CommentsERIC PREVEN'S NOTEBOOK - Off Agenda: RIP Norm Macdonald:
He was one of the best anchors of SNL's "Weekend Update" and a frequent guest on late-night talk shows. One of his best bits has a moth going into a podiatrist’s office, and the podiatrist’s office says, “What seems to be the problem, moth?”
After a lengthy setup in which the moth kvetches about his personal problems, “Moth, man, you’re troubled. But you should be seeing a psychiatrist. Why on earth did you come here?” And the moth says, “‘Cause the light was on.”
This is reminiscent of Strefan Fauble, who along with the City Clerk and Chief Legislative Analyst's (CLA) office puts out an agenda that almost always denies comments on the items of importance facing the city.
In the place of the meaty substantive subjects are Hollywood Walk of Fame commendations and hard to understand Lighting District approvals.
The only public hearing at which you will be able to speak at this week is an "Application for Determination of Public Convenience or Necessity for the sale of alcoholic beverages for off-site consumption at 7-Eleven - Figueroa, located at 3994 South Figueroa Street"
It's already been withdrawn by Armen D. Ross, the President of the Crenshaw Chamber of Commerce.
One assumes he read the LAPD opposition to the issuance of an ABC license due to the ongoing issues, but didn't he know about them?
What is Curren Price doing about the following...
33 calls to service since 2018, including robbery, indecent exposure, vandalism, theft and assault with a deadly weapon; 600 calls to the intersection of MLK Jr. Blvd and Figueroa; LAPD has made 55 arrests there, 28 of which were DUI. The remainder of these arrests involved vandalism, possession of firearms, failure to register as a sex offender, sales of fireworks and possession of narcotics.
And the area is allegedly saturated with encampments. According to the police sales of alcohol can exacerbate crimes.
There have been numerous citizen complaints about street vendors selling alcoholic beverages prior to, during and after various events being held at the Banc of California Stadium and Coliseum.
The police have concerns that approval would create a greater problem of furnishing alcohol to both minors and intoxicated persons, including motorists.
Is it possible that Curren Price is not cutting it?
Malibu Triathalon:
September 25-26, 2021 is the triathlon races in Malibu on our glorious county beaches. In celebration of the success of this event, all net proceeds, after payment of event administration expenses, will benefit the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles pediatric cancer research department.
Sheila Kuehl, freshly back in town last week after an epic break, moved that the Board of Supervisors reduce the permit fee to $125, excluding the cost of liability insurance, and reduce the parking fee to $5.00 each day at Zuma Beach and Point Dume for approximately 400 vehicles for set-up from September 21 – September 24, 2021 and for approximately 4,000 vehicles on race days on September 25 and September 26, 2021 (Both) for the Nautica Malibu Triathlon.
So the grant in toto, is $144,000.
$15 x 4000
$15 x 4000
$15 x 400 x 4 = $144,000
It's a lot of public funds.
And in addition to MESP (Michael Epstein Sports Productions) it helps the many sponsors beach, AEG, Bank of America, Disney, Warner Media Men's Health, 2XU, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, Xterra wetsuits.
Noticeably absent was the group that Paul Koretz and Council President Martinez and the entire county refused to stand up against, until we called 'em out in writing. Now Herbalife,who engaged in heartbreaking tactics that are frequently found to be illegal, has been cleansed off of the beaches of Malibu.
Herbalife:
But, apparently, the City Council is planning to approve the use of Venice Beach for portions of the Herbalife 24 Triathlon Los Angeles and the closure of specific City streets for the Herbalife 24 Triathlon Los Angeles on October 24, 2021. Whack a mole, anyone?
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation JDRF is the world's largest nonprofit funder of type 1 diabetes research and is happy to jump in with Herbalife. Harvey Englander serves on the Board of Directors of the American Diabetes Association Los Angeles Chapter.
One could ask, "Why is the City Subsidizing an Event Sponsored by Pyramider Herbalife?"
But Paul Koretz, who wants to be the City Controller would say the event is: Full cost recovery: Payment of applicable City services and permit fees.
What about all the harm they've done to Angelenos?
Mr. Koretz can answer for himself on that, but this event is of no cost to the city.... because Herbalife is covering.
How much are they paying in US dollars, Mr. Controller-etz?
Budget and Finance this:
Nobody has done more than Paul Krekorian to enable the structural shenanigans put in place by white guys from CD12, including, memorably "The Cleaner" Greig Smith of Waste Management and Uncle Harvey Englander of Englander Knabe & Allen.
His best bubela/prisoner/nephew is Mitchell Englander.
Englander wired the entire city with EKA clients and got away to a federal penitentiary in Arizona while Staffer-B-John-Lee holds down the fort.
Lee sits on both the Public Safety and Planning and Land Use committees and his primary function is to see that the Lobbyist Industrial Complex and supply chain are not interrupted.
As Paul Krekorian, said to Mitchell Englander when he promised to cover the $2 million dollars out of his pocket to pay for a Valley Bureau for LAFD at the budget hearings, "I see public service has been very good to you."
"Yes, it has." Englander replied.
History will show that Krekorian and Bob Blumenfield, Paul Koretz and Mike Bonin served as Mitch Englander's go-to validators.
Never mind Gil Cedillo laughing his head off at Englander sporting a MAGA hat on an official trip they took together to Mexico. #Shame
Conduent:
On Tuesday's agenda, a new RFP for Parking citation processing and collection services will be delayed again. EKA repped Conduent ,formerly Xerox Solutions for years.
The current RFP will be released in December 2021, so Conduent, possibly still an Englander Knabe & Allen incumbent, has once again bested the market. An additional year was extended to them in 2019, which is par for the course, then the Pandemic stalled them into even more money.
Watch as the parking citation ticketing revenue comes back with a vengeance!
LAFD
The City's fire department has not met its goal of increasing to 5% the number of sworn women on the department by 2020. The City spent $200,000 on a study and Council Member Martinez and Monica Rodriguez of CD7 want to see the results. Today women ONLY hold 3.5% of sworn positions.
Now is the time for respectful workplace environment and zero tolerance policies.
UFLAC, the fire fighter union, who make contributions to electeds through their Independent Expenditure accounts are legendary....and important. And disgusting.
Will the esteemed - and powerful - sisterhood turn UFLAC down in the future?
OPG:
More Official Police Garage (OPG) services with Towing Specialists Inc. The Police garage racket is a longtime watering hold for EKA and especially, Eric Rose, the top chef over at the OPG organization.
Motorola: Bruno Mars
Apparently Uptown Funk is coming to an upscale hotel on the ritzy shores of Cape Cod. But only for the vaccinated!
Motorola Solutions Inc. CEO Greg Brown, the opposite of a hipster, is said to be footing the bill for his son's Troy Brown's and Kristin Ryan's multi-million dollar wedding and party. The payout to Mr. Mars is said to be in the high 6- to 7-digit range. Yuck.
Motorola has been ripping off the City and the County for years. On Tuesday we are washing through another upcharge under the MSA that will retroactively increase contract funding from the General Fund by $8,468,397.50, consisting of $2,497,555 for the Sixteenth Amendment and $5,970,842.50 for the Seventeenth Amendment.
What for? Install computers and related communications equipment in 1,800 patrol vehicles and to extend the term of maintenance for the 9-1-1 Telephony Recording System from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021. Three months left!
Also, to provide maintenance for the PremierOne Computer-Aided Dispatch system and extend the term of the contract an additional ten months out to February 2025.
In case it's not fishy enough, "Should funding in the contract out years not be appropriated to the Department, the provisions of Contract Section 3.E., Compensation and Method of Payment, Limitation of City’s Obligation to Make Payments to Contractor, protects the City from any claims by the Contractor for payment until the City makes an appropriation of funds for such work." #VeryBad
Speculator Koretz:
Koretz does not have gift for satire and his wit is not caustic like some, but he does toss around folksy expressions like nobody's business.
As he called Community Land Trusts another tool in the toolbox, he also touted Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) Incentive Programs.
Saying they encouraged the construction of affordable housing near bus and train stations and had "penciled out."
Certainly, you can't fix what you can't measure.
He said he wanted to light a fire under the housing department, so we could stop shooting ourselves in the foot, and finally put some boots on the ground.
While trumpeting his motion about community land trusts he revealed that "our (LA County) can account for roughly 15% (or 1/6) of a project's overall cost, whereas in San Bernardino County, the cost of land accounts for less than 2% of the total cost.
Eastward ha!
Inreach:
Kevin DeLeon blurted, "We can't continue to study things... we should all have phd's on this subject." He was talking about homelessness
at another gratitude festival for John Wickham and Yolanda Chavez....who were not present, but certainly operationalizing and expanding...
DeLeon was still peeved that Mike Bonin had implied that council district staff should not be placing the homeless in housing, that's LAHSA's job. The conversation was a real 'fake' back and forth between two council members who agree on many things.
DeLeon knew Bonin was not undermining the council staff in the trenches, who he reminded had been "pulling knives out of Latina women, every single day." He autocorrected to mention a wide variety of other ethnicities who were also apparently being un-knived: "African American, White, Jewish, Armenian"
He failed to mention Asians.
Everybody could agree that somehow, perhaps through a gazillion dollar consulting contract with a treasured partner, we had to make it so that a conjoined couple could go TOGETHER to a shelter: husband-wife, husband-husband, or wife-husband-third-wheel w/ dog.
I know it sounds doable, but it has been vexing for our elected officials for many years.
One member of the public mused, "Would the first amendment protect the willingness to separate voluntarily from a spouse?"
Could an unwanted separation be reconceived as 'a short break from that asshole' by an ordinary applicant for housing. (Eg. "Quit, your hollering.") Do no harm.
Ordinary:
This came up in connection with the first commercial Space X flight. It was a billionaire and several 'ordinary' passengers. We define ordinary in a number of ways, none of which is overtly connected with the amount of wealth someone has, but that's where we are these days.
Ordinary can also carry such meanings as “of a kind to be expected in the normal order of events,” like not being called up at City Council to speak.
Or it can mean “of common quality, rank, or ability,” or “deficient in quality.”
Extraordinary leadership... The Council President told the Los Angeles Times last week, "To run for mayor, “I’d have to give up the presidency, which is the most powerful position in the city.
If anyone disagrees, she has a new ordinance heading to become law that will make it a $1,000 misdemeanor to protest within 300 feet of her house.
Los Angeles County employed 110,376 people in year 2019. Average wage was $118,191 and median wage was $102,373. The City of Los Angeles employed 60,186 people in year 2019. Average wage was $105,478 and median wage was $95,928.
In 2016, as a co-plaintiff with the ACLU, an ordinary member of the public won a case at the California Supreme Court requiring the County of Los Angeles to disclose legal bills paid to outside private law firms. In 2019, he won a Brown Act case against the City of Los Angeles protecting the right that all members of the public have a right to be heard at public meetings.
Apparently, nothing has been resolved.
Mayor Garcetti goes to Washington D.C. (via India):
Biden held a joint call last week with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as the top Democrats mull their options for handling both the Sept. 30 government funding deadline and the impending debt cliff.
He also announced his nomination to fill the long-vacant position of inspector general at the Office of Personnel Management, a watchdog office that has at times publicly clashed with top management of the federal agency.
Nominee Krista Boyd is chief counsel for oversight and policy on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, which oversees federal workplace matters. She has worked on Capitol Hill for more than two decades with a focus on issues including whistleblower protection, transparency and strengthening the access to agency information for inspectors general and other watchdogs, an announcement said.
Boyd’s name is now added to a long list of nominations for positions important to federal employees awaiting action by the Senate.
What about Mayor Garcetti? Sir, please step down.
50 CALL-A-HEADs to the border:
A drone's-eye view of the International Bridge near Del Rio, where thousands of migrants are waiting to be processed from the photographer, Adrees Latif Impressive to see a lineup of 50 porta-potties, which is fifty more than are available for folks who ride the LA County Metro with Janice Hahn, Holly J. Mitchell, Hilda Solis, Kathryn Barger and Sheila Kuehl.
Poison pen:
The New York Times had an article about Social dance, and how it is improvisational and collective by definition.
I thought that's true of Public Comment as well. If it weren't corrupted by the absurd detail, that only certain commenters may comment.
The flow of sensations that ripple through, exhaust and energize in dance, similarly flow through the conversation as speakers riff off what one another say.
Public comment is less social if it is merely observed; to incite the desire to participate, it must be done in person. And participation demands a certain intensity of presence, achieved if you are lucky enough to be called up by the fussy proctor, Strefan Fauble.
Amazon will fund full college tuition as well as high school diplomas, GEDs and English as a Second Language proficiency certifications for its front-line employees. Check the fine print, but impressive. Could it be that Amazon has data that shows a high percentage of the 750,000 workers eligible don't want the education?
(Eric Preven is a longtime community activist and is a contributor to CityWatch.)
The views expressed and content submitted do not necessarily reflect those of CityWatch or CityWatch writers.
