Some key excerpts:

“L.A. Weekly examined the budget for the mayor’s own office in an effort to understand just a small snapshot from Villaraigosa’s 389-page citywide budget proposal, which the City Council has just two weeks in May to understand, adjust and approve as its blueprint for fixing a badly ailing city.

The paper found that Villaraigosa’s official budget for his own office — in many ways a microcosm of the $6.9 billion city budget — understates by millions of dollars what Villaraigosa will spend on his staff, understates by nearly 100 percent the number of employees working for him, and falls far short of an “11 percent cut” to the Mayor’s Office. The paper also found that key officials who should know specific, basic fiscal details about the operations of the Mayor’s Office are in the dark.

Villaraigosa recently announced to an audience of cheering, impressed students at Jefferson High School that he is cutting his own office by 11 percent — and the L.A. media repeated his claim. The Weekly has determined his true office budget cut is about 2 percent and his operation alone will cost taxpayers about $42 million.”

I wonder if Villaraigosa could operate with a smaller and more efficient staff. If you read the complete piece, he also has paid interns (some of whom are paid by federal grants), which is nice for the intern but usually isn’t the the norm. He also borrows staff from other city departments, which his predecessors didn’t do as extensively.

This was also interesting given the Mayor’s focus on education reform:

“Critics are calling for a higher level of fiscal competence from Los Angeles City Hall, saying such discrepancies should not be a mystery to city officials. But when Villaraigosa’s spokeswoman, Sarah Hamilton, was asked to shed light on the clashing facts and figures cited by city officials who were trying to explain the Mayor’s Office budget, she forced the Weekly to file a formal California Public Records Act request.

Those new documents, handed to the Weekly in May, show Villaragosa’s staff at 196, including seven interns, 16 borrowed city employees and 173 core staff. The list reveals a surprising fact that the Controller’s Office did not have in hand: Nearly one-fifth of the mayor’s core staff — 31 people — is a homeland security team, 25 of whom are funded by federal agencies. Just four of Villaraigosa’s staff are assigned to “education” or “education/policy,” the mayor’s signature reform issue. Eleven of his employees are funded by foundations or grants to work in such areas as “strategic partnerships” and “energy and environment.”"

According to this, it seems that the signature issue based on staffing priorities is homeland security. Even with the funding from federal agencies, six staff are devoted to homeland security, while only four are working on education.

What are your thoughts? Should the City of LA devote so much to homeland security? Or should education be a bigger priority? And why does the LA City budget process appear to be murky instead of more transparent?

The Wave Newspaper reports:

“The father of a murdered college student said he’s outraged that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a snoring noise when asked about his decision to shorten the sentence of his son’s killer, whose father is a former Assembly speaker, it was reported Saturday.

Schwarzenegger made a snoring sound on Thursday, when he was asked about his last-minute commutation for Esteban Nunez, the son of former Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez of Los Angeles, who fatally stabbed Luis Santos outside a San Diego State fraternity party in 2008.

“[Schwarzenegger's] arrogant and insensitive,” Luis Santos’ father, Fred Santos, who lives in the East Bay suburb of Concord, told the Contra Costa Times.”

Esteban Nuñez also received some positive comments from Mayor Villaraigosa if you recall.

I sense that even Schwarzenegger realizes that the public won’t forget about his decision to ease up on the Esteban Nuñez sentence. And should Fabian Nuñez ever run for public office again, this issue will certainly to be a thorn in his side.

When you read the Governor’s reasoning for the commutation, it makes sense why he issued it. However, it is very obvious that this was a gift to the Nuñez family. If Esteban Nuñez had been the child of Jose Nuñez, the brick layer or car washer, I doubt he would have had his sentence commuted.

What are your thoughts? Do you think Schwarzenegger should have done this or should he have left Esteban Nuñez’s original sentence in tact?

Photo Credit: Taken from Esteban’s now closed MySpace Account, pictured on the right wearing the “wifebeater” style tank.

Because this race will be closely watched, I thought that it would be worth profiling candidate Rudy Martinez of A&E‘s “Flip this House” fame. Martinez’s story is compelling because he’s a self made businessman, who has experience in real estate and in owning his own restaurants. He approaches this race as the outsider, which will likely work to his advantage in the current anti-incumbent climate, whereas his opponent Jose Huizar has a biography that reads more like a career politician.

I was able to speak with Rudy Martinez this week to ask him why he’s challenging Jose Huizar, and he offered this, “When I decided to jump into this race about 5 months ago, I said that I was doing this to bring more accessibility and accountability to the people in the district. I have heard community people say over and over again that the current council member is inaccessible…but since I have been in this race, my opponent has been everywhere, going to community events that he should have been attending all along.” Access is one of the four key points that Martinez is running on. When I asked him if he would eventually become like his opponent who appears to many to be too busy for the community, Martinez replied, “Look at my record. I’m a business owner. If I’m not there for my customers, they will not come.”

Another issue that Martinez is passionate about is transparency. This issue has become particularly timely given the City of Bell scandal and the proposed reforms of city agencies such as the Department of Water and Power. Martinez said, “When I take office, I will disclose where every dollar goes, and I will display it on a web page so the public can easily view it. For example, Jose has been holding off on disclosing his CLARTS fund. He won’t tell us where he spends the money.”

Martinez opened his campaign office this weekend in Eagle Rock with over 80 volunteers and activists, and he’s already making waves with his fund raising efforts. If you want to learn more, you can check out his campaign website and view this youtube from his campaign office opening here:

Webmaster’s note: I did attempt to contact Councilman Huizar for his own feedback in this blog piece. While his staff did initially respond, there was no commitment made to talk or comment about the upcoming election. I wanted him to have a chance to chime in about his opponent, but he didn’t.

The event started out with Mayor Villaraigosa, who talked about the importance of voting on November 2. He talked about Los Angeles being a leader in progressive politics and said that its a city where one can find success no matter who his daddy is, or as in his case, if one doesn’t have a daddy or even if one has two daddies. He basically got the crowd pumped up for the parade of Democrats and then introduced his younger cousin, John Perez, speaker of the California Assembly.

Jamie Foxx emceed the event with some cheers to remind people to vote for the Democrats. Candidate for Attorney General Kamala Harris spoke, and thankfully, she gave a short speech. Since the event started late, the crowd was getting antsy for President Obama by the time Harris addressed the audience. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis spoke and reminded the crowd that they need to vote for the party and for the candidates who most approximates the needs for the future. Gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown spoke, and he was refreshingly brief and made a quip that the state doesn’t need Saudi or Texas oil because we have California sun. Senator Barbara Boxer followed Brown, and reminded the crowd that we need leaders who are fighting for the middle class. Boxer also stressed that “the other side” wants to take us back to Bush era policies. Finally, President Obama took the stage and spoke for about 15-20 minutes.

President Obama stressed that this upcoming election will be difficult and that the choice between voting for leaders who support his agenda vs. those who do not is a choice between hope and fear and moving forward or moving backward. Obama also made an analogy about Republicans driving the car into the ditch and said that you wouldn’t want to give the keys to the car back to people who got us in this ditch in the first place. The car analogy seemed to go over well with the crowd, but I have heard the President tell it before in other stump speeches.

Overall, this event was positive for the Democrats, but I think that the crowd logistics and event timing could have been better.

Photo credit: LatinoPoliticsBlog, California Speaker of the Assembly John Perez, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and President Barack Obama.

On August 14, 2010, at the Los Angeles Trade Tech College in room 221, I engaged with the 25^th U.S. Secretary of Labor, the former U.S. Congressional Representative of California’s 31^st District, Hilda Solis.  Although our conversation was interrupted by an irate middle-aged woman seeking amends for some incident that hardly seemed public, Hilda Solis transcended the moment by taking the time to fully understand the compliant and address it right then and there.  I knew at that moment that I would never have to worry about Hilda Solis spending thousands of dollars to send annual egocentric Christmas cards to every registered voter in the State of California or waste Capitol Hill time authoring House Resolutions to honor the Anaheim Ducks and Luciano Pavarotti.  Although her public history has firmly conveyed the seriousness of her political agenda, this moment told me she has the will to see it completed.

American politicians feeding from the public trough so rarely display the character emulating from Hilda Solis.  It is now fairly obvious those GOP Senators sitting on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee felt threatened enough by the changes and importance Solis was sure to bring to the U.S. Labor Department, that for a lack of skeletons in her closet, they shamelessly attacked her husband in an effort to discredit her and destroy her spirit. Having survived that debacle, I am sure the candle is burning brightly in Industrial American boardrooms on strategies to avoid the comeuppance sure to follow after thirty years of abuses to the American worker and the American middle class.

We must do our part to support Hilda Solis and her agenda for the U.S. Labor Department.  Her efforts to create new jobs by expanding and updating the manufacturing base that has been decimated by thirty years of union breaking, wage decreases, and mega profit-sharing onslaught assisted by the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush 2 administrations.  This must be echoed loudly and clearly to the American working class, who has seen their jobs crawl across the border to Latin America and then drift away to China.  President Obama’s appointment of Hilda Solis proves he shares this vision and wants it to succeed.

It was my pleasure to feel the strength of your character this past Saturday.  Thank you Secretary Solis for your public service and the example you have set in your public life.  You are proof that the political career doesn’t always corrupt, and corruption doesn’t have to exist in political change.  I just hope that there are others who feel like I do and are committed to do their part in supporting you.

Addendum:

LatinoPoliticsBlog was in force Saturday, August 14 at the Los Angeles Trade Tech College on South Grand Avenue in room 221, for what was advertised as an intimate meeting of 70-80 Hilda Solis supporters.  Although Secretary Hilda Solis headlined the meeting, and it’s a good thing that she did, the other two speakers, especially the first overstayed their moment in the spotlight and ran up the heat in the small classroom.  Here’s our take:

In his hot pink top unbuttoned casual party shirt, minus any undershirt, the Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (aka Villar) attempted to wing an introduction to U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and associate himself closer to the main attraction U.S. Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, claiming to be a vital part of the Civil Rights movement that has opened public paths to both Barbara Boxer and Hilda Solis.  His appearance probably nixed a showing of Gloria Molina, the powerful Los Angeles County Supervisor who was instrumental in mentoring Hilda Solis early in her public career and denied the 70-100 Solis/Boxer supporters a feminist troika event that would’ve been talked about for years.  Instead the Mayor fell all over himself, repeatedly calling Barbara Boxer and Hilda Solis his “sisters”, and reminding all of us of his intimate political association with Dolores Huerta.  Had this not been a feminist gathering of sorts, he probably would have spent more time publicly romancing fact and fiction trying to further his association with Cesar Chavez as a supposed fifteen-year-old Civil Rights activist.  When the Los Angeles mayor obviously overstepped his boundaries trying to swallow the limelight from the main event, he suddenly stopped showboating, crawled back to the corner of the classroom, began interacting with one of his beautiful female aides, and then sought attention from the crowd by playing franticly with his left arm.  It was all-so…Villar.

The U.S. Senator from California, Barbara Boxer followed Villar.  She was timely and at times impressive following the Mayor.  She displayed such intelligence and confidence at the podium, that she was able to absorb comments from her gang of Westside activist-supporters and incorporate them into her speech.  And unlike her GOP opponent Carly Fiorina, Barbara Boxer refrained from telling lies and instead made light of Fiorina’s well-known CEO tenure at Hewlett-Packard and the board of director’s dramatic efforts to get rid of her.  Listening to Boxer reminded me its time for Dianne Feinstein to quietly stroll into the sunset.  With the eighth largest economy in the world, California needs to be represented in the U.S. Senate by people who are coherent and assertive. Feinstein doesn’t seem to be physically alive or ideologically, politically coherent.  Goodbye, farewell Senator Feinstein — you’re welcome to that fat Congressional retirement pension fleeced from the middle and lower classes of America.

Villar’s self-promoting introduction to Boxer cut into the Senator’s structured tit for tat with her political support group leaders and left a fraction of the allocated time for the main event, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.  Nevertheless, Hilda conveyed a graciousness that will be long remembered by this blogger.  Her tone, her energy, her intelligence and that organizational management mind condensed her obviously prepared speech and  rapidly segued to a rally dialogue for Barbara Boxer’s U.S. Senate reelection.  With the classroom buzzing with excitement, Hilda made her way along the rows to interact and shake hands, something Boxer momentarily started doing, and Villar evaded doing altogether.  Michaelr began a quick conversation with Hilda, but was interrupted by an irate middle-aged woman with some grievance.  Sensing this was trouble, one of Hilda’s aides placed herself between the parties trying to shield the Secretary from this woman.  But Hilda heard her grievance and addressed it, all very professional and genuine.  It was obvious Loretta Sanchez’s social/political skills weren’t an influence during the time they spent on Capitol Hill together. Solis’s direct interaction with her constituents and the concern and commitment she conveys to them exemplifies why she is a class act.  The Latino community needs gather together its political momentum and get behind this amazing civil servant.  Hilda Solis is truly the right person at the right time.  And she needs all our help in tangling with the destructive nature of Industrialized America, their minions in the GOP, and their efforts to run roughshod over their lower tier employees while abusing the environment.

I will be posting some photos from the event within the next few days. One key point that was made by Organizing for America California Director Mary Jane Stevenson was that 60% of Latinos who voted in 2008 indicate that they intend to come back to the polls in this year’s midterm election. Hopefully, our community can exceed this estimation, as midterm elections are just as important as presidential year elections.

The politico portion of the event started with Mayor Villaraigosa, who talked about 30/10 initiative, which is the City’s plan to build 30 years of transportation projects within ten years. He also talked about how when he goes to Washington, D.C., he lobbies Senator Boxer and always finds her to be accessible and approachable, ready to work on behalf of Angelenos and Californians. Essentially, Villaraigosa was present to introduce Senator Boxer, and he was rather casually dressed in a short sleeved pink shirt. He also appeared to be in some pain as he was stretching is elbow from his recent bicycle crash.

Senator Boxer then addressed the room and basically made an appeal to the organizers that she needs their help to be her “spokespeople” in the upcoming election. Senator Boxer mentioned three key accomplishments that she’s particularly proud of: her role in the creation of the federal after school program, bringing the first combat casualty center to California (which is in San Diego and was the only other center after Walter Reed Hospital of this kind), and doubling transportation funding for California.

Senator Boxer also talked about her opponent’s critique of her hair. Carly Fiorina was caught on an open microphone back in June saying that Senator Boxer’s hair was “so yesterday,” and Boxer took an opportunity to say that Fiorina’s policies are “yesterday” meaning that they are a throwback to the Bush era. Some key points that Boxer highlighted were her support of the HIRE Act, her support of the small business bill that has a deficit neutral rating and would create a half million new jobs, that Fiorina doesn’t support a woman’s right to chose, and that Fiorina still supports more offshore oil drilling despite the BP disaster. Senator Boxer also noted that Fiorina was fired from Hewlett Packard and left the company in a state of low morale and with rising stock because of the hope that a new leader would be better.

To close the speaker portion of the event, Secretary Solis addressed the group and noted that 3.6 million jobs have been saved because of the stimulus. Saved jobs means that there are fewer unemployment checks for her department to cut. Solis also mentioned that when she was in Congress she was well aware of the layoff and jobs situation but that the previous administration was not attentive to the issue.

Solis highlighted three immediate goals that she has: to save jobs, to generate more good paying jobs, and to make sure that people have the ability to collectively bargain in the workplace. She also talked about generating more jobs in wind and solar energy with companies that will keep the manufacturing here in the US.

Overall, I thought that Secretary Solis was the star of this small event, but Senator Boxer was a pretty close second. Both appeared to be more prepared than Mayor Villaraigosa, but then again, both Solis and Boxer are regulars on the national stage. Secretary Solis and Boxer both personally thanked as many people as they could approach in the room for attending the event with handshakes, and Secretary Solis was very attentive in listening to the concerns of the organizers. Once the politicians left, the organizers were left in the room to strategize for the upcoming elections.

San Diego 6 has a good summary of why the sentences for manslaughter were handed out this way, and it shows how Esteban was influenced by his friends. This isn’t too surprising when you look at the photos that Esteban Nuñez had published on his myspace account showing him and his friends drinking, partying, posing like thugs, etc.:

Esteban Nunez of Sacramento pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for the Oct. 4, 2008, confrontation that took the life of Luis Santos — also known as Luis Dos Santos.

Ryan Jett, 24, of Sacramento, also pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and assault for instigating the incident, in which two of Santos’ friends were also stabbed and another friend suffered an eye injury.

Two others — Leshanor Thomas, 21, and 20-year-old Rafael Garcia — pleaded guilty to lesser charges and will be sentenced next Friday.

“Had they not all acted together, Luis would still be alive,” Deputy District Attorney Jill DiCarlo said.

Nunez was next to Jett the entire time to “aid and abet” the assault, the prosecutor said.

“He was not a passive participant — he did not play a minor role,” DiCarlo said. “He took on a tough guy, dominating role.”

Hopefully, the family of Luis Dos Santos finds peace and Esteban Nuñez serves out his sentence and avoids this kind of violence in the future. And I hope that politicians such as Mayor Villaraigosa and Kevin de Leon, who were quick to defend the younger Nuñez, think twice about publicly offering support to their colleagues’ children who engage in this kind of behavior. In rushing to defend Esteban Nuñez, these elected officials created an impression that they support deviant behavior.

1. The now infamous Rolling Stone profile of General McChrystal. This is a must read. It’s very well done, and really to me, it displays how arrogant this man is. Also, the article pretty much confirms my suspicions about what a mess the war in Afghanistan is. This piece is also a pretty good account of the events leading up to McChrystal turning in his resignation today.

2. A pretty good Q&A about Latino politics with Columbia University Professor Rodolfo de la Garza. I read a lot of his work in college, so I’m familiar with his scholarship.

3. This new report by the Center for Responsible Lending about how Latinos and blacks have been affected by the foreclosure crisis. I had blogged about the mortgage and foreclosure crisis last year as it relates to the Latino community here and here.

4. And finally, Mayor Villaraigosa and his freebies to concerts and sporting events in Los Angeles. Villar is saying that he was at these events in his official capacity as mayor, and that may very well be the case, but his predecessor did not take as loose of a view toward these sports and cultural events. And in these tough times, accepting so many freebies is probably not a good way to win over the goodwill of the public, especially when the City of Los Angeles is laying people off and cutting services. I think that Mayor V should be more mindful of the public sentiment before scampering about the city like this or at least convey the impression that something fruitful is coming from attending all of these events in his official capacity.

So here’s the latest:

Ten News in San Diego is reporting that jury selection is being pushed out until Tuesday. And here is a repeat of what is to be decided before the jury:

“Ryan Jett, 24, and Esteban Nunez, 21, are charged with murder, assault, vandalism, conspiracy to commit an assault and conspiracy to destroy evidence in the death of 22-year-old Luis Santos.

If convicted, both face 25 years to life behind bars.

Two co-defendants, 20-year-old Rafael Garcia and 21-year-old Leshanor Thomas, pleaded guilty to lesser charges.”

A few weeks ago, the LA Weekly reported that a hearing was held where the judge ruled that rap lyrics written by Esteban Nuñez could not be brought before a jury, but a text message that Nuñez sent to his co-defendant Rafael Garcia shortly after the killing can be presented to the jury. The message read, “Gangsta rap made us do it.”

Now many of us have heard of the twinkie defense used by Dan White in another high profile California murder case, but I haven’t heard of the ‘gangsta rap’ defense, have you?

It’s also worth listening to this report by KNX 1070.

UPDATED 5/5/2010: Esteban Nuñez and his co-defendant Ryan Jett have pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of Luis Santos. Sentencing is scheduled for June 25, and the judge has indicated that he plans to send both young men to prison but may not impose the maximum 16 year sentence. In pleading guilty, both men will now have two strikes. I have a sneaky suspicion that Fabian Nuñez will get on some sort of prison reform kick or will attempt to revise the three strikes law, which I actually think is worth revisiting for drug offenders, not necessarily murderers. I always thought that Esteban had projected an entitlement attitude based upon how he presented himself online and in the remarks he made that became evidence.

Finally, if you want to read about the actual court room drama from today. The LA Weekly has a nice, brief write up of the emotions and mood projected by the Nuñez family.