Beck’s Law(less) New Policy: Flip-Flop on Impounding Cars of Unlicensed Drivers
Cross-posted at RonKayeLA.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck hit a raw nerve with his decision Friday to stop the practice of impounding for 30 days cars driven by unlicensed — and usually uninsured — drivers who are stopped at sobriety checkpoints.
His policy change, made on his own authority, was taken after meeting with immigration rights advocates who complained the impound policy was unfair to illegal immigrants since they are not allowed under state law to get licenses and causes them great hardship .
An article about his decision was printed Saturday in the LA Times, generating 527 comments by Monday morning, most of them unsympathetic to illegal immigrants and highly critical of the chief whose new policy requires officers to allow unlicensed drivers a "reasonable" period of time to get a licensed driver to the scene to avoid being towed.
LA City Council’s Election Day Outrage — $930 Million Worth of Reasons to Vote Them Out of Office
Cross-posted at RonKayeLA.
Taking their contempt for the public and the law to new heights, Los Angeles city leaders will carry out an election day theft of nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money, jeopardizing the governor’s budget-balancing plan and running roughshod over even the pretense of deliberative processes.
The CRA Board — at a special meeting called with just 24 hours notice — unanimously approved Monday some $100 million in projects and deals to cement them in stone just three days in advance of Gov. Jerry Brown’s deadline for the Legislature to put his budget plan — spending cuts, tax extensions and abolishing the 400 community redevelopment agencies across California.
At the same time, State Controller John Chiang released a scathing audit of the LA CRA and 17 other CRAs in the state finding "reporting flaws, substandard audits, questionable payment practices
and an inappropriate use of affordable housing funds, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The report also
found no clear methodology or data to measure claims of job creation or other economic benefits to the state.
Billions to Spend: Waste throws wrench into Los Angeles community colleges’ massive project
Cross-posted at RonKayeLA.
Poor planning, frivolous spending and shoddy work dog the sprawling system’s bond-financed construction program. Those are the headlines online on Part One of the LA Times powerful week-long investigate series by reporters Michael Finnegan and Gale Holland who examined what LA Community College District have done with the nearly $6 billion in taxpayer construction bonds.
The series is backed by interactive map, graphic on what each college got and a chart of the to 10 contractors and how much money they have donated to board members and to get the bond issues approved by voters.
With the election for four of the seven LACCD Board seats coming March 8, the series is a bombshell that ought to guide voters to cast ballots for fiscally responsible candidates like Lydia Gutierrez, Joe Essavi, Joyce Burrell, Erick Aguire and write-in candidate Mark Isler instead of the slate of candidates backed by the unions and developers.
They are Mona Field, Steven Veres, Miguel Santiago and Scott Svonkin. They must be held accountable or we are complicit in the waste, efficiency and corruption.
The Artless Deal: Why Billionaire Phil Anschutz Is Getting Richer and LA Is Going Broke
Cross-posted at RonKayeLA.
It doesn’t take a brilliant sleuth like Sherlock Holmes to solve the Case of the Bankrupt City.
It’s not a mystery. You just have to look at the record of City Hall’s artless deals, its giveaways public moneydow to unions, billionaires, developers, Hollywood, contractors and a lot of other special interests with few, if any, benefits to the general public.
Instant Budget Fix: Abolish Redevelopment Agencies
Cross-posted at RonKayeLA.
Gov. Jerry Brown set off howls across the state with his assault Monday on Community Redevelopment Agencies and Enterprise Zones — the instruments that have so long been abused by local politicians to enrich developers by robbing the public of good schools and quality services.
Our own Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Brown’s proposal to “completely eliminate the Redevelopment Zones and State Enterprise Zones is a non-starter.”
Added Christine Essel, CEO of CRA/LA: “Governor Brown is proposing to dismantle an economic tool that has a 60-year track record of success in creating jobs and stimulating economic activity across the state.”
That should be easy to test:
Are luxury hotels, luxury entertainment projects and luxury skyscrapers more valuable in economic and quality of life terms than cops on the streets and libraries that are open and programs in the parks for kids”
Does it help the working poor struggling for a better life in Boyle Heights to fill their neighborhood with housing for the city’s derelicts, mentally disturbed and hopelessly poor?
Understand how it works: The CRA takes over huge areas of the city and subsidizes development and then keeps the incremental increases in property taxes, often using eminent domain power to seize private property which it gives as a gift to private developers to build projects nobody wants except the people who profit from them.
Is It Really All Antonio’s Fault?
Cross-posted at RonKayeLA.
In returning from a long book-writing sabbatical, LA Times stalwart Jim Newton spent several weeks talking with “more than two dozen influential Angelenos — current and former politicians, labor leaders, environmentalists, neighborhood activists and bureaucrats.”
On Tuesday, his first column was published. The subject was Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the headline was “How Disappointing.”
“Criticism from his longtime foes wasn’t unexpected. They regard the
mayor as selfish, arrogant and ineffective. But his longtime backers
weren’t much happier. They complain that he’s been an incompetent
manager and has squandered the public’s initial enthusiasm for him. They
too are astounded at his preening self-indulgence.
“Neighborhood activists think he is labor’s agent, determined to feather
the nest of public employees in exchange for political support from
unions. Labor representatives find him two-faced, reneging on deals and
sloughing off basic management responsibilities. Environmentalists say
he’s all talk. Conservatives deplore him; liberals are tired of him.
Politicians believe he’s principally driven by his pursuit of higher
office,” Newton wrote.
In the end, Newton offers more of a prayer than an analytical insight: “Villaraigosa has gifts of leadership and ability, and the time to take
advantage of them. The city needs him to focus and deliver on his word.”
Stop the Nonsense: Public Needs Absolute Guarantee No Public Money Will Be Used for Downtown NFL Stadium
Cross-posted at RonKayeLA
At the height of his power when the leadership of LA still was driven by a vision of greatness for the city as well as greed for themselves, Tom Bradley pushed through a 1978 Charter measure that barred the use of public funds to support the 1984 Olympics because he knew it was the only way the people of the city would support it.
It was a great Olympics by any measure, hugely profitable, a grand spectacle and dire warnings about traffic gridlock never materialized because trucks were banned from freeways during rush hours and major companies staggered their work hours.
Oh, what happy days those were!
It’s been a long downhill slide ever since as the commitment to public benefits has disappeared from the agenda of politicians and the civic and business leadership, resulting in thwarted demands from the people for major reforms from Valley secession to devolution of power through a borough system.
L.A. At the Tipping Point
Cross posted at www.ronkayela.com.
Few places on Earth needs to worry more about the impact of global warming than Los Angeles. If we lose this climate, we won’t have a lot left.
The big banks and big stores have all left town or closed down along with the big defense contractors that provided the middle class jobs that drove the consumer economy.
City of Limits: A Generation After LA’s Myth and Reality Clashed
The City of Angels has become a city of limits, facing major
environmental decisions that will determine the political agenda until
the end of the century and the quality of life for decades.
Loosely controlled growth in the postwar years has outpaced efforts to
protect Los Angeles’ air, water and soil from pollution. Studies by
local, state and federal agencies warn that deterioration of the city’s
environment will reach critical levels as the population soars by an
expected 20 percent in the next 13 years.
Cleaning up the environment will cost billions of dollars and force
drastic changes in lifestyle, with such measures as trash separation,
water conservation and mandatory car pooling, according to interviews
with politicians, community leaders, educators, environmentalists and
consumers.
L.A. Clean Sweep Kick Off, a big hit!
Cross-posted at RonKayeLA.com.
It was beautiful — the moment of truth when we pushed the button and launched the Clean Sweep campaign to bring all of Los Angeles together to change the political culture, empower every segment of the community and elect better people for a greater city.
Some 200 people gathered Saturday in the heat at the Mayflower Club in North Hollywood to rally behind creating an alternative to failure at City Hall and apathy and defeatism among voters.
A lot of hard work lies ahead that will take the efforts of thousands of people but the enthusiasm Saturday among people who represent political views of the left, right and center, people came from all parts of the city, showed there is a base of committed passionate support for the broad agenda of Clean Sweep.