RISEMBERG FOR THE RECORD--“Duty Now for the Future” was the title of a Devo album from way back in ’79, and of course it was redolent of the cynicism and pure snark that pervaded much of New Wave. 

But we can look at the phrase a little differently today, now that Bernie Sanders has shown us that the “Audacity of Hope” Obama spoke of can really make things better…if we raise the level of audacity. 

Sanders really did fail to gain the nomination; there was no fix. He says so himself. But he got close. Just as Trump’s swell of race-driven nationalism (and when have we seen that before?) exposed the morass of fascism that underlies much of the US mindscape, so Sanders’s progressive populism showed us that our diverse polity has stronger urges towards compassion than towards hate.

Hillary Clinton, however much, and for whatever reasons, you may dislike her, will keep us from going backwards eighty years and to another country. Meanwhile, we can work on the future—a future in which the human scale supersedes the economy of scale.

This future is beginning to blossom in the most unlikely of places: Germany—a country with a history of militarism , fascism, and corporate domination, but one now the world leader in modern environmentalism. A country which is likely to pass a law banning all new internal-combustion vehicles by 2030, and one which recently ran a full day almost entirely on renewable electricity. Clean energy is real and routine in Germany. 

It’ snot coincidental that the Green Party holds significant power in Germany. And they got there by running candidates for councils and mayor’s office in towns large and small for decades.

Doing the groundwork, in other words.

Here’s where you come in. Because “third party” candidates will get nowhere nationally till they get somewhere locally. And you’ve got one running for City Council right here in your own front yard. (You may have encountered him literally in your own front yard in recent weeks!)

Joe Bray-Ali, owner of the Flying Pigeon bike shop, former white-hat developer, once an aide to an Assembly member, and now candidate for City Council, is running in District 1, which he’s called home for over a decade.

A true progressive, champion of local businesses and neighborhood empowerment, safe streets and transportation diversity advocate, and probably the one soul who knows the LA Municipal Code better than anyone else.

You want a future that belongs to neither the pinstripes nor the brownshirts? Bray-Ali is your man. But he won’t get into the council chambers unless you vote for him.

Look at his campaign website, and you’ll see why you want him to win. 

So get ready to vote for the next four years in November…and for the next forty in March, when the city votes for local offices.

And sling Joe a bit of cash if you can. Or better yet, volunteer, hit the streets, and change the world.

One council seat at a time.

EXPOSING THE LOOPHOLES, BACK DOORS, TRAP DOORS AND CROSSED FINGERS--In nearly every election in California, there's a ballot measure that uses the tricks of phrasing I have long dubbed “And Other Uses” to obtain riches for people who don't deserve them and haven't earned them. 

When I was the news editor, and then managing editor, of LA Weekly for nine years, my favorite story that dug into the loopholes and scams lurking on our California ballots was “Reading the Fine Print: How to spot the Loopholes, Legal Doozies and Loose Phrasing in California's Ballot Initiatives.” 

In the article, I explain how millions of dollars from the voter-approved “Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006” got diverted away from the desperate and the poor, by Los Angeles elected leaders, into spending on glitzy sidewalk upgrades and other fixes to the posh Figueroa Corridor leading to Staples Center. 

How on Earth did billionaire Phil Anschutz's fantastically profitable Staples Center, which former City Councilman Joel Wachs fought long and hard (and sucessfully) to deny public subsidies, end up benefitting from a crucial bond measure meant to help battered women and the homeless? 

“And Other Uses.” 

Every year, there's a ballot measure jammed with loopholes, back doors, trap doors and crossed fingers that can be mined later for somebody else's profit. Typically, the news media do not call out these loopholes. Journalists are busy, they don't notice, they don't get to page 38 in a ballot measure's endless jargon. Whatever. 

This November 8, Measure JJJ is the whopper of the season, at least in Los Angeles County. A disaster. A canard. I could go on. 

Let's call JJJ what it is: a Jargon-Jammed Joke. It pulls an inexcusable trick on voters by promising something LA needs, “affordable housing.” 

I know a lot about Measure JJJ because it wasn't primarily written to build affordable housing — it was written by City Hall's most connected insiders, to hurt the ballot measure for which I am now the campaign director, the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, which will appear on the ballot in March of 2017. 

We at the Coalition to Preserve LA, backers of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, got calls about JJJ's underlying purpose back in February. At that time it was dubbed “Build Better LA.” We knew it was coming. And we knew its final language was approved by the most connected people in town. We knew it wasn't primarily about “affordable housing.” 

The crafters of JJJ were out to kill our City Hall reform effort — we want to reform the backroom wheeling and dealing at City Hall, a broken and rigged system in which the richest developers in the nation are being allowed to ignore local zoning rules, destroy our neighborhoods, gridlock our streets, and displace thousands of longtime L.A. residents. All in service to erecting luxury housing towers, luxury housing megadevelopments and other luxury glass boxes. 

But the City Hall insiders who wrote JJJ failed to stop us. And now their tainted measure is on the November ballot, not an “affordable housing” measure, but a literary miracle of ways to reword and massage the long-proven “And Other Uses” loopholes and trap doors to achieve something other than “affordable housing.” 

The Coalition to Preserve LA has published our position paper against JJJ on our website, 2PreserveLA.org. 

Below, then, are the 5 Fatal Loopholes that void every promise made by Measure JJJ about “affordable housing” and “local-hire” jobs. 

1) The “We don't think this developer is making enough profit” loophole

Under JJJ, developers can ignore your community's zoning to build hundreds of huge, and thus more profitable, luxury towers that aren't allowed under the rules — as long as they promise to add some affordable housing. This promise is false. The City Council can declare the developer is not making “a reasonable return on investment” and then undo the affordable housing promise. (JJJ Section 5, A, g) 

2) The “Forget about building affordable housing — just pay City Hall a 'fee'” loophole

Under JJJ, no affordable units have to be built inside these new towers at all, as long as the developer pays an “in lieu” fee after refusing to build affordable housing units. This in-lieu amount is unknown to voters, it will be announced after the election — by the developer-cozy City Council. (JJJ Section 5, A, b3.) 

3) The “Forget the affordable housing, forget the fee, just pay a 'surcharge'” loophole

Under JJJ, developers can refuse to pay even the modest in-lieu fee, and opt for a Deferral Surcharge — a price to be set later by the City! This Deferral fee amount, unknown to voters, does not have to be spent on affordable housing. The City Council can divert this cash to pay city employees for running L.A.'s rent-stabilization program — jobs the City must already pay for, by law. (JJJ Section 5, A, c2) 

4) The “L.A.'s Affordable Housing Trust Fund is a piggy bank” loophole

Under JJJ, the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund does not have to be spent on affordable housing. The fund can go to whatever the politicians decide. City Hall's ability to raid our housing construction funds is set out in JJJ as “such other housing activities as that term shall be defined.” (JJJ Section 5, B, c) 

5) The “We say we'll create local jobs, but not a single local hire is required” loophole

Under JJJ, contractors need only “make a good-faith effort” to hire residents of L.A. or people living within 5 miles of a proposed luxury skyscraper or a proposed massive luxury complex, a toothless and meaningless standard that will never be met. (JJJ Section 5, A, g). 

Please enthusiastically vote No on JJJ on November 8. It wasn't meant to fix a problem. It was meant for other uses.

(Jill Stewart, a former journalist,  is campaign director for the Coalition to Preserve LA, sponsor of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative.) 

-cw

PLAYTIME AT CALPERS (Part 2)-- Back in the day, CalPERS had a national reputation as the best run, most socially conscious pension fund in the US. However, things began to change by 2000, as returns diminished and “pay to play” allegations began to surface. 

The Backdrop-Indictments--Ultimately it emerged that Fred Buenrosto, CEO of CalPERS, and former Board Member Alfred Villalobos had started playing footsie with each other by engaging in falsifying documents and corruption and bribery, as was finally charged in a series of indictments. These schemes started around 2005 and continued until they were caught. Matters clearly came to a head when, as the schemes unraveled, Mr. Buenrosto suddenly decided to “retire” in 2008. 

When the heat ratcheted up and it was clear that an illegal conspiracy was in the offing, CalPERS, in the best tradition of large institutions, hired a white shoe corporate law firm (Steptoe & Johnson) to whitewash the mess. And this they did -- putting as happy a face on it as money can buy. Reading their final Report, it is obvious their job was to make everyone still employed look good, and then to come up with “go forward” recommendations. None of that finger-pointing stuff for them. Not bad for $11 million in fees. 

The CalPERS Staff--Key to this or any other story involving billions and billions of dollars of public money, is the staff. After all, the Board can only effectuate their will through their staff, and it is therefore the staff that is at the heart of the issues facing CalPERS. 

Marcie Frost - CEO (as of October 3, 2016)--Marcie Frost is a veteran public pension manager from the State of Washington. She served as the Executive Director of the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems (DRS) prior to being selected as the successor to Ann Stausboll. 

At this point, it would not be fair to say anything more, since she has only been on board for a brief time. In fact, when I clicked on her photo under “Executive Officers” on the CalPERS website last week, I got a 404 error message of “page not found.” 

So let’s see what she’s inherited.

Ann Stausboll – CEO--Ann Stausboll (photo above) served as CEO from the demise of Fred Buenstroso in 2008 until August of this year. The LA Times hailed her as the change agent to overcome “steep losses” with the fund, even as they glossed over the criminal scandal of Buenstroso and company. 

Stausboll, however, was no newcomer to either CalPERS or government. She had previously worked for CalPERS in the 1990s, when the General Counsel was Richard Koppes, later with the big time politically connected law firm, Jones Day. And when Phil Angeledes became State Treasurer, Stausboll left CalPERS to become a Deputy Treasurer and General Counsel from 1999 to 2004. 

In 2004, Stausboll returned to CalPERS as their Chief Operating Investment Officer, and twice during that period was the CIO. 

Bill Lockyer, who was Treasurer in 2008 and sat on the CalPERS Board, was quoted as saying that “the Board liked her because she is a team player.” 

As we shall see, this becomes important because she has appointed virtually all of the current Executive Team to their positions during her tenure; she has also created the current Executive Officer structure. 

Ted Eliopoulos, Chief Investment Officer--Stausboll appointed Ted Eliopoulos as CIO in 2014. He started out as an attorney with Latham & Watkins, another of the California power elite law firms whose progeny populate California government. Not coincidentally, he too worked for California Treasurer Angeledes, and became Chief Deputy Treasurer from 2002-2006. And oh, by the way, he was the designated representative for the Treasurer on the CalPERS Board during this time.

In 2007, when Stausboll was back at CalPERS, Eliopoulos came on board as Senior Investment Officer for the Real Estate Division. Under her tutelage he moved from SIO for Real Estate to SIO, and then to SIO for all of the Real Assets Investments. 

Douglas Hoffner - Deputy Executive Officer, Operations & Technology--Ann Stausboll appointed Mr. Hoffner to this position in mid-2012. Douglas started out in politics for then Assembly member Fred Aguiar (R-San Bernardino). He also became the Executive Director of   & Associates, handling two trade associations (California Building Officials, and the Roofing Contractors Association. 

He then worked for 2 years as ‘Assistant Director of Legislation’ for the CA Department of General Services, and moved up to a Deputy Cabinet Secretary under the Schwarzenneger Administration. From there he moved over to the CA Labor and Workforce Development Agency, where he was tapped by Stausboll. 

Obviously a politically connected Republican type, Ann Stausboll had him named Interim CEO of CalPERS after she announced her retirement effective August 2016. 

Matthew G. Jacobs - General Counsel--Mr. Jacobs came to CalPERS via the big time global corporate sector, namely DLA Piper, LLC. They play with the care and feeding of large corporations; they claim, “we also advise governments and public sector bodies.” The scant information that is readily available would seem to indicate that his area of expertise was in federal litigation. 

Cheryl Eason - Chief Financial Officer--Cheryl Eason became the first CFO for CalPERS in 2012. Prior to that, she worked for the Manitoba Lotteries Corporation, and then the British Columbia Pension Corporation. The newly created position was designed to provide oversight of budgeting, accounting, risk compliance, pension contract management and prefunding. 

In March of this year, CalPERS announced the creation of a new position reporting to Ms. Eason. Marlene Timberlake D’Adamo is now the new Chief Compliance Officer, a position advertised as strengthening the “Pension Fund’s transparency, accountability and ethics.” She comes from PNC Bank in Philadelphia where she worked in Portfolio and Risk Management. 

Donna Lum - Deputy Executive Officer, Customer Services and Support--A longtime employee, Donna Lum started as the IT person for the CA Department of Education Department of Toxic Substances Control. In 1999, she came to CalPERS and served as Chief of the Benefit Services Division before being promoted to Deputy Executive Officer for Customer Services and Support, the division that handles administration of retirement and health account benefits and the associated customer services. 

Doug P. McKeever - Deputy Executive Officer, Benefit Programs Policy and Planning--Mr. McKeever came to CalPERS from the Department of Corrections and Mental Health, where he was Director of Juvenile Programs & Director of Mental Health. He is lead for dealing with the health benefits function of CalPERS, such as contracting out health plans, long-term care, retirement planning and research. This function involves some 1.4 million people and more than $8 billion per year. 

Brad W. Pacheco - Deputy Executive Officer, Communications and Stakeholder Relations--Originally coming from the CA Association of HMO’s as its Communications Director, Mr. Pacheco joined CalPERS in 1995. Essentially the PR person, he was promoted to the newly created position of DEO, Communications and Stakeholder Relations in 2015. 

As such, he is responsible for the CalPERS websites, social media, video, media relations and employee communications -- not to mention that he now deals with public record act requests, not a success story for CalPERS in the past. 

The Takeaway--Clearly, after being promoted to CEO in 2008, Ann Stausboll created a whole new structure for her executive team and personally populated it with her picks. This is important for a couple of reasons. First, most of the key management players on the Board Administrative side were simply not around at the time of the corruption scandals involving Messrs. Buenrosto and Villalobos. Also, Eliopoulos, Hoffner, and Jacobs all had heavy political and corporate backgrounds. 

Second, having personally created the structure and filling it with her choices, there was little likelihood that any of her staff would say anything to the Board that was not previously vetted by her.

So here’s the question: Why did Ms. Stausboll suddenly announce her retirement in August of this year at age 59?

(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-Deregulation, the elimination of governmental review of private investments, many of them speculative, has benefited a small percentage of high stakes investors, while inflicting tremendous social costs on the rest of the population. In fact, the dramatic increase in inequality in the United States over the past three decades closely tracks the many types of deregulation implemented by the Federal government and local municipalities. While the resulting economic hardship became painfully obviously in the Great Depression of 2007-8, when unemployment, bankruptcies, and foreclosures soared, the sordid history of deregulation is much worse.

A quick Google search for “failures of deregulation” reveals thousands of articles, including the airline industry, stock market, banking, telecommunications, electric power generation and distribution, and agriculture. But, most of these discussions overlook deregulation at the municipal level, which is a national policy easily observable in American cities, such as Los Angeles. 

Last week in my CityWatch column I blasted the White House Affordable Housing Tool Kit for offering nothing more than old, recycled calls for municipal deregulation. If followed, its impact and probably its intent would be a lifeline to real estate speculators who extensively donate to Democrats in local and state elections. I also linked the local deregulation that the White House extolls to the long history of ineffective, market-based, affordable housing programs, including LA’s, around since the 1980s. In nearly 30 years they have not produced any net gains in affordable housing, just increased levels of overcrowding and homelessness.  

During those three decades political cronies, from Mayors Bradley to Garcetti, have reaped many financial benefits from municipal deregulation, but that is about it. In fact, I would not be surprised to learn that the many Los Angeles Times articles alleging totally fictitious benefits of zoning and planning deregulation – usually the construction of affordable housing – are linked to these same cronies. Like the Gipper, these articles whistle the same old song of deregulation despite a flood of data that it is only a boon for market housing, especially luxury housing. 

More specifically, how does deregulation actually take place in Los Angeles? 

Spot-zoning: The most common form of local deregulation is the extensive up-zoning and up-planning of private parcels through the legislative actions in the sights of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative. The City’s elected officials bend over backwards to adopt spot-zoning changes and General Plan Amendments that green light larger real estate developments for individual parcels. These special laws then allow property owners to dodge future public notices, hearings, debates, appeals, CEQA, as well as additional property taxes on the increased value of their land. Such a deal! 

Re-code LA: The most grandiose effort to deregulate zoning is re:code LA.  When completed, it will redefine local zoning for most of Los Angeles by establishing a greater latitude of permitted uses. This approach is called form-based zoning, and it is a citywide approach to eliminate the need for real estate speculators to apply for zone changes or variances to build structures that are not currently allowed by-right. Like spot-zoning, this massive, citywide rezoning program allows property owners to avoid future discretionary actions, environmental reviews, and increases in property taxes. 

Community Plan Updates: The long-stalled program to update LA’s General Plan by attaching extensive zoning and planning amendments to Community Plans is now resuming, with a focus on the downtown. These complex amendments run on for many pages and substantially increase the by-right population density and building intensity for hundreds of private parcels. Once adopted as an appendix to Community Plans, they not only allow a greater range of uses and building sizes, but also exempt countless parcels from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by eliminating the need for future discretionary actions. 

CEQA “Reform:” Another broad brush form of deregulation is efforts to weaken the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), such as annual proposals from the Governor and State Legislature to streamline environmental reviews and appeals. In his latest “reform” initiative, Governor Jerry Brown proposed a statewide ban on additional zoning reviews for residential projects that conform to local zoning. 

EIR Exemptions: Complimenting these statewide efforts to erode CEQA are local efforts, most notably Statements of Overriding Considerations. These are City Council legislative actions that grant building permits to mega-projects even though their Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) document serious environmental impacts. A stroke of the pen and a majority vote whisk away these adverse environmental impacts with lofty – but unverified -- promises of future jobs and transit ridership. 

Zoning and Development Streamlining:  Year-after-year, like CEQA reform, development streamlining has remained a key priority at City Hall. The actual streamlining, though, only proceeds in small increments, such as the creation of an Expediting Unit in the Department of City Planning. It is here that the City’s zoning specialists advise applicants who have paid extra case processing fees on the best way to quickly get their pet developments through the project review process. 

Restricted case notifications: Ideally, all discretionary actions should mail hearing notices to every resident and property owner within a 500 foot radius of a project. In practice, though, many projects only send notices to adjacent properties. This truncated noticing process reduces participation in hearings and appeals for Specific Plans and Historical Preservation Overlay Zones with review boards, Community Design Overlay Districts, and SB 1818/Density Bonus projects. 

SB 1818/ Density Bonus is a nearly bullet-proof quasi-zone variance process for many residential projects. Any developer of apartment buildings can apply for on-menu “incentives” to eliminate zoning requirements in exchange for the inclusion of a small percentage of affordable units. Even though this legislation is considered a discretionary action, there are no mandatory findings, no effective right of appeal, and no field inspections. Unlike most other discretionary actions, these cases also do not require posted or mailed notices. If immediate neighbors do not happen to catch a project’s environmental notice in the Thursday Los Angeles Times, the first time they would learn of a nearby SB 1818 density bonus project is when they receive a written determination in the mail. Considering that nearly all such determinations grant additional height that adversely impacts neighbors, this amounts to a gag order on critical comments. 

Reactive code enforcement: In Los Angeles, bootlegged structures, such as illegal signs and garage conversions, are widespread. Since LA’s Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) does not proactively cite code violators when City staff observes infractions, the default is reactive code enforcement. The public submits the locations of code violations to LADBS, and the violators are then occasionally issued citations. But, there are rarely consequences, such as prosecution or city-ordered demolitions, when the contractors fail to comply. The result is that LA is filled with illegal buildings and signs. In effect, the City’s failure to enforce its own land use and building laws results in extensive deregulation. 

Easy discretionary actions. The approvals that the Department of City Planning grants to projects that violate zoning and planning laws are called discretionary actions. They are almost always “approved with conditions,” such as restrictions on hours of operation. But, there is no reliable authority at City Hall to enforce these extensive conditions, which means they are really sops intended to assuage project critics. 

General Plan negligence. In California every city must have an up-to-date and comprehensive General Plan that is regularly monitored. In LA most of the General Plan’s elements are out-of-date, and the City has deliberately refused to monitor the General Plan’s components since the late 1990s. While City Planning is beginning to update LA’s General Plan, other than housing data, the General Plan’s monitoring program has so far been ignored. 

The cumulative effect of these many forms of local deregulation is to make real estate speculation the default city planning process in Los Angeles. Carefully planned and monitored growth of public and private areas has been replaced by unplanned growth resulting from multiple investors’ disconnected, short-term efforts to maximize financial return on individual parcels. While these investors do well, the public pays a tremendous price. It takes the form of strapped public services, slow fire and paramedic responses, crumbling infrastructure, unsafe buildings, traffic congestion, sound and air pollution, and esthetically grim corridors and centers. 

(Dick Platkin is a former Los Angeles City Planner who reports on local planning issues for CityWatch. Please submit any comments or corrections to [email protected].) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

SPECIAL REPORT--Public support for the legalization of recreational marijuana in the U.S. is at a historic high—so to speak—of 60 percent, according to a new Gallup poll just released. 

The results come just as a growing number of states vote to legalize recreational marijuana, with another five states casting ballots on the issue this November. Local surveys indicate the efforts are likely to pass in Arizona, California, Maine, and Massachusetts. Nevada, the final state considering legalization, seems more conflicted. (Voters will also decide on medical marijuana questions in Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota.)

A Pew Research Center poll released last week found similar results. 

Gallup first asked the question in 1969 and found that public support for legalization stood at 12 percent. It increased slightly to 28 percent during the mid-'70s, but fell back down during the "Just Say No" anti-drug era of the '80s and wavered around 25 percent in the '90s. But it has climbed steadily since 2000, paving the way for an increasing number of states to legalize recreational marijuana, and in 2013 reached a majority for the first time.

The survey also found that young adults overwhelmingly back legalization, with 77 percent of people aged 18-34 expressing their support. But older generations increasingly favor it too, with support at 45 percent among people aged 55 and older.

Politically, the group that favors legalization the most is Independents, who poll at 70 percent support, up from 47 percent in 2003 and 2005. The next is Democrats, at 67 percent, up from 38 percent during that same time period. Republican support has more than doubled, polling now at 42 percent versus 20 percent in 2003 and 2005.

The pollsters said the numbers were particularly important with regards to California's legalization effort. The bottom line, Gallup says, is that California is a political trendsetter in the U.S.—so if it passes there, many other states will likely follow.

"As more states legalize marijuana, the question of whether the drug should be legal may become when it will be legal," Gallup's managing editor Art Swift explained in a write-up of the poll results.

In this election alone, "[t]he percentage of Americans living in states where pot use is legal could rise from the current 5 percent to as much as 25 percent if all of these ballot measures pass," he wrote.

(Nadia Prupis writes for Common Dreams … where this report was first posted.)

-cw

EDUCATION POLITICS-I was at the Los Angeles school board meeting for 10 hours yesterday. I missed the morning session, figuring that since the charter approvals were on the consent calendar, there wasn’t much point. I was right; in one vote, the district lost nearly 6000 students to charter approvals. I guess UTLA made the same calculation because they did not show up either. Four charter revisions or renewals were approved and one new charter got the green light. Eight more charters--including four KIPP--were publicly noticed for hearing next month. 

Parent activist Carl Petersen joined me for the last half. All three Magnolia Charters were denied renewal. So they will likely appeal their case to the County, which rarely rejects charters. I don't know what was in the report that was not made public (why?) but even charter champions Monica "Cradle of Reform" Garcia and Ref "Never met a charter I didn't like" Rodriguez voted them down. The report that was public contained a letter from State Superintendent Tom Torlakson telling Magnolia that it was in violation for failing to respond to repeated requests for information.  Still, Caprice Young told a television news reporter that Magnolia had provided everything the state requested, the state gave Magnolia a "clean bill of health" and that she thinks LAUSD just does not want good charter schools. 

Citizens of the World charter was approved to expand from elementary to middle school. It is located within three miles of five other LAUSD middle schools. For an introduction to their citizenship, take a look at this 1 minute video clip in which they explain that they're the vibrant vine strangling the dying tree of Stoner Elementary School. 

Carl and I were two of only three parents at the board meeting advocating for district schools among nearly 200 people in attendance. Dozens more charter supporters had been bussed and waited outside. That’s what happens when a school is threatened with shut down. I guess when LAUSD starts closing our schools, parents might start showing up to board meetings, too. We shall see. We shall see very soon.

UTLA finally showed up in the form of one person, its president. He did not speak even though "labor partners" are allowed to speak on any agenda item. This plays into the charter lobby's favorite device: the fictional teachers-against-parents narrative, always claiming that it’s just doing what parents want.

For the evening session, we parents were only allowed one public comment for the entire meeting even though there were nine agenda items. Carl focused on details of El Camino and the harassment he has been subjected to since blogging about them. There was a collective, audible cringe from El Camino supporters when he approached the podium.

I implored the board to stand up for neighborhood schools and reminded them that they were our only hope because the CCSA has the governor on speed dial. That comment might be why the CCSA started following me on Twitter last night.

One charter dad told the board that it should not oversee charters due to its "implicit bias" on account of the district competing with charters for tax payer dollars. But, he said, don't worry. We're going to get the law changed. In the meantime, here's a great NPR story for that dad to find out what implicit bias really is. 

Here is Howard Blume’s report. I’m sure KPCC will have one later today. LA School Report will have several. That’s what they do to influence opinion. They tell the charter story over and over until people believe it.

(Karen Wolfe is a public school parent, the Executive Director of PS Connect and an occasional contributor to CityWatch.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.