The Soulvine: Liar, liar! Pants on fire

Trutanich has zero integrity; his word, pledge and promise mean nothing. He will obviously say anything to get what he wants. Do we need or even want a district attorney like that? Steve Cooley is bad enough, but Trutanich would be worse. When Cooley told the Black Journalists Association he would eschew politics and pursue justice in the county in a fair and even-handed manner, he lied. But we didn’t know he lied until after he was elected. But Trutanich is saying, “Yeah, I lied, but elect me anyhow. I’m better than anybody else.” No. In fact, everybody who’s running for D.A. is better than Trutanich because they’re not in-your-face liars. How can the county of Los Angeles’ chief arbiter of law and order and primary procurer of justice be an unabashed liar? We won’t be able to believe a word he says nor rely on any agreement he makes.

While acknowledging Trutanich’s prevarication, some people comment that “all politicians lie.” Unfortunately, that’s often true. But this man is running for district attorney and of all the politicians we have, the district attorney ought to be the county’s keeper of the truth.

ETHICS, PART II — According to the Politico website, Rep. Laura Richardson’s ethics woes are mounting. It seems that she has been accused of using her legislative aides to do redistricting work in violation of House of Representative rules. Sources reportedly told Politico that Richardson’s aides collected information about communities outside her current district, organized a workshop to train constituents in advance of a public meeting of California’s independent Redistricting Commission and wrote talking points for those constituents to deliver during the public comments portion of the meeting held at Long Beach City Hall in April 2011.

The Ethics Commission is already investigating Richardson for accusations that she forced her staff to engage in political campaigning and fundraisers in her behalf, and several sources indicated to Politico that investigators have expanded that initial probe to include the redistricting allegations. I wonder, do these same proscriptions against elected officials manipulating their constituents’ views and positions on redistricting apply to elected officials who are not members of Congress?

MUM’S THE WORD — Sources in the D.A.’s office told me that Sharon Matsumoto, the assistant D.A. in charge of administration over there in Cooley’s shop, was conducting an investigation into the ADDA’s complaint that Chief Deputy D.A. Jacquelyn Lacey, who is running for election to succeed Cooley, had violated some rules, memoranda and directives regarding campaigning for office on “company” time and space. When I inquired as to the status of this investigation, I was told no such probe was under way and I was accused of publishing “untrue” information. Later, I received a call from the D.A.’s office and was given an amended response to my inquiry, to wit: “We cannot discuss personnel matters.” Yeah, neither L.A. County nor the LAUSD, which is why our kids are not safe in the public schools — where the personnel are protected and our kids are abused. I’m sick of this!

BYRD SINGS — Remember when community activist and diffident man-about-town Tony Wafford was convicted last year of having sexually harassed and physically assaulted his employee Sharon Song Byrd? Remember how Wafford fired his attorney and made several court appearances in pro se about the amount of damages and was virtually laughed out of court? Well, Judge Micheal C. Solner issued a court order dated Feb. 17 ordering Wafford to pay Byrd $235,972 in attorneys fees, $16,370.21 in costs on top of the $60,000 in damages he had already entered. Byrd’s lawyer was Jeffrey W. Cowan of Santa Monica.! You women who are being sexually harassed in City Hall need to remember this man.

FIRST STEP — Najee Ali and them did a bang-up job protesting the return of the KFI radio duo John and Ken when the offensive pair returned to the station Monday after a two-week suspension for calling Whitney Houston a “crack ho” on the air. The protesters presented their issues when about 25 of them met with the station’s executives to decry the racism spewing over their airwaves and the complete lack of diversity among KFI’s workforce. Management took their point and promised to develop a plan to increase diversity in its programming and throughout the station’s operation and report back to the protesting group within 72 hours. Najee said he is confident the station will address the community’s concerns.

It was also learned that Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who was not a part of the community protesters, had gone to the station alone a week before the protesters arrived and held a private meeting with the same executives. Suspicions as to Hutchinson’s lone wolf approach abounded, giving rise to Najee’s comment: “Based on the way Earl operates, I doubt if he was there to push the community’s agenda, but rather to get himself a job.”

THE SCHEDULE — Despite the fact that he-who-should-be-ignored insists that Council President Herb Wesson is personally “ramming” the rancorous city redistricting process to a hasty conclusion for his own benefit, the truth is the City Council has a lot of important work to do and not a lot of time to do it. It is legally bound to put redistricting into effect and to pass a city budget by July 1. This is the council’s work load for meeting that double-edged deadline:

On Friday at 8:30 a.m. in City Hall, the Los Angeles City Redistricting Commission will report its completed work to the City Council’s Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations Committee. On Monday at 4 p.m. the Rules, etc. Committee will a hold public hearing on the commission’s redistricted maps at the the Port of Los Angeles Administration Building in San Pedro. On Wednesday at 4 p.m., the committee will hold another hearing in the Van Nuys City Hall, and another one on March 7 at 4 p.m. in the Los Angeles City Hall. Then the council will lose the week of March 12 because the League of Cities organization will be doing its thing and the City Council does not meet when the League of Cities is in session.

The City Council will convene on March 16 and it will vote on the total Los Angeles city redistricting package. Then the council will spend the next two weeks on its other task: The redistricting of the L.A. Unified School District. After turning over all its redistricting conclusions to the city attorney so he can activate the proper legal mechanism to put all the new districts in effect on July 1, then the council must begin budget deliberations in April and deal with a $150 to $200 million deficit. After all that, the Council will then be faced with the arduous task of figuring out a way to save this newly redistricted city by July 1.

Is this “ramming?” I don’t think so.