Sometimes the dots of the story just connect themselves and it all begins to make sense in a way that even the casual observer can see.
As Antonio Villaraigosa was falling off a bike because of the “careless” actions of a motorist, the Daily News was triggering a new round of mayoral bashing with a front page editorial taking him apart for a failure of leadership.
“It’s time to quit monkeying around and get to work,” shouted the headline above such phrases as “run out of steam…lame-duck official…the passion and energy (are) all but gone at a time when the city is in crisis
and needs it most.”
Tough talk that soon turned to biting satire when writer Kevin Modesti showed up for the fund-raising launch of the Lu Parker Project at a South LA animal shelter: “Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa went to work Monday with a
sling on one arm and a familiar brunette on the other.”
At the same time, fired librarians were protesting at the Riordan Central Library over the closure of city libraries two days a week and shorter hours the other five days.
For its part, the City Council was continuing to tax the law-abiding by raising dog license fees even though half the dogs in the city aren’t licensed, the much-reviled Community Redevelopment Agency was moving to gag its Board of Commissioners and unions were using their ample political muscle to get Dennis Zine and Jan Perry to muzzle efforts to outsource collection of the nearly $100 million in ambulance fees that go unpaid every year.
City Hall is in chaos. Leaderless, confused and corrupted by the influence of special interest money, the mayor and City Council don’t know which way to turn so they swing at every target compounding the results of years of mismanagement and making matters worse.
There is a reason for all this: They just don’t get it.
Writer, historian and keen observer of the LA political scene D.J. Waldie picked up on the Daily News editorial campaign and suggested the mayor has simply “checked out” and the entreaties that he actually go back to work would fall on his deaf ears.
“There’s little in the mayor’s character or experience to suggest that he
has – at this low point – the reservoirs of commitment and passion with
which the process of remaking civic life in Los Angeles could be
restarted. And remaking the governance of Los Angeles – not more trains
or charter schools or even jobs – is the essential obligation that faces
the mayor of Los Angeles,” Waldie wrote on the KCET blog.
“Villaraigosa had said that he intended to be the mayor of a denser
city, a greener city, a transit-oriented city, a middle-class city, a
working-class city, a politically progressive city, a business-oriented
city, and a city where the mayor is in control of the educational
system. There’s a refigured narrative of Los Angeles somewhere in there,
but it was always hard to discern.
Certainly too hard for the mayor.”
Waldie took his analysis a step further on Warren Olney’s “Which Way LA?” Monday night when he outlined exactly why City Hall has gone so wrong, why it has lost all credibility, why we are closing libraries and parks, firing workers, headed toward bankruptcy.
The city’s political leadership doesn’t have a clue about how Charter reform in 1999 fundamentally changed the structure and form of government, shifted power to the neighborhoods and transformed the political culture.
“I despair today, that anyone at City Hall really understands how that transformation of governance, how far it’s progressed and what it might become,” he said.
“One reason I think that the mayor is in the doldrums, if you will, unfocused and his compass is not pointing in any direction, is he really doesn’t have a vision of how politics in this city are changing.
‘I think he’s missing the transformation that was put in place slowly and incrementally by Charter reform in 1999 I think he and his colleagues at City Hall, including the City Council, have not fully internalized what that meant.
“The area planning councils, neighborhood councils, the change in the relationship of the mayor to the department heads, re-figuring of the power relationships between the mayor and the City Council, all of these have begun incremental and, perhaps too slow for us to see at times, a transformation of the city.
“Unfortunately, Mayor Villaraigosa hasn’t yet internalized what that means and is not leading that transformation, has not embraced that transformation in ways that makes any sense to me. As a consequence of not knowing how governance works in LA now, he doesn’t seem to be governing.”
No one has ever said it more eloquently, clearly or dispassionately.
The mayor and Council’s failure, refusal actually, to follow the City Charter and respect the rule of law is the heart of the problem.
They have continued to operate as if nothing changed. They have thwarted the growth of Neighborhood Councils at every turn. They have politicized every department and every commission, stripping the city of the independent citizen oversight that is supposed to provide the check and balance on abuses by elected officials.
Waldie’s words went over the head of mayoral spokesman Matt Szabo who
ignored them entirely, spending his time on “Which Way LA?” disputing
Mariel Garza’s editorial in the Daily News and defend the record of the
11 percent mayor.
“At the end of the day you want your mayor to
accomplish that which he promised to do,” Szabo said, asserting
Villaraigosa’s record on gang reduction, balancing the budget, job
creation, environment and management of the DWP speaks for itself.
“The
mayor has been making decisions in the best interests of the city. To
be a strong mayor you have to surround yourself with good people and
empower them to do their jobs. A weak leader would resort to
micromanagement and that’s not what this mayor has done. He’s picked
good people and he’s empowering them to do their job.”
That’s the mayor’s position and he’s sticking to it even in the face of
the truth that nearly every word Szabo spoke is false.
The mayor
has broken nearly promise he has made, he has yet to produce a budget
that didn’t paper over massive deficits, 260,000 people are jobless, he
has not delivered any green energy and changed management teams annually
at the DWP, each one reversing the last one’s policy direction, even as
he looted the utility’s revenue to mask his failure to manage the
general fund budget.
His staff’s micromanaging and abuse of
department heads has driven many of the most competent to resign or to
carry out policies they know are bad if they can’t afford to leave.
It’s
a testament to the mayor’s loss of control of the situation that his
own staff is at war with itself: The old guard of bunglers with an
all-political agenda fighting the power grab by Austin Beutner and his
team of smart and capable managers who have no more sense of how the
political winds have shifted than anyone else in City Hall.
Charter reform — despite City Hall’s obstructionism — created a system
of local governance that has brought thousands of people into
Neighborhood Councils where they have learned a lot about how the system
works and doesn’t work.
It is why they, along with homeowners groups, are the foundation the LA
Clean Sweep (lacleansweep.com)
campaign for better leaders for a greater LA, a political action
committee that is reaching out to under-served and under-represented
communities throughout the city to build a new coalition to reform City
Hall.
City Hall may not have “internalized” what the new City Charter is about
but the people get it.
One thing that sort of keeps Tony from any personal micromanagement effort is that he doesn’t know anything beyond whatever sort of “Cliff’s Notes” summary is whipped up by his staff on a topic.
In the past You did not see the mayor in any functional Q&A sessions or true news conferences where he takes questions and responds with anything other than platitudes.
And in this day, you sure won’t see that. “Everyone thought he was a fool until he spoke. And then he proved it.” Yes that old witticism sure finds it’s target with Tony.
From the last mayoral election, Tony rejected any debate events as did my CM Jose Huizar in his last election campaign. This is not because it is a waste but only because there is only one what things will go and that is “down.”
Tony has given up as evidenced by his increasingnly dismal choice directions for actions to take.
He’s a union stooge who just can’t break away from any source of funds. To some extent, the money thrown around for campaigning may neutralize the negatives of actual performance in office but like a wanted poster out on criminals, the face is known by more and more and the freedom to move to any other offices is being iimited as time goes on.
Obama quickly passed over this one but took many in his administration. Antonio’s loyalty corresonds in direct proportion with “what can you do for helping me meet my agenda?” And that agenda has lots of offices now scratched out. The currently active office is our problem as Tony wanders around in his personal fantasy of being an excellent mayor.
Unfortunately, he’s leaving a wake of disaster behind and many CMs follow in his footsteps of arrogance in weighting decision making in favor of special interests and working to be campaign money and favor grubbing moves.
The mayor seems to be setting a standard that is legally minimally sufficient at best, and clearly outside of any ethical parameters, in spirit if not the letter of the laws.
So all in all, LA Clean Sweep is one very attainable method to shake this tree and get all the apples, especially the rotten ones, out.
It doesn’t have to be a perfect candidate to see improvement. Most incumbents already have too many puppet strings attached and most replacements would at least have a better chance of being so entangled as they entered office. That’s one of many considerations for working on fixing City Hall.
I am going to paraphase a speaker from Clean Sweep’s launch party. He hit right on the head – it can as much (or little!) as 3,000 voters to put a new Council Member in office. Surely, there are 3,000 people in your neighborhood, right? Point is, instead of “talking” to each other on this blog (since I think we “get it”) take a few minutes and send out a few emails to your email list with this link and that of http://www.lacleansweep.com.
The public doesn’t get it yet – but it’s starting for them (library closing outrage).
By the way, the speaker was Walter Moore.
Never in this city have I seen so much outright hatred not only for the Mayor but city council morons as well. Every community meeting all over LA there is dialogue about the Failures of all of them. They have become a National joke. We’ve never had a Mayor that has gotten so much bad publicity for being an idiot. Notice how he jumps on all LAPD press conferences. Speaking at the Grim Sleeper arrest pissed off a lot of people including the victim’s families who don’t like this Mayor either. Its a known fact the rank and file HATE this Mayor and its a toss up who hates him more then the Firefighters. Some day I hope we can all look back and be proud that at least we are standing up to the bullshit. Karma is a bitch and I say its long over due for this group who have ruined our once Great city.
This LOST Angeles City Council can NOT make it to work on time to Council meetings which are always held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 10:00 a.m.
LOST Angeles Council Awaiting A Quorum AGAIN
July 20, 2010 LOST Angeles Council members Richard Alarcon, Janice Hahn, Tom LaBonge, Ed Reyes, Bill Rosendahl, and Paul Krekorian were late.
It’s comical how the LOST Angeles City Council which lacks transparency is beating up on DWP, today on item #16, for the same “transparency” they lack. Remember when Eric Garcetti hid the PA Consulting report from the PUBLIC regarding the “extremely risky” Measure B that Angelenos defeated on March 3, 2009.
Los Angeles Times
Council gets “Secret” solar report
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/20/local/me-solar20
Making Fools of 4 Million People: First of Many DWP Rate Hikes Will Hit You April 1 http://ronkayela.com/2010/03/making-fools-of-4-million-peop.html
It appears the only people who benefit in LOST Angeles are those who break the law. Just take a look at the million of dollars the LOST Angeles Mayor Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa has constantly allocated for gang member programs that do not work. Yet, children who are doing the right thing for the right reasons, obeying the laws, are penalized with closure of libraries.
http://blog.fulldisclosure.net/2009_02_01_archive.html
CBS News 2 captured Los Angeles DWP workers drinking and driving on the job. July 19, 2010, on CBS News, a broadcast related Los Angeles Sanitation Department worker abusing their job.
It’s time for a CLEAN SWEEP or STOP complaining.
One has to ask the question. Where is the LA Slimes? The rest of the media are taking the absent Mayor to task. Why is LA Slimes so silent? May be summer vacation?
This LOST Angeles City Council can NOT make it to work on time to Council meetings which are always held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 10:00 a.m.
LOST Angeles Council Awaiting A Quorum AGAIN
July 20, 2010 LOST Angeles Council members Richard Alarcon, Janice Hahn, Tom LaBonge, Ed Reyes, Bill Rosendahl, and Paul Krekorian were late.
It’s comical how the LOST Angeles City Council which also lacks transparency is beating up on DWP, today on item #16, for the same “transparency” they lack. Remember when Eric Garcetti hid the PA Consulting report from the PUBLIC regarding the “extremely risky” Measure B that Angelenos defeated on March 3, 2009.
Dec 20, 2008 Los Angeles Times
Council gets “Secret” solar report
Ron Kaye – Making Fools of 4 Million People: First of Many DWP Rate Hikes Will Hit You April 1
It appears the only people who benefit in LOST Angeles are those who break the law. Just take a look at the million of dollars the LOST Angeles Mayor Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa has constantly allocated for gang member programs that do not work. Yet, children who are doing the right thing for the right reasons, obeying the laws, are penalized with closure of libraries.
http://blog.fulldisclosure.net/2009_02_01_archive.html
CBS News 2 captured Los Angeles DWP workers drinking and driving on the job. July 19, 2010, on CBS News, a broadcast related to a Los Angeles Sanitation Department worker abusing their job.
Clarification Needed -
Is the MIA flag flying on the City Hall flagpole in honor of missing soldiers or for Mayor V?
Just curious
Re 11:32:
Here’s a URL to my essay with the exact numbers, district by district, showing that L.A. Clean Sweep can indeed win these elections.
I took the election data from the past few election cycles, determined the total number of votes cast in each district, then calculated the number required to win the election (i.e., divided by 2, then added 1).
The results are sorted from the fewest votes needed to win, to the most needed to win:
http://bit.ly/9BDTch
OMG!!! this is awesome Walter. How scary the majority of these council morons got in either with less then 5,000 and some even as low as a little over 3,000. HELL YES WE CAN BEAT THEM. Especially because now they have screwed up so horribly we have FACTS AND EVIDENCE of their FAILURES any candidate running can point to and let the people know. What are they going to run on????
Is Matt Szsbo still in charge of public relations?
Jack, M.Szabo is in charge in destroying Antonio.
Ron, when are you going to take on Monica Garcia for sending frequent press releases promoting herself and her b.s. causes? In her latest, she attacks Meg under the guise of defending Latino students. Cooley wake up!
Ron, please distance your group from Walter Moore. He is
a hater of Hispanics and you need us to make the Clean Sweep be successful.
What is being covered up about the Mayor’s bicycle crash? This is sounding more and more like Miguel Contreras’ mysterious death which resulted in a half dozen goofey stories until David Zanhniser finally revealed the truth in the LA Weekly – Contreras was in a brothel on Florence Ave. in a classic political position when he expired. Who knows if the truth will ever come out on this – Zahniser now works for the City Hall flak machine – otherwise known as the LA Times.
No matter how you look at it, these multiple versions of how the Mayor broke his elbow don’t add up. There have been 3 stories about the taxi cab alone 1. It was making a wide right turn and cut in front of the Mayor. 2. The taxi cab came out of a parking place in front of free wheeling Tony. 3. The cab swerved in front of him and he put on his brakes, flipping the bike over. In some versions he crashed into the cab and in some he just went head over spokes into the road.
Here’s the time line as best we can figure it, 6:40 PM Saturday July 17th somehow the Mayor broke his elbow. We note here that Zha Zha Gabor broke her hip reaching for the the phone from her bed on the same weekend – did our playboy Mayor fall out of the opposite side of her bed on his elbow – or someone else’s bed. Did her hubby throw him out of her bed? Did someone else’s hubby throw him out of a bed? Seems more in character than peddeling madly along in Venice. Just asking.
If we are to believe some version being put out by his flacks an accident involving a bike, a cab and the Mayor caused him to end up with a multiple fracture of the right elbow. according to the latest version the cabbie stopped and gave info. Somehow the Mayor arrived at UCLA. He was treated and sent home at 10:PM, he got home around 10:30 and called his children (How many we don’t know) and Lou Parker. Parker called KTLA and they called the LA Times.
No one called Council president Garcettii, who in a situation like this should have been notified immediately. This did not show up on the police scanner because the various agencies who monitor the scanner did not pick it up. The next day, presumably when the swelling had subsided, he went back to UCLA for surgery. Thanks to John Walsh we found out today at the City Council meeting that Garcettii was finally notified of the accident just before the impending surgery.
Okay, here are some pretty obvious questions we are asking: What the heck was the Mayor doing cruising along on a bike at such a speed that it flipped when the brakes were applied- or he had no room to avoid an accident, when he claims he hasn’t been on one in 5 years? Who was he with? Why was he there at all? Where was his LAPD guard detail? How was he taken to the hospital? An ambulance or LAPD should have shown up on a scanner or in a record by now. What is the fate of the storied bicycle? Did Tony have any substances in his body that might have impaired his reactions? How long would it have taken for said possible substances to clear out? Why were so many versions of the story released and why was the Mayor’s much vaunted PR machine not releasing a coherent account? Where is the police report required by an accident involving a serious injury and how complete is it? Will he get workman’s comp – since apparently everything he does is part of his job – and just what part of his job was he doing. Did he pay for the bicycle or was it another gift? Inquiring minds want to know.
Ron, Thank you for your activism. As a long term civil servant I am proud of my dedication to the work I do. I earn every penny for the work I do and I love LA. I am so sad that this City, my City and your City is in such a shambles. To date, the mayor continues to hire aides who are clueless in the work they do. The new aides will eventually be absorbd in the city by the time the mayor leaves office. The mayor hired over 7500 new employees since being in office. Many of those positions are friends, family, comadres, etc.
He has projects throughout the city where various departments are paying the salary and benefits for “his people” aka former staff members. Street Services had to cut several positions and transfer employees to outside departments, ie. Harbor, LAWA and DWP. But kept an exempt employee working for the mayors million tree program who earns over $100K. I thought this program was being managed by a non-profit. Why isn’t the mayor’s office paying for this $100K position? He has planted these former campaign managers, council staff all over LA. Just get a copy of his CD14 staff and use the city’s directory to find out where these people are working. Or better yet, e-mail me and I’ll give you the names of some of these folks.
The General Managers bend over backwards for the mayor so they can keep their jobs. A result of the current charter we are experiencing more community activism. Great! But at the same time we are experiencing a dictatatorship, elitest, heirarchy mentality that is ruining the city budget and the civil service loyalty as we knew it. GM’s eliminated chunks of staff to stay afloat. Mayor got rid of child care workers why? So he could contract those jobs to those that were awarded ARRA funds?
Check in to non-profits that recently received ARRA funds and go back to who the owners are and the services that are being provided. Remember, those that are approving these contracts are also commissioners appointed by him. The services being provided by these non-profits aren’t be tracked and there is no proof of success. Some of the awarding of ARRA funds is also biased.
The city is in a shambles and their is a need for honest and open dialogue. Employees don’t want to see this great city fail, but the mayor makes it difficult as he continues spend yet take from us, the middle class and give to the very rich or very poor. We are drowning and the reason is because of failure. Mayoral failure! So sad.
To answer Jack’s question little Matt Szabo was the pr flak for the Mayor but was promoted to Deputy Mayor. He can’t keep his mouth shut and continues to be the Mayor’s spokehole. Probably because he tried covering up or trying to on the AEG mess. To the Miki I’m right with you in believing there is more to the Mayor’s bullshit bike story. Where is the police report and why isn’t the taxi driver coming out for his 15 mins. of fame. Every reporter should be digging more on this story. If Metro LAPD security detail was with Mayor they would have been riding on the outside of the street and THEY would have been in the line of the taxi not the Mayor. What was in doing at that time in Culver City and where was he going not in his PAID FOR BY OUR TAXES SUV with security detail. Everyone is talking about this story and no answers yet. Poor Metro guys have to cover up all the Mayor’s liason’s at the hotels late at night with the sleazy women he meets when Lu Parker is on air at KTLA. C’mon reporters DIG
LA Clean Sweep= Tea Party Movement
8:27a = Mike Trujillo
“LA Clean Sweep= Tea Party Movement”
You wish, dude. You wish.
Cut the Walter Moore hates Hispanics crap. You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
Moore is for the keeping the integrity of our borders and enforcing the law, as are 75-percent of legal American citizens.
You, anonymous 10:34 p.m., are a racist in reverse, only standing up for illegal aliens and not for the rule of law and national sovereignty.
From the context of what the Mayor said in a KFI news sound bite, I think he said the cab pulled out from the curb or from the right, “…he pulled out, no signal, no nothing.”
The other point to consider if the reporting is accurate is that the mayor was an active bike rider years ago. Thus was his first time back on the street, so you can see that he was not experienced to any degree for a quick or effective response to the cab- or probably to anything else an experienced rider would be likely to handle much better.
It looks like the reaction was to apply the brakes so abruptly that he went flying. It would not take a lot of speed for that to happen under all the conditions you had. Again, more experience might have resulted in less damage or avoidance of it all.
Even it the reports are off, I don’t see this rising to a level of real importance that John Walsh seems to find in it. I heard his “public comment” yesterday and heard his remarks which had a lot of assumptions, presumptions, speculation, hyperbole and drama, but that’s John’s usual delvery- sometimes called for and sometimes not. I really wondered “Who cares?”
I doubt the mayor is going to actually be intoxicated and ride in the street with the cops all around him just allowing that. I think he’s probably worn thin any friendships he might have had with any of them by his numerous bad actions, so why would they outright lie for him when it comes to a crime.
One thing I do think is certain is that it would have made a good video to see Tony flying off his bike. And who knows what the discussion would have been if the driver was an illegal alien with no license or insurance, who just got out of jail after accumulating a long rap sheet, -better yet- an “low level” offender on “early release” and possibly having a deportation already under his belt. And he has to be Latino for this to hypothetical to address Tony’s past posturing.
Now if Tony was hit and this was a hit and run, too, then it would be about right for maximum squeezing of issues- and consider a fatality as an alternative? “Tony died for the people he really believed in, etc.”
To borrow from Villaraigosa’s theme for many years, “Dream with me.”
By Jack Humphreville “Is Matt Szsbo still in charge of public relations?”
Good! You saw that too. He did his job by refusing to answer I guess. What was he doing there just before meeting?
By Jack Humphreville “Is Matt Szsbo still in charge of public relations?”
What was Matt Szsbo doing there: “in the middle of the hornets nest”?
By Jack Humphreville “Is Matt Szsbo still in charge of public relations?”
What was Matt Szsbo doing there: “in the middle of the hornets nest”? Politically charged @villariagosa.
After the political debate; whats next for Providing Service Competively or will LADWP fail to provide 21st Technology because Constituents spend time trying to screw each other: mirrors Republican v Democrates in Washinton.
Conclusion: lets put ideas on table to make LADWP move forward and towards modern energy.
Using olive pits to fuel production of electricty.
10;37, yeah, who was the taxi driver? Someone should get the police report and find out if the guy is illegal with no insurance , police record etc. May be these are the reasons Tony does not want a follow up.
I am concerned about the plan to tear down a major part of the convention center to build a new NFL stadium. That is going to cost the City major lost revenues. The convention center provides thousands of jobs for hotels, restaurants and stores from conventions visiting the City. Also the City gets tens of millions of dollars a year in tax revenues. The State and County all get money from these conventions. We need to make sure we do not lose all that revenues and jobs.