THE WEEK

Those are the two things Californians give their elected officials.

By Cathleen Decker, Los Angeles Times

July 18, 2010

Even a cursory look at events last week was enough to show the concept of “public service” being turned on its ear.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission took up the issue of elected officials getting freebie tickets, in the wake of investigations into Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s acceptance of tickets to dozens of sought-after events, sometimes from companies doing business with his administration.

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By Joel Fox
Editor of Fox & Hounds and President of the Small Business Action Committee
Wed, July 7th, 2010

Despite Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s success in negotiating some concessions from state unions on the pension front, heated action in the battle for pension reform is happening in California’s cities.

Yesterday, initiative petition signatures were filed in San Francisco to require thousands of city employees to contribute 9% of their salaries towards their pensions and health care plans. Currently, many (but not all) contribute nothing. The initiative would also boost public safety workers contributions to 10% of salaries. Police and firefighters just saw their contributions increased to 9% by voters in the June election.

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PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State

June 29, 2010 | 2:43 pm

The Fair Political Practices Commission has begun an investigation to determine whether Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has accepted thousands of dollars in free tickets to sporting events, awards shows and concerts, was engaging in his “ceremonial role or duty” when he accepted those gifts, officials said Tuesday.

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Villaraigosa

Can the mayor drive a hard bargain with entities like AEG, the Dodgers and the motion picture academy if he has also been the recipient of tickets?

By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times

June 29, 2010

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has argued for weeks that his acceptance of free tickets to concerts, awards shows and athletic events is not subject to state gift disclosure law because his attendance is part of his official duties.

Yet beyond the thorny legal issues, Villaraigosa faces a political question: Can he drive a hard bargain with entities that do millions of dollars in business with the city if they are also giving him access to pricey entertainment?

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Villaraigosa

By David Zahniser and Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times

June 26, 2010

Lawyers for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa named the Los Angeles Dodgers as the most frequent donor of his free tickets, but they struggled to identify many of the other entities that have let him appear at athletic and cultural events without paying, according to documents released Friday.

The 422 pages of records were assembled as part of Villaraigosa’s effort to show that he was performing official and ceremonial duties while going to concerts, sports events and award shows over the last five years. The mayor says that distinction relieved him from having to report the tickets as gifts under state law.

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Maybe it’s not corrupt, but at the very least, Villaraigosa’s use of free tickets is bad judgment.

June 25, 2010|Steve Lopez

Once upon a time in Los Angeles, we had an aggressively dull mayor who guarded his privacy, seldom emerged from his City Hall bunker, and took his sister with him when he went out on the town. Jim Hahn was so shy a guy, I set up a service to recruit potential dates for him.

In a big shakeup, the city made the switch to Antonio Villaraigosa, who seemed determined to prove that he didn’t need my help.

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Villaraigosa

The L.A. mayor’s practice of attending dozens of concerts, sports events and award shows without paying is under investigation by the city Ethics Commission and the D.A. He has argued that he attended the events free to perform official duties.

By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times

June 25, 2010

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he would release records Friday spelling out the official duties he performed at dozens of concerts, sports events and award shows that he attended free of charge.

The mayor’s practice of going to those events without paying is the subject of an investigation by the city’s Ethics Commission and an inquiry by Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley’s Public Integrity Division. Villaraigosa has argued repeatedly that tickets to such events do not need to be disclosed as gifts under state law because he was performing official or ceremonial duties.

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Jim Christie
SAN FRANCISCO
Thu May 27, 2010 4:51pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Two years after Vallejo, California, filed for bankruptcy protection, officials in nearby Antioch are also tossing around the ‘B’ word.

Antioch’s leaders earlier this month said bankruptcy could be an option for the cash-strapped city of roughly 100,000 on the eastern fringe of the San Francisco Bay area.

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Villaraigosa

By Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times
May 29, 2010

Since taking office in 2005, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has sat courtside next to movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg at three Lakers games at Staples Center. He has cheered alongside Tommy Lasorda and Dodgers owner Frank McCourt in the owner’s box at Dodger Stadium. Rarely has he missed an awards show: the Academy Awards, the Grammys, the Emmys and the BET Awards —anywhere there was a red carpet in Los Angeles, odds were Villaraigosa was photographed standing on it.

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Liset Marquez, Staff Writer
Created: 05/18/2010 05:54:17 PM PDT

ONTARIO – Councilman Alan Wapner wants this city to drive toward its destiny.

But that is hard to do when the keys to the city’s biggest economic engine – LA/Ontario International Airport – are in the hands of someone else.

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City revenues are up more than expected, so L.A. ‘might not be out of cash after all,’ the mayor says. His plan for two furlough days a week was expected to spark a protracted fight.

By Maeve Reston

April 9, 2010

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has backed away from his call to shut down some city departments two days a week, using positive news about the city’s budget crisis to downplay a threat that had become increasingly difficult to sustain.

“To all of our surprise, we’ve gotten an increase in revenues of $30 million more from property tax than we expected,” Villaraigosa said Thursday, two days after announcing the move might be necessary as soon as Monday to prevent the city from running out of money.

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Villaraigosa, battling with the City Council over a growing fiscal crisis, seeks to slash city services starting Monday.

By Phil Willon, Maeve Reston and David Zahniser

April 7, 2010

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for shutting down non-essential agencies two days a week Tuesday as he and City Council members remained locked in a standoff over the intertwined issues of electricity rates and the city’s worsening budget shortfall.

Villaraigosa’s action topped another day of threats and name-calling at City Hall.

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City Controller Wendy Greuel declares an ‘urgent financial crisis’ and says the only way to continue paying bills in the short term is to begin draining the city’s already limited emergency reserve.

By Phil Willon and Maeve Reston

April 6, 2010

The city’s top financial official issued a grim assessment of the escalating budget crisis Monday, warning that Los Angeles could be unable to pay its bills in just over four weeks.

City Controller Wendy Greuel declared an “urgent financial crisis” and said the only way to continue paying bills in the short term was to begin to drain the city’s already limited emergency reserve.

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Rick Orlov, Staff Writer
Created: 03/29/2010 08:16:05 PM PDT

Claremont resident and Los Angeles City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana announced this weekend that he has enrolled in an alcohol treatment center and is temporarily stepping down from his post.

“I do not know how long this stage of my journey will be,” Santana said in a statement. “I apologize to my family, friends, the mayor, the City Council, CAO staff and the entire city family for my irresponsible behavior.

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10:00 PM PST on Monday, March 8, 2010

By JANET ZIMMERMAN
The Press-Enterprise

Open-space preservationists are staging celebrations in Oak Glen and Yucca Valley this week to mark assurances by the city of Los Angeles that it is withdrawing its application to construct electrical transmission lines across desert and scenic hilltops.

The Wildlands Conservancy, based in the San Bernardino County community of Oak Glen, is holding a 10 a.m. event Wednesday — complete with an apple pie giveaway. At noon, a similar party is planned at the community center in Yucca Valley, said Dana Rochat, the conservancy’s projects coordinator.

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To help address the city’s budget crisis — and after the threat of a credit downgrade — the council tells agencies to act by July 1. The move is on top of 1,000 cuts already in the works.

By Phil Willon and Maeve Reston

February 19, 2010

Under the threat of a credit rating downgrade, the Los Angeles City Council on Thursday instructed agency heads to eliminate 3,000 additional city jobs before July 1 “by any means necessary, including layoffs.”

The reduction — aimed in part at wresting further concessions from the city’s labor unions — would be on top of 1,000 job cuts already in the works.

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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

California, with its complex mélange of cultural, demographic and economic forces, may be, some observers contend, just a concentrated microcosm of the United States, telling the rest of the nation what it can expect as the 21st century unwinds.

If that’s true, Los Angeles is a microcosm of California. That makes the city’s budget crisis not only a reflection of the state’s own chronic fiscal woes, but also a case study of the countervailing political forces.

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Liset Marquez, Staff Writer
Created: 02/08/2010 11:35:52 AM PST

ONTARIO – Ontario City Councilman Alan Wapner has expressed alarm over the possibility of a private operator running LA/Ontario International Airport.

The Los Angeles City Council recently issued a letter giving its city staff the option of bringing in a private operator to manage LA/ONT.

The letter was given to the Los Angeles city administrative officer to be used as a guide to help reduce the city’s budget deficit.

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L.A. NOW
Southern California — this just in

February 8, 2010 | 8:08 pm

Representatives from two credit rating agencies expressed concern Monday about Los Angeles’ precarious financial position and the City Council’s indecision on budget cuts last week.

In a memo to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council members, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said Fitch Ratings told one of his aides they were monitoring a number of factors that could lead them to downgrade the city’s credit rating. They included the erosion of the city’s reserves, the city’s structural deficit and the failure of city officials to reduce the size of the city’s workforce.

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THE WEEK

As campaign spots touch upon the bizarre, average people’s real concerns fade into the background.

By Cathleen Decker

February 7, 2010

Last week brought confirmation of a parallel universe. Or two.

In one, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced that to deal with this year’s $212-million deficit, he was ordering the elimination of 1,000 Los Angeles city jobs, although some workers may be shifted into vacancies not financed by the hemorrhaging general fund.

That universe of hurt was not the one inhabited by some of those seeking the state’s highest elected offices this year. Theirs appeared to be centered far, far away, where the hot topic of the week wasn’t jobs. It was sheep.

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Bernard Parks has asked the city’s top budget analyst to outline a layoff plan that includes public safety agencies, which have been largely shielded from earlier budget cuts.

By Maeve Reston and Phil Willon

February 2, 2010

As the Los Angeles City Council weighed options to address a $208-million shortfall, Councilman Bernard C. Parks on Monday ordered the city’s top budget analyst to prepare a plan that could include layoffs of police officers and firefighters.

Last week, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana outlined plans for the elimination of as many as 1,500 city positions, but none of those cuts were from the Police Department or the mayor’s and council members’ offices.

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Los Angeles owns Ontario facility and needs money, but would anyone pay the price?

10:11 PM PST on Saturday, January 30, 2010

By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
The Press-Enterprise

Faced with a $200 million shortfall in its current fiscal year, the city of Los Angeles has considered putting a price tag on Ontario International Airport which it’s owned since 1967.

But will anyone buy?

Aviation experts say no. City officials say they’re simply researching options available to them which include an FAA program started in 1996 allowing five public airports at a time to be leased to interested management firms.

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In an effort to close the city’s $208-million budget shortfall, the proposal would be in addition to 1,000 job cuts already threatened.
By David Zahniser and Maeve Reston

January 30, 2010

Faced with a shortfall now reaching $208 million, the top budget official at Los Angeles City Hall said Friday that he is preparing a list of 500 jobs to be cut from the payroll — on top of the 1,000 already threatened with elimination.

Those reductions, if approved by the City Council over the next several weeks, would bring city government personnel cuts to 3,900 this year. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the council have already agreed to let 2,400 employees retire with full benefits up to five years early.

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