Results tagged “cityhall”

It's a few minutes shy of 10:30 a.m. and the Los Angeles City Council is in session, however behind closed doors as councilmembers decide on a labor deal. Earlier this week, the council voted to cut close to 1,000 jobs and institute 26 furlough days, but only as a back-up plan if talks didn't go through by the end of the month. The city faces a $405-million deficit and an earlier plan to let thousands of employees retire five years early was found to only save the city a minimal amount of money. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he refused to let any plan go forward that would compromise public safety jobs. A panel this week worked to find a way to reverse this week's decision, which may be voted upon later today.

After long deliberations in public and behind closed doors, the Los Angeles City Council today voted to go ahead with a budget-saving plan to eliminate 926 positions and 26 furlough days for civilian employees. However, many members see the decision as a temporary move, which gets the ball rolling on the layoff and furlough process, but buys time to make alternative arrangement to save jobs. The vote “is a safety net, in the event that we aren’t able to come up with an agreement,” Councilman Richard Alarcon was quoted saying in the Los Angeles Times. An agreement with unions must be made before September 28th, when furloughs will begin. Yesterday, the city of Long Beach, LA County's 2nd largest city, voted to eliminate hundreds of jobs to balance the budget.

Facing a $405-million budget deficit, Mayor Villaraigosa earlier this summer asked city employees to share the sacrifice. A major deal was struck with civilian union employees by letting 2,400 employees retire early within five years. That plan needed City Council approval and with months of no action, things have changed.

       

The 2009 Latino Heritage Month Celebration got off to a rousing start yesterday at City Hall as the annual event began with a ceremony that included food, music, dancing, and the presentation of awards to local legends.

The City of Los Angeles is one step closer to four years ago after yesterday's City Council meeting, when a study concerning the possible adoption of a Google-based e-mail system was approved, reports the Daily News.

and City Attorney-elect Carmen Trutanich will also take part with Los Angeles Laker guard Derek Fisher serving as the Master of Ceremonies. Among the councilmembers, only one is new, but not new to politics. Paul Koretz will take the reigns of Council District 5 (parts of Westside, Bel Air, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Hollywood Hills, Hollywood, South Robertson) bringing his experience as a West Hollywood councilman and State Assemblymember. Others coming back for another city council term include Ed Reyes, Dennis Zine, Richard Alarcon, Jan Perry, Bill Rosendahl, Eric Garcetti and Janice Hahn.

For the second time this year, a bus making a turn has fatally struck a pedestrian crossing the street. It was about 7:25 p.m. at Temple and Spring when the woman, believed to be in her 30s, crossed the street correctly on a green light, but seemingly at an angle, a Metro spokesperson told the LA Times. Earlier this year, a DASH bus making a turn killed a woman at 5th and Flower near Central Library.

As part of his Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), former President Bill Clinton will join Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at City Hall today to "unveil what is being billed as the largest light-emitting diode street light program undertaken by a city," according to the Daily News.

                 

Beneath the blazing sun and high temperatures, thousands gathered yesterday before Los Angeles City Hall to protest Proposition 8. The public demonstration was one of many throughout the state and even spanned to cities outside of California, including Portland, Chicago and New York City. Here in LA, the crowd marched from downtown to Chinatown to Los Angeles State Historic Park (the former Not a Cornfield site).

At least 200 LAPD officers are assisting in the "unified command" to combat the Sayre Fire, as Mayor Villaraigosa detailed in a press conference this morning. Although there have been some initial concerns raised about the strain on the City's police forces, Villaraigosa and other officials are assuring Angelenos that the LAPD are able to handle the demand on personnel needed to help with the fire, as well as to control the crowds expected to take to the streets today as part of a large-scale nationwide protest against the passing of Proposition 8. Today's protest in Los Angeles will be at City Hall and is due to begin at 10:30 a.m.

Two big news conferences are scheduled for Monday to present reports on the LAPD and not necessarily in a good light. First, at 11:00 a.m. on the steps of City Hall, City Controller Laura Chick will present her audit on the backlog of Forensic DNA rape-kits. It has been reported that their backlog is around 7,000 kits. That's thousands of chances to gather physical evidence and DNA that could help put criminals in jail. Chick's audit is expected to officially reaffirm those problems.

The city's primary nominating election is hardly on the radar of voters because it's on March 3rd, months after what the nation is focusing on right now--the Presidential election. But earlier this month, in the only City Council race that's going to be a fight, a hacker attacked 5th District hopeful Paul Koretz's website (do you live in CD5? Check this map to see).

The City Hall Shuttle is being renamed and rerouted "up the northern Figueroa Corridor and travel across 1st Street into Little Tokyo," still serving all the original shuttle stops except 2nd and Broadway and 2nd and Spring and with the addition of 11 new stops expanding the circuit, according to downtown blog angelenic. Steve Hymon at the LA Times says the blog's description is better than the city's.

FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this post stated that the Information Technology Agency launched the feature.

Ron Kaye, the previous Editor of the Daily News, has kept up his writing and thoughts on Los Angeles post job via his blog, which has turned activist. Like many, he is dissatisfied with the machine that is Los Angeles politics and city services. Lately, he's been meeting with people and community groups all over the city. He was invited back for a Daily News editorial yesterday:

After missing the boat on the first days of same-sex marriage due to two out-of-town trips, Mayor Villaraigosa finally began to fill his promise of marrying "as many people as possible." Yesterday afternoon, he joined together Bruce Cohen and Gabriel Catone. Cohen is an Academy Award-winning producer for American Beauty and has also produced Big Fish and Pushing Daisies and Catone is an art consultant in New York.

      

After a handful of marriages last night (including the couple that challenged the ban on same-sex marriage and got it overturned), this morning marked the beginning of M Day as thousands of couples across the state celebrated love and rights. For Los Angeles, the first official marriage within city limits was officiated by Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti. And this one was close to home: Shane Goldsmith (flower dress) and Monica Granados (shirt/pants) met in 2004 when they were both staff members for Garcetti. It's only fitting that the man that brought them together originally brings them closer on this special day.

In January, Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti announced that City Hall and other downtown facilities would provide bicycle lockers, more racks, access to showers and a subsidy to City Hall staffers who ride a bike to work. Yesterday, Garcetti blogged that they have already won an award, the Rideshare Diamond Award, for their efforts.

After a month of study and protest, City Council put some closure on the budget for fiscal year 2008-2009. With a $406 million deficit, the biggest the city has ever seen, tough choices were made, but some of what was threatened was saved -- line items such as library hours, film festivals, the city's television Channel 36, homeless shelter beds and calligraphers to decorate city proclamations, according to the Daily News.

Daily News caused quite a stir last week at city hall when they released a database containing every city employee's salary, save for sworn employees (ex. police, fire). You can browse by department or look up by name. Have a friend who works too hard? Now you know they need a raise. Deal with an irritable city employee over the phone recently? Maybe they're overpaid.

After last Friday's urban deforestation of 2nd and 4th Streets in Santa Monica (see photos of it happening here), Treesavers, who advocated to leave the trees as is, are holding an over night protest on the front steps of Santa Monica City Hall beginning tomorrow evening as City Council meets.

The city is entering on of the worst budget woes it has ever faced. And while it's been talked about for sometime now, the effects are now becoming more apparent. Yesterday in a long city council meeting over most things money, the most controversial subject of water and power rate hikes ended with the increases on hold for further discussion, but admission to the LA Zoo went up 40% for some, initially raising prices $2 for all age brackets and $1 bumps for the next two consecutive years. The move is expected to save nearly a half million dollars.

In Rick Orlov's weekly Daily News column on City Hall and local politics, today he touches on the Democratic presidential race and Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa, who has recently been criticized for his time away from the city to campaign for Hillary Clinton. He defends his out-of-town moves and talks about what happens if Clinton loses:

In a quite quickly put-together press conference slated for 2:00 p.m. today at the First Street Steps at City Hall, Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Dennis Zine will be reminding voters that if you're nonpartisan or 'decline to state,' you must mark the box at the top of the ballot if you want to vote for an American Independent or Democratic candidate.

We're getting reports of problems from readers, writers and the media. John Ennis, one of the founders of Video the Vote, gave LAist this update. Most of the confusion today is over people who are not registered as Democrat or Republican who want to vote in the primaries. The issue might be that they moved and they thought they were up to date. If you are a non-partisan voter, all you have to do is go to either a Democratic or Republican voting booth. Other than a few precincts not opening on time, Ennis says things seem to be running smooth, but it's early in the day he warned. To report a bad voting experience, call Video the Vote at 866-OUR-VOTE

The day has finally come. And if you didn't do your homework, you still have some time study.

"You would think that something affecting millions of voting Americans would top the list of talking points for every one of the candidates. Yet most of those stumping for the nation's highest office have offered little more than platitudes: When it comes to transportation, they're basically for it."

Torchwood is a guilty pleasure and its new season starts tonight on the BBCA. If you've ever been in a foreign land and seen a slightly dated American TV program come on and felt that queasy embarrassment then you know what watching Torchwood is like. It's cheesy and over-the-top science fiction with British accents and the odd dashing American thrown in. Everyone is hyper-sexed and they don't seem to discriminate between whichever sex they are attracted to at a particular moment and despite all the sexiness and the fact that it's a Euro import, I'm always a little dismayed at the lack of skin and even more dismayed at some of the gay-'80s hairdos. Still, it's well shot, good for a few laughs, and the way things are going with US licensing of UK shows, you'll be seeing it on one of the big four before you know it.

City Council President Eric Garcetti has just announced that City Hall now provides bicycle lockers, access to showers and a subsidy to City Hall staffers who ride a bike to work.

I didn't want to just do a "best of" list. So this year, I've decided to take a years worth of personal New Year's Resolutions, ask around for those of friends and put a call out to readers (email me here) about things you've always wanted to know, always wanted to do and then take those requests and ask an expert, an insider to help out. The result? Here goes...