Feed aggregator
Crystal Image
I shot this photo about two years ago when visiting Vienna.
Imperial Glassware
It’s posted in Facebook with a description.
It still attracts an occasional comment, including a couple from the Austria Office of Tourism.
More on EAA Benefit Deal
I discussed the city’s deal with the EAA earlier. I pointed to a study conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that showed average employee health premium contribution rates were much higher than the so-called concession agreed to by the EAA. Even public sector national averages came in much higher.
It appears there is no let up in the national trend with employees now contributing an average of 30%.
The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust study was released today. The BLS study was from 2008. As I expected, the average rate crept up.
How anyone can call the EAA’s paltry 5% contribution a sacrifice is beyond many of us. To make matters worse, in return for this concession, EAA members had furlough days cut from 26 to 10 – hardly a cost savings for the city and a blatant insult to taxpayers who have lost their jobs and struggle to pay for COBRA benefits.
Public sector unions in Los Angeles and throughout the state live in a bubble; however, it will burst, especially when cities resort to outsourcing to cut expenses.
If the unions were smart, they would make major concessions now rather than wait to see their rolls decimated.
A Tale of Two Cities -- To Privatize or Un-Privatize??
Officials believe it will reduce costs by a third and allow them to use the money to expand the collects of books, audio books and other materials.
Los Angeles has different ideas about how to deal with its budget crisis -- confusing and contradictory as its policies might be.
Libraries were the first to go. More than a third of the staff was fired and libraries reduced to only five days of operation and hours shortened.
In the case of city-owned parking garages which have huge debt burdens and generate a fraction of the income they would if well run, LA is looking to lease them for 50 years to one or more private companies.
As things stand now, the city expects to get $53 million upfront and would use the money to keep a few thousand employees in their jobs until next July when the estimated $320 million deficit that looms will force even more drastic cuts in services and layoffs of workers.
The opposite approach is being taken with regards to the golf cart concession at city-owned golf courses.
Since 1975, the J.H. Kishi Co. -- thanks to the heavy political influence of Michael Yamaki -- has held the concession despite a couple of fires in its golf cart barns, complaints about aged carts and questions about whether the city was being paid its full share of the proceeds.
For the last eight years, Kishi has held the contract on a month-to-month basis while city officials dickered and dawdled about new lease terms.
In 2008, the Recreation and Parks Commission agreed with a staff recommendation and awarded the contract to Michael Bernback's Ready Golf, operator of the driving range at Balboa-Encino in expectation of increased revenue to the city and brand-new carts with GPS. (See earlier stories LA's China Syndrome and Death of a City).
But the Council -- even in the midst of soaring budget deficits -- preferred to play politics and pander to special interests over serving the public so the contract was nixed and Kishi kept the concession month-to-month.
On Wednesday, the golf cart fiasco took yet another turn.
GM Jon Kirk Mukri, in a lengthy report to the Commission, (RAP-golfcarts.pdf) outlined what a travesty the golf cart concession has become.
His recommendation: "Reject all proposals received on July 24, 2007, for the Electric Golf Carts Rental Concession ... terminate Concession Agreement No. 227 between the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks and J. H. Kishi Company ... Direct staff to self-operate the electric golf cart rental operation."
The commission unanimously adopted his proposal with Chairman Barry Sanders admitting that "if I were a potential contractor under these rules, I would think twice" before submitting a proposal
That's exactly Bernback's take: "They don't have the budget ... They don't have the experience. And the union employees are so much more expensive than the nonunion employees."
Get it?
They are un-privatizing the golf cart concession even though city labor costs are far higher than those of Kishi or Ready Golf, which means less revenue to the city treasury for other services like parks programs for kids that are about to be gutted because of massive layoffs of Rec and Parks workers.
They don't even have a plan for how city workers would run the golf cart concession and may hire some or all of Kishi's workers who would be delighted to learn they would be paid twice as much, have full health care and lifetime pensions of up to 75 percent of their highest salary.
The likely case is that all 40 of Kishi's employees will be fired and other city workers facing layoffs will get their jobs and keep their salaries and benefits.
None of this serves the public interest. It only serves the political interests of the Council and mayor who get to keep the contract with Kishi indefinitely while a plan is worked out and to pander to the unions by protecting their jobs at the public expense.
But what's the Rec and Parks GM Mukri to do?
Like other department heads, he is subject to frequent bullying and threats from the mayor's minion and being overruled by the obedient commissioners the mayor appoints.
This is no way to run a city.
The Right to Know -- The Power of Knowledge
The limits on the access to government information is quite different.
What's so amazing about local government, and every other level as well, is how officials not only kept information secret from the public but themselves as well.
The City Council, for one of a thousand examples, didn't know that when they tripled the trash fee in the name of full cost recovery of services to the public, they exempted thousands of households at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.
For its part, the LAUSD has refused every entreaty for years to examine the data from standardized tests to see what they could learn about the success of classroom teachers in raising the scores of their students over time.
Publication by the LA Times of how 6,000 teachers' students scored on tests and the questions that raised about performance have sent the unions and education lobby into a tizzy.
Their cry is that test score performance is only part of the information needed to evaluate how well a teacher is doing.
That's true of course but the unions have fought vigorously for years any kind of valid method of "stulling" teachers using subjective standards based on observation and objective standards based on tests.
What the Times' data shows is that some teachers consistently at the bottom with the students in the classes scoring worse than others and that some teachers consistently produce students who show improvement on tests.
It could be that in many cases the best performing teachers are simply teaching to test and doing nothing to really educate their children.
It could also be that many at the bottom are saying to hell with the tests, the kids need their minds opened up, their imaginations sparked to life, to learn to think and comprehend. It could be that the children they teach have better outcomes over time than those who score well on tests.
But without the data and rigorous examination about what is going on and what works and doesn't and for whom, it remains an example of how our public officials prefer the blissful state of ignorance -- as long as they can keep us ignorant to.
For years, local agencies have done their best to keep salary information secret -- a wall that has been chipped away at by the media and blogosphere.
It's only now when the scandals in Bell and Vernon have raised the public ire that LA city and county officials have posted searchable databases with positions and salaries.
Of course, they withhold the names as much as possible even though they are public information under the law and the Constitution and are available online elsewhere in many cases.
For all the promises of transparency, our local government agencies do their best to keep as much information secret as possible or to make it as obscure and hard to understand as possible.
Politicians and bureaucrats have armies of people to make sure that even when information is made available, it is spun to delude and confuse the public.
Openness and transparency in all matters of government is one of the four pillars of the LA Clean Sweep movement (lacleansweep.com).
We need volunteers -- lawyers and people with good research skills -- to step forward to help us become a clearinghouse of information City Hall doesn't want us to know.
We intend to vigorously use the California Public Records Act to get the information the public needs to know to understand what is really going on at City Hall.
Knowledge is power and the name of the game in reforming City Hall and creating a balanced and inclusive public culture is power.
The community will never have the kind of responsive and responsible city government it yearns for without better knowledge and better people in office.
NY Times Has Nice Things to Say about Corp and Richmond
It appears that Aaron Corp is handling his much publicized transfer from USC to UR very well.
According to the Roanoke Times, Matt Barkley sent a congratulatory text message to Corp upon being named the starter for the Spiders.
The upcoming game against Virginia will be a real test for him. The Spiders’ offensive line is relatively new due to the graduation of four starters from last year’s team.
Divided and Conquered or Unified and Empowered: The Choice is Ours
LA Clean Sweep took a major step forward on Sunday with about 100 people showing up for professional training to make them more effective as activists and candidates for public office.
Everyone who was there came away feeling they had learned valuable tools that will aid them in the struggle to elect candidates to city office who will put the public interest first - a point emphasized by remarks by City Attorney Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich during a 30-minute appearance.
Trutanich was elected last year in no small part by support from the same coalition of community activists who help Paul Krekorian win the CD2 seat and defeat Measure B, the solar energy boondoggle.
He made is clear in his remarks that given the political culture of City Hall, its subservience to special interests and the budget crisis, have made public service a challenge every day to do what he believes is right for the city as a whole and its people.
The event was not without its moment of controversy.
Matt Robbins of the nonprofit American Majority that trains Tea Party activists began the training programs for activists and candidates for city offices with a lengthy presentation on the group's view of U.S. history and how it led to the failure of our governmental institutions today.
It is based on a very fundamentalist view of the Constitution as outlined by James Madison and John Adams - not Thomas Jefferson - and blames Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive movement at the start of the 20th century for federalizing the government.
It is a viewpoint that did not sit well with some activists, myself included who believe in Jeffersonian democracy and think Teddy Roosevelt was our greatest president for breaking up the monopolistic cartels and taking the most beautiful lands in America out of private hands by creating the National Parks.
An emotional argument ensued that threatened to disrupt the event - an argument that does to the heart of City Hall political machines attacks on Clean Sweep and the misgivings of many activists who share Clean Sweep's goals to get involved.
It is no small matter and we must get past it or we will remain divided and powerless while our city officials put the future of the city at risk by slashing basic services, subsidizing unwanted developments with tax dollars and turning a budget crisis into a catastrophe.
Clean Sweep's goals are clear and simple. We are trying to bring together people from all over the city regardless of their political views to work in common cause for a greater Los Angeles and to create a new spirit of LA that unites people no matter what their backgrounds or economic condition or political beliefs.
We don't have to agree on anything except the need for dramatic change because our city government has failed us.
We need new leaders who owe their elections to the people in their district, not the dirty money provided by special interests, officials committed to fiscal responsibility and providing the core services that make a city livable for all its people, to rebuilding the aging infrastructure to create a healthy economic climate and healthy neighborhoods.
A new political culture at City Hall where elected officials and the bureaucrats see themselves as servants of the people - not their lords and masters - will not be without its conflicts over policies and programs.
Officials with honesty and integrity and reflect the values and interests of the communities they represent will quarrel and conflict our in the open where the public can learn the facts and understand the arguments. They will reach compromises or one side or another will prevail issue by issue.
They will not vote unanimously 99.93 percent of the time as our current City Council does without meaningful public debate because the consensus is built in the privacy of back rooms outside the public view.
It was a heated and scary moment at Sunday's Clean Sweep meeting but Nick Dalton-Pawle of the Sun Valley Neighborhood Council somehow found the words that quelled the fire of conflict.
Nobody walked out and the meeting got down to the basic tools of how to work effectively for change and in the end everyone felt they had learned something about how to work more effectively for their goals, and hopefully how we can all work together for the goals we share.
It came down in the end to a choice: Will we break apart and remain a conquered populace because we disagree with or even find abhorrent the views of some on some issues or stand united on the common ground where he can win power and begin the hard job of building a better city for all.
This is the choice we all have to make, rich and poor and everyone in between.
We will not stop the City Hall political machine from its course of destruction if we got lost in all that divides us. We must find our way to the light of unity.
If there's another way, any other way, let those who attack Clean Sweep bring it forward.
createInlineScriptElement("var%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_DEBUG%20%3D%20true%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_DEBUG_POS%20%3D%20false%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_INFINITE_LOOP_COUNT%20%3D%20300%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_MAX_HIGHLIGHTS%20%3D%20200%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_ID%20%3D%20%22leoHighlights_iframe%22%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_DIV_ID%20%3D%20%22leoHighlights_iframe_modal_div_container%22%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_SHOW_DELAY_MS%20%3D%20300%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_HIDE_DELAY_MS%20%3D%20750%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_BACKGROUND_STYLE_DEFAULT%20%3D%20%22transparent%20none%20repeat%20scroll%200%25%200%25%22%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_BACKGROUND_STYLE_HOVER%20%3D%20%20%20%22rgb%28245%2C245%2C0%29%20none%20repeat%20scroll%200%25%200%25%22%3B%0Avar%20_leoHighlightsPrevElem%20%3D%20null%3B%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20General%20method%20used%20to%20debug%20exceptions%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20location%0A%20*%20@param%20e%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28location%2Ce%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20if%28LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_DEBUG%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20alert%28%22EXCEPTION%3A%20%22+location+%22%3A%20%22+e+%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%22%5Cn%5Ct%22+e.name+%22%5Cn%5Ct%22+%28e.number%260xFFFF%29+%22%5Cn%5Ct%22+e.description%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20is%20a%20dimensions%20object%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20width%0A%20*%20@param%20height%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20LeoHighlightsDimension%28width%2Cheight%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09this.width%3Dwidth%3B%0A%20%20%20%09this.height%3Dheight%3B%0A%20%20%20%09this.toString%3Dfunction%28%29%20%7B%20return%20%28%22%28%22+this.width+%22%2C%22+this.height+%22%29%22%29%3B%7D%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22new%20LeoHighlightsDimension%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%09%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20is%20a%20Position%20object%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20x%0A%20*%20@param%20y%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20LeoHighlightsPosition%28x%2Cy%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09this.x%3Dx%3B%0A%20%20%20%09this.y%3Dy%3B%0A%20%20%20%09this.toString%3Dfunction%28%29%20%7B%20return%20%28%22%28%22+this.x+%22%2C%22+this.y+%22%29%22%29%3B%7D%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22new%20LeoHighlightsPosition%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%09%0A%7D%0A%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_ADJUSTMENT%20%3D%20new%20LeoHighlightsPosition%283%2C3%29%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_HOVER_SIZE%20%3D%20new%20LeoHighlightsDimension%28394%2C236%29%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_CLICK_SIZE%20%3D%20new%20LeoHighlightsDimension%28394%2C512%29%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_CLOSE_BAR_HEIGHT%20%3D%2040%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_DIV_HOVER_SIZE%20%3D%20new%20LeoHighlightsDimension%28LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_HOVER_SIZE.width%2C%0A%09%09%09LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_HOVER_SIZE.height+LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_CLOSE_BAR_HEIGHT%29%3B%0Avar%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_DIV_CLICK_SIZE%20%3D%20new%20LeoHighlightsDimension%28LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_CLICK_SIZE.width%2C%0A%09%09LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_CLICK_SIZE.height+LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_CLOSE_BAR_HEIGHT%29%3B%0A%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20Sets%20the%20size%20of%20the%20passed%20in%20element%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20elem%0A%20*%20@param%20dim%20%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20_leoHighlightsSetSize%28elem%2Cdim%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09//%20Set%20the%20popup%20location%0A%20%20%20%09elem.style.width%20%3D%20dim.width%20+%20%22px%22%3B%0A%20%20%20%09if%28elem.width%29%0A%20%20%20%09%09elem.width%3Ddim.width%3B%0A%20%20%20%09elem.style.height%20%20%3D%20dim.height%20+%20%22px%22%3B%0A%20%20%20%09if%28elem.height%29%0A%20%20%20%09%09elem.height%3Ddim.height%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22_leoHighlightsSetSize%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%09%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20can%20be%20used%20for%20a%20simple%20one%20argument%20callback%0A%20*%0A%20*%20@param%20callName%0A%20*%20@param%20argName%0A%20*%20@param%20argVal%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20_leoHighlightsSimpleGwCallBack%28callName%2CargName%2C%20argVal%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20gwObj%20%3D%20new%20Gateway%28%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%28argName%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09gwObj.addParam%28argName%2CargVal%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20gwObj.callName%28callName%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22_leoHighlightsSimpleGwCallBack%28%29%20%22+callName%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20gets%20a%20url%20argument%20from%20the%20current%20document.%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20url%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20_leoHighlightsGetUrlArg%28url%2C%20name%20%29%0A%7B%0A%09%20%20name%20%3D%20name.replace%28/[%5C[]/%2C%22%5C%5C%5C[%22%29.replace%28/[%5C]]/%2C%22%5C%5C%5C]%22%29%3B%0A%09%20%20var%20regexS%20%3D%20%22[%5C%5C?%26]%22+name+%22%3D%28[^%26%23]*%29%22%3B%0A%09%20%20var%20regex%20%3D%20new%20RegExp%28%20regexS%20%29%3B%0A%09%20%20var%20results%20%3D%20regex.exec%28url%29%3B%0A%09%20%20if%28%20results%20%3D%3D%20null%20%29%0A%09%20%20%20%20return%20%22%22%3B%0A%09%20%20else%0A%09%20%20%20%20return%20results[1]%3B%0A%7D%0A%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20allows%20to%20redirect%20the%20top%20window%20to%20the%20passed%20in%20url%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20url%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20_leoHighlightsRedirectTop%28url%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%09top.location%3Durl%3B%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22_leoHighlightsRedirectTop%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20is%20used%20to%20report%20events%20to%20the%20plugin%0A%20*%20@param%20key%0A%20*%20@param%20sub%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20_leoHighlightsEvent%28key%2C%20sub%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20gwObj%20%3D%20new%20Gateway%28%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20gwObj.addParam%28%22key%22%2C%20key%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20gwObj.addParam%28%22sub%22%2C%20sub%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20gwObj.callName%28%22leoHighlightsEvent%22%29%3B%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22_leoHighlightsEvent%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20will%20find%20an%20element%20by%20Id%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20elemId%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28elemId%29%0A%7B%0A%09try%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09var%20elem%3Ddocument.getElementById%28elemId%29%3B%0A%09%09if%28elem%29%0A%09%09%09return%20elem%3B%0A%09%09%0A%09%09/*%20This%20is%20the%20handling%20for%20IE%20*/%0A%09%09if%28document.all%29%0A%09%09%7B%0A%09%09%09elem%3Ddocument.all[elemId]%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20if%28elem%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09return%20elem%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20for%20%28%20var%20i%20%3D%20%28document.all.length-1%29%3B%20i%20%3E%3D%200%3B%20i--%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09elem%3Ddocument.all[i]%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09if%28elem.id%3D%3DelemId%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20return%20elem%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%09%09%7D%0A%09%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%09return%20null%3B%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20Get%20the%20location%20of%20one%20element%20relative%20to%20a%20parent%20reference%0A%20*%0A%20*%20@param%20ref%0A%20*%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20the%20reference%20element%2C%20this%20must%20be%20a%20parent%20of%20the%20passed%20in%0A%20*%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20element%0A%20*%20@param%20elem%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20_leoHighlightsGetLocation%28ref%2C%20elem%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20var%20count%20%3D%200%3B%0A%20%20%20var%20location%20%3D%20new%20LeoHighlightsPosition%280%2C0%29%3B%0A%20%20%20var%20walk%20%3D%20elem%3B%0A%20%20%20while%20%28walk%20%21%3D%20null%20%26%26%20walk%20%21%3D%20ref%20%26%26%20count%20%3C%20LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_INFINITE_LOOP_COUNT%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20location.x%20+%3D%20walk.offsetLeft%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20location.y%20+%3D%20walk.offsetTop%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20walk%20%3D%20walk.offsetParent%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20count++%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%0A%20%20%20return%20location%3B%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20is%20used%20to%20update%20the%20position%20of%20an%20element%20as%20a%20popup%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20IFrame%0A%20*%20@param%20anchor%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20_leoHighlightsUpdatePopupPos%28iFrame%2Canchor%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20//%20Gets%20the%20scrolled%20location%20for%20x%20and%20y%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20scrolledPos%3Dnew%20LeoHighlightsPosition%280%2C0%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%28%20self.pageYOffset%20%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20scrolledPos.x%20%3D%20self.pageXOffset%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20scrolledPos.y%20%3D%20self.pageYOffset%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20else%20if%28%20document.documentElement%20%26%26%20document.documentElement.scrollTop%20%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20scrolledPos.x%20%3D%20document.documentElement.scrollLeft%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20scrolledPos.y%20%3D%20document.documentElement.scrollTop%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20else%20if%28%20document.body%20%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20scrolledPos.x%20%3D%20document.body.scrollLeft%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20scrolledPos.y%20%3D%20document.body.scrollTop%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20/*%20Get%20the%20total%20dimensions%20to%20see%20what%20scroll%20bars%20might%20be%20active%20*/%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20totalDim%3Dnew%20LeoHighlightsDimension%280%2C0%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%20%28document.all%20%26%26%20document.documentElement%20%26%26%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09document.documentElement.clientHeight%26%26document.documentElement.clientWidth%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09totalDim.width%20%3D%20document.documentElement.scrollWidth%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09totalDim.height%20%3D%20document.documentElement.scrollHeight%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20else%20if%20%28document.all%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7B%20/*%20This%20is%20in%20IE%20*/%0A%20%20%20%20%20%09%20%09totalDim.width%20%3D%20document.body.scrollWidth%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09totalDim.height%20%3D%20document.body.scrollHeight%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20else%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09%20totalDim.width%20%3D%20document.width%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09%20totalDim.height%20%3D%20document.height%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20//%20Gets%20the%20location%20of%20the%20available%20screen%20space%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20centerDim%3Dnew%20LeoHighlightsDimension%280%2C0%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%28self.innerWidth%20%26%26%20self.innerHeight%20%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20centerDim.width%20%3D%20self.innerWidth-%28totalDim.height%3Eself.innerHeight?16%3A0%29%3B%20//%20subtracting%20scroll%20bar%20offsets%20for%20firefox%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20centerDim.height%20%3D%20self.innerHeight-%28totalDim.width%3Eself.innerWidth?16%3A0%29%3B%20%20//%20subtracting%20scroll%20bar%20offsets%20for%20firefox%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20else%20if%28%20document.documentElement%20%26%26%20document.documentElement.clientHeight%20%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20centerDim.width%20%3D%20document.documentElement.clientWidth%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20centerDim.height%20%3D%20document.documentElement.clientHeight%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20else%20if%28%20document.body%20%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20centerDim.width%20%3D%20document.body.clientWidth%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20centerDim.height%20%3D%20document.body.clientHeight%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20//%20Get%20the%20current%20dimension%20of%20the%20popup%20element%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20iFrameDim%3Dnew%20LeoHighlightsDimension%28iFrame.offsetWidth%2CiFrame.offsetHeight%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%20%28iFrameDim.width%20%3C%3D%200%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09iFrameDim.width%20%3D%20iFrame.style.width.substring%280%2C%20iFrame.style.width.indexOf%28%27px%27%29%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%20%28iFrameDim.height%20%3C%3D%200%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09iFrameDim.height%20%3D%20iFrame.style.height.substring%280%2C%20iFrame.style.height.indexOf%28%27px%27%29%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20/*%20Calculate%20the%20position%2C%20lower%20right%20hand%20corner%20by%20default%20*/%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20position%3Dnew%20LeoHighlightsPosition%280%2C0%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20position.x%3DscrolledPos.x+centerDim.width-iFrameDim.width-LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_ADJUSTMENT.x%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20position.y%3DscrolledPos.y+centerDim.height-iFrameDim.height-LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_ADJUSTMENT.y%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%28anchor%21%3Dnull%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20//centerDim%20in%20relation%20to%20the%20anchor%20element%20if%20available%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20topOrBottom%20%3D%20false%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20anchorPos%3D_leoHighlightsGetLocation%28document.body%2C%20anchor%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20anchorScreenPos%20%3D%20new%20LeoHighlightsPosition%28anchorPos.x-scrolledPos.x%2CanchorPos.y-scrolledPos.y%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20anchorDim%3Dnew%20LeoHighlightsDimension%28anchor.offsetWidth%2Canchor.offsetHeight%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20if%20%28anchorDim.width%20%3C%3D%200%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09anchorDim.width%20%3D%20anchor.style.width.substring%280%2C%20anchor.style.width.indexOf%28%27px%27%29%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20if%20%28anchorDim.height%20%3C%3D%200%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09anchorDim.height%20%3D%20anchor.style.height.substring%280%2C%20anchor.style.height.indexOf%28%27px%27%29%29%3B%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20//%20Check%20if%20the%20popup%20can%20be%20shown%20above%20or%20below%20the%20element%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20if%20%28centerDim.height%20-%20anchorDim.height%20-%20iFrameDim.height%20-%20anchorScreenPos.y%20%3E%200%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09//%20Show%20below%2C%20formula%20above%20calculates%20space%20below%20open%20iFrame%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20position.y%20%3D%20anchorPos.y%20+%20anchorDim.height%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20topOrBottom%20%3D%20true%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20else%20if%20%28anchorScreenPos.y%20-%20anchorDim.height%20-%20iFrameDim.height%20%3E%200%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09//%20Show%20above%2C%20formula%20above%20calculates%20space%20above%20open%20iFrame%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09position.y%20%3D%20anchorPos.y%20-%20iFrameDim.height%20-%20anchorDim.height%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20topOrBottom%20%3D%20true%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20if%20%28topOrBottom%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20//%20We%20attempt%20top%20attach%20the%20window%20to%20the%20element%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09position.x%20%3D%20anchorPos.x%20-%20iFrameDim.width%20/%202%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20if%20%28position.x%20%3C%200%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09position.x%20%3D%200%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20else%20if%20%28position.x%20+%20iFrameDim.width%20%3E%20scrolledPos.x%20+%20centerDim.width%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09position.x%20%3D%20scrolledPos.x%20+%20centerDim.width%20-%20iFrameDim.width%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20else%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20//%20Attempt%20to%20align%20on%20the%20right%20or%20left%20hand%20side%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20if%20%28centerDim.width%20-%20anchorDim.Width%20-%20iFrameDim.width%20-%20anchorScreenPos.x%20%3E%200%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20position.x%20%3D%20anchorPos.x%20+%20anchorDim.width%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20else%20if%20%28anchorScreenPos.x%20-%20anchorDim.width%20-%20iFrameDim.width%20%3E%200%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%09position.x%20%3D%20anchorPos.x%20-%20anchorDim.width%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20else%20%20//%20default%20to%20below%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20position.y%20%3D%20anchorPos.y%20+%20anchorDim.height%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20/*%20Make%20sure%20that%20we%20don%27t%20go%20passed%20the%20right%20hand%20border%20*/%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%28position.x+iFrameDim.width%3EcenterDim.width-20%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09position.x%3DcenterDim.width-%28iFrameDim.width+20%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09%09%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20//%20Make%20sure%20that%20we%20didn%27t%20go%20passed%20the%20start%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%28position.x%3C0%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20position.x%3D0%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%28position.y%3C0%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%09position.y%3D0%3B%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%20%28LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_DEBUG_POS%26%26LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_DEBUG%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20alert%28%22%20Popup%20info%20id%3A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%22%20+iFrame.id+%22%20-%20%22+anchor.id%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20+%20%22%5Cnscrolled%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%22%20+%20scrolledPos%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20+%20%22%5Cncenter/visible%20%20%20%20%22%20+%20centerDim%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20+%20%22%5Cnanchor%20%28absolute%29%20%22%20+%20anchorPos%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20+%20%22%5Cnanchor%20%28screen%29%20%20%20%22%20+%20anchorScreenPos%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20+%20%22%5CnSize%20%28anchor%29%20%20%20%20%20%22%20+%20anchorDim%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20+%20%22%5CnSize%20%28popup%29%20%20%20%20%20%20%22%20+%20iFrameDim%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20+%20%22%5CnResult%20pos%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%22%20+%20position%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20//%20Set%20the%20popup%20location%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20iFrame.style.left%20%3D%20position.x%20+%20%22px%22%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20iFrame.style.top%20%20%3D%20position.y%20+%20%22px%22%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22_leoHighlightsUpdatePopupPos%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20will%20show%20the%20passed%20in%20element%20as%20a%20popup%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20anchorId%0A%20*%20@param%20size%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20_leoHighlightsShowPopup%28anchorId%2Csize%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09var%20popup%3Dnew%20LeoHighlightsPopup%28anchorId%2Csize%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09popup.show%28%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22_leoHighlightsShowPopup%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%09%0A%7D%0A%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20will%20transform%20the%20passed%20in%20url%20to%20a%20rover%20url%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20url%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20_leoHighlightsGetRoverUrl%28url%29%0A%7B%0A%09var%20rover%3D%22711-36858-13496-14%22%3B%0A%09var%20roverUrl%3D%22http%3A//rover.ebay.com/rover/1/%22+rover+%22/4?%26mpre%3D%22+encodeURI%28url%29%3B%0A%09%0A%09return%20roverUrl%3B%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20Class%20for%20a%20Popup%20%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20anchorId%0A%20*%20@param%20size%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20LeoHighlightsPopup%28anchorId%2Csize%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09this.anchorId%3DanchorId%3B%0A%20%20%20%09this.anchor%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28this.anchorId%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09this.iFrame%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_ID%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09this.iFrameDiv%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_DIV_ID%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%09var%20url%3Dunescape%28this.anchor.getAttribute%28%27leoHighlights_url%27%29%29%3B%0A%0A%20%20%20%09this.iFrame.src%3Durl%3B%0A%0A%20%20%20%09leoHighlightsSetSize%28size%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%09this.updatePos%3Dfunction%28%29%20%7B%20_leoHighlightsUpdatePopupPos%28this.iFrameDiv%2Cthis.anchor%29%7D%3B%0A%20%20%20%09this.show%3Dfunction%28%29%20%7Bthis.updatePos%28%29%3B%20this.iFrameDiv.style.visibility%20%3D%20%22visible%22%3B%20this.iFrameDiv.style.display%20%3D%20%22block%22%3B%20this.updatePos%28%29%3B%7D%20%20%20%09%09%0A%20%20%20%09this.scroll%3Dfunction%28%29%20%7B%20this.updatePos%28%29%3B%7D%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22new%20LeoHighlightsPopup%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A*%0A*%20This%20can%20be%20used%20to%20close%20an%20iframe%0A*%0A*%20@param%20id%0A*%20@return%0A*/%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsSetSize%28size%2CclickId%29%0A%7B%0A%09try%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09/*%20Get%20the%20appropriate%20sizes%20*/%0A%20%20%09%09var%20iFrame%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_ID%29%3B%0A%20%20%09%09var%20iFrameDiv%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_DIV_ID%29%3B%0A%20%20%09%09%0A%20%20%09%09/*%20Figure%20out%20the%20correct%20sizes%20*/%0A%20%20%09%09var%20iFrameSize%3D%28size%3D%3D1%29?LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_CLICK_SIZE%3ALEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_HOVER_SIZE%3B%0A%20%20%09%09var%20divSize%3D%28size%3D%3D1%29?LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_DIV_CLICK_SIZE%3ALEO_HIGHLIGHTS_DIV_HOVER_SIZE%3B%0A%0A%20%20%09%09/*%20Refresh%20the%20iFrame%27s%20url%2C%20by%20removing%20the%20size%20arg%20and%20adding%20it%20again%20*/%0A%20%20%09%09var%20url%3DiFrame.src%3B%0A%20%20%09%09var%20idx%3Durl.indexOf%28%22%26size%3D%22%29%3B%0A%20%20%09%09if%28idx%3E%3D0%29%0A%20%20%09%09%09url%3Durl.substring%280%2Cidx%29%3B%0A%09%09url+%3D%28%22%26size%3D%22+size%29%3B%0A%09%09if%28clickId%29%0A%09%09%09url+%3D%28%22%26clickId%3D%22+clickId%29%3B%0A%09%09%0A%20%20%09%09iFrame.src%3Durl%3B%0A%20%20%09%09%0A%20%20%09%09/*%20Clear%20the%20hover%20flag%2C%20if%20the%20user%20shows%20this%20at%20full%20size%20*/%0A%20%20%09%09if%28size%3D%3D1%26%26_leoHighlightsPrevElem%29%0A%20%20%09%09%09_leoHighlightsPrevElem.hover%3Dfalse%3B%0A%20%20%09%09%0A%20%20%09%09_leoHighlightsSetSize%28iFrame%2CiFrameSize%29%3B%0A%20%20%09%09_leoHighlightsSetSize%28iFrameDiv%2CdivSize%29%3B%0A%09%7D%0A%09catch%28e%29%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlightsSetSize%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%09%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20Start%20the%20popup%20a%20little%20bit%20delayed.%0A%20*%20Somehow%20IE%20needs%20some%20time%20to%20find%20the%20element%20by%20id.%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20anchorId%0A%20*%20@param%20size%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsShowPopup%28anchorId%2Csize%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%09%09var%20elem%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28anchorId%29%3B%0A%20%20%09%09if%28_leoHighlightsPrevElem%26%26%28_leoHighlightsPrevElem%21%3Delem%29%29%0A%20%20%09%09%09_leoHighlightsPrevElem.shown%3Dfalse%3B%0A%20%20%09%09elem.shown%3Dtrue%3B%0A%09%09_leoHighlightsPrevElem%3Delem%3B%0A%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%09/*%20FF%20needs%20to%20find%20the%20element%20first%20*/%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28anchorId%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%09setTimeout%28%22_leoHighlightsShowPopup%28%5C%27%22+anchorId+%22%5C%27%2C%5C%27%22+size+%22%5C%27%29%3B%22%2C10%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlightsShowPopup%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%09%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A*%0A*%20This%20can%20be%20used%20to%20close%20an%20iframe%0A*%0A*%20@param%20id%0A*%20@return%0A*/%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsHideElem%28id%29%0A%7B%0A%09try%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09/*%20Get%20the%20appropriate%20sizes%20*/%0A%20%20%09%09var%20elem%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28id%29%3B%0A%20%20%09%09if%28elem%29%0A%20%20%09%09%09elem.style.visibility%3D%22hidden%22%3B%0A%20%20%09%09%0A%20%20%09%09/*%20Clear%20the%20page%20for%20the%20next%20run%20through%20*/%0A%20%20%09%09var%20iFrame%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_ID%29%3B%0A%20%20%09%09if%28iFrame%29%0A%20%20%09%09%09iFrame.src%3D%22about%3Ablank%22%3B%0A%20%20%09%09%0A%20%20%09%09%0A%20%20%09%09if%28_leoHighlightsPrevElem%29%0A%20%20%09%09%7B%0A%20%20%09%09%09_leoHighlightsPrevElem.shown%3Dfalse%3B%0A%20%20%09%09%09_leoHighlightsPrevElem%3Dnull%3B%0A%20%20%09%09%7D%0A%09%7D%0A%09catch%28e%29%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlightsHideElem%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%09%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A*%0A*%20This%20can%20be%20used%20to%20close%20an%20iframe.%0A*%20Since%20the%20iFrame%20is%20reused%20the%20frame%20only%20gets%20hidden%0A*%0A*%20@return%0A*/%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsIFrameClose%28%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20try%0A%20%20%7B%0A%09%20%20_leoHighlightsSimpleGwCallBack%28%22LeoHighlightsHideIFrame%22%29%3B%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%7B%0A%09%20%20_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlightsIFrameClose%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20should%20handle%20the%20click%20events%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20anchorId%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsHandleClick%28anchorId%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%09%09var%20anchor%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28anchorId%29%3B%0A%20%20%09%09anchor.hover%3Dfalse%3B%0A%20%20%09%09if%28anchor.startTimer%29%0A%20%20%09%09%09clearTimeout%28anchor.startTimer%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%09%09leoHighlightsEvent%28%22clicked%22%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09leoHighlightsShowPopup%28anchorId%2C1%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09return%20false%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlightsHandleClick%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%09%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20should%20handle%20the%20hover%20events%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20anchorId%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsHandleHover%28anchorId%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%09%09var%20anchor%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28anchorId%29%3B%0A%20%20%09%09anchor.hover%3Dtrue%3B%0A%20%20%09%09%0A%20%20%09%09leoHighlightsEvent%28%22hovered%22%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09leoHighlightsShowPopup%28anchorId%2C0%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09return%20false%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlightsHandleHover%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%09%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20will%20handle%20the%20mouse%20over%20setup%20timers%20for%20the%20appropriate%20timers%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20id%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsHandleMouseOver%28id%29%0A%7B%0A%09try%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09var%20anchor%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28id%29%3B%09%09%0A%0A%09%09/*%20Clear%20the%20end%20timer%20if%20required%20*/%0A%09%09if%28anchor.endTimer%29%0A%09%09%09clearTimeout%28anchor.endTimer%29%3B%0A%09%09anchor.endTimer%3Dnull%3B%0A%09%09%0A%09%09anchor.style.background%3DLEO_HIGHLIGHTS_BACKGROUND_STYLE_HOVER%3B%0A%09%09%0A%09%09/*%20The%20element%20is%20already%20showing%20we%20are%20done%20*/%0A%09%09if%28anchor.shown%29%0A%09%09%09return%3B%0A%09%09%0A%09%09/*%20Setup%20the%20start%20timer%20if%20required%20*/%0A%09%09anchor.startTimer%3DsetTimeout%28function%28%29%7B%0A%09%09%09leoHighlightsHandleHover%28anchor.id%29%3B%0A%09%09%09anchor.hover%3Dtrue%3B%0A%09%09%09%7D%2C%0A%09%09%09LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_SHOW_DELAY_MS%29%3B%0A%09%7D%0A%09catch%28e%29%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlightsHandleMouseOver%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%09%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20will%20handle%20the%20mouse%20over%20setup%20timers%20for%20the%20appropriate%20timers%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20id%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsHandleMouseOut%28id%29%0A%7B%0A%09try%0A%09%7B%09%0A%09%09var%20anchor%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28id%29%3B%0A%09%09%0A%09%09/*%20Clear%20the%20start%20timer%20if%20required%20*/%0A%09%09if%28anchor.startTimer%29%0A%09%09%09clearTimeout%28anchor.startTimer%29%3B%0A%09%09anchor.startTimer%3Dnull%3B%0A%09%09%0A%09%09anchor.style.background%3DLEO_HIGHLIGHTS_BACKGROUND_STYLE_DEFAULT%3B%0A%09%09if%28%21anchor.shown||%21anchor.hover%29%0A%09%09%09return%3B%0A%09%09%0A%09%09/*%20Setup%20the%20start%20timer%20if%20required%20*/%0A%09%09anchor.endTimer%3DsetTimeout%28function%28%29%7B%0A%09%09%09leoHighlightsHideElem%28LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_DIV_ID%29%3B%0A%09%09%09anchor.shown%3Dfalse%3B%0A%09%09%09_leoHighlightsPrevElem%3Dnull%3B%0A%09%09%09%7D%2CLEO_HIGHLIGHTS_HIDE_DELAY_MS%29%3B%0A%09%7D%0A%09catch%28e%29%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlightsHandleMouseOut%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%09%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20handles%20the%20mouse%20movement%20into%20the%20currently%20opened%20window.%0A%20*%20Just%20clear%20the%20close%20timer%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsHandleIFrameMouseOver%28%29%0A%7B%0A%09try%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09if%28_leoHighlightsPrevElem%26%26_leoHighlightsPrevElem.endTimer%29%0A%09%09%09clearTimeout%28_leoHighlightsPrevElem.endTimer%29%3B%0A%09%7D%0A%09catch%28e%29%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlightsHandleIFrameMouseOver%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%09%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20handles%20the%20mouse%20movement%20into%20the%20currently%20opened%20window.%0A%20*%20Just%20clear%20the%20close%20timer%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20id%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsHandleIFrameMouseOut%28%29%0A%7B%0A%09try%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09if%28_leoHighlightsPrevElem%29%0A%09%09%09leoHighlightsHandleMouseOut%28_leoHighlightsPrevElem.id%29%3B%0A%09%7D%0A%09catch%28e%29%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlightsHandleIFrameMouseOut%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%09%7D%0A%7D%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20is%20a%20method%20is%20used%20to%20make%20the%20javascript%20within%20IE%20runnable%0A%20*/%0Avar%20leoHighlightsRanUpdateDivs%3Dfalse%3B%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsUpdateDivs%28%29%0A%7B%0A%09try%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09/*%20Check%20if%20this%20is%20an%20IE%20browser%20and%20if%20divs%20have%20been%20updated%20already%20*/%0A%09%09if%28document.all%26%26%21leoHighlightsRanUpdateDivs%29%0A%09%09%7B%0A%09%09%09leoHighlightsRanUpdateDivs%3Dtrue%3B%20//%20Set%20early%20to%20prevent%20running%20twice%0A%09%09%09for%28var%20i%3D0%3Bi%3CLEO_HIGHLIGHTS_MAX_HIGHLIGHTS%3Bi++%29%0A%09%09%09%7B%0A%09%09%09%09var%20id%3D%22leoHighlights_Underline_%22+i%3B%0A%09%09%09%09var%20elem%3D_leoHighlightsFindElementById%28id%29%3B%0A%09%09%09%09if%28elem%3D%3Dnull%29%0A%09%09%09%09%09break%3B%0A%09%09%09%09%0A%09%09%09%09if%28%21elem.leoChanged%29%0A%09%09%09%09%7B%0A%09%09%09%09%09elem.leoChanged%3Dtrue%3B%0A%09%09%09%09%0A%09%09%09%09%09/*%20This%20will%20make%20javaScript%20runnable%20*/%09%09%09%09%0A%09%09%09%09%09elem.outerHTML%3Delem.outerHTML%3B%0A%09%09%09%09%7D%0A%09%09%09%7D%0A%09%09%7D%0A%09%7D%0A%09catch%28e%29%0A%09%7B%0A%09%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlightsUpdateDivs%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%09%7D%0A%7D%0A%0Aif%28document.all%29%0A%09setTimeout%28leoHighlightsUpdateDivs%2C200%29%3B%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20is%20used%20to%20report%20events%20to%20the%20plugin%0A%20*%20@param%20key%0A%20*%20@param%20sub%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20leoHighlightsEvent%28key%2C%20sub%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20gwObj%20%3D%20new%20Gateway%28%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20gwObj.addParam%28%22key%22%2C%20key%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20gwObj.addParam%28%22sub%22%2C%20sub%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20gwObj.callName%28%22LeoHighlightsEvent%22%29%3B%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHighlights%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*/%0A/*%20Methods%20provided%20to%20the%20highlight%20providers...%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20*/%0A/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*/%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20will%20redirect%20the%20top%20window%20to%20the%20passed%20in%20url%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20url%0A%20*%20@param%20parentId%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20leoHL_RedirectTop%28url%2CparentId%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%09%09leoHighlightsEvent%28%22clicked.2eBay%22%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsRedirectTop%28url%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHL_RedirectTop%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0A/**%0A%20*%20This%20will%20set%20the%20size%20of%20the%20iframe%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@param%20url%0A%20*%20@param%20parentId%0A%20*%20%0A%20*%20@return%0A%20*/%0Afunction%20leoHl_setSize%28size%2Curl%29%0A%7B%0A%20%20%20try%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09/*%20Get%20the%20clickId%20*/%0A%20%20%20%09var%20clickId%3D_leoHighlightsGetUrlArg%28%20url%2C%22clickId%22%29%0A%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20gwObj%20%3D%20new%20Gateway%28%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20gwObj.addParam%28%22size%22%2Csize%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20if%28clickId%29%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20gwObj.addParam%28%22clickId%22%2CclickId+%22_blah%22%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20gwObj.callName%28%22LeoHighlightsSetSize%22%29%3B%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20catch%28e%29%0A%20%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%09_leoHighlightsReportExeception%28%22leoHl_setSize%28%29%22%2Ce%29%3B%20%20%20%09%0A%20%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A");
Such a Deal
Mayor Villaraigosa is crowing about the recently approved proposal offered by the city to the EAA.
I think it’s more like eating crow.
Let’s see, the EAA members will now cover 5% of their health premiums; the contribution was zero.
The co-pay will go from $10 to $20 per visit.
What’s there to cheer about unless you are a union member or a politician who depends on the unions for support?
Here are some facts: A 2008 survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that employees contributed an average of 19% for single coverage and 29% for family coverage in the private sector. In the public sector, it was 10% and 27%, respectively. I don’t believe the rates have changed significantly; if anything, they have probably increased.
Regardless of which sector you compare the EAA to, its members got one hell of a deal.
Just imagine – the mayor wants to use the EAA agreement as a model for negotiations with the Coalition of City Unions.
Such sacrifice. To paraphrase Winston Churchill: never in the field of labor negotiations has so little been sacrificed by so few to the detriment of so many.
This concession is what Mayor Villaraigosa had the gall to hail as “unprecedented.”
Using the mayor’s own numbers, the annual cost of employee health care is supposed to increase by $153 million over the next five years. Assuming all unions agree to a 5% contribution, it still means the taxpayers will bear $145 million of the increase. That’s not much to cheer about.
Maybe the mayor and CAO Santana should have looked to the State of Washington before negotiating the softball contract with the EAA.
Governor Chris Gregoire wants state employees to pay 26%. They currently pay 12%.
The negotiations will be brutal, but at least Washington is driving a hard bargain and not rolling over as Villaraigosa is. In any event, Washington state employees will be paying considerably more than Los Angeles city employees.
It makes you wonder why City Hall bothers to negotiate.
Bruno, LA's Watchdog: MTA Can Build the Subway to the Sea, All Right, But Which Sea?
The more Bruno reads about the MTA, the more he's convinced the Subway to the Sea might just end up at the Atlantic - if it gets built at all.
The Dog Trainer this morning had an uncharacteristically cogent editorial about the MTA's very screwed up pass system.
The lede was so good I suspect they've got a new intern whose brain hasn't turned into mush .... yet:
"'Smart. Simple. Secure.' That's the slogan the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has adopted for its new Transit Access Pass system, but at this stage of its development, a more apt description would be "Dumb. Complicated. Insecure."
The editorial goes on to explain in detail that the pass system appears to have been designed by a bunch of drunken monkeys. The poor and the elderly get screwed the worst, of course, which sometimes seems like an official MTA policy.
But a Green Sheet story earlier in the week really had Bruno growling:
"After spending more than $154 million for a system of locking turnstiles and electronic payment cards for the county transit system, officials are discovering that at least a third of the money may have been wasted because they can't use the new devices as planned.
"The Metropolitan Transportation Authority placed the locking turnstiles at subway and light-rail stations to stop fare scofflaws and end what had previously been an honor-based system.
Installed under a $46 million contract, the turnstiles were predicted to save $13 a million a year in lost revenue and reduced fare inspector costs.
"But the turnstiles can't be configured to lock until Metro fully converts to a new electronic Transit Access Pass system - and that is proving nearly impossible."
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
And I might think in dog years, but there is some history to this idiocy.
In 2008, the LAWeekly, detailed the lead up to installing the turnstiles.
One guy thought it was a really bad idea.
"Metro board member Richard Katz, who voted against the locking turnstile contract, felt from the beginning it was not worth the expense.
"I didn't think it would pencil out, which appears to still be true," said Katz, a former assemblyman for the San Fernando Valley. "They were trying to solve a problem that may not have existed, or is not nearly as great as the money spent for the solution."
He added that he doubts the system has lost enough money from fare evasions to make the expense worth it even if the turnstiles were operating."
Katz, who has ended up looking pretty smart, was the only board member to vote against the proposal. The Weekly did a follow-up:
"Katz is either a stubborn fool or the smartest guy in the room. He believes the agency's long history of bad assumptions is repeating itself. He's unconvinced that the tiny percentage of riders who don't pay fares ever will. They could merely disappear.
"I can count the number of times on one hand that MTA has been right about construction costs, operating costs -- that doesn't even include technological costs," he says. "Any more money spent should go to Sheriff's [deputies] -- more eyes and ears on the platforms."
Katz might be alone on the MTA board, but he has company in many big cities around the world, where open rail systems -- like L.A.'s -- are popular and the low percentage of scofflaws are considered a small price to pay."
Katz is still on the MTA board - and the boards of Metrolink and The California High Speed Rail Commission. He's become quite a train guy. He is also quarterbacking the mayor's 30-10 plan to spend all that Measure R money while most of us are still alive.
Let's hope if he buys the planners a compass so the sea it reaches is the Pacific, not the Atlantic..
Woof!
The Story of Raman Raj and Brian D'Arcy: The Villains Who Wrecked the DWP
He has dramatically restructured financial operations and made the key appointment of Kelli Bernard as director of economic development (DWP-changes.pdf) (DWP-financechanges.pdf).
She is a graduate of then Mayor Richard Riordan's Business Team, a former vice president of Genesis LA now led by DWP Commission President Lee Alpert and most recently worked in a non-staff position as Council President Eric Garcetti's planning and economic development director.
Whether those changes are for the common good likely will not be debated or examined by the City Council which is busy trying to protect itself from the wrath of the public enraged by endless rate hikes, failed and contradictory practices and long-time mismanagement of their most valuable and vital asset.
What Beutner has done nothing about are the villains who bear so much responsiblity for what is wrong at the DWP.
On Day One of his term at DWP, Beutner made peace with union bully Brian D'Arcy whose use abusive tactics and threats of strikes that amount to nothing but blackmail have won him a long series of spectacularly lucrative contracts.
"People have made labor the issue and I don't think it's the top issue facing the agency," Beutner said back in April, making it clear that peace at any price would be his policy no matter what the "people" think.
The price of that peace was to leave Raman Raj, D'Aarcy's lackey, in place running the day-to-day operations as chief operating officer, the No.2 position that is more important than ever because most of Beutner's time is spent on his duties as First Deputy Mayor and jobs czar.
D'Arcy and Raj -- what a team to rely on!
Nothing good has ever come, can ever come, with those two in power. Reforms being pushed by the Council like the Rate Payer Advocate, changing the composition of the Board of Commissioners and requiring a timely and public budget are meaningless as long as the people in charge have utterly no respect for the public or the public interest.
D'Arcy's outrageous excesses and destructive behavior were well documented in a "for your eyes only" report to then Mayor James Hahn by DWP Assistant General Manager Mahmud Chaudhry which eventually leaked to the LA Weekly in 2005.
Chaudhry exposed how D"Arcy controls the management, threatens their careers as well as those of city politicians and warns he will turn off the city's water and power if he doesn't get what he wants.
"The DWP has become a fox-run henhouse of epic proportion," Chaudhry wriote. "The union now runs the department. They blur the line between . . . bargaining and criminal extortion.
"By choosing union peace at any price, DWP leadership finds itself paying an exorbitant price. Anxious to avoid conflict, management finally relinquished the duty -- and with it the power -- to exert control. With no one minding the store, it may be a matter of time before the union's extreme bargaining advantage begins to impact the annual [revenue] transfer to the city."
A few months after his report surfaced, Mayor and Antonio Villaraigosa and the Council approved the richest contract in city history with raises of up to 6 percent a year to IBEW Local 18 workers whose salaries already were 30 to 40 percent higher than other city workers in the same jobs or those of private utility workers.
It wasn't long before Villaraigosa brought Raj back to the DWP and foisted him as chief operating officer on David Nahai when he took over as General Manager. He did this in the full knowledge that Raj's previous short stint at the DWP under David Freeman ended disastrously with lawsuits and his dismissal in 2001.
To say the least, there is nothing in Raj's career that suggests he is at all qualified for such a high position -- except for his slavish loyalty to D'Arcy.
Let's start with Raj's personal financial management.
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} On Feb. 24, 1992, Raj and his wife Mrinalini, then living in Laguna Niguel, filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in the Central District of California, Santa Ana.
Normal
0
false
false
false
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
That was done just six days after a judgment of $2,275.31 was entered against him for breach of
contract in the North Pomona Courthouse in a case filed by Wells Fargo Bank.
Five years later, on Feb. 20, 1997, Raj encountered another financial problem. The IRS filed a tax lien against him for $16,503. It took him until 2000 when he was working for the DWP to be released from the lien.
Then, there's his rather undistinguished career as a business executive, bouncing from job to job without making the kind of noteworthy successes that ought to be necessary to be the man running the DWP.
Normal
0
false
false
false
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
He worked as a mid-level executive at Kaiser Permanente, Flying Tigers and the Southland
Corp. before a stint as managing director
Normal
0
false
false
false
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority where he was anything but a success. His main task involved labor negotiations and he reportedly was forced to resign after running afoul of upper management.
He did get to connect with labor leaders and ultra-liberals like Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg who helped him land a job at the DWP in 1999 as chief administration officer overseeing labor relations and human
resources where he cemented his relationship with D'Arcy and eventually became a supporter of Villaraigosa's in his first mayoral campaign in 2001.
In his job, Raj quickly became embroiled in one of the darkest chapters in DWP history, a long pattern of discriminatory treatment of minorities and women.
The LA Weekly's Jeffrey Anderson wrote a devastating story in 2005 tracing the long sordid history of discrimination and millions of dollars in secret settlements with employees.
Some of the incidents involved misconduct by Raj and led to a 2003 lawsuit Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
LA Superior Court Case Number BC
290779: Brenda Barr, et al v. City of
Los Angeles and DWP and Raman Raj, et al.
The heart of the allegation was that the working environment at DWP was permeated with discriminatory animus" against women and blacks, specifically that "the individual Defendants schemed to and did create a system which resulted in promotions and pay upgrades to men, while preventing women from advancing."
In 2008 when Raj was brought as COO, far higher than any position he had ever held before, the LA Times reported the Barr cass was settled for $3.3 million
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
The article cited a report by DWP's outside consultant,the Texas law firm of Kemp Smith, that concluded Raj moved the utility's anti-discrimination office from a satellite building -- valued for providing a level of anonymity -- into DWP headquarters to discourage complaints, since anyone who entered would have to do so in public view.
The report said Raj manipulated severance packages to remove managers who disagreed with him. And it warned that Raj had given "too much influence in management of the organization" to D'Arcy and shielded union employees from disciplinary action
Recommending he should be let go for the good of the agency, it said Raj could not be trusted to "act in the department's interests when they may conflict with his own agenda." Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
Today,
managerial insiders still don't trust Raj, regarding him as devious and
duplicitous.
In part, the shadow hanging over Raj derives from what he did for a living between stints at the DWP.
He formed a consultant company, Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Resources Roundtable, and used his access to DWP officials to help win contracts for energy-related companies like Itron, Smartsynch and Enspiria that had won nearly $60 million in DWP contracts without the Board of Commissioners knowing of the connection to Raj.
Every decision, every contract that Raj is involved in sparks suspicion about insider dealing, about the inordinate influence of D'Arcy yet Beutner relies on him to run the DWP and talks admiringly of the knowledge and intelligence of the union boss.
How can anyone wonder why it has proven impossible for years to hire a capable and experienced general manager, why rates keep going up and up, why the water and power systems are deteriorating, why the DWP has lost all credibility with its customers, why it is the center of endless controversy.
What is impossible to understand is how Austin Beutner and the mayor can possibly think the DWP is going to be the engine of development and job creation that restores the city's economy.
Structural reforms and political spin are useless unless there is a massive shakeup in the management of the DWP and the city's elected officials find the courage to put D'Arcy in his place.
My Appearance on Fox’s America’s Newsroom
Busy day today.
I appeared on a broadcast of America’s Newsroom around 7:15 this morning Pacific Time.
It was followed by an appearance on the Fox Business Report. However, that segment was very disjointed due to a panel of guests who were arguing ceaselessly. I cannot locate the video clip. All I can say, it was tough to get a word in edgewise.
The subject? The LACERS pension collected by the alleged Grim Sleeper serial killer – a pension he will keep even if convicted and incarcerated.
Also watch the interview with the LA Weekly reporter Chris Pelisek who covered the story.
Corp to Start for Richmond
Former Southern Cal Trojan Aaron Corp won the starting quarterback position with Richmond.
http://www.youtube.com/richmondspiders#p/u/1/Znqy3XAslXQ
The Spiders open up against Virginia on September 4th. The game will be carried on ESPN3.
For the Virginia perspective on the decision, follow this link:
http://www.nbc29.com/global/Category.asp?C=175568&clipId=5055793&autostart=true
Van de Kamp's Coalition to Community Colleges: See You in Court
By Daniel Wright
Attached is the objection letter to an item on today's meeting agenda for the Board of the Los Angeles Community College District. Since December 2009, the LACCD has been trying to use constitutionally restricted bond funds to purchase the parcel of land at the corner of San Fernando Road and Fletcher Drive in the City of Los Angeles. The District proclaims it "has no current plans" for the purchase of the site (in order to claim the purchase is exempt from CEQA review) yet under Proposition 39 real property can only be purchased for a "school facility" which implies that a school project must exist before bond funds can be used to make the purchase.
The City of Los Angeles is actively involved in the creation of a new redevelopment area centered around this intersection and, of course, redevelopment of the Los Angeles River. This effort includes a plan to obtain federal funding to pay for development of the redevelopment plan, to pay for the up-zoning of the Northeast Community Plan to allow dense urban development, and inevitably, use of tax increment to subsidize density development of Fletcher/San Fernando and the LA River corridor. This effort may or may not be beneficial to residents of the proposed redevelopment area.
The use of restricted educational bonds to buy the land where a Pollo Loco, Denny's Restaurant, and Auto Zone currently reside for "no particular project" is unconstitutional and unlawful. Numerous public officials who have oversight duties to prevent this type of misuse of bond funds continue to sit on the sidelines.
The California Attorney General has the authority to intervene and support the current CEQA lawsuit and taxpayer lawsuits. The cost of an Attorney General investigation is chargeable against the LACCD yet currently the Attorney General sits on his hands and does nothing.
The Los Angeles District Attorney has primary enforcement responsibility for malfeasance in office and other misuses of public authority by public entities but has initiated no publicly-acknowledged investigation of the LACCD bond program. The cost of an investigation may be recoverable from LACCD.
The State Controller has the authority to initiate an independent audit of the bond program of LACCD. The cost of the audit is chargeable to LACCD, yet Controller Chaing passively sits on the sidelines and does nothing.
The Citizen's Bond Oversight Committee for the LACCD is populated with former LACCD employees, and others who have a stake in the $5.7 billion dollar construction program. This Committee is chaired by a retired LACCD Harbor College President (which is implicitly inconsistent with the statutory prohibition of employees sitting on a bond oversight committee). This Committee has known about alleged bond abuse in the LACCD bond program since December 2009 and has not fulfilled its most basic duty to immediately issue a press release when it observes potential wrongdoing.
The Los Angeles Times has been investigating wrongdoing and irregularities in the LACCD Bond Program for more than a year but has failed to publish the results of its investigation. LACCD has hired lobbyists and may have pressured Times editors to refrain from publishing.
Meanwhile, the LACCD Board continues to try to use Proposition 39 bond funds for unconstitutional purposes. Do we have to wait for revelation of someone personally stealing funds for an investigation? Does it have to go as far as the City of Bell before elected law enforcement officials leap into action (in front of television cameras like Bell)?
Has the crime of malfeasance in office become meaningless in the California Constitution because it has been interpreted in some quarters to mean that prosecution of public officials may only occur when they are converting funds to themselves, family, or intermediaries, and not when they knowingly and willfully violate laws intended to protect the public and taxpayers?
The Northeast Los Angeles communities have stepped up by initiating two civil lawsuits. A third lawsuit focused on the laundering of bond funds into a stream of general fund revenues is about to be filed if the LACCD Board does not change direction. Is the LACCD scheme to convert capital bond funds into general fund revenues lawful? Apparently, it requires the low-income predominantly minority residents of Northeast to fund this litigation because the taxes they pay do not purchase vigorous oversight by state, regional, and local law enforcement institutions that their taxes support.
How long will the institutions established by the people of California to enforce the laws and police the public entities persist in failed oversight?
How bad does the situation need to get before investigation and enforcement of public rights are commenced by the law enforcement officials charged with this public duty? In my more than twenty-five years of representing and advising public entities, I have never witnessed a more systematic abuse of Public Laws: Public Records Act (to stonewall public finding out what LACCD is doing), the Brown Act (to systematically deprive the public of participation opportunities), CEQA (to avoid disclosure of profit making ambitions using bond funds), Proposition 39 (to expand spending authority of LACCD into areas prohibited by constitutional limiting language), California Contract Code (to hide construction contract expenditures exceeding the 10% change order limit that requires competitive bidding), and Education Code (to use the City of Los Angeles as a municipal entity "front" to give a no-bid subleases to private entities not entitled to no-bid contracts under the Education Code). These violations of law are ongoing and systematic and LACCD.
If you have any questions about the current Notice to Sue or have any thoughts about when enforcement of LACCD public duties should begin, I can be reached at (323) 223-4797.
Best.
Daniel Wright
Attorney for Van de Kamps Coalition and taxpayers in its service area
Whatever Happened to the Antonio We Knew and Loved?
He was going to plant a million trees and beautify our neighborhoods.
He was going to take over our schools and make sure every kid git a good education and graduated.
He was going to end corruption at City Hall after defaming the Hahn Administration as the "most investigated" in LA history.
Most of all, he was going to make us the "greenest city in America" -- something that would restore our pride in the city and create tens of thousands of good jobs.
Fairy tales can come true or they also can turn into nightmares where everyone suffers, well, nearly everyone. Insiders and the well-connected flourish while neighborhoods are destroyed, kids still drop out cause they can't read or write, corruption reaches unprecedented levels.
The man of a thousand broken promises has turned on his friends in the unions and embraced the evils of unbridled capitalism, indulging himself in a life of royal luxury while half a million of his subjects can't even find a minimum wage job.
And now, in the latest chapter of this fairy tale gone awry, comes the ultimate hypocrisy: Antonio wants his pals in Sacramento to make a special exemption from environmental policy for LA so we can keep on destroying the oceans around us for another two decades.
"The city of Los Angeles has launched an aggressive lobbying campaign to roll back tough new state regulations meant to limit the environmental damage that power plants inflict on the oceans," the LA Times reports today.
The justification for this is that it will cost $2.3 billion and require increases in the already soaring power rates of at least 6 percent for eight years.
Driving the effort for the exemption is Austin Beutner, first deputy mayor, jobs czar and part-time temporary DWP general manager.
"That's money that will cause jobs to be lost in our economy and money that we can't use to invest in other renewable energy initiatives that we have," he says.
The issue is Assembly Bill 1552, now in the Senate, a measure created through subterfuge at the last minute with help from people like Antonio's cousin, Speaker John Perez, and other phony environmentalist lawmakers.
It would exempt the DWP from tough, new State Water Board regulations that require sharply reducing the amount of seawater used for cooling coastal power plants.
Under AB 1552, every coastal plant in the state -- except the three owned by DWP -- would still be required to pump in seawater for cooling only once and then recycle it or move to air cooling
DWP's three plants, now required to comply between 2015 to 2020, would be given up to 11 years longer, to 2031.
Environmental groups -- long-time friends of the mayor -- are as furious at him as his long-time friends in labor and the voters who elected him.
Heal the Bay has started a phone call and email campaign under the heading: "Your Help is Needed to Protect California's Coast & the Public Process - OPPOSE AB 1552."
.
"It completely ignores five years of process and guts the entire policy," said Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay.
Adds Sierra Club California lobbyist Jim Metropulos: "Now here is the L.A. DWP coming in at the last second with a special-interest exemption for them."
.
What's spectacularly appalling about this is that the DWP under then General Manager David Nahai was working on a rational compromise with the State Water Board long before the regulations were approved.
But like so many others, he ran afoul of the mayor's political priorities -- and in his case the greed of DWP union bully Brian D'Arcy -- and was fired last fall.
His successor, David Freeman, the poet laureate of green energy who never actually built any, dropped the ball on that effort as he did so many others during his two disastrous terms running the city's mos valuable asset.
Freeman preferred to play political hardball with the state board when the regulations were being finalized but struck out.
"It makes the department appear cynical and manipulative," Nahai told the Times.. "I believe it was unnecessary, because the state board has shown a willingness to try, even now, to deal with the department's concerns."
Put your money on the environmentalists winning the fight because they are right that DWP never should have been put in this position. You'll need those winnings to pay your power bill.
So how did so many high hopes end in failure and broken promises? Whatever happened to the Antonio we knew and loved so much to put him in charge of our city at a time when we needed great leadership?
No one could possible have gone so wrong, betrayed so many. The answer can only be that the real Antonio was kidnapped and a replicant was put in his place to turn LA into the vision imagined in "Blade Runner."
What other explanation could there be?
Death Blow to LA's Middle Class
The 2000 census showed that white flight in the 1980s had become middle-class flight, cutting across racial and ethnic lines with the poverty rate in the San Fernando Valley -- once the largest enclave of middle class families in the nation -- soaring by 50 percent.even as home ownership rates plummeted by more than a third.
Today, the situation is far worse. LA has become a city of rich and poor. The result is declining neighborhoods, public schools overwhelmed by the numbers of children with special needs and a workforce that is largely unskilled and competing for the shrinking number of service and laborer jobs.
It is largely the result of misguided public policies that have turned city government into a jobs program, not a services provider, while the roads, sidewalks, water and power systems have deteriorated.
And now City Hall is about to deliver the coup de grace to the middle class.
No longer able to afford the cost of salaries and benefits in the public sector and forced to shed thousands of city workers, the mayor and City Council have slashed core services to the general public like parks and libraries and building code enforcement.
The city's shrinking resources are focused instead on "revenue generating" services like those that those that impose escalating fees, penalties and rates on the public in the name of "full cost recovery."
Beyond those policies, First Deputy Mayor and Interim DWP General Manager Austin Beutner is the architect of what amounts to a desperate attempt to save LA by turning city government into a profitable business without the burden of providing services other than police to the public.
City Hall, in the name of becoming "business friendly," is moving rapidly to buy jobs in the private sector.
Tax holidays and discounted DWP rates for new businesses will shortly be matched by tax breaks and discounted DWP rates for existing businesses.
The city's cash cows -- DWP and the Community Redevelopment Agency -- are being milled for subsidies even as they squeeze money out of the pockets of residents and tax dollars out of the city treasury.
The death blow to the middle class is now being delivered by Beutner's hand-picked Planning Director, Michael LoGrande who is all but eliminating public input and involvement in the planning process to speed up the approvals of new projects.
In the sweltering days of August with many on vacation, LoGrande -- untrained as a planner but quick to obey orders from above -- is pushing through radical changes in the policies that control development in the city.
Just two weeks ago, community activists Lucille Saunders and Cindy Cleghorn found the Planning Department was proposing to the revise the General Plan Framework with far-reaching "Urban Design Guidelines" that set the zoning rules on density throughout the city.
The proposal -- which wasn't made public -- was exempted from requirements to meet the state environmental laws and concerned citizens only given to Aug. 25 to comment on something that wasn't even available to them except by appoing.
Saunders and Cleghorn made an appointment and met with planner Michelle Sorkin. It was days after their meeting that they learned also was including changes in the .
"Community Design Overlay" policy in the same short-circuited process.
LoGrande's response to community concerns and the flurry of viral emails is to extend the deadline for comment until Labor Day.
No involvement of Neighborhoods Councils, homeowner or other groups allowed. No honest debate. No information.
The outrage of many was captured by Ken Alpern in a City Watch LA article in this sentence in all capital letters:
THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES IS ABOUT READY TO END PUBLIC INPUT ON A HUGE SERIES OF GUIDELINES THAT WILL DETERMINE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT THROUGHOUT LOS ANGELES RIGHT AFTER LABOR DAY WITHOUT HARDLY ANYONE KNOWING WHAT'S PRECISELY IN THOSE GUIDELINES!!!
If they get away with this, they can do anything they want whenever they want.
The public will be completely disenfranchised and the result will be virtually instantaneous approval of nearly all development projects no matter what their impact on the quality of life, on traffic congestion, on the drain on limited water and power resources and the availability of public services.
These policies may be "business friendly" but they are a disaster for the residents of the city.
Beware FAIR’s and Feuer’s Foists
Voters in California could become victims of a classic pincer movement on November 2nd.
It’s a simple strategy that’s been used in warfare throughout the centuries. General Grant would have appreciated the crafty maneuver shaping up in the Golden State. General Lee would have appreciated it, too, but he never had the manpower to execute one (more about that in a later segment of my Civil War Sesquicentenial series).
There are two propositions that may undo the checks and balances that protect the taxpayers from complete fiscal chaos, as if the state isn’t already heading to hell in a handbasket.
One arm of the pincer is Proposition 27 - Financial Accountability in Redistricting Act (FAIR). The aim of this deceivingly named measure is to undo Proposition 11, which was passed in November 2008. Proposition 11, authorized a citizens’ commission to redraw state office voting districts, rather than elected officials who have a vested interest in the outcome.
Congressman Howard Berman of Valley Village is the driving force behind this measure, using FAIR, a coterie of self-serving politicians and other operatives (reportedly including Howard’s brother Michael), to confuse the public that Prop 27 is in the interest of saving the state money. If 27 is saving anything, it is the political careers of many incumbents.
Proposition 27 is the counter to Proposition 20 which expands the citizens’ commission’s authority to Congressional Districts.
It is interesting that Berman does not want to face his constituents in a town hall on this issue; however, when was the last time anyone recalls Berman hosting a town meeting open to the general public?
By contrast, in the adjacent Congressional District to the west, Brad Sherman holds public meetings whenever he’s in town, as did his esteemed and admired predecessor Tony Beilenson.
Berman is not new to redistricting gamesmanship.
While Berman is attempting to return redistricting to partisan politicians through Proposition 27, the other arm of the pincer is Proposition 25.
Mike Feuer (Assembly Member, 42nd District- straddling Beverly Hills to the Southeast Valley) is pitching this measure, which would lower the passage of a budget in the State Legislature to a simple majority vote. A two-thirds vote is required to pass a budget today.
Mike is not the author of 25, but he is the face of it in my district, so I am singling him out. I probably wouldn’t if it were not for his avoiding taking a stand on the citizens’ redistricting commission.
I actually support the concept of a simple majority threshold, but – only if redistricting remains with a citizens’ commission. If it returns to the legislators, Proposition 25 will assure that the budget will be in full control of the ideologues, whatever the party.
If the shoe were on the other foot and the Republicans dominated, they would most certainly support a comparable scheme.
Back when Proposition 11 was on the ballot, Feuer attended a meeting of the Neighborhood Council Valley Village and was asked whether he supported the measure. He said it did not make any difference to him. Translated, it meant he was satisfied with the status quo of having his peers carve up the map like a Big Ben jigsaw puzzle.
About three months ago, Feuer sent a staffer to NCVV with handouts supporting Proposition 25. I stated my support for the concept but would not back 25 without meaningful redistricting in place. I reminded her of Feuer’s previous non position on Prop 11 and asked if he had come around to support a citizens’ commission.
At the next meeting, she reaffirmed Feuer’s ambivalence.
Drawing election maps is at the core of our democracy. Anyone who is not disturbed by the outrageous district lines for both congressional and state offices is probably apathetic or a die-hard partisan of one party or the other.
Our current districts are handcuffs that prevent substantive compromise and perpetuate ideological impasse.
It is unconscionable that Feuer elects to stay on the sidelines. I can only speculate he does not want to get caught in a potentially hot crossfire.
It would not surprise me if he votes for Berman’s Prop 27; after all, it would enhance his influence as a member of the Assembly Budget Committee.
In summary, vote as follows:
Berman’s Prop 27: Vote No
Feuer’s favorite Prop 25: Vote No
Prop 20 (empowers citizens commission to also draw new Congressional District lines): Vote Yes.
LOST Lore – and Lots of It
You wouldn’t believe the country was in a recession if you visited the Barker Hanger at Santa Monica Airport this weekend.
Almost any conceivable prop or pre-production material from ABC’s recently concluded hit series LOST was up for auction. I came away convinced that LOST fans are in a different economic bracket, immune to the severe prolonged (and still to be continued) real life financial crisis – LOST Worth.
I had hoped to grab a piece of the series for myself – or more likely for my daughter, who was more obsessed with the six-season saga than I was. The two of us would have weekly telephone conversations about the latest episode and shared our predictions, almost all of which were wrong.
I’ll miss that. We now we have more relevant issues to discuss, such as the economy.
I’d prefer LOST.
There were 1,174 lots available for bid; judging from the prices I saw today, the producers probably grossed at least $4.5 million. Even a scrap of paper with an ambiguous note written to a couple of the characters commanded a few thousand dollars. There was nothing on or in the note that would make anyone but a true fan connect it with the series.
The internet really drove the process…and the prices. I estimate the take would have been less than half my estimate without on-line participation. Truly an auctioneer’s dream.
I was pre-registered as a live bidder but never had a chance to wave my paddle. A white flag would have been more appropriate as the prices escalated in seconds to four and five figures.
Pictures speak louder than words, so here are a few pictures of the bidding screen showing the items and the winning bids.
One of Ben Linus' costumes for $3,500
Dharma Rum for $3,000
Hatch computer- $16,000; with me, priceless
Paul and cast member - now that's really priceless
You CAN Fight City Hall -- and Win: LA Clean Sweep Will Teach You How
Experts in political campaigning will teach you the skills you need to win elections and fight City Hall on the issues that you carry about to protect you neighborhoods, your jobs and your business. The session for activists run from 8:30 a.m. to noon Sunday Aug. 29 at the Mayflower Club, 11110 Victory Blvd., North Hollywood. Training for candidates for the March 2011 City Council elections and the 2013 city elections run from 1 to 5 p.m.
Click here (CSTrainingDayFlyer-1.pdf) or go to lacleansweep.com and click on events for the details. The trainers are providing their services for free and all proceeds from the event will help fund LA Clean Sweep's efforts to inform voters and mobilize forces for reform.
For too long, the concerned residents in all parts of the city have fought their own separate battles against the powerful forces that run City Hall and control our elected officials. LA Clean Sweep. The skills you will learn from this program will help you to work together with people in every part of LA and beat the lobbyists and special interests and help elected candidates who will stand up for the public interest.
Our city officials have been overspending for year, and even in the face of financial crisis, are making things worse without facing the fundamental issues. Libraries and parks are closing, cuts in the Fire Department are jeopardizing public safety and we are now paying the full cost or many core services in addition to soaring rates, taxes and fees.
The cycle of failure must be broken. It will only if you get involved and get the know-how to fight back successfully against the powerful entrenched interests of City Hall.
We need a new spirit of LA, one that brings together every region of the city, breaks down the barriers of ethnicity and economic status, and celebrates the freedom of possibilities of what should be the greatest place on earth.
Hundreds of activists from every part of the city have worked to develop basic ideas that we can rally around to restore credibility to our city's leadership and fix what is broken so we can move forward together:
Here's what LA Clean Sweep stands for:
THE PLATFORM
Issue No. 1: Clean Up City Hall
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} L.A. needs a change of leadership. We must elect candidates who demonstrate a firm commitment to promoting the public interest, not special interests. Candidates must commit to end the practice of giving subsidies, waivers, below-cost deals, tax breaks and other special treatment to politically connected individuals, public officials, organizations and businesses.
So that no actions of government are hidden from the public, candidates must commit to enforce and enact open access laws. Slush funds and office holder accounts need to be eliminated. City Hall must never sell, lease or otherwise dispose of public property without obtaining fair market value for it. City Hall must treat all people with dignity, fairness and equality.
City spending is out of control. The city needs to live within its means. Candidates must commit to support a City Charter amendment to limit the annual increase in city government spending to the rate of growth of inflation and city population. In good economic times, revenues that exceed the expenditure limit should be saved in a rainy day fund. This would allow the city to maintain essential services in an economic downturn.
Elected officials have a history of borrowing against future tax revenues to finance special interest economic development projects. Candidates must commit to stopping this practice, including all projects funded through the Community Redevelopment Agency. Candidates must commit to supporting compensation for city employees that is affordable and sustainable. Without these changes, additional taxes and fees will put an increasing burden on residents and force severe cutbacks in city services.
Issue No. 3: Focus on Core Services
City Hall lacks focus and wastes money. Time that could and should be spent on critical problems is instead frittered away on self-serving resolutions and other minutiae. Candidates must commit to focus on core services: Police, fire, other public safety services, street and sidewalk maintenance, sewage, trash, water and power, parks, libraries, and land use planning. Elected officials should not spend their time or taxpayers' money on matters unrelated to the delivery of core services.
Issue No. 4: Power Sharing
Government is formed for the benefit of the people, yet City Hall routinely ignores the peoples ' legitimate concerns. Candidates must commit to work with Neighborhood Councils and bona fide community groups on land use, economic development and other local issues. Candidates must commit to redrawing City Council district boundaries to align with established communities. Gerrymandering of council boundaries must end.
.
Contribute your time, your passion, your money. Go to lacleansweep.com. Los Angeles will not change without you getting involved.
Naked City: Dark Times in the Old Town
Chistrine Pelisek in the LA Weekly continues her great coverage of the Grim Sleeper case, exposing suspect Lonnie Franklin Jr. has been on disability as a city garbageman for years, grossing $300,000 while the serial killings have gone on.
It doesn't stop there. Even if convicted, he will keep on getting monthly checks now at $1,658.54 with annual increases for inflation.
"You need contributions from four city workers to pay this son of a bitch's disability payments! It doesn't sound to me that they have a good mechanism in place to prevent fraud," said commuity leader Jack Humphreville.
Forget the Bell Scandal -- It Was Always Vernon That Broke All the Rules with a $1 Million Official
Back in 1989, the LA Times exposed Vernon City Administrator Bruce V. Malkenhorst's outrageous salary of $162,804 -- twice Gov. George Deukmejian's -- to run the small industrial town like a fiefdom.
Today, 21 years later, the Times revisits Vernon and finds salaries are even higher than Bell's with Eric T. Fresch being paid nearly $1.65 million in salary and hourly billings and other officials similarly off the charts.
Among Fresch's duties were energy issues, which presumably makes him the point man for the dirty deal Antonio's pal and fund-raiser Ari Swiller pulled off with the CIM Group to buy land for a massive wind farm in Kern County out from under the DWP and sell Vernon part of the Onyx Ranch property for $65 million -- 50 percent more than he paid for the whole thing.
The Stench of City Budget Cuts -- LAFD Closing Down Only HazMat Team in San Fernando Valley
The Daily News' Rick Orlov reports the budget cuts are forcing the LA Fire Department to close its only hazardous materials unit in the San Fernando Valley, a 14-member team in Granada Hills ihat is one of only such teams in the city.
It will mean long delays in mobilizing skilled firefighters to deal with potentially life-threatening incidents but the mayor said it's not a problem.
"We have promised to restore funding as soon as possible," mayor spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said. "And we are confident the department will be able to handle any emergency that develops in the city." .
Aaron Corp Speaks His Mind on Spiders’ Media Day
Corp picks up at around the 2:30 mark.
http://www.youtube.com/richmondspiders#p/u/3/Ph15GX0IXII
Also, the video of the first scrimmage is now up.
It is difficult to tell who is taking the snaps due to the red practice jerseys worn by the quarterbacks. I believe Corp is predominately in the first half.
I was more impressed by the running plays, but since this was the first scrimmage that’s not surprising.
Regardless, the video provides up-close coverage; football junkies should enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/richmondspiders#p/u/14/0in0q92i5tk
Bruno, LA's Watchdog: Send Cardenas to the Doghouse for his 'All in the Family' Ripoffs
The horseshoe is beginning to smell like horseshit.
Only a couple weeks ago, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon -- and his wife - were indicted for voter fraud and lying about where they lived.
And since I've already used the somewhat offensive word, I'll say it: Alarcon swears he lives in that shithole of a house in his district, rather than the nicer home in Paul Kerkorian's district.
Bruno has seen pictures of the house Alarcon doesn't live in and heard his neighbors' complaints that it's an eyesore. Bruno thinks Alarcon is full of it.
OK, enough of that. Ronnie will cut my kibble ration.
Today, Walter Moore has a terrific piece on his blog about Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas - and his sister!
I won't repeat all of Walter's terrific post here -- but it seems Cardenas has spent an incredible amount of campaign funds for stationary at sis's store, while at the same time the city has directed tens of thousands of dollars to the same rather small establishment.
Maybe I should suggest to Ron he use the headline "All in the Family."
My pal Wally has been less than successful in his bids for elected office.
Of course, Wally shot pretty high. His first attempts were for mayor of the nation's second largest city. He ran twice and didn't do bad last time --- running second and coming within 4 percentage points of forcing a runoff with the mayor -- but of course he was helped by the fact Antonio isn't exactly beloved by those who decided to trudge to the polls.
I think Wally missed his calling (he's a lawyer by trade) and should become an investigative reporter -- especially since there are so few left at the Dog Trainer and Green Sheet.
I'll make room for him in my doghouse.
I'll even send him a free "Bruno LA's Watchdog" coffee mug if Ronnie ever gets off his butt and decides to sell them like he promised. After all, who do you love more him or me?
Woof!
Navigation
Community Supporters
Express Bistro
(323) 935-6000
Black Dog Coffee
www.blackdogcoffee.com
Westside Jewish Community Center
www.westsidejcc.org