For raw courage and integrity in an era in which there is a near total breakdown at all levels of American democracy, it is hard to beat Wendy Greuel.
For a former city staffer, former Council member, current Controller and top fund-raiser for the office of Mayor in 2013 to call on her colleagues in elected city offices to resign with her to end the “waste, fraud and abuse” at City Hall is the boldest and noblest act we have seen in the city’s modern political history.
”Recently, the
City has experienced a wave of fraud, waste and abuse, which causes
great concern,” Greuel said in her press release on city letterhead, sent from a city email address and created and paid for on city-paid staff time.
“There are allegations of illegal
activities and misappropriation of City resources occurring in the
Department of Building and Safety, the Department of Transportation, and
theft at the City’s Animal Shelters. We must guard the City against
this type of abuse, particularly if the abuses are systemic.”
Oh, I’m sorry, I misread her press release and letter (Greuel-Zine.pdf) to her partner in crime, Councilman Dennis Zine, the man she is nakedly working to help succeed her in high office when she becomes mayor, asking him as head of the Audits Committee to work with her to clean up City Hall.
I should have known when she said that she was shocked and dismayed to “recently” discover the corruption she has been part of for so long and that it was ”systemic.”
How could anyone who spent their lifetime in the city’s political sewer be surprised to find the little people were cheating and stealing — something they only do when they see the big people cheating and stealing?
Jill Stewart, the local news guru at the LA Weekly, saw through it right away, asking: “Where are her cojones when it comes to
actually outing the bad apple departments, bad apple divisions and bad apple
individuals at City Hall … Wendy Greuel is not a stupid woman, so what’s
the problem?”
I’ll tell you what the problem is: These people have gotten away with waste, fraud and abuse for so long with the full support of what passes for the city’s establishment and the city’s apathetic electorate that they no longer know the difference between right and wrong.
Insanity is their only defense.
They have no moral compass. You could shoot truth serum into their veins, wire them to a lie detector, swear them to tell the truth on the lives of their lovers and children and to a man and woman they would answer every question about their own role in corrupting the city’s political processes in the negative and pass without flying colors.
They are sociopaths without consciences, without a moral compass. It’s what happens to people surrounded by armies of taxpayer-paid sycophants who collaborate with them all day long to invent narrative fictions that have nothing to do with realities. After a while, they come to believe their own lies and the applause of everyone around them, including the fat cats who profit from their corruption and the voters who get down on their knees and praise them for small favors the way peasants kowtow to kings.
“Without strengthening the City’s enforcement and controls to decrease the
incidences of fraud, waste and abuse, the City is placing itself at risk. We carmot simply maintain
the status quo,” Greuel declares in her letter to the duplicitous and dangerously ambitious hypocrite Zine.
Training, communication, reforms, outreach — those are her prescription for fixing what is so badly broken and has been throughout her years of public service.
“I look forward to continuing to work
with you,” she writes Zine, “to implement these ideas to prevent
fraud, waste
and abuse and to increase reporting and to stop
the misuse and abuse of City resources.”
As the Weekly’s Jill Stewart observed:
“Pul-eeze.”
If Greuel or any of her cohorts want to end
the corruption, they need to stand up in public and talk about all the actions
and all the votes they participated in that were nothing but favors for special
interests, that established that waste, fraud and abuse were the very culture
of City Hall.
They could then announce they were resigning for the good of the city.
Thank you to both Jill Stewart and you, Ron.
This settles it. Friends, it is time to start campaigning because they are. My votes are
ready for election day. Kevin James for Mayor – we need his kind of fresh air. And now, for sure as well, Cary Brazeman is my choice for Contoller.
Zine has “used” us too long already. Anyone else? We need to replace the whole bunch. Time to start is now.
Patient much too long. Time for a complete
change.
Many people have the goods on this hypocrite. Ace is ready to unload. They have done the opposition research and they are ready. Beutner is not Don Quixote. He is being fed dirt on Wendy from City Hall staffers. This race is going to be fun. Smith, Carrick, Shallman, Hagopian. WOW!!
Wendy is not only part of the corrupt system, but she is corrupt herself and it will come out in due time.
Oops! Is the LA Housing Dept on the list too???
You mean phones were cut off for weeks for non-payment? Nah! This is America. Couldn’t possibly be true? Let’s hear the ‘rest’ of the story !
My first time signing as ‘anonymous’
Kevin James for Mayor!!!
Oops! Is the LA Housing Dept on the list too???
You mean phones were cut off for weeks for non-payment? Nah! This is America. Couldn’t possibly be true? Let’s hear the ‘rest’ of the story !
My first time signing as ‘anonymous’
KEVIN JAMES FOR MAYOR? CARMEN “GAGA” DUMTANICH, AND DUMMY DENNIS ZINE WILL BE HIS BIG ENDORSEMENTS? HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!! Just sit back and see the parade of fools on KRLA that will rear their ugly heads come 2012. These two fools have laid low pretty much in 2011. But they’ll be on, telling us all how they are “reformers” and “men of the little man.” If Kevin would of spoke up on crap like “rentgate” and the billboard sellout, etc. not to mention dozens more stories he’s sat on without a peep, he’d have no funds on hand for a mayoral run. It’s all games at City Hall, and no one running for any office is worthy of your vote. Look at Richard Alarcon, he’ll be back in the State Assembly (with immunity from prosecution on the residency or domicile issues) by the time that bloated load at the D.A.’s office gets to jury selection! I’ve come to admire Richard Alarcon on how he got away with it all. He’s got balls, give him that.
If you have kids, TEACH YOUR KIDS TO GROW UP AND BE JUST LIKE ALARCON, because you’ll have all the money you’ll ever need in this city.
Forget idolizing Washington, Lincoln, or King.
Kids should look for role models like Michael Vick, Richard Alarcon, and Maxine Waters.
It’s the WILD WILD WEST, and each Person will have to be his or her own savior.
Poor Wayne. Your parents did a horrible job of raising you with ethics and morals. I’m supporting another candidate for Mayor however, I give Kevin James huge kudos and credit. At least he’s been active and for a long time has attended numerous community meetings engaging with the people. Where have you been Wayne and what contributions have you made but behave like an immature crybaby? Wendy no doubt has been a huge disappointment to many. For almost two years all she’s done is campaign and become a media whore. She hasn’t once come out with a resolution to help all those audits and find money. This Mayoral race will be one of the dirtiest. That sadly will turn people away from voting. No City Council member should ever be re elected AGAIN. They have destroyed our City and failed the people.
When you called Jill Stewart a news guru you immediately lost me. Jill Stewart is the worst media figure in LA when it comes to reporting facts about substantive issues. She is a deplorable shill for sensationalism that is only equaled in incompetence by her fellow Weekly staff members Dennis Romero and Simone Wilson. As long as you align yourself with that cabal of gadflies, Ron Kaye, you are are part of what is wrong with this city.
7:52am you most certainly must be from the Wendy camp. Jill Stewart and the other reporters at the LA Weekly are the only ones in this entire city that have the courage to report the truth. Read the stories on AEG Football deal, Billboards, City Council wasting millions of our tax dollars, and much more. You will never read these type of great investigative pieces in any other local newspaper. Why? Because unfortunatley, the LA Slimes, Daily News, Downtown News, etc. are nothing more then pr puff piece spins of our corrupt politicians. I read the LA Weekly daily and get more info then any other source in LA including the tv channels. Good for LA Weekly reporting.
From one Jew to another, the Keys to the Store. That’s what that is all about. Denise Zine Wendy Gruell.
First of all, never pollute your City Treasury with an “elected” Controller. Numbers don’t lie, but politicians do.
We had a Kevin James follower make a statement and it needs a response, as well as the WEEKLY posts:
Think about this one: Did you know that NO one is ALLOWED TO CALL KEVIN’S SHOW AND DISCUSS HIS RUN FOR MAYOR ON HIS SHOW??? Yet, HE CERTAINLY IS PERMITTED TO TALK ABOUT ALL THE OTHER CANDIDATES! What’s that all about? Did you know Kevin’s been raising big $$$ and sending it to a campaign manager NOT IN THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES?
Do you think each and every show he does on KRLA IS OR IS NOT FREE PUBLICITY for his career ambitions? HMMMMM???
Do you know which candidates Mr. Kevin donated to, you know, the ones he’s been asking YOU TO DONATE TO? Take a look, it’s online. And you’ll say “noooo….that’s not right…”
Now this leads to the other posts re: LA WEEKLY and Ms. Stewart. Remember Walter Moore? Sure you do. WHY DID L.A. WEEKLY NOT RUN THAT COVER STORY ON THE “11% MAYOR” BACK IN January 2009, BEFORE WALTER’S PRIMARY RUN VS. MAYOR VILLA-SCUMBAG? They ran it AFTER VILLAR CINCHED HIS 2nd Term!!!
If they really WANTED CHANGE AT THE MAYOR’S OFFICE, THAT ARTICLE ALONE WOULD OF PUSHED WALTER AT LEAST INTO A RUN OFF VS. VILLAR AND PROBABLY WOULD OF GOT HIM A WIN. BUT NOOOOOOO!!!
They wait until the Dirtbag wins, THEN PRINT THE SCATHING ARTICLE OF THE PRIOR 4 YEARS!
Then the Weekly has alot of other kiss asses over there that play to the City Hall Gang. That’s the way the media plays ball in L.A.
Did you read the front page article this week about The Gas Company’s PROPOSED 7% RATE HIKES FOR 2012 AND THE OCTOBER PUBLIC MEETING IN VAN NUYS? NO? THAT’S BECAUSE THE MEDIA AND KEVIN TOO NEVER SAID SQUAT.
After watching Gaga Dumbtanich, can Kevin or anyone really go into City Hall and be anything but a parasite in the end? It’s just too much power, wealth, and perks for anyone to resist all the temptations it has. Free Cars, free trips, free tickets to anything, free staffers, free food, free gas, free rent, free this and that AND A $186,000 PAYCHECK EACH YEAR! WITH FREE HEALTH, DENTAL, VISION (FOR THE FAMILY TOO) AND PENSION? Who can’t be corrupted by that in a year or two? Maybe a Rabbi, but a really Old School one at that.
I’ll leave with probably the best quote ever by a Government bureaucrat who knew she was doing everything wrong and causing delays for the public: “TT’S CALLED JOB SECURITY!”