Kevin DeLeon Likes to Break Through the BS

AWOL: 

Kevin DeLeon likes to cut through all the BS and call it what it is... political leadership!  

He was talking about either or both of the big city initiatives that the City Council gave selected position speeches on subjects trotted out by the Council President. 

She started the week off by hearing some disturbing reports from LAPD about how helpless everyone is in the face of DIY ghost guns, that are sweeping the nation. The best way forward, lead by Koretz and Krekorian and O'Farrell, is to make an ordinance that draws another lawsuit.    

We warned them with the scanning for affiliation item, but even the city attorney admitted, there is a long history of people suing the city over terrible laws made by zealous politicians angling for media coverage.  

Folks, like Krekorian who know that a few hundred thousand dollars to an attorney for Burbank Airport or Santa Susanna doesn't mean a damn thing but allows for political wiggle room.   

Wednesday, was LA100 climate congratulations day...     

Paul Krekorian, who has been grooming the LADWP team for a post City job, crowed, "The Presidential administration says we need 100% nationally by 2035. So, look how far have we come. The President is now joining us!"   

Bonin said, "so many years ago, six...when me and Krekorian with a second from Koretz signed the motion, "we had no idea...."   

DeLeon reminded that it was the year 2005,... and thanked Fran Palvey.   

Plenty of gratitude on display, as DeLeon, summed it up, "We have to burn a lot of fossil fuel.  As blue as we are, we burn a lot, more than deep red states, cumulatively.  But AB32 ...decarbonizing our grid... call it a goal." 

Greener and meaner. 

[Safety] First Amendment

Nury Martinez invoked Rule 23 on Tuesday, which allows for items that the council was unaware of before agenda posting. 

Special number one, called for the city attorney to draw up an ordinance to maintain a Permanent Restraining Order for anyone protesting 100 yards or less from Martinez's sleeping children.   

Why? 

Because an activist in a different city threatened to make the home addresses public... 

"wait, aren't they already public?" 

 Yes. 

Very important.   Over at the county... "home address"  was part of Skip Miller's  brilliant reasoning to pay $1.5 million to Sheila's second favorite CEO in the world, Sachi Hamai.   

Her favorite CEO is Phil Washington, who ditched LA Metro in the nick of time for a job with Denver Transportation tk.  

Miller claimed as the county's attorney, that “Incited by the Sheriff, individuals threatened to post [Hamai's]  home address and suggested she be harmed.” 

County Counsel Mary Wickham signed off on the settlement Aug. 10, 2020.  "Hamai will not receive severance or any other payments and agreed not to sue the county," according to the agreement. The board authorized Wickham to settle on its behalf, Miller said. 

Lovely.  

The perfect Skip touch, “I frankly think that if we litigated her case, a jury could have hit the county for a lot more than $1.5 million, a lot more,” Miller said.  The Sheriff said at the time that he planned to alert the state attorney general’s office because it “looks like there was a potential theft of attorney-client product.” 

You'd think, a full year later,  the county would have other priorities than paying off Skip and re-engaging Mary Wickham, who we just got rid of, but  those were the  Board Established Priorities ... 

The Report on Board Established Priorities was continued.  

Public comment was severely limited to only one hour.  

Most of the meeting was devoted to a series of lengthy public health reports... which amount to Supervisorial deliberation. 

Janice Hahn adjourned in the memory of a tough old bird in the all male world of County Waste. There was not a dry eye in the Antonovich, Knabe households, or on any of the leaseholds. 

The stick 'em with Wickham item was in bold print:  And imagine our surprise when Holly J. MItchell voted no on the Temporary Reinstatement of a Retired County Employee Mary Wickham, as a 120-day rehired retiree in the Executive Office of the Board to head the Blue-Ribbon Commission on Homelessness.  A rate of $215 per hour for up to 960 total hours of work in a fiscal year. 

Wait, Wickham has been a witting participant in the egregious reductions of public comment... which is appalling. 

Wasn't Wickham an LA Superior Court Commissioner?   Skip, Isn't that a conflict?   

Everybody in the pool:

The county received over 1,500 written public comments on Tuesday's meeting and they were made available to the board.  [Note: This phrasing does not provide either a writer or a reader with any confidence that their written message is getting through.) 

There is no more superficially likeable group than County Parks and Recs except maybe City Recs and Parks. 

Norma Garcia, the General Manager came on late in the meeting and made the case for more funding early for next year to get these youngsters in the swimming pools.  "We can do more..." 

Janice Hahn had to cut her off eventually, by promising to dip into her Supervisorial pocket book to cover more swim lessons.  She loves the kids and unmet needs.  And IOC support, which is available and trending. 

The county has 10 million residents, runs 30 Swimming Pools, has 23 Splash Pads and 5 Wading Pools.  

That's two million constituents per each (1) wading pool.  You know what else has a ration of two million constituents to 1. 

Supervisors.   As in the Board of... 

Sheila is the boss of more than two million angelenos.  Maybe she could take more than sixty minutes every two weeks on all items and general comment. 

 I do hope she feels better, if she's not well, because she missed the only meeting the board has had in almost a month.   

The City of Los Angeles, with more like 4 million residents, has 62 swimming pool$. 

Blue Ribbon Committment

Well. Nice to see Co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Cullors on the county agenda, but not happy to see Holly Mitchell acquiring her services.  ... 

I'm not clear why either of them didn't object vociferously about Tasers in the jails.  It was on the agenda.  

One of the very first cases I became interested in at the county was from a transcript in which a Federal Judge said, "If the the county counsel knew what was going on in this case..."   

The case was Dupree v. County of LA... and involved a chap who was tased right off the bunk of a Lakewood jail and broke his back. Paralyzed for life.  

Anyway, I was surprised to see that after all our carrying on, we wrote articles, the LA Times published a story about Englander taking Taser donations in Arizona... 

This month, Taser Use in Custody was featured in Huntsman's Civilian Oversight  report.  I tallied up over 150 usages of a Taser in jail. 

Dupree cost $4.25 million and the cost of $2M rancho bill.  Sheesh.  You'd think we'd know better by now...

Public Health Disorder... 

Mandating county workers to do anything is controversial.  But it was nice to see SEIU scored up to $1,100 for DHS workers, but not everyone was included. There were 118 comments, about 117 more than a typical LA Times article, on the SEIU website.  

Apparently, not all public health workers were included and hero pay feels best when everyone qualifies as essential. 

Tribal  chairperson, Amanda Vance, of the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians announced one-time incremental paychecks with retroactive pay that ranged from several hundred dollars to $19,000. 

They are employees deemed by the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians to be essential workers.

Recipients included food and beverage, housekeeping and guest-services employees. 

What about Pit boss? Dealer?  Cashier? 

The payments were made with money from the Coronavirus State & Tribal Fiscal Recovery Fund, which was part of the American Rescue Plan Act signed into law by President Joe Biden in March. 

Thanks to Mitch O'Farrell.

Bribe: 

It could be anything of value—such as a gift, favor, job offer, or special discount—that is offered to obtain or retain a business advantage. If the payment or item is offered after the business deal is signed, that is considered a kickback, which is also against the law. 

(Eric Preven is a longtime community activist and is a contributor to CityWatch.)