I wrote some time ago about how CD13 staffer Aram Taslagyan organized an on-demand homeless encampment clean-up at the behest of scumbag cat-kicking Koreatown slumlord Bryan Kim, who needed it done really really fast because he had some kind of inspection forthcoming. Well, yesterday,¹ I managed to get copies of some new emails between Bryan Kim and various CD13 staffies on the subject.² In particular, on March 27, 2016, Bryan Kim wrote to CD13 District Director Marisol Rodriguez³ under the subject Recognizing Aram Taslagyan, stating e.g. that⁴
Aram did a great job demonstrating professional excellence and swiftly took comprehensive action to utilize his alliance with other groups such as LAPD, Sherrif, groups among others. I applaud his great effort for taking care (completely clearing all homeless encampment issues.

And what are Bryan Kim’s hopes for the future?

As of 4 days later there has still been no recurrence of them revisiting on Vermont and Marathon.

We hope to continue vigilant and collective efforts as I am in contact with Braille, LACC, local and community patrons to closely monitor any future outbreak, for which I will let Aram and lapd know.

Because as everyone who’s involved with “quality of life” knows, both homeless people and zombies arrive in “outbreaks.” Let’s hope we don’t have any more! And what is he asking Marisol Rodriguez to do?

I would request if possible this goes as official record to his profile, as he deserves the recognition, kudos for effective handling this matter, thank you.

Put it in his permanent record, of course! But this nonsense is less interesting than what happens next. On March 29, 2016, Bryan Kim wrote to Aram Taslagyan under the subject heading Campaign contribution, stating:⁵
Good to see you. FYI we would like to also give a contribution to your office to support your helpful services. Is there anything we should know about?

Like, I don’t know, Bryan Kim, maybe you should know about LAMC 49.5.5(B)(1)(3)(4), which state, in pertinent part, pretty unequivocally that:

B. City officials and agency employees shall not engage in political activity in the following scenarios:
1. While on duty for the City.
3. In a room or building that is owned by the City or primarily paid for or used by the City and occupied by a City official or agency employee in the discharge of City duties. …
4. Using City equipment, vehicle, supplies, or resources, including but not limited to mailing and distribution lists, electronic mail, and electronic data

Or maybe Aram Taslagyan is the one who needs to know about this, because he didn’t quote it to Bryan Kim, didn’t say e.g. “Hey Bryan Kim! I’m not allowed to fundraise for my boss⁶ while I’m working and using the City’s computers. Why don’t you look up his campaign website on the Google?” or something like that. Instead, he told Bryan Kim:

Great to see you as well.

I am copying our Chief of Staff, Jeanne Min, who is better suited to answer your question.
Jeanne, can you please advise?

And Bryan Kim responded:

Thank you Aram.

Dear Jeanne,

Good to connect with you. Would you be available for a brief call?

Thank you.

With kind regards,

Brvan Kim

And Jeanne’s response? Well, it’s equivocal, but at least she’s working hard, since she sent it from her iPhone at 9 P.M.:

Happy to. I will be in touch.

But evidently someone realized what was going on, because the record suggests that Mitch O’Farrell’s staff let the matter drop right there. A couple weeks later, Bryan Kim wrote to Jeanne Min and Aram Taslagyan under the subject line “Contribution Touching base” trying to restart the conversation:

Good morning all.

For any campaign giving to Mitch O’Farrell’s office,
what is process and what do we need to know?

I called a couple of weeks ago and may have missed
a call from someone in your group so wanted to touch base.

Thank you very much.

With kind regards,

Bryan Kim

But from the record, crickets. Either Jeanne Min and Aram Taslagyan didn’t get back to him, or they came to their senses and got back to him when they were off the clock and off City equipment, or⁷ they continued to discuss contributions on City time and equipment but they neglected to hand over those emails to me. Anyway, that’s the latest installment of this story.

P.s. While we’re looking at sections of the LAMC on ethical behavior of City officials, LAMC 49.5.5(A) is also super-interesting. It says:

A. City officials, agency employees, appointees awaiting confirmation by the City Council, and candidates for elected City office shall not misuse or attempt to misuse their positions or prospective positions to create or attempt to create a private advantage or disadvantage, financial or otherwise, for any person.

Now, the cliffhanger question is: What do you suppose the chance is that arranging the cleanup of a homeless encampment for Bryan Kim violates this law given that he asked for it to be done before an upcoming inspection of some kind, and, despite the fact that it was stated explicitly that there’s no fixed time-table for cleanups, it got done precisely one day before the inspection? Well, I don’t know either, but I suppose we will find out. Again, stay tuned!

The image of the cat-kicker was assembled in house from these two very freely licensed images: Kick Boxer and Stylized Cat, both of which I obtained from the absolutely essential Open Clipart dot org.

1. Despite the coordinated efforts of CD13 staff to make obtaining public records as abso-fucking-lutely difficult as possible; I will write about their new scorched-earth salt-in-the-fields rights-violating law-scoffing-at tactics very soon after I file a few complaints against them with various agencies for their illegal antics. Stay tuned!
2. I also put all the emails on Archive.Org and created a local directory for them as well. They’re also available, although not super-directly, through our menu structure.
3. Who has an interesting new bio, click on it back where you came from. In it, it is explained that she is “…helping to direct policy that will improve the quality of life.” Of course, this is a common trope in the discourse of these people. They rarely say whose quality of life they’re improving. That’s because it’s not politically palatable to tell the truth, which is that by “improving the quality of life” they mean “destroying the lives of anyone who annoys, inconveniences, or otherwise interferes with their campaign donors.” Tell me how it “will improve the quality of life” to uproot a bunch of homeless people, decimating the quality of their lives, who are potentially interfering with Bryan Kim’s business model. I know it’s one of the least of their flaws, but it is just so disconcerting how these people don’t seem to believe that words have meanings.
4. It’s “sic” throughout.
5. And this is after they all had lunch, presumably on Bryan Kim, in Koreatown at the Gwang Yang BBQ, which actually looks fabulous.
6. Cool kids on Council Staff call the councilmember they work for “my boss.” It’s like how nurses call the doctor “doctor” or busybody bad-attitude elementary school principals call a kid’s mom “mom” when they’re speaking to other people about her. More jargon, but, like all jargon, lovely, at least out of context it is.
7. I’d like to think less likely, but at this point, who knows?