"Hogwash and Hypocrisy" By Daniel Guss
Words not matching actions are back in fashion at LA City Hall
@TheGussReport on Twittter - When former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan died in April, those with whom I spoke, without exception, said he was our last great mayor.
He didn’t make a jackass of himself on a national stage, as two of his successors, Eric Garcetti and Antonio Villaraigosa, continually did. He didn’t sloganeer like they did and current mayor Karen “Lock Arms” Bass does. And he didn’t lose his first campaign for re-election as James Hahn did in 2005, becoming the city’s first chief executive to do that since KKK member John Clinton Porter in 1933.
Riordan was a moderate Republican, job creator and philanthropist who got LA through some of its deepest crises. From time to time, he caused minor stirs by shooting from the hip, but at least he was authentic.
And oh to have authenticity in City Hall, where post-pandemic words and actions once again gloriously misalign.
Some examples…
***
On Monday, during one of the meetings to address Bass’s budget, the first line of the agenda clearly says, “Please Note Public Comment Will Be Taken In-Person Only.”
Except that no public comment was taken on Monday.
If you tuned into the city’s YouTube channel where you would expect to watch the meeting, you couldn’t.
And if you tried to park anywhere around City Hall, that wasn’t happening, either.
The meetings, chaired by Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, might have mundane discussion, but carry billion dollar - and life and death - consequences. When I reached out to his office for clarity, they provided another agenda that had been published days earlier, but wasn’t listed for goings-on on Monday. If you clicked on the agenda posted for Monday, you were out of luck.
But we give the responsive and accessible lawmaker from the west valley the benefit of the doubt. We like his straight-talk and responsive team and consider this a (frustrating) clerical mistake.
***
What’s not a clerical mistake is City Council president Paul Krekorian suddenly pulling the plug on anyone in LA who wants to call in, or use Zoom, to committees and some other meetings to offer feedback, criticism or compliments (yeah, right) for their politicians and policies.
Trust me, Krekorian isn’t slashing calling-in and Zoom functions because of overwhelming compliments…
That’s because who other than the deeply involved (or deeply disturbed) has time to trudge to the bacteria bowl of downtown to offer one magnificent minute of comment between 9am and 3pm most weekdays?
Yet, as recently as February 24th, his spokesperson Hugh Esten represented that no such reduction in public participation was in-store:
My questions and his responses:
TGR: Does the Councilmember intend to continue REMOTE public participation at City Council, Committee and Commission meetings after the formal end of the pandemic emergency?
ESTEN: Yes.
TGR: Does he feel that telephonic and Zoom, Google meetings technology enabling REMOTE participation by constituents who might not otherwise be able to get to those meetings is worthwhile?
ESTEN: Yes.
TGR: Does he feel that such REMOTE participation is a healthy thing for more effective, responsive and transparent government?
ESTEN: Yes.
I subsequently reached out to Esten to find out why Boss Krekorian did an about-face on call-ins and Zoom. While he had previously stated that these tech options would be re-evaluated in the Spring, Esten has refused to respond.
That’s because the tightly wrapped Krekorian doesn’t like being called out for censorship and hypocrisy, after repeatedly promising a more open and transparent city government.
Truth is, Krekorian is in a great place. He is terming-out soon, isn’t running for Adam Schiff’s House seat and doesn’t have a remaining fuck to give. But did he ever?
***
At her recent State of the City speech, Mayor Karen Bass said she wants all Angelenos to participate in their government, but for some odd reason (not odd, really), her office refuses to send this column her press releases.
Kinda petty, considering I am just an interloper with a keyboard. But okay. She’s still apparently aching from this column exposing the LAFD sexual harassment investigation into Armando Hogan, who she wanted as its next Chief… until this column helped send him into an unanticipated retirement. This also stung Bass because Hogan was a fundraiser for her campaign.
We’re further hearing that Bass is gnashing her teeth because this column also exposed an LAFD cover-up of domestic violence among its brass, a civilian and possibly an LAPD detective. She is particularly irked that that exposé involved an LGBTQ trio, and that the LAPD is now cornered for re-opening its investigation immediately upon my making public records requests. (That’s why the LAPD refuses to hand over the requested documents. The criminal investigation is once again “open,” but only because of this column’s inquiry.)
So much for government transparency!
Your anger is misplaced, Madame Mayor.
***
Bass took about a half minute in her SOTC speech to address the city’s consistently most failing department, Los Angeles Animal Services. That’s the one exposed for locking up animals without exercise and socialization for weeks at a time, which would be criminal if you or I did it, or if Peta decided to hold it accountable. That’s the one where a supervisor allegedly made comments about criminally harming its animals. That’s the one where they falsified thousands of pet “adoptions” by shuffling them from one building to another, until I exposed it. And that’s the one where former Councilmember Paul Koretz misused more than $1 million in donated funds for a website rebuild that wasn’t needed, by a shady organization with no experience doing it.
Bass, in her brief comments, praised LAAS’s volunteers, who have been repeatedly retaliated against for bringing these cruel and deadly tragedies to the media’s attention, for which they deserve to be honored, rather than suspended.
So who did Bass recently nominate to serve on the LAAS commission?
Someone with deep humane policy or rescue experience?
Someone who has cherished animals his whole life?
Someone who is so familiar with LAAS that he can name all of its general managers going back decades?
No.
Bass nominated James Johnson, a long-time union rep, who the union pushed her to choose because LAAS employees are continuously at-odds with the volunteers whose whistleblowing exposed the never-ending cruel conditions, waste and failure.
Johnson, like many other recent Bass nominees, was identified not by her staff, but by a high-ranking staffer in a certain Council office. Bass complied with the union’s wishes, despite Johnson’s deficit of experience that hampers others already on the LAAS commission.
In other words, Bass has opted in a lot of her appointments for hackery behind the scenes while superficially promoting openness, transparency and involvement.
While we hope that Mr. Johnson will fulfill the role honorably, there’s something else about his appointment that we were asked to not disclose. Actually, there are a few things…
And that’s why Bass doesn’t send her press releases here.
I take it as a badge of honor.
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(Daniel Guss, MBA, was nominated for three 2022 LA Press Club awards and was a runner-up in 2021 and 2020. He is City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and has been a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)