UTLA’s Hostile Takeover Bid of LAUSD

United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that represents over 30,000 teachers, is spending millions to seize control of the Los Angeles Unified School District.  If UTLA is successful, the union will use its influence to eviscerate charter and magnet schools, adversely impacting approximately 200,000 students. There are two ways that voters can halt this power […]

LA and CA Politicians Believe Money Grows on Trees

The Los Angeles Unified School District voted on Thursday to place on the June ballot a “leap of faith” parcel tax designed to raise $500 million.  This tax will be based on the square footage of any building in the 710 square mile area served by LAUSD. This represents a 7% increase in our real […]

The Follow Up to the Vetoed Bank of Los Angeles

Angelenos and the City of Los Angeles dodged a potentially fatal bullet on Tuesday, November 6, when 58% of the City’s voters said NO to Charter Amendment B, which, according a Los Angeles Times editorial, was “one of the most ill-conceived, half-baked measures to come out of City Hall in years, and that’s saying something.” […]

LA’s Liability Claims Are Out of Control

Liability claims against the City of Los Angeles have caused continuing nightmares for the City’s budget mavens. Over the last five years, the total payouts and settlements for legal actions totaled $541 million, an average of $108 million a year, double the amount for the previous five years (2009-2013) of $264 million, an average of […]

The Not So Independent Bank of Los Angeles

Charter Amendment B: Shall the City Charter be amended to allow the City to establish a municipal financial institution or bank? The proponents of the November ballot measure that would allow the City of Los Angeles to establish a bank tell us that it would be an independent entity, free of political interference, because it […]

LA City Hall Spendoholics Rip Off DWP Ratepayers

On Tuesday, November 28, the politically appointed Board of Water and Power Commissioners rubber stamped the transfer of $242 million of Ratepayer money from the DWP’s debt burdened Power System to City Hall without any meaningful discussion. There was no documentation that disclosed how the Department determined the $242 million transfer.  Nor did the Board […]

Los Angeles in Pension Denial

Why are Councilmembers Paul Krekorian, the Chair of the Budget & Finance Committee, and Paul Koretz, the Chair of the Personnel Committee, and Mayor Eric Garcetti unwilling to be transparent about the City’s pension crisis that contributes to its never ending Structural Deficit and is crowding out basic services to Angelenos? Our friends who occupy […]

Herb Wesson’s Latest Pitch: City Owned ‘Bank of Los Angeles’ … Is It  Worth the Risk?

On Tuesday, Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson made a motion to look into the feasibility of creating the “Bank of Los Angeles” with a vision statement of “financing the building of affordable housing,” making loans to “small business entrepreneurs,” and accommodating the cannabis industry and its banking requirements. “WE THEREFORE MOVE that the […]

DWP Labor Contract: Arrogance Breeds Lack of Transparency

On Monday afternoon of June 19, 2017, the Board of Water and Power Commissioners sent us a notice that they were holding a Special Meeting on the following day, Tuesday, June 20, at 11:30 in the morning, to approve the new contract between the Department of Water and Power and the IBEW, its domineering union […]