Comments@THE GUSS REPORT-Yes, tonight's title is a mouthful. But there is never a shortage of crazy seed in the birdcage of nutty Los Angeles politics.
Let's delve.
Barring unforeseen circumstances in the next year, the Los Angeles Times will undoubtedly endorse LA City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas to succeed Eric Garcetti as Mayor of LA. That is how predictable the El Segundo outlet has become, so I'll set that marker right here, right now. (By "unforeseen circumstances," I mean more indictments or the entry into the fray of a Richard Riordan-like capitalist and problem-solver like Rick Caruso.)
Sure, there is lingering chaos surrounding Ridley-Thomas's son, former California State Assemblymember Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, getting a teaching job at U.S.C. without an advanced degree after a curious $100,000 donation to the school from his father's campaign funds, according to the Times. And his son's apparent failure during the "hiring process" to tell U.S.C. that he was under investigation for alleged sexual harassment during his brief tenure in Sacramento. But that is all so 2018. Besides, the school fired the son when factors became known, so there's nothing to see here, right LA Times?
Right now, it's Ridley-Thomas's race to lose, assuming LA doesn't mind someone who drops the word vicissitude as frequently as his colleague Councilmember Gil Cedillo employs diaspora.
After yet another responsibility-avoiding recess, the Nury Martinez-led LA City Council had big things on its plate upon its return last week, like banning restaurants from giving you plastic utensils for takeout unless requested!
Not securing more desperately needed vaccines but banning sporks.
Does anyone remember Council's plastic bag ban? Have they been to Ralph's lately? The bags are thicker than ever and were free during the pandemic. Like its nutty ban on plastic straws, these are unenforceable fails. Last week, our family ordered from California Pizza Kitchen. Despite our proactively asking for no utensils, our bag contained enough of them for the Brady Bunch, including Alice the Maid, Cousin Oliver, and Davy Jones.
City Council's gleeful return to well-intentioned nanny-state-ism is what happens when the federal government forks over billions of dollars to fill massive budget gaps rather than fixing the problems which caused them in the first place. Good times, y'all.
Why isn't that same priority given to people living on, under and alongside the 101 Freeway in massive trash piles that go through Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell's District and across the city? If this is too big a problem for America's highest-paid city council, our local lawmakers should consider that one of its own, David Ryu, was voted out last year after just one term and replaced by a total newcomer named Nithya Raman.
Do you know who the first female Mayor of Los Angeles might be someday soon?
Nithya Raman.
Look around at the career politicians in local government, especially LA City Council. Most have reached elected office by attrition rather than accomplishment or qualifications.
Raman, a mother of very young twins and only a few months into the job, has already cleaned up many corners in her District and doesn't dodge questions or controversy. Why? Because it's not as complicated a job as other massive tasks she has taken on.
Born in India, Raman graduated from Harvard before walking down the street in Cambridge to earn a master's degree in urban planning from an outlet known as M.I.T. She founded the research firm Transparent Chennai, whose goal was to improve sanitation in the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
For context, Chennai has a population as big as the entire County of Los Angeles, except that it is vastly denser, with just 164 square miles, compared to LA's 4,753.
The fact that Nithya Raman is a woman of color is well-and-good. But she may be the best-equipped person for the job, perhaps even right now.
Why am I mentioning all of this? Because I have the nagging feeling that our politicians never, ever solve problems because they think that doing so eviscerates their reason for being in office. It's a twisted reality.
One person who won't get the Times' endorsement for Mayor in the next year is Councilmember Kevin Leon, better known as Kevin de León.
Recently I did a story on de León's stunning lack of self-awareness as he appeared disheveled during a recent Council meeting while opening-wide to shovel in copious spoonfuls of Froot Loops or other breakfast fare on camera during a City Council meeting.
Subsequently, the long-time lawmaker kept running off-camera, returning with obvious "tells" that he was still chowing down rather than zeroing in on his job.
Then last week, while each of his colleagues was in-place, on-time, looking alert, showered, fed and ready to lead the nation's second-largest city, a yawning, unkempt de León showed up to the Zoom meeting in a pull-over tee and bright red parka.
Perhaps because this column Tweeted about that, de León finally showed up to the next meeting looking like a pro.
But after hardly speaking during the meeting, de León delayed some of his colleagues from offering adjourning motions about the eight Asian people murdered in Atlanta last week and decrying violence against API communities, and instead gave a 5-minute commentary about St. Patrick's Day with stale and tone-deaf comments about his colleagues wearing green like Mitch O'Farrell, "Gil O'Cedillo, Mark O'Ridley-Thomas and John O'Lee." He also repeatedly reminded viewers that while his name is Kevin, he's not Irish, though he is an Irish caucus member. Yowzers.
My default assumption is that Mr. de León is a good and capable man. But for someone who may already have his eyes on running for Mayor, his odds would vastly improve by at least acting like he wants the $200,000 a year job he has right now.
And finally, there's the ongoing BS about Garcetti's deadly animal pound, Los Angeles Animal Services, being "No Kill," again.
No Kill is a bogus feel-good claim made by local governments in which they maliciously declare that killing one out of every ten healthy, adoptable animals in their "care" is not killing. Councilmember Paul Koretz, who has his eyes on the City Controller's job, is mainly responsible for this false claim in LA.
Koretz was unable to explain why the super-wealthy Best Friends organization made this claim on the City's behalf. The truth is that Best Friends has a substantial financial interest in pleasing Koretz.
A few days later, Koretz was at a loss to explain why a handsome, healthy Labrador at an LAAS pound wound up on the dreaded "Red List," which meant his death was imminent.
While the panic that the Labrador's Red List status caused may have helped get him sprung from the city's deadly grasp, Koretz, in his fifth decade of government employment, knows things could be vastly better, but by just floating along, his raison d'etre remains.
That is until the next Nithya Raman comes along and gives the public a far better option at the ballot box.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch. You can follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport.) Image: VectorStock. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
