An alumni resource providing a means for quick updates to ongoing news and events about the school, the neighborhood, and the City of Los Angeles- the environment that we have all shared, past and present. The topics run all the way from the lighter side of life to the more serious issues that we face, and, of course, more items of our past experiences.
contact: lhs90031@earthlink.net
The meeting tomorrow at Hollywood Community Center has a lot of community activists and just plainly interested people in the well-being of the City working on restoring some good governement to L.A. And you can see this is an entirely different group of persons than are meeting and marching down South Broadway on Saturday, also hoping to affect some changes of their own.
From an email today from Daniel Wiseman, one prominent individual among the many, comes an invitation to observe and/or participate in the items among the 3 meetings that will be on the morning's schedule.
PLEASE, join with other NCASH's, tomorrow, SATURDAY, May 1, 2010 at the Hollywood Community Center (Fountain & Wilcox Streets) for...
9:30 - DWP Committee Meeting - recent ECAF raises, Mr. Smith's 8 DWP-related Motions, more
10:30 - LANC Coalition Meeting - DWP, City Budget, Planning Department, Studio City Board Member removal, more
12:30 - NCs' Budget Advocates Meeting - Current Year Budget Crisis (?insolvency), Mayor's FY2010-2011 Proposal, B&F
He prefaced this with this word on the purpose of the meetings and actions, generally,
How many times have you heard someone say, "No one told ME about that?" - Sometimes, that is true. - Sometimes, our City Officials seem to be withholding vital information from us. Sometimes, they seem to ignore us, entirely. - Sometimes, the reporters from the Times and Daily news don't ask for and don't print our opinions. - Sometimes we NCASHs (aka Neighborhood Council ACTIVE Stakeholders) fail in our "outreach" efforts, too. OOUTREACH isn't OUTREACH unless the people we are OUTREACHing to REACH BACK back to us.
So...we need to put our thoughts together we need to put our thoughts into print. we need to get those thoughts printed. we need to get those printings read. we need to hear from our readers. Then...we need to start from the top (put our thoughts together) and begin the next cycle. (Recycling is good.)
LANC Coalition's and NC Budget Advocates' statements and Minutes are now being posted on BudgetLA.org. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, who said, "Democracy it is the worst form of government...except for all other forms of government", we could say, " http://www.budgetla.org/ is the worst website to use...except for all other websites (real or imagined).
Let's publicize this activity. Let's read and respond to its content, regularly. Let's tell our friends (and some of our enemies) about it and encourage them all to be more friendly.
A worthwhile endeavor to sample if you are not sure about a more firm commitment, and you can see a lot of what's really happening at City Hall that doesn't get to the news(papers).
And can you guess what has Mayor Villaraigosa been up to besides directing rate hikes for customers of the DWP? And wasn't the Mayor a position that takes care of CITY business? Somebody should tell Tony about this. And the rest of City Council, too, with Eric Garcetti, another who says the city is "tax starved", and include Janice Hahn who called herself the "parcel tax queen." This tells you what they are thinking about, and it's not the people of Los Angeles. But let's get back to Mayor Tony's present surfacing in today's news conference.
MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA LOOKING FORWARD TO MAY DAY.
Besides being the former Pothole King, he's the Rhetoric Prince. Another May Day is coming and he's probably going to show his face. His press conference today was a warm up but the Arizona Boycott idea provoked him to grab the spotlight again.
He is not a lawyer, not even close. His expressed views can be considered as either pedestrian, or, just the echoing of some anonymous staffer paid a lot for nothing really meaningful.
He needs an attorney to do this summary for him in order to make a better grounded legal evaluation, but as it's actually rhetoric, why bother?
The Arizona Boycott gives Tony a vehicle to come out of his May Day self-imposed exile after making his "We Clean Your Toilets" revelation to the crowd where Mexican flags were displayed in abundance throughout the scenes shown on television. (He even gave instructions for the anticipated rally-goers, including bringing plastic water bottles and bags to pick up after yourself upon leaving. He's so much the civics director- but remember that plastic bottles were taken to such events but frozen first in order to get some better distance in the water toss event that became part of that earlier day's activities that came to be called the May Day Melee. It cost L.A. a pretty penny when the claims were settled. Don't you just love rallies? Tony apparently does. Darn those pranksters.
TONY IS THE ORATOR AGAIN- He Has a Dream.
If you review the recordings of the style he's used in speaking during his first couple of "State of the City" addresses, you can see that they were over-enunciated as if he was repising the "I Have a Dream" speech of Martin Luther King. I think he actually expected to be some great mayor and was planning to have some vivid recordings for the expected archival footage of his early administration. Too bad he turned out to be, instead, and increasingly certain, "the worst mayor in the history of Los Angeles."
As that complete self-delusion began to clear from his head a bit, he started talking normally (in his case, not to impressive) and make normal speeches of vapid content.
Today, he's gotten his second wind apparently, and the product was a very contrived assortment of inflections and more conclusions that only he and his staff could believe.
TONY THE DREAMER
Does anyone read these items for him in advance to try to clear out some of the puzzling phrases.
AND GUESS WHAT?
None of this helps solve the city's budget predicament which Tony helped create while travelling most of his first 5 years in office and attending a record number of press conferences and photo opps (and some of these should really be called "photo ooops" for all the silliness involved) instead of working in his office to tend to the city business that was presumably the reason for his election.
His budget plan is in trouble- it seems he's not paying attention here, too. Tony is getting so desperate to avoid bankruptcy under his "leadership", as are the other CMs, that he will sell off any city assets he can to get his butt out of the short term jam just to avoid bankruptcy of the city. The fallout from that is that he will be leaving the city to face a heavily indebted and disastrous future, but by then, he will be long gone.
Maybe Villaraigosa will be running for the Senate, or as some think, being selected to be the Ambassador to somewhere. Ambassadors attend lots of social functions and that's probably a good fit for Villaraigosa, the party mayor. Too bad he couldn't have skipped this one stop as L.A.'s mayor on the way there.
And it looks like the Ethel Percy Andrus Theatre, formerly the auditorium, will get some general public performance time logged in tonight and tomorrow night. The event that almost passed us by, but for the just-received email from Mike Ibarra of the LHS Alumni Association has passed along the following information:
Andrus Performing Arts Program Proudly presents. . . "ONCE ON THIS ISLAND" - HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN'S, The Little Mermaid .... Timeless tale of true love's battle against difference of social status, skin color, and even death!
Performed by The LHS Choir, Drama students and Musicians
$2 General Admission, $1 Students
DATES: THURSDAY, APRIL 29TH, 7:30 pm FRIDAY, APRIL 30TH, 7:00 pm
LETS SUPPORT THE PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAM & THE STUDENTS OF LHS!
Thanks, Mike.
An OPEN HOUSE TONIGHT at LHS
Lincoln High will be holding an Open House today, Thursday, April 29th, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
It's on the school Calendar without any further elaboration or fanfare. (Clicking the links just gets a re-arrangement of the same few words- I thought that there woudl be an expansion of the basic notice, but so far I haven't seen that concept applied with about all of the LHS calendar items; "What you see is all you get," it seems. )
(I only post the things that I find or those things that are passed along to me . You can see that precious little comes my way that's originating from the alma mater. A little better promotion might help them out to reach persons who DO want participate but don't get any advance word- and I am not saying I am any great terminal for people to pass through to find out things, only that If I get some announcement, then somebody is doing a pretty good job of outreach to hit even my obscure destination.)
For the ten neighborhood councils in the eastside that were grouped into Region G, this is the day to vote. All NCs will have only one polling place each, open for a 6-hour block, most have chosen 2 to 8 pm for the hours. Highland Park - Rec. Center on Piedmont by the library; Eagle Rock, at the Eagle Rock City Hall, and Lincoln Heights at Lincoln Park. I don’t know about the others, but you can Google the rest.
A Provisional Vote can be made to bridge this gap, so no one has to walk away without voting, but supporting documentation is to be supplied within 3 days to make that vote count.
This is ironic that so much documentation could conceivably be a bar to voting when the local, state and federal election require NOTHING to vote. So you have the two extremes, or potential extremes, to encounter in these differing voting situations.
There's a provision for curbside voting for voters who are unable to enter the polling places to have a poll worker handle their voting from their vehicle. You can call in advance (and it's not clear- call the polling location or the city clerk?) or just show up but somebody with the voter then will have to go inside to ask for that. Some NCs will be busy and I think most will not, especially where there's not much controversy or challenge for seats on a particular board.
But in any event, vote. And for many NCs, the voting age minimum extends down to 16, according to the Bylaws of that NC. That was a sore spot for some last time around in Lincoln Heights, where it was a topic for many complaints in Mayor Sam's blog, http://www.mayorsam.blogspot.com/ There's still criticism carrying over on recent posts.
The NCs are part of a 90 member Neighborhood Council system mandated by the City Charter over 10 years ago as a result of voters' choosing this. The origin came about as a fallout from the move of the S.F. Valley effort to secede from the City of L.A. Better representation of the public by the council members was the goal, but it's only now that it is coming to some effectiveness. The DWP and City actions have become targets of public opposition, in many cases led by the coalitions of the NCs.
That newfound effectiveness could account for why some council members oppose funding NCs and would just like them to go away and butt out. And the positions are "volunteer" ones, no pay and advisory in nature.
Please participate and continue in this way to have City Hall hear the public's voice.
The 10 Neighborhood Councils in Region G will have elections to fill positions for the next two-year terms on Thursday, April 29, 2010.
The process is a pretty simple concept. But that might show a weak spot in the area of documentation needed to show at voting time to establish eligibility. Some items of documentation may not be handy or not even exist to satisfy some categories of voters. Residents and property and business owners should not have trouble on this, but if you have lesser connections that are established by being on a membership list, having a membership document or appear on a letterhead might not be that easy.
Provisional votes will come to the rescue with supporting docs needed to be submitted within the next 3 days to have your vote count. Last election time there was an LA. Times story by a reporter or columnist travelling to various NCs to vote under the assorted categories and it was not a very strong showing of integrity of the system. That may be why the City Clerk's office was given the job this time around, but funding dried up to do it with outreach.
There are voter eligibilities for as young as 16 per bylaws of each NC. And that was a big criticism in the Lincoln Heights NC's last election where many students voted at the Lincoln High Auditorium (now "Andrus Theatre") voting place.
Some changes for the future will probably be called for. So you add this to the funding cuts proposed for more problem to affect the NC system.
The story a month or so back in the L.A. Times reported on how there's some pretty big chunks of money that wer not in the interest of the public. It included the $25,000.00 that L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas paid to be included in "Who's Who in Black Los Angeles." in a way that you would put an ad in the Yellow Pages. And this would be his own venture into narcissism and I or many others would not really care, as the public offices are peppered with knuckleheads when it comes to having problems maintaining any personal integrity or dignity.
But Steve Lopez wrote about that and more who have shelled out public money for this same personal luxury today in the LA. TIMES - "Who's Who with whose funds? - L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas spent $25,000 for a spot in "Who's Who in Black Los Angeles." The DWP also put down ratepayer funds to spotlight 10 of its top leaders in the book." L.A. Times, April 21, 2010. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopezcolumn-20100421,0,7882706.column
There realy is no accountability by many politicians- dare I say "most polititcians" as well? Lopez makes this some interesting reading if it only it didn't hurt the tax payer. This is the kind of thing that is in line with campaigning for office and maybe even crosses the line of permissible use of public money and it shows that no one is watching the store. When confronted, you can bet there's some idiotic reason they can dream up (they have lots of practice at being idiotic). Another insult added to injury for us out in the public is that these people usually have a nice and secure payday and benefits, which is the case just by knowing that they work for the DWP.
More people should send some words of appreciation to these officials to tell them how we appreciate their generosity with "OPM" (other people's money) or more specifically, "TPM" (Tax Payer's Money). But there's lots more money that will roll in with all the rate hikes proposed by the DWP. I have to remind you that this is an agency out of control as the DWP commission works essentially hand in hand with the Mayor (Tony appoints them all), who himself is often the best friend when it came to union deals, and with all the expense of more added to the DWP payroll, they need to have more money. You know it would kill them to have to dip into the Billion Dollars of funds that they have built up.
Ok, just check the story and maybe I will get to the State of the City Address, 2010-style, that Villaraigosa read pretty well- dull but well. Too bad most of this was a combination of lies, reversals of blame and totally a CYA operation. But, as I seem to say too often here, "What else is new?" And Tony's blaming the economy downturn for where we are as a city is absolutely lame, (pun time), done by the "lame duck" mayor- still with a very long 3 years left on his second and last term.
Ok, I'll leave that for another time but keep checking www.ronkayela.com where you may get a laugh or too with all the bad news of our "leadership" at City Hall.
And check out the Lopez column and see what else he brings up or out.
The mayor's speech that he's given each year is about due- 4-pm. I don't know if anyone's covering it live but there will be text of it printed somewhere. It may be out now since he's not ad libbing- that would be another disaster for him to add to the list.
Well, the list of layoffs is down from 4,000 to 750 and that's not even certain since it's really "positions" that are the things to be eliminated. I don't know city hall math, and I can't see how keeping anyone from being laid off makes the budget any lighter. It's not like they are working for free.
And the transfers to DWP side actuall wind up better since they never get laid off there AND they make more by 20 to 40 percent or more, depending on the positions, not to mention the good benefits that the IBEW squeezed out of the city- actually the negotiations really don't call for too much squeezing, they just ask and it happens, relatively speaking. That's how we have the situation we have. Tony has a big hand in all this- don't let him fool you on that.
Well, let's see what comes up and here's hoping he's settled down to cut out all that aah, eehh, uhh that he fills into sentences as if they are part of the speech. In reading things, he's not too bad. Pronunciation is off on some big words- "Noble" instead of "no-BELL" Peace Prize. Just little things you would expect a mayor to know.
The mayor is supposed to deliver the State of the City speech tomorrow- do bad he's never been able to deliver on helping the residents and businesses over the past 5 years.
Without recapping what's going on now, as most checking here may know all too well, how about going back for a full year to the 2009 State of the City address and reviewing the things that Tony said and see what's been done in the past year and what he said about how the city should act for it's own financial soundness. FIRST: Prepared text of Villaraigosa's State of the City speech April 14, 2009 4:00 pm http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/ Source: Office of the Mayor
You might check the way the speech was reported after you check what Tony said (to let you know that all these things now happening in the city were known about back then, a year ago).
SECOND: You could read this next part, even without checking the words Villaraigosa spoke, and still see we are not being represented well at any level in the city government.
I am just not very hopeful about the city's future as far as the so-called leadership, a leadership that's been asleep at the wheel for years. Is it able to fix anything now? The only thing Tony is trying to improve now is his own image.
There's some strange goings on in City Hall, and of course, none of it is good for the consumer, the city resident or just plain regular person. Yesterday, the City Council voted to approve the rate hikes that were passed over by the DWP in their apparent power play at the end of March.
So the DWP- a utility company owned by the city- is getting "surpluses" of money every year that it passes over to the city, now in the sum of $220 million a year, but they continue to raise rates for all of us. The money was passed over to the city earlier this year but only in a partial payment, not the whole $220 million.
And now the money is needed since it's been counted in the budget calculations, and it's obviously important. When the DWP did not get the rate hikes proposal that they changed upward from the City's amount, by the way, this payment of $73.5 million was withheld.
Funny, but the money transfer was not supposed to depend on the passage of the rate hike, but everyone started to play games and the DWP could not begin to collect the rate hikes beginning in April like it had planned since that city council-approved rate was rejected as DWP instead upped the requested hike. So, with everything rejected, there's NO rate increase currently in effect and the retribution activities began.
After that, the earliest that any rate increase could happen is July 1, 2010. So the DWP went for the big rate hike and came away eompletely empty.
YESTERDAY'S COUNCIL ANTICS
The Council president, Garcetti, came in at the end of the meeting with a "special one" that was not on the agenda and that was presented to a nearly empty Council Chambers, since it was getting late, after 3pm, and adjournment was right arount the corner.
President Garcetti said that the matter was some sort of emergency, justiying the immediate action of the council. Jan Perry, who is against the DWP's slippery moves on the numbers, voiced her concern about why this is now presented. Garcetti was as joyful as a kid on Christmas morning seeing a tree loaded with gifts all around it. He said that 5 others on the Council agreed this was important to do.
Garcetti was told by Dion O'Connell, the Dep. City Attorney assigned to the Council, that it did no appear to be an emergency and should go under other proceduures, but he was overruled in his advice and the council took a vote to hear this. It was opened up and before the council could take a vote
So it was a simple rate hike of the same size that was kicked over by the DWP last month. And this hike could not be operative until July 1st so what's the "urgency" that's here?
Apparently, it was a set up situation supposed to get quietly approved, and with all the audience gone, no one could cause problems. But one guy was still there for another item and made a request to reject the proposed action to raise DWP fees. An excellent presentation that would tell anyone of a sensible mind set that a rejection was called for and that the process was irregular and probably violating the law, the Brown Act's open meeting and public comment requirements, as well as the time frame for advance notice of posting an agenda.
This whole thing was so wrong and Garcetti set this up with a special group of Council members.
The council still ignored the public comment, but Wayne's presentation in two minutes was one of the most effective ones I and many others have heard, especially without note or even advance notice of the topic.
RON KAYE L.A. today covers this. http://www.ronkayela.com/ takes City Council to task on this and has that two minute clip on his site.
I have to put that here since so much is right with what was said, and so much is wrong with what was done by Council members, at least the ones who voted "Yes" on this.
There are few other extracts on video that you can see on Ron Kaye's blog.
It looks like the Garcetti-led action to bypass any scrutiny by the public was done to give the DWP the rate hike that Garcetti just about guaraneed less than two weeks ago in one of his slickster make-amends speeches. What about the public's right to participate? Eric is getting as bad as his boss and personal leader, Antonio Villaraigosa.
I heard Eric speak at a meeting in Glassell Park a few weeks ago and he give a friendly presentation but the content is what is so objectionable. I never got to my list of questions in the few minutes left for that part of the meeting, but he has some very strong views that will cost the taxpayers a lot more than needs to be levied. He's not at all aware of any other views that "make sense" that could possibly stand up to what HE wants to see done.
A career politician is like this. And there's lots of them.
See the Ron Kay column today and check the video clips of the meeting to see how easily the Council members move ahead despite any notions of fairness or clear compliance with the law.
The big question: How is approval of a rate hike that will not happen until July 1, 2010 "an emergency" that can't wait to properly appear on the agenda or go through some alternative processes required before a vote can be taken?
The words "done deal," "set up," "a fix," "backroom deals" and "circumventing the rules" come to mind- and I wonder how much time Tony and Eric spoke about this charade of a process to get this done.
Today, the DWP commission will meet at 4 pm and decide to take this deal or not. Garcetti and Matt Szabo, the mayor's chief or assistant chief of staff, already treats this as accepted by DWP, so you know there's a lot of behind-the-scenes action going on. ================================ A council 245 motion can be made to have the matter re-visited with 10 council votes which would be an opportunity to turn back this action. Hard to imagine more CMs than now objecting getting courage to fight this; many of them WANT rate hikes. I would include Cardenas and Alarcon as the prime examples of that. They both talk about concerns for poor and low-income people but it's all for show when the heavy duty decisons go completely against that sort of stand.
REMEMBER, The even numbered council districts will be having elections in March 2010- expect those candidates to try to look good to be re-elected but see what's really being done for the proof here. (In yesteday's action a 10-2 vote hapened to allow the matter to be opened before the vote on the actual content could proceed.
If anyone really would voice a stand it would have been propery done then to shut this whole thing down then and there and force a regular treatment to happen. But only 2 voted against it. Jan Perry and Dennis Zine voted NO then. On the rate hike itself, Zine, Parks, Perry, Krekorian, and I believe, LaBonge joined them in voting "NO."
Friday is the next council meeting and unless somebody calls for another emergency meeting tonight after DWP official approves acceptance, that will be the next time the public can sound off.
An update is going to air on KCET this Thursday night on KCET- channel 28, the PBS local station in Los Angeles. It will also be made available online after it airs. You may recall that the original show was about the way the DWP operates.
In today's L.A. City Council meeting, Council Member Dennis Zine called the DWP "an agency that's out of control."Zine said that "we are going to get it under control," as I paraphrase that last part. Other CMs jumped on that bandwagon to support Zine, but they can and do get carried away with themselves from time to time, and then, sometimes nothing more ever happens. At other times, to make matters worse, they do a complete turnaround on the position and vote FOR a bad motion, one that energizes the city-agency-turned-Terminator and off DWP goes to further victimize the customers, called "rate-payers" by them, as if that's making the financial pain more bearable.
The KCET show is called, "SoCal Connected,"and this DWP item was recently presented as a segment of the program, revealling a lot about the DWP and it's operations, featuring Brian D'Arcy, President of the IBEW local union that represents nearly 90% of the DWP employees. D'Arcy, a seemingly jovial character is nonetheless responsible for doing a lot of pressuring to get his way, and he does it effectively. It is as effective as the council's and mayor's resistance is lame.
========================================================== I received an email about this upcoming show and here's the text of the attached press release:
‘SOCAL CONNECTED’ LOOKS INSIDE THE FIERCE FEUD OVER RATE HIKES AT LADWP -- THE NATION’S LARGEST MUNICIPALLY OWNED UTILITY.
EPISODE AIRS THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010
KCET’s Award-Winning News Program as Part of Primetime Line-up that Includes ‘Washington Week’ and ‘Bill Moyers’ Journal’ on Fridays at 8:30 PM, Plus Saturdays at 6:00 PM, and Sundays at 6:30 PM
Los Angeles, CA – April 13, 2010 – SoCal Connected takes a deeper look at what’s behind the bitter battle over DWP rate hikes. In late March the Mayor called for a hefty increase in electric rates. The City Council – uncharacteristically – rejected the hike. The DWP, in turn, is refusing to pay the cash-strapped City millions in fees. Why, in the middle of one of the worst budget crises in Los Angeles history, is the DWP immune to layoffs, cutbacks and furlough days? Why are other city workers losing their jobs, while the DWP biggest union is enjoying a 5-year pay raise? Why do they get raises when they are already paid more than other City workers? This week SoCal Connected Anchor Val Zavala updates her investigation into the City’s most powerful department, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
In a rare TV interview, Zavala talks with Brian D’Arcy, the powerful head of the electrical workers union (IBEW Local 18 which represents 9 out of 10 DWP employees). D’Arcy defends the pay deal, saying the higher salaries paid to DWP workers are merely the price of attracting talent in a competitive job sector.
Confronted with the complaints of angry ratepayers, he responds that “...generally how they feel is not relevant.”
SoCal Connected also spoke with former Interim General Manager S. David Freeman who echoed D’Arcy, arguing that D’Arcy is just doing a good job for his members. But that may be cold comfort to customers, most of whom have seen their DWP bills go up significantly. SoCal Connected also talks with a former DWP Commissioner who predicts that some L.A. residents will see their utility bills exceed their monthly mortgage.
Find out what's driving up utility costs. How much will going green cost us? And who's in the driver's seat at the LADWP? “The Price of Power” airs this Thursday, April 15 at 8:00 p.m.
Next, SoCal Connected Correspondent Angie Crouch peers into the future of California rail transportation in “Track to the Future?” In 2008, California residents approved $10 billion in bonds to jump-start a long-discussed high-speed rail system connecting Anaheim with San Francisco and points in between. Last January, Congress granted $8 billion for the high-speed rail project as part of President Obama's push to develop infrastructure and create jobs. But critics argue that the real-world costs exceed the projected benefits and communities along the planned route wonder what price they’ll be made to pay in quality of life.
In addition to airing on SoCal Connected, “Track to the Future?” will appear as part of PBS’ Blueprint America, a yearlong multi-platform initiative examining infrastructure issues throughout America and the world. The series and its companion Web site (www.pbs.org/blueprintamerica) consist of content produced by national PBS shows, local stations and original documentaries distributed nationally on PBS. Major support for Blueprint America is provided by The Rockefeller Foundation and The Surdna Foundation.
Then SoCal Connected Commentator Marcos Villatoro tries to make sense of the alphabet soup that appears on his DWP bill.
“The Price of Power” is reported by Val Zavala and produced by Karen Foshay. “Track to the Future?” is reported by Angie Crouch and produced by Saul Gonzalez. The Executive Producer of SoCal Connected is Bret Marcus. Anchor is Val Zavala.
SoCal Connected, recent winner of six Emmys, eight Golden Mikes, including Best News Public Affairs Show, five LA Press Club awards for journalism, recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Best News Documentary, and Los Angeles Magazine’s “Best New Local TV Program” of 2009, airs Thursdays (8:00 – 8:30 p.m.), Fridays (8:30 – 9:00 p.m.), Saturdays (6:00 – 6:30 p.m.), and Sundays (6:30 – 7:00 p.m.) exclusively on KCET. For more information, to view episodes online or to post comments, please visit www.kcet.org/socal.
SoCal Connected is made possible through the generous support of The Ahmanson Foundation, serving the Los Angeles community since 1952; Jim and Anne Rothenberg; Linda and Abbott Brown; The Elizabeth Hofert-Dailey Trust; The John Randolph Haynes & Dora Haynes Foundation; The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, UCLA and U.S. Bank. ===========================================================================
There are quite a few Lincoln grads among the DWP employees and this may or may not show things that are anything new to you. And don't get me wrong on this criticism of the operations. Good for you for having such a vigorously supportive union. It's their job and they seem to adopt a "take no prisoners" kind of attitude when it comes to negotiations.
But a lot of financial problems we have are the result of the generous way the mayor and council members have been to the DWP. The only real negotiating skills that were shown when contracts were assembled were on the side of the IBEW.
After deals are done, the Mayor can sign off as Villaraigosa did for the contract worked out while Hahn was still mayor. This was in 2005.
The Mayor never really opposed anything DWP presented, and he had his own expensive ideas to throw in. All this chumminess has resulted in 5 yearly raised created that CITY COUNCIL approved in December 2009, as the city was sliding down the hill, nearing the bankruptcy ledge. Does that make any sense? Does the term "rubber stamp" ring a bell? Make that "$178,000.00 per year Rubber-stamps." (Note: next election for even-numbered CDs is in March 2011.)
So we have a lot of expenses connected to DWP in their confusing and big billings that keep growing.
The Mayor seems to have forgotten that there are quite a few million people he is supposed to be WORKING FOR. I think that there was something of an oath of office that he took but those are mere technicalities to him, as usual. Meanwhile, the Mayor, the City Council and the political appointees have ALL, until recently, worked to make DWP life pretty cozy, but it's all at the "rate payers" expense, and who cares about them? No one, for a long time it's been like that.
A lot of waste and abuse going on unchecked- I am not real certain of the fraud part of this trilogy of financial frolicking with taxpayer money, but I am sure we can locate some.
So all this current opposition to the DWP by City Council is not permanent and I suspect some is phony. You had one CM leave a meeting to avoid having a vote show either way on the DWP rate hike request. It's politics, I remind you. Like magicians, these politicians practice their trade using the art of distraction and re-directing attention while the real deed is done.
So, see the t.v. show on Thursday. See if the KCET report come down on the DWP or if they start to get a little too cozy with them on their own and turn into another show like Patt Morrison's with softball questions that skirt the real issues and leaves us no better informed than before.
As always, there's so much more to talk about with what's going on that's not on the up and up, and most of that is not even secret, but most of the people don't notice or don't care. Time to change that.
Well, in case you haven't noticed, the Mayor is not having too good a time lately. First he scolded the City Council with a warning about the need to approve the request for the DWP rate hikes or that would be creating a very direct path to bankruptcy. That was in a report to the Council and it did not sit well with Ed Reyes for one, so the messenger got a bit of a dressing down on that topic.
Then the Mayor said that bankruptcy was not what he meant and it was ony a report for the Council- but it was freely distributed to the press, too. And by the way, did Tony mean that the Council gets one version and the public receives something different? Not a good outcome no matter how he tried to spin it.
Then the Council shut down that DWP rate hike (the first of a schedule of 4 increases) and proposed some lower increases until they got a better explanation of what exactly is the need attached to the charge. Then DWP's commissioners got to it during a late afternoon session, decided to bump their request back up and pass over what City Council had approved.
Next, on that same evening well after the sun had set, the Council saw the reply and shut the DWP down flat. Even Council Member Herb Wesson, usually trying to appear as the more wise and calm, collected member of the Council was angry, saying, "We are pissed," in remarking to the Council how the DWP had acted and what was to come.
So City Council held firm, rejected the counter-proposal and NO rate hike for DWP customers can happen until the next quarter, July. It was clearly a showdown that the Mayor gambled on and lost. So even the Council-approved, reduced-level rate hike vanished as a result of the DWP trying to make the big grab and losing.
All of this was from the direction of the Mayor- he appoints each of the DWP commission members and you can be certain that the Mayor's office was calling the shots during the breaks- much like major league baseball managers relay their instructions after being ejected from games. Everybody at DWP management is a puppet of someone, either the union or the mayor or both when there is agreement. The only ones coming up short are the DWP customers- us.
Then Tony ordered a 2-day closing for non-public safety work done in the City. That sounded like there was a super emergency that just came up that called for such drastic and sudden action. But there was a problem. Tony has no authority to make that order. At least to make the order that would be "enforceable." The City Charter often gets ignored in these moments of excitement. The Charter is to the City what the Constitution is to the U.S. government.
And don't forget that the unions had some contract provisions that were set up which were made to insulate them from losing days and losing pay. But then, Tony is not a man to let such details get in his way.
The closings were announced in the next day's Council meeting to be unenforceable. Not looking very good for the Mayor's choice of decisions.
So then somehow over $20 million dollars was found in some account or some re-calculation and the closings that were planned turned out not to be needed. Good one.
I forgot that Tony also made a sort of tactical error when the Council denied the DWP's requested rate hikes. The DWP (in another shady but regularly used deal) was supposed to transfer "surplus funds" to the city for the "general funds" that pay bills and payroll. Tony and the DWP said that the transfer was not able to happen now that the rate hikes were denied.
Sounds right? It's not. Tony's hikes were really for Tony's plan to make himself look good as a mayor in getting L.A. to go "green" in a big way and do it ahead of other cities. That cost money but who cares? Tony doesn't pay for it, we do. So the rate hikes and the transfer of a balance of $73 million dollars were not supposed to depend on each other to come through for all to happen.
But Tony said it did and his DWP man, Mr. Freeman, the real salesman or "hired gun" on DWP deals, as the case may be, said, "Can't do the money transfere because the rate hike did not go through." Of course somebody was lying and really, not just one person but entire sides, with Tony one of the usual suspects.
So it's all about retribution and picking up one's marbles to end the game and go home. Speakinf of marbles, have you noticed that the Mayor is making more and more conflicting announcements. Either he's got instant amnesia and figures everyone else is shaking the old Etch-a-Sketch, too, so we all start over with the plans he keeps changing on the fly, or he's losing a grip on reality for some chemical or organic related reason.
I don't know which, but there's something going on with the "ahhs, uuhhs and eehs punctuating his spoken communtications that are not written down. Reading is not to bad for him, but there's a lot of stalling in flight as he speaks off the cuff. Maybe that's why he never takes questions or he'd really be nailed to the wall very quicky, and I draw no parallels to any Jesus-like images or sacrifices Tony's made. Clearly, all that Tony has sacrificed during his time in office has been the well-being of the city and its people.
WHO WOULD REPLACE TONY FOR MAYOR? PROBABLY ANOTHER VERSION OF BAD NEWS.
City Council members are planning in their own minds some career climbs that include running for mayor when Tony is out of office in 3 years. Recalling him now would just give us more bad choices to push into a premature Mayoral race. We need time to build up some honest and helpful candidates. That goes for council members, too. Any current council member - and even Wendy Greuel, Controller- would like to try a shot at being the mayor and they don't cut it at all.
We need new CMs in the March 2011 election for the even numbered districts to replace these career ones now. In two more years after that, the odd numbered districts come u for election and a major change can happen.
Tony, as others have remarked, might welcome being recalled just to be done with the city problems that he never was dedicated to solving despite hiring enough aides and deputy mayors to run a few small countries. Sorry, we all will be suffering. A recall and special election campaign will waste money that's not there and give us inferior choices- maybe even worse ones.
That's L.A. and all you need to do is some lightweight Google searches to see that chaos is the order of the day. Meanwhile, the city council is busy trying to give away a fire engine to a worthy organization of local firefighers for a training function, but fire engines, at least as described in council meetings of the past few weeks, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to be fully equipped. Selling this for ONE DOLLAR is pure waste upon the tax payers- we can't afford this now. eBay is a place council members have remarked about when one city put up something of an expensive vehicle to get money in. LOS ANGELES is ALSO in such need and here's a perfect opportunity to get cash.
That was from yesterday's Budget and Finance Committee hearing and I don't know the outcome and have little expectation for them to do "what right" and that means "what makes sense" since that's a foreign concept in City Council chambers, practiced ever so infrequently so as to make news when the do so.
Well, enough meandering through topics. It's all pretty gloomy- and I wish I had a little time to write about Wendy Greuel, City Controller, and her interview on a news network. Just too wacky to believe, but they still talk as if we are trusting children. Not anymore we aren't.
The Professional Development Day for today will call for the students to exit LHS a little after 12:30 p.m. That is the usual time on these days, so expect some early arrivals home today if you have students at Lincoln.
The Alumni Association meeting for April will be held this Saturday, (third Saturday of the month meeting day) at 9:30 am in the Student Cafeteria. Also Saturday, it's an additional Saturday edition of the teachers' professional devleopment day on campus all day. You may expect a shift in meeting location to the Teachers Cafeteria for the Alumni meeting as a possibility, but these are right next to each other so it's not hard to adjust.
A reminder received from Frank Beltran, Vice President-Membership, LHSAA conveys the following information:
"Some of the agenda items will be Committee Reports for: -LHSAA Angel Awards for Performing Arts Update -LHSAA Seniors Academic Essay Competition Update -Day at The Races Report -Golf Tournament Update -Dance Committee Update
DON’T FORGET TO SUPPORT THE FOLLOWING COMING ACTIVITIES:
Alumni Day at Lincoln HS 4/23/10 Golf Tournament 6/25/10 Annual Alumni Family Picnic 7/10/10 Tiger Alumni Texas Hold’em fundraiser 8/28/10 Save the date: The next Alumni Dance. 10/23/10"
And that's some of the news- check the LHS Alumni page, http://www.lincolnhs.org/ where Frank will be updating on Thursday.
Along the topical lines of the Iraq war, the scene of the shooting in the YouTube video on Thursday on this blog, an Iraq war veteran will discuss the fighting in Falluja in 2004 on the radio tonight. The show is a radio program, "Coast-to-Coast AM" on KFI-AM 640 (10 p.m. to 2 a.m; repeats at 2 am). It's weekend host Ian Punnett will be on tonight for this segment in the second hour (11 pm). http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2010/04/10
The particular guest, former Army Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, has written on the video and is not apologetic in any way. You can see his comments at the link below. The subject of the helicopter attack on the newsmen was one item likely to be discussed, but with liver radio, you can't be certain. It's something different. The views of the Sergeant seem wholly supportive of the actions and the context of the video is what some say leaves out some earlier activity that supported the decision to "engage."
My stated views still are the same, and it's the effect of the way people think that is the damaging part of the war for those otherwise surviving it.
A free daily newsletter from "Coast to Coast- AM" delivered by email is available that has lots of information that is informative and entertainining. You can subscribe at the home page, http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2010/04/10
There's the annual "Day at the Races" coming up on Sunday as an event for alumni and friends who want a relaxing day in the confines of Santa Anita Park. The full information is on the official website among the LHS official pages, http://www.lincolnhs.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=127465&id=4&rn=5250606 Information from that page:
SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2010 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. WEST INFIELD AREA #5 COST: Adults: $25 and 18 & under (with adult) Free
This special day at the races for Lincoln H.S. Alumni Assoc. includes a delicious buffet spread of turkey, ham, salami, cheese, fresh rolls, desserts & homemade salsa & salads; hot dogs, too. General Admission, parking, all you can eat, and the day’s Racing Program are also included with your ticket purchase. Present your ticket stub at West Infield Area #5. Each person will receive 2 raffle tickets.
Prizes will be awarded from the 2nd to 6th races. Special prizes will be raffled after 7th race, main prize winner CASH from the 50 / 50 drawing. Please provide your transportation to the track. You may bring your own drinks – soda, water, etc. Liquor is not allowed to be brought into the park however; you may purchase alcoholic beverages at the track. ENJOY A RELAXED & FUN EXPERIENCE.
So if you want to get in on that event, click the link to the LHS Alumniweb page and make a call to Alfonso at the number listed there to see about getting some tickets quickly.
The L.A. Times has as story, yesterday about a just-released video of a shooting by a helicopter or helicopters in Iraq from an incident in 1987.. "IRAQ: Controversial video of U.S. military shooting" April 6, 2010 8:07 pm- They called it "purported footage" that indicates they are not sure about it's authenticity in either what if depicts or whether it is actuall and not fake. I think it's all there, not phony and the audio sounds like many I have heard before. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/04/controversial-video-of-us-military-shooting-in-iraq.html
It's got nothing to do with L.A. life unless you may have helicopter pilots or crew among family or friends, and you can see what they may experience or know what they may think. But I thought it's something as an example of what goes wrong in war situations and it shows the cost that non-combatants, newsmen here, pay for those mistakes, and it's all supposed to balance out with an, "Oops. Sorry about that" level of response- and not even that was given in this case. Some very changed personalities are being created here in the war when things like this are not properly addressed.
This is a video from a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack on people on the ground that was just released by the military. It is very disturbing in both by the actions taken as depicted in the military video, and by the attitudes and perceptions maintained by the pilots. The U.S. ground troops actions after the event were more humane with the wounded children.
The weaponry used, if this was an Apache helicopter, is specifically, a 30 mm cannon. Other aircraft commonly use this weapon also. The projectile is an achievement in lethality. It is not solid like a bullet but contains an explosive charge that detonates as well as it penetrates objects. Firing is at a 10-rounds per second rate. The tech information is shown below if you want to see exactly what was used terms of weapons in this video.
The fixed weapon for the AH-64 is the M230E1 Chain Cannon Rate of fire for the M230 is 600-650 rounds per minute, the spool-up time to acheive this rate being a brief 0.2 seconds. 1200 rounds are carried in the magazine-pack above the gun. Each round takes approximately 2 seconds to travel 1000m. However, as the shell's energy dissipates, it takes some 12.2 seconds to cover 3000m.
Specifications: M230E1 Chain Cannon®
Calibre 30mm Length 1.68m Weight 57.5 kg Rate of Fire 600-650 rounds/min Muzzle Velocity 792 m/s
The ammunition typically used by the M230 is the 30mm M789 HEDP (high explosive dual-purpose). Each shell contains 21.5g of explosive charge sealed in a shaped-charge liner. The liner is designed to collapse into an armour-piercing jet of molten metal, capable of penetrating more than 2 inches of armour. The shell is also designed to fragment into shrapnel, deadly to unprotected targets, out to a distance of over 10 feet. The ammunition is cased in aluminum rather than the typical brass as it reduces the weight of the ammunition load by half.
I don't see this as an a mistake as much as this was a patrolling aircraft looking for targets and upon finding people, assumed that they were hostiles. The crew looked for reasons to "engage," the term used for "shooting." The long-lensed camera was all I could see carried on a strap, slung on the shoulders. The statement that they "are carrying AK 47" was wrong. Walk into a market with a SLR camera with a long lens and have another come in with an AK-47 rifle enter the same store- and even from a distance, the profiles are markedly different. The crews were LOOKING FOR A REASON to shoot here.
The second vehicle was recovering the wounded photographer as it was shot up. No one was armed, and the determination of "hostiles" carried over to the "rescue" attempt for the wounded person who was one of the newsman. "Reach for a weapon" was the pilot's thought spoken out loud to justify more shooting. But there was no weapon to reach for so there was no threat anymore, assuming for the pilot's perception that one was there to begin with. Who would be threatened by the wounded person anyway? The bullet holes in the windshield of the vehicle were remarked upon by the pilot - so what could they see and what could they not see through there screens?
The equally disturbing part of this is that every level apparently supported the reasons for the shooting and continued so, making no concessions that this could have been wrong. This will wind up left that way.
I happen to support the fact that soldiers and Marines have to do their job but they to have an obligation to do it right. "Why" we are there is not the issue here. Killing in war is not murder, based on the definition of the crime, but this was a bad shooting. Understandable, but bad. The enjoyment expressed and blame for the kids' shooting on the victims is bothersome in that that is what's being created in situations of low supervison or inadequate assurances of adherence to policies that should be designed to prevent such occurrences.
I wonder if the higher up on the command structure viewed this video carefully with the audio or if they relied on a report to make a reply that ignored the facts. If any investigation is seriously undertaken, I would be surprised. The military is not interested in that without beig politically pressured, and then it often gets the wrong people to pay up. ========================================================== An Addition to this: Video with further discussion (time: 3m:17s);
The L.A. Times reports that the Mayor has announced that the City services, other than police and fire, should shut down 2 days a week due to the budget problems. "Villaraigosa calls for shutting down some city departments amid budget crisis," L.A. Times, "L.A. NOW" April 6, 2010 12:13 pm by Phil Willon at City Hall.
Now this is one of the ways that Tony wants to retaliate against the council for shutting down the DWP's rejection of a rate hike last week that attempted to slide a HIGHER proposal by, even though the council made it's reasons know. So the new DWP last minute attempt to get a higher rate hike like the original one was rejected in a late night Council meeting.
DWP and the Mayor said that, early on, the $73 million in "surplus funds" that DWP was to pass over to the "general fund" of the city to apply to the budget deficit was not connected to the rate hikes requested now. They said that this hike was for other things. So now that's over and they change the story and say "We needed that money and can't affort to pay the city any of that $74 million."
Well, who is lying?I say most all of them at one time or another. The city needs the money as it's been counted in the budget. The DWP said before that it was not part of an operating need and then it says it seems to affect them now that the rate hike is rejected for 3 months. The DWP also is sitting on a billion dollars, (an earlier analogy presented by me as an example: A thousand people at one place, say it's Staples Center, with each one holding a million dollar bill (if such a bill was printed). That's a billion dollars.
But let's take away 173 people out (and their money) from that 1,000 and you see the change is not putting the DWP into chaos. The Mayor is.
The Mayor is not only taking his ball back and going home as the spoiled child, he's trying to shut down the playground for everyone else.
But all is not only Tony's fault and all is not happening overnight. I have heard the warnings for years brought up by many and the Council did NOTHING. And that observation is not anything to do with knowing any inside secrets. All this was like a weather report coming years ahead of the arrival, and this Council and Mayor kept taking trips and having a good time spending money as freely as ever. It's only an urgent condition because they head right into this storm instead of making some needed course corrections years ago to avoid it. Even worse, you can say the storm is beginning to rage AND there's an iceberg in the path, too. And that iceberg would be insolvency. At that point it would not be in God's hands but a less merciful Bankruptcy Court's trustee
READ THE TEXT OF THAT "State of the City" speech (see LINK below) from April 14, 2009- most everything now that's a problem was know THEN and NOTHING was done, only talk. Even the ERIP early retirement of 2400 people got 400 of the wrong people that did nothing for the general fund's benefit since they were paid from other sources. And lots of experienced people left a huge gap in knowledge when they took their ERIP; And that was when if finally operated to retire people about December and only 300 to 400 a month could be processed, slowing down whatever savings were supposed to happen. What a mess.
Read the Mayor's State of the State speech from the TIMES' "L.A. NOW" of last April. It has all the problems stated FROM A YEAR AGO. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/04/full-text-of-villaraigosas-state-of-the-city-speech.html " "Prepared text of Villaraigosa's State of the City speech," April 14, 2009 The mayor could have re-read this speech every day and get things moving that could have lessened today's problems. Well, he didn't.
RON KAYE'S BLOG FOR THIS MORNING The posting here from early this morning tells us that the failings are the fault of them all. This column is really something that has most lines representing a lot of events that apply in seeing how the City became ground zero for the financial disaster we see now. This entry should be read carefully for what it tells us about the condition of the city and of the events and warnings of the past that got no response from the people in charge here. "Failed Leaders, Failing City -- They All Must Go," By Ron Kaye on April 6, 2010 5:40 AM http://ronkayela.com/2010/04/dsfsdf-1.html#comments
The mayor has to decide if he's going to HELP the people or stay with his own ego and political ambitions that somehow remain, even though he's about destroyed the city by neglect and narcissistic plans that he made to boost his political career. It was supposed to be a boost to him at a huge expense to us. Of that plan, only the huge expense to us is happening. The worst mayor in the history of Los Angeles is about the only thing he's achieving. And you know how when things can change, people say, "It's not cast in stone" to show a possibility of change? Well his legacy IS being cast in stone and mounted, as well.
Too many City Hall stunts. Expect the Council to quietly start to approve hikes as they come up since many want that over the wishes of the people. Garcetti is doing all he can to contain his true desires to "go green" at all costs, even when the law's timetables don't require these hikes to happen now. It's just Tony trying to grab the glory of being the first city to have such progress in cleaner energy. Meanwhile that vehicle (the city) that he's trying to use for moving up the political later, is running out of gas on the freeway as it is adorned with eco-friendly accessories- and there is no roadside service for it.
If you have an interest in what the LAUSD is doing and will admit to, come on over to spend a little time not to far away in Eagle Rock and hear Board Member Yolie Flores (District 5) speak on current issues for LAUSD. It may be the same old stuff or there may be some new slant on things, but you can hear it first hand and even ask questions right there. (Photo, right: The Center for the Arts, in Eagle Rock on Colorado Blvd.)
It will be happening at the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council meeting (7pm to 9pm) tonight at the Center for Arts (the former L.A. branch library for Eagle Rock). One block west of Eagle Rock Blvd. and Colorado Blvd, on Colorado on the north side of the street (across the street from Starbucks).
Yolie Flores is the guest speaker tonight and should be speaking around 7:30 pm. Parking on the street or off-street at the B of A lot down the block in a relatively safe area, as far as safe locations go in L.A. One of Flores' latest activity was as a proponent of the "Public School Choice" process that put up the choices for the public to have some say in the choice of operators of their local school. This concluded about a month ago for the low performing schools and many new school sites.
Flores in that process, voiced her support for following the recommendations made by Ramon Cortines, Superintendent, and his team assigned to evaluate the advisory voting and the subjects submitting their proposals. Board President Moniea Garcia spoke on why the teacher/school factions should prevail in some of the selections, while the charter and other non-LAUSD based proposals were left out in the cold, despite being the Cortines selection. That was the idea of having Cortines do the evaluations that took in the voting as a factor. Why bother doing that job if they won't follow it? That's LAUSD and it's not any suprise to me.
The real surprise was the fact that there was some dissension on the Board and that it was Flores speaking in opposition to the choice of others, mostly Mayor Villaraigosa-linked people who do his bidding there. And that was the reason for such backing by Tony and associates. If the school district could place the well-being of the students ahead of their own personal and political benefit, we might see some improvement happening. But then they are politicians, no matter what the say to protest that label.
Well, the meetings of the ERNC have been hosted many notable speakers in the last 6 or 7 months. This list includes Pat McOskar, President of the union for the L.A. Firefighters, State Senator Carol Liu, Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, CM for CD-14 Jose Huizar, and City Controller Wendy Greuel.
Many people don't know there's even any Neighborhood Council system city wide, with 90 certified NCs and there's lots of confusion on which NC anyone belongs to. Well, Voting for the 10 NCs in Region G is on Thursday, April 29th and lots of outreach still is needed to get out the word as the City Council considers more funding cuts that include the NC system.
NCs are City Charter created creatures and no matter how much the City Council wants to have them butt out of city business, the Charter keeps them here. The "funding" is a different story and that's where Council can do the system in by going to a "bare bones" type funding to comply with the terms of the Charter.
That's a decision that will be part of the upcoming budget presentation within a couple of weeks by the Mayor. For now, we still have 90 NCs and elections are underway, grouped by the nine Regions.
The recent decisions by the LAUSD Board have determined winners among applicants to operate 24 new schools and 12 low-performing 'focus' schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) beginning in the 2010-2011 school year. The goal is to improve academic performance, somthing that LAUSD has seen deteriorate over the years. (Photo, right: LHS student protests LAUSD teacher layoff proposals, May 22, 2009. And, no, that's not a color-balancing error; the yellows shown are the actual shades painted on the buildings at LHS- an entirely separate problem.)
SELECTION OF THE SCHOOLS THAT WILL BE AFFECTED These selections were based on several factors. The voting was done on a local basis for each school as part of the "Public School Choice" process to determine what the parents, faculty, students, community and other interested parties wanted for each school. The results were evaluated by various teams making recommendations to Supt. Ramon Cortines. Cortines then used the information to send his recommendations to the Board where the final decision was made last month.
But how did Lincoln get into that group to qualify for such significant process? That's explained in the story published five months ago, on October 1, 2010, in EGPnews.com :
"LAUSD Identifies ‘Focus Schools’ Eligible for Potential Outside Takeover- The schools were selected based on the results of the latest Academic Performance Index that offers a complex view of incremental improvements of local public schools." By Paul Aranda Jr., EGP Staff Writer http://egpnews.com/?p=13007
The problems considered were not just the low test scores but the "progress" made by schools in performance.Lincoln was low in test performance, as you can see in the story, but just as importantly, had not gained and instead, showed a negative for yearly progress in scores. I often criticize the way statistics that may be accurate in themselves, are manipulated by people to slant the picture to favor the presenter's objectives, and you see that with lots of local politicians as they try to make something out of what it is not.
Here, that's not the case and the low numbers, viewed in any light, still are low numbers that stand out for LHS because test scores went into a negative direction, too. The story fills in a picture that shows we have some very steep gains to be made if students coming out of these schools will have the level of education just to be considered "competent" as high school graduates. There's still the problem of the students that quit before graduation, adding to the roster of dropouts that LAUSD is becoming known for. Improving the way teaching is done could keep more in school. Finding ways to "engage" students is what most teachers try to do. If you can do that, it makes the rest of what you do as a teacher much more enjoyable as a teacher, and as a student, too. Being bored or lost is not what you want students to have as the high school experience. It goes for other levels, too, but I use observations and experiences of mine and of others that center on the high school range.
THE OUTCOME OF CHOICES MADE "Teachers to Run Local Schools- Board turns northeast and eastside schools over to teacher applicants."By Gloria Angelina Castillo, EGP Staff Writer http://egpnews.com/?p=16408 February 25, 2010. This report is on the Board's action just over a month ago, where you can see it was not a smooth process.
AJ Duffy, president of the teachers' union, UTLA, urged a rejection of outside applicants. No surprise there, as any union, not just the teachers, will oppose a threat to its membership's jobs and a weakening of union power. Another union leader echoed the same action, still a union-first, students-second or worse, in my opinion. In summary, there were disputes within the Board as Monica Garcia, Board President, favored teacher-led proposals over the outside applications, putting aside the choice recommended by Supt. Cortines, the person working on the recommendations report. You can see here that Garcia, continues to be concerned more with political influences than she is with what should be best for the students to improve.
Garcia, I will add for those not following these things much, has a lot owed to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for her job. She was on the staff of now-L.A. City Council Member for CD-14, Jose Huizar, then moved up when he left. CM Huizar owes much to Villariagosa himself, succeding him as CM in CD-14 when Villaraigosa won the election in 2005 for mayor. Much of the association with Villaraigosa is viewed as a negative now, with all the poor performance of the Mayor finally visible despite the spin that the Mayor and his staff put on things.
But getting to the impact on the students, we saw some dissension on the Board. It was between Garcia and Board member Yolie Flores who favored following the recommendations that the Superintendent presented. Flores did not prevail. This result, from other reports I read in the past, amounted to the Board rejecting a couple of charter school organizations that are the "gold standard" among charters, in favor of going to the untested proposals from the teachers' side. And if you consider that the influence of the LAUSD style on it's teachers imprints on their style to some extent, breaking away from those ideas is really not something of any realistic expectation.
Lincoln High School’s two applicants were approved. The Lincoln High School Focus Team was approved with reservations, while the ‘Law, Leadership in Entertainment & Media Academy’ (LEMA) was strongly recommended by the superintendent. There was no discussion regarding concerns of LEMA’s proposal to pay students based on academic performance, behavior and attendance.
Eighty-five proposals were submitted for 12 low-performing schools and 24 new campuses that became available under the Public School Choice Resolution approved last year. Cortines eliminated many of the applicants for submitting identical proposals for different schools, for lacking details for implementation, or lacking strong plans to help English Learners, among other things.
I think that there should have been at least some less defensive attitude shown here. Something should have been done differently, some attempt to allow a charter school operation if it's going to work and help the students. Isn't that supposed to be the goal of the educational system, educating the students?
The politics here are a strong influence.Garcia has consistently responded to situation with decision based on the influences exerted upon her by special interests, including the unions. The Mayor spent much time and energy in his first term as Mayor on trying to assume power over LAUSD schools. That is NOT within the scope of his powers as mayor, and he finally landed a partnership agreement with a few low performers that still have not shown any change from before. In fact, teachers in those schools voiced many complaint after the changes became effective. Not much to show here by the Mayor. Worse yet, the CITY where he was supposed to be managing, continued to show worsening conditions that only NOW he's forced to face up to.
What's to show for all this? Still a weakened school system that's got a money crisis, too. And the City is looking at 4,000 layoff to balance the budget, with services of all sorts being likely to be seriously reduced or eliminated across the city. So we need to see where all the changes approved by the Board will do any good. I am very skeptical since the LAUSD culture is really one that has no effective oversight of anything, tends to act way past the time something should have been done, and makes lots of decisions from the Board level down to the school level that don't make sense and perpetuate the same level of substandard education.
There are some fine products from LAUSD among the students graduating, but that's just it. They are graduating, a result of continuing student AND PARENT effort. Absent that, you add to the at-risk students population. Too often choosing to dumb down or lower the bar is preferred over finding ways to achieve higher goals. The Board talks about higer goals, everybody does. But they don't make them attainable by any plans or facilitations. The Fraud, Waste and Abuse in the system does not help either.
What I am talking about is not the handling of the "good students" that are really a pleasure to teach. They make their teachers look good and will rise to the top anyway. I am pointing to the other end of the spectrum with troubled students that need to be redirected. That may be the more sizeable portion of LAUSD students. Our students still can make some dramatic improvements with all the energy and potential they possess. The need that potential used to take advantage of the EXISTING opportunities for an education now, and not wait for some untested or theoretical solution as the LAUSD's savior as an institution. I used to remind my students of the following observation, or a variation of it, "This is the last time that you will have FREE education. In the future, you or somebody else will have to pay something for you to go to school, so you should try to get all you can now." I discussed this and the ways to do it. I did not just say this as a slogan but I have already written too much here to get into that.
It's a big job and the problems in the system are serious as they also affect getting the education job done. But we have to continue trying; and it might be a good idea to see what worked in the past and what now works for other districts that are doing better- so much so that parents have transferred their children to those districts.
That's the subject of another planned blog posting.
That action that the DWP took in reponse to the City Council's rate hike determination left the DWP holding an empty bag. They tried to run the ball across the goal line for a "win" instead of a field goal to "tie," but were turned back by a firmly insistent City Council. There will be no DWP rate hikes for at least three months when July 1st is the earliest any increase could happen.
And aside from the "next time" that's coming, this action showed that there's some real backroom dealing going on here. There was a time yesterday when, through all the public comment of people saying how much of a burden the proposed hikes would be, especially on the business, that the contacted the Mayor's office for some refreshing of what the game plan would be. Apparently, the instructions were to go for the whole enchiliada and not settle for the side order that the Council presented to them.
The decision of the DWP Board just hit members of the Council wrong last night after the DWP decision came back to have the Council act on the change. CM Herb Wesson said, "We are pissed" and that about sums it up. Council heard public comment and really, they know this is all Antonio's sloppy management that's got no "plan" no matter how many times he refers to it.
The Mayor had gone through a lot of position changes, and I mean they only showed that somebody's not telling the accurate story, maybe even lying. The real thing that Tony wants is to make a name for himself and he already has done that, but it's on the extremely negative side of the scale. All this need to go green for requirments of the law in converting to cleaner power generations is HIS plan as far as timetables go. There is not any set progression of steps they have to follow at this time.
And by the way, the DWP has a BILLION dollars in reserve. Sounds like "a million" doesn't it? but a "billion dollars" is one THOUSAND million dollar bills (if there were such bills) a very big number. Imagine 1,000 persons going into Dodger Stadium or maybe Staples Center and each one has a million dollars on their person. That would be the ONE BILLION dollars dimension we speak of. Quite a lot of change, and the only chump around is the one who wants to have us believe the DWP is teetering on poverty. Hey, take a look at the "rate-payers" if you want to see people who feel wrongly relieved of their cash.
Well I have to say Ron Kaye (blog: http://ronkayela.com/ ) comes out again to put a lot of what I have thought all along. He's added lots more to fill us in on DWP numbers, labels, interpretations and real motives here. The fact that the Mayor is losing his grip on things should be nothing new.
He had a chance to do right, even as he was sworn in to his second term as July began. What happened? A suprise trip (to us) to South Africa with Lu Parker of KTLA news, and then Michael Jackson dies. There began the steady decline in the story of the Mayor's leadership. Add in another trip to Iceland and then a needless trip to Copenhagen where nothing was accomplished, nor even required to be attemped.
And every day the budget is going into the red at roughly $350,000 each day that nothing happens to stop it. So is it any surprise he has little credibility and is only what you might call the spotter to identify money for chums to collect as he lines up his "green energy" plan. And that benefit to be bestowed on his selections would be all that represents any plan, I would say.
Dodgers Brand Slammed
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*By Daniel Guss*
*@TheGussReport on Twitter - *The Azul is singing the blues these days as
it discovers capitalism isn't always a home run.
Dodger Stadium -...
Football: Another slick La Mirada video
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The football season is still several months away, but La Mirada's football
program continues to produce slick videos profiling its program. See above
for t...
LHS Alumni Activities and Events- and School Notes
========================================== LHS Alumni Meeting - For 2012: Next Monthly Meeting held on the 3rd Saturday of each month: change for Father's Day - meeting is on June 23, Sat., 9:30 a.m.
Location: At Cafe In The Heights, across the street from the campus, on North Broadway.
(If you want to be on the email list for the alumni annoucements and such assorted things going on with alumni, all sent directly to you, please send an email to Mike Ibarra, mikethedadibarra@sbcglobal.net and at the "subject line" add in: "LHS Alumni email list" ) ==========================================
Upcoming:
TV Shows you might check--- and why.
"The Choir" - A weekly reality show from the BBC on cable that's about a choir master in England who goes through different phases of stress as he gets young people, usually high school students, to join a new choir. Sometimes teachers are persuaded, too.. It's got a lot of student commentary as things go along, and those views help make this interesting. The teacher, Gareth, is really dedicated young guy, very driven, and so far, inspiring and successful. Lots of talent and the ultimate performances bring out a lot of emotion. Very touching to see, for teachers, especially.
Their Committee Assignments, the "Who, What, When, Where" about the several Committees and a LIST of their Names, Districts and Telephone Numbers to voice your opinions directly to each one.
City Counciland how to contact them by phone, fax, email, or in person at Main and district field offices.
BLOGS: - Jose Huizar- In CD-14- this link should be to current page now.
Here's a novel one,"Permits"- Just about anything you do in the city needs a permit- Many react with, "Who knew?", or the a common one, "Not for this."
LAUSD Information
The L.A.U.S.D. is headed by a 7-member board that decides matters of major impact, often times that happens usually without much connection to, or awareness by, the public. If it is concerning a teachers union matter, that is about the only area where there's publicity.
If you want to be heard on anything, where would you start? This is where you can start.
The list of Board Members is at THIS LINK. You will also find a simple calendar to show meeting times and subjects.
The "contact" link leads to a very wide range of telephone numbers and email address for each Board Member.
In the Northeast area of Los Angeles (a district map is located here, too)
Monica Garcia has the schools, including Lincoln Heights and Boyle Heights in District 2.
Yolie Flores has District 5, showing up on a map as surrounding the outer edges to the north, east and south of Garcia's district 2, that includes Eagle Rock, El Sereno, and then continuing from Vernon southward.
"Who Would Have Thought It?" - Some pretty amazing stuff
Kevin James on KRLA- 870 AM, M-F 9pm to 1am- The most intense coverage of current local politics. Check on who's causing taxpayers the problems and what's the latest misdeeds being laid on us.
Doug McIntyre''s RedEye Radio- KABC Live 10pm-1am-Sun. through Thurs. Online at www.kabc.com and at KABC-AM-790- Lots of subjects covered with a national audience, too. Some fun and some serious topics depending on callers.
"The Pet Show"- Warren Eckstein's program that covers all pets, although callers usually ask about dog and cat advice. His style differs a lot from most who train animals because of the idea that a pet becomes part of the family and not simply property to control. KRLA-AM 870 Saturday, Live, 11am - 1pm; Live- WOR Radio-on the web-Sat., 1pm - 3pm
KFI-AM 640- "The Jesus Show" Sundays- 6am to 9am It's a unique show, and it's Him on the air to give answers to questions, very often some theological enlightenment.
www.talkradioone.com
"The Sunday Edition"- (Sadly, this is no more. After 13 or more years, they were swept up in the TalkRadio format flip to AmpRadio. I leave it up for now as a token of my appreciation for their work.) 5 am to 7 am Sundays-hosted by Socorro Serrano & Nelson Salsa. KLSX-FM Radio 97.1. Latino flavored topics of the day, with objective and lively discussions. They take in all points of views of their callers. Wake up, Tune in, Call in.
"Talk Radio One"- An Internet Radio Show- Marc Germain host, live 8 pm to 10 pm Monday through Thursday; Some good variety of topics and features AND the shows can be downloaded for your later listening convenience- A "Best" guest, 10-30-08, Robert Estrada, Encyclopedia of Hits guy, in Hour 1. www.talkradioone.com (cut and paste the link)
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