Mike Feuer for City Attorney
Mike’s work for civic improvement and the protection of the powerless first came to my attention when he headed the non-profit Bet Tzedek (House of Justice) program in Los Angeles providing free legal representation for the elderly, poor, and disabled on issues ranging from health care, nursing home abuse, consumer fraud and slum housing. Very dear to my heart as my readers know from my past writings on the subject in this blog and in the L.A. Progressive, he established a legal program to assist those afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease. I knew of Mike’s work through my friend and attorney Laura Streimer, who headed Bet Tzedek’s San Fernando Valley operations at the time.
While a member of the State Assembly, Mike authored many long overdue bills and saw them through the legislative process into law, including election-day voter registration with the right to cast a provisional ballot, the Sargent Shriver Civil Counsel Act (known as “Civil Gideon” for Gideon vs Wainwright, extending the RIGHT to a lawyer from criminal to the civil arena for certain key areas of human rights), and the Homeowners Bill of Rights, expanding the rights of those facing foreclosure at the hands of unscrupulous lenders. On LGBTI rights, his website points out that:
Mike is also a longstanding advocate of equal rights for all people. He is a co-author of legislation to establish marriage equality in California and wrote the law assuring same-sex couples won’t be impoverished when one spouse enters a nursing home. As a pro bono attorney he drafted a letter-brief in a California Supreme Court case establishing key adoption rights of same-sex couples and as a legislator led efforts in both houses to file a friend-of-the-court brief urging the state Supreme Court to overturn Prop 8.
By contrast, Carmen Trutanich is up to his eyeballs in continuing a scandalous prosecution begun under his predecessor, Rocky Delgadillo, which I deal with at length in my blog posting at: http://janbtucker.com/blog/2013/05/12/eric-garcetti-for-mayor/
Ron Galperin for City Controller
Segue from my last point about why I’m backing Mike Feuer for City Controller, the scandalous prosecution I refer to in my 5/12/2013 blog posting about the Mayoral race. We need somebody in the City Controller’s office who really understands what goes on in Los Angeles City fiscal policy and administration. As the person who chaired the Commission On Revenue Efficiency (CORE), Ron knows this subject better than anybody in Los Angeles. I’ve listened to hours of testimony before CORE and Ron is skillful and adept at getting to the bottom of what’s wrong with the procedures of various city departments and knows how to use the tools of the Controllers Office to improve their efficiency.
Cindy Montanez for City Council, District 6
L to R: Sherry Lear, Cindy Montanez, Renata Sdao, Jan B. Tucker, Dele Ailemen, Linda Pruett, Cynthia Conover
During the 2002-2003 legislative session, I wrote and Cindy introduced AB 1617 which has gone on to form the basis for nationally endorsed principles of how to put teeth into laws by which employers must prevent, investigate, and resolve workplace harassment and discrimination. This background is extremely critical when considering the serious issues I’ve raised in this blog before about rampant discrimination—especially against African American employees, in at least three city departments. It also comes into play with questions I’ve raised about city hall quid pro quo sexual harassment, with women having to pay to play with their bodies to sleep their way into promotions.
Although it didn’t pass, AB 1617’s basic principles are extremely important to our Same Page/Misma Pagina Coalition, all of whose organizational members were unanimous in their endorsement of Cindy for City Council. The AB 1617 principles are one of four (4) basic documents which must be reviewed and commented on by all candidates seeking to get our endorsement.
An “Oh by the Way” on the Mayoral Race
Some interesting financial contributions have come Wendy’s way in her mayoral election bid:
Herbert “Bert” Boeckmann, owner of Galpin Ford. Here’s an excerpt about Boeckmann from the Los Angeles Weekly:
From LA Weekly:
Herbert Boeckmann II, who owns Galpin Motors, one of the biggest businesses in the Valley, has bankrolled Valley VOTE tactics behind the scenes, contributing $25,000 of his own money and $20,000 from his car dealership. He’s also the most unabashedly ideological and conservative of the secessionists, a former California vice- chairman of right-wing televangelist Pat Robertson‘s 1988 presidential campaign, and a contributor to the Christian Coalition.”Boeckmann views L.A. as captured by liberals, so if he separates off the Valley, he can have a right-wing paradise,“ where he’s a major player, says Mark Siegel, a Valley resident. L.A. attorney and civic activist Connie Rice wonders about the financial incentives that drive someone like Boeckmann. ”As a businessman, his power would be enormously magnified. He could own half that new City Council,“ she says. [Emphasis added]
My mother was a waitress and a member at times of Local 11 of HERE (Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees, the local headed by Maria Elena Durazo, now Secretary Treasurer of the LA County Federation of Labor). In fact, my mother had a reputation as the Deli waitress in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley who told the best dirty jokes (I heard this from more than one of her customers who asked if I was related to her). Plus I’ve had a number of restaurants over the years as clients, so with that knowledge of the industry under my belt, I’m just kind of skeptical as to how a waitress at Ports O’Call Restaurant in San Pedro, Michelle Nataly Gomez, is able to come up with $1,000 to contribute to Wendy. My inquiring mind wants to know. Who knows? Maybe she’s a part owner of the restaurant even though she listed her occupation on campaign reporting forms as waitress??????
Then there’s an old friend I haven’t seen since the 90s, James “Jim” Mangia, who ran for Lieutenant Governor on the Reform Party ticket in 1998 after a stint with the New Alliance Party-previously the so-called “Newmanite” faction of the Peace & Freedom Party. Jim, who serves on the State of California’s Workforce Investment Board, contributed $1,300.00 to Wendy listing his occupation as “West Hollywood Reform Party.” For more on the Newmanites (who in 2000 got behind right-wing and anti-semite Pat Buchanan’s Presidential campaign) see http://www.rickross.com/reference/new_alliance/new_alliance5.html
Finally, the strangest fundraising operation out there for Wendy may be solicitations I’ve heard about by Mousa Namvar, brother of Ezri Namvar. I know the Namvar family and regardless of my views about them, I can’t imagine why Wendy would have anybody with that surname out soliciting funds, especially in the Jewish community, where their name is at the moment quite controversial. Ezri is in federal custody serving time at Taft Correctional Institution. Here are some excerpts from a Los Angeles Weekly article about what has been described as the Bernie Madoff of Beverly Hills:
His acquisitions included hotels: the Hotel Angeleno, the downtown Marriott, the Cal Neva Resort in Lake Tahoe. He bought office buildings, including the Wilshire Bundy building. His company, Namco Capital Group, occupied the entire 14th floor there, with a commanding view of West L.A. He also bought apartment buildings, vacant land in rural areas, an equestrian center and a pistachio farm.
Namvar’s most formidable and dogged opponent has been Abraham Assil, a wealthy real estate investor who had parked $6 million with Namvar. When Assil heard the rumors of difficulty, he went to see Namvar.
“He played with my head,” Assil says. “He sent me looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Assil says Namvar promised to secure his loan with an interest in a penthouse in Israel. So Assil went to Israel to check it out. He says he later found out the penthouse was already being used as collateral for someone else. Assil says he concluded that Namvar had been transferring assets to his relatives and friends.
He is still following the money with grim determination. He believes “suitcases full of cash” went to Israel. Some may be in Turkey.
Ezri Namvar Is the New Bernie Madoff and the Most Reviled Man in Town (And he speaks for the first time) By Gene Maddaus Thursday, Jul 21 2011
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