LA WATCHDOG

LA WATCHDOG - Real estate developer Dae Young Lee (aka David Lee) was found guilty on June 27 by a jury of three federal criminal charges for his role in providing $500,000 in cash to then City Councilman Jose Huizar in exchange for his help in resolving an appeal by a group of construction trade unions of the permit for Lee’s 20 story residential development at 940 Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles.

LA WATCHDOG - In November, the City issued its Five Year Capital and Technology Improvement Program that outlined over 650 infrastructure projects with a project cost of $9.2 billion.

LA WATCHDOG - The FBI raided the offices and home of Councilman Jose Huizar over 3½ years ago, but nothing has been done to curb the corruption associated with the City’s land use policies.

LA WATCHDOG - Over the past year, the Department of Water and Power has considered asking the City Council to place three measures on the November 8^thballot. 

LA WATCHDOG - The City’s $11.76 Adopted Budget for the upcoming fiscal year (2022-23) is an improvement over the Mayor’s Proposed Budget because it has reduced its reliance on the City’s Reserve Fund. 

LA WATCHDOG - On March 26, Cynthia McClain-Hill, the President of the DWP Board of Commissioners, and Councilman Curren Price led the groundbreaking for the Senator Bill Greene Memorial Park at the corner of Figueroa and Slauson  

LA WATCHDOG - The City has three pension plans: the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System that covers the City’s civilian employees, the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension Plans, and the Water and Power Employees’ Retirement Plan.

LA WATCHDOG - Our Elected Elite are doing a conga line around City Hall, celebrating the approval of next year’s “balanced” budget (2022-23). 

LA WATCHDOG - The LA Watchdog’s Voters Guide for the June 7^th primary focuses on the local elections: the City, the County, and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

LA WATCHDOG - Ron Galperin has earned our vote for State Controller because he has done an excellent job as the Controller for the City of Los Angeles. 

LA WATCHDOG - “The City Controller is the taxpayers' watchdog and the City's chief auditor and accountant.

LA WATCHDOG - The continuing drought has forced the Metropolitan Water District, the major source of water for the City of Los Angeles, to significantly reduce its allocation of water to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

LA WATCHDOG - The City’s General Fund revenues for the upcoming fiscal year are expected to be $7.4 billion, an increase of almost 9% over this year’s adopted budget. 

LA WATCHDOG - When Hydee Feldstein Soto told her friends that she was running to be our next City Attorney, they thought that she had lost her mind. 

LA WATCHDOG - In early March, the prospects for the City’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year (2022-23) were not promising.

LA WATCHDOG - On Wednesday, April 20, Mayor Eric Garcetti will submit his ninth and final budget to the City Council. 

LA WATCHDOG - On Monday, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that he selected Sergio Perez as the Inspector General of the Department of Water and Power,

LA WATCHDOG - Angels Landing is a proposed $1.6 billion development located at 4^th and Hill Streets in DTLA, next to Angels Flight, the shortest railway in the country. 

LA WATCHDOG - Multiple levels of government, including the City and County of Los Angeles, enacted eviction moratoriums because of the adverse financial impact the pandemic had on the health and incomes of families and their ability to pay their rents on a timely basis. 

LA WATCHDOG - The Department of Water and Power is embarking on an ambitious program (LA100 Renewable Energy Study) to be powered by 100% renewable, carbon free energy by 2035.

LA WATCHDOG - Controller Ron Galperin’s Revenue Forecast Report has both good news and bad news. 

LA WATCHDOG - On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council will consider a motion to retain a consultant to assist in the development of a ballot measure to raise $2.1 billion to finance the repair and improvement of our parks that have been neglected by the City over the past three decades. 

LA WATCHDOG - Will throwing good money after bad solve the City’s homeless problem? 

LA WATCHDOG - As part of its plan to deliver reliable and affordable energy to the 200,000 residents of Glendale as well as to its commercial and industrial customers, the Power Division of Glendale Water and Power is proposing to repower its gas fired Grayson Power Plant.

LA WATCHDOG - A relatively unknown developer is proposing to develop a luxury resort in the hills of Benedict Canyon that will be operated by Bvlgari Hotels and Resorts, an affiliate of LVMH, the world’s largest company specializing in luxury goods.

LA WATCHDOG - In its effort to reduce methane emissions from landfills, the State of California (through SB 1383) has mandated that by 2025 the City divert 75% of its organic waste from landfills, currently a major source of this “super polluting” greenhouse gas.

LA WATCHDOG - The City and the State are benefitting from record revenues, but our politicians and their acolytes want to pick our pockets for even more of our hard-earned money through ballot box budgeting tax measures.

LA WATCHDOG - Over the past two months, four men have pleaded guilty to felony charges relating to the Department of Water and Power’s botched rollout of its new Customer Information System (“CIS”) in September of 2103.

LA WATCHDOG - Corruption permeates the City of Los Angeles.

LA WATCHDOG - With so much uncertainty in the world, will the Nury Martinez led City Council and the Mayor (whoever he or she is) be “prudent” in developing next year’s City’s budget?