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ERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - Supervisor Hahn proudly tweeted, "Today we kick-off our first-ever LA County LGBTQ Commission. At a time when too many local governments and states are rolling back LGBTQ rights, I am proud that LA County is on the right side of history and lifting up LGBTQ voices when we need to hear them most."
A Royal Flush!
Right on! ***Rainbow-themed presentation*** Power! Let’s light up city hall, $400! Heart. Rainbow. Sunshine.
Smart Speaker: How is this not a county board meeting that they forgot to agendize properly? All four of them sitting up there.
Answer: If they had a QUORUM of the County Board, yes, it is subject to the Brown Act. and must be agendized on the board's website.
Many Angelenos are highly supportive of County Pride. I certainly am but, “Ladies…please step out of the vehicle!"
Supervisor Hahn: Thank you young man. That won’t be necessary. Don't you know who you are dealing with? Victor, please explain to these fellas who The County Supervisors—
Porch: Ma’am, put your hands on the vehicle and,..
Supervisor Hahn: I beg your pardon.
Ponch: Alright, spread 'em!
Supervisor Hahn: Not without a wedding ring and a credit check!
Who knows if this is a Brown Act Violation, but cancelling so many meetings, creates opportunities for the Supervisors to be together without the public being notified.
Speaker, you're still not on topic:
One speaker suggested some marquee style fight at City Hall… such as:
Eric "Easy E" Preven against Groat.
Stacey “Trailer Swift” Bollinger against Nithya Raman.
Dr. Dropping Truth Bombs, Trufay v. Curren "I do have a" Price.
Jonathan Groat, Deputy City Attorney: Your time has expired.
Dan Guss, Speaker: Dan Guss dot substack dot com. On May 28th I warned city officials of dangerous conditions at animal services and they ignored them. On May 29th Mr. Krekorian cut off my general public comment because when I spoke on an agenda item I pointed out that he admitted gross negligence in an injury that resulted in me having a really bad surgery. Had Mr. Krekorian actually followed public meeting laws you would have received another warning about dangerous conditions at animal services and the city ignored them until six days after Leslie Correa was mauled by a dog at Animal Services. The only question is will she get a seven-figure settlement or an eight-figure settlement?
Paul Krekorian, Council President (CD2): Thank you, next caller...
Smart Speaker: Hi, It's Eric Preven from Studio City and I'm here to speak about the Studio City Business Improvement District, the other business district, and of course a general public comment.
Jonathan Groat, Deputy City Attorney: OK, good morning, you have two minutes for the items and one minute for general public comment Please begin with the items.
Smart Speaker: OK, there's a lot of, I was looking at the tabulation of the results. First of all, congratulations to Karo Torossian for the Austin Family Development LLC they got four twenty-one hundred dollarish ($2,100) assessments. These are the guys over on Sunswept (under the carpet.) The West Valley donor to Karo's failed CD7 campaign. The Studio City business improvement district goes from Coldwater right past the little Sunswept stain, to Carpenter Avenue. The biggest problem with the BID, frankly is, what about the rest of Studio City? It seems to prioritize the central part along Ventura Blvd near the Chase bank. Sadly, because of Krekorian's failure and Raman's failure, there have been a lot of missed opportunities. A lot of places are vacant because rent is so damn high. But as for the mom and pops who stay long enough to be assessed by the BID, I looked at the list. There are 219 property lines facing assessment. But some owners have multiple parcels. Like Wave Services Inc. has several, some owners are just peoples' names. Others are more coded: Radford Plaza LLC. I couldn’t find Sportsmen's. Thank you.
We Interrupt this public comment for a short report:
Last week, the New York Times wrote about matching fund abuse in Flushing Queens, that mirrored a scandal that rocked Los Angeles nearly a decade ago. Dao Yin’s dubious campaign contributions echo the fundraising irregularities that tainted Councilwoman Nury Martinez’s 2015 campaign.
As someone who has long warned about the pitfalls of lax oversight in political fundraising, this feels like a grim "I told you so." In both cases, small donations meant to empower grassroots supporters were exploited to siphon taxpayer money.
Yin’s campaign, rife with fake donors, claimed substantial public matching funds. Similarly, Martinez’s reelection bid relied on $5 donations, many falsely attributed. Despite the glaring discrepancies, both campaigns secured significant public funds before scrutiny.
The systemic vulnerabilities exposed in Los Angeles should have been a wake-up call. Yet, here we are, witnessing a repeat in Flushing. This pattern underscores a critical failure in our election oversight mechanisms.
While Martinez escaped charges due to insufficient evidence, the shadow of fraud has lingered, raising doubts about the integrity of publicly financed campaigns. Martinez’s successor, Paul Krekorian, now stands as the untainted figure in this lineage of Los Angeles politics. However, as history shows, the night is young, and the scrutiny of political figures must remain relentless.
The integrity of our democratic processes hinges on this vigilance. The recurring theme in these scandals is the ease with which the current system can be manipulated. Despite the noble intent behind public matching funds—to amplify the voices of small donors and reduce the influence of big money—both Los Angeles and New York State have failed to implement necessary safeguards to prevent abuse.
As someone who has long advocated for stricter oversight, it is disheartening to see these patterns of deceit emerge yet again. We need robust mechanisms to audit and verify campaign contributions before public funds are disbursed. Our democracy deserves better, and it’s high time we deliver on that promise.
Smart Speaker: I wonder if the city will go for the disclosure over $250 gag they’ve been doing at the county?
Paul Krekorian, Council President (CD2): Thank you, you can move on to your next item now Mr. Preven.
Burbank PD booster, Paul Krekorian.
Smart Speaker: Well, I'll continue talking about the business improvement district but with respect to the BID in a neighboring community, in a different section of town. Mr. Krekorian is ahead of the curve and likes to shut people down on the business improvement districts. Because, frankly, BIDS involve hiring private security to ride around on segues tasing people who are not shopping quickly enough. The big idea is public safety but the registers must spin. You will not hear me say I'm against public safety, but I am against protecting the business corridor exclusively while allowing the rest of us to grapple with Groat. The problem is the BID in Studio City leaves everybody who is not in it, out, except for those of us who pay attention. It's worth noting there were multiple "no" votes on this BID and many stakeholders failed to even register a vote. That's a red flag.
It's very hard to fight city hall, but some of us are willing to engage with the machine but we need fair public comment rules. Incidentally, Groat, let me know when you feel I can vector toward general public comment. Are you paying attention at all?
Paul Krekorian, Council President (CD2): Right now
Jonathan Groat, Deputy City Attorney: Two, one... now.
Smart Speaker: Don't interrupt me Krekorian, this is a general public comment. Thank you. First of all, you should step down. You have removed virtual testimony from committees which has prompted your colleagues to shrug, "Yeah, why'd you do that, sir? That's kind of anti-public, anti-transparency even as you wrap yourself in a coat of the Ethics Commission, that you were on yourself a million years ago.” For those who wonder who appoints these damn Ethics Commissioners, it was always, Herb Wesson, Garcetti, Mike Feuer, even Baby Lobbyist Mitch Englander ...
So, no further questions your honor. This is the same crooked program and by the way, the Claims Board of the City of Los Angeles, lofty body that it is, comprised of three stooges who agree to attend for the Council President, the Mayor, and the City Attorney. By contrast, the same for Ethics, just add one Pro Temp appointment, and one Controller appointment. “That’s a diss!” We will never forget the Jamie York humiliation.
Each of the big three sends a designee to a dark room where in dim light they examine grisly legal quagmires. For the 33-item agenda last week, a panel of handpicked experts provided guidance through these legal cases but, now BREAKING the person who works in the civil litigation department is withholding who served on the date of the 33 flavors sorry items.
Mr. Krekorian could have said, "I want Matt Szabo... or I want Kenneth Mejia or You will Neve be CFO.” The city attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto might say, "Shake a tail, Groat. Get in there.” or " Give Ysaguirre, a chance, you insufferable boob.”
Smart Speaker: We will eventually find out…because we are the taxpaying public. FYI
From: [email protected]
Cc: Strefan Fauble , [email protected] , David Michaelson, [email protected]
"The Appointing authorities must have a document or at least remember who they sent to the meeting. Please provide this information as soon as possible. Thanks. “
Warm regards,
Gustavo Arrellano of the Los Angeles Times was on hand to tout Living Legends Lalo Alcaraz and Imelda Padilla.
Long But Still Very Long:
As some recall, publishing the shortest agenda for the 97-item fiasco two weeks ago, caused all the comments to cancel one another out…
I’ve included the page numbers from the Transcript for an appreciation of how long and difficult a wait it is to address our board because they like it very very uninviting.
P.34
Moderator: Next is Eric Preven, you may begin.
Smart Speaker: Thank you. Obviously, this is a nice idea, a little surprising we aren't making these Department of Consumer and Business Affairs services which includes Aging available in multiple languages already. It is available in Spanish I know. But I will say this about — older people who are underserved and also those who are just older are vulnerable. Before the county rolls out a massive outreach effort in multiple languages because it is getting poor matriculation into its programs, it ought to make sure the services are effective. We had a terrible situation in Malibu where an older person was attacked multiple ways, and neither the Sheriff, the Fire department, or Water Works, run by Mark Pestrella's group have been able to help her. Still, the older person’s water keeps getting shut off by the young people who are negligent or something worse re paying their bills. There is even evidence that they stole electricity so, this Angeleno’s story should result in some help. Elder abuse came out, nobody has done anything in English or any other language. I spoke to the District Attorney about charging the suspects with PC 498 and he sent us to the Lost Hills Sheriff. Supervisor Horvath, this is in your district, if your staff who were made aware of this could contact me.
Executive officer: Thank you your time has expired.
P.61
Moderator: Next participant, Eric Preven. And you may begin.
Smart Speaker: Thank you for this one. You know, gender-affirming care is important for people who are transitioning to be able to get help. It is nice that the Pritzkers, are major Harvard-Westlake boosters, and who live in the world’s largest mansion, or the largest one in Los Angeles. Seriously, it’s a 50,000-square-foot single-family residence. So that’s got to have quite the gender closet. The fact that Pritzkers are coming forward and helping to fill the gender-affirming care closet is very sweet. So that is appreciated.
I have an idea, why not change the County Charter and remove the offensive pronouns like the City of Los Angeles just did? They all united and cut out all of the pronouns wherever they could. Supervisor Horvath should consider it. Now, going back to the gender resource closets — not sure what products — though a nice touch for Holly Mitchell to suggest culturally sensitive hair care products. Let’s make everything available in the closet.
p. 99
Moderator: Next participant is Eric Preven. And you may begin.
Smart Speaker: Thank you. I’m a long-time Care First, guy, as many of the speakers know. We helped shut down the idea of the women’s jail at Mira Loma, a proposed women’s facility in the heart of Valley Fever country, up in Barger's district. So it’ nice to see the county board of supervisors singing the Care first, song, but what about the ongoing treatment inside of Men's Central Jail? What about the Do No Harm song? For more than a decade, we have been calling to have the dungeon dismantled. It makes no sense to put four human beings into a cell with two opposing bunkbeds. It is insane. Try to imagine four of the Supervisors in one together. It is literally a form of torture. So, whereas I appreciate Supervisor Mitchell’s idea of setting up a brand new department inside JCOD or an agency, we have to meet the goal that we set out over a decade ago. The plan was to shut Men’s Central and deal with most of the people in the community. The people who are absolutely dangerous people and have to go to jail for terrible things, can be incarcerated without the old festering jail complex from hell. Maybe you will remember the James Austin plan that Supervisor Molina and the ACLU and —
Moderator: Thank you. Your time has expired. Next speaker, please.
P. 205
Moderator: The next participant is Eric Preven. And you may begin.
Smart Speaker: Yes, it is 3:08 pm. Are we getting close to the public comment? I know this is item 48, but for calibration purposes, is there any sense of when general public comment will be up? Any sense? Are we close? Hello?
Sup. Lindsey Horvath, chair: One motion after this. And then public comment.
Smart Speaker: Yeah, okay. Well, thank you. And obviously, thank you to Holly Mitchell for noting that we have to be vigilant and Thank you to Davenport for being vigilant about the definition of “spent” and so forth. The rule of thumb, we learned years ago from the great felon and leader, Mark Ridley-Thomas of Supervisorial District 2 was:
Push. The. Money. Out. The. Damn. Door.
“And do it now!” That is MRT wisdom for the people and county departments that have been squirreling away resources and positions for a rainy day.
Moderator: Thank you. Your time has expired. Next speaker please.
P227
Moderator: Next is Eric Preven, you may begin.
Smart Speaker: Thanks to you Senator Bradford who has had his nose to the grindstone working on this for a couple of years at least. I like the spirit of Reparations, and the waiving entry to county places and museums and beaches is a great idea. In fact it's come up before. We have been demanding free entry to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, not just for African-Americans, but for Todo. We want Exposition Park which was a big lift for both the County and the City of Los Angeles to get George Lucas and Melody Hobson squared away for the Lucas museum of narrative storytelling. Here's a great bit of L.A. Narrative — the museum will be open to the public! So no charging people fancy tourist rate entry fees. This is not Disneyland. We want people to go in and explore the history of Los Angeles through art. Sure. The billionaire already got the deal of a lifetime, to have it sit in majestic Exposition Park. But the park land is public land. The State Science museum is free.
As I’ve noted elsewhere, he can sell tchotchkes and Star Wars paraphernalia, but the kids and everyone can go in for free. Are we clear, Supervisor Mitchell?
We need to be sure that once it is finished because it is egregiously late Angelenos are welcome. As for reparations, of course, we can do more than free entry to museums and beaches and we should do more. A lot more. Thank you.
Tuesday, June 11, Public Hearing Meeting.
Only 56 pages of meeting Transcript.
Executive Officer: Thank you, next speaker, please.
Moderator: our first participant is Eric Preven. Please unmute and speak directly into your phone. You may begin.
Smart Speaker: Can you hear me.
Sup. Lindsey Horvath, chair: Yes. Go ahead.
Smart Speaker: Okay, I don't know what that instruction -- I know he said please unmute, they never say that, thank you, Supervisor Horvath, and thank you, Supervisor Hahn. Both of you are doing a great job thanking one another for that sneaky vote, well done. I like the no there. Annexation of territory to the county lighting districts is going to result in a new base rate assessment of $5 for single-family residents. And it gets a little different for other assessments. I'd like to thank Pestrella for ignoring our request about the later posting about how that beautiful green area was destroyed as we speak. It looks like it is starting to look like a building construction site. You have yet to respond about why you are giving the Zev greenway. And they're working to eliminate public comment. This is not a great item. Lighting districts are about copper wire theft as we remember. I don't know what to say.
Sup. Lindsey Horvath, chair: thank you four your time has expired, next speaker.
Moderator: Our first participant is Eric Preven. Please unmute and speak directly into your phone. You may begin.
Smart Speaker: Thank you. Again I don't know what you mean by unmute, can you hear me?.
Sup. Kathryn Barger: Yes.
Smart Speaker: Okay. Don't say unmute, because there's no prompt or something to do it. That confuses me. Thank you, well done. First of all I hope, I wish Dr. Shah and his wife a smooth delivery. How exciting. And it is her job but it is also two of them, it is powerful to a family, and we are excited for them. I remember thinking about public health and the rates, I was here -- you remember Dr. Fielding, stately, Harvard public health guy. Quietly amassed a $300 million fortune off to the side and gave a ton of money back to UCLA. Where is Supervisor Horvath and why is she recusing herself on this item?
Moderator: Our first participant is Eric Preven, unmute and speak into your phone, you may begin.
Smart Speaker: Hi, Thank you, I’ll take whatever maximum time I can get. But I am confused, I don't see a lot of items. I just saw the one item that we -- Hahn made her stand on the miscellaneous ONE during the “thank you” festival earlier, that's been disposed of already. I'm trying to participate appropriately, and this item SD-1 is dry as a bone. We have to do a better job of having engaging public meetings. I think one way to do it, like, for example, last week there were 97 items and about an hour and a half of individual recusals on everything. That weird rule which is exciting 83408. How about we post all the donations in the agenda both here and at the city and then we don't have to read all that stuff out loud? That's a nice idea. Get your people, Katy Yaroslavsky, and the merry pranksters over at city hall to do the same disclosures.
I don’t have to refresh your memory but I will repeatedly as a courtesy, we have a massive corruption scandal all over. It is great how Mitchell and everyone like to talk about the back-facing work. I believe Supervisor Mitchell, alluded to working in the background as opposed to the front-facing work. In the California model, you are supposed to talk about everything in front of the public.
Board Agenda for June 18, 2024
Next week Tuesday, June 18th there will be a Policy Presentation Meeting.
Any guesses as to how long this meeting will be? Here’s the agenda:
Set Matter 1. Report on Continuum of Care for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Beds
Set Matter 2. Reports on the County’s Implementation of the People Experiencing Homelessness Missions
3. Purchase Real Property Located at 955 North Vignes Street, Los Angeles, for the Warm Landing Interim Homeless Housing Project
4. Report on the Findings of the Williams Institute’s Lived Experiences in Los Angeles County Survey and the County Transgender and Nonbinary Survey
Public Comment
(Eric Preven is a longtime community activist and is a contributor to CityWatch. )
