THE CITY-Lost in Space? One possibility is Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson who are both heading up to space this month, Branson EIGHT days ahead of the richest man in the world, at press time – could establish an $800 a month housing program on a purchase and decree basis.
Bezos has $210 billion in the kitty and among the nearly 1,000 giving pledge billionaires, probably a trillion in giving pledge money.
So, the thing about this program, is it helps people who want to live and work here but can t afford to live here. By purchasing places at above market, if necessary to get greedy landlords out, we can lower the price of housing through a robust and rapacious acquisition campaign. And all the units will be modern, clean IKEA style designs.
Herb Wesson, LA Mayor for Almost a Year Now Details
THE PREVEN REPORT The LA City Charter requires that when the Mayor of Los Angeles departs the state of California, he or she stops being Mayor … with the role passing to the City Council President.
It’s a serious rule. Since he was inaugurated on June 30, 2013, whenever Mayor Garcetti has left the state, he has sent a formal letter to City Council President Herb Wesson announcing the precise date and time of departure and return down to the minute.
A public records request we made recently produced a stack of every notice of absence sent by Eric Garcetti to Herb Wesson to date. Add up the days on which Herb Wesson took over the role as Mayor of Los Angeles and you get 336 just a few weeks shy of a full year (and that’s not including any travel the Mayor may have done during the past month).
Charter Amendment B: Shall the City Charter be amended to allow the City to establish a municipal financial institution or bank?
In November of 2018, 56% of the voters rejected Charter Amendment B despite the endorsement of Mayor Eric Garcetti and twelve members of the City Council. But the voters made the right choice because according to the Los Angeles Times,
“Charter Amendment B is one of the most ill-conceived, half-baked ballot measures to come out of City Hall in years, and that’s saying something.”
Nevertheless, the proponents of the Bank of Los Angeles (including Councilmembers Bonin, Raman, Rodriguez, and de Leon) are once again proposing to establish a municipally owned bank. And this time they are claiming that voter approval is not necessary according to a memorandum prepared by the Kaufman Legal Group, the consigliere for many of our local politicians. Of course, this runs contrary to a promise by former City Council President Herb Wesson and
MY TURN In sentencing former Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch Englander to fourteen (14) months in prison, federal judge John F. Walter said,
“I conclude that greed and arrogance must have also motivated in part this defendant,” adding that there’s “no adequate explanation as to how he totally lost his moral compass and committed this crime.”
I’ve got some other news flashes for Judge Walter: The Earth revolves around the sun; water is wet, the San Gabriel Mountains are higher than Death Valley.
(Photo above: Former councilman Mitch Englander,)
While city councilmember Mitch Englander (2011 to 2018) cast at least 3,200 felonious votes, now Judge Walter is surprised. Quite strikingly, Mitch Englander began his city council career with City Council President Herb Wesson’s explaining that the newbie councilmember could vote No on an agenda item because a campaign contributor had bribed him to vote No. Wesson elaborated that for this one vote, Englande