Vote "No" on Prop. B -- The Solar Energy Fraud By Ron Kaye on December 7, 2008 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0) At Saturday's town hall meeting of the Saving L.A. Project (SLAP), the overwhelming sentiment of participants was that the ill-conceived and hastily approved March 3 ballot measure Proposition B is a fraud and must be defeated. A lot of discussion focused on the lack of strong candidates taking on the mayor or any of the six incumbents seeking a third term they are eligible for thanks to the ruse they used to undo term limits restrictions under the guise of meaningless ethics reform in Proposition R. Mary Ann Hutchison of Pico-Union provided a preliminary political strategy for the activist community that would focus on backing longtime spending watchdog and city commissioner Nick Patsaouras for City Controller and environmental lawyer Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich for City Attorney while sending City Hall a message by voting against the mayor and incumbent council members or not voting at all in those races. "Nick, Nuch and No, No, No" was suggested as a campaign slogan. area suggested a popular slogan for the March. Their ideas had broad support and a committee was set up to explore how to mount a grassroots movement that would bring together members of Neighborhood Councils, resident groups, service clubs, non-profits who have long worked hard to make L.A. a better city for all its people. Prop. B, the phony solar energy measure -- engineered by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) that represents all Department of Water and Power workers except top managers -- got unanimous backing of the activists who attended Saturday afternoon's SLAP meeting at the Hollywood Community Center. Soledad Garcia and Jack Humphreville of the DWP citizen watchdog committee outlined what's so offensive about this measure, starting with how it will send electricity rates soaring for no other purpose than enriching the IBEW by giving all the work to the union and how the union in return will support City Hall's failed political culture. They pointed out how there's no cost study for this scheme, how the DWP Board of Commissioners and even DWP executives had no involvement in reviewing it. Quite simply, this grows out of a dirty backroom deal, costs too much, uses inefficient technology and impedes development of a solar energy technology industry that could cost L.A. the opportunity to create good jobs for thousands by getting on the leading edge of the clean energy industry. Humphreville wrote the ballot argument opposing Prop. B and you can read it here PropB.doc