News and comment

Incompetent governance citywide

Despite record revenues due to heightened property valuations, the dysfunctional civic cabal forces additional burdens on businesses and residents for elemental services, such as trash pickup, sewer maintenance, etc. inflicts more burdensome and bizarre regulations upon those who must remain to do business.

Example:  Our Universally Heralded Fire Department. 

True, we do enjoy the Class A rating which affects all property insurance rates, but at what cost?

City employees in this force enjoy the highest benefits and an enviable lifestyle beyond compare. It has long been legend that many commute via their private aircraft from homes in other states, given the extended periods twixt duty cycles.  Which duty cycles involve no housing or food costs.

The full measure of their uniquely privileged employment is largely unknown, despite recent disclosures incident to an outrageous assertion and legal claims.

Fire Chief Bamattre has been allowed to resign, despite a ruinous record.

This highly paid head of a vital city service was allowed a graceful exit following an incident which reflected badly on his supervision...and may prove wildly expensive to taxpayers.  For sure, his successor will have to restore a minimum of tolerable behaviour by the highly paid employees.

Some expect more evidence of incompetence during his reign to come to light.

Those with a modest  memory span will recall past evidences of his incompetences.  To this writer, his most blatant, most grevious lack of supervisiorial skill surfaced when he issued a notice of compliance to hillsider owners regarding fire prevention.  Its egregious composition and its circulation to not only hillsiders but to flat landers as well, could well serve as an example for appointment boards who query job applicants.

As a flatlander, I rec’d  the notice, studied its insanity, but paid the fee knowing that it would be eventually returned, as it was.

However, the outrage and fury of the hillsiders at the tone and composition was such that they voted down a bond proposal for a direly needed new Police Department Headquarters and minor Fire Facilities.  Our LAPD  badly needed a modern facility then, and matters have grown worse.  At last memory, improvisations and reuse of neighboring buildings was ongoing, but that old frail structure is still in use.

I once proposed that it be made more quake resistant by the use of outboard cables, such as are used for arena tents.

An example of promotion beyond skills, and a system which protects and serves the proven incompetent at taxpayers cost.

Which leads to the current  question of ‘What next for Neighborhood Councils?’

We suggest: a charter amendment whereby these councils rise from advisory roles, simply replacing the elected 15-member council.  With the President of each council assemblying regularly with other such,  and effectively managing the city.

We thus would again have citizen representatives:

• Representatives elected locally;
• Elected without campaign funds, or fealty to any pressure group;
• Unpaid volunteer representatives whose understanding of and appreciation of local matters far exceeds that of any of the ‘professional office holders’ extant since they represent, generally speaking, an average of 60,000 residents, whilst paid ‘professional’ officeholders hold sway over 250,000 people;
• Representation would again be real and unsullied by the excesses of gerrymanderings and panderings and prejudices now far too long extant.

Hollywood ‘redevelopment’

Our ‘world class’ Hollywood & Vine location, if one believes Council President Garcetti, will be host to but a minor portion of the regional development proposed for the Nederlander sites, if indeed such are approved by the dictact of his highness.   Again the ‘vision’ of one who has no history of competence, prevails.  No lives will be lost in this arrogant civic expression, but the community will wither. Just as the nation’s future withered under the reign of the mindnumbing arrogance of elected twits.

One wanders down the once famed Blvd, past long vacant buildings and vacuous offerings of fimsy underwear or tattoos, past the hopeless, lying in the entries and wonders if the Mayor really wants to lure well to do Asian tourists to this slum.   One ordinarily makes the premises attractive for guests....I know some ladies, who clean their houses before cleaning help arrives, out of pride.   Extreme, yeh, but the opposite, showing off your slums in false pride?  Are we trying to give  world travellers a superiority complex?

Housing:

The downtown evolution has produced what comes naturally in a free market: aplenty. One can now expect price competition,  as supply exceeds demand, and some have stopped plans for exuberant expressions.

In Old hollywood, not the case yet....rentals are still in remarkably  high demand and limited supply, but the first test of the condominium market is yet to come.  With so much investment ongoing, we expect a similar outcome, market saturation, and competitive pricings.  Extant rentals, however, will have to eventually conpete with major private projects onboard or contemplated in the medium term.

Our Hollywood Division:

Our LAPD groans with the problem of the 3 day workweek...imposed upon us all by a system corrupted by ambitious politicians.

Our Halloween & Christmas Parade events

But continue a decline in content, conception and attendance, due to incompetence and the arrogance of provincial twits. Long time past to just giving up and shutting down before we become the public laughing stock, we’re in the pitying category now.

In sum:

Old Hollywood cannot expect intelligent guidance or practical mandates from city governance entities.

What marketplace exuberance and street life exists, arises from other causes, is, if anything, hindered by institutional incompetence of the highest order.

Yours, for a nicer Hollywood,

 John Ehretz
co-Chair, Steering Committee
ph  323  465-3505
fax  323  465-3525
email  ehretz@pacbell.net
postal  1811 Wilcox Avenue
            Hollywood, CA 90028