Tag Archives: Central Hollywood Coalition

Hollywood Property Owners Alliance, Hypocrisy

Fascinating Marginalia on CHC Copy of LAFLA Letter to Los Angeles City Council Regarding LAHSA Misrepresentations in 2015 Application for Federal Homeless Money Reveal Unspoken BID Assumptions

February 15, 2016 kohlhaas Leave a comment

On January 25, 2016, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles sent a scathingly forthright letter to the LA City Council arguing that the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, on whose commission Kerry Morrison serves, falsely stated in its 2015 Continuum of Care application for more than $110 million in federal funding for homeless programs that the City of LA was going to stop criminalizing homelessness by amending its abhorrent, unconstitutional LAMC 56.11 to eliminate criminal penalties for the storage of personal property on sidewalks. This copy was distributed by HPOA Executive Director Kerry Morrison to the Central Hollywood Coalition Board of Directors at their February 9, 2016 meeting. It has annotations inscribed by an unknown hand (probably Kerry Morrison’s). They are fascinating, and we discuss them below.

If you’ve been following the amendments to the ordinance as originally adopted (most importantly here and also here) LAFLA’s allegations will come as no surprise to you. The City of Los Angeles, it seems, is completely unwilling to stop arresting homeless people, even if it puts hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding at risk.

Now, we’re not as sure as LAFLA is that LAHSA actually lied. Here’s what HUD asked (see p.10 of the application for context):

Select the specific strategies implemented by the CoC to ensure that homelessness is not criminalized in the CoC’s geographic area. Select all that apply. For “Other,” you must provide a description…

Here’s how LAHSA responded:

on Nov 17, 2015, the LA City Council amended the ordinance [LAMC 56.11] to remove sanctions and criminal penalties, reducing sanctions further than the initial municipal code.

And here’s what LAFLA said with respect to this:

…the implication was that any amendment would remove all criminal penalties and sanctions. The amendments as proposed by the City Attorney do [no] such thing.

So LAFLA reads an implicit “all” before the word “sanctions,” which would make LAHSA’s statement false on its face. However, it’s also possible to read an implicit “some” before the word “sanctions,” which would make the statement true, but deeply deceptive since “all” is a more natural assumption regarding the tacit quantifier. Either way LAHSA not only looks bad, but is putting the money, not to mention their credibility, at risk. After all, if the feds think you’ve lied to them, they are exceedingly unlikely to be convinced by your slippery, clever, alternate reading of what you said.

Also, isn’t it interesting that putative changes in LAMC 56.11 were the only example LAHSA gave of the City’s steps towards decriminalizing homelessness. They didn’t touch the also abhorrent LAMC 41.18(d), which forbids sitting on the sidewalk in the absence of a parade. They didn’t even mention it, which is also deceptive. This is the BIDs’ favorite anti-homeless law, and it’s enforced in an openly selective manner against homeless people. At some point HUD is going to notice this, and, as we have predicted before and predict again now, this will be the rock that the BIDs’ ship founders on. The City won’t be able to do without the money, the BIDs won’t be able to do without the law, but the City will be able to do without the BIDs in their present form.

Read on for a discussion of the anonymous marginalia found on our copy of this letter.
Continue reading Fascinating Marginalia on CHC Copy of LAFLA Letter to Los Angeles City Council Regarding LAHSA Misrepresentations in 2015 Application for Federal Homeless Money Reveal Unspoken BID Assumptions →

Hollywood Property Owners Alliance

Central Hollywood Coalition’s Tax-Exempt Status Under Audit by Franchise Tax Board; Kerry Morrison Stamps Little Foot, Shakes Little Fist, Loudly Exclaims “NO FAIR!!”

February 14, 2016 kohlhaas Leave a comment

Kerry Morrison at the February 9, 2015 meeting of the Central Hollywood Coalition's Board of Directors, in the midst of a characteristically inarticulate expression of disgust with government bureaucracy and the general unfairness of it all. — Kerry Morrison at the February 9, 2015 meeting of the Central Hollywood Coalition’s Board of Directors, in the midst of a characteristically inarticulate expression of disgust with government bureaucracy and the general unfairness of it all.

Kerry Morrison, speaking at the February 9, 2016 meeting of the Central Hollywood Coalition’s Board of Directors, filled the boss-guys and boss-gals in on the California Franchise Tax Board’s like, TOTALLY UNFAIR, ongoing audit of the tax-exempt status of the CHC. The upshot seems to be that some guy a while ago forgot to pay some fee, and things escalated through no fault of Kerry’s, to the point where, because bureaucrats are dumb and mail letters to the wrong place, the FTB is auditing the CHC but a lot of records are missing because 12 years ago is a long time and how can they expect that we would still have them?!? There’s also a looming problem, unmentioned here by Kerry, in that the CHC, like all BID management companies, signed a pledge to the City of Los Angeles that they would “…notify the awarding authority [the Los Angeles City Clerk] within 30 calendar days after receiving notification that any governmental agency has initiated an investigation which may result in a finding that the contractor did not comply with any federal, state, or local law in the performance of the contract…” Kerry didn’t mention anything about this clause, and we don’t (yet) know whether the CHC is complying with it. Stay tuned for info on that.

Meanwhile, if you have five minutes to spare, watch and listen here for a master-class lesson in white privilege, zillionaire privilege, power-broker privilege, and generalized contempt for the mundane reality that most of us inhabit, all expressed with the liberal use of hand-waving, hair-flipping, eyebrow-waggling, and uvular ejective plosives. If you don’t have time, we understand. There’s a transcript after the break, and we’ll provide commentary on selected juicy bits as well.
Continue reading Central Hollywood Coalition’s Tax-Exempt Status Under Audit by Franchise Tax Board; Kerry Morrison Stamps Little Foot, Shakes Little Fist, Loudly Exclaims “NO FAIR!!” →

Announcements, Hollywood Property Owners Alliance, Joint Security Committee

Hundreds of Newly Obtained Documents: CHC and HPOA Board Minutes 2007-2015 and Joint Security Committee Minutes 2008-2015

January 7, 2016 Mike Leave a comment

As the mohel said when asked why he had watches in the window of his storefront: "Nu, so what do you want I should put here?" — As the mohel said when asked why he had watches in the window of his storefront: “Nu, so what do you want I should put here?”

I’m pleased to announce the availability of eight years worth of CHC and HPOA Board of Directors minutes as well as seven years worth of Joint Security Committee minutes. These are available through the menu structure in the header, or on this page, or from this directory.

The careful reader will note that the HPOA continues to violate the plain language of the California Public Records Act by converting the original MS Word documents into PDFs before handing them over. In fact, the metadata suggests that it was Joe Mariani who was personally responsible for this outlawry, or at least it was probably done on his computer. Joe, you don’t have to follow orders that require you to break the law, you know. You can just refuse. In fact, the HPOA’s own whistleblower policy encourages you “to report any action or suspected action taken within the Corporation that is illegal, fraudulent or in violation of any adopted policy of the Corporation.” Come on, Joe! Be a mensch, drop a dime!
Continue reading Hundreds of Newly Obtained Documents: CHC and HPOA Board Minutes 2007-2015 and Joint Security Committee Minutes 2008-2015 →

Announcements

Lots of New Documents: Tax Returns from the DCBID, the CHC, and the HPOA, Whistleblower Policies (?!) and More

October 29, 2015 Mike Leave a comment

Death and taxes at the Internal Revenue Service

I have 2012 and 2013 tax returns for the DCBID, which now have their very own subdirectory. Also I have 2014 tax returns for both HPOA administered BIDs (it’s too much alphabet soup to list these all out, it doesn’t matter anyway). They can all be found in the Finances subdirectory of the HPOA directory. Finally, we have what may be the very weirdest items we’ve obtained to date. Find out what they are after the break!
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Announcements

Contractor Responsibility Questionnaires from the City Clerk’s Office for HPOA, Central Hollywood Coalition, and the Media District BID

October 20, 2015 Mike Leave a comment

I wanted to put something here and this is the best thing I could think of.

Today I received three interesting documents from the office of the L.A. City Clerk who, as you may know, oversees BIDs. One of the things that BIDs are contractually obligated to do is to fill out questionnaires related to the Contractor Responsibility Ordinance. On these they’re questioned about lawsuits against them and stuff like that. So I’m pleased to present these documents for the HPOA, and the Central Hollywood Coalition, and, finally, the Media District BID. I requested these as part of a long-term project which I can’t say too much about yet, although, of course, you’ll be the first to know when the fruit is ripe!
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Hollywood Property Owners Alliance, Street Vending

The True Facts About the May 28, 2015, Community Sidewalk Vending Meeting at Boyle Heights City Hall Revealed Here (With Audio) for All to Hear and Judge and Opinionate Upon! Part 2: Devin Strecker

July 31, 2015 kohlhaas Leave a comment

Devin Strecker, Director of Communications and Social Media of the Hollywood Property Owners Alliance.

If you’re keeping score at home, you’ll recall that earlier we wrote on the May 28, 2015, meeting at Boyle Heights City Hall about street vending, focusing on Hollywood Entertainment District BID board member Alyssa Van Breene’s comments. You will also recall HPOA Executive Directrix Kerry Morrison’s description of the proceedings:

there were a series of four hearings that the chief administrative office staff held on the… the sidewalk vending ordinance. … It’s just this kind of amorphous set of hearings, which were completely dysfunctional, disrespectful, and almost, um, resembled a circus.

Now listen, O citizens of Hollywood, to HPOA staffie Devin Strecker speaking before the same meeting:

Also sprach Devin Strecher:

There’s a transcription after the break if you care to read rather than to listen, and after the break’s where we’re going to separate the wheat from the chaff, which is a valid if cliched metaphor even if, as in this case, there’s no wheat atall.
Continue reading The True Facts About the May 28, 2015, Community Sidewalk Vending Meeting at Boyle Heights City Hall Revealed Here (With Audio) for All to Hear and Judge and Opinionate Upon! Part 2: Devin Strecker →

Announcements, Hollywood BID Patrol

First Batch of BID Patrol Videos Available

December 24, 2014 Mike Leave a comment

LAPD officer tases prone, unresisting man on Hollywood Blvd. on December 17, 2009. — LAPD officer tases prone, unresisting man on Hollywood Blvd. on December 17, 2009 while the crowd of onlookers, many of them also sworn officers, do and say nothing about it.

Today I uploaded 14 videos obtained from the HPOA under the California Public Records Act. You can see them here or via the drop-down menu structure or here. There are more videos to follow, although probably not immediately.

No one here has had time to watch these thoroughly yet. If you see something we should write about please drop a line. Meanwhile, in this video from December 2009, you can see an LAPD officer calmly and deliberately use his taser on a prone, unresisting man (at 6:40), contrary to both human decency and LAPD policy (see §573 Use of Non-Lethal Control Devices). The victim’s last words before he’s tased? “I ain’t doing nothing.” And he ain’t, either.

Hypocrisy

There’s a 98.72% Chance that at Least Two People on the HPOA/CHC Boards of Directors are Really, Really Hypocritical

December 8, 2014 kohlhaas Leave a comment

About a week's supply of Bourbon whiskey — About a week’s supply of Bourbon whiskey. The post is about vodka, but we found this picture more attractive.

According to scientists the top 20% of U.S. drinkers drink an average of 6.3 drinks per day.¹ At 0.6 ounces of pure alcohol per drink² that works out to 3.78 ounces all together. At 30 ml per ounce that comes to 113.4 ml of pure alcohol. Steve Seyler’s bête noire is something called Taaka vodka which is, we assume, 80 proof, or 40% alcohol. Thus 113.4 ml is equivalent to $\frac{113.4}{0.4}$ =283.5 ml of actual vodka.

The small bottles that everyone in the BID is so het up about are 200 ml, so we’re talking about $\frac{283.5}{200}$ =1.42 bottles of Taaka. What’s the chance that someone on the Board of directors drinks at this rate and still has the temerity to vote in favor of policies that target homeless people for arrest for doing the same thing that they do every freaking day? It’s pretty high, friends. Details below the fold.
Continue reading There’s a 98.72% Chance that at Least Two People on the HPOA/CHC Boards of Directors are Really, Really Hypocritical →

Hollywood Property Owners Alliance

Besley, Morrison: Hollywood’s Not Pleasant Cause it Ain’t Manhattan; TED-Talking Visionaries Will Fix Everything

November 19, 2014 kohlhaas Leave a comment

Visionaries converging on Hollywood in order to fix EVERYTHING. — Visionaries pouring out of a Kool-Aid drenched TED talk on their way to Hollywood to fix EVERYTHING, especially stuff that ain’t broke.

At the November 11, 2014, meeting of the Central Hollywood Coalition, kommisariat of the Sunset-Vine “Baby BID,” there was some discussion of visionaries doing something or another to do with “mobility”⁶ in Hollywood.² One of the visionaries mentioned was Janette Sadik-Khan,⁵ late of the erstwhile nouveau-Napoleonic Michael Bloomberg NYC empire, who now works for Bloomberg-the-corporation spreading Bloombergian bullshit around the world as fast as they can shovel it out and also gives TED talks.¹

Kerry Morrison about 36 minutes before she pronounced Hollywood "not pleasant." — Kerry Morrison about 36 minutes before she pronounced Hollywood “not pleasant.”

Bloomberg is one of these pezzonovante self-styled “reformers” like Eli Broad who thinks that because he’s a zillionaire he understands everything. Sadik-Khan is his Charlie McCarthy.⁴ These people’s zombie clones brought Los Angeles, among countless other horrors, Dr. John Deasy, who finally left this city with a stake through his heart and unsettling thoughts of Mark Berndt’s cookies dancing through his jug-like head. They’re probably up in the hills right now scheming to bring Michelle Rhee in to replace the guy. Of course, this kind of the-wealthy-gonna-fix-everything Kool-Aid is irresistible to the CHC-slash-SV-BID, a group whose entire foundational principle is “rich people must be smarter cause otherwise why is they so rich?” Hence their eagerness to let Sadik-Khan explain it all to you.

Anyway, Besley’s description of what’s obviously an impending trainwreck³ moved Hollywood Property Owners Alliance Executive Director Kerry Morrison to opine thusly:
Continue reading Besley, Morrison: Hollywood’s Not Pleasant Cause it Ain’t Manhattan; TED-Talking Visionaries Will Fix Everything →