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ERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - The meetings of the Board of Supervisors are open to the public, and all public participation is welcome. Sort of.
This Tuesday the Board plans to ratify the Proclamation of Local Emergency made on January 10, 2023, for winter storms in the County of Los Angeles, which will remain in effect until termination is proclaimed by the Board.
Most of the proclaiming this Tuesday will be done behind closed doors with Doe 1, Jane, et al. from Case No. 21STCV20949.
Followed immediately by a round of hints on today’s Wordle with Jane PB1-B Doe, et al. Case No. 22STCV25961
And finally, a quick round of peek-a-boo with John Doe v. Doe #1, a public entity, et al. Case No. 218TCV41051
No Public Comment/ Correspondence was submitted for these items.
Handing legal affairs can be important work, and it can annoy Angelenos, the way the Supervisors' counsel continually misleads them into believing that going behind closed doors will improve things.
It won’t, and it is the board’s decision — why is protecting the status quo and county counsel a priority?
I’m hoping Supervisor Janice Hahn, who is the current board chair, agrees to dust off the old Mayor of LA County handle, the way Mike Antonovich used to do, mainly to infuriate Mayor Villaraigosa.
It would be so confusing! Please…
Mr. Flexibility:
A young relative texted me, "Don't call me names because it is annoying?" I replied taken aback, "What do you mean? Who called who a name?"
It turns out a fellow student had wheeled out a nick name for the lad.
I said, when it comes to name-calling, it all depends on the name. For example, the dog Winston likes to be called Putty. The woman with the green hat wants to be called, Speaker.
Words, I explained, can always be used to be nice. Or not so nice. It's not very nice to call a person or a dog a name that they don't like, but sometimes friendly teasing among friends is OK.
My nickname is Mr. Flexibility.
RFP for Karen replacement:
A Karen is a pejorative slang term for an angry, entitled, sometimes racist white woman. Not anymore.
When Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to hold the office, swore in Karen Bass, the first woman of color to serve as mayor of Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the US, that term’s usefulness expired.
Unfortunately, the angry white woman ethos is alive and kicking in Studio City and other locales, it’s just the pejorative Karen label no longer fits.
We’re rebranding!
For a bad-tempered or aggressively assertive person, typically a woman … what’s wrong with Hag? Or Ballbreaker? Old bag or we’ll accept Old Biddy?
Too sexist, you say.
Okay, how about a person who Is anti-fun, or prevents others from having fun: a wet blanket crosses the divide. How about a miserabilist?
And we can certainly call an exaggeratedly dramatic or emotional person, a hysteric, or a Colleen or in the right context, a Wench.
What is the right context?
Sir, you're disrupting the meeting.
Everybody has met a Kvetch, and a Stickler (Fauble), and certainly there are plenty of Nitpickers to go around.
What do we call a person who Informs on another person or council president and their sneaky shenanigans?
A source.
Mayor Nury:
Apparently, my harping on endlessly about the mayor’s letters to the council president alerting the second in command that they will be acting mayor during a trip out of state, resulted in the production of some records.
It turns out Nury Martinez was the acting mayor of Los Angeles for approximately 91 days during 2020, 2021 and part of 2022 before she fell from grace following the leaked audio.
We need to set our clocks to be ready to illuminate the obelisk when Mayor Bass leaves California and Paul Krekorian takes his seat as the first Acting Armenian American Mayor of the second-largest city in America, home to the largest population of Armenians outside Armenia. Unless it already happened!
This information should be posted.
Shamelessness is contagious:
The intersection of Venice and Lincoln Boulevard is where Keenan Anderson, a beloved 10th-grade teacher, and father of a six-year-old home for the holidays from our nation’s capital where he lives, was tased repeatedly by LAPD as he pleaded for help and cried out that “they are trying to George Floyd me.”
Mr. Anderson had flagged down LAPD for help after a traffic collision and wound-up dead, from cardiac arrest, after being hit with multiple rounds of electricity.
How could the police have de-escalated this situation?
What can we as a community to protect black boys and men from an endless cycle of violence?
Despite the shameful proliferation of Tasers, they are deadly, inhumane, and not the solution. It’s an important point because since Mayor Garcetti signed the massive body cam purchase order from Taser International, which contained an unwanted secret bonus upsell of 4,400 Tasers, there have been umpteen horror shows following deployment.
Keenan’s family deserves justice.
Relinquish the Podium:
Following the Council President’s new scheme for committee meetings, it has come to light that:
There will be one committee meeting every other Monday at 2pm.
Five (5) meetings on alternating Tuesdays, two of which “Travel” + “Planning” start at the same time, 2 pm which has been a problem.
Four meetings on Wednesdays.
Zero meetings on Thursdays.
And finally, three meetings on Fridays, two of which “energy” + “neighborhood” meet at the same time. RED FLAG.
Why not only four committees that meet more frequently (my proposal):
1) Budget, Finance Hiring, and Government
2) Climate, Public Works, Transportation and Trade
3) Civil Rights, Public Safety, and Audits
4). Neighborhoods, Planning, Housing, and Homelessness
(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)
