Another Reason For Democratic Party To Dump "Transportation Mayor" Villaraigosa

Attention Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chair Person of the Democratic National Party:  Here is yet another reason you need to put as much distance as possible between President Obama and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

You know how you think Villaraigosa is some kind of "visionary," and how he now calls himself the "transportation Mayor?" Well, he has some 'splainin' to do, because, per the Los Angeles Times, Obama's Federal Transportation Administration chief, Peter Rogoff, made some "disturbing findings" about the civil rights implications of massive cutbacks in bus service here:

Those include Metro's failure to conduct the proper analyses when implementing service changes over the last several years. In the letter, Rogoff chides Metro officials, saying they "should be well familiar with the requirements" because of many years of litigation and a previous consent decree over civil rights issues.

"These findings now require me to formally find [Metro] not compliant with FTA [civil rights] requirements," Rogoff wrote. 

How are poor people supposed to get around in L.A. without bus service? After all, the Subway to the VA -- formerly known as the "Subway to the Sea" -- isn't ready yet.

And by the way, Debbie, before he called himself the "transportation mayor," he also called himself the "green mayor," the "jobs mayor," the "million trees" mayor, and so on. By contrast, the LA Weekly, which is the local progressive paper, calls him the "11% mayor" and the "all about me" mayor.

You might want to look into that and un-invite him to host your convention. You can just say he let you know he was too busy to do it -- too busy explaining to the federal government why he's mean to the poor.

P.S. Ask him why he waited until August 2011 to propose the "bus only" lanes that I proposed during my campaign back in 2008.  To get traffic moving, all we need to do is build parking structures along major streets, and then stop using the streets as parking lots. That's two extra lanes per street, all day and all night, for the fraction of the cost of a few miles of subway.

Don't Be Fueled By Greuel: Pot Calling Kettle Black

Wannabe mayor, City Controller Wendy Greuel, is trying to dupe voters into thinking she's some kind of crusader against waste at City Hall, when in fact she is indistinguishable from the rest of her fellow insiders. The latest example is in the Los Angeles Times: 

Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel on Thursday accused Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council of being "asleep at the switch" when it comes to monitoring fuel usage by city employees.

Greuel made the remark at a news conference where she released an audit showing that more than $7 million in gasoline and other fuel has gone missing from the city in recent years. According to the audit, millions of gallons of fuel were pumped at dozens of city fueling sites without any record of where the fuel went, despite a $12-million tracking system put in place more than a decade ago.

See what she's doing?  She's blaming the Mayor and the City Council for failing to keep track of money spent for gas, so you'll think she would do something about it if only she could.


Here's the problem:  back when Greuel was on the City Council for nine years, she didn't do jack about any of the audits issued by the previous City Controllers. You think Wendy Greuel was the first City Controller to look into gas money? Hay-ell no!


On January 22, 2009, when Greuel was on the City Council, Laura Chick, the City Controller at the time, was so exasperated after years of having Gruel and the rest of the City Council ignore her audits that she penned the following cover letter for her audit on -- you guessed it -- FUEL USAGE:

January 22, 2009

The Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa

The Honorable Rockard J. Delgadillo

The Honorable Members of the City Council

Of the 167 audits completed since I took office as Controller, the two I release today are the most stunning testament to how the City does business in an un-businesslike way.

These audits spotlight serious issues which require immediate action. Every day, multiple conversations occur in City Hall about how to squeeze more money out of the taxpayers ... more fees for parking meters, increased trash collection fees, higher DWP rates, a parcel tax for anti gang programs. Before we ask for one more penny from the public, we must get our own house in order.

We are supposed to be leading and setting an example. This is not the example we want the public to follow.

Sincerely,

LAURA N. CHICK

City Controller

Nor was failure to account for fuel anything new. Remember Rick Tuttle? Me, neither. But he was the City Controller way back in 2000, and he, too, issued an audit expressing concern about fraud and waste in the way the City accounted for gasoline purchases. Remember anything about Greuel taking action on that? Of course not.  


Bottom line: don't let Greuel fool you. She is, and has always been, part of the problem at City Hall. She is not the solution. You want something different at City Hall? You need to elect someone new: Kevin James.

The REAL State Of The City: Daily News Publishes My Reply To Mayor's Speech

Thanks to the Daily News, the voters of the City of Los Angeles can hear from the loyal opposition about the real state of the City. Click the following link to find out the mess that Villaraigosa, Greuel, Garcetti, Perry and Beutner have made of our city during their tenure:  Oped: An Alternate Take On The State Of Los Angeles.

How Many People Are Unemployed Because Of Villaraigosa And The City Council?

Here are some fun facts you can put together using figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

The national unemployment rate was 8.2% in March. Think of that as the national average.  Think of it as par for the course.

The unemployment rate in Los Angeles, by contrast, was 13.3% that month.  That's 5.1 percentage points above average, or 62% higher that the national average. Ouch. Way over par.

But what does that mean in terms of people out of work?

The number of unemployed people in L.A. in March was 256,762. Remember: that's with a 13.3% unemployment rate. If Villaraigosa and the City Council had done just an average job at governing, and achieved an 8.8% unemployment rate, then 98,456 of those people would have jobs.

Bottom line: the numbers indicate that Villaraigosa and the City Council have run the City so badly that they cost nearly 100,000 their jobs. 

RADIO ALERT: Dissecting Villaraigosa's State Of The City Address With Doug McIntyre On Thursday Morning

RADIO ALERT:  Tune into KABC 790 at 8:20 a.m. Thursday as Doug McIntyre and I dissect Villaraigosa's "State of the City" address.

Wendy Greuel: Closing The Barn Door After The Horse Is Out

So wanna-be Mayor, Wendy Greuel, convened a press conference to announce that her "audit" of the L.A. Coliseum has revealed some irregularities.


Hey, Wendy, you're a bit late with this "audit," aren't you? Did you not notice the indictments for embezzlement last month? 


Next, Greuel's going to hold a press conference tell us she suspects foul play at Enron, and will be taking a very close look at Bernie Madoff.


Why would she do such a thing? Easy. She's trying to pretend she's some kind of outsider, ready to reform City Hall. Unfortunately, the facts kind of ruin that whole narrative, as she's been a City Hall insider for over a decade. If you want more of the same, it doesn't matter whether you vote for Wendy Greuel, Eric Garcetti, Jan Perry or Austin Beutner.  They're all the same candidate.

Greuel is shocked, shocked to find corruption.

If you want someone who will do things differently and better, however, you've got exactly one choice for Mayor:  Kevin James.

Photographers can be so cruel to Greuel...

Mayoral Poll Shows Kevin James Can Win

Whom do the City of L.A.'s registered voters want to succeed Villaraigosa?  According to a poll by Loyola Marymount University, 58% of the registered voters surveyed have no idea. Here's the beautiful pie chart yours truly prepared based on the poll numbers:

What does it mean? It means Kevin James can win this. Think about it: yours truly got about 27% of the vote. Do you see any slice of pie in that chart that's even half that size? No, you don't.   

Look at the career politicians' slices:  not one of them garnered more than 10%. That means that if people who voted for me vote for Kevin James, he's in a run-off, as a front-runner.

Plus, look at that 58%. The voters already know the career politicians running -- Garcetti, Greuel and Perry -- and the voters are not loving them. Some of the 58% will see Kevin James mop the floor with his opponents in debates, and vote for him based on that.

All those other don't-know's, however, will need to see ads. And ads cost money.

So what are you going to do about it? Just sit back and pretend you're merely an observer, and it's beyond your control? Of course not. You're going to take action, if only so you can say, "Hey, don't blame me, man; I contributed $25 to the Kevin James campaign."

Click here to visit Kevin's website and click here contribute to his campaign. You LIVE here, man. No one's asking you to do this as a favor, or for the public good. Your job, your life and your self-interest depend on getting Kevin James in that office.  Make it happen.

DNC Chairman Needs Judge Judy Lesson: Don't Pee On My Leg And Tell me It's Raining

The Democrat Party needs to terminate its chairman immediately.  She lied so blatantly, so horribly, that she really damaged her party's credibility.

In particular, she lied about something those of us in Los Angeles know quite a bit about: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.  Doug McIntyre interviewed Congressman Debbie Debbie Wasserman-Schultz this morning on KABC 790, and it wasn't pretty.  Hear it for yourself: