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THE VIEW FROM HERE - There are two reforms could halt LA’s corruptionism and stop the flow of Angelenos’ wealth to Wall Street.
Reforms Which Could Save LA
(1) The City Council must be restructured as outlined the “Everybody Gets a Say City Council Plan” (aka The 3/15/45 City Council) See March 19, 2026, CityWatch,
(2) Adapt Deming Protocols. See W. Edwards Deming, Out of Crisis
Obstacles to Saving LA
(1) Wall Street, Developers and Woke DEI Dems
Wall Street will never allow any reform. LA will remain 15 fiefdoms where the residents have no say in city government. Al Capone was more likely to reform Chicago than the Charter Reform Commission will propose anything which interferes with Los Angeles City Council’s being a Criminal Enterprise.
(2) City’s Regressive Management Style
Businessmen, politicos, and 99.9% of Americans are clueless about E. Edwards Deming. Due to Deming and his management protocols during WW II, the USA was able to produce enough high quality war materials and equipment to win the wars in the Pacific and Europe. After the war, big business dumped Deming to return to the profit system with its emphasis short-term profits and traditional management hierarchies resulting in inefficiencies and shoddy goods. In contrast, General MacArthur required all Japanese businesses to adopt Deming. The Japanese excelled at statistical feedback, which is the core of the Deming Method, allowing the Japanese manufactures to constantly improve so that by the mid 1990's, Americans feared that Japan was buying up all of America. As a result of American emphasis on profits for the top executives, the quality of American products had fallen. FORD stood for “Found On the Road Dead” or “Fix and Repair Daily. “ Cadillacs became pieces of tin. To stave off bankruptcy, Ford was the first auto manufacturers to return to Deming. In the 1990s’, President Clinton’s response Japan’s success from using Deming for decades was to pressure Japan to drop the Deming protocols. Ironically, Clinton used tariffs and other trade demands on Japan similar to Trump’s tariff attacks on virtually the entire world. Clinton backed off when he saw that his tactics had adverse impacts on national security.
How to Manage the City
In a nut shell, Deming’ system is that each level of an organization asks the level directly below it what it should do to make the lower level’s job easier. This is the opposite of the American model, where the big wigs at the top make all vital decisions and impose them on everyone else. Then, everything is statistically measured so that subjective opinions do not control the process.
The goal of Wall Street and Developers is to make more money for the top 1%. Virtually everywhere, we find soul-rotting corruption. Look at the entities that were formed to solve Los Angeles Homeless Crisis. Read anything written by Tim Campbell in CityWatch.
An LA example of Anti-Deming in Action
Big businesses and cities tend to select their outside defense law firms primarily on the basis of the kickbacks to the executives who retained them, who then allow the law firms to charge outrageous fees. That way the company executives fleece their corporate employers. One ploy is for the law firm to prolong cases so that it may charge the corporation long after the opposition would have settled. The simplest scam is outrageous over charging! Los Angeles is a current example of “Anti-Demingism.” Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher is charging the city of Los Angeles $1.8 Million for 13 days of work! As of January 2026, the billing was $7.5 Million and the projected time to complete the litigation has significantly increased. Gibson Dunn was charging $1,250/per hour no matter how inexperienced the lawyer on the case. Another tactic is for the attorney to place a phone call and if the line is busy, the attorney charges 15 minutes at full rate. Under the Deming approach, the city as the customer-client would have known within a week that it was being cheated and terminated the contract.
Let’s Look At Deming, When a Product Is at Issue
Auto manufactures subcontract for the making of many parts, and there is be constant statistical feed back about the deviations from the desired standard for each part. The more precise machine parts, the better it will function. Thus, the statistical feed back is used to reduce the defect range to zero. Thus, Deming manufactures do not buy from many suppliers under a competitive bidding arrangement. In competitive bidding, cost and not “ever better quality” becomes primary. As a result, the defect rate increases and the cars get a lower reliability rating from Consumer Reports. Under Deming, the manufacture works closely with its suppliers and provides and they exchange constant feedback about the parts. When the subcontractor knows that its parts have a high defect rate, it will remedy the situation. The car manufacturer will stick with the subcontractor who constantly strives to improve its parts. On the other hand, using the lowest possible cost for procuring parts means the buyer is setting up system where it receives a high percentage of defective parts. This process, where the executives in a corporation or city council fleece their own corporation or government, is called Control Fraud. The most famous example is the Subprime Mortgage Frauds which basically tanked the world’s economies in 2008. While Wall Street executives behind the Subprime Frauds made ten of millions of dollars, none were ever prosecuted.
Let’s Look at LA Mayor Candidate Adam Miller
While Miller is a babe in the woods when it comes to the vicious game of politics, Miller has a track record that he is a decent, honest person whose billion dollar corporation, Cornerstone on Demand, focused on helping workers do a better job. After he sold Cornerstone, Miller spent his own funds on Better Angels, specifically to construct housing to combat LA’s Homelessness Crisis. Both Cornerstone and Better Homes were sincere and successful efforts to improve the quality of life for others. If we Angelenos give Miller enough votes in the June 2, 2026 primary election, he will be in the November 2026 run off with Karen Bass. Then, we can assess whether he might save Los Angeles from its present down hill trajectory.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a former Los Angeles-based attorney, an author, and political commentator. A long-time contributor to CityWatchLA, he is known for his incisive critiques of City Hall and judicial corruption, as well as his analysis of political and constitutional issues. Abrams blends legal insight with historical and philosophical depth to challenge conventional narratives. A passionate defender of civic integrity and transparency, he aims to expose misuse of power and advocate for systemic reform in local government. You may email him at [email protected])
