Results tagged “jackweiss”

Here's an interesting rumor that's been floating around neighborhood groups about 5th District Councilman Jack Weiss, or should we say, soon to be former councilman who did not win the public's vote for City Attorney: Hidden in the new budget is for the Mayor to add the position of Deputy Mayor of Homeland Security, pays $200,000 year, is housed at LAX and paid for by Airport funds. The Mayor is appointing Jack Weiss to the position...it even gets better, the Airport is laying off 24 employees and filling the positions with the entire Jack Weiss City Hall staff.

Residents of West LA, South Robertson, Hollywood, the Hills, Sherman Oaks and Encino, on July 1st, Paul Koretz will replace Jack Weiss as your city councilman. Last night, the County Clerk declared that he won the election by a tight margin of nearly two points, according to Jill Banks Barad, President of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council. As listed on the County's website, last updated yesterday afternoon, Koretz received 18,547 (50.99%) votes while David T. Vahedi was less than a thousand behind at 17,825 votes (49.01%). Koretz is both a former West Hollywood Councilman and State Assemblymember. Vahedi, a community organizer and attorney, is expected to concede tomorrow. Don't know if you live in CD5? Check the embedded map below.

When all the ballots were counted from precincts early Wednesday morning, just hundreds votes separated the two candidates for Council District 5, now held by Jack Weiss, who lost a bid for City Attorney during the same election. Former West Hollywood Councimember and former Assembly Paul Koretz leads lawyer and community organizer David Vahedi by 335 votes. Around 3,000 ballots, a mix of mail-in and provisionals, remain to be counted and the LA County Recorder-Registrar predicts announcing the results as early as Friday. However, about 112 mail-in ballots may have been erroneous. Some allegedly did not include the council race and one reviewed by the LA Times seemed to be assembled incorrectly with contradictory information on the front cover and inside.

With 100% of precincts reporting, preliminary results for yesterday's special election are here. It's preliminary because an unknown number of provisional and vote-by-mail ballots still need to be counted. Here's a round up of what happened:

Come July 1st, there will be some new blood in city hall. After a nasty race, Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich tonight won the race for City Attorney, announced the LA Times in a breaking news alert. He faced current 5th District Councilman Jack Weiss. As of midnight, Trutanich had over 55% of the vote with 76% of precincts reporting, according to the LA County Recorder-Registrar/County Clerk. Trutanich had the endorsement of Sheriff Lee Baca, but not LAPD's Chief William Bratton, who he will closely work with on the job.

Other than Prop 1F, all the budget ballot props have failed, according to the Sacramento Bee: "With about a quarter of the state's precincts in as of 9:30 p.m., the Secretary of State's Office reported none of Propositions 1A through 1E were garnering more than 41 percent of the vote. Only Proposition F, which would freeze the salaries of state elected officials in bad budget years, was winning - and it was winning big." Contests for LA City Attorney and the 5th District are still up for grabs. As of 10:30 p.m., Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich is up 3 points over Jack Weiss for City Attorney with 22% of the precincts reporting. In the 5th District, Paul Koretz leads David Vahedi by 5 points. Only 10% of the precincts reporting in that race.

It's frowned upon for police chiefs to endorse candidates during campaigns. But so far, Chief William Bratton has endorsed candidates appearing on next Tuesday's ballot, including City Attorney hopeful Jack Weiss. “If Weiss gets in, he is going to owe Bratton,” warned former Chief Daryl Gates in an LA Weekly story by Daniel Heimpel today. That would be a "real problem since one of the city attorney’s purported jobs is to rout out corrupt cops, including police brass," the Weekly notes.

Signaling a cry for new blood in city politics, both major newspapers in town have endorsed David T. Vahedi for Council District 5 and Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich for City Attorney. Both face career track politicians, Paul Koretz and Jack Weiss, respectively, on next week's ballot.

Top Sheriff Lee Baca had endorsed both candidates Jack Weiss and Carmen Trutanich for LA City Attorney, but today he only supports one. “I can no longer remain silent about the reckless disregard for the truth that Jack Weiss has brought to this race," Baca said in a statement distributed by the Trutanich camp. "Mr. Weiss’s latest television commercial is desperate and an insult to the principles of the American legal system, our Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Obviously, Mr. Weiss doesn’t respect the truth or our justice system that guarantees a fair trial for everyone. The radical portrayal in his twisted commercial against Mr. Trutanich undermines public trust for the fairness and integrity required by our courts. The lawyers in the City Attorney’s office need a leader who will honor all facets of the justice system.” Ouch.

The two most contested local battles on the May 19th ballot will be over City Attorney and the seat for Council District 5, which roams from the Westside to the Valley. In the latest reporting period for campaign contributions and expenses, which ended April 4th, the money races are neck and neck, found the LA Times.

On City Attorney Candidate Jack Weiss's unexpected low numbers at Tuesday's election: "It's a blow -- there's no way around that. He had the most money, the most mailers and definitely the most TV time," said Jaime A. Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs to the LA Times. "For someone with this kind of name recognition, the backing of the mayor and police chief, to not break 40% means he's seriously wounded." Weiss will face off with Carmen Trutanich in the May 19th election. Tutanich has the backing of boys at the county--Sheriff Lee Baca and District Attorney Steve Cooley.

To the astonishment of building tenants and just about everyone else, an illegal supergraphic went up last week on the same building that was used by the city as an example of the verboten advertisements. In late January, the building at National and Westwood Boulevard--then with a Tropicana supergraphic--was used as a press conference backdrop to talk about fire department safety concerns and how the city is looking to have stricter penalties.

       

When it comes to police surveillance cameras, Los Angeles is still way behind New York City, who feeds thousands of live images to their centralized Real Time Crime Center. Here in LA, MacArthur Park and the Hollywood Entertainment District have had cameras for a few years and now the Valley can claim home to them too.

Sherman Oaks isn't exactly a haven for crime, but that didn't stop business owners, who were constantly plagued with break ins and graffiti, to band together and pony up money to the LAPD for surveillance cameras like those on Hollywood Boulevard.

City Councilman and City Attorney candidate Jack Weiss held a press conference yesterday to announce a tougher stance on enforcement of illegal billboards. “Because supergraphics are so profitable, full penalties must be brought to cut into the flow of profits and give enforcement some teeth,” he said. As Curbed LA explained, supergraphics on buildings pose a fire danger. Let's say a fire happens on an upper floor of a building, but there's a 5,000 pound supergraphic covering the windows. Well, that doesn't work if firefighters need use ladders and climb through windows. An online database will be built soon so the public can report and upload photos of illegal signs.

As the March 3rd municipal election approaches, expect to see more debates between candidates fighting for the more heated seats such as City Controller and Attorney. On February 12, the regional Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils is hosting a candidates forum. Everyone vying for a school board, controller or attorney seat is attending except one person. You probably would have guessed it without the headline or photo, it's 5th District Councilmember Jack Weiss, who is well-known for being the most absent and unreachable politician in the city and was subject of a failed citizen's recall attempt.

Following the shocking news, media pressure and community outrage of the 7,000 untested rape-kits sitting on LAPD shelves, the LAPD along with Mayor Villaraigosa and City Attorney hopeful Jack Weiss announced a plan to catch up on the DNA testing of rape-kits. Basically, political will and funding will be directed towards the crime lab.

The LAPD already has one, created by voters in 1995. Now two City Councilman, Jose Huizar and Jack Weiss, are proposing to put the option before voters on the March 2009 ballot. "The independent assessor will ensure that the reforms Chief (Douglas) Barry is trying to implement are strictly adhered to and to inform the public if they're not," said Huizar, per the Daily News. The reforms they're talking about relate to "a culture of hazing and inappropriate behavior toward women and minorities" in the department with the Tennie Pierce dog food controversy highlighting said culture.

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 upcoming race for city hall is not this next November, but in the winter of 2009. The only truly contested city district is Council District 5, currently represented by Jack Weiss who is now running for City Attorney. The district covers West Los Angeles to Sherman Oaks/Encino. Six people are currently running for the seat. At the top is Attorney/News Columnist/Community Activist Ron Galperin business executive Robyn Ritter Simon and former Assemblymember and West Hollywood member/mayor Paul Koretz.

For over a year now, the plan to make both Olympic and Pico one-way(ish) streets has been thought and fought, presented and resented. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Councilman Jack Weiss, the major city backers of the project, were set to go forth with the project this week. That is, until Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John Torribio said "not so fast."

Earlier this year, Mayor Villaraigosa introduced his 2008 Traffic Relief Initiatives, which outlines ten proposals for improving driving conditions throughout the city (full document downloadable here). One of the initiatives is called "Pico East Olympic West" (or, alternatively "Olympic West Pico East") which was labeled a "Priority Express Corridor." The three-phase project will see a "seven-mile stretch of both streets between La Brea Boulevard and Centinela Avenue" have more "consistent rush hour parking restrictions" first, followed by a change in signal timing to promote traffic flow, then lastly a re-striping of the streets that will see more lanes going West on Olympic and East on Pico.

      

Meet the future location of Studio Oaks Park where a grassroots effort is the only way this strip of unusable, rat-infested land will become a park. In Los Angeles, if you really want to get something done, you've got to take it upon yourself. In the southeast Valley, residents are doing just that.

Two murders in nearly two days, two men walking on the street and now two hefty financial rewards for tips leading the prosecution to both of the separate slayings. Both the city and county of Los Angeles are offering these rewards because "someone knows who committed this senseless crime," LA City Councilman Jack Weiss told the Daily News of the March 9 murder in Hollywood. "This $50,000 reward gives them another reason to come forward and talk with the police." On that night, police found the body of Katan Khaimov, 70, on the street after he had been stabbed. Ten days into the investigation, police say they have no leads.

Pledging to introduce new laws to stop illegal gun dealing and prevent violent crime, City Councilman Jack Weiss today released statistics on gun violence in Los Angeles. “It’s time to act aggressively and creatively with new laws to stop the killing," Weiss said in a statement.

The Police Commission approved earlier this month to agree with the LAPD federal consent decree that officers in specialized units dealing with narcotics and gangs must "disclose all of their sole and jointly owned assets, liabilities and income every two years. Refusal to disclose such information would bar officers from working in those units." And refusal is what they will do if the city writes the policy down as law. 500 LAPD officers in these specialized units will request transfers or retire before abiding by this 'draconian' financial disclosure requirement.

City Councilman Jack Weiss and O'Melveny and Myers law firm partner, Carolyn Kubota, teamed up yesterday in a Daily News op-ed piece urging the need to explore funding public transportation in Los Angeles by private sources. Chicago did it with the Skyway and Denver with their transit plan. So why not us?

Los Angeles has over 180 official neighborhoods. These are those communities designated with the city sealed blue sign. However, if you tried to figure out your neighborhood and its official boundary, there's a good chance you are going to come upon a) conflicting information b) no information, or c) confusing information. Trust us, we know. We've been digging into official Los Angeles city neighborhoods with our Neighborhood Project and have yet to come upon...

Silly Jack Weiss! He thinks the Valley is different from the City. Tsk tsk! The Daily News takes the Councilman to task (lovingly) for his slip of the tongue. Halloween events abound in the city this time of year, and LAist is your best source for the hottest spooky spots: check out our continuing Halloween coverage here. OMGZZZ Kitten Cops! I can has ratburgerz?? The LAPD is recruiting feral cats to root out rodents...