Entry #8 of Politics in My City - L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti on Why He Made Tom Sherak Film Czar

For City Film Czar, Eric Garcetti selected Tom Sherak, who will make only $1 a year in salary.  His appointment comes as L.A. is experiencing "an exodus of film and TV production to other states and countries offering tax credits and rebates".

Here is the most interesting fact from today's article:

"California allocates $100 million annually for its film and TV credit program, much less than what New York and others offer. According to FilmL.A., which tracks local filming, there were 25,534 permitted production days in fiscal 2013, compared with 47,669 in 1997."

Expect Eric Garcetti to pass a proposed measure to waive fees for TV pilots and films.

Entry #7 of Politics in My City - How the Government Shutdown is Affecting Southern California

Today's article sheds light on how the current Federal Govt. shutdown is impacting Los Angeles.  The Justice Department has said its prosecutors would attempt to cancel "non-critical civil matters and proceed with essential criminal matters only while the government remains shuttered".

Here are some additional points that stood out to me:

• According to the state Employment Development Department, Los Angeles County was home to about 48,100 federal workers in 2012.

• Los Angeles County CEO Bill Fujioka said the county was operating normally, noting that the "federal (government) shutdown will not have significant fiscal or program impact on the county."

• Metro officials said that since the shutdown means mass furloughs in the Federal Transit Administration, a protracted stalemate in Washington could mean delays in processing grant applications for local rail projects.

Here is the article that I've referenced today.
http://www.kcet.org/news/stories/how-the-government-shutdown-is-affecting-southern-california.html

Entry #6 of Politics in My City - Unaccounted Spending at DWP

As of today it remains a mystery to know how the L.A. Department of Water and Power spent $40 million, which it claims to have spent on two labor-management training institutes.

That public money go unaccounted for is bad enough.  Making this an especially disconcerting ordeal is the fact that this situation can be legally protected from being made public.

As it turns out, the training institutes are governed equally by the DWP and by IBEW Local 18, the DWP union. Each side has equal representation on the two governing boards.  To make the records public, the DWP would have to persuade the union to agree to go along with that.  Without both sides agreeing to make the spending transparent, the decision to go public would end in a deadlock.

The article that is referenced today is the following:
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/10/eric_garcetti_joint_training_i.php