December 2010 Archives

With the T-Rex of recessions still roaring in the rear-view mirror, Los Angeles showed a glimmer of sunshine looking back on 2010. Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

The upside: The Lakers managed to clinch their 16th NBA championship followed by a two-mile parade so deafening it drowned out everyone's troubles.

Crime continued a downward spiral, with violent crime plummeting 11 percent and murders citywide the lowest since 1967.

And as home prices settled and foreclosures dip

With the city's budget facing constant reductions and staffs being cut through layoffs and early retirements, Los Angeles is relying more and more on an army of volunteers to supplement its services. Daily News.

The city's work force has been reduced by some 4,000 workers in the last year alone through early retirements and layoffs, while departments have been limited in their ability to fill vacant positions.

On any given week, upwards of 25,000 people give their own time to help out, whether it's parents coaching their children in soccer, basketball and other sports or people patrolling their neighborhoods as reserve Los Angeles police officers.

Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine on Tuesday sought advice from the City Attorney's Office on whether he should step down from voting on a $271.5 million construction contract at Los Angeles International Airport because he is dating a lobbyist for a company that is protesting the deal.Art Marroquin in the Daily Breeze.

Meanwhile, two local government watchdog groups said Zine should openly explain the nature of his relationship with Veronica Becerra, a lobbyist for Sylmar-based Tutor-Perini Corp., which lost its bid to build a new heating and cooling system at LAX.

Average San Fernando Valley residents are smarter than they were a decade ago, but they're also spending more of their paychecks on mortgages and speaking less English at home, according to U.S. Census data released Tuesday. Susan Abram in the Daily News,

More than 1.7 million people now make up the Valley, a population that now exceeds all U.S. cities except New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.

The information was released in a demographic snapshot of the Valley prepared by the office of U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, based on the latest census numbers.

Valley has third-highest rate; The number of hate crimes in Los Angeles County has dropped for a second consecutive year, but crimes against Jews rose a "staggering" 49 percent because of anti-Semitic graffiti, according to a county report released Tuesday.
C.J. Lin in the Daily News.
The San Fernando Valley had the third-highest rate of hate crimes out of eight areas studied across the region in 2009, behind only metropolitan Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley, according to the annual Hate Crime Report by the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations.

"The San Fernando Valley is a place where you have a big variety of hate crimes - racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation," said commission executive director Robin Toma. "Because of the diversity of the population, and because of some of the demographic shifts, I think all of that may contribute to it.

Gov.-elect Jerry Brown has announced he does not intend to keep the office of Inspector
General Laura Chick operating after he takes office.
Chick said she appreciates the difficult job that Brown faces in "grappling with the severity of the state budget crisis. He received an overwhelming mandate by the voters to make tough decisions, and I wish him the very best during the months ahead."
At the same time, she said there is much left to be done.
" The Recovery Act was passed into law nearly two years ago, but half the money coming to California has yet to be spent," Chick said,. "At this half-way point I have written Governor Schwarzenegger and Governor-elect Brown with my observations of the Recovery Act."

By most measures, California's Legislature performed dismally this past session. Karen de Sa in the Daily News.

It passed a budget a record 100 days late, and grossly underestimated the fiscal crisis - a situation so severe that lawmakers returned to the Capitol earlier this month for a special session to grapple with a $6.1 billion deficit.

But the dire situation did not inhibit legislators from carrying bills crafted by outside interests who reward them with campaign contributions, a continuing Mercury News investigation of the California legislative process shows.

Tipoff: Mayor touting accomplishments with voters.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered a gift to anti-gang programs statewide Friday as he called for an end to the partisanship that has divided the nation. Daily News

Schwarzenegger announced his administration was providing $9.2 million to anti-gang efforts throughout California, including $1 million for Los Angeles.

Calling it the city's own stimulus package, the Los Angeles City Council on Friday approved a far-reaching plan to require that 98 city construction projects valued at $2 billion be carried out under Project Labor Agreements. Daily News,

The program, crafted after 11 years of negotiations with labor unions, will require that 30 percent of the work force on any city-contracted project be Los Angeles residents. It also has strict requirements for apprentice programs and hiring from disadvantaged areas of the city.

"We have had 19 of these over the past few years and this will put us at more than 100 - more than any other city in the nation," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said after the council's 12-0 vote.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, who shepherded the program through the City Council, said it will help create local jobs.

Some are smiling. Some pose provocatively. Others appear asleep, unconscious or possibly dead. C.J. Lin in the Daily News.

The identities and stories of these women in 180 photos released by Los Angeles police on Thursday are unknown.

What they do have in common, however, is that they appear in photos, undeveloped film and home movies seized from the home of Lonnie Franklin Jr., who police believe is the Grim Sleeper, the South Los Angeles serial killer linked to the deaths of 10 women dating back to 1985.

The city's furlough program, designed to offset a $320 million shortfall this fiscal year, has saved $17.3 million so far and is on a pace to shave $69.2 million off the deficit by June 30. Daily News

But City Controller Wendy Greuel, who released the estimates Thursday as part of her review of city spending, cautioned that more savings might be needed.

"These savings certainly help in reducing the city's budget deficit," Greuel wrote in a memo to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council. "However, furloughs will continue to be a short-term solution to the long-term structural problems that the city is facing."

The city housing authority has launched a pilot program to use 10 fully electric vehicles from a fast-growing Chinese manufacturer that is locating its new U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles.Daily News.

Under the test program, the city will pay BYD $400 a month per vehicle for one year. The "iceland blue" electric sedans will replace a fleet of hybrid Toyota Priuses used by the agency's inspectors.

Rudy Montiel, president of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, said he was "ecstatic" the agency was selected for the trial run.

It might take months before an NFL team actually agrees to move to Los Angeles, but if one eventually does the company pushing a new downtown stadium insists it will be ready to accommodate them. Vince Bonsignotre in the Daily News.

And they will do it within budget, and in time to host a Super Bowl as early as 2016.

That was the message Anschutz Entertainment Group sent Wednesday at a news conference to announce the three architectural finalists to design and build their proposed Los Angeles Events Center next to Staples Center.

After an intense behind-the-scenes lobbying effort, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday blocked an effort to have voters decide whether the City Council should have more power over the Department of Water and Power. Daily News.

Only seven council members voted to override Villaraigosa's veto of a ballot measure giving the council shared authority with the mayor to remove the DWP general manager or commissioners.

Last week, the council voted to put the measure on the March 8 ballot on a 10-1 vote, the exact two-thirds threshold needed to overturn the mayoral veto that was issued only a few hours later.

Gov.-elect Jerry Brown warned educational leaders on Tuesday to "fasten your seat belts" when he unveils his proposed budget for next year, saying the plan will include painful cuts in school funding.Tony Castro in the Daily News,

"Please sit down when you read the stories on the budget Jan. 10," Brown said during a briefing with education leaders at UCLA. "Don't stand up. Do sit down. If you're in the car, fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a rough ride ...

"This is a really huge challenge, unprecedented in my lifetime. I can't promise you there won't be more cuts because there will be."

Los Angeles Unified officials approved an earlier start to the year for all schools Tuesday, while also changing district rules to allow corporate ions to sponsor campuses. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

The new calendar, first tried this year as a pilot at 17 district schools, will take effect next fall. It will have students starting school Aug. 15 and ending on June 1.

The change faced some opposition from parents, who argued that it would leave students in school during some of the hottest days of the year. Some also complained the change would wreak havoc on vacation plans, especially those made in advance of this decision.

Despite operating at a loss of about $2.5 million largely due to uncollected fines, Los Angeles' red-light camera program received backing from the Police Commission on Tuesday after reports indicated a decrease in crashes at monitored intersections.C.J. Lin in the Daily News.

The Los Angeles Police Department reported a 63 percent drop in red-light-related traffic accidents, and noted that there have been no deaths at those intersections compared to the five documented before the cameras were installed.

"This program is doing exactly what it was intended to do, and that is to save lives," LAPD Sgt. Matthew MacWillie told the commission.

Although he received positive reviews for his first year as Los Angeles police chief, Charlie Beck will not get a raise because of the city's budget crisis, the Police Commission decided Tuesday.C.J. Lin in the Daily News.

Commission President John Mack said the five-member civilian board was "very pleased" with Beck but thought it would be inappropriate to authorize the expected 5 percent increase in his $307,290-a-year salary because of the city's dire financial situation

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to nominate an energy and water consultant with more than 30 years' experience to become the next general manager of the Department of Water and Power. Daily News.

Ronald O. Nichols, 57, is managing director in the energy division for Navigant Consulting Inc., an international consulting firm dealing with regulation, reform, customer demands and government oversight.

Villaraigosa is expected to make a formal announcement this week, but Nichols began to meet Tuesday with some City Council members. He plans to meet all 15 before the council starts its annual two-week recess Monday.

hey called themselves "Brownies" - the starry-eyed young activists who in the 1970s made possible Jerry Brown's quixotic first two terms as governor.Tony Castro in the Daily News,

Many had worked hard getting him elected. Others worked even harder during his eight years in office. They all saw in Brown the California political dream and an inspiration that renewed youthful idealism dampened by Vietnam and Watergate.

"We were young. We were idealistic. And I think that in Jerry, we saw a chance to claim California for ourselves," says Irene Tovar, a Mission Hills political activist who served in the Brown administration as president of the State Personnel and the Public Employment Relations boards.

Soon, Los Angeles Unified students could be playing football on a Nike Field or punching keyboards in a Dell Computer Lab. Connie Llanos in the Daily News,

But it's safe to say they won't be dining at a Coca-Cola Cafe.

Faced with crippling budget cuts, L.A. Unified is looking at joining other cash-strapped districts nationwide that have turned to corporate sponsors to raise money.

Tipoff: Neighborhood councils up in arms over rumors of loss of parknig passes.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is off on another thip this weekend _ a quick drop-in to New York City and heading back the same day.
The mayor is scheduled to speak at the No Labels National Founderrs meeting, a social welfare advocacy organization created to provide a voice fo centrists.
No Labels is not a political party, but rather a movement, its leaders say will encourage political leadres to "put the labels aside."
And, he is returning immediately, secheuled to attend the annual ACLU dinner in Beverly Hills.

A former Los Angeles Unified facilities executive pleaded guilty Thursday to conflict of interest for hiring people from his own company to work on the school district's $20 billion construction program. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Bassam Raslan, 53, was sentenced to five years' probation and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service and pay $250,000 in restitution to the district. In exchange, prosecutors dropped eight more conflict-of-interest charges.

Raslan was indicted March 30 on charges that he and two others created a corporation, TBI & Associates, to profit from the hiring of construction management personnel. He also was accused of recommending that the district hire his own employees without notifying his supervisors of the conflict between February 2004 and February 2007.

Tim Leiweke beamed confidently as he peered over a packed ballroom Wednesday at the JW Marriott Hotel at L.A. Live. Vince Bonsignore in the Daily News.

More than 300 of Los Angeles' best and brightest businessmen and businesswomen were on hand to hear the president and CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group's vision for downtown - specifically AEG's grand plan to build a state-of-the-art football stadium and bring the NFL back to Los Angeles for the first time in 16 years.

And that is what Leiweke delivered, although first he had some lighthearted bad news.

The author of a plan to reform the Department of Water and Power began scrambling Wednesday to shore up support on the City Council for overriding a mayoral veto of the proposal. Daily News.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa shot down the proposed ballot measure, which would give the council more authority over the DWP's leadership, only hours after it passed Tuesday on a 10-1 vote.

That margin was just enough to override a mayoral veto, but the mayor now only has to convince one member to switch sides.

Fewer students are graduating from Los Angeles Unified high schools and more are dropping out, according to statewide data released Tuesday.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

LAUSD officials disputed the multi-year trend portrayed by the state figures, stressing that over the last three years they've made steady gains in retaining students.

Still, they also acknowledged that their own single-year figures for 2008-09 were actually worse than the statistics released by the state, with a lower graduation rate and a higher dropout rate.

The entertainment industry was offered a new incentive to remain in Los Angeles on Tuesday, as the City Council reduced city taxes on local filming that could save small productions more than $12,000 each.Daily News.

The council increased the Entertainment Adjustment Cap from $2.5 million to $5 million. The figure represents the amount a production can cost to be required to pay a flat tax of only $145, rather than paying on a sliding scale that could reach up to $12,495 under the old tax. But the council also reduced that cap to $9,245 for productions that cost more than $5 million.

Facing a warning by federal officials that the LAPD is inadequately investigating racial profiling complaints against officers, Chief Charlie Beck and a civilian watchdog on Tuesday defended the agency but acknowledged there is still work to be done.C.J. Lin in the Daily News.

A report by Nicole Bershon, the inspector general for the civilian Police Commission, expressed concern at how officers handled complaints. She also found fault with how the Los Angeles Police Department's new Constitutional Policing Unit investigated its first 10 cases in which officers were accused of detaining a suspect based on appearance, race or ethnicity.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, after weeks of studiously avoiding engaging the City Council in debating reform of the DWP, issued a veto message late Tuesday on the last measure approved by the City Council.
In only the ninth veto of his six years in office, Villaraigosa said the latest proposal that give the council the power to fire general mangers and remove commissioners should not be for department.
"While the governance structure of the DWP and other city departmstn may very well need reform, the mayor is vetooing this measure becasue he believes that amending the city's management strucuture should not be done in piecemeal fashion,:" the veto message said.
The meausre, the 11th approved for the March 8 ballot, was approved by the council on a 10-1 vote, the exact number needed to override a veto.
The proposal would allow the council to remove the DWP's general manager by a two-thirds vote, a power currently reserved for the mayor and the utility's commission. The council would also be able to remove commissioners as well as override the mayor's decision to remove the general manager.
Villaraigosa and his top staff were never publicly engaged in the debate over the measures, which were developed over the past six months at a series of pubic hearins held by Council President Eric Garcetti and Councilwoman Jan Perry.

Tipoff: Mayor cites conflicts with mising Hollywood Christmas Parade.

A decade after Los Angeles voters created the city's system of neighborhood councils, officials have begun re-examining their roles in local government and how to fund them in an era of tight budgets. Daily News.

Councilman Paul Krekorian, who chairs the Education and Neighborhood Committee, has released a 14-page report summarizing complaints and suggestions he has received over the past year, ranging from not enough funding to a mistrust of City Hall.

His next step is to find ways to address the complaints and reform the city agency that oversees the councils.

To cover a projected shortfall of nearly $88 million this year, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana on Friday said the city will need to reduce its workforce by another 230 positions.

Santana warned that further cuts might be needed in coming months if city spending is not checked or if revenue - such as that projected from the leasing of city garages - fails to come through.

"We always knew there would need to be more reductions in the work force," Santana said. "We just didn't know how many. We will have to make an assessment on that later. The good news is that we are able to balance our books with these actions."

Charter school advocates Thursday trumpeted a new court decision as a legal victory for their side which could force Los Angeles Unified School District to offer campus space to every charter operator who requests it.Connie Llanos and Susan Abram in the Daily News.

The Los Angeles Superior Court ruling, which addresses only two elements of a larger legal challenge, was issued under a lawsuit filed by the California Charter School Association to enforce a state ballot measure designed to give more space to charters.

The suit centered around Proposition 39, approved by voters in 2000, which critics think was written vaguely as it states district facilities must be shared "fairly among all public school pupils, including those in charter schools."

With a million fewer jobs and an economy on life support, Southern California business and government leaders called on lawmakers Thursday to empower the next governor to cut red tape for business and spur employment.Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

The Southern California Association of Governments called for new emergency measures and business-friendly laws during its first-ever Road to Economic Recovery Summit.

"This is a clarion call for action," said Jack Kyser, chief economic adviser for SCAG, a regional planning agency that represents 190 cities and more than 19 million residents. "Southern California must get its act together and tell Sacramento what it needs to do.

The city's financial troubles worsened Thursday after a panel voted to raise its contribution to the pension system for police officers and firefighters.Daily News.

At the recommendation of an actuary, the Board of Fire and Police Pension Commissioners decided to set the city's contribution at $500 million for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, $50 million more than the city's budget analysts had planned for, and they had already anticipated an increase of $63 million.

Gov.-elect Jerry Brown has invited state lawmakers and local government officials to a budget forum to get "everyone working from the same set of facts" surrounding the state's projected $25.4 billion shortfall.

Brown invited Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's finance director, Ana Matosantos, and Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor to deliver presentations at the forum Wednesday, spokesman Sterling Clifford said.

The meeting at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium will come just two days after Schwarzenegger calls lawmakers back to deal with the $6 billion deficit in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Glendale officials are using their political muscle to help developer Rick Caruso add a 140,000-square-foot wing to the Americana at Brand shopping center.Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

Caruso wants to expand the outdoor mall onto land occupied by the Golden Key Hotel, owned by Rap Patel, and another parcel owned by Harry David. The land is located on the northeast corner of Colorado Boulevard and Orange Avenue.

The City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency board, on Tuesday night unanimously passed a re

Los Angeles Unified officials received 48 bids by Wednesday's deadline from groups looking to run schools under the second round of the district's Public School Choice reform plan. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

The plan, approved by the school board in summer 2009, lets charter operators and nonprofits compete with teachers and principals from within the district to run new and under-performing schools.

It is intended to improve school performance by forcing educators both inside and outside the district to compete for the right to run a school.

Reviving the debate over the size of the LAPD, the head of the police officers' union called Wednesday for a summit on the future of the agency and how it should cope with the ongoing budget crisis. Daily News.

Paul Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, maintains the city should suspend its practice of hiring officers to replace those who resign or retire. Instead, he said, the Los Angeles Police Department should let its sworn ranks decline in size and use that money to pay overtime to current officers and fill civilian vacancies.

"We have to be truthful with the public about what we're doing," Weber said in an interview. "We aren't being truthful with them.

A testy District Attorney Steve Cooley on Wednesday defended his unsuccessful effort to be elected state attorney general, and left open the possibility he will seek a fourth term as the county's top prosecutor.Daily News.

In his first news conference on the election since the polls closed on Nov. 2, Cooley offered praise for Attorney General-elect Kamala Harris, saying the election allowed for an exchange of ideas and issues.

"She claimed victory that she justly earned in a very, very close election," Cooley said at a news conference in his Criminal Courts Building office.

Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines Tuesday announced a hiring freeze on all building consultants for at least 30 days, giving him time to do his own review of contract irregularities reported by the school district's internal watchdog agency. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Ironically, Cortines' hiring freeze accompanied a lengthy defense of the district's Facilities Department, which manages LAUSD's $20 billion school construction program, in front of the school board.

"The issue here is that my policy direction was not communicated to all levels of management and staff," Cortines told the board. "Facilities has corrected this," he said in reference to problems reported by the district's Inspector General's Office last month.

After gaining control of just a handful of campuses during the inaugural run of Los Angeles Unified's "Public School Choice" plan, charter leaders vow to fare better during the second round of the reform effort. Connie Llanos in the Daily News

Approved in the summer of 2009, the plan lets independent charters, nonprofit agencies and community organizations compete against district teacher- and administrator-led groups to run new and underperforming public schools.

Final applications are due Wednesday from those interested in competing for the 13 Los Angeles Unified campuses up for bid.

Foreclosure activity in metropolitan Los Angeles slowed in the second quarter, with the region ranking well below the nation's 25 most-distressed communities, according to a study released Tuesday.Gregory J, Wilcox in the Daily News.

Los Angeles fell from 98th place in the first quarter to 124th in the second quarter in terms of foreclosure activity, said Foreclosure-Response.org, which based its report on loan performance data provided by LPS Applied Analytics.

The region ranked 68th in loans that are considered seriously delinquent, compared with 64th the previous quarter.