Comments
ERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - This week Governor Newsom is hosting a get Trump meeting, Kathryn Barger is taking over at LA County, and Marqueece Harris-Dawson is easing into his role as Council President with a wholesale reduction in meeting cancellations compared to the prior year. Progress? No.
One wonders if Nathan Hochman, crimefighter extraordinaire*, will be as thorough as the old Public Integrity Division has been in overseeing public meeting law. Or we’d accept half as "thorough" as he promised to be going over the Menendez brothers case— seriously? Let’s move forward.
Pardon me?
President Biden pardoned his son Hunter, and some of us were triggered around the low point in international relations when President Biden effectively pardoned former Mayor Eric Garcetti for his obvious role looking away from the hideous behavior of his top fundraiser, Rick Jacobs.
The President went very far out of his way to clear Garcetti through the Senate committee on Creepy Activities, despite a flock of over sixty credible whistleblowers willing to talk.
If Garcetti’s Passage to India yielded nothing more than the video of the Ambassador dancing among the staff during the US embassy's Diwali celebration, I’m good.
Boom Shaka! Welcome home, Sir.
This year the former mayor Ambassador grooved to the popular Bollywood song "Tauba Tauba" from the film "Bad Newz. [x.com]
Smart Speaker: Could Joe Biden conceivably pardon Mark Ridley-Thomas?
Great question, some of us in the interested community were remembering the old ditty: “Get the goddamned money out the goddamned door!” made famous by Ridley-Thomas during last Tuesday’s LAHSA earthquake.
To refresh the memory, in August 2023, Mark Ridley-Thomas was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison following his conviction on charges including conspiracy, bribery, and honest services fraud. The court found that he had engaged in a corrupt scheme with a university dean to steer taxpayer-funded contracts to the school in exchange for benefits for his son.
I heard the appeal arguments last week. While I’m happily not a lawyer—just someone who plays one on TV—I couldn’t help but notice how skillfully MRT’s defense maneuvered around the details. They’re clearly working to exploit a technicality, arguing that certain actions, USC moving $100,000 around for him to avoid bad optics, does not meet the legal definition of a bribe based on case law. Yuck.
It’s complicated, and honestly, the appeal might succeed. But whether or not the conviction holds, we cannot lose sight of the bigger picture. Public trust is eroded when these cases hinge on semantics rather than ethics. The community deserves leaders who are above reproach—not just in legality but in principle.
Smart Speaker: Sir, could Joe Biden pardon Mark Ridley-Thomas or not?
Don’t ask Cornel West, a prominent supporter of Mark Ridley-Thomas, who criticized MRT's conviction, stating that Ridley-Thomas was "convicted for nothing—for nothing—under Biden's Justice Department."
West did not elaborate on this assertion, but sometimes it is better to shut the fuck up and let Player-Player Mark Ridley-Thomas handle his own presidential pardon.
Everything MRT did was about helping his son Hunter... sorry, Sebastian!
County Culture Shift:
I’d like to begin by thanking Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath for all her tireless work shoving through her agenda—often over the needs of the people and, frankly, her colleagues. It takes a special kind of determination to prioritize a personal vision so thoroughly, even when it might not align with public sentiment or collaborative governance.
As we look ahead to the reorganization meeting, I encourage the Board to consider leadership that listens more and dictates less. While the calendar and Chair Pro Tem election are routine, the opportunity to refocus on transparency, accountability, and genuine public engagement is not.
Measure A’s allocations and the framework for LACAHSA are critical but also emblematic of the need for faster, clearer action. Delays in reporting, oversights in equity, and reduced public engagement only compound frustrations. A shift toward accountability—including robust oversight of sole-source contracts and settlements—is overdue.
And as for the County Counsel’s holiday luncheon… a funny story.
“A Trend your highness...”
Marqueece Harris-Dawson... trained under the master blaster, felon, and raconteur Mark Ridley-Thomas!
It’s no surprise that the new council president, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, is rolling back the workload. Following the advice of Councilmember Nithya Raman, Harris-Dawson seems to have taken her suggestion to "cancel meetings as needed" to heart.
Item 43, the city's proposed recess schedule continues the trend started by felon and pioneer Mark Ridley-Thomas, who famously reduced the number of meetings during his tenure as county supervisor resulting in a good-natured vintage clash with Mr. Flexibility, Eric Preven.
With the proposed 2025 recess schedule increasing the number of days off compared to 2023 and 2024, it’s clear the council is leaning further into this approach.
The Los Angeles City Council's recess days for each year are as follows:
2023: Approx. 55 days
2024: 59 days
2025: 62 days
As Katy Yaroslavsky pointed out in David Zahniser's investigation for the Los Angeles Times, the push for fewer council meetings has been "bubbling under the surface" for some time. Members have argued that reducing the number of ceremonial or contentious sessions would allow them to dedicate more time to their districts—a perspective Zahniser, with his distinct take on public comment (he hates it), highlights as both practical and politically strategic.
The proposed 2025 City Council recess schedule is a study in indulgence, with more days off stacked under the guise of "streamlining" and "efficiency." At a time when the city is grappling with a budget crunch, these adjustments feel less like sensible scheduling and more like a gift to council members who already seem allergic to hard work.
Winter Recess? Slashed to one day in 2025. Great, they’ll be back just in time to warm their seats before the next excuse to adjourn. Spring holidays? Consolidated into a four-day break. They claim it’s for efficiency—how noble! Meanwhile, summer recess has ballooned to nearly four weeks. Four weeks! Do they plan on solving homelessness from a beach in South of France? Oui Oui.
And then there’s Rosh Hashanah—extended from one day to two in 2025, because why not? By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, they’ll have had more “breaks” than most Angelenos can afford to dream of. And let’s not forget the National League of Cities junkets and year-end hiatus, both generously padded. Dirty Secret: Almost nobody attends these junkets.
Call it scenic route governance at its best. Is this public service? More time off, less accountability, and a backlog of ignored issues. Lazy doesn’t even scratch the surface.
On Item 32, I’d like to highlight an important correction. "Kawkins" appears to be a typo. The correct name is Augustus F. Hawkins, the first African American elected to the U.S. Congress from California, and the namesake of the Augustus F. Hawkins Nature Park. This park honors his enduring legacy and serves as a vital community resource. A motion tied to his name deserves accuracy and respect for the man it commemorates.
Now, as for USC, the provider of these funds. In 2012, USC entered into a Development Agreement with the City of Los Angeles, committing up to $20 million for affordable housing initiatives in the neighborhoods surrounding its University Park Campus. This was part of a broader set of public benefits negotiated to offset the impacts of its expansion. The agreement also included the construction of 4,038 new student beds to reduce housing pressure in nearby communities and the establishment of a legal clinic to assist tenants through the USC Gould School of Law.
Smart Speaker: How are the tenants doing in the area?
"You're off topic!"
Yes—this is the same USC embroiled in more scandals than the University of Michigan and Michigan State combined, including the one at USC with Marilyn Flynn admitting that Mark Ridley-Thomas bribed her. While the $1,000,000 on this item was legally provided by the University, the institution’s track record raises questions about accountability. [Varsity Blues.]
Oh, and one final finger in the eye, Notre Dame punched its ticket to the College Football Playoff with its 10th consecutive victory, 49-35 over USC Football on Saturday. Go Irish!
And obviously, Go Blue! Michigan (6-5) upset the (10-1) Ohio State Buckeyes that resulted in a brief fight.
For shame.
Benchmarking:
I was curious about how this year's agenda compares to last year's. So, I decided to take a look at the first Tuesday in December from 2023 and line it up against what we’re staring at today. And what I found is no surprise but still deeply troubling: this year, we have 50 items crammed onto the agenda, compared to just 27 last year. That’s nearly double the load.
But here’s the thing: more isn’t more. It’s less. Less accountability, less transparency, and less time for you—or anyone—to critically evaluate what’s being pushed through. Take this year’s agenda. We’ve got everything from multi-million-dollar bond issuances to tree trimming in Council District 2 to a $618,000 crosswalk project. All lumped together, all fighting for attention.
And what happens when agendas swell like this? Oversight gets drowned in the noise. Important details slip through the cracks. Hawkins is Kawkins. Decisions are made in a rush because—let’s face it—you’ve got 49 other items to get through before lunch. The public? Left scrambling to make sense of it all, and that’s if we’re lucky enough to get the chance to comment.
So let’s not confuse efficiency with good governance. When you inflate the agenda, you deflate the public’s trust.
(Eric Preven is a longtime community activist and is a contributor to CityWatch.)
