Another report on waste of tax $$ on vanity- First Ridley-Thomas, then 10 DWP unknowns; And a word on Villaraigosa's speech.

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.

So the DWP tried to run the ball into the end zone and came away empty.

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.

Again, this situaton we have now is summed up well in today's posting from Ron Kaye:
"This April Fool's Joke Is No Laughing Matter," By Ron Kaye on April 1, 2010 5:04 AM. http://ronkayela.com/2010/04/this-april-fools-joke-is-no-la.html

More on L.A. DWP rate hikes announced by Villaraigosa

There is a lot happening at City Hall and there's a lot of things that don't make sense there, more than usual, as the budget planning is moving along in terms of passage of time, though not much is happening in terms of actual action.

The DWP rate hikes that represent who-know-what were announced by the Mayor. Knowing the tendency for the Mayor to be the "All about me" Mayor, this rate hike seems more what HE wants to achieve more than what really needs to happen. You have to remember in all this that HE wants to come out looking good, even though his run here as Mayor should prove that he should not be elected to any other office again. But we are stuck with what we have and have to work thru it.

The DWP operates at a profit, or at least most people would call it that when they regularly have $200 million a year sent over to the city's General Fund. Whenever there's complaints of the expenses DWP runs up for it's employees, they say, it's covered by the rate payers. And on and on this condition goes, with money bled from the DWP over to the city and then, like now, the Mayor says "We need the rate hikes to pay for [ fill in the expense]."

Oh, one more thing that tells you something just doesn't sound right here. The DWP got the Council's approval of their raised for the next 5 years at a crucial time when other employees are wondering if they will be laid off. The Council is using DWP like a life boat, sending over employees to keep them from being laid off. Meanwhile, some executive sorts got raises of assorted amounts, 16% in one case, just because they now work for the DWP.

DWP at the council meeting today is reported to be able to take something like 440 more employees and they will have a total of 880 that they can take by June. This doesn't sound like DWP needs rate hikes - maybe some better management, like a new mayor is what's really needed, but we are stuck with what we have.

The real stories here that will tell you all the crap that goes on with DWP can be found in http://www.ronkayela.com/ That where there's a continued inquiry of the facts and revelations that the DWP or other city folks will not be giving to you, at least voluntarily.

The latest article is exactly on this topic, and Brian D'Arcy, the IBEW local union head there, will be interviewed on KCET Ch. 28 Thursday at 8 p.m. This has to be something to see if you persist in believing the city version of anything. The DWP, from the way it is run, really shows that the IBEW is in charge. The Mayor is not so much a victim as he is an accomplice. The union has so much power that they could shut the city down if they so decided, giving them lots of leverage in bargaining negotiations. You see the benefits they received, including the raises, so what do you think.

Don't forget that the DWP employees are paid anywhere from 20% t0 40% more than other city employees in comparable positions. So could some of this apparent access to money have been handled differently so the rate payers, i.e. residents and businesses, don't have to keep getting gouged for every dollar that can be found?

From RonKayeLA.com today:

"IBEW Union Boss Brian D'Arcy Talks About DWP Rate and Wakes on KCET, 8 p.m. Thursday,"
By Ron Kaye on March 17, 2010 2:45 PM
"Catch Brian D'Arcy and a Hard-hitting DWP Story on KCET's SoCal Connected, 8 p.m. Thursday, Channel 28"
http://ronkayela.com/2010/03/catch-brian-darcy-on-kcet-8-pm.html
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There are some ealier postings that are worth checking to make clear what is going on in a more realistic interpretation presented to you.

The local nonsensical happenings you might not have been aware of are noted here:

Fearmongering, Failure and the Politics of Change
By Ron Kaye on March 17, 2010 7:49 AM
http://ronkayela.com/2010/03/crime-sells-thats-the.html


But I like this one as really nailing down some blame for many or most of the problems.

There's Only One Word For Antonio's DWP Rate Hike Plan
By Ron Kaye on March 16, 2010 8:24 AM
http://ronkayela.com/2010/03/bullshiti-dont-know-how-to.html

The rate hikes have to be opposed and let your council members know. At the moment, the City Council have not approved the changes and it's their NO votes you want to see to shut this down.

There is a contact list for Council members in the sidebar under "City" items, but here is another link to make it easier on you:
http://lincolnquicknotes.blogspot.com/2010/02/la-city-council-contact-information.html Call any an all except Dennis Zine who said on a radio show last night that he was voting NO on this hike, so you don't have to convince him. He said Greig Smith also is voting NO. But the others need to hear the public's view.

More Raises approved Friday for DWP, but Council unanimously sees this as a "good deal."

"Pay increase for DWP managers gets OK -
EXPENSE: Retroactive boost is expected to cost agency $5.5 million.
By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer, L.A. Daily News, Updated: 03/05/2010 10:34:17 PM PST
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_14523162

This is an example of the direction the city is going, one big downward random spiral that ends with a big thud upon impact with the ground at the bottom of it's travel. You have city employee layoffs announced in the thousands- and the next several years are as bleak on the deficit side of things, but you have the DWP being your biggest regular bill next to housing and transportation, normally, if you happen to live in the city.

But Jack Humphreville, an activist and a member of the DWP Oversight Committee, questioned the decision.

"The council is approving a lump sum payment to the highest-paid city workers at the same time the DWP is shortchanging the cash-starved city with its transfer," Humphreville said, referring to a $147 million revenue transfer approved this week.

"At the same time, the IBEW is forcing the DWP to forgo competitive bidding on solar projects that will end up costing ratepayers even more."

The DWP is pretty much in the hands of the IBEW who have made this agency their own. If you heard the 8 a.m. special panel discussion in City Hall last week about the budget, hosted by CM Jose Huizar, you heard a lot of ideas on how we can get better representation, in the varied theories and observations that the panelists presented.

If you heard the ending, the last panelist, Ron Kaye, stated observations and drew some conclusions that were more along realistic lines than purely theoretical. Kaye's view, although very accurate, was somthing of a welcome surprise with it's bluntness, noting that the IBEW's leverage is the ability to shut down the city if it doesn't get it's way.

How did things get that way? Probably in the same way that we have see the arrival of the current budget disaster- the Council Members and Mayor applied the "Why Not?" test to all requests and proposals presented from the union, the IBEW local, and really, as with most things, they did not think of the long term or even many short term consequences and risks that were created by their decisions. The union, for their end of things in discussions and negottiations, kept leading the way for all kinds of things to come to the union's side, but the Council and Mayor followed that lead until we reached the end of the road now and it's turned out to be a cliff with a big drop.

It didn't happen overnight and other administrations may be sharing the blame, but when you get closer to the fire, you should have to noticee the heat. But before that unavoidable sensation, there were some warning signgs and maybe even see some smoke and flames before then, visible from some distance. Those signs were not heeded, and avoidance and remedial actions never really happened as the downhill slide to come was just made steeper while all the money being handled in the real estate market was too good to be true- and we saw that ended with a the falling dominoes effect reaching far and wide.

So now, the City "leaders" have no ability to deal on an equal footing with the unions and especially the IBEW. The results? Now we get these insane deals that happen as we have heard Council members discuss layoffs of police, brown out reductions in ambulance service in fire stations and some 4,000 layoffs that CM Alarcon was vehement in his correction of CAO Santana's term, and insisted that this should be calle "reductions in 4,000 positions." Call it what you want, there's still a big problem with the money to spread around and it's getting worse by the day. But at least the DWP is going to stay strong and comfy as they plan how to get out the next round of rate hikes for a list of things that will bring in more cash. And there's more information on that to come.

Is Today's State of City Finances Any Surprise? Question the Failings of the City's "Leadership"

Ron Kaye, former editor of the LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS, again is the guy to go-to for some especially painful but pointed enlightenment about the predicament that the City of Los Angeles finds itself in. It is the product of the city "leadership" - meaning the elected officials who were entrusted to run the city.

Here they have done just that: They have run Los Angeles into the ground while warning signs and calls for urgent and swift action continued to be presented for months and years. So the leadership is a word that has to carry quotation marks around it- "Leadership"- as something special since it identifies the only the roles but not the successful accomplishments that the players pretend to produce.

Ron Kaye's blog http://www.ronkayela.com/ has two new items today. The first one posted is entitled, "This Is No Way to Run a City." By Ron Kaye on January 21, 2010 6:29 AM. http://ronkayela.com/2010/01/this-is-no-way-to.html

This is a capsule summary of the conditions and reasons that we have been subjected to as an inept management of the city continues to victimize the businesses and residents. They do it shamelessly and they do it continuously. They lie to the people directly as in the failed Measure B's solar energy ballot item that was produced with a tilted playing field in operation to favor the goals of the DWP's union, the IBEW. The city propositions S and R were about a phone tax of 9% that would have been Zero percent through an ongoing court case if voters were not fooled to institute that tax upon themselves, and the "term limits/ ethics" combo that EXTENDED terms of council members so that we get another four years of the same bad representation by the same connected groups working for special interests (when they aren't working simply for increasing their own power and influence to later use for trading with the special interests). That was supposed to make for more ethical regulations to be giving us better government; that was purely the distractor that was used to slide in that extension of another term.

Please continue and see that column in the Ron Kaye's L.A. blog.

The second posting for today is, "Bankrupting LA -- Who's Fault Is It?" By Ron Kaye on January 21, 2010 10:24 AM. http://ronkayela.com/2010/01/dont-blame-the-bureaucrats-for.html Here is a rundown of the series of revelations, acknowledgments and warnings that should have been heeded earlier. Even earlier than these events, there were warnings of the impending disasters that the city was headed for by the actions of the council and mayor. The activist most loudly chastising Council Members and Mayor Villaraigosa was Zuma Dogg who was both theatrical but usually right with his predictions that were usually met with resentment and, often, ridicule. And that would be funny except that the doom and gloom consequences were the real thing. And I have to say that through all the years of Zuma Dogg's antics and burning of bridges, the words spoken carried the truth more often than not.

Ron Kaye gives some highlights, or lowlights, of the failings over the last year for you to see and to consider yourself. We went from Mayor Hahn who was very unnoticed and was the low profile mayor during his time in office, and then we went to Mayor Villaraigosa who cannot stay away from cameras and who sees no boundaries for his office, going into national and international events that serve himself first and occasionally, the city. His administration was the one that took on L.A. schools when it was outside his jurisdiction. His office had no authority to act since it was under the LAUSD's Board of Education, but still he meddled and diverted his already-sparse time available as the City continued to slide downhill with neglectful or bad management in plentiful supply. The Mayor's absence from the city and lack of attention to local issues over the years has come at price to bring L.A. to the brink of bankruptcy. Even to today when he's given up on seeking higher office (for now), namely the Governor of California, there's lots of distractions that he obviously enjoys over just staying put in City Hall for any extended time.

Recent example: Antonio's appearance on the television soap opera, "All My Children," gets his attention- justified by the production relocating to L.A. from N.Y. Eric Garcetti gets into this, too, as both will play themselves. Eric is a mayoral hopeful and bad news for L.A. He was pushing a lot of the deceptive measures mentioned above- even Solar Measure B was slipped by the other Council members for a while until the whistle was blown by activists that sent CMs to say they approved things based on what was presented (and that was their "out" on responsibility as they quickly back-pedalled out of that jam.)

Enough said for now on this sad state of affairs coming from the highest paid (about $178,000/year; a shade under $15,000/month) council in the United States. Every 2 years the Council comes up for elections of about half of the seats; even-odd numbered districts alternately up for election. We need representation not victimization. The termed-out CMs already have plans for their next office as most are professional politicians, hopping to new offices like a frog hops from lily pad to lily pad, or you can see it a little more clearly as a very taxpayer-expensive form of musical chairs.

Ron Kaye comments on City Commissions- out of control? You can decide.

Ron Kay has another item of information and opinion on the City Commissions as another area that has not worked to the public's benefit as was the design when the City Charter (the controlling document for city operations much like the Constitution is to the federal government) was amended in 1999.

Check this at http://www.ronkayela.com/ the blog that will tell you more about what really goes on that our politicians will ever admit. The current abuses are noted and discussed and in case you don't pay much attention to city government and lack of responsibility to the residents, it happens to be the DWP, quickly becoming a rogue agency for the most part and doing such things as giving a contract to H.David Nahai, former head of the DWP, so that he gets the same salary rate (a bit over $310,000.00 per year) until the end of the year. Why?

That's part of the problem. The DWP Commission can approve a contract that comes in under $250,000.00 WITHOUT any control by the City Council. That happened when Nahai resigned and was enlisted as "consultant" where he gets paid to be available by phone during business hours by telephone or fax. He doesn't have to show up and he doesn't have to really do work, just give answers to questions. Why isn't it hourly for the actual work done? Good question and they have not come up with a good answer. Behind the scenes arrangements that we know little about may acccount for the cozy and expensiver deals.

Read the Ron Kaye blog for today,
"The Failure of Reform, Part I: The LA Commission System," By Ron Kaye on December 3, 2009 http://www.ronkayela.com/ and get a broader picture of why things don't work out well for the public and the politicians continue to let it happen as it suits them just fine. And, you may not know this, the mayor appoints these commissioners with the council approving the selections with little actual resistance. (Some token 'hard" questioning happens once in a while but it's all for show. Should a single CM not go for the selections, the future relations with the mayor will be very much changed. And we can't have that, can we?

And THE MAYOR went to a book fair in Guadalajara to get "honored" there, spending over $2 million in federal money (as if that makes it o.k.) and taking a lot of city people with him. Is this any way to act in a budget crisis? Might they be useful staying in L.A. to actually work on problems instead of these thinly disguised junkets?

DWP still not finished trying to get more of your money.

The DWP still continues to make the life for the city dweller more expensive and add more feathers to the IBEW bed. Tomorow will be another day for this to be pursued and very possibly another day that the "rate payers" will be forced to carry the burden of the best employee deals in town. Ron Kaye, on his blog, http://www.ronkayela.com/ , has regularly followed the political activities locally, and lately he's been very keen on pointing out some of the goings-on at the DWP.

This union pressure is nothing new but there are many who really did not have any idea of just how MUCH power the union wields. You have Mayor Tony Villaraigosa coming into office and one of the first things he approved, something carrying over from earlier time, was the DWP contract that is better than anything Santa could bring a city worker. The Mayor has always been a union supporter since that's where lots of reliable votes come from. If there was a better source of votes, you would see him courting that entity, and vigorously so.

This is common to all politicians, however. And that's part or maybe the biggest reason that you don't have these folks remembering to work for the city people instead of the UNIONS' interests. It happens especially so with the city council and that's why you hear a lot of tough talk from time to time from the Council members, but then when it comes time to DOING something and voting on something, they waiver and you wind up with what the union sought in the first place, before all the tough talk and show. There may be a little window dressing added to make it look like a good deal for the tax payers, like a few Fridays ago where the city union members spent most of the morning commenting. The result was that there's still huge budget deficit and the hole is getting deeper each day by about a million dollars, according to City Controller Wendy Greuel.

Please look at the postings from today and in the past few days on http://www.ronkayela.com/ - today, "City Hall Blackmail: Fewer Cops at Lower Pay, More DWP Workers at Higher Pay," shows how two different (and outageous) outcomes are unfolding. The continuation of the exercise of power by the DWP, a city agency literally controlled by the union, appears arriving at the reality of having police take a big chunk of the - as the Mayor says- "shared sacrifice," while the DWP gets better pay than they have already. The DWP employees get at least 20% high salary for comparable positions that do other city employees, some positions said to rate at almoest 40 % higher.

I will add here the item of raises. The raises is private sector are usually tied to the cost of living and the profitability the company experiences. The COL has not risen, and many in the priviate business sector are shutting down and laying off employees, but still the DWP looks for raises and has somehow manages to avoid imposition of furloughs, forget about lay offs.

READ Ron Kaye's blog and go back for days and you will get a better picture of the illogical and hypocritical behavior of our elected and appointed officials. The "appointed" ones were "appointed" by the elected ones- and there's lots of political pay-back that decides who gets these appointments. H. David Nahai was getting roughly $330,000.00 as the GM for DWP, appointed by Mayor Villaraigosa to that job.

Now Nahai's quit, but got a consultant contract for essentially the same figure to run to the end of the year. The law allows DWP commissioners to hire Nahai as a "consultant" without any Council or Mayor approval as long as the contract is LESS THAN $150,000. Nahai's pay will come in just under that amount- for simply being available during business hours by phone or fax, to answer questions as the new guy takes over.

And the "new guy" at DWP is David Freeman, who had the job before and should know most of what it's about now- so we wonder just WHAT does all this money pay for? An HOURLY billing with invoices would make sense, but then Nahai would not get all that money. So you wonder just WHY was that deal created- and DEFENDED by the DWP Commission President, a lawyer who you would think could craft a better deal FOR THE PUBLIC, not the quitting-Nahai?

Well, there's more happening, and more to comment on later. Check http://www.ronkayela.com/ and also see the Friday, October 16, 2009 entry, "Bratton and the Conflict of Interest Issue: The Berkow Connection" that's got some comments challenging the views expressed by Ron. It seems that if you have power and are connected, then you get to do whatever you want, and that's the part too many people are willing to accept with a shrug of the shoulders, so things like that continue to happen.

The DWP deal and Nahai is not the worst of it for the public

When you think of how well politicians treat each other in sending them off with financial rewards that are better than working, you might become bothered, even angry. Well, that's justified since all that money is coming out of taxpayers (and "rate payers" in the language of DWP) so those passing out the money don't ever feel the pain personally and probably even enjoy being in the Santa Claus role to give such gifts.

What's happening with Nahai and the DWP is a small part of the real costs to city residents in the view of Ron Kaye, expressed in his blog, http://www.ronkayela.com/ today,
"Who's on First, What's on Second -- The City Hall Comedy Show," By Ron Kaye on October 6, 2009. Here's on part of the posting today that might clue you in a little more,

Anyway, the payoff for failure to Nahai is a pittance compared to the millions
of dollars the DWP commission will soon be giving away to its 8,500 workers.

They are about to get a 2 percent cost-of-Living raise although the
cost of living in LA actually fell 1.7 percent in the last year. Throw in the
likelihood of a lump sum payment as well and guarantees of 2 to 4 percent raises
for the next four years and you're talking big money.

Reading the postings that Ron has put onto his blog over time will put things into a sharper focus on who actually should be included in the assortment of culprits making the various problems for the city.

The posting in the blog yesterday, "Bruno, LA's Watchdog: We Won't Get Fooled Again," by Ron Kaye, October 5, 2009, examines a little more of the situation with David Nahai's departure and some related activities of the players, all told in the character of Bruno, Ron's dog. http://ronkayela.com/2009/10/bruno-las-watchdog-we-wont-get.html

Well, there's more to come, as usual for all these things, and water mains are still bursting with an unusual frequency, but no one know why- and that's one of the things that council members did not like to hear from Nahai, which was not really the worst part of his management. Nobody really know why that's happening but you know money was not put into modernizing or maintaining the systems that could have happened if the City's General Fund had not been siphoning off lots of the money collected over the years.

City Council Pay Cut by half- an idea whose time has come.

Ron Kaye blog, Ron Kaye L.A., posted the idea of a pay cut by half for City Council, "Paying City Hall Officials What They're Worth: How to Cut Their Salaries in Half," by Ron Kaye, June 14, 2009. I am in full agreement with that and have long thought that it should be done. It mightg be a drop in the bucket when compared to all the other budget items of the City business, but you won't see CMs do it voluntarily. And though it may only be symbolic, and so much of things today are of little substance and are only important because they ARE symbolic, it needs to be done.

The idea of a pay cut is like the thinking when giving gifts: "it's the thought that counts." Here it's definitely the thought, and that is that they don't deserve the hefty pay days, about $15,000/month salary each, and the thought on their part that they are doing a lousy job collectively and for most, individually, too.

There are some comments appearing on Mayor Sam's blog at "My comment on Ron Kaye's website/blog" https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8826939&postID=447159087728310650 by Phil Jennerjahn, one of the blog's contributors and an unsuccessful challenger to Mayor Tony. He gets lots of criticism for his views that are not always clear without further clarification needed, and this is no exception.

The bad thing about a pay cut of any kind is that it would not happen soon enough to hit them all before several of them are termed out anyway. The act is still worth doing for correcting a wrong that was that free ride on the State judge's pay scale with automatic raises for no other reason than time has passed. Merit is irrelevant; and you would not find much merit in evaluating most of what's done by many CMs. Some are good at moments, Zine probably being the best one for that. Others are plainly working for somebody but it's not the residents and taxpayers of the City.

Time to change this and bring salaries into line with reality.

A Ron Kaye Blog entry sums up City Council performance; Any of your "Faith" on their wisdom and abilities is misplaced.

Ron Kaye, former Daily News editor and now blogger on http://www.ronkayela.com/ , continues to cut through the smoke and mirrors in City Hall and this current posting, "On Billboards, Busted Budgets and Bad Leadership," By Ron Kaye on May 27, 2009, http://ronkayela.com/2009/05/why-we-fight-city-hall-1.html continues the search for the elusive truths of issues before the Council.

There is a lot there in the blog post today to bring you up to date on the general state of what is happening in City Council chambers, and you can see past entries for views on other aspects of city "leadership" coming from elected officials. What they turn out to be "leading" is a continued and arguably literal looting of whatever funding sources they can find. And wherever they find funds, the end result hits home, ultimately reaching your own pocketbooks for a extraction of cash or a severe cut in services that are really priorities for a sustaining a productive society.

You can see and hear some of these examples on the video clips supplied on this website, RonKayesLA. If you really are ambitious, or happen to be a doubter, you can see the original cast in live performances, brought to you by assorted current technology: The city council meets again today at 10 a.m. on Ch. 35 for city cable viewers, replayed a couple of times each day, and available live and on-demand for older council meetings on the city website video and audio page, http://lacity.org/lacity/YourGovernment/CityCouncil/CouncilMeetings/LIVEandON-DEMANDVideo/index.htm All of the video are searchable and there is a built in "jump to" so you can zero in on specific agenda items. Agendas area also retrievable, usually in the video screen or by PDF files.

What you see in these Council meetings is usually is a lot of talkng in "code" so that you don't really know what is done that leads to the quick votes that are taken, usually coming at the early part of meetings (unless you read AND STUDY the accompanying "Agenda"). The Agenda is a document also written in the unhelpful "code" instead of any informative plain English. The meetings often include lots of rhetoric, the predictable preaching and self-serving statements by the Council Members who each can comment on any agenda matter- 15 potential sets of comments possible if all are there at one time, not the usual case.

"Public Comment," on the other hand, limits each speaker to 2 minutes apiece at the most to speak on non-agenda items of all sorts. Those comments can be a bit detached from the agenda matters and some handle the moment well and others run out of time in mid-topic. As for the Council side of speaking, any statements by the CMs tend largely to be purely fiction, without any opportunity for a meaningful challenge their exaggerations and misstatements uttered during their long time alottments to speak. And the CMs know that. The favorite phrase thrown around is "... the great leadership shown by ...." See what I mean about fictions?

That's politics and that's why you cannot rely on the Council (and Mayor, as well) to be allowed to run on "automatic pilot." Instead, watching them closely, as you would do with small children is the best choice, but unlike small children, they can make decisions that have profound effects on the city's well-being, and these moves are not taken innocently as you see with small children. Innocence is not any sort of a word to mix in with conversations about City Council actions.

Job Number One for them is usually pivoting around the notion of self-interest and looking out for Number One, above all else.