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City Watch is published by Ken Draper every Tuesday and Friday. Here's the top of today's articles: Jack Humphreville: As Los Angeles experiences an unprecedented bursting of water mains and pipes, DWP is leveraging this crisis to ask for a yet undetermined Rate Increase to finance an “additional $1.4 billion to accelerate the replacement of water mains and to make other water quality improvements.”
Can’t you just envision Bill Rosendahl on the floor of the City Council with a busted piece of pipe, pleading for the water Rate Increase, much like he did back in 2008 with the faulty power line? Stephen Box: Tuesday's City Watch article on the jurisdictional disconnect and the blight at the Hollywood & Western Red Line Station prompted a fast & furious response from the Metro's CEO, Art Leahy, who has only been in his post for a few months but who has gone on record as saying public safety and customer service are the priorities for the Metro on his watch. His performance. Leahy responded immediately and within hours, the Metro's Head of Rail Operations, Mike Cannell was on the phone, collecting details and that evening team of maintenance workers swarmed the Hollywood & Western Red Line station with industrial scrubbing machines, truck mounted steam cleaners, hoses, scrub brushes, mops and an abundant amount of old-fashioned elbow grease. Ken Draper: One thing we’ve all learned from the Neighborhood Council funding rollover hoopla this past week: the Department’s GM has settled in nicely to that convenient bend-the-information, blame-someone-else, no-mea-culpa City Hall culture that so pervades our fair city.
If you’ve been away for a few days, here’s the crux of the crisis. A week ago, CityWatch published two stories. One from the reliable and excellent Chatsworth Neighborhood Council Newsletter. An auditor from the City Controller’s office told the CNC treasurer Allen Glazer that 10% of LA’s 89 NCs may be subject to sanctions for the misuse of city funds. Could be as much as $100,000 the report said.
The second piece had to do with Neighborhood Council roll-over funds. Those dollars left over from the previous year … until now … could be ‘rolled over’ to an NC’s new budget. (IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE, READ THE FULL STORIES)
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