which independent and supreme authority is vested; a chief ruler with supreme power; a king or other ruler in a monarchy."
"We the People" are the Sovereigns because sovereignty is vested in the citizens, not in their (civil) servants. Furthermore, individual citizens have the authority to choose whether to exercise their powers of sovereignty either 1) directly or 2) through representatives. For example, sometimes people exercise their powers of sovereignty directly when they make a citizen's arrest. On the other hand, people can also choose to act through a representative by electing a civil servant (e.g., sheriff) to make arrests for them.
Before the founding of our country, people were mere subjects of the king of England, the Sovereign. However, after our country was founded the sovereignty of the king was ended in America and the people became Sovereigns instead of subjects. As Sovereigns, the citizens are now the kings (and queens) of their own castles, i.e., our homes. Therefore, ownership of our homes is vested in each of us, thereby securing our Rights to private property. That is, by constitutional Law, the state does not own our property. However, the state, via our "public servants" and lawyers, has been usurping these and other Rights through deception, especially in the banking industry (Federal Reserve fraud).
Little by little from the time of the founding of our county people have been programmed to believe that politicians are the "leaders" and that sovereignty is vested in them, not in "We the People" as individuals. Abraham Lincoln reminded people repeatedly of these basic founding principles--a country "of the people, by the people, for the people". Lincoln also stated: "The people are the masters of both Congress and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it!" Yes, the people are the masters and the politicians are the servants. What does the master of the house do when he has a disobedient servant? He fires him, doesn't he?
Today most people are afraid to stand up to their public/civil servants. The servants have taken over the house. The people often allow corrupt politicians to usurp* constitutional Rights, unalienable Rights and our sovereignty. This phenomenon is the direct result of people no longer taking the viewpoint of being Sovereigns, that is, of being the masters of the house. Therefore, to turn the tide of corruption all one needs to do is to assume the viewpoint of a Sovereign and exercise the Rights of a Sovereign. The only reason a servant can usurp the authority of the master of the house is if the master lets him (i.e., acquiescence or consent to the usurpation). This may sound all very simplistic and theoretical, but one can demonstrate the workability of this principle in real life, as I and many others have done.
* vested: "Fixed; accrued; settled; absolute; complete. Having the character or given the rights of absolute ownership; not contingent; not subject to be defeated by a condition precedent. Rights are "vested" when right to enjoyment, present or prospective, has become property of some particular person or persons as present interest; mere expectancy of future benefits, or contingent interest in property founded on anticipated continuance of existing laws, does not constitute "vested right." [Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition]
* usurp: To seize and hold any office by force, and without right; applied to seizure of office, place, functions, powers, rights, etc. of another. [Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition]
[This article may be reproduced and distributed only under the conditions 1) that it be free of charge and 2) that it be reproduced in its entirety without any alterations.]
http://www.healthfreedom.info/what_is_a_sovereign.htm
CARMEN and HIS TRANSITION STAFF:
Set an example. Reduce the max donation to $250.
This isn't a good start. Is Trutanich going to avoid donations from Billboard Companies, Developers, Bond firms, and Attorneys that represent these interests? And what about the gun lobby and companies that were represented by Trutanich's firm? He should refuse donations that put him in a bad light in terms of the appearance of conflict of interest. In fact this should be voted down. The current City Attorney's office is staffed and with computer equipment. On the positive side, there is a check and balance in that those community groups that supported Trutanich can hold his feet to the fire if he follows the path of his predecessor.
On another note, Delgadillo's decision to "convert" his appointees to civil service positions is just another item to add to his long list of bad practices. The system needs to have built in safeguards to prevent this from happening. It shouldn't be tolerated. We are in a budget crunch with civil service employees facing possible layoffs. Why would we add more civil service employees other than a personal favor from Delgadillo or a little stab in the back to Trutanich? It is like the mayor trying to give Jack Weiss a cushy position in his office. Its a abuse of power and a gift of public funds. LA needs reform. We cannot count on individuals in the City Council, the mayor's office, or even the new City Attorney to do that.
It seems like the residents of Los Angeles, have adapted to the mediocrity, corruption, and kick backs, because the first real chance you get to take the city back from the big wigs that have moved into your elected officials offices, and slapped yokes around them to control them. You start moaning, Carmen is going after the head of the snake, because once you kill it, the body will follow. Corruption/Drugs/Gangs are killing Los Angeles, once the surgery starts the healing can begin, and Carmen is already investigating treatment.
Success has gone to his head, he uses people after he gets what he wants from you he treats you as if he never knew you.
he uses people , after he is finished with his fun he trashes you .