CommentsERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - Wednesday, January 19, 2022, I had a lot to say, and I knew that since the Council President had nixed one of the three council meetings this week.
By limiting the meetings to just two council meetings per week, everything gets compressed.
I always call in early before a council meeting to ensure that once the cue opens, I'm able to press *9 and raise my hand.
The current system confirms that your hand has been raised.
After starting fifteen minutes late, and a quick 14 minutes of voting, and motions including the elevation of Ms. Lisa Salazar to permanent Executive Director, Youth Development Department.
"Take a screenshot, it's unanimous," cried council member Martinez, who is eager to challenge the county and waste resources by building out one of several new departments.
At approximately 10:39:30 in the Youtube video, the council agrees to take public comment.
At that point, Fauble's legendary reading of the rules, each time more heartfelt than the prior, only to be met with scorn.
The last couple of speakers were from a CD8ist aficionado who was reaching out to Mr. DeLeon of CD14. He claimed it had been a while since he'd reached out over the summer and was waiting to hear back. DeLeon shrugged, knowingly.
Fauble called out one last number ending in 1881.
Strefan Fauble: Please unmute. That person hung up. We'll move to the next speaker. (a beat)
We've run out of speakers on the cue, give us one moment.
[Pause]
Mitchell O'Farrell: Is the next caller on cue? (then) Are we having audio issues?
Strefan Fauble: One moment, Mr. O'farrell.
Nury Martinez: Ok, we've um, we've satisfied public comment for today's meeting, members.
The council president thanked Councilmember Lee for being patient.
The adjournments and announcements lasted another 20 minutes.
Public: What about him?
I was hoping to ask... why we were delaying the payout to a guy who was wrongfully convicted a million years ago. On November 3, 2021, the allegedly Honorable body dba The Los Angeles City Council approved a transfer of funds and payment of $14,000,000 for FY 2021-22.
After giving it more thought, out of public view, the City Attorney who is running for mayor and Krekorian are suggesting splitting this payment into two Fiscal Years. McLane, Bednarski & Litt, LLP and Andrew Wilson, have no objection:
- $9,000,000 by January 31, 2022
- $5,000,000 by July 31, 2022
The lawsuit alleged that Marks had directed a witness to a photo of Wilson when shown a photo lineup of potential suspects. The witness had already identified two other men who were quickly ruled out as suspects by police.
“What about him?” Marks asked the witness, referring to Wilson’s photo. The witness then identified Wilson.
The practice has come under fire by both prosecutors and defense attorneys. The settlement is equivalent to around $440,000 per year of incarceration, an amount similar to payments approved by the council in other wrongful conviction cases, the lawyers said in the memo.
A pattern is not good:
On Fri, Nov 5, 2021, at 11:02am, I wrote "once again today Martinez took only 20 minutes of public comment, and once again excluded me. Not mayoral. Please provide the attendance logs from today’s council meeting."
Fauble was in no position to deny those records, so in ten days he provided a meeting log that showed that I had been the first speaker in the cue and had called in ahead of dozens of speakers. This is why we have wondered who is doing the choosing and selecting... #FBI
What about him?
Local Traffic:
All residents of Studio City could use a good pedestrian training, similar to the way all good Rabbis in Texas took hostage training and so avoided a more horrible outcome last week.
The Rabbi claimed he was not a hero, but had taken the hostage training class several times that allowed him to git r done and save lives. Inspiring.
He said it was like CPR training, you never know when it could save a life.
As a father of two active children who grew up in Studio City, sending them off on bicycles was fraught. On the one hand, absolutely, and on the other hand not.
Vision Zero has not been working as planned. People are very bad drivers, and the airwaves are clogged with injury attorney ads.
Department of Transportation spokesman Colin Sweeney said the 2021 statistics point to “speeding and reckless driving, coupled with design trends that make cars deadlier than ever before, with heavier frames and the addition of distracting features.”
Randall Fried and presumably his sidekick in shorts, Barry Johnson of the local transportation committee, who will be meeting with Nithya Raman soon about the unfinished business that Krekorian et al. conducted at the expense of Studio City constituents, remember that the public was very vocal about traffic safety.
It must be very cleansing for Krekorian to sell out the neighborhood and head west leaving a trail of newly minted CD4 pedestrians in the crosswalk.
As for the hideous high-rise development, we can thank local aesthetician, Lisa Karadjian, who serves on all of the various committees.
Midwood who has more congestion plans for the area and Lisa onboarded the concerns about road safety but now she's moved on to dole out tough love to an elder care facility to the east by limiting its height while recommending on-site liquor licenses, what can you say?
"Bottoms Up! Studio City!" or "Look both ways two or three times, and run for your life!"
Take a risk and Walk Over.
The Greenwood Controversy:
I found myself glancing at the Outside counsel document to see if Elizabeth Greenwood's case was a case that was being handled by the City's Conflict Panel. To refresh the memory, Greenwood is a former LACERA representative and City Attorney, who sued the city for $5 million when she allegedly got Typhus from the fleas nobody could locate.
I couldn't locate her case on the conflict panel. That case needs to be withdrawn. We see you.
For context over the last quarter or so we poured out $408,310 of the $1,272,000 we are planning to spend at the conflict bar in FY 2022.
For instance, we already spent $11,550 of the $45,000 that we the city intend to spend on the Matthew Garza v. City of Los Angeles case. That's the mayor's sexual harassment imbroglio and for that matter, we have the County's preferred attorneys for structural Sanitation billing, LEWIS BRISBOIS, BISGAARD & SMITH, LLP.
LBB&S takes care of everything and makes a fortune. Is this why they have a huge sign on a building in Los Angeles? Yes, is that still there?
By allowing LBB&S to manage the whole sanitation enterprise, if they still do, the Supervisors' who have a lot on the plate, can stay out of the landfill.
Everyone remembers Janice Hahn's heartfelt adjournment, a few months ago for the county's grand dame of sanitation-- drat, forgot her name.
What about him?
The Koreatown Youth and Community Center has advanced over the years. Below is from Checkbook LA. Kudos!
2022 $1.20 m
2021 $1.17 m
2020 $1.23 m
2019 $1.10 m
2018 $970,964
2017 $742,343
2016 $629,676
2015 $421,171
2014 $568,818
2013 $312,598
2012 $334,030
Two out of Three good is bad:
One in three people are testing positive and one in three signatures on the MIke Bonin Recall Petition was found to be invalid by Holly Wolcott's office.
Regardless of your joy or pain at the outcome, to suggest that the signature checking process here is kosher, look upward, because there are no members of the public allowed in the room to observe.
I've requested a breakdown of the 13,000 signatures that were rejected?
25965 good ones are 66.5% of 39000.
Check the stats from 2020:
(Eric Preven is a longtime community activist and is a contributor to CityWatch. The opinions expressed by Eric Preven are solely his and not the opinions of CityWatch)
