JUST THE FACTS-Following my last CityWatch article on the City Controller’s nearly two year grandstanding audit of the Department of Water and Power’s Joint Safety and Training Institute Funds, administered jointly by DWP Management and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union (IBEW), the response by certain liberal media outlets to blindly support and defend the Controller’s resources invested in this audit and ignore all the facts were truly amazing.
The response by the Bankrupt LA Times, Randy Economy of KRLA Radio, John and Ken of KFI Radio, Doug McIntyre of KABC Radio and Peter Tilden of KAPC Radio was a tribute to CityWatch and the number of people that read the publication produced by Ken Draper and his dedicated CityWatch crew.
First there was the warped opinion piece written by Ms. Kerry Cavanaugh of the LA Times. Ms. Cavanaugh was formerly a reporter with the Daily News and abandoned the sinking Daily News and jumped ship for employment with the bankrupt and out of touch LA Times.
Ms. Cavanaugh, a diminutive person, utilized the notorious Times poison pen and wrote a scathing piece on the DWP Union and their business manager Brian D’Arcy and yours truly. Ms. Cavanaugh blindly supported the Controller and his audit in her opinion piece. I sent her an email with my comments and she replied that she is a big fan of CityWatch and often gets ideas for her editorials and blog posts from CityWatch.
She went on to state that she would keep an eye out for my future articles. I assure you and her that there will be many more articles for her to follow and address in the LA Times.
Then there was Doug McIntyre and his morning news anchor Terri-Rae Elmer from 790 KABC am radio and their rant and raves about that evil person Brian D’Arcy.
That was followed by the “Jerry Springer” like twins John Kobylt and Ken Chiapou of 640 KFI am radio. I was in studio with the two clowns as they yelled and tried to drown me out. I kept my pace and countered their rude and insulting comments over and over. To be accurate, it was John that was the screaming voice while Ken remained relatively calm and semi-professional during the one-hour live in-studio broadcast from their Burbank studio.
Since that was not enough of the airwaves for one day, the evening concluded with a last live interview on the same subject with Peter Tilden from 790 KABC am radio. Peter was looking for the facts and conducted the interview in a most professional manner.
When I thought it was all over, I received a call from Randy Economy (real name) from 1110 KRLA am radio. Randy, who is an award winning investigative reporter, conducted a very professional interview on the Controller’s audit during his Saturday evening broadcast.
That sums up the media frenzy from my last CityWatch article on the Los Angeles City Controller and his audit that ultimately did nothing to change the way the annual $4 million dollars are distributed to the IBEW’s Safety and Training programs. For the record, the annual $4 million dollars was recently delivered to the Safety and Training fund.
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Looking for a New Career?
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is looking to hire 1,300 new Deputies. Sheriff Jim McDonnell has set a tone to increase the number of Sheriff Deputies to manage the largest Sheriff’s Department in the country.
The screening process is designed to eliminate those applicants with any sort of criminal background, drug abuse history or any other factor or condition that would prevent them from joining the ranks of the dedicated members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
For every 100 applicants less than five actually become a Deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Without the strict hiring standards and internal disciplinary process, the Sheriff’s Department can be rocked with corruption and illegal activity.
If you are in good physical condition and think you can measure up to the high standards and looking for an exciting and interesting career, give it some thought. I can say that after serving with the LAPD for 33 active years and the last 14 years as a reserve LAPD Officer, I still enjoy enforcing the law and helping people and in our community.
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BROKEN SIDEWALKS, BROKEN SYSTEM
Broken Sidewalks and Litigation and Meetings and Discussions and nothing is getting done to fix the thousands of miles of broke and cracked sidewalks.
Court litigation that began five years ago has finally forced the City of Los Angeles to appropriate $1.4 Billion dollars to repair the 10,000 miles of broken, cracked and crumbling city sidewalks. When you read what the city leadership has done since the $1.4 Billion settlement was reached, you can understand how ineffective and bureaucratic the city truly is.
On May 1,city leaders including the Mayor, City Attorney and other elected officials announced the Willits vs City of Los of Los Angels sidewalk $31 million dollar court settlement. As of this week, a month later, the City Council’s Budget and Finance and Public Works and Gang Reduction committees finally met to discuss the situation and attempted to shift the responsibility of repairing the sidewalks back to the property owners.
In 1974 the city exempted property owners from repairing sidewalks broken by tree roots so that the city could take advantage of Federal dollars to repair sidewalks throughout the city. The unfortunate problem is that the money ran out and the sidewalks continued to crumble with little done to correct the situation.
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Over the years, the city has paid out around $5 million dollars annually to people who have tripped and fallen on the city sidewalks. The payouts have done nothing to repair the problem. As time continues to pass with more committee meetings and public hearings we will see when action begins on the sidewalk repair program.
In reviewing the city documents, I find that the homeowner will not see much benefit from the $1.4 billion or approximately $31 million dollars a year for the next 30 years. The current proposal calls for the sidewalks to be repaired in the following priority.
1. Sidewalks outside city buildings and city facilities.
2. Transportation corridors, hospitals and similar medical facilities.
3. Commercial, business and employment locations.
4. Your residential neighborhoods. Note the ‘your residential neighborhoods’ come at the end of the list.
Councilman Paul Krekorian sated that the sidewalks in Los Angeles are a “disgrace.”
Keep watching out your front window to see when the city crews arrive to repair the sidewalks in your residential neighborhood. Don’t hold your breath too long for this exciting event in your community.
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WRAP
A final thought and Quote of the week:
“We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like it’s an occupying force as opposed to a force that’s part of the community that’s protecting them and serving them. So we’re going to prohibit equipment made for the battlefield that is not appropriate for local police departments.”
That’s President Obama ordering the federal government to stop distributing a limited inventory of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies across the country.
I was at the North Hollywood Bank of America Shootout on February 28, 1997, when two heavily- armed bank robbers Larry Eugene Phillips, Jr. and Emil Decebal Matasareanu held off the LAPD for hours. (Photos above and right) The LAPD needed to borrow an armored money transport vehicle to rescue injured police officers and others.
The LAPD was out gunned and ill equipped to handle the robbery with just two suspects. The brave responding officers did everything possible to protect the citizens. Officers were shot and the suspects ultimately died.
After personally experiencing this situation, I believe that our police agencies across America need military equipment to continue to “Protect and Serve” the people of our country.
(Dennis P. Zine is a native of Los Angeles. Joined the LAPD in 1968 and worked the streets of Los Angeles for 33 years. Continued serving the people of Los Angels as a City Councilman for 12 years.
Currently serves as a Level One Reserve LAPD Officer. Zine is a regular columnist for CityWatch.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 46
Pub: Jun 5, 2015
