If Samuel Johnson was right two centuries ago about “patriotism” being the “last refuge of a scoundrel,” then “reform” is the “last refuge of a corrupt political system” otherwise known as Los Angeles City Hall.
With the deadline looming Wednesday to put measures on the March 8 city primary ballot, the City Council is set to take up on Tuesday a long series of Charter reforms, ballot measures and new taxes – 13 in all — that pretend to deal with the public employee pension crisis, the budget crisis and, most of all, the scandal of mismanagement and ripoffs of the public by the Department of Water and Power.
With dozens of candidates filing to challenge the six incumbents up for re-election and the City Hall staffer anointed by the political machine for the one open seat, the Council intends to clog the ballot with phony reform measures that will do little or nothing to solve the pension crisis with its billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities or the budget crisis that threatens to force the city into bankruptcy.
The only significant proposals have to do with reining in the DWP, a rogue agency that operates as a law unto itself without regard to the needs, values or interests of the public, serving only IBEW union the special interests that fund the political campaigns of the incumbent elected officials and the self-servers chosen to succeed them.
Even the toughest proposals by Jan Perry to create an independent and fully-funded Rate Payer Advocate/Inspector General within a new Office of Public Accountability and reform the DWP Board of Commissioners require a mayor and City Council that put the public interest first and foremost.
For its part, the IBEW already has launched what will be a hugely expensive campaign to fight any and all reform efforts and the DWP itself — now in chaos in its second year without a permanent general manager and being run by the untrustworthy Chief Operating Officer Raman Raj — appear to be developing its own obstructionist strategy.
Already, Interim GM and First Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner has made it clear that in his part- time and minimal involvement in the DWP regards the utility as nothing but a cash cow to fund subsidies to business and developer interests and can see no evil in union bully Brian D’Arcy and his long-time ally Raj, the once bankrupt (Raman Raj bankruptcy.pdf) managerial wizard who got the axe for questionable behavior during his previous stint at the DWP.
In approving Merkin’s lucrative deal with little discussion, the Commission noted his knowledge of the City Charter and his long experience in dealing with the City Council and City Hall. Nothing like a credible insider to help manipulate the system to the DWP’s — if the not the public’s — advantage.
Items 9 – 13 on Tuesday’s agenda all deal with possible Charter amendments affecting the DWP and are covered in a single City Attorney’s report.
One item would try to avoid the fiasco last spring over the power rate hikes and DWP blackmail attempt using threats of withholding its revenue transfer to the city general fund. Two others would expand the Commission from five to seven members, require some degree of expertise by some of them and in one option split the appointments between the mayor and Council. A fourth would give the Council power to remove the DWP general manager, a position that has seen nine changes in 10 years.
The Office of Public Accountability and Rate Payer Advocate/Inspector General is potentially the most far-reaching — if it’s not watered down by the Council.
“The role of
the OPA shall be to (1) promote efficiency and effectiveness
of the department; (2) provide a centralized focus on ratepayer
protection and consumer complaints; and (3) provide independent
analysis of department actions, particularly as they relate to water and
electricity rate actions. The OPA shall advocate against excessive
rates and shall provide expert advice on rate actions and strategies
which most economically accomplish the City’s policy goals and protect the
department’s long-term interests,” the draft of the measure says.
Of course, the Council will still have full control by being able to decide who serves on the committee that picks the person in charge of the office and to set its budget.
As with the creation of the MTA and LAUSD inspector general office in the wake of scandals, history suggests these reforms start out strong but are weakened as fast as the people in overall charge can get away with it.
Other ballot measures under consideration would impose a $1.44 per barrel tax on oil production in the city and one that would impose a $50 tax on every $1,000 in marijuana sold as medicine by the so-called cooperatives — something the City Attorney’s report notes is truly bizarre since it would an action that is a federal crime.
Then, there’s the well-intentioned to stop the mayor and Council from their annual raid on the emergency reserve fund but it’s hard to see how requiring a two-thirds vote of the Council to take the money means much since they vote unanimous 99.93 percent of the time.
To deal with the exploding cost of public employee pension and lifetime health care costs, the Council will consider making newly hired police and firefighters pay either 2 percent of the their gross salaries or 2 percent of their take home pay into a health care fund — something that won’t make a dent in the problem since there are not going to be many new hires with the budget at more than $300 million next year and doubling and tripling in following years.
All in all, it’s far from clear that City Hall will be any less corrupt if all these “reforms” are approved by voters or that our public servants will be anymore committed to public service than they are now.
It’s going to take changes in the kind of people who hold these offices and a change in the political culture itself to rein in ballooning costs, reduce the influence of special interests.and restore credibility and a commitment to good government to City Hall.
Go to the LA Clean Sweep website if you want to get involved in the campaign for real reform and visit the Full Disclosure Network if you want to get inf’ormed about a lot of what’s wrong with our city and county governments.
The upcoming budget deficit exceeds $1 billion when you take into consideration that real costs assiciated with the $11.5 billion unfunded pension liability and the failure to fund the repair and maintenance of our infrastruture.
There is no long term plan for solvency and there is serious concern whether Los Angeles is an on going concern given its pension liabilities, the backlog of infrastructure improvements, and its inefficient operations.
The Library is the easy target to cut in an effort to balance the budget because the City Leaders are Bullies in this instance and yet, when it comes to the Unions at DWP these same bullies, like Zine don’t seem to have the balls to do what is necessary to reform DWP
The Controller reported, theft from DWP, and many other departments of ASSETS walking out the door. This is just the tip of the Iceberg, yet we have not heard of any REFORMS internally.
With respect to grants from the Federal Govt., the City of LA has been double dipping. When Management [from various depts.] reported during the budget hearings, they said, they moved employees into an vacant GRANT slot.
That means the City has been billing the FEDS, collecting money for work being done or not being done by City Employees. That City Employee gets paid 100% from TAX Revenue, and 30-40% of their salary from the FED Govt.
Los Angeles Mayor and Council continue to allocate MILLIONS of dollars for gang intervention/prevention that according to retired L.A. Sheriff’s Sgt. Valdemar will assists gang members in furthering their organized crime, but L.A. politicians elect to cut library hours for law abiding kids. Now LA politicians want Angelenos to increase property taxes with a false pretense of saving our library. Make sure Angelenos vote against this ballot measure.
Retired L.A. Sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Valdemar, a 33-year veteran detective and nationally recognized authority on gangs, said the 18th Street gang’s immigrant roots led to ties with drug-trafficking organizations from the beginning.
“They cultivate people, do favors for them, then they leverage those favors by asking for favors of their own,” he said. “They spread money around by buying businesses, cars and real estate in other people’s names and let those people use the property until they are ready to take it for themselves. Or they finance candidates who they think will be loyal to them.
“Once they have gained acceptance, they can seek city officials’ help in obtaining a business permit or liquor license, or police protection for their criminal activities. The money isn’t obvious, but it’s there.”
One notorious 18th Street member in Cudahy, Hector Marroquin, who, according to police reports and law enforcement documents also had ties to the Mexican Mafia, for years operated an unlicensed business, a nightclub called Marrokings, on the city’s main commercial stretch.
Marroquin claimed to have reformed. He started the anti-gang program “No Guns” and, after receiving $1.5 million in gang-intervention funding from the city of Los Angeles, he was sentenced in 2006 to seven years in state prison for selling automatic weapons to undercover agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Police officials said that Cudahy City Manager George Perez once intervened on Marroquin’s behalf when officers visited Marroquin’s nightclub looking for parole violators affiliated with the 18th Street gang. Mr. Perez in a 2007 news story confirmed calling the police chief on Marroquin’s behalf, saying he would be concerned any time a business owner felt harassed. He did not return calls for this report.
Cudahy Councilman David M. Silva, the city’s longest-serving council member, freely admits he was one of the targets of the 2001 grand jury investigation, and he voted to approve canceling the contract with the sheriff’s department, which had been engaged in proactive anti-gang policing.
Linda Guevara, a former City Council member in nearby Huntington Park, said that at one rally she observed three young men in white T-shirts holding a well-made sign saying, “We Support Our City Council.” When she approached and asked the young men to explain their support for the Bell council, she said, one of them replied: “Have you ever heard of 18th Street?”
CA Political News
Newly-released video captures employees from the social activist organization ACORN allegedly advising people posing as prostitutes and pimps how to cheat on taxes. Cynthia Bowers reports.,dr dre studio
ACORN Misconduct On Tape
Read Story: ACORN May Lose Gov’t Funds after Scandal
If Samuel Johnson was right two centuries ago about “patriotism” being the “last refuge of a scoundrel,” then “reform” is the “last refuge of a corrupt political system” otherwise known as Los Angeles City Hall.
With the deadline looming Wednesday to put measures on the March 8 city primary ballot, the City Council is set to take up on Tuesday a long series of Charter reforms, ballot measures and new taxes – 13 in all — that pretend to deal with the public employee pension crisis, the budget crisis and, most of all, the scandal of mismanagement and ripoffs of the public by the Department of Water and Power.
With dozens of candidates filing to challenge the six incumbents up for re-election and the City Hall staffer anointed by the political machine for the one open seat, the Council intends to clog the ballot with phony reform measures that will do little or nothing to solve the pension crisis with its billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities or the budget crisis that threatens to force the city into bankruptcy.
The only significant proposals have to do with reining in the DWP, a rogue agency that operates as a law unto itself without regard to the needs, values or interests of the public, serving only IBEW union the special interests that fund the political campaigns of the incumbent elected officials and the self-servers chosen to succeed them.
Even the toughest proposals by Jan Perry to create an independent and fully-funded Rate Payer Advocate/Inspector General within a new Office of Public Accountability and reform the DWP Board of Commissioners require a mayor and City Council that put the public interest first and foremost.
For its part, the IBEW already has launched what will be a hugely expensive campaign to fight any and all reform efforts and the DWP itself — now in chaos in its second year without a permanent general manager and being run by the untrustworthy Chief Operating Officer Raman Raj — appear to be developing its own obstructionist strategy.
Already, Interim GM and First Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner has made it clear that in his part- time and minimal involvement in the DWP regards the utility as nothing but a cash cow to fund subsidies to business and developer interests and can see no evil in union bully Brian D’Arcy and his long-time ally Raj, the once bankrupt (Raman Raj bankruptcy.pdf) managerial wizard who got the axe for questionable behavior during his previous stint at the DWP.
In approving Merkin’s lucrative deal with little discussion, the Commission noted his knowledge of the City Charter and his long experience in dealing with the City Council and City Hall. Nothing like a credible insider to help manipulate the system to the DWP’s — if the not the public’s — advantage.
Items 9 – 13 on Tuesday’s agenda all deal with possible Charter amendments affecting the DWP and are covered in a single City Attorney’s report.
One item would try to avoid the fiasco last spring over the power rate hikes and DWP blackmail attempt using threats of withholding its revenue transfer to the city general fund. Two others would expand the Commission from five to seven members, require some degree of expertise by some of them and in one option split the appointments between the mayor and Council. A fourth would give the Council power to remove the DWP general manager, a position that has seen nine changes in 10 years.
The Office of Public Accountability and Rate Payer Advocate/Inspector General is potentially the most far-reaching — if it’s not watered down by the Council.
“The role of
the OPA shall be to (1) promote efficiency and effectiveness
of the department; (2) provide a centralized focus on ratepayer
protection and consumer complaints; and (3) provide independent
analysis of department actions, particularly as they relate to water and
electricity rate actions. The OPA shall advocate against excessive
rates and shall provide expert advice on rate actions and strategies
which most economically accomplish the City’s policy goals and protect the
department’s long-term interests,” the draft of the measure says.
Of course, the Council will still have full control by being able to decide who serves on the committee that picks the person in charge of the office and to set its budget.
As with the creation of the MTA and LAUSD inspector general office in the wake of scandals, history suggests these reforms start out strong but are weakened as fast as the people in overall charge can get away with it.
Other ballot measures under consideration would impose a $1.44 per barrel tax on oil production in the city and one that would impose a $50 tax on every $1,000 in marijuana sold as medicine by the so-called cooperatives — something the City Attorney’s report notes is truly bizarre since it would an action that is a federal crime.
Then, there’s the well-intentioned to stop the mayor and Council from their annual raid on the emergency reserve fund but it’s hard to see how requiring a two-thirds vote of the Council to take the money means much since they vote unanimous 99.93 percent of the time.
To deal with the exploding cost of public employee pension and lifetime health care costs, the Council will consider making newly hired police and firefighters pay either 2 percent of the their gross salaries or 2 percent of their take home pay into a health care fund — something that won’t make a dent in the problem since there are not going to be many new hires with the budget at more than $300 million next year and doubling and tripling in following years.
All in all, it’s far from clear that City Hall will be any less corrupt if all these “reforms” are approved by voters or that our public servants will be anymore committed to public service than they are now.
It’s going to take changes in the kind of people who hold these offices and a change in the political culture itself to rein in ballooning costs, reduce the influence of special interests.and restore credibility and a commitment to good government to City Hall.
Go to the LA Clean Sweep website if you want to get involved in the campaign for real reform and visit the Full Disclosure Network if you want to get inf’ormed about a lot of what’s wrong with our city and county governments.
WTF? WHERE ARE THE FEDS AND AG on this???? How much more corruption can the City of Los Angeles take and no media coverage. Its long over due for the People of this City to stand up to the corruption of our politicians. What a bunch of losers!! Why isn’t Controller Chiang going over our books like he did the City of Bell. Get as many people as you can to Call State Controller Chiang and get our city AUDITED by an outside entity.
Field Audits-Los Angeles Area
600 Corporate Pointe, Suite 1000
Culver City, California 90230
Phone: (310) 342-5656
The upcoming budget deficit exceeds $1 billion when you take into consideration that real costs assiciated with the $11.5 billion unfunded pension liability and the failure to fund the repair and maintenance of our infrastruture.
There is no long term plan for solvency and there is serious concern whether Los Angeles is an on going concern given its pension liabilities, the backlog of infrastructure improvements, and its inefficient operations.
No one investigates L.A. since it’s the Cash Cow of California! The voters are stupid, the illegals vote in droves, and the vote goes Liberal 90% of the time. However, once L.A. City files for BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION (Mr. PoopTranich
as City Atty) then the bailout will come out to 20-25 BILLION DOLLARS (Assuming interest rates remain EXACTLY where they are now.) If interest rates climb, add another 2-3 BILLION PER 100 BASIS POINTS INCREASE INTEREST RATES.
November 15, 2010 12:37 PM: You hit the nail on the head. A corrupt City government CANNOT investigate itself. You cannot trust the City Controller who has proven her loyalty.
You are also right to bring in a Federal agency because the City Council and Mayor have brazenly thumbed their noses at ethics laws and anti-corruption provisions of the State and City law.
All of us must write to the FBI with a list of complaints until something happens. The City Council needs to operate under a Conscent degree.
The City Ethics Commission also proved that they cannot be trusted to do the right thing – rather they are the protectors. The 2006 Measure R (for Reform) was a joke as you can tell by their lack of true action and real punishment.
Los Angeles Mayor and Council continue to allocate MILLIONS of dollars for gang intervention/prevention that according to retired L.A. Sheriff’s Sgt. Valdemar will assists gang members in furthering their organized crime, but L.A. politicians elect to cut library hours for law abiding kids. Now LA politicians want Angelenos to increase property taxes with a false pretense of saving our library. Make sure Angelenos vote against this ballot measure.
Retired L.A. Sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Valdemar, a 33-year veteran detective and nationally recognized authority on gangs, said the 18th Street gang’s immigrant roots led to ties with drug-trafficking organizations from the beginning.
“They cultivate people, do favors for them, then they leverage those favors by asking for favors of their own,” he said. “They spread money around by buying businesses, cars and real estate in other people’s names and let those people use the property until they are ready to take it for themselves. Or they finance candidates who they think will be loyal to them.
“Once they have gained acceptance, they can seek city officials’ help in obtaining a business permit or liquor license, or police protection for their criminal activities. The money isn’t obvious, but it’s there.”
One notorious 18th Street member in Cudahy, Hector Marroquin, who, according to police reports and law enforcement documents also had ties to the Mexican Mafia, for years operated an unlicensed business, a nightclub called Marrokings, on the city’s main commercial stretch.
Marroquin claimed to have reformed. He started the anti-gang program “No Guns” and, after receiving $1.5 million in gang-intervention funding from the city of Los Angeles, he was sentenced in 2006 to seven years in state prison for selling automatic weapons to undercover agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Police officials said that Cudahy City Manager George Perez once intervened on Marroquin’s behalf when officers visited Marroquin’s nightclub looking for parole violators affiliated with the 18th Street gang. Mr. Perez in a 2007 news story confirmed calling the police chief on Marroquin’s behalf, saying he would be concerned any time a business owner felt harassed. He did not return calls for this report.
Cudahy Councilman David M. Silva, the city’s longest-serving council member, freely admits he was one of the targets of the 2001 grand jury investigation, and he voted to approve canceling the contract with the sheriff’s department, which had been engaged in proactive anti-gang policing.
Linda Guevara, a former City Council member in nearby Huntington Park, said that at one rally she observed three young men in white T-shirts holding a well-made sign saying, “We Support Our City Council.” When she approached and asked the young men to explain their support for the Bell council, she said, one of them replied: “Have you ever heard of 18th Street?”
CA Political News
Newly-released video captures employees from the social activist organization ACORN allegedly advising people posing as prostitutes and pimps how to cheat on taxes. Cynthia Bowers reports.,dr dre studio
ACORN Misconduct On Tape
Read Story: ACORN May Lose Gov’t Funds after Scandal
Anonymous 
Beutner is scum, but look who placed him there.
The upcoming budget deficit exceeds $1 billion when you take into consideration that real costs assiciated with the $11.5 billion unfunded pension liability and the failure to fund the repair and maintenance of our infrastruture.
There is no long term plan for solvency and there is serious concern whether Los Angeles is an on going concern given its pension liabilities, the backlog of infrastructure improvements, and its inefficient operations.
The Library is the easy target to cut in an effort to balance the budget because the City Leaders are Bullies in this instance and yet, when it comes to the Unions at DWP these same bullies, like Zine don’t seem to have the balls to do what is necessary to reform DWP
The Controller reported, theft from DWP, and many other departments of ASSETS walking out the door. This is just the tip of the Iceberg, yet we have not heard of any REFORMS internally.
With respect to grants from the Federal Govt., the City of LA has been double dipping. When Management [from various depts.] reported during the budget hearings, they said, they moved employees into an vacant GRANT slot.
That means the City has been billing the FEDS, collecting money for work being done or not being done by City Employees. That City Employee gets paid 100% from TAX Revenue, and 30-40% of their salary from the FED Govt.
Los Angeles Mayor and Council continue to allocate MILLIONS of dollars for gang intervention/prevention that according to retired L.A. Sheriff’s Sgt. Valdemar will assists gang members in furthering their organized crime, but L.A. politicians elect to cut library hours for law abiding kids. Now LA politicians want Angelenos to increase property taxes with a false pretense of saving our library. Make sure Angelenos vote against this ballot measure.
Retired L.A. Sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Valdemar, a 33-year veteran detective and nationally recognized authority on gangs, said the 18th Street gang’s immigrant roots led to ties with drug-trafficking organizations from the beginning.
“They cultivate people, do favors for them, then they leverage those favors by asking for favors of their own,” he said. “They spread money around by buying businesses, cars and real estate in other people’s names and let those people use the property until they are ready to take it for themselves. Or they finance candidates who they think will be loyal to them.
“Once they have gained acceptance, they can seek city officials’ help in obtaining a business permit or liquor license, or police protection for their criminal activities. The money isn’t obvious, but it’s there.”
One notorious 18th Street member in Cudahy, Hector Marroquin, who, according to police reports and law enforcement documents also had ties to the Mexican Mafia, for years operated an unlicensed business, a nightclub called Marrokings, on the city’s main commercial stretch.
Marroquin claimed to have reformed. He started the anti-gang program “No Guns” and, after receiving $1.5 million in gang-intervention funding from the city of Los Angeles, he was sentenced in 2006 to seven years in state prison for selling automatic weapons to undercover agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Police officials said that Cudahy City Manager George Perez once intervened on Marroquin’s behalf when officers visited Marroquin’s nightclub looking for parole violators affiliated with the 18th Street gang. Mr. Perez in a 2007 news story confirmed calling the police chief on Marroquin’s behalf, saying he would be concerned any time a business owner felt harassed. He did not return calls for this report.
Cudahy Councilman David M. Silva, the city’s longest-serving council member, freely admits he was one of the targets of the 2001 grand jury investigation, and he voted to approve canceling the contract with the sheriff’s department, which had been engaged in proactive anti-gang policing.
Linda Guevara, a former City Council member in nearby Huntington Park, said that at one rally she observed three young men in white T-shirts holding a well-made sign saying, “We Support Our City Council.” When she approached and asked the young men to explain their support for the Bell council, she said, one of them replied: “Have you ever heard of 18th Street?”
CA Political News
Newly-released video captures employees from the social activist organization ACORN allegedly advising people posing as prostitutes and pimps how to cheat on taxes. Cynthia Bowers reports.,dr dre studio
ACORN Misconduct On Tape
Read Story: ACORN May Lose Gov’t Funds after Scandal
September 15,dr dre detox sale, 2009 4:12 PM