As the City Council goes through the charade of pretending to actually understand the nitty-gritty of the city government they rule over and their inevitable acquiescence to the mayor’s plan to destroy it, there seems to be a growing awareness that what they are doing is a big mistake.
Even Ed Reyes gets it, worrying in public about what kind of city LA will be in the future, what kind of city it is today.
He didn’t even bring up his usual hand-wringing, gut-wrenching poverty pandering monologue Monday in questioning city finance bureaucrats and LAPD kingpin Gerald Chaleff, the former courtroom defender of serial killers turned administrative honcho.
If you listen closely, you can hear Chaleff whispering to city financial advisers not to answer Reyes’ rhetorical questions as if he was still advising criminals in how to beat the rap.
They ignored his advice and pointedly noted that hiring more cops to keep the number close to 10,000 at the expense of decimating parks, libraries and other critical services really wasn’t necessary in the name of public safety.
Sharon Tso noted there are 300 more cops on patrol today than last June 30 and giving up training of 100 new recruits would immediately save nearly $3 million this year and $15 million next year when the deficit will be dramatically worse.
Chaleff naturally tried to fend off such ideas but without the passion of an experienced barrister.
There are always surprises in this world. Reyes got cohones. Pretty Eric got, well, pretty doubletalk. And he is considering to run for Mayor? Hasta la vista Eric. We will see how they vote on the DWP surcharge, sorry, shakedown.
He didn’t even bring up his usual hand-wringing, gut-wrenching poverty pandering monologue
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Are you a xenophobic nativist? Why is that comment necessary?
First leadership starts at the top – that means make your voting consistent with your statements. Unlike Tom LaBonge who talked the talk against new enforcement of dog licenses, but then voted for it. (So typical of this City Council)
Also start at the top with cuts to your own salary and office budget heavier than you are going to make to other Departments and don’t try to fake your cuts by funding office staff through special funds.
Next take on honest look at all programs and Departments even the LAPD. Staff and fund the LAPD in accordance to an independent assessment not for your personal political future.
Using paid consultants to “tell you” to sell off the assets of the City is disingenuous and is a potential conflict of interest. Use a truly independent source. This was done when LAX used NASA to analyze the need to modify a runway at the airport.
Pleeeaaassseeeee Ed Reyes is an idiot!!! Who can forget him making a comparison to Brittney Spears in council? Don’t go after dogs unlicensed, go after all the illegal vendors and fine them big. THat will bring in MILLIONS of dollars. I say stop the academy classes if you have to cut other places. But one important fact that people are forgetting is there are tons of veteran cops who are retiring and in the DROP program making them retire. What’s going to happen is LAPD will not make up for those losses and end up with I say about 300 fewer cops. Dumb Ass Bratton should have fixed this 7 years ago but his ego was too big and got in the way.
6:06 AM wrote: “go after all the illegal vendors and fine them big. THat will bring in MILLIONS of dollars.”
True-the illegal vendors have it made while businesses can be fined up to 25 thousand dollars for unabated “nuisance” issues, lack of permits for everything from paint to a new toilet, giving their clients an unasked for glass of water, etc.
The problem is, you can probably shut the illegal vendors down for that one moment, but how do you collect the penalties from people who probably provide false names and addresses? You can’t make them pay on the spot.
We the people need to start saying NO to morons like Janice Hahn who wants to put yet another parcel tax on the ballot. How many ballot measures has city council sneakily placed on the ballot and then lied about what they were for on mailers? Too many so now is the time to say NO. Just because the County is beginning to charge for paramedic and ambulance fees city council wants to do the same. They need to cut their damn staff from 20 to 4 as they don’t do anything anyway. Take away those city cars from all of them and any other free services those staffers get thanks to the tax payers. Where can we find the budget for city hall which shows all the salaries, bonuses, city cars set.??
The unfortunate thing is that a moron like Ed Reyes decides on the quality of life in the city. Can’t the Council find someone else for PLUM. He has been there too long.
How did Ed Reyes come to the conclusion of Planning Department being down by 40%. Where did he get those numbers. Maybe he should check his numbers before he questions others and looks like a damn fool.
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Co tu dużo paplać… Cudownie napisany blog. Wpadłem do Ciebie przypadkowo klikając w Google, ale masz we mnie od dzisiaj stałego czytelnika
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