Recently in Naked City Category

I might be naive, but I thought when Ron left the Daily News (we refer to his departure as a "retirement" around the house), he'd be spending a lot more time with me throwing balls, walking around the block scaring neighbors, harassing the postman. You know, dog stuff.

But I was wrong.

The guy first discovered blogging, which was OK because he could do it in the kitchen in his underwear and throw me bones while he was throwing bombs at the power elite who run the city.

Then he started running around town.  First, it was some rally in front of City Hall, a somewhat bizarre event where everyone was supposed to bring a bag of garbage. The Dog Trainer actually covered it!  It must have gone to his head, because now he's actually going inside City Hall..

And yesterday, he tells me took his new Our LA reporter Chelsea Cody around City Hall to show her the reports and dropped by a news conference where the mayor refused to answer questions about his love life. At the end, he invited the two of them into his office!

This worries me a lot. Only days ago Ron compared the guy to Jimmy Walker, the crooked playboy mayor of New York.  And you might remember a few weeks ago Antonio snuck up behind the guy who feeds me and gave him what some called a hug.  I saw the video and it sure looked like a chokehold to me. Now he's inviting him into the inner sanctum?  Dangerous, if you ask me, without me there for protection.

I understand at one point our mayor pointed to his window to his childhood neighborhood of City Terrace and said, "I always remember noticing City Hall. It dominated the skyline," adding that never thought he'd ever go to City Hall - let alone sit in the mayor's office.

That triggered a memory. In a May 2005 Dog Trainer profile by celebrity-politics maven Tina Daunt, Antonio had his driver take them to City Terrace.

"The road rises, dips and then curves again, cutting unnervingly close to the precipice of a dangerous urban hillside. It's an easy place to get lost, a place where the streets seem to circle to nowhere.

Villaraigosa knows exactly where he's going. A few more turns and the top of the hill finally is in sight. The candidate tells his driver to stop for a minute. On a clear day, the power center of the country's second-largest metropolis glimmers in the distance. As a boy, he would often ride his bicycle to this spot on the western slope of City Terrace. The view offered a measure of beauty -- and possibility -- from the vantage point of a tough neighborhood.

"I always remember noticing City Hall," he said. "It dominated the skyline."

Leaping Labradors! The same line.  Does he have a script?  How many times has he pointed out that window and uttered that same dramatic line?

In that same profile, Antonio told Daunt that his favorite childhood book was "Billy Budd," Melville's incredibly ambiguous classic about a hopeless naïve young sailor who ends up getting hung.

I remember howling my head off when I first  read it.  Remember, Antonio once had "Born to Raise Hell" tattooed on his arm and runs an evil political machine if you believe what the hopelessly naïve Ron writes.  Maybe Billy Budd and memories of City Terrace are clues to hizzoner's personality.

But what do I know. I'm just a blue-collar dog from the Valley.  You figure it out.

Woof!

The Operators Behind MTA's Rail Car Deal

Beth Barrett in the LA Weekly goes behind the scenes of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's back room maneuvering to keep a $300 million deal for new rail cars in the hands of the Italian firm AnsaldoBreda that failed to fulfill the terms of its earlier contract.

The firm missed deadline after deadline and when it delivered its cars they were 6,000 pounds too heavy with seats too narrow and might not be operable on all the region's light rail lines.

MTA management wanted to open up bidding on a new batch of cars to all comers but the Italians cut deals with billionaire Stephen Bing, the county Federation of Labor and LA's mayor with promises of opening a factory downtown

"The case is a vivid example of how politicians, firms and unions are grabbing for tens of billions of dollars expected to flow from the new Measure R sales-tax increase," Barrett writes. "The Italians have hired Chris Lehane, a political spinmeister and former aide to President Bill Clinton, as the firm's media handler."

Desperate Jack Weiss Sells Out to Developers

Mayor Sam's Michael Higby takes apart Jack Weiss' ordinance approved Wednesday by the City Council that virtually turns over the city to developers.

The measure, going far beyond a new state law, extends the life of developers' entitlements on property by a year. The intent was to recognize the impact on development of the economic crisis and limit the extension to projects actually in the works.

But Weiss, who will do anything for the moneyed people so he can win the City Attorney's race, went far beyond the state law in winning a blanket extension.

Higby writes: "Shouldn't there be an analysis of how many and which projects will be impacted by this ordinance? One would think that certain projects should not be given a longer life for related entitlements, and that the projects that do get an extra year for related entitlements should have to pay a hefty fee for it. Don't we have a budget crisis? Why are we giving away significant value for NO consideration? The more egregious the entitlements (or if they've already expired or they're close to expiration), the higher the fee should be.

Writing Is on the Wall for City Hall Calligraphers

Daniel Heimpel in the LA Weekly pens a story about City Hall calligraphers who produce beautiful proclamations -- nearly 28,000 of them last fiscal every year -- honoring people far and wide at the whim of the mayor and City Council.

He suggests that with the mayor admitting to a $530 million budget deficit, the scrolls are a $1 million indulgence City Hall cannot afford any longer.

"For years, these same council members failed to fund even one extra billboard inspector to help the three inspectors long overwhelmed by a proliferation of thousands of controversial and illegal billboards in L.A. And $1 million per year would have greatly helped pay for the testing of rape-incident DNA evidence that has sat, untested, on LAPD shelves for years."

For the record, here's the tally so far this year: Mayor 4,215, Eric Garcetti 1,926Tom LaBonge1,519, Jose Huizar 1,386, Dennis Zine 1,298, Jan Perry 1,134, Ed Reyes 1,073 and Bernard Parks 1,067.

FRIEND OF ANTONIO'S GOES BROKE, WHO GETS THE BILL?

Antonio benefactor and profiteer Richard Meruelo is back in the news -- it turns out even the $50 million payoff from the LAUSD board wasn't enough to keep the downtown property owner out of bankruptcy.

His company Meruelo Maddox Properties expects to follow its subsidiaries into Bankruptcy Court as early as today, the Times reports.

You might remember it was Meruelo who was Antonio's biggest contributor back in 2005, donating $193,000 to his cause -- and that he got a healthy return from Antonio's school board last summer when it agreed to pay him $50 million for the Taylor Yard property. The Downtown News broke the story two months after the board's secret vote..

Back then, I posted about it, noting Meruelo bought the property out from under LAUSD's nose at the of the property boom and sold it when the market had crashed and still made a $20 million profit.

Since Meruelo is the largest downtown property owner and the CRA has been so generous in funding his developments, it will be interesting to see just how much money the taxpayers have lost

CONFLICT OF INTEREST OR JUST OUR CIVIC CULTURE?

That's the question Jerry Sullivan asks in a headline in LA Garment & Citizen in the latest story about questionable dealings involved in the purchase of a property in the 400 block of Spring Street downtown for a park.

The article focuses on role of Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer Sr., Director of Asset Management for the city's Department of General Services and whether the city overpaid when it bought 0.8 acre for $5.6 million.

He is also secretary of the state Democratic Party and serves on its finance committee which connects him to such major local and state politcal contributors as developer Tom Gilmore, the Central City Association and Bill Witte of Related Cos., which is having so much trouble getting the Grand Avenue project going.

"Jones-Sawyer's dual roles are the latest circumstances to raise questions about the deal, following concerns expressed by some local real estate professionals and others over the price of the land on Spring Street as well as the timing and approval process for the proposed acquisition," Garment & Citizen says.

GOOD JOBS, GREEN JOBS -- LET THEM EAT PROMISES

"It seems like we're getting a stench of Chicago politics to have a continuation with an unreliable vendor." -- County Supervisor Mike Antonovich on the two-month extension MTA granted Italian rail car mark  AnsakdoBreda.

If only that were true, maybe we'd actually have a crooked political machine that works like Chicago instead of the one we have that doesn't work.

In getting his way, Antonio had to shake up the MTA board and use his clout to keep alive a $300 million deal to build 100 rail cars that based on AnsaldoBreda's past performance will be too heavy with seats too narrow and incompatible with the rest of the light rail system's cars -- if they ever get built at all.

But even the mayor was cautious as he brushed aside the recommendations of the MTA management, according to the Times.

He admitted there are "real questions" about the company which has promised numerous cities it will build local factories if the get lucratives contracts and presumably lucrative subsidies.

But having overseen creation of a budget deficit rapidly approaching $1 billion and one of the nation's highest urban unemployment rates at 12 percent, the mayor is desperate to show he can attract businesses that pay more than the "living wage."

The event was called "light of the Angels," and none other than Britney (She's No Angel) Spears was there at L..A. Live's Nokia Plaza to hold the candy cane switch with Councilwoman Jan Perry and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to turn on the Christmas tree lights.

What is there to say? Could there a truer image for the state of the city?

LAUSD Whitewash: Girls molested,  principal charged, rules broken, mistakes made --no one's to blame or held accountable

One more reason to give LAUSD $7 billion more: No one is ever held accountable.

The sordid story of what happened at Markham Middle School in Watts -- a school designated for a model program on keeping kids safe -- has an ugly new chapter thanks to Howard Blume in the Times who had to use the California Public Records Act to pry loose a
"confidential" $200,000 report on how Assistant Principal Steve
Rooney got a second chance to molest girls.

Rooney was pulled out of Foshay Middle School and given administrative duties after LAPD warned the district he was suspected of having an affair with a student and threatening her stepfather with a gun.

In the end the girl wouldn't testify and administrators put Rooney into Markham without following the rules and conducting an internal investigation or letting each other know the whole story about Rooney.

The result is he is charged with molesting four girls now and awaiting trial.

In LAUSD, the result is nothing has changed. The same haphazard notification system is in place. The local district superintendent and another administrator were allowed to plead ignorance of the rules they didn't follow and the district is on the cuff for millions in damages.

"A teacher is exhibiting bizarre behavior, brandishing a firearm, and you're also told he's having sex with a minor," said Gordon Phillips, the attorney for the girls.

"What else do you need to hear?"

T'is the season for political dirty tricks even in Beverly Hills

It's the end of another election season -- this one featuring a seemingly endless multi-billion-dollar presidential campaign -- and that means political operatives are pulling out all stops to win at any cost.

"In the hours before Election Day, as inevitable as winter, comes an onslaught of dirty tricks - confusing e-mails, disturbing phone calls and insinuating fliers left on doorsteps during the night," the Associated Press reported.

It is happening all over the country even in Beverly Hills of all places where voters decide whether to back developer Beny Alagem's massive project at the Beverly Hilton or reject it as "way too big" as opponents argue.

One of the opponents, Councilwoman Nancy Krasne, has found herself the victim of a dirty trick in the campaign's waning days.

On Friday, the Beverly Hills Courier -- recipient of lots of advertising revenue from Alagem and an ardent supporter of what he wants -- ran his full page ad claiming Krasne had switched sides and now supported the project, according to Martha Groves' story in the Times.

In fact, Krasne -- one of the two council members who opposed overturning the Planning Commission's unanimous rejection of the project -- had not changed sides but she did get a dose of Alagem's hardball style.

When she called the president of Alagem's company recently, she was put through to the big boss himself who she said became "extremely agitated and shouted numerous insults" at her, according to an incident report she filed Oct. 18 with the Beverly Hills Police Department.

Krasne quoted Alagem as saying: "I'm going to bury you, Mayor [Barry] Brucker and planning commissioner [Noah] Furie." Brucker voted against the project in May.

Whether naive or just intimidated by Alagem's threat, Krasne tried to make peace by giving Kahan a handwritten conciliatory note last week and a 1990 bottle of Dom Perignon champagne.

He turned down the champagne as inappropriate but used the note "Ted, All my friends seem to be voting yes . . . Good luck! Nancy" --.in an ad in the Courier.

It was headlined: "A Message From Councilwoman Nancy Krasne. Join Nancy Krasne's Friends and Vote YES on Measure H"
 

Short takes on another busy day:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa reports raising $600,000 more for his re-election campaign but only $103,000 for his troubled Measure R Transportation Tax. His hit-man campaign strategist Ace Smith proves truth has no meaning at all to him with his boast about why the jet-setting mayor who fears a well-funded challenger entering the race has been able to raise $2.3 million for his re-election: "Angelenos are showing overwhelming support for the mayor's leadership in taking on the city's biggest challenges."

In the last fallout of the Hahn Administration scandals, former city commissioner Leland Wong got five years in prison for bribery, embezzlement and a host of other offenses. Wong was a fixture on the city's juice commissions -- Water and Power, Airports, and Harbor -- for three mayors.

Short takes on a busy day:

Struggling to raise money to buy votes for its tax-and-spend ballot measures, City Hall has suddenly awakened to the fact these are tough economic times for most people and the wrong time to be picking their pockets. What a year of foreclosures, job losses, high prices, long lines at food pantries couldn't do, sharp declines in their own rich stock portfolios seems to have achieved. David Zahniser in a terrific piece in the Times quotes Councilwoman Janice Hahn on her discovery people are scared: "They're nervous about whether or not they're even going to be able to hang on to their homes, and property taxes add to that anxiety."

One down, 10,999 to go: The city's gang injunction policy has scored its first victory with an unnamed ex-gang member winning his appeal to be removed from the list of those under court-ordered restrictions. At this rate of winning conversions from the gang life, it could take a really long time to solve the problem.

More in the Times on Ted Stein, the former ubiquitous city commissioner, and his demand for reimbursement of $143,000 in legal fees for successfully fending off prosecution in connection with investigations of wrongdoing during the Hahn Administration.

Short takes:

* You got to love the idea being floated that former Valley state Assemblyman Lloyd Levine will take over as head of the Department of Animal Services when they fire Ed Boks. By City Hall logic, Levine is perfect for the job: His dad Larry is a liberal Democratic political consultant and Lloyd supports euthanasia for human beings but not dogs and cats.

* Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is on the road again trying to top the $3 million mark to chase off opposition to his re-election. Pardoned ex-convict Henry Cisneros has organized a fund-raiser in San Antonio where you can be sure there's a lot of people who really about care the quality of life in L.A.

* Passage of Prop. 11 on the Nov. 4 ballot ought to be a no-brainer because all it does is take redistricting out of the hands of the politicians of both parties and put it in the hands of an independent panel -- a mild but needed reform after Republicans and Democrats conspired in 2001 to create nothing but safe districts that effectively froze out moderates from winning primary elections. George Skelton in the Times calls the Democratic-driven anti-Prop. 11 campaign "Orwellian" since it's calling the measure "a power grab by politicians" among other deceitful things.

Deja vu all over again, City Hall gets in trouble raiding airport funds

Is Ted Stein back at LAX mishandling airport funds to cover up holes in the city budget or does it just seem that way because the feds are investigating where the money went?

According to the Times, Federal authorities are questioning whether airport officials have been putting nearly $7 million a year into L.A. Inc., the city's convention and visitors bureau, for the last six years -- a total of about $40 million.

Airport GM Gina Marie Lindsey is scrambling to prove the money somehow meets federal rules that airport revenue go to support aviation, not tourism, and she concedes that the law involved is "very general, with lots of gray areas subject to interpretation."

You don't need a weather man to tell which way the wind is blowing when you got a mayor who can predict rough economic times ahead

No new taxes, no new fees, no new ...well maybe water rates will go up and who knows what else.

That's Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa talking to 500 business leaders at the annual United Chambers of the Valley luncheon Tuesday.

"We have raised the trash fee as much as
 we can and this is not the time to seek any
other increases," Villaraigosa said.

So how's he going to cover the $400 million
budgethole he created? Well, fake layoffs,
creative accounting and borrowing worked last year so maybe he'll just cut public services this time. Now that is creative.

REMINDER: Today's the day to let DWP commissioners know you support creating a Ratepayer Advocate:
ACTION ALERT 1: Contrary to the way the Department of Water and Power treated the public in the past. the utility's Board of Commission on Tuesday will consider creating a Ratepayer's Advocate -- a independent expert paid by the DWP who's mission is to keep the public informed about what's going on and to protect the public's interest.on community activists of every type in every part of the city to speak up  We urge you to join us at the board meeting at the DWP at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 7) at 111 N. Hill St., 15th floor. There's free parking at the DWP.

The markets are crashing, welfare rolls are surging, county prepares to make cuts, the end of the world is coming...

Well, maybe not. World stock markets are mostly up this morning, the actual increase in welfare rolls is relatively small and the county is only looking at modest cuts out of its $22 billion budget.

Still, a lot of people are struggling which makes you wonder why our local and state governments think it's such a good time to seek nine tax and bond issues on the Nov. 4 ballot, why it's such a good time to have raised rates and fees on everything.

Maybe it's because preserving government is their goal, not helping people get through a rough economic time. The Daily News runs a list of what meager help is available to those people.

Prop 5: "Drug dealers Bill of Rights" will help empty the prisons and put hardened criminals back in your neighborhood

Critics of Prop. 5 have focused on it being a large step toward legalization of drugs but Sen. Dianne Feinstein has honed in on its claim that it would only expand the number of "non-violent" drug offenders who can get rehabilitation rather than incarceration.

"Not only would Prop 5 reduce accountability, it could allow gang-members and other criminals accused of identity theft, domestic violence, child abuse, car theft, killing someone while driving under the influence and a host of other serious crimes to effectively escape prosecution," Feinstein said in a statement.

"Proposition 5 should be known as the 'drug dealers bill of rights.' Proposition 5 is a dangerous initiative that would cause far too much harm to our families, schools and communities."

The Nov. 4 ballot measure, heavily backed by billionaire George Soros, uses Section 667.5 of the Criminal Code to define the "non-violent" offenses for which treatment rather than prison is allowed so Feinstein is absolutely right about this.

At the Saving L.A. Project's Town Hall Saturday, retired parole officer Caroline Aguirre explained just how dangerous Prop. 5 is and how it will be used by criminals of every type who will claim they're really addicts and not responsible for their actions -- a dodge that will let them avoid prison.

Here's what she had to say: