Category Archives: Announcements

MK.Org Power Activate!! Our Alexa Rank Is Zooming Like A Rocket Across The Lovely Skies Of Los Angeles Leaving Those Adversarious Evil Twinsies From HPOA And DLANC In The Darned Old Dust!

Good evening, Los Angeles!! When last I wrote to you about all things Alexaic, the evil twins at the Hollywood Property Owners Conspiracy were Alexically more than 400,000 behind your heroes here at the MK.Org secret headquarters. Well, I have come out of my closet this evening to announce unto you that as of right now we are pretty much seven eighths of a million higher than those snively lil losers! That is right, check it!

Continue reading MK.Org Power Activate!! Our Alexa Rank Is Zooming Like A Rocket Across The Lovely Skies Of Los Angeles Leaving Those Adversarious Evil Twinsies From HPOA And DLANC In The Darned Old Dust!

Share

More Than Ten Thousand Emails! Downtown Santa Monica BID And Downtown Center BID! Two Unbelievably Rich Sets Of Records!

This is just a short note to announce two massive sets of emails that I’ve obtained over the last couple weeks. There’s so much material here that it’s taken an unusual amount of time to get it processed and published. I will be writing about this material over the next few weeks. There’s so much, and it’s so rich, that it’s going to take me a while to get it all sorted out, so I thought it’d be best to make it available to you right away:

  • Downtown Santa Monica BID — Emails between the City of Santa Monica and the Downtown Santa Monica BID from January 1 through September 8, 2017.
  • Downtown Center BID — Assorted emails from the Downtown Center BID, mostly from 2017.

Like I said, there’s so much here that it will take a while to get it sorted through. Meanwhile, though, turn the page for some interesting stuff you can begin to look for on your own.
Continue reading More Than Ten Thousand Emails! Downtown Santa Monica BID And Downtown Center BID! Two Unbelievably Rich Sets Of Records!

Share

Ethics Commission To Hold Three Meetings Starting Next Week (September 7, 9, 13) To Gather More Input On Revision Of Municipal Lobbying Ordinance — Please Come To Comment!

City Hall is always being built and rebuilt, and we might as well lend a hand. Never forget that the stone that the builder rejected is become the head of the corner!
Maybe you recall that the Policy Staff of the City Ethics Commission is in the process of proposing revisions to the Municipal Lobbying Ordinance. The proposals were discussed at length at the Commission’s August 15 meeting and, after a bunch of self-serving and mostly mendacious public commentary from a bunch of lobbyists, the Commissioners basically, disgracefully, took the position that even though the staff had been seeking input on the proposals for 18 months, the lobbyists needed even more time to weigh in.

So in furtherance of this ridiculous but nevertheless not-to-be-ignored directive from the Commission, the Policy staff, led by the heroic and long-suffering Arman Tarzi, has scheduled three so-called interested persons meetings to gather even more input. If you were at the meeting you’ll have noticed that mostly only lobbyists commented.1 The Policy staff sent out an email tonight announcing these meetings, and here they are, along with instructions for attending:

  • Thursday, September 7, 2017. 1:30pm – 3:30pm. City Hall, Room 1060 — This meeting is for a general discussion of the Municipal Lobbying Ordinance.
  • Saturday, September 9, 2017. 9:25am – 12:00pm. (Precise time & room TBD) — This meeting is also for a general discussion of the MLO. It is being held as part of the Congress of Neighborhood Councils and it is necessary to register for it separately.
  • Wednesday, September 13, 2017. 10:00am – 12:00pm. City Hall, Room 1070. — This meeting is to focus on input from the nonprofit community.

The Policy staff request that you RSVP for any of these meetings you plan to attend at ethics.policy@lacity.org. If you can’t attend a meeting you can also email your comments to the same address.

I hope to attend the first two, and I really hope that you and/or your friends can too. These revisions of the MLO are essential for improving government transparency and accountability in the City of Los Angeles, and if we let the lobbyists obstruct or eviscerate them, we’ll all be the worse for it. Turn the page for some links to and brief discussions of some of the essential issues.
Continue reading Ethics Commission To Hold Three Meetings Starting Next Week (September 7, 9, 13) To Gather More Input On Revision Of Municipal Lobbying Ordinance — Please Come To Comment!

Share

Ten Years Of San Pedro BID Minutes And Agendas Now Available

Yesterday San Pedro BID Executive Directrix Lorena Parker was kind enough to send me minutes and agendas of the BID’s Board of Directors and its Marketing Committee from 2008 through the present. These are now available on Archive.Org to pique and sate your prurient and scholarly interest. These are mostly available as both MS Word documents and as PDFs. There is a ton of duplication for whatever reason, and I didn’t try to eliminate it. Also, I changed all the filenames by prepending the year to force rational sorting. I did not do the same for the months. Anyway, happy reading!
Continue reading Ten Years Of San Pedro BID Minutes And Agendas Now Available

Share

Video Of MK.Org Presentation At The LA Poverty Department, Bad BIDness In The City Of Angels, Now Available

This is just a quick note to announce that video of Tuesday’s presentation at the LAPD is now available for your viewing pleasure. Here are the options:

  • On Archive.Org — best for desktop viewing and downloading in full resolution.
  • Part 1 and also Part 2 — On YouTube, which is best for mobile.
Share

MK.Org At The LA Poverty Department Tomorrow Night, 7:30 PM! Bad BIDness in the City of Angels: Business Improvement Districts, Lobbying, and Class Warfare.

Hey, friends! I’m speaking tomorrow night at the Los Angeles Poverty Department. The title of the talk is Bad BIDness in the City of Angels: Business Improvement Districts, Lobbying, and Class Warfare. It’s at 7:30 p.m. at 250 S. Broadway. Here’s a link to the Facebook event if that’s more convenient for you. This PDF contains somewhat more than I’m going to talk about. Perhaps I’ll see you there!

Share

More Than A Gigabyte Of Emails Between The San Pedro BID, The Port Of Los Angeles, And Some Other Random Seeming Parties!

This is just a short note to announce the availability of 1.3 GB of emails between the San Pedro BID and the Port of LA. Because the Port has a seat on the BID’s Board of Directors this request picked up a ton of intra-Board emails, which are fascinating. Here’s a link to the goodies on Archive.Org:

This is a rich, rich release, and you’ll be hearing about details of it for many posts to come. But for now, turn the page to read some inconsequential silliness about the nonsense in Board President Jonathan Williams’s mouth in the cartoon at the head of this post.
Continue reading More Than A Gigabyte Of Emails Between The San Pedro BID, The Port Of Los Angeles, And Some Other Random Seeming Parties!

Share

Two New Coffee Mugs! Neo-Hipsters And Santee Alley! Also Ethics Laws Update! Be The First In Your Facebook Friends Group To Have One!!

Well, yesterday’s post on Santee Alley, neo-hipsters, Latinos, and lobster rolls has turned out to be one of our most popular items of 2017, so I thought I’d better make a coffee mug out of it.

And while I had the old coffee mug making machine fired up I thought I would also make another one commemorating the recent revision of the LA Ethics laws to include a duty to report. This mug features a stirring selection from LAMC §48.01:

1. City government functions to serve the needs of all citizens.
2. The citizens of the City of Los Angeles have a right to know the identity of interests which attempt to influence decisions of City government, as well as the means employed by those interests.
4. Complete public disclosure of the full range of activities by and financing of lobbyists and those who employ their services is essential to the maintenance of citizen confidence in the integrity of local government.

Turn the page for links to the full resolution image files used to make the mugs.
Continue reading Two New Coffee Mugs! Neo-Hipsters And Santee Alley! Also Ethics Laws Update! Be The First In Your Facebook Friends Group To Have One!!

Share

New And Semi-New Fashion District BID Documents: Minutes, Agendas, Board Packets, A Small Batch Of Emails

This is just a short post to formally announce some records from the Fashion District. Some have been available for a while, others I just uploaded tonight, but I haven’t posted about the existence of any of them yet. If you want some background noise while you’re reading, check out this video featuring Ariana Gomez and Kent Smith of the Fashion District blathering on about God knows what kind of BIDolatry.1

I will be writing in great detail about some of this material in the very near future, but I just wanted to get some links up as soon as possible:
Continue reading New And Semi-New Fashion District BID Documents: Minutes, Agendas, Board Packets, A Small Batch Of Emails

Share

Emails First Published Here Used As Source In LA Weekly Story On Skid Row Neighborhood Council, Just Published Today!

Hot off the presses! How the Skid Row Neighborhood Council was Defeated by Jason McGahan published mere hours ago in the L.A. Weekly. Tells the same sad story you’ve been reading here, there, and everywhere, but with an actual discussion of the reprehensible involvement of Scott Gray, Capital Foresight, Liner Law, Rocky Delgadillo, and the rest of the zillionaire Klown Kar Krew.1 It’s a rare experience for me to read an article in a newspaper where I understand the subject thoroughly and not see any errors at all.2 This is a fine piece of work. Read it!

This story is in no way about us, but we’re thrilled to have been able to help.
Continue reading Emails First Published Here Used As Source In LA Weekly Story On Skid Row Neighborhood Council, Just Published Today!

Share