The Gold Card, Villaraigosa's Budget and LADWP Agrees To Be Nice.

Who Has Been Getting Tickets Dismissed - Why?

The Gold Card desk has been shut down but the story will not die.  As a driver who has received and paid many parking tickets over the past 20 years, I want to know two things: Which council members have used of the Gold Card program and who are their friends who had more than two tickets dismissed under the program? The ticket fixing was uncovered not by good government but by the present financial crisis. What other official misdeeds are yet to be revealed?

 Villaraigosa Avoids Responsibility for Layoffs With New Budget.

Mayor Villaraigosa let himself off the hook for city worker layoffs through budgeting gimmicks. He solved a few problems but left the fiscal mess for the next mayor to clean up. On a positive note, the mayor closed a $336 Million budget gap by cracking down on LAPD over time and redeploying LAFD personnel so fire fighters and brush inspectors are where they are needed instead of at every fire station. Regardless, we will still pay outrageous trash fees, sewer fees, parking ticket fines and more so we can live and die in L.A.    

Zine Gets LADWP To Agree To Be Nice.

Dennis Zine, as Chair of the council’s Audit and Government Efficiency committee has teamed up with Ron Nichols, the new head of the LADWP to tackle the problem of out of control utility bills. Zine and Nichols will reportedly work together to complete the audit of the billing fiasco and release the findings to the public. LADWP will improve customer outreach especially for those caught up in the overbilling mess. The utility will institute a rate payer appeal process for challenging bills. Lastly, LADWP will work with Zine to avoid future billing problems. Let's hope this works.