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See Heads up on a Mayor and CD1 debate | New Reports | Find more EIDC checks lately, Jim? | Oops, they did it again | Hahn defends movie group's contribution

Heads up on a Mayor and CD1 debate

*** MEET THE CANDIDATES ***

the Old Granada Hills Residents Group will host a Meet the Candidates Night. on Tuesday, Oct. 8th 7:00 pm - 8:45 pm at the  Granada Pavilion (11128 Balboa Blvd.)

8 of the 9 candidates for District #1 and 8 of the 10 mayoral candidates will be attending.

They will each give a 2-minute talk about their background, Valley independence, and visions for our new Valley City. Then the candidates will answer 2-3 short questions they were given in advance on:

(1) control of land use 

(2) communication with their constituents 

(3) corruption in government. 

The remaining 30 minutes will be for the public to ask questions of the candidates. We are requesting your help in promoting this important event. Please copy this E-mail and give to your friends and neighbors. and  phone your contact lists.

PLANNED AGENDA

7:00-7:15 OGHRG meeting (Neighborhood Councils, Zoning & Density, Organization, Finances)

7:15-7:20 General Info on Valley Independence

7:20-7:55 Mayoral Candidates Speeches (2 mins) Responses to panel & public questions

7:55-8:00 Stretch Break

8:00-8:35 Council District #1 Candidate Speeches CD #1 responses to panel & public questions

8:35-8:50 Public Meeting with the Candidates

New Reports

The first is an Anti secession piece by the unions. Claiming LA problems are caused by under taxation and the that worst thing to happen to California was Prop 13 and 218!

They express the fear that the Valley voters may reject the failed LA city social engineering policies. Their data source is various reports paid for with our tax money opposing secession with bad data and opinion.

 L.A. Alliance for a New Economy. Left Behind: The Impact of Secession on Low-Income Residents and Workers in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood

The Next is the transcript for the Rightsizing report

 Reason Foundation/Public Policy Institute, James Irvine Foundation, Valley Civic Foundation, Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and CivicCenter Group Rightsizing Local & Regional Government Methods & Models for Representative Local Governance

An independent report showing the failure of LA City to all of its citizens - not just the Valley

 Rose Institute of State and Local Government Claremont McKenna College LOS ANGELES IN CONTEXT: A Comparative Analysis of Current and Proposed Cities in Los Angeles County

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%257E24781%257E899208,00.html

Find more EIDC checks lately, Jim? 

10-7-02 By Kimit Muston

I do so want to believe Mayor James K. Hahn. It's just that I'm not sure when I'm supposed to believe him and when I'm not supposed to believe him because sometimes you have to not believe him in order to believe him.

Confusing, ain't it?

Now, I could believe the mayor solicited the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. for a $10,000 donation for his anti-secession campaign. That's what Kam Kuwata said when first questioned about the donation, and he's the guy Hahn placed in charge of his anti-secession campaign, so he should know, right?

Or I could believe Hahn solicited $25,000 from the EIDC for his anti-secession war chest because that is what Kam Kuwata said about a week later.

And how did City Hall explain the unanticipated inflation of this particular twice-told tale? Well, it seems the reason for the $15,000 increase was because, to quote Kuwata, "There was another check."

Now, I want to repeat that quote because I think it may become one of my favorite political quotes of the year, maybe the decade. Let us share it together. "There was another check." Let it roll over your tongue as you note it is an explanation that explains nothing. "There was another check."

Note the deceptive iambic simplicity of the phrase, the seemingly guileless admission of guilt, without being an actual admission. The words almost sing to you. "There was another check."

Who are these guys? I've heard about the gang that couldn't shoot straight but I've never heard of a gang who couldn't cash a check straight. Did they lose the other check? Did their mom find it in their pants while she was doing their laundry?

Did Jimmy forget how much or how often he asked the EIDC for money?

The coda to this little mea culpa couplet came when the mayor announced, once again through Kuwata, that he was returning the money, all $25,000 of it.

The mayor is giving back the cash because, says Kam Kuwata, "It was becoming a distraction. We wanted to talk about the real issues." Well, you may not believe this Kam, but the money is the real issue; the money and the belief that it was yours for the taking as long as you could talk your way out of it if you got caught.

It's like the argument the EIDC isn't a government agency. The EIDC was formed by the county and the city governments. It took over government functions. Good Lord, it's hard to find an elected official south of Tehachapi who wasn't on the EIDC board, although somebody forgot to tell most of them.

And, to top it all off, the president of the executive board of the EIDC is none other than the mayor of Los Angeles himself, Jimmy Hahn, who evidently thinks there are lots of private companies with a majority of elected officials controlling their boards. It's the kind of frustrating idiotic argument that insults your intelligence.

To make it City Hall must either think the public is really stupid or be really stupid themselves. Either way, its not good for City Hall's image.

That image is now getting a wax job. The story of the EIDC would never have come to light except for District Attorney Steve Cooley's criminal investigation, which has now prompted the MIA EIDC board members to reappear, and they are now climbing over each other "re-organizing," which is a code word for CYA -- and it's not a Christian Youth organization.

There must be lots of "other checks" still outstanding, and many of them must be political contributions from the EIDC to the very people who were supposed to be in charge of the EIDC -- politicians like Hahn.

There is a chance that with a lot of effort and a little luck Cooley may actually get to the bottom of the EIDC -- or City Hall could perform its usual cover up.

Remember that the EIDC is just one of some 30 to 50 city agencies spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year under a cloak of obscurity, with laughable oversight, vague lines of responsibility and little accountability.

The only hope taxpayers have, other than secession, is that D.A. Cooley is ambitious enough to push this investigation all the way to Sacramento. If he cleans up City Hall I'd vote for him for governor. As many times as they let me.

Kimit Muston lives in the San Fernando Valley and is a regular contributor to the Daily News. 

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%257E20951%257E858017,00.html

Oops, they did it again

9-15-02 Local pols plead ignorance of EIDC scandal

Caught red-handed in a political scandal, members of the Los Angeles City Council, the county Board of Supervisors, Mayor James Hahn and other elected city officials have all responded with a defense that can be summed up in one word:

Oops. Yes, oops.

Or, to expand: Oops, we didn't know that the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., on whose very board we sit, was using public funds to bankroll our political campaigns.

Oops, indeed.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky says, "None of us have a clue to what is going on.' Councilman Dennis Zine offers a variation of the same line: "I discovered in the news that I'm a member of the EIDC board, and I've never been informed of board meetings and any activities of the board.'

In other words, we're not corrupt, just incompetent.

It doesn't do much to inspire confidence in local government when its leaders' best defense is to claim massive ignorance. But with District Attorney Steve Cooley conducting a criminal investigation, the elected officials aren't so much looking to inspire confidence, but to save their hides.

The defense they've put forth is as unbelievable as it is pathetic.

It was city and county officials who created the EIDC in the first place for the purpose of combating the problem of runaway productions. They're the ones who authorized the nonprofit corporation to collect the fees for local movie shoots, and they're the ones charged - by themselves - with overseeing the EIDC's operations.

Besides, even if local politicians shirked their duty to manage the EIDC, it's well known that they pay close attention to their campaign coffers. background-color: #FFFF00">If they weren't around when the EIDC was cutting campaign checks, they certainly were there to cash those checks later, and that should have raised plenty of red flags.

Ignorance is never an excuse for breaking the law, especially for lawmakers, and most especially for the highest-paid lawmakers in the country. If oops is their best defense, let them tell it to the jury.

Copyright © 2002 Los Angeles Daily News Los Angeles Newspaper Group

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%257E20954%257E856216,00.html

Hahn defends movie group's contribution

9-12-02 By Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

Mayor James Hahn defended his anti-secession campaign's soliciting of a $10,000 contribution from a city-county TV and film permit agency under criminal investigation by the district attorney.

Hahn said he believes the nonprofit Entertainment Industry Development Corp. is a private organization, not governmental, so therefore was justified in making contributions to the anti-secession effort as well as his own political campaign and those of other local elected officials.

The mayor, the City Council and the county Board of Supervisors sit on the board of the agency that was created in 1995 to help stop runaway production.

Hahn, who sits on the EIDC executive committee that meets quarterly, added to questions about his role by saying the money for L.A. United was solicited by the campaign, not him.

"The EIDC has made contributions to candidates for some years and there hasn't been any question raised about it,' Hahn said. "They are a private corporation that contracts to help expedite film permits in the city.'

State officials issued an opinion when the EIDC was formed that it was in fact a public agency since its board was made up of public officials and it took over a governmental function, using funds that previously went to government agencies.

District Attorney Steve Cooley launched a criminal investigation into the EIDC spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on political contributions and personal expenses of its president, Cody Cluff. The EIDC gets money from issuing permits to shoot TV and films in the area, funds that previously went to the city and county directly.

Last week, investigators working for District Attorney Steve Cooley seized dozens of documents under search warrants from EIDC offices and two homes belonging to Cluff. He did not return phone calls. Other EIDC officials have denied wrongdoing.

The mayor had no role in the decision to make the contribution, according to Hahn and Kam Kuwata, a consultant to the mayor's anti-secession campaign. At one point last week, Kuwata was quoted as saying the mayor solicited the contribution. At another point, he denied that.

Sources said last week's raids were part of an investigation that began last year after a complaint was made that board members had received campaign contributions. Since then, the probe was broadened to include a review of expense accounts.

At the heart of the issue is whether the EIDC is classified as a public agency, which is prohibited from making political contributions, or a private corporation, which can make contributions.

"Certainly I think they should cooperate fully with the district attorney's investigation,' Hahn said.

"If there's anything that needs to be clarified, I'm certainly willing to hear our city attorney and our Ethics Commission views on the matter. But at this point in time I haven't seen anything improper about it.'

Copyright © 2002 Los Angeles Daily News Los Angeles Newspaper Group