Toilet Security

ERIC PREVEN'S NOTEBOOK - The LA County Metro Board of Directors, as usual, is more focused on securing and delivering big games than on the everyday rider experience. The board is deep in talks with vendors to make it all happen.

No idea if Palantir the creepy security technology company and Peter Thiel are lurking. (They are.) Yikes!

The Metro Board meeting agenda from Thursday included a mix of serious security discussions, high-tech toilets, and naturally a sprinkle of confusion.

As the meeting began, the room was buzzing with reports on facial recognition tech, and after a couple of hours, let’s just say, folks were getting hungry. That’s when Gavin Newsom’s statement hit the airwaves: “There are simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part.”

He was talking about homeless encampments (not Metro Crime) following the Supreme Court's ruling that the Governor supported.

While Newsom can’t directly boss local authorities around, he sure knows how to stir things up by threatening to withhold funds.

The Metro board was engaged in a deep self-serving discussion about scanning metro riders for weapons. The twist? The two pilots they've designed intend to serve venues connected to big stadiums, kind of like Union Station does for Dodger Stadium. Mayor James Butts of Inglewood adores stadiums and federal grants and though he probably loves Maxine Waters not this week, as she tried to throw out one of stadium friendly People mover grants.

Every conversation morphed into a reminder about the World Cup, Super Bowl, and Olympics (coming soon) but Supervisors Horvath and Chair Hahn were distracted by an unrelated couple of items about eminent domain. Horvath’s compassionate curiosity about the process seemed to be getting a bit of traction. But Chair Hahn sniffed it, questioned staff, and then quickly turned into a “never mind” moment.

Cori Dionne "Coco" Gauff is a professional tennis player who will carry the torch for America with professional basketball hero, Labron James.

Nobody has called out the need for public toilets on the system more than the smart speakers from Studio City. It was very interesting to see the board facing a $22M “throne toilet smart toilet system." 64 toilets for 45 locations. There were a lot of questions - was service included? It works in Ann Arbor Michigan. Go Blue.

Paul Krekorian who launched an electronic toilet system in a LA city park to no fanfare and humiliation, was in Paris with Mayor Karen Bass so... how convenient! The jokes were flying. Janice Hahn brought the house down when someone asked about the verbal prompt from the automated toilet that your time had expired. Chair Hahn, quipped empathetically, " Can you ask for an extension?"

This was enough to get buttkissers, Ara Najarian and James Butts, rolling around on the Metro floor.

Lindsey P. Horvath who annoyed thousands of Angelenos on Tuesday thought it was important that we get reports on the expansion of clean restrooms, but as we learn about functionality...she thought restricting access to abusers, should be postponed. Until when?

She wanted to "Utilize it, see how it works, and then not penalize people." All 64 units installed will by 2026... but there is a year over year increase of $300,000 ... through 2028... why?" she wondered. Because, "These are turnkey solutions... they also maintain them and service them as well."

Looking forward to this potty rollout. Thank you,.

Mitchell doth protest to much!

Moderator: Our next participant is Eric Preven. Please unmute and speak directly into your phone.

Smart Speaker: Thank you. It’s Eric Preven. I think this process is moving too quickly and causing confusion. The number nine is unclear. I understand the Supreme Court has nine justices, but I haven’t seen an analysis justifying this number. There are four district offices in the third district, with 40 employees—10 per office. The reason for our service problems is, indeed, service issues. How does adding nine supervisors help with the probation department? An elected CEO creates a conflict of interest. I don’t mean to cause trouble, but this needs rethinking. If it’s not happening for four years, why not get it right? It’s a noble idea, but the political action groups making calls now make it feel inappropriate, especially in the heat of summer. I recommend we reconsider and improve the plan.

Executive Officer: Thank you, your time is expired. Next speaker, please.

Moderator: Our next participant is Eric Preven. Please unmute and speak directly into your phone.

Smart Speaker: Okay, thank you. Everyone loves a transparent approach to elections. I know Dean and Jeramy Gold remember my enthusiasm for printing candidate statements so people could see and read them. Unfortunately, it turned out to be too costly. Now, this seems like tit for tat with the Board of Supervisors. So much anger! It’s like we’re going in circles, revisiting the same points. Maybe something productive will come of this, but to me it feels hasty and late. Let’s get it in front of the people. A 500-word limit is quite challenging. And the $700,000 cited to add a quad page is a significant amount. This whole thing seems so tribal, with suddenly the Controller involved—it’s all about power. I think we should stick with five medium-sized supervisors who could manage things better.

Moderator: First up is Eric Preven. Please unmute and speak directly into your phone; you may begin.

Smart Speaker: Thank you. [Audio cutting out] It’s crucial to address Gender Violence, but I thought the Office of Violence Prevention was already handling this. Is this a new group? What about Patti Giggans and Peace Over Violence?

Read Profit Over Violence [CityWatch 3-25-21]

Putting this item after a contentious one is an interesting strategy. Unity. It seems to mute our most pointed criticisms. Lame. But thank you for sticking up for the victims. The upcoming ballot is going to be overcrowded and chaotic. We need a way to streamline this process—it’s messy. As someone said, democracy is messy, and this is a total mess.

Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell: I just wanted to comment that it might be difficult for people not in the hearing room to understand. The five of us here are professionals, capable of agreeing and disagreeing on policy and practice without anger. We manage the county's work collaboratively. I felt it was important to make that clear.

Supervisor Lindsey Horvath (Chair): We’ll move to item 8, addressing accessibility and inclusion at Los Angeles County parks, which was held by Supervisor Hahn.

Supervisor Mitchell. Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell: Thank you. I agree with everything my colleagues said. Listening to Supervisor Hahn talk about park benches reminded me of an experience I had at Juneteenth in Victoria Park, Carson. I saw a senior hesitant to get out of her car. I went over to help. She was worried that the benches were too low and feared she wouldn’t be able to get up. I’m glad that our Aging and Disability Department is involved in redesigning to ensure accessible spaces for our aging and differently-abled constituents. She ended up attending the event and stayed until the end because she felt confident.

Moderator: The next participant is Eric Preven.

Smart Speaker: Thank you. This is crucial. We live in a climate susceptible to hot days and nights, so educating children and everyone about this is a good idea. After a shower, it’s so hot you might put the towel outside and avoid washing it right away, because when you dry off...you’re clean. Right?

CPRA Request re: 06/03/2024 - 2:00PM Claims Board Meeting

DATE: July 25, 2024

Good afternoon Mr. Preven,

You requested information re: the names of the Claims Board members in attendance at the June 3, 2024 Claims Board meeting. Although your request did not specifically mention the CPRA, your request was treated as a CPRA request, which covers the production of records (e.g. documents) as opposed to information. A search was conducted and the City Attorney's Office is not in possession of any records related to your request (See your initial e-mail below).

However, since you could have attended the June 3, 2024 Claims Board meeting (the meetings are open to the public), the members in attendance that day were: