Mayor V won’t be speaking at DNC

The Latino, Democratic Mayor of the second largest city in the United States won’t be addressing his fellow party members in any signifigant way at next week’s Democratic Convention.

Here’s some wild theories as to why:

a. California is expected to be an easy win for Obama in November, so better to fill the speaking slate with DNC faves from red and undecided states.

b. Mayor Villaraigosa was a national co-chair for Hilary Clinton’s presidential bid, and who wants to remember that?

c. The Democratic party is trying to keep a lid on the number of philanderers as its spokesmen. John Edwards will reportedly be nowhere near Denver. Bill Clinton will be… um… toplining the roster. Let me amend this to,  the Democratic party is trying to keep a limit on the number of philanderers as its spokesmen.

Attend “Government 101″ with LA Mayor V and Council Prez Eric G.

Learn how to make your city work for you at the Government 101 workshop being held tomorrow by LA City Council President Eric Garcetti.

Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti will join Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in hosting Government 101, a workshop that trains local residents to access city resources and become effective advocates for their communities.  The morning training will include a tutorial on the City of Los Angeles’s legislative process and information on how residents can influence the process.

Ironically, the Mayor’s involvement in this citizen-empowerment workshop comes one day after CityWatch posted an editorial claiming Villaraigosa had declared himself “the decider:”

The desire to promote grass-roots democracy, and to respect the experience and creativity of those in the neighborhood council system, has taken a back seat to the mayor’s political needs.

Mayor V’s math: 33 cents = $1

Two years ago, Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa appealed for the first trash pick up tax hike saying, “Every new dollar residents pay for trash pickup will be used to put more officers on the streets.”

The reality: Only 1/3rd of every dollar is going towards hiring new cop, and the rest going towards increases in existing officer’s payrolls and other department budget items.

The monthly “residential refuse collection fee” was increased from $11 to $26 over the past two years to pay for a promised additional 1000 cops… only 366 have been hired.

Was this a gross oversight? Or a deliberate effort on the part of the Mayor to deceive the public? Feel free to discuss.

[via LA Times]

Newsom cuts red tape for shakes

In a common sense move that will surely be boasted about during his suspected run for state governor, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom introduced legislation to encourage earthquake retrofitting of private and commercial properties throughout the city through the following:

• Expediting the review of retrofit permits for owners of soft-story buildings.

• Waiving retrofit permit fees, which can cost up to $1000.

• City departments would be directed to develop retrofit guidelines for high risk buildings.

• An outreach campaign would be launched to inform the public of the need for seismic retrofitting, including a citywide emergency drill in October.

There is no indication the City of Los Angeles has a similar program. However, Mayor Villaraigosa has announced The Great Southern Californian Shakeout for November, which promises to be the largest ever earthquake drill.

Obama to Mayor V: Don’t expect Federal help for L.A.

…or other cities, the Presidential nominee told Antonio Villaraigosa and a delegation of mayors from across the US on Saturday. Obama said that “current urban policy was obsolete and needed to be replaced by a model that focused on rational metropolitan growth rather than chiefly on inner-city crime and poverty.” From the New York Times.

Senator Barack Obama told the nation’s mayors on Saturday that current urban policy was obsolete and needed to be replaced by a model that focused on rational metropolitan growth rather than chiefly on inner-city crime and poverty…

“[We] need to stop seeing our cities as the problem and start seeing them as the solution. Because strong cities are the building blocks of strong regions, and strong regions are essential for a strong America.”

The comments came during a speech in Miami at the US Conference of Mayors, where Bill Clinton also spoke, urging mayors to make their city greener. He touted his own Clinton Climate Initiative, “that launched a $5 billion project last year to retrofit buildings in 40 of the world’s largest cities, saving both energy and money.” [Miami Herald]  Los Angeles is the only California city participating in the project.

Clinton said if city leaders take advantage of loan programs to refit their buildings to make them more energy efficient, they could reduce their carbon footprint, create jobs and save money…

”I think if we do it right, it will be the major engine of growth and new jobs in America for at least a decade.”

Mayor Villaraigosa on Rush Limbaugh’s statements and Clinton campaign

From yesterday morning’s Newsconference on KNBC, Mayor V says he’ll back Obama if he’s the nominee but believes that voters in all states still need to be heard, and responds, albeit briefly, to Rush Limbaugh mistaking him as a “shoeshine boy” because of his “pigment.”

What’s in a married name?

Here’s something I didn’t know: while a newly married woman can easily have her last name legally changed to her husband’s on a drivers license, a man would have to jump through a bunch more hurdles, including:

…a $350 fee, court appearances, a public announcement and mounds of paperwork to make a change on (driving licenses) that are routine for women who marry. [Reuters]

An L.A. resident formerly known as Michael Buday recently challenged California courts on the matter and won. He now carries is wife’s last name, and the 31 year old is now legally known as Michael Bijon.

A subsequent lawsuit led to a new California state law guaranteeing the rights of both married couples and registered domestic partners to choose whichever last name they prefer on their marriage and driving licenses.

I wonder what, if any, ramifications this could have on anyone seeking the same path Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took, whose own last name is actually a combination of his family birth name Villar, and his now ex-wife’s, Raigosa?

Is Rick Caruso considering a run for LA mayor?

On Sunday morning’s “News Conference” (broadcast on the mothership, KNBC), Conan Nolan interviews developer Rick Caruso on the site of his newest venture: The Americana at Brand.

Throughout the piece, Caruso talks a lot about how the Grove, and now the Americana, have helped revitalize parts of Los Angeles, and that he’s dumbfounded at the lack of municipal rail lines around L.A… and he hints that he’d be interested in public office when the time is right.

But, he says, “it would have to be in an executive position. I’m just wired that way.”

Caruso also argues that wealthy entrepreneurs make for the best politicians, because he says they are only worried about doing a good job, not winning elections.

Above is a five minute-ish clip from the interview where he eludes to, what I think, is his suggesting that a race for Mayor, or possibly Governor, could be in his future.

NOTE: According to Total Capitol: “Caruso was a finance co-chair in the Mitt Romney for President campaign.”

…Conan Nolan has additional thoughts on Americana at Brand, or what he calls “Carusoland” at his Politics Raw blog…h/t Red Spot at Mayor Sam’s Sister…

Before Villaraigosa, Hahn, and Riordan…

LA Times’ Robert Greene heard a rumor that the paper’s editors were considering a new policy of keeping “the names of previous mayors out of news stories,” so he’s gone hog wild and done a recap of the city’s mayoral history.

Some factoids:

• Before Mayor V, the last Latino LA mayor was Cristobal Aguilar who left office in 1872.
• Mayor Sam Yorty (1961-1973) “began his political career as a labor-oriented and communist-supported leftist, but retired as a Republican.”
• Mayor Tom Bradley (1973-1993) was both the last Mayor to serve before term limits were put into effect, he was the first mayor since Henry Rose (1913-1915) to voluntarily leave office.
• Three years after leaving office, Mayor Damien Marchessault (1859-1860, and 1861-1865) shot himself in empty City Council chambers.

Tuesday Roll Call: No confidence for Waxman, Big Rx wants peek at private records, recruiter protests, etc.

NATIONAL

Last weekend a group of progressive Democrats issued a symbolic “no endorsement” for congressman Howard Berman and Henry Waxman for not being more aggressive against “the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and efforts to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney” and votes on the Iraq war. Both incumbents are running unopposed in the June 3rd primaries. [Daily News]

STATEWIDE

A new bill introduced by state Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello would allow drug companies to purchase access to medical records so they could remind patients to refill prescriptions. [Long Beach Press-Telegram]

California Attorney General Jerry Brown is going after H&R Block for allegedly duping customers into believing they’re receiving instand refunds instead of what are actually high interest, short term loans. [KNBC]

The State of California is denying $100/day reimbursment to a Buena Park man wrongly convicted of a carjacking and sentenced to ten months in state prison because he had plead guilty in lieu of a potentially stiffer sentence. [LA Times]

LOS ANGELES

Kathryn Nack, who was Mayor of Pasadena from 1987 to 1995, passed away. [Pasadena Star-News]

On Wednesday at 4pm, ANSWER LA is coordinating a protest outside of the Military Recruiting Station at 7080 Hollywood Blvd. [LA Indymedia]

LA Times blogger Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a Q&A with Barack Obama.

A federal public integrity unit of the U.S. Attorney’s office has been disbanded in Los Angeles, possibly due to their investigation of Rep. Jerry Lewis’ ties to lobbyists. [LA Observed]

Mayor Villaraigosa encouraged the L.A. City Council to approve the increases in the  DWP’s water rates by 6.2% and electricty by 8.5% to make improvements on the crumbling infrastructure. [KNBC]