Tag Archives: austin beutner

A Guide to Understanding the Baffling Changes to LA’s Planning Rules

Posted on December 18, 2010 by

Editor’s Note: Radical changes are being made to LA’s planning rules by First Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner — changes intended to simplify and expedite approval of new developments as he explained this week in an LA Business Journal article. Already, … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments

Ain’t It a Shame What Passes for Our City Government?

Posted on December 16, 2010 by

The City Council achieved Wednesday what even its harshest critics might have thought impossible: They endorsed unanimously the lying, cheating, stealing and failings of the Department of Water and Power. They talked in high-minded terms of accountability but were as … Continue reading →

Posted in DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Fighting Back: Stop City Hall’s Plan to Blight L.A. to Profit Developers

Posted on December 10, 2010 by

The chaos at the Department of Water and Power is bleeding the town dry with rates going to soar like never before and far too much of the money going into the bank accounts of its workers and union treasury … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Community Activists, Development/CRA, DWP, Hot Topics, LA Clean Sweep, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Fighting Back: Stop City Hall’s Plan to Blight L.A. to Profit Developers

Posted on December 10, 2010 by

The chaos at the Department of Water and Power is bleeding the town dry with rates going to soar like never before and far too much of the money going into the bank accounts of its workers and union treasury … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Community Activists, Development/CRA, DWP, Hot Topics, LA Clean Sweep, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Cloak of Reform: City Hall’s Last Refuge to Preserve a Corrupt and Failed System

Posted on November 15, 2010 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Community Activists, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Cloak of Reform: City Hall’s Last Refuge to Preserve a Corrupt and Failed System

Posted on November 15, 2010 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Community Activists, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Messing with Messing: Alarcon and Cardenas Play for Extra-Special Preferences on City Contracts

Posted on November 4, 2010 by

Austin Beutner’s right-hand man, Brett Messing, got an education in his debut appearance Wednesday before the City Council on the insanity that passes for our deliberative legislative process with indicted felon Richard Alarcon and feigned dummy Tony Cardenas ripping apart … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

The $500,000 Job Nobody Wants and Nobody Can Do: DWP General Manager

Posted on October 15, 2010 by

You can trace the decline and fall of the nation’s largest municipal utility, our very own Department of Water and Power, back to October 1996 when the City Council in it all too finite wisdom vetoed a 10 percent raise … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

City Council vs. DWP — and the Unspeakable Name of Austin Beutner

Posted on October 14, 2010 by

Like the name of God that must remain unspoken, Austin Beutner’s name never was uttered during the lengthy City Council debate Wednesday on why the Department of Water and Power’s Board of Commissioners unilaterally cut the utility’ss ties to the … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, DWP, Hot Topics, Los Angeles | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments

Power, Money and the Trashing of LA’s Neighbohroods — Targeting Woodland Hills

Posted on October 4, 2010 by

He likes to call himself the “Z-man” and even “Super-Z” — a traffic cop who’s become a City Councilman who is seen by many of his colleagues and constituents as a double-talking and two-faced servant of unions, developers and other … Continue reading →

Posted in City Hall, Community Activists, Development/CRA, Hot Topics, Los Angeles, The Valley | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments