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The Angelena II.

​Awww! L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says the darndest things when he's caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Dogged CBS LA investigator David Goldstein asked the mayor why, so deep in a budget hole, the city is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain a million-dollar touring yacht at the Port of Los Angeles.

Villaraigosa's adorable reply:

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Zoolander

​We'll admit it. L.A. is an underdog town. Not just because it comes in second to New York in population, or because NYC's culture and arts scenes get way more attention. But because sometimes we fall on our face, and it's all our own fault. Look at the people we elect. Look at our sorry roads. Look at our divisive AM-radio talk shows.

Frankly, it makes for great news, and sometimes the Weekly gets snarky about it.

No more. Here is our moment of Angeleno pride:

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MatM

​You, the taxpayer, might have missed out on $1 billion or more in free money because the geniuses at City Hall failed to coordinate their grant applications.

That's according to the latest audit from city Controller Wendy Greuel, whose office says today that ...

... the lack of an effective centralized oversight unit to coordinate grant applications among the City's departments led to various oversights and ultimately reduced Los Angeles' share of competitive grant funding.

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L.A. County

The suspect.

​For a month authorities have been on the case of a vicious suspect alleged to have assaulted a 3-and-a-half-year-old girl.

They even procured an off-road vehicle to track the predator in the Lancaster area, to no avail. The suspect would run off into the desert and allude the long arm of the law.

But today county officials announced they were victorious:

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LA Times

In protest, activist John Walsh (left) plans to repeat the word "pussy" 20 times today at L.A. City Hall.

​About an hour into another snoozeworthy L.A. City Council meeting yesterday morning, a female public commenter injected a little color into the conversation.

Antonia Ramirez told her elected officials that some sheriff's deputies in East L.A. had been acting like "unethical corrupted pussies." (OK, Ramirez also seemed a little off her rocker, but that's beside the point. Plus, given the state of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, she might not be far off.)

Brand-new City Council President Herb Wesson took particular offense to that last term:

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KCET

L.A. Housing Authority (center) gets roasted by City Controller (top right).

​Through the end of 2011, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) received a thorough spanking from press and politicians alike.

L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel scrambled to play catchup with an Earth-shaking investigation by local news station KCET -- revealing swanky dinners, limo rides and overflowing gift baskets at an insulated city department.

And even now that HACLA's top dog has been replaced amid the controversy (for a second freaking time), Greuel refuses to quit. It almost seems HACLA has become her grand finale of a pet project...

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Mayor Vanishing Veracity hits a new low.

​Los Angeles city leaders are apparently no more responsible or accountable than the self-serving Wall Street banksters who set up America to fall with an impossible Jenga tower of home loans.

A new Los Angeles Times expose outlines a series of politically motivated, built-to-fail budget decisions by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his lapdogs on the L.A. City Council -- ones that perfectly align with the principles of the 1 percent.

Villaraigosa has bragged about bolstering the Los Angeles Police Department with 1,000 new officers since he took office in 2005. But, seeing as we can't afford them, that decision might have doomed the safety of future generations:

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KCET

So we paid Ken Simmons an extra $25K per year for a "no comment"?

​Update: "L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel Finally Gets to Grit of Housing Authority Probe: Its Profitable 'Non-Profits'."

The rap sheet for taxpayer-money-hungry execs at the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles just keeps getting longer.

Over the last year, KCET reporters for "SoCal Connected" have ripped the blinds off the HACLA executive offices. First, in spring, we found out that former CEO Rudy Montiel had been throwing around his city credit card on $400 lunches and the like -- the cherry atop a $450,000 salary. (He was fired when the scandal broke, and later handed $1.2 million by HACLA's Board of Commissioners so he wouldn't blow the whistle on them, too. Double sketch.) Then, this winter, KCET finally obtained documents showing Montiel's underlings had similarly spent hundreds of thousands on travel, meals and gifts. All the expenditures were approved by...

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The Greuelinator.

​Flanked by L.A. City Councilmen Dennis Zine and Tony Cardenas at a press conference this morning, City Controller (and mayoral candidate!) Wendy Greuel "revealed" years of unchecked spending by Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles executives and staffers.

Hundreds of thousands in travel costs! Thousands more for swanky company meals! Real juicy, infuriating stuff.

So why haven't the majority of outlets invited to this morning's City Hall media event covered Greuel's 32-page ravaging of HACLA?

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HACLA

"We're blessed to have a [mayor] that cares about Watts," ousted Housing Authority CEO Rudy Montiel once said of Villaraigosa.

​KCET should sweep every journalism awards ceremony for 2011, in our opinion. The station's ball-busting coverage of the L.A. Housing Authority has completely unraveled the culture of Wall Street-esque corruption that former CEO Rudy Montiel created at the city's most mysterious public agency. (An example his team of executives were happy to follow.)

Question: How does a taxpayer-funded service for the poor become a billion-dollar palace -- whose lords and ladies drop hundreds of thousands on swanky feasts, cashmere sweaters and pink stuffed elephants -- without anyone but an indie news outlet noticing?

Answer: It doesn't.

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LA Curbed

Two towering 'scrapers adjacent to Capitol Records will only be the beginning.

​Update: "Hollywood Community Plan, aka Skyscraper Hell, Approved by L.A. Planning Commission at Dodgy Meeting."

Tomorrow morning, at the ungodly hour of 8:30 a.m., the L.A. Planning Commission will vote on a new "community plan" for Hollywood that could change our city as we know it.

It's not as glamorous, PR-friendly or conveniently timed as those other Department of City Planning shenanigans you've been hearing about -- those that seek to lift the ban on street art in Los Angeles.

And for that, tomorrow's meeting may not be as well-attended. Here's where you come in.

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Councilman Paul Krekorian

​Update below: L.A. Ethics Commission staff recommends four-month extension on debt window for Durkee clients.

Politicians are still trying to dig out from the Kinde Durkee campaign finance scandal, two three months after the Democratic treasurer was arrested and accused of a massive fraud scheme.

As they try to sort out the mess, some have sought leniency from the state Fair Political Practices Commission. Now, Councilman Paul Krekorian is asking for similar consideration from the L.A. City Ethics Commission.

The Durkee scandal hit state and federal officials the hardest. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is the worst off, having lost nearly $5 million.

But Krekorian's predicament shows that it has had effects at the local level as well. Here's what happened to him.
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KCET

Simmons did his best to brush off reporter Laurel Erickson for months.

​The reporters and producers at SoCal Connected, a weekly investigatory segment on local TV station KCET, have achieved the impossible.

Their ongoing expose of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) -- based on documents that even L.A.'s own City Controller and District Attorney couldn't get their hands on -- have turned an over-entitled public agency that blew through hundreds of thousands in perks into a cowering puppy in the headlights.

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SoCal Connected

Looks like L.A. should have signed a prenup.

​When Rudy Montiel, former CEO of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, was fired last year, it appeared the agency's Board of Commissioners was finally holding him responsible for years of lavish spending.

But Montiel's lawyer tells the Los Angeles Times today that "Rudy blew the whistle on several of the commissioners for engaging in inappropriate conduct, and his termination was in retaliation." So Montiel sued, and was recently paid $1.2 million in settlement.

Jesus. Is there anyone left at HACLA who hasn't leeched of L.A.'s poor?

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Housing CEO Ken Simmons denies all responsibility.

​Update, December 5: "Rudy Montiel Was Paid $1.2 Million to Leave L.A. Housing Authority: Who Will Hold Board of Commissioners Accountable?"

The taxpayers breathed a sigh of relief last spring when Rudy Montiel, power-crazed head of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA), was fired from his post, along with two commissioners.

Montiel had been dropping HACLA dime on $400 lunches and lavish shopping sprees, as shamefully detailed in documents obtained by KCET investigator Laurel Erickson.

Good news on tonight's 8:30 p.m. episode of SoCal Connected: Erickson didn't stop her probe there, despite the hurdles erected by HACLA executives.

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Associated Press

Maybe the cash fell through the cracks of Eli Broad's city-subsidized museum?

​Of $27 million that the L.A. Community Development Agency was supposed to collect from property owners in blighted areas and redistribute into the community, City Controller Wendy Greuel says she can't find $1.7 million.

So. Did public employees at the agency (and their friends on the City Council) stash $1.7 million in some sneaky backdoor bank account, or just kind of lose track of it along the way?

We're not really sure which would be worse.

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Vernon City Seal

​In the small city of Vernon, resignations come in threes. Mayor Hilario Gonzales announced he was stepping down two weeks ago. Michael Montgomery, the napping city attorney, also cleaned out his desk.

Today, we have the resignation of the biggest fish of them all: Eric Fresch, a lawyer and former city administrator who billed Vernon's power utility upwards of $1 million a year.

Though rarely seen around City Hall, Fresch was seen by many as the power behind the throne in Vernon. His departure is another signal of the city's efforts to stamp out corruption and make a fresh start, after nearly being wiped off the map by Speaker John Pérez.
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Eric Garcetti: Supply-sider

​Councilman Eric Garcetti, who is running for mayor, has been pushing for a total repeal of the city's business tax. The tax brings in roughly $425 million every year, and is much loathed by the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

Because this is municipal government we're talking about, you can't just repeal the tax. First, you have to form a committee. Garcetti did that, and in September the committee came back with a startling conclusion: Eliminating the business tax would actually increase revenue -- by $179 million in the average case.

Sound too good to be true?
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lavc.edu

The Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center, where Vasquez allegedly spiked his pay.

​What year is this, again?

Last month, the L.A. City Fire Department made the kind of upgrade to its payroll system that might have been admirable about a decade ago. In late 2011, it's just embarrassing.

For the first time ever, department officials entered their employees' timecards into a computer (magic!) -- then acted surprised to discover a little foul play. According to documents the LA Daily News obtained through the Public Records Act...

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Michael Montgomery: On the clock

​Ever since its brush with death earlier this year, the corruption-plagued City of Vernon has vowed to straighten up and fly right.

But today the city's ethics adviser raised alarms about some funny business at last week's City Council meeting. Seems the council chose to appoint Michael Montgomery (seen here dozing off) as the permanent city attorney.

The problem with that, aside from the napping-on-the-job issue, is that there was nothing about this on the council agenda. Really, Vernon? So soon?
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