LA MAYOR APPOINTS ARTS COMMISSIONER WITH UNDISCLOSED SALARY

Last month Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed Danielle Brazell, an arts non-profits manager, and then recommended a specific salary for her role as the General Manager of the Department of Cultural Affairs. But the documents that cleared the city council's Arts, Parks, Health, Aging, and River Committee and the Executive Compensation Committee said only that. Garcetti's dollar amount should be accepted, but it was not specified. There was only a note to contact Errol Griffin in Executive Employee Relations with questions. An email request for the specific salary bounced with an auto-reply. Griffin is away until July 29, when the city council will vote to establish this new salary.

If I do get a reply, it could be a refusal. The agenda notes that the city council may discuss the item in a closed door meeting, citing a section of the Brown Act. But Section 54957.6 is not to shield an appointee's salary and benefits from public view; it is to allow negotiation between labor representatives and governments.

The salary determined on Tuesday would be made retroactively effective July 1.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LOS ANGELES CITY HALL IS A BIG BLACK HOLE

Image
The Society of Professional Journalists , of which I am a proud member, has an annual  Black Hole Award  to "highlight the most heinous violations of the public's right to know." Timely, as I've been meaning to revisit the battle I fought last year with then-City Council District 4 representative Tom LaBonge, his obscured 501c3 [supposedly non-profit] organization Sister Cities, and what felt like all of Los Angeles City Hall. Some of it emerged earlier this month when a citizen lawsuit pushed the city attorney's office to go hunting for documents that disappeared from LaBonge's office, and the contents of the shredder- and incinerator-bound file boxes suggest illegal behavior including campaigning from sitting office. The Los Angeles Times later obtained emails showing willful refusal of my document requests around Sister Cities. My nomination is a bit scattershot, as I learned of the award and the impending deadline last minute. I rushed through, but yo
Read more

SMARTPHONE MICROLABOR IN LOS ANGELES: COLORFUL, FASCINATING, AND HIDDEN

Image
Santander Consumer USA, a lender that was issuing Uber-cosigned weekly leases to the rideshare company's contracted drivers until an unexplained split last year, had to answer SEC questions yesterday  about past financial reporting. Inquiry into the Spain-based firm's public disclosures were not related to the past Uber partnership (though that partnership does merit some questions). However it reminded me to finally share unwritten parts of an LA Weekly piece I wrote last fall about Angelenos who use their smartphones as their employers, finding daily gigs via application-based personal services like Uber , Lyft , Wag! , Washio , and TaskRabbit . I call them smartphone microlaborers. I was limited to about 1250 words and only one photo, so I couldn't include all the colorful bits I found in this subsector of the local gig economy, or all the new questions that arose from looking at these contracts and what the smartphone gig life really means in practical terms. With
Read more

RYU WILL TRY TO END LABONGE'S LEGACY OF PAGEANTRY OVER PUBLIC WORKS

Last month Pat Morrison sat down with then-Councilman LaBonge on his way out of city council , where he has looted managed Council District 4 since 2001. In his interview, true to LaBonge form, he kissed an acquaintance through glass, used a chocolate chip cookie to illustrate better council district divisions, and called valid questions (including mine ) about frivolous spending of public works money "horse s---" because money spent to illuminate the Los Angeles Zoo - which is already funded with taxpayer dollars via a nebulous non-profit with highly paid executives - brings people joy. Morrison persisted, asking if that should be the work of government:  You were criticized for spending money from your discretionary fund on things like holiday lights around the zoo instead of, say, on potholes. That was a bunch of horse---- because the zoo lights bring joy. The DWP years ago created the holiday lightfest in Griffith Park. That $100,000 brought nearly 200,000 people to t
Read more