Election Day in CD-2- News -Vote Zuma Dogg/ David Saltsburg; Media Ignores City Hall- as usual

VOTE for David Saltsburg. He's running for CD-2 to shift power away from special interests.

Today, until 8 pm, CD-2 registered voters will trickle to the polls for a SPECIAL ELECTION and vote for a Los Angeles City Council Member for this district that is mostly in the San Fernando Valley from the 405 Freeway and meandering to Sunland-Tujunga. Wendy Greuel, up until she was sworn into her new office as City Controller 2 months ago was their Council Member. There are a few years of unexpired time remaining for that term.

If you rely on television for news, there's a good chance you don't know anything about the election, that it's today, that there are 10 candidates running or that 3 of these are "the Machine" candidates, having well-financed campaign, running against 7 "grassroots" under-financed campaigns.

If you think, "CD-2, What's that? Who Cares?" then you are doing well to fall into the chasm that keeps the same types of rotten politician in office. CD-2 has a population equal to many name-cities. It is one of 15 Council Districts in the City. Voter apathy is what we have for most city elections, as only 18% of the registered city voters came out to vote for Mayor and the odd-numbered CDs, 7 of them. The city council members decide L.A. life. Another bad choice keeps this club to do that, unimpeded.

As L..A. is run, the rest of the Southern California is affected. The fallout will eventually spread over to impact other cities and policies set in L.A. WILL wind up impacting other places. If you say I live in CD-14 so I have my own problems- and we do- we don't want another bad player in the game to strengthen the choke hold the Council puts on the constituents. Same as CD-1 with Ed Reyes and his DENSIFICATION to make every housing a packed deal, more congestion- and no infrastructure attention FIRST. Broken water mains? Just a start of what to expect by bad mangement of the City.

The CMs keep there jobs through voters being both apathetic and ignorant. The lack of City Hall news coverage on television or newspapers on the elections (at time for any given city election) contributes to this condition. Most incumbents welcome this low-profile situation at election time, being able to control information better when they send out waves of slick campaign brochures in the mail to residents to convince them that all is well and will continue to be well with things as long as you re-elect them.

Most of the city's current financial mess, with the current budget over $450 million in the hole, and recent arrangements keep certain union employees safer from layoffs than other who, coincidentally don't supply elected officials with the all-important campaign contributons that get attention. The Engineers and Architects Assn. is one union that's getting about 27 days of furlough, being on the outs with last week's City and unions "deal" - and tell me, how that's really gonig to work when most of the favored unions will be protected from layoffs and others get early retirement deals to be paid but not work?

Is a CD job a good one? Just look at how hard the CMs go to protect these jobs. See the L.A. Weekly's February story just before the March 2009 elections,
"Los Angeles on $300,000 a year Why next week's City Council "coronation" will cost you far more than money," By Patrick Range McDonald -Published on February 25, 2009 -
http://www.laweekly.com/2009-02-26/news/los-angeles-on-300-000-a-year/

Yes, lots of money is nice to have, and the other thing is the power. You will see that L.A. draws people back to the city politics like with Richard Alarcon, a former state assemblyman who makes a career manipulating power, and CM Wesson, another of the refugees who left Sacramento for a better payday in L.A. by choice or because there were termed out.

Without going much more into the problems, you can see a list of items showing a badly run city in Mayor Sam's blog covering mostly local politics
http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/

Ron Kaye, former editor of the L.A. Daily News based in the San Fernando Valley, supplies some through and critical thought, often exposing the secret side of dealings at city hall, on his blog www.ronkayela.com

The most colorful and absolutey harshest critic of the City Council and L.A. politics is "L.A. Daily Blog" http://ladailyblog.blogspot.com/ written by David "Zuma Doog" Saltsburg,whose been pulled into the political whirlpool since his own visit to City Hall over 3 years ago when the city shut down his right to sell things at Venice Beach, and that started it all.

I got to know ZD over the past few years and his knowledge of the city operation is gained by day to day involvement, contacts with people who know how things work, and inside information from people tired of the sneaky dealing going on in City Hall.

One thing that I have to give much credit to ZD for and not to any others in the same way, is that he has broken down the city's way of burying the real actions in paragraphs of legalese and boilerplate language that tells you nothing of the real meaning of the motions, the ordinances and most money-shuffling that goes on.

ZD's theatrical manner at Council meeting annoys many but exemplifies the ills that he finds and puts it out into the open. He's gotten more people clued into city activities, and has more young people learning more about what's there to affect by action. More people now than ever are challenging the city leaders, but still in small numbers that have not yet caused any upheaval in the MACHINE type of special interest controlled organization.

That special interest controlled group handles that first and you and me last. Parking meters quadruple the rates, extend hours, end free Sundays and that's a small part of what's visible that affects your day-to-day life. There are so many more things that sneak by that you don't even notice and that's the way City Council works- them first, you, well, you're just there to pay the bills, see your city billings rise and services deteriorate as you watch their Ch. 35 or internet video broadcasts of their "performances" to see "how smart" they are. The word is not smart but "insulting", "slick", "greedy", ignorant", "arrogant", "condescending" or a number of other words at various time that fit them all at one time or another. It needs to change.

DWP is bled dry by the CMs deals and your transformers blow, the water mains burst and people see things are not being maintained. The GENERAL FUND of the city gets money fed into it by many things and DWP is one source- also DWP's IBEW unions was the best contract deal made from the employees side, with pretty good raises every year as the economy was beginning to collapse.

Mayor V. is just too out of touch with city business, claimed he approved that deal because he could not tell of bad times ahead. He's barely changed since then, the union's best friend as long as the keep supporting his campaign funding, he's still trying to keep them happy even when layoffs are avoided when really needed to balance the budget.


Zuma Dogg/ David Saltsburg is one candidate I support, and any of the other of the 7 grassroots would be an improvement over what's there now.

NO, NO, NO TO ALL MACHINE CANDIDATES. Tamar Galatzin is the least harmful of the 3 MACHINE candidates, too closely tied to Mayor V., Chris Essel is totally a carpetbagger who was assigned to run and be a stooge for the mayor, and Paul Karabian would be bringing more State bankruptcy-making skills to further plunge L.A. into the financial black hole it's already headed for.

If you live in CD-2, vote. A 20% turnout is predicted. The top two vote-getters will be in December run-off election if no one gets 50% plus one vote, a majority.

Have you felt the L.A.'s parking meter gouge? There's more.

The parking meter changes are reaching more parts of the city. The job in San Pedro was done last week, according to the Daily Breeze newspaper. "SP parking meter rates hit $1 an hour; FEES: Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa estimates citywide increase will bring in $18 million to help close deficit," http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5453145. They also had hours of operation extended from 5 and 6 pm to 8 pm, and the article covers that pinch that this is having on businesses in the San Pedro area.

You see that the money expected by hitting you harder at parking meters, $18 million, would have been nearly offset by a cut in spending or even the by not having the management fouling up and causing the enormous payout from the May Day Melee of 2007, $13 million settlement approved by City Council. "Los Angeles to pay $13 million to settle May Day melee lawsuits," By Maeve Reston and Joel Rubin, February 5, 2009, and the L.A. Weekly, "May Day Melee Tab: $12.85 Million" By Steven Mikulan, Feb. 4, 2009.

Both stories mentioned the other settlement a week earlier, "Only last week the council agreed to pay $20.5 million to four cops who said they'd been falsely charged in the aftermath of the LAPD Rampart Division scandal," from the L.A. Weekly's report.

So $13 million and $20.5 million, that's a total of $33.5 million for the management's mistakes, and the Melee WAS the fault of the LAPD managers for not providing proper training of officers and that includes practicing what could be expected that day. And the LAPD's error in accusing falsely the 4 officers is again how things were managed in LAPD's operations. That's the Chief's responsibility and it costs us again, as it has in the past.

Now look at the damaging impact inflictied by the city's decision to squeeze more money from us. Business and motorists feel the pain that quadrupling the rates causes. Parking is a very real need and it comes at too high a price for some people, discouraging some parking. Downtown was $1.00 an hour in most places in the civic center. I knew it was coming but I still was amazed that first week when I was in Highland Park and saw the lots and street meters all converted and the "8 p.m." ending time now.

Now you need 16 quarters for an hour downtown to cover the $4/hour meters. Don't have change? Don't worry because lots of machines are being put into city parking lots that take your credit card. For your convenience? Don't kid yourself. It's all to get more money that been given out on the other end by your City Council decisions. I remind you of the event fee waivers for last months Grammy Awards and the Academy Awards, over half a million dollars that is given away in City services and City salaries.

The mayor now is considering selling off the rights to meters and city parking lots for some quick lump-sum cash. to a private sector company, like Chicago did. We would really be at the mercy of those businessmen who would only pay for this right TO MAKE A PROFIT. WHY should the city do that but to be TONY'S plan to balance the budget so he gets that credit? That way he then uses that dubious "ACCOMPLISHMENT" for another reason to be governor, "I balanced the budget."

That would be a lie. It woulb be like taking care of your relative's home while they go off on vacation and then getting out their lawn mower and maybe some tools from the garage to just sell them to a gardener. They won't need them since the gardener will do the work himself now and you just keep paying him. And since it's not YOUR house, you don't care, but use the money collected for something like putting in more plants that will need evem more gardener attention. Not an exact comparison, but TONY will leave us with the mess from a bad deal, never having to worry about it after it's done, but WE will live with this like all the things he's left us with.

HERE'S THE MAYOR'S IDEA TO MAKE HIMSELF LOOK GOOD- all in the L.A. TIMES:"Los Angeles exploring deal to lease parking structures and meters to a private firm; Mayor Villaraigosa finds the idea attractive after Chicago received a $1.15-billion infusion from Morgan Stanley for running its parking facilities and meters." By Steve Hymon February 25, 2009. And he's thinking of letting go of the Zoo to a private operator, too. Is that really the solution?

And what did Tony leave us with? More building that's going on to have more people put into smaller spaces, and the existing building codes and ordinances get waived for them in sweetheart deals that ther regular guy doesn't get. And much of the building is in "transit corridors" so the required parking spaces can be excused for the developer. I read somewhere that this savings by cutting out each parking space can be $30,000.00 to the developer.

But you now will have less that the normal 2 required spaces. And if you have a couple or a family living there, usually at least 2 cars will be involved- but your unit was cut by 1 space to get it built. Who did that benefit but the developer who saves money and sells for a bigger profit. Now we have parking more stressed. AND "TRANSIT CORRIDOR" is a made-up term for "being next to a bus or rail route"- as if EVERYONE will do all of their travel by bus or gold or redline? It's all a fiction created to BYPASS BUILDING AND SAFETY CODES that were created for a reason, and help developers turn a bigger profit.

AND, I have not even reached discussion on the subsidies and incentives given out by the city, where WE the city are paying a big part of the costs and the tax bills for these folks to make MORE money by putting up all this construction. If the City (MAYOR and Council) will allow the city to be devastated by loss of more space and increased infrastructure burdening, then WHY be PAYING on top of that to make it happen? They say we NEED IT. I leave that for now, but you already know it's not for YOUR benefit.

There are more negatives from all this- they don't like to say it since it's not for your benefit.

More development means more WATER USAGE and now rationing is requested. How does that make any sense?

More traffic and the already mentioned parking problems will be worsened by more people crammed in.

More need for fire and police protection? Aren't we still getting financially squeezed by the tripled trash fees that were supposed to be paying for the extra 1,000 police that we didn't get (more broken promises, done expensively)? How's more building in every available space going to help if we NEED MORE police NOW and they want MORE people into L.A., as well? Doesn't that mean that it's CERTAIN that we will NEVER catch up to the balanced level that we need?

We are not able now to handle this "PLAN" that is not helping the living conditions in Los Angeles. But TONY wants MORE things for his RECORD, and career climb.

End this on Tuesday.

Pick a new mayor. I have chosen Zuma Dogg-he sees all this happening and wants to change it- and you can make your choice. But it's ABSOLUTE MADNESS to allow this adminsitration to continue unless you're making a ton of cash on the deals like the special interests are doing.