Ron Kaye L.A.

The Art of Spinning the News: NY Times Gets Bit by the Mayor's Rattlesnake

2010-03-11T15:10:27Z

If you thought the massive electricity rate hike about to be rubber-stamped next week by the DWP Commission is bad news, think again.

There is even worse news today in the New York Times: The DWP "is losing about $6 million a week or an estimated $500 million by the end of the 2011 fiscal year."

Who knew? The DWP losing money? How is that possible?

Of course, it isn't, The DWP just sent $147 million in "surplus" power revenue to the city general fund, part of its 8 percent annual revenue donation that comes on top of the 10 percent electricity tax. It just gave checks for 3.25 percent of their salaries to its 8,000 employees with some getting back pay raises for two years of up to nearly 6 percent and granted raises of up to 4 percent for each of the next four years.

But Jennifer Steinhauer -- the NYT's Los Angeles Bureau chief who's heading to Washington to cover Congress -- knows all about the DWP losing money along with other facts nobody in this left coast town has heard.

Nobody at least except Chief Deputy Mayor Jay Carson, who appears to the only source for Steinhauer's exclusive report under the headline "Los Angeles Electric Rate Linked to Solar Power."

Undoubtedly, Steinhauer and Carson crossed paths when she was covering the 2008 presidential race and he was Hillary Clinton's spokesman so his word is as good as gold.

She reports that the DWP "is poised to pass a roughly 5 percent rate increase on electricity use...(the DWP Commission) is expected to vote next week to increase by seven-tenths of 1 cent the current user rate of 12 cents per kilowatt hour."

That doesn't sound so bad. But then it isn't what the DWP is seeking unless Carson has shared with her insider information that none of us know. The 5 percent rate hike hardly would begin to cover the DWP supposed deficit and the provide for "renewable energy purchases and programs, including one that would repay people or businesses that use solar panels to contribute to the power grid."

To Steinhauer, the rate hike "is equivalent to a carbon tax because all consumers will see rates fall as the city becomes less reliant on coal-powered energy."

I get it now: Rate hikes mean lower rates. No wonder she is best known for her obsession with rattlesnakes that are plaguing all of LA and even brings them into this story's opening with the observation that in LA "environmentalists outnumber rattlesnakes in many parts of the sprawling city."

In contrast to Steinhauer's report, the cost of going green runs into the billions of dollars and a 5 percent rate hike doesn't come close to paying the bill. The DWP's own consultant's report calls for a rate hike of 2.7 cents per kilowatt hour -- four times what Steinhauer reports -- and Carson's boss wants an additional surcharge as well with even higher rates coming year after year..

In Steinhauer's math, the modest 5 percent rate hike will somehow "shore up the (DWP) budget shortfall, in the hope of protecting the utility's bond rating ... (and) go to renewable energy sources, like wind farms, and to help subsidize a program that would essentially repay solar-panel users for feeding energy into the power grid."

Even beyond all those costs to be covered by the rate hike, "Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his staff are billing the increase as a move that will bring jobs to the city. Los Angeles has never embraced the idea of solar energy, largely because of the high cost of the programs."

"There are so few solar panel manufacturing companies in the city, mayoral aides have had to scramble to find an appropriate place to announce the new plan later this week."

"A well-crafted carbon surcharge achieves two goals," Los Angeles's chief deputy mayor, Jay Carson, said. "The first is a drastic reduction in fossil fuel usage for energy, but the second, and more important for Los Angeles, is the creation of thousands of green-collar jobs."

Finally, the dashing Jay Carson appears after having so successfully spun a New York Times star reporter who clearly made no effort to check the "facts" she was being spoon-fed.

The question arises then: What was Carson trying to achieve? A test drive of how the LA press corps and populace are going to be spun? Deluding Wall Street to somehow believe DWP actually has a solar plan so it will lend the utility money without lowering its bond rating?

I don't know. I just thought you ought to know how the spinmeisters like Carson operate and how even star reporters like Steinhauer and newspapers like the NYT can't be trusted any more than your ordinary citizen blogger without checking the facts yourself.

You can do that by going to OurLA.org, which broke the rate hike plan story on Feb. 26, and read the DWP report on rate hikes prepared by PA Consulting.

Dept. of No Comment: Jan Perry, LA Legislator of the Year

2010-03-10T18:07:21Z

Take a deep breath, Jan, and sock it to me -- you're the LA Legislator of the Year. Here's the announcement from BreatheLA:

Next Month: Breath of Life Awards

BREATHE LA presents the 2010 Breath of Life Awards to be held at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Thursday, April 8, 2010. The awards recognize honorees who strive to promote clean air and healthy lungs in Los Angeles County each and every day.

WHO:            Mr. Masa Tanaka, CEO of Union Bank: Breath of Life Award
                     Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry: Legislator of the Year Award
                     Los Angeles Unified School District: Community Impact Award
                     BMW Group: Innovation Award

WHEN:          April 8, 2010
                     6:00pm -10:00pm

WHERE:        Petersen Automotive Museum
                    6060 Wilshire Boulevard
                    Los Angeles, CA 90036

TICKETS:     Cost is $75 per individual ticket. Sponsorships are also available.

An estimated 150 - 200 dignitaries, community leaders and clean technology experts will gather for an inspirational evening to benefit the most vulnerable in our community through BREATHE LA's high quality programs and services. The event includes private hosted museum tours as well as special viewings of new vehicles and green energy products. There will also be a silent auction, a dinner and awards reception, and live jazz music.

Let's Lay Off the Mayor & Council -- Who Needs Them?

2010-03-10T04:55:24Z

Imagine the scenes at the Pacific Dining Car and in the back rooms of City Hall in the next few days as the nation's highest paid municipal officials and their armies of staffers, each with their taxpayer-supplied Priuses, back slap and praise each other for all their hard work above and beyond the call of duty.

Job well done.

High fives all around. They have been in combat these last few weeks. They have seen the enemy and it is us, the taxpayers, the businesses, the people. And they have survived through daily sessions, and the pitfalls of posturing and hypocrisy as if they had braved incoming shells and snipers and improvised explosive devices.

No, it hasn't been easy but they have gotten through and have lived to destroy again another day.

You can understand their need to fly off to the nation's capital to wine and dine with the men and women at the pinnacle of the political machinery of public deceit, or to spend a few days on the beaches of Maui far from the maddening crowd of ordinary folks begging for crumbs from their table of power.

Such is the burdens of self-importance in an age of transformation when the rules no longer apply, when the center of inertia no longer holds, when the abnormal has become the norm.

These are the people we have anointed to lead us through these times of troubles and they are delighted to have danced and preened, to have shown their heartfelt concerns, to have made it through pretending to have faced the demon of their massive deficits without having done anything at all.

And they are still in place in their high stations to enjoy the privileges and perks they have come to expect as a birthright for their virtue and goodness.

Oh, what a happy day it is, what a well deserved vacation they have coming next week for their public service.

They have confused and fragmented the populace and shown their superiority and put the grumbling rabble in their place, worried about themselves and their parks and libraries and their petty concerns as they try to preserve the quality of their little lives.

It was brilliant and worth all the sweat of donning their fancy clothes every day though they will have to call in chits from their wealthy friends to cover the inflated dry cleaning bills they have from having to show up at work every day.

Of course, they never all show up at the same time.

That's one of the wonders of the Council. They arrange their schedules so that they have just enough members -- a dirty dozen -- to enact everything they and their puppet masters want on unanimous votes on first reading.

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It should be obvious why 99 percent of the public comments come from the regular gadfly crowd. They really don't want to waste their time and don't care what the public has to say. They do not listen, they do not hear.

The more I watch what passes for this deliberative body called the City Council, the more I think maybe we don't need them at all.

Right off the top we'd save $25 million or so in salaries and perks. Then, we'd save tens of millions more that they squander from their slush funds and hundreds of millions even beyond that from eliminating all the money that goes into political pandering to keep them in high office.

Without a Council to muck things up, the lobbyists, developers, contractors, consultants and union leaders could come out of the back rooms and gather around the horseshoe and take care of city business in public and on camera.

We'd at least know what was really going on that way, and how so much of what city government does is for the good of the few and harms the interests of the many.

And as for the office of mayor with its 200 staffers, We could live better without all of them. It's little more than a ceremonial office these days so why not have a mayor for a day, a person chosen from some kind of reality show by public vote.

The audience would be huge and the advertising revenues would clean up the structural deficit. There could be contests for who could cadge the most money in the area that was supposed to be the Grand Avenue Project or who could run the fastest around a circuit of massive subsidized developments or who could sell the most dope out of a street vendor's cart.

The possibilities are endless. Think about it, would we really be any worse off?

City Hall Transfers: Eight of the 11 Highest Paid Got Up to 16 Percent More by Moving to DWP

2010-03-10T01:11:56Z

The highest paid city workers transferring from general fund positions to the Department of Water and Power under threat of massive layoffs have gotten raises of up to 16 percent.

Responding to a request from OurLA.org, the Personnel Department provided a list Wednesday of the 11 highest paid employees who have transferred to the DWP, Harbor and Airport.

Nine have joined the DWP, one the Harbor and one the Airport.

See the first list of transfers, go to OurLA.org

Good News for Kids...Bad News for Golfers

2010-03-09T22:42:18Z

GO TO OURLA.ORG TO LEARN ABOUT THE DEAL TO SPIN OFF CITY GOLF COURSES AND SAVE JOBS FOR REC & PARKS DEPT. WORKERS

Bruno, LA's Watchdog: Why Can't I Be in Two Places at Once Like the Council?

2010-03-09T18:27:14Z

I'm writing this post from my doghouse in Ron's backyard but I'm not actually in my doghouse. I'm in the kitchen hoping he drops part of his breakfast on the floor as usual so I can get something to eat without lying next to the damn Pavlovian MannersMinder machine that's supposed to change my personality by dribbling out two kibble bits at a time.

Yeah, right. Good luck. Guys beat me with sticks when I was a pup and couldn't break me. They dumped me on the streets and I survived. I am Bruno, LA's Watchdog, nipping at the heels of all those abusers of pets and even people.

I've wished sometimes I could be in two places at once to clean up the mess out there ever faster.

That's why I got so inspired this morning and decided to prowl the backyard and push the automatic writing button on the computer..

The Dog Trainer's David Zahniser's and Maeve Reston's showed me the light with their exhaustive investigative piece revealing how our City Council members actually vote while eating sandwiches in the back rooms behind the council chambers and cutting deals with lobbyists who get free parking and free access as if they were Council members too, which they might as well be.

You think fleas are bad?

It seems their presence isn't even needed in the Council Chamber when votes are taken. They just push a button and the computer automatically votes yes for hungry council members, or those who want to meet with lobbyists and, as the Dog Trainer points out, the members of the mayor's staff for some mysterious reason.

"The city clerk's office, which maintains the council's official record, does not track how often members leave the council floor while still being counted as present," our own Woodward and Bernstein wrote. "Times reporters (Dave and Maeve, it rhymes) monitored the back rooms repeatedly from August to February, however, and found that at least half of the council used them for private sessions during public meetings."

Seven months???

Geez, the city's finances are going down the toilet (where voting members often are hanging out) and the Dog Trainer is firing half its reporters but Dave & Maeve - I really do love that! - are sneaking around to catch Dennis Zine eating a salami sandwich with lobbyist Ben Reznik or spot somebody grabbing a smoke.

Any minute now I expect them in Ron's backyard sneaking a peek on what he's up to. I can't wait, it would be more fun than biting the poolman. .

Every good story deserves a follow-up.

Woof!

War Declared: People vs. DWP -- No Rate Hikes Without Total Transparency, Clear Plans, IBEW Givebacks

2010-03-08T21:54:21Z

If ever there was something to go to war about in the shocking mismanagement of city affairs, it's the Department of Water & Power.

It's time to put the public in charge of this renegade agency, the nation's largest municipally-owned utility.

For a century, the DWP has operated as a law unto itself, unaccountable to no one. From the theft of Owens Valley water, to the land grab of the San Fernando Valley, through back room deals and sweetheart contracts and its refusal to "green" its power supply, the DWP has been run as if it were a privately-owned business beyond the reach of the people or political leaders.

It is the source of the Chinatown story, the darkest chapter in LA's history that has become a never ending story.

Over more than a decade now, bully boy union leader Brian D'Arcy has taken charge of the DWP as if he were chairman of the board and principal shareholder, blackmailing city officials into approving stupendous contracts under threat of strikes that would shut down the water and power systems, under threat of destroying their careers with the millions of campaign cash at his disposal.

He thrived on the DWP's reliance on coal-burning power plants because it meant lots of high-salaried jobs for IBEW workers. He insisted that all power sources be DWP-owned power plants because it meant lots of jobs for his union members. He squelched efforts to develop wind and solar energy resources because it meant fewer or no jobs for IBEW workers.

He constructed a system of work rules that guaranteed vast amounts of overtime whether or not there was urgent work to be done. He protected workers loyal to the union and destroyed those with loyalty to the public interest. He has corrupted the Civil Service system by having promotional jobs filled by "bid", not a competitive examination as is done in the rest of the City. He treated general managers, commissioners and elected officials as if they were his hirelings.

The result is a power grid that has deteriorated and is breaking down, wage structures that are far above the industry average and 40 percent higher than other city workers doing comparable work and the worst renewable energy record of any utility in California.

Measure B for 400 megawatts of rooftop solar was D'Arcy's creation and it was the union's money that drove the $1.6 million campaign for it that failed in the face of the push-back by ordinary citizens with virtually no money spent in opposition.

What was wrong with it then is what's wrong with it now -- it requires the DWP to own and maintain all major rooftop solar installations in the city to create even more IBEW jobs even though it dramatically increases costs to the public, stifles the growing private solar industry and slows the achievement of significant amounts of solar since DWP has no substantive experience in the field.

Yet, the mayor and Council are moving forward on virtually the same plan as Measure B because it is the price they are willing to pay to get solar power, or more accurately the price they are willing to let the public pay.

The DWP is desperate for more revenue to close contracts for wind and solar just to meet the 20 percent by 2010 goal mandated by the legislature under AB32 four years ago. That's right, DWP waited until the last minute to meet the mandate which says a lot about the management and the leadership of the "greenest big city mayor" in America.

Now the mayor wants to start a monthly $2.50 surcharge that will rapidly escalate, supposedly to replace power plants that burn the dirtiest fossil fuel, coal, with plants that burn another fossil fuel, natural gas. The plants are immensely costly, still dirty, if less so than coal and have a life expectancy of 70 years -- eliminating the possibility LA will be able to take, advantage of expected major advances in green technology for most of a century.

That's small change compared to the 20 percent power rate hike the DWP wants to impose by April 1 by eliminating the 4 percent cap on pass-through surcharges for fluctuations in the price of fuel.

Once the cap on the ECAF (Energy Cost Adjustment Factor) is lifted, you can be certain your rates will soar even more than the 60 percent they will have gone up by 2011 under our current mayor.

The 60 percent is the same percentage the mayor has increased the transfer of DWP's "surplus" electricity revenue to the general fund. It's even more than the 30 percent he has increased gross pay at the DWP, if that's any consolation.

Soaring wages on top of already inflated salaries, soaring rates, soaring revenue to the general fund from the 10 percent electricity tax and 8 percent revenue transfer, lack of renewable energy, deteriorating infrastructure --- the costs are spectacular and rates will continue to go up and up, undoubtedly doubling or tripling.

Power rates are going up everywhere. They have to because we must reduce our pollution and we must reduce our dependency on foreign fuel.

The question is value for our money, solid plans that achieve important goals, lower costs, increased efficiency, an end to featherbedding and sweetheart contracts, complete transparency, tough enforcement of breaches of contract by consultants and contractors.

Cleaning up the DWP scandal.has become the battle cry for a better city. We must demand accountability, break the political power of the IBEW, require managerial competence, solid planning and transparency -- all these changes are necessary before we move forward and consider how we raise rates.

Rate structures are as much about fairness to all and pressure to conserve as they are the need to modernize our power system.

If you're not prepared to fight over what's going on at the DWP, you might as well give up and let them do whatever they want or get out of town as so many have done.

The DWP is the city's cash cow, the engine that drives its corruption.

The mayor and council are preparing to take huge chunks of DWP revenue to buy jobs and subsidize economic development. It is a utility, not an economic development agency. Ample power does provide for economic development by its nature, not by giveaways of public money to insiders.

This is a fight that residents and the business community cannot afford to lose. It's one thing to pay more to get something that's good for us all. It's another thing to pay more and get nothing at all.

Sign of the Times: City Website Down -- The Conspiracy Theory

2010-03-08T18:28:26Z

EDITOR'S NOTE: Shortly before 2 p.m., the city website came back up with a rotating picture graphic of city services on top.

Confidence in the city's leadership and its motives has reached such a low point that the latest breakdown of the city's website where you can see what the City Council and mayor are up to has triggered a wave of paranoia across the activist community.

I've heard some several people who normally see bungling incompetence and greed in City Hall's action who suspect that the website breakdown as part of a disinformation conspiracy at a time when critical decisions our being made this week on the city budget crisis before the Council takes an unearned vacation next week.

And it comes at a time when next week the DWP Commission plans to rubber stamp massive rate hikes by April 1 for an undefined green energy plan and to pay worker salaraies inflated by the latest round of pay hikes.

Said one reader: "Don't you think its odd the city web site is down? I don't think they want people reviewing the motions this week. Too many hot buttons issues."

At OurLA.org, a reader who believes the city deliberately wants to keep people in the dark tracked the city website's changing its story over the last 12 hours:

"This page is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance on [very old date]"

Much later, they changed the message:

"This page is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance on Sunday, March 7, 2010"

Today, they changed the message to read:

"This page is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance on Monday, March 8, 2010"

Today, they changed the message to read:

"This page is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance on Monday, March 8, 2010"

I don't personally believe much in formal conspiracies, just conspiracies of consciousness achieved by everyone involved understanding marching orders that don't actually need to be spelled out since that might create evidence of criminality.

In this case, I prefer to think they are just bunglers and not smart enough to plot this. But then as the saying goes, you can't spell W-R-O-N-G without R-O-N.

Face Facts: The Economy Isn't Coming Back to 'Normal', A 'New Normal' Is Evolving and We Must Change Before It's Too Late

2010-03-07T18:39:36Z

Put aside for the moment, if you can, City Hall's well-documented mismanagement, its failure to respond to its budget crisis until it was completely out of control and its sweetheart deals with unions, contractors, consultants and developers.

A good case can be made that our elected representatives are guilty of both misfeasance and malfeasance in office and should be recalled or rejected by voters for what they have done.

Over the last two years, I believe I have made a plausible case in those regards. But the more important question is how we are going to get out of this mess with the quality of our lives without suffering permanent damage, without destroying our own economic futures.

I suggested the only way out is for all city unions to take a step back financially and the public to take a step forward financially, something that can only be engineered by sharing power with business, labor and the community since our elected officials have lost all credibility.

But that clearly is not City Hall's way judging from the plan that has been put forward to destroy the Neighborhood Council movement, slash services, eliminate nearly 7,000 jobs and give tax breaks and incentives to businesses that can leave town or set up in town while burdening those stuck here along with the four million residents with higher rates, fees, taxes and penalties.

It's crazy when you think about it, insane since it shows they don't know the difference between right and wrong, insane since they have lost touch with reality.

All of the measures being undertaken by City Hall depend on the economy returning to "normal" within a few years, "normal" being as it was in the boom years of 2006-07.

When, then, is the economy going to return to "normal"?

Never!

Apart from all else that City Hall has done, and is doing, wrong, that is the fatal flaw.

My friend Mark Barnhill made that point as a panelist at a conference on the private equity landscape in Beverly Hills last week.

He made the point that this is a transformative moment in history, that the "old normal" is not coming back, a "new normal" is evolving in uncertain ways.

Globalization, technology, overpopulation, environmental change are all factors but perhaps the most important for America is the loss of manufacturing capacity. We no longer own the means of production. We no longer create wealth, we consume it as evidenced by our long-term staggering trade deficits and borrowing.

Los Angeles faces serious challenges of its own: Its boom-and-bust and growth-at-any-price economic patterns, its loss of financial institutions and manufacturing, its high poverty and jobless rates, its dramatic loss of TV and film production.

Even in comparison to other cities in the county, LA is at a serious disadvantage because of its high taxation policies and high rents for housing and commercial space.

]]> city report last week that was used to justify an 80 percent tax reduction for Internet service companies demonstrated just how disadvantaged.
Only Santa Monica is even in the ball park with LA when operating costs and rents were tied together.

"On the basis of operating costs alone, every city investigated for this report offers substantial potential savings over the City of Los Angeles," the report said.

According to the city's report, here are the operating fees for these types of business -- small, medium and large -- in nearby cities and in Los Angeles

City Small Medium Large

Burbank $294 $913 $2,563

Downey $62 $62 $62

Glendale $0 $0 $0

Long Beach $737 $1,986 $5,316

Pasadena $855 $2,993 $8,695

Pomona $5,095 $80,095 $200,Q95

Santa Clarita $0 $0 $0

Santa Monica $15,000 $240,000 $600,000

Torrance $1,793 $6,368 $18,568

West Covina $470 $1,689 $4,939

Los Angeles $125,000 $400,000 $1,000,000

So where do think businesses are setting up shop, LA or Santa Monica? Or any of the other cities for that matter, all of which have healthier economies and fewer financial troubles in running their city governments.

Will LA be any more attractive in the next few years as library and parks close and there's little left functioning except maybe the police and fire departments and taxes, rates and fees for captive businesses and residents go even higher?

This isn't child's play, yet our city leaders are acting like children intent on shielding themselves from accountability and protecting their political careers.

We cannot let this happen but it will unless the civic, business and labor leaders recognize there is a "new normal" and step forward with the community leadership and put an end to this nonsense before it is too late.

The Henchman, Apologist and Desperate Mayor

2010-03-07T02:21:02Z

Every failing regime needs an apologist and a henchman and Antonio Villaraigosa has found his in Tim Rutten of the Times and his Chief of Staff Jeff Carr.

Rev. Carr may have learned too much from his days hanging around the city's vast hoodlum class as the mayor's gang czar.

To many in City Hall, he is a thug, the mayor's enforcer, the man who conveys the orders to keep your mouth shut and do what you're told or you're out. To commissioners and top bureaucrats, he is the obedient servant of a mayor who has lost touch with his roots, his values, his city.

Carr's excellent service in eliminating the worst violence of the gangs and loyalty to the mayor earned his promotion late last year, a position envied by others in the world of Antonio who thought themselves more deserving.

That his success was in no small part due to participating in the "Baghdad Solution" to LA's street violence, achieved by having former gangsters on the city payroll give free passes to hoodlums to do what they wanted as long as they reduced their number of Class 1 crimes that show up on LAPD statistic sheets.

Inside City Hall, what is going on is nothing like the live-and-live deal the hoodlums are getting. Carr listens sympathetically to the entreaties of others but he does not hear, Orders are orders.

Rutten is a different case.

He obeys without being ordered unless you believe his bosses had to tell him explicitly that the company line is the city is in good hands and all will be well be as soon as the economy returns to normal.

Clearly not paying attention to what is going on himself, he turns to Carr of all people for understanding how the city can get of the difficult financial situation created by poor leadership and awful management.

What he learns is this: "The problem, Carr says, is that the mayor's call for shared sacrifice so far has been met with silence or rejection. But labor's refusal to engage could have profound consequences on its members and the city."

And labor's refusal to accept pay cuts of 10 or 15 percent is "a tragedy that organized labor one day may come to regret.:

None of that is remotely true. Unions representing 22,000 city workers have twice in last nine months negotiated deals with the mayor for early retirements and no raises, 10,000 cops have given up raises, thousands of other workers have seen their pay cut by up to 10 percent through furloughs.

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Any question of give-backs from DWP workers are off the table but the mayor wants rate hikes of nearly 25 percent this year to help pay their salary increases.

In his slavish belief in the perfection of City Hall's failures, Rutten concludes: "Los Angeles and organized labor have been good for one another. Now they need to see each other through the bad times, so that when prosperity returns, the goodwill engendered by shared sacrifice will ensure that all share in the benefits."

Just three days earlier, Rutten was taken to task for his attack on City Attorney Carmen Trutanich for his crackdown on millionaire scofflaw Kayvan Setareh who put up a supergraphic on a Hollywood building to reap profits promoting a movie in defiance of the billboard ordinance and fire safety laws.

"Elected office can be made a bully pulpit, we all suffer when it's transformed into a pulpit for bullies," showing his contempt for those who believe in the rule of law.

A week earlier, he gave the mayor a forum without a critical question to sell the genius of his deceit in selling the public on a 30-year sales tax hike to build a subway to the sea and now trying to borrow against that revenue stream to build it in just 10 years.

The henchman and the apologist -- only regimes that are failing try to enforce their rule this way.

The Villaraigosa Administration is a failure by any measure and no amount of coercion or puffery can save it from its rightful place in history.

The unions have been at the table, made concessions and cut deal after deal that were approved by mayor and Council.

They have even talked about dramatic pay cuts only to be told that the situation is so bad they may still face massive layoffs -- DWP workers and certain other classes exempt from both.

The mayor can't pull off a deal because he has no credibility with the unions or the public. He has lost everyone's confidence and could not win an election if it were held today.

He is trapped in a box and everything he tries will blow up into controversy and conflict.

He is trying to destroy the community empowerment movement that has beat him in three straight elections and seeks nothing more than full transparency, complete honesty, an end to back room deals and a share of power.

Such basic democratic goals are as abhorrent to him as to his henchman and his apologist. The only question is how much harm we will let him and his allies do before they fall and a new deal is put into place.

Bruno, LA's Watchdog: Spying on Antonio's Party

2010-03-06T01:45:34Z

Bruno couldn't make it to the Getty House for the mayor's premature Oscar party, too busy chomping down on the dribbles of kibbles dispensed from the new damn MannersMinder machine. At least that's my story, not getting an invite might also have had something to do with it.

But other media mongrels did so. The Hollywood Reporter came up with some pictures of the mostly from the second tier glamor and glitterati set.

Of all the dog trainers in the world, it was the Wall Street Journal that provided an account of the rest of us missed.

Speakeasy writer Stephen Kurutz, who might have sneaked in saying he was Paul Koretz, described the soiree, saying that "for much of the evening we felt like we were in a scene from "The Player.'"

Noting the mayor being photographed on the red carpet and the city workers seeing red with protest signs out front of Getty House, Kurutz mingled with industry exec types in suits and eavesdropped on two guys he made as agents or managers. You know the type. They were exchanging boasts about who they represent.

Then he heard these snippets from other partygoers:

"Oh, my God. Ben Silverman is here. We truly have arrived."

"Best agent in the business, right here."

"Was Morgan Freeman trying to take your tacos?"

The last comment was his favorite and made his think it was some kind of Hollywood "sexual innuendo," whatever that means.

Freeman only stayed long enough for a cameo and Kathryn Bigelow stood the mayor up so this WSJ guy hung around "The Blind Side" star Quinton Aaro, who is so big even Bruno wouldn't mess with him.

He was about as well known as Bruno until this movie but the ladies seem to be enamored so he was asked what it was like to be fawned over and a big-time celebrity.

"I'm loving it," he said.

The Speakeasy commented "It wasn't exactly Tolstoy but it seemed to sum everything up quite well."

Bruno feels a whole lot better about the mayor's snub hearing that.

Want an 80% Tax Cut? Threaten to Leave LA!

2010-03-05T22:07:48Z

Everybody bitches about taxes but nobody does anything about it -- except for the city's Internet service companies, somewhere between 800 and 1,400 businesses depending on which document and which official you listen to..

For the last few years, they have been raising hell over being reclassified from a very low business tax rate to a high one in a haphazard fashion the left some paying little and others, like the 200-employee Shopzilla, ordered to pay high taxes.

On Friday, while most basic services like parks and libraries are being gutted, thousands of workers fired, and City Hall is looking to hit the public with a rash of higher fees, taxes, rates and penalties, Internet companies got a $3.4 million tax break this year that adds to the estimated $212 deficit that now exists.

The cost will be higher next year, which is what happens when you reduce people's taxes by 80 percent.

All they had to do was threaten to move to Glendale or other nearby cities, rally the business community behind them, persevere for 11 months after the City Council took notice and wait for their windfall.

Paul Koretz, Jose Huizar and Tony Cardenas yelped about the retroactivite provision, the vote was unanimous because they were warned of consequences if they delayed approval a week when the Council will be rushing off to a hard-earned vacation. It must be exhausting nodding approval no matter what you think is right.

It isn't just break on future taxes, it's retroactive so they are going to get rebates for the tax payments that were due March 1 to cover their gross receipts for all of 2009.

Don't you wish you could get the same deal?

Too bad you're not a corporation. If you were, the Council promised to come back with a whole slew of tax breaks for all kinds of companies even as they try to erase budget deficits of $2 billion over the next two years.

It works this way: The mayor and Council have figured out that LA is the most business unfriendly city in Southern California with the highest tax structure, the least efficient policies and practices, the most extensive portfolio of sweetheart contracts with unions and contractors and the most generous subsidies for developers, well-connected ones at least.

It's why we call LA city government a failed experiment in municipal socialism. It's an oxymoronic phrase appropriate to moronic policies.

So with bankruptcy looming, City Hall is turning away from socialism to Milton Friedman's capitalism, cutting off free trash collection and other subsidies to the poor and cutting taxes to business, giving extra tax credits for job creation and ready to loot the DWP, Harbor and Airport to buy even more new jobs..

The reason is that with 13.4 percent unemployment, and even Eric Garcetti admitting the real rate is twice that, there is a sudden realization that good-paying jobs drive the economy and lower taxes can actually generate more revenue to the city over time.

Don't get too excited. It's not like they are ready to call a ceasefire in their decades-long war against the middle class.

When you're already broke, somebody has got to pay for all these job-buying efforts. And that's the four million residents of the city, rich and poor and in between, but mostly those in between.

If you got a decent job or a two-income family or if you are jobless or retired or struggling to make ends meet, it doesn't matter. Nobody cares about you. You don't own a business so you get the bill.

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Fairy Tales Can Come True...You Can Laugh When Your Dreams Fall Apart at the Seams...

2010-03-05T15:57:11Z

Once upon a time in a land not far away, a young man they called Tony dreamed of changing the world for the better.

He ventured out into a world he knew nothing about and found that his charm opened doors to a life far beyond what he had ever known before. The rich and powerful, the smart and sophisticated adored him and taught him about the good life of fine wines and food, and fancy clothes and put money in his pockets so he could afford them himself.

He saw how little difference there was between him and them except for the advantages they had growing up and soon was on his way to power himself so he could help uplift the poor and the unprivileged so they too could enjoy the life he had come to love.

Soon, throngs of people cheered him wherever he went, pinning their hopes on him, and he traveled the world, honored by kings and billionaires, applauding his vision.

"Dream with me," he told them all.

"Dream with me of a Los Angeles where our kids can walk to school in safety and where they receive an education that gives them a genuine opportunity to pursue their own dreams....

"Dream with me of a Los Angeles where it doesn't matter whether you're African American, Latino, Caucasian, or Asian. Whether you're Jewish or Muslim, Protestant or Catholic. Whether you're from Watts or Westwood. Where every Angeleno is an equal stakeholder in our city's future."

Everyone dreamed that dream with him. Everyone loved him even the people who hated him.

Dreams can come true but more often than not they fall apart at the seams and that's what happened to the man they once called Tony.

He hardly noticed how it happened because he was so busy going to extremes with impossible schemes that only brought him more praise and fame. He had gone from being a penniless nobody to living like a king himself.

He still could talk the talk but he had forgotten where he came from and soon friends and lovers accused him of betrayal as he left a long string of broken promises behind him.

Soon, the cheers turned to jeers and ordinary folks who once loved him sneered at the mere mention of his name. He couldn't even throw a party for the stars of the Hollywood galaxy he traveled in without humble workers shouting in protest outside his mansion.

It all seemed a terrible dream so he went on his merry way ignoring their cries of discontent as if nothing was wrong.

But fairy tales can come true and that's the funny thing about this story about the man who inspired his city to dream with him.

Those who wanted kids to walk the streets safely and those who wanted the kids to get good educations and those who wanted everyone to have genuine opportunity started to come together.

It didn't matter whether they were African American, Latino, Caucasian, or Asian, whether they were Jewish or Muslim, Protestant or Catholic, whether they were from Watts or Westwood, they all saw themselves as equal stakeholders in their city's future.

Times were tough but they shared a dream and knew that someday, together, it would come true and they all would live happily ever after.

And the young man who came from a land not far away? That's another story but it's not a fairy tale because fairy tales have happy endings.

Take Heed Antonio, Little Things Mean a Lot

2010-03-05T04:44:43Z

When I covered the Alabama legislature way back when in the late '60s, they would filibuster for weeks on end and sessions would go on all night long.

The booze flowed freely and so did the broads and the bags of cash and sometimes during the wee small hours of the morning, the rap sessions that developed in the back rooms provided an enlightening education to a young reporter.

One of my favorite stories that the good old boys told involved a particularly corrupt time not that long before when the civil rights struggle already was under way and the Montgomery bus boycott had brought Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King to national attention.

The story was about how nearly half the legislature got thrown out over a small mistake that happened in one of those all-night sessions when everyone was pie-eyed and thought they could get away with anything.

It was known as the 24-hook bill that killed them. Because they were careless and drunk on their power, they thought nothing they did had consequences and carelessly passed a law that banned fishing hooks with 24-hooks on them, the kind of tool used in the back country commonly in back country to bring home dinner without actually having to fish for it. Throw it into the pond and spear some fish.

I bring this up because the mayor and City Council are showing the same kind of carelessness and arrogance. They are drunk on power, if not alcohol, and they certainly don't work all night. But they do think they are invincible.

Crooked or incompetent politicians can get away with a lot but when they trip up. It's almost always a small thing, not their neglect of duty, their sellout to special interests, their corruption that gets them.

The mayor's pre-Oscar party Thursday night at the Getty House mansion he said he would never live in is one of those small mistakes that is costing him a lot more than all his other broken promises and personal betrayals, his global travel and self-promotion, his luxurious lifestyle, his failure to attend to his duties, his giveaways to big shots and unions, his failure to manage the city's financial affairs, his destructive solutions.

A day after he sent pink slips to 562 city workers, 50 times more than have been laid off in generations, he's dancing with the stars, the Oscar nominees, the celebrities whose own self-indulgence mocks the mundane struggles of the hundreds of thousands of jobless, the millions hanging to their small pieces of the good life in this paradise lost.

I can't tell you how many of the hundreds of email a day that I get contain bitter words of resentment about this wretched excess.

They see Antonio Villaraigosa as the Bernie Madoff of LA, a swindler who has stolen their city, their hopes, their dreams, their futures.

Maybe it's just the people who connect to me but I don't think so. I think it's Antonio's 24-hook bill, his let-them-eat-cake symbol of his true indifference to the hurt ordinary people are suffering all over this town.

We're scared to death.

All we hear is it's going to bad for a long, long time. The parks and libraries and schools, the tree-trimming and street-paving, the basic services we count on as part of our daily lives, our sense of place -- they're all going to be worse, a lot worse, or gone forever
.
All we hear is those that's got are getting more. And those don't are getting nothing.

Nobody hears his spin that global corporations are paying the bills for his party because we know in our hearts we're getting the bills for all their parties.

Life is funny that way, little things do mean a lot.

Campaign Finance Forum 8 a.m. Thursday, Ch. 35 from City Council Chamber

2010-03-04T05:01:25Z

Special Forum on "Campaign Finance Reform: Where to Now?" Hosted by L.A. Councilmember José Huizar

Experts predicted the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission will change the way campaigns are financed and now we have the proof. Just last month, the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission announced a ban has been lifted on the use of corporation and labor treasury funds for express advocacy in our elections.

Learn more about this new development and other issues like full public financing of elections at a special forum on campaign finance reform this Thursday, March 4th here at City Hall. A handful of experts and thought leaders have been secured and there will be audience Q&A at the end of the program.

"Campaign Finance Reform: Where to Now?"
Thursday, March 4, 2010
8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Los Angeles City Hall in Council Chambers (200 N. Spring Street, 3rd Floor)
Moderator - Honorable José Huizar
Panelists: Kathy Feng, Common Cause; Ron Kaye, RonKayeLA; Bob Stern, Center for Governmental Studies; Xandra Kayden, League of Women Voters; LeeAnn Pelham, L.A. City Ethics Commission; James Sutton, Campaign Lawyers; and Trent Lange, California Clean Money Campaign