LA WATCHDOG-The media is having a field day exposing the shenanigans of the Herb Wesson led City Council and Mayor Eric Garcetti. But these backroom deals, when taken as a whole, represent a pattern of corruption which jeopardizes our residential neighborhoods and quality of life, the City’s financial health, and the voters’ trust and confidence in our Elected Elite who occupy City Hall.
Two weeks ago, David Zahniser of The Los Angeles Times exposed Jose Huizar’s flip flop on his campaign pledge to oppose amnesty for almost 1,000 illegal billboards and to limit new digital billboards to special sign districts. But now, Huizar, the Chair of the powerful, favor granting Planning and Land Use Management Committee, is trying weasel out of his promise as his committee, which includes billboard advocates Mitch Englander and Gil Cedillo, failed to approve these reasonable, quality of life conditions.
But that is understandable given the millions bestowed on our City’s pols by the billboard industry. (Photo above.)
Zahniser also revealed how Herb Wesson orchestrated a significant zoning change for a 27 story, 300 foot tall luxury high rise apartment building at Catalina and Eighth in Koreatown. This sleight of hand will result in a $15 to $20 million windfall for the Beverly Hills real estate speculator. But this was after Wesson extorted a $1.25 million payment from the speculator to two slush funds controlled by the City Council President and Mayor Garcetti.
Dakota Smith of The Daily News recently exposed a shady deal where Wesson and the Korean American Museum are amending a $1 a year lease on a very valuable City owned property at the corner of Sixth and Vermont to include, in addition to the museum, 103 units of market rate housing that will generate $500,000 a year for the Museum. But Herb’s “creative partnership” fails to increase the annual rental on this $5 to $10 million corner lot, unless the Museum is required to pay property taxes on the market rate apartments.
Emily Alpert Reyes of The Times revealed the controversy over the $1 million negotiated sale of abandoned Fire House 78, located on 9,000 square foot lot in Studio City, to campaign funding Richard Weintraub, a controversial but politically well-connected developer of the Sportsmen’s Lodge. Yet the price of this property is considerably below previous appraisals and does not reflect its strategic value to Weintraub. This is why several local residents believe this privately negotiated (versus an auction) sale was “sweetheart deal” orchestrated by Council Member Paul Krekorian.
{module [1177]}
Of course, Krekorian (photo right) is no stranger to “sweetheart deals” as he was involved in the 50 year, $1 a year lease of Fire House 83 in Encino to the well-heeled Armenian Cultural Center.
Earlier this year, Dakota Smith outed Budget and Finance Chair Krekorian’s legal, but unethical, conflicts of interest be damned, efforts to hit up City unions, developers, trash haulers, and lobbyists for contributions far in excess of the limits imposed by the City. These funds were used to repay his personal loans he made to his unsuccessful campaign for the State Assembly in 2000.
When you combine these deals with all the other shenanigans at City Hall - whether it involves the Councilmember’s use of their discretionary funds, tax giveaways to billionaire developers, the ripping off the DWP Ratepayers, the skimming of a billion from the Port, the developers of the Millennium Hollywood and other oversized, neighborhood unfriendly projects buying influence, or the countless other scams that have not seen the light of day, it is no wonder that Angelenos consider City Hall a cesspool occupied by corrupt politicians who are not to be trusted with a thin dime.
(Jack Humphreville writes LA Watchdog for CityWatch. He is the President of the DWP Advocacy Committee and a member of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council. Humphreville is the publisher of the Recycler Classifieds -- www.recycler.com. He can be reached at: [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 60
Pub: Jul 24, 2015
