Jack Humphreville

LA WATCHDOG – The Unholy Alliance, epitomized as the L.A. 2020 Commission, just became more unholy over Easter. On Good Friday, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, that represents the city’s 10,000 cops issued a strongly worded press release condemning the conspiracy of critics of public employee pension plans.

LA WATCHDOG – It did not take long for the credibility of the “Los Angeles 2020 Commission” to be seriously questioned as the 12 members (and one alternate) are all part of or dependent upon the City Hall establishment that is responsible for the city’s impending insolvency.

LA WATCHDOG – After almost eight years of the city being on a financial roller coaster, Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson has recruited Mickey Kantor, a former Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton administration, and Austin Beutner, a financially astute former deputy mayor, to head a high level commission to review and analyze the city’s shaky finances, to recommend solutions to rescue us from this financial quagmire created by our globetrotting 11 percent Mayor and the fiscally challenged City Council who have been unwilling to even address the out of control $1.4 billion escalation of personnel expenditures.

Why did campaign-funding Union Bo$$ Brian d’Arcy, the public-be-damned business manager of the IBEW, and his Working Californians slush fund spend over $2.7 million to elect Wendy Greuel as the next mayor of the City of Los Angeles? Why did Bo$$ d’Arcy and his multimillion dollar slush fund spend gobs of dough to elect labor activist John Choi, state Sen. Curren Price, and Sacramento veteran Gil Cedillo to the Los Angeles City Council? How many more millions will the Working Californians slush fund spend over the next two months to own City Hall?

LA WATCHDOG – On Tuesday, 55 percent of the voters rejected Prop. A, the Herb Wesson- and Paul Krekorian-inspired permanent half-cent increase in our sales tax to a job killer 9½ percent, one of the highest rates in the nation. This stunning victory was even more amazing given that the special interests controlling the Yes on A cabal spent over $1.3 million bombarding us with misleading mailers, intrusive electronic billboard messages, scare mongering TV and radio ads, and bogus polls. The outcome is also a...

LA WATCHDOG – For several more hours, we will go to the polls to vote on Prop. A, the permanent half-cent increase that will raise our sales tax to a whopping 9½ percent, one of the highest rates in the nation. Rushed to the ballot in less than two weeks without any public hearings, Prop. A is expected to raise over $200 million a year to fund only a portion of the budget-busting $750 million increase in salaries, benefits, and pension contributions over the next four years. This is in addition to the $1.4 billion increase during the first seven years of the Villaraigosa Era of profligacy.

LA WATCHDOG – A raging torrent of cash totaling $20 million is flowing into the campaign coffers of the candidates for mayor and the City Council, including independent expenditures of $2.5 million for Wendy Greuel, courtesy of IBEW Union Bo$$ Brian d’Arcy, the business manager of DWP’s domineering union, and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing the city’s cops.

LA WATCHDOG – Wannabe Los Angeles mayors Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti have been kissing the feet of the leadership of the Service Employees International Union 721 (SEIU), one of the city’s most powerful unions, hoping to get its endorsement. This endorsement would be accompanied by significant cash campaign contributions.

Two weeks ago yesterday, on Tuesday, Jan. 22, the Herb Wesson-led Los Angeles City Council refused to assert jurisdiction over the Dept. of Water and Power’s Feed-in-Tariff Program despite the findings by the Ratepayers Advocate – on one day’ notice – that over the next 20 years, the proposed pricing scheme would overcharge ratepayers by $234 million. This is not an issue involving global warming, climate change or greenhouse gases.

City Council President Herb Wesson hopes to raise $2 million from the special interests that roam the bowels of City Hall to finance an ad blitz supporting the permanent half-cent increase in our sales tax to a job crippling 9.5 percent, one of the highest rates in the country. But how much will this $2 million cost us? And how much do the special interests stand to gain?