The majority of the nation’s highest paid elected city officials couldn’t bother to show up for work Tuesday.
So the City Council meeting scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. was cancelled after President Eric Garcetti waited 15 minutes for a quorum.
Among the issues not dealt with were extension of the citizen’s Commission on Revenue Efficiency and a motion to veto the DWP Board’s decision to end the 30-year policy of pension reciprocity when employees transfer between to the utility from other city departments.
Here’s the four-minute unedited video of this farce:
On the bright side, at least when they’re gone, it’s hard for them to make the City even worse than they have already….
It’s also a farce at Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety today. First many workers took advantage of early retirement and then work furloughs went into effect. Today dozens of bureaucrats took an extra day off and called in sick. One bureaucrat working a desk for four and had 15 people waiting for permits. LADBS answer to worker shortage is to close down two busy sections for lunch between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM. and the mayor and his posse call this business friendly city.
This is customary here in LA with NO consequences. Then Council members, like LaBonge, attempt to justify their colleagues failure to obey their own rules.
On Tuesday, October 12, 2010 Los Angeles Council President Garcetti had to CANCEL the scheduled meeting due to LOST Angeles City Council Awaiting A Quorum again because Council members TONY CARDENAS, JANICE HAHN, and BILL ROSENDAHL did not bother to be in their seats at 10:00 a.m., as MANDATED BY THEIR OWN COUNCIL RULES.
Here is another example.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 TWELVE Council members were LATE to council chambers as President Garcetti said he was the only council member present at 10:00 a.m. and Zine and Perry were excused to arrive late.
Then the, I, arrived LATE AGAIN to chambers Tony Cardenas tried to educate the public by saying that some council members were still in the Housing, Community, and Economic Development Committee. This meeting is chaired by Wesson with the following Council members Alarcon, Cardenas, Reyes, and Perry, who was excused to arrive late at 11:00 a.m. to chambers, was scheduled to attend. Even if these four Council members, Wesson, Alarcon, Cardenas, and Reyes, were present in chamber at 10:00 a.m. as mandated per their own Council RULES, council would still be lacking a quorum again.
Council member Cardenas should introduce a motion asking council members to hold their committee meetings on Monday and Thursday when there is No Council meeting scheduled or start committee meetings at 7:30 p.m. to encourage public participation. http://ens.lacity.org/clk/committeeagend/clkcommitteeagend2368418_09292010.pdf
President Garcetti should email his colleagues their own Council Rules and have each council member read it daily.
Rules of The Los Angeles City Council http://cityclerk.lacity.org/cps/pdf/CouncilRules.pdf
Walter, you are painfully funny and correct!
Actually, first thing that came to my mind was wondering what’s going on behind the scenes, in one of those backrooms, keeping all of our “representatives” from showing up in chambers?
One solution, a simple one3 in terms of function but maybe a headache for committee re-scheduling is this:
NO COMMITTEE MEETINGS ON TUES, WED, OR FRI before the council meetings,
AND, since these mornings are cleared,
START THESE Council Meetings at 9am (or even 8:30am) for a more productive period with all promptly there now, ready to go.
It would be a lot easier to implement this than any changes to their pay levels, also desperately overdue to counter the initial maneuver implemented years ago that brought them even more windfall gains than the council persons drafting the original pay scheme could have imagined.
You can bet Garcetti would have held off any cancelling of a meeting if this was the Friday “Dog and Pony Show” awards sesssion.
I think awards can be presented without a quorum needed.
Oh, and don’t forget: For the March city elections: “Re-elect no one.”
Los Angeles City Council Agenda Cancelled on October 12, 2010
http://ens.lacity.org/clk/councilagendas/clkcouncilagendas368612_10122010.pdf
The council’s excuse: Imperial Stars who blocked the 101 Freeway with their own traffic clogging dog, pony and music show.
Throw them all in jail!
And don’t elect any incumbent lite staffers, either…
Brad Smith
smithforcouncil.org
City Council meeting canceled, no quorum
Daily News Wire Services
http://www.dailynews.com/politics/ci_16319184