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ERIC PREVEN'S NOTEBOOK - The 2022 Regret list (overheard at City Hall):
1) The Tattoo.
2) Hiring Mr. Perez.
3) Declaring a central plan declaration of a new emergency, right after an old emergency
4) Blocking Mr. Preven on Twitter
5) Not getting a haircut prior to swearing-in officials
6) Wearing a t-shirt to the swearing-in
7) Creation of both Gov't operations and Gov't Reform committees
8) Implying on information and belief that one of the last five council presidents:
a) ate lunches intended for staff without a waiver of consent.
b) was aroused by Rick Jacobs's disgusting behavior
c) was a horrible civil rights violator, posing as a civil rights leader
d) gifted his CD2 district problems to Raman of CD4
9) The use of Pikachu in rollout as public official
10) Not freezing those damn bananas.
Global Gifting (& Returns):
Pelé's casket was borne by a firetruck to a private burial the other day in Santos, Brazil — the city where he became famous after moving there at age 15 to play for Santos FC. The City of Los Angeles has a longtime tradition of shipping our worn-out fire equipment vehicles to South America, but never to Brazil, to my knowledge. The City of Los Angeles is a good global citizen. Our mayors and other electeds care about crises around the world.
The disbelief community was on fire this week as President Biden re-nominated Eric Garcetti, who despite being a naval intelligence officer, claims he had no knowledge whatsoever about a long trail of abusive sexual misconduct in the very office that raised four times as much money for his murky Mayor's fund, as the Governor of California.
Rick Jacobs attended Karen Bass's election party. Spit take.
Good luck.
One expert worried, "I'm concerned this could be a plan to take advantage of the disarray and desperation in Congress. Among other things, McCarthy is still fighting to stay alive." Another disagreed. "I don't think Garcetti will press. This renomination is something he needs to save face. Then he can find an excuse later to pull his own nomination."
I guess if Joe Biden did not re-nominate Garcetti that would be humiliating, but... what about India?
India got a full article by Roger Cohen and photographer Mauricio Lima. They shlepped around for three weeks and guess what? It turns out India is of critical importance on the global stage.
There were two headlines for the same article, proof that all newspapers are shady:
--Russia’s War Could Make it India’s World - online headline 12/31/22
--India Presses Own Ideas About The World Order - headline NYT paper pg 1 today 1/5/23.
Disclosure: I made Chicken Curry using a recipe from Meera Sodha, a British cookbook author whose “Made in India: Recipes From an Indian Family Kitchen” was released in 2015. It was excellent.
If Garcetti pushes any harder it will cause unwanted attention on any vote. Another round of rehashing facts would be very bad for him. The man knows that he perjured himself before the Senate. He can't possibly want to re-litigate that... Maybe we can stick Mike Feuer in over there?
Again, what about India?
Right, neither Feuer nor Garcetti are the type of leaders we want to export abroad if we care about our national image.
City Attorney Feuer made Garcetti seem downright transparent, in his efforts to avoid being held accountable by a constituent who knows how the Brown Act and California Public Record Act work, and also how to make a simple appointment.
Feuer, worried that a growing stack of complaints about his office could be construed as a ... paper trail, or maybe a 'fire hazard' so his office posted paper signs outside the elevator on the 8th floor of the building, where his office is situated in City Hall east: No public allowed.
This resulted in one of the most embarrassing clashes between the city and it's many hispanohablantes.
It took a mighty storm to get a posted warning in city offices forbidding any kind of disruption, also posted in Spanish. Why?
Vivienne Swanigan who wore the hat, over there at City Attorney and also ran the show re: posted trespassing warnings in English only, would be a good resource on why.
I eventually asked her to put the flyer in both languages... and to include the language pointing to constitutional protections. David Michaelson, Feldstein-Soto's new guy, who has lost more battles with Carol Sobel than anyone, refused to take any action. I got it done.
Head Fussy Proctor:
Council President Paul Krekorian is in charge of the powerful SLFC Committee [sneaky legal fighting] and in anticipation of the new session of City Council that will start next week, he released his committee assignments.
For one thing, he's taking a note from Jim VanDehei at Axios and pruning out the pork in some of these committee names. HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY + HOUSING have merged into Housing and Homelessness Committee, to be chaired by the greatest of all time, Nithya Raman. She's absorbing the legacy created by ... Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo.
Under council rules, de León must be on at least one committee, so Krekorian stuck him on the Board of Referred Powers Committee. Red Flag.
PUBLIC WORKS will be chaired by Staffer B John Lee Red Flag.
Traci Park was nominated to chair the powerful Trade, Travel and Tourism Committee, but will check herself by also discussing systemic changes to local government in her, AD HOC COMMITTEE ON CITY GOVERNANCE REFORM.
Heather Hutt will Chair Transportation.
Curren D. Price is very very very happy to assume the leadership over the AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE 2028 OLYMPICS AND PARALYMPIC GAMES.
Krekorian is dropping the term, Immigrant Affairs from that committee and calling it, Civil Rights, Equity, Aging, and Disability. Hugo Soto Martinez will chair.
The term 'jobs' is being replaced with community development to become: Economic and Community Development.
The term hiring pops up in another newly named Personnel, Audits, and Hiring committee to be chaired by Tim McOsker. I am going to have to double-check as I couldn't see which committee is handling the Animals.
In the largest edit on record, the terms 'Climate Change, Justice and River' are all out. The slimmed down Energy and Environment Committee, will be chaired by Katy Young Yaroslavsky.
The old Information, Technology, and General Services committee will become Government Operations, to be chaired by Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who runs Planning like a tyrant.
And what was previously the Arts, Parks, Health, Education and Neighborhoods, will become Neighborhoods and Community Enrichment, and will be chaired by Eunisses Hernandez.
House Cleaning:
From: esp3800 <[email protected]>
To: lawrence.middleton <[email protected]>
Cc: carlos.singer <[email protected]>; eric.garcetti <[email protected]>; Mike.Feuer <[email protected]>; deron.williams <[email protected]>; andrew.westall <[email protected]>; shawn.wallace <[email protected]>; vivienne.swanigan <[email protected]>; Ana.Guerrero <[email protected]>
Sent: Wed, Mar 13, 2019 8:47 pm
Subject: Fwd: ✍️about restoration of prior paper meeting agenda practice during city council meetings
Mr. Middleton,
I have no way of knowing what you must be thinking but a community of resident stakeholders, city staff and others have been blindsided by an unexplained withdrawal of the prior practice of putting paper meeting agendas out and readily accessible during Los Angeles city council meetings without having to interact with law enforcement or required to meet technical requirements or follow detailed instructions.
It raises questions when such a brazen and unwarranted action can be taken in broad daylight after the stinging rebuke of the City in the Second District Appellate court opinion in the matter of Eric Preven v. City of Los Angeles over a pattern of Brown Act violations. See attached - the request for publication was granted last week.
The Los Angeles 2020 Commission report released in 2014 was a compendium of all bad things in L.A, including the lack of transparency and accountability in City Hall. Since then, a series of regressive anti-participation measures have been initiated under Holly Wolcott's leadership. When confronted about her 'worst practices' she immediately directs inquiries to council president Wesson's office. Wesson is currently running for Supervisorial District 2 and raised over $455,000 in December 2018 while his office was renovated subsequent to the FBI investigation.
The council president has adopted a 'take no meetings' policy that has also been adopted by the Mayor and City Attorney. If a member of the public or media want to present evidence in person it is strictly forbidden. Mr. Middleton, we know that you are able to get a meeting with City Attorney Mike Feuer, but millions of Americans in Los Angeles, including hispanohablantes who deserve accurate trespassing warnings in both English and Spanish in City Hall, have been having a tough time landing an appointment.
Vivienne Swanigan, an actor from the City Attorney's office (who has herself sued the City Attorney's office) does not want to update or translate the current procrustean english only trespassing warning, leaving a major problem uncorrected. I don't think she understands, and have tried to diligently make an appointment with her boss Mike Feuer via Maria Mattera's desk. Getting an appointment has proven to be far more difficult than I could ever imagine. There are no walk-in appointments, only scheduled appointments, but when you call or write to schedule an appointment, no appointment times are ever offered. No responses are ever provided or posted.
If a resident passes by the city attorney's office to offering wide availability to lock any timeslot down, even out into the future, a law enforcement officer of LAPD alerts a GSD swat unit who show up in riot gear and follow you around City Hall until you leave. Not a great look for an aspirational community leader committed to transparency.
Rather than resolve ongoing open government issues under the city attorney's authority, he prefers to make presentations to the honorable Kevin Brazile and Erick Taylor presiding judges of the LA Superior Court and engage in costly decorum wars that have hurt the public at large.
As for Feuer... not fun for voters to see him preening before the cameras at LAX but in his own city hall, blocking the inclusion of the key sentences in both english and spanish about constitutional protections in a 2019 redraft of the city's trespassing flyer... Really?
Given the ADA lawsuits... given so many issues-- we even wrote to Ana Guerrero who gets it.
And this latest effort to withdraw paper meeting agendas from public meetings--say you are reversing and then refuse to reverse--cannot be supported by any acceptable rationale, and bad faith representations will not be tolerated. Herb Wesson and Holly Wolcott are welcome to point fingers at one another, but the public deserves accessible paper meeting agendas during council meetings and written confirmation that the 'prior practice' of making such paper agendas readily accessible and available will be restored forthwith.
As for the disturbingly well documented series of arbitrary and capricious actions taken by the city to thwart public engagement and stymie criticism, nothing has been resolved.
The Trick:
The trick is to put both english and spanish side by side
Left
Trespass Warning
602.1 (b) An individual who does any of the following will be asked to leave the premises:
-interferes with an employee in the performance of the employee's city duties; or
-obstructs or intimidates patrons; or
-enters non-public areas without authorization
Individuals refusing to leave after such a request will be subject to arrest and
prosecution under California Penal Code
602.1 (d) This section shall not apply to any of the following persons:
(1) Any person engaged in lawful labor union activities or (2) any
person on the premises who is engaging in activities protected by the
California Constitution or the United States Constitution.
Right
Advertencia de traspaso
602.1 (b)
A una persona que realice cualquiera de las siguientes acciones se le pedirá que abandone las instalaciones:
-interfiere con un empleado en el desempeño de los deberes de la ciudad del empleado; o
- obstruye o intimida a los clientes; o
-entrega áreas no públicas sin autorización.
Las personas que se nieguen a irse después de tal solicitud estarán sujetas a arresto y
enjuiciamiento bajo el Código Penal de California
602.1 (d) Esta sección no se aplicará a ninguna de las siguientes personas:
(1) Cualquier persona involucrada en actividades sindicales legales o (2) cualquier
Persona en el local que participa en actividades protegidas por el
Constitución de California o la Constitución de los Estados Unidos
(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)
