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ERIC PREVEN'S NOTEBOOK - Tomorrow is Tuesday and City Hall's Obfuscation Tour continues.
After last Friday’s Van Nuys stunt—an hour of voting before the Council even approved meeting there—the follow-up strategy is simpler: bury the ball in the rough. The CAO, CLA, City Clerk, City Attorney, and ITA have collaborated on a production schedule so chaotic you can almost hear the paper shredders warming up. Kudos to the Obfuscators; it takes a village to make democracy this fuzzy.
Mega-Event Sellout, Part II
Item 29 rolls out a 2028 Games construction moratorium. Sounds tidy; it’s not. Expect a citywide freeze-and-please regime that privileges Olympic operations while everyday Angelenos tiptoe around restricted streets, delayed repairs, and special-event carve-outs. Pair that with Item 48—the MICLA lease-revenue bonds that lock taxpayers into the Los Angeles Convention Center expansion—and you see the bigger play: last week was the sellout, this week is the hiding place.
From L to R, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Where is Sam?
Mayor Karen Bass already cut the ribbon on a $2.6 billion convention-center expansion, calling it “key to downtown’s revitalization.” The Central City Association echoed the hype, promising jobs, tourists, and a shiny new core—recycled straight from a 2014 consultant’s pitch. Public-administration hawk Heywood Sanders, author of Convention Center Follies, to Alissa Walker's Torched it is a disaster: costs ballooned from $470 million to $2.6 billion and will drain more than $100 million a year from the general fund while major conventions flee. Los Angeles is doubling down on a fading business model, betting that a bigger box will somehow draw crowds Chicago, Vegas, and San Francisco couldn’t keep.
Closed-Door Charity for a Corporate Nomad
AECOM getting a refund is always a matter of interest.
Item 51 hides in closed session: AECOM’s Business License Tax fight. The firm helped design the city’s debt culture, then decamped to Texas. Now we whisper about refunding them. No. Call the roll in public.
Aviation Theater vs. Common Sense
Item 15 green-lights $18,494,700 for helitankers ($4,494,700 already budgeted). Fires are real, but chasing bad drivers or managing pursuits by dumping aviation fuel over neighborhoods while news choppers orbit isn’t public safety—it’s theater. Put drones on the table and publish flight-hour, fuel-use, and noise data.
Pay More to Get Saved
Item 18 hikes ambulance transport: ALS $2,915, BLS $1,862, mileage $29 per mile—estimated $3.7 million more a year. Rescue shouldn’t read like a luxury option. At minimum, demand a hardship waiver with teeth.
The IT Money Pit with Nice Stationery
Item 23 drops $4,500,000 for Sanitation’s Automation Master Plan, with $480,000 baked in for year one. On-call contracts make costs invisible and outcomes optional. Where are the milestones, penalties, and public dashboard?
Trees Get Hurt, the City Finds Its Spine
Item 24 finally toughens LAMC §62.174, “Injury to Trees,” with tiered penalties and outreach. Good. Now pair it with predictable permitting and real canopy targets, not just fines after the stump.
Two $947,326.26s in a Trench Coat
Item 46 splits LAHD Emergency Rental Assistance money into two equal chunks—$947,326.26 for rental aid and $947,326.26 for outreach. Say it together: $1,894,652.52. Show the outreach contracts and the eviction-prevention numbers.
Studio City Refund, Because Of Course
Item 7 returns $70,771.57 to LRRB, LLC for 4129 N. Rhodes Ave—Studio City, a short hop from Paul Krekorian’s old cave. Maybe justified, maybe reflex, but high-value ZIP refunds deserve sunlight.
MV Bus Money, RFP on the Clock
Items 42 and 43 extend North and South Region bus contracts with MV Transportation to eye-watering totals (North NTE $263,950,149; South NTE $237,961,100) and promise a South Region RFP by October 14. Hold them to it with on-time performance data and missed-trip penalties.
Homelessness: Beds, Bets, and IOUs
Item 27 approves 2,130 Temorary Living Shelters TLS “bed” slots and repurposes up to $16,287,030 in HHAP. Future General Fund exposure looms if state or federal dollars vanish. Demand a per-placement cost cap and quarterly unit-identification tallies.
And the Little Things That Aren’t
Item 41 reimburses $900 to Reseda NC for printing and outreach—paid from a CD 4 bucket to a CD 3 council. Small, odd, and exactly how trust evaporates. Item 5 moves $400,000 to the City Attorney for expert witnesses in Vadnais Trenchless Services v. City; Item 6 extends Aeon Nexus on the Criminal Case Management System (NTE still $5,054,862.50)—two more reminders that “technology” is our most expensive four-syllable word.
Previously on City Hall…
Last Friday the Council met in Van Nuys and managed to vote for nearly an hour before legally approving the meeting location. That’s a straight-up Brown Act violation. I filed a formal Cure and Correct demand the same day. If they don’t fix it within 30 days, a judge may have to.
From my letter of September 26, 2025:
“Because the location had not yet been authorized when votes were taken, the meeting was not lawfully convened, rendering those actions null and void or voidable.”
Tuesday’s cure appears to be MORE confusion: drown the public in paper, split the dollars, and hide the hot potatoes in closed session.
Counting County Coffers—Or Not
Sneaky pre-meeting platforming Horvath's questions.
Smart Speaker: Before everything, as agreed in July, we will hear from the CEO on the budgetary pressures—
Executive Officer: Actually, no, Mr. Preven—we’ve quietly… adjusted that plan.
Smart Speaker: Adjusted? It’s not on today’s agenda?
Barger (cheerful): Today we begin with an inspiring presentation from McChrystal Group. Lessons learned. Best practices. AARs. Acronyms!
Smart Speaker: So… no weekly budget?
Horvath: We are addressing it—through the After-Action lens. I have very good questions for McChrystal. Please stand by; we’ll call you when it’s your turn.
Smart Speaker: When will that be?
Horvath: I have a lot of questions.
Smart Speaker: Ballpark me.
Horvath: Five p.m.?
Smart Speaker: Two p.m. for a nine-thirty meeting? That’s not a set matter, that’s a hostage situation.
Horvath: I said, Five p.m.
McChrystal Presenter: If we can just bring up Slide 47—“Restructure Your Org When the Smoke Clears.”
Smart Speaker: Perfect. While we’re restructuring, could we restructure the public’s three minutes into six? Or maybe a budget update into reality?
Barger: Mr. Preven, please. We’ll get to general public comment.
Smart Speaker: “General public comment” feels like the emergency exit you point to after you lock the front doors.
Horvath: With respect, we’re doing the work. The CEO’s fiscal impacts are embedded in implementation.
Smart Speaker: Embedded is what you do with a reporter on a Humvee. Budgets should be aired, not embedded.
Executive Officer (brightly): Next slide—“Non-Digital Alerts: Sirens, Air Horns, and—”
Smart Speaker: —an abacus?
Barger: First warning.
Smart Speaker: Thank you. I’ll spend it wisely. On Item 31’s $38 million e-procurement, Item 32’s job-order fuel tanks, Item 12’s $78.9 million for state beds, Item 34’s on-call autopsies—actual human beings, not departments without nourishment—
County Counsel: He’s… actually on topic.
Horvath: Mr. Preven, we hear you. But today we’re focused on the AAR.
Smart Speaker: I love an AAR. I also love an ARR—Asking for a Real Report. Weekly. As promised.
Barger: Next speaker?
Smart Speaker: I’ll wait till two.
Horvath: It might be longer.
McChrystal Presenter: Slide 48—“Communications: Tell People What’s Coming.”
Smart Speaker: REDACTED
City Hall’s Legal Tilt-and-Whirl
Twelve Cavernous Claim Grottos
Buckle up (and lawyer up) the ride is about to begin.
In the fiscal year's grim ledger, Los Angeles hemorrhaged a record-shattering $286 million on liability payouts—up 16% from last year and a staggering 500% surge over two decades—plunging the city into fiscal freefall, draining reserves, slashing services, and fueling a near-billion-dollar shortfall, all while Controller Kenneth Mejia warns of a government adrift in preventable failures.
Strap in for this disorienting dark ride through twelve cavernous claim grottos, where bureaucratic blunders twist into taxpayer nightmares, evasion echoes in the shadows, and every jolt reveals the true cost of City Hall's endless spin.
House goes dim. A slow car clicks forward. A low rumble underfoot.
Ride Operator (pleasant, eerie): Keep hands inside the vehicle. Twelve exhibits. Every dollar is real.
Exhibit One: Trip-and-Fall Alley
Flicker of a tilting lamppost; cracked curb silhouette.
Jonathan Groat: Forty-three trip-and-fall claims—about $7 million.
Youth Rider (girl): Did we fix the sidewalks after the first twenty?
Groat:This is not a back-and-forth. First and final warning.
Exhibit Two: Two-Wheel Tangle
Tiny spark fountain; scooter on its side; distant bell ding.
Strefan Fauble: Three bicycle/scooter cases—about $900,000.
Smart Speaker:Do we track hotspots to stop repeats?
Fauble:Your time has expired.
Exhibit Three: Collision Canyon
Headlights sweep; a “fuel truck” prop tilts 10°; hydrant burst sheeting against a plexi shield—mini Kertastrophe.
Heidi Feldstein-Soto: Roughly two dozen traffic collisions—about $10 million.
Smart Speaker: Whose job is it to fix dangerous intersections?
Feldstein-Soto: Please remain seated.
Exhibit Four: Blue-Light Boulevard
Red/blue strobes, low “boom,” a smoking crate labeled “Fireworks.”
Tanea Ysaguirre: Police-related incidents, including the 2021 blast—around $6 million so far.
Youth Rider (boy): Any discipline for that disaster?
Ysaguirre: Hands inside the car.
Ysaguirre is not playing.
Exhibit Five: Retaliation Row
Cubicles; paper “snow” from ceiling; a muted copier jam.
Fauble: Twelve employment/whistleblower cases—about $18 million. One alone: $13.7M.
Youth Rider (boy): If whistleblowers keep winning, when do you fix the culture?
Fauble: Mr. Preven—this is not a Q&A.
Exhibit Six: Tax-Refund Cavern
Conveyor with giant checks stutters, reverses; calculator clacks.
Ysaguirre: Business-tax & transfer-tax reversals—about $6 million.
Youth Rider (girl): Why collect money you’ll refund—with interest?
Ysaguirre: Watch your step.
Exhibit Seven: Property-Damage Grotto
Orange glow → blackout → ker-SPLASH along a side channel; sofa floats by.
Feldstein-Soto: Big property losses—around $1 million. Sewer backs up, home floods, city pays.
Smart Speaker: Did we try to fix it when we were warned?
Groat: The Brown Act doesn’t accommodate back-and-forth.
Exhibit Eight: Falling-Tree Forest
A sycamore creaks and leans; leaf smell puff.
Groat: Two tree-fall cases—about $900,000.
Smart Speaker: How many hazardous trees are still tagged… waiting?
Groat: First and final warning.
Exhibit Nine: Shadowed Allegations
Single park bench, pale light; hush.
Fauble: One sexual-assault settlement—$500,000.
Youth Rider (girl): What’s changed so it doesn’t happen again?
Fauble: Your time has expired.
Exhibit Ten: Professional-Negligence Nook
Alarm ping; firefighters mime confusion; clipboard drops.
Ysaguirre: Professional negligence—$230,000.
Youth Rider (boy): Do we audit training after a payout like that?
Ysaguirre: Remain seated, please.
Exhibit Eleven: Records & Regulations Arcade
Neon “TRANSPARENCY” sputters; file boxes topple; faint buzzer.
Feldstein-Soto: Public-records & regulatory fights—about $835,000.
Smart Speaker: If a motion changes after committee, why no fresh public comment?
Feldstein-Soto: Noted.
Exhibit Twelve: Miscellaneous Midway
Projected flames; oversized “INSURANCE” check swings overhead.
Groat: A rare bright spot—$3.25M recovered in a subrogation case. Don’t get used to it.
Smart Speaker: When the city wins money, where does it go?
Groat: Your time has expired.
Finale: Hall of Pending Shadows
Twenty-four empty chairs rotate slowly under single bulbs. A soft counter ticks.
All four attorneys, overlapping: Twenty-four cases not yet heard. Cost unknown.
Smart Speaker: Post every change, every vote, every dollar—in plain English.
House lights ease up. Staffers in City polos hand out large format claim forms.
Ride Operator (revealed to be Paul Krekorian): Today’s tab: about $54 million—$17 million beyond Mr. Preven's educated estimate. Thank you for riding. The bill is yours.
(Eric Preven is a Studio City-based television writer-producer, award-winning journalist, and longtime community activist. He is known for his sharp commentary on transparency and accountability in local government. Eric successfully brought and won two landmark open government cases in California, reinforcing the public’s right to know. A regular contributor to CityWatch, he combines investigative insight with grassroots advocacy to shine a light on civic issues across Los Angeles.)
