In May 2011, at a final public hearing over whether to approve the tallest skyscraper in Hollywood history, the Department of Planning unveiled 231 pages of surprise "supplemental findings" backing the developer's plan.
The 200,000-word, book-length document gave the L.A. City Council's Planning and Land Use Management committee an added boldness. Its chairman, City Councilman Ed Reyes, refused to let a member of the public rebut the developer, Hanover Company. Then the committee quickly approved the Hollywood/Gower Project.
Reyes should have let the man speak.
An environmental attorney from the Silverstein Law Firm, Daniel Wright knew the Department of Planning hadn't written the 231-page "supplemental findings." Doug Haines, a representative of the firm's client, the La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association of Hollywood, had discovered that the developer wrote the entire tome.
Wright had minutes earlier warned the land-use committee that the key study repeatedly referred to in the "findings" — the parking study claiming that the development would need 30 percent less parking than the city generally requires — wasn't even included in the 200,000 words and was never seen by the public.
The Hirsch/Green Parking Study, it turned out, was merely an "exhibit" attached to a letter from the developer's lobbying firm, in a pile of papers submitted at the hearing itself. Later, emails showed that city planners likely never read the study: Just before the hearing, planner Jim Tokunaga couldn't open the developer's attachment.
The land-use committee, known as PLUM, approved the skyscraper, along with the developer's request for reduced parking, in parking-challenged Hollywood.
"We were asking city officials, 'Where is the parking study that's being voted on? Where is it?' " Wright says. "But no member of the public could see it — until it was posted the next day on the City Council website."
Later, the City Council rubber-stamped the committee's approval without allowing public comment — ending a supposedly public process in which the public was prevented from considering and debating the key issues.
The legal wrongdoing by City Hall resulted in an uncommon finding in July by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones: that the City Council and city had violated the "due process" rights of the Hollywood community. (Jones also found that L.A. violated the California Environmental Quality Act.)
"We alleged the city engaged in misconduct, lied to members of the public and suppressed information in an effort to conceal critical material from the public," explains Robert P. Silverstein, the lead attorney. "So we won on our constitutional challenge — which is extremely rare."
On Aug. 13, Jones affirmed her initial ruling, rejecting objections filed by the developer and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich. She ordered not just a redo of the areas obfuscated by city officials, such as parking shortages, but also an entirely new Environmental Impact Report.
R.J. Comer, attorney for the project's investors, said they are considering all options. The City Attorney's office had no comment.
But Wright responds, "They're so caught with their hands in the cookie jar, we do not see an appeal."
Silverstein persuaded Jones to enter into evidence disturbing emails showing city officials readying the developer's "findings" in support of the project as the city's own.
Environmental attorneys consulted by the L.A. Weekly say they cannot recall such a courtroom slap-down. Although this was a lower court, only a few appellate cases have been reported involving municipalities guilty of violating due process.
Attorney Noel Weiss, who has won suits against L.A., says, "It's because they are running a kangaroo court. The City Council and its PLUM committee don't read the planning documents before them, which often aren't written by the planners they pay. It's lawless, and nobody has been shutting it down. Judge Jones is stepping on a lot of powerful toes by being so courageous against big L.A. powers. I very much admire her for doing it. "
Although one Hollywood neighborhood council dominated by business interests backs the high-rise, the other four Hollywood-area neighborhood councils do not. Many residents are angry that it would tower 270 feet over a low-slung historic community. The first three stories were to be parking, topped by 17 stories of condos or high-end rentals — squeezed onto a cramped lot whose zoning restrictions prohibit skyscrapers.
Labor lawyer David Bell, president of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council, argues that while the City Council granted the developer many "entitlements" — zone changes and billboard ads to help provide a more robust bottom line — the council was simultaneously degrading a protected skyline that has made the Hollywood Hills and its landmark sign among the most recognized sights anywhere.
"This isn't Tarzana or Century City," Bell says. "Hollywood is a global cultural asset that belongs to the community and world, being trampled upon for 176 luxury apartments. It isn't right."
The most controversial "entitlement" allowed investors to provide far less parking than required. (The developer claims, among possible mitigations, that the well-to-do residents will choose to use buses and subways.) Another "entitlement" lets the developer embed a huge billboard into the building's side, visible from great distances and, Haines says, taller than the W Hotel nearby.
Maybe the ghost of Hollywood historic preservationist Robert Nudelman, who abhorred City Councilman Eric Garcetti's dream of skyscrapers and billboards in Hollywood, caught wind of what was unfolding. One day, Haines, who greatly admired Nudelman, noticed in the public record an odd term — "supplemental findings" — mentioned in a letter from the developer's consultant written to City Hall.
"I called city planner Jae Kim and said, 'Hey, this isn't supposed to be a game of hide-and-seek. Where are these supplemental findings?'"
As it emerged at trial, Kim then provided Haines with the "findings," assuring him three times that City Planning had no intention of submitting the developers' submission to the council committee.
But Haines was uneasy. He pored over the 200,000 words, and then he and attorney Wright attended the committee hearing. Then they watched, stunned, as Jae Kim himself delivered the findings as the city's own.
La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association's legal team showed in court that Kim's superior, senior planner Jim Tokunaga, exchanged emails with Kim before the hearing, explaining that they would do a quick edit of the developer's work. The new version was 20 pages shorter, with some sections tweaked.
Key city officials have refused to comment on who (or what) compelled Kim and Tokunaga to proceed. And no city officials involved would comment on why the Hirsch/Green Parking Study was kept secret from the public and added to the city website only after the skyscraper was approved.
City planner Michael LoGrande, Kim's and Tokunaga's boss, refused to comment, saying the project still faces litigation. Ken Bernstein, a principal city planner, returned the Weekly's call to LoGrande but did not know any details. Kim and Tokunaga did not return calls seeking comment.
Garcetti's office, which led the cheers for the Hollywood/Gower skyscraper and wants more high-rise towers in Hollywood, said it did not know the Department of Planning had claimed the fat "supplemental findings" from the developer as its own. Julie Wong, a top aide to Garcetti, said she didn't know if LoGrande had launched an investigation and was surprised to learn that LoGrande was not commenting.
City Attorney's spokesman Frank Mateljan could not comment as to whether those involved in violating the due process of the Hollywood community will be investigated.
However, former city planning commissioner Mike Woo, who stepped down in mid-July, said an investigation would not be unheard of.
In an email, Woo explained that when a judge finds that L.A. acted illegally, "The City Attorney routinely reports back to the decision-making bodies (in this case, the City Planning Commission and the City Council) about the outcome of the lawsuit and recommends a course of action. In theory, this can include the kind of investigation or reprimand" the Weekly queried Woo about.
Silverstein isn't holding his breath. If the skyscraper is ever built, he says, "Its big billboard should say, 'Don't violate our constitutional rights.' "
Reach the writer at jstewart@laweekly.com.
Thanks for the comments everyone. At this time, there is no investigation of those at City Hall who illegally violated the due process rights of Hollywood residents. It's my understanding that DA Steve Cooley's office looks into political corruption mostly based on formal complaints by citizens and others. At this point, I am not aware of any formal complaint being made to Cooley on this violation by the city and City Council but we will keep our ears open! -- Jill Stewart
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Here is why a Grand Jury investigation makes sense: subpoena and under oath. First we need to know how high up the knowledge was on this and what motivated all those involved. Was Logrande aware of this? Was the Mayor, his Deputies, or Councilmember(s) and their staff have knowledge of what was going on.
There is no real secret that the City Planning Dept has been colluding with Developers for years, they haven't tried to hide it. Just review PLUM Committee transcripts.
Now a professional, EXTERNAL investigation needs to be performed to get to the bottom of the corruption.
@James_McCuen I agree. Only a Federal Grand Jury has the power and resources to stop the 24/7/365 corruption at City Hall when a prime target would be the ex-DA's own son.
Massive multi-million frauds occur constantly, but people are too lazy to even yawn.
Angelenos are like fools who leave all their doors and windows unlocked and never stop to think why each time they come home, everything has been stolen. If you're Paris Hilton and daddy will replace everything, I guess it does not matter. Angelenos should wake up. They have no Daddy Hilton to replenish the billions of dollars that are being diverted into the pockets of the developers.
LAPD Chief Beck recently implemented a new policy on financial disclosure for police officers serving in specialized narcotics units. When the policy was first unveiled and the timeline for compliance announced, vigorous and vocal resistance and rejection was launched by the police union and officers in the affected positions.
Chief Beck was going to single out a specific group of officers for mandatory compliance in an unprecedented program of highly invasive personal financial disclosure.
The Chief took his beating of anger, threats and insults from within the ranks, but he did not back down. Beck can't force compliance with the policy - an officer can opt out by resigning from the force or requesting transfer to another detail, which many chose to do.
Beck decided that he cannot leave his people serving in a position inherently filled with opportunities for corruption without providing an administrative tool which aids the individual in resisting the temptations.
LAPD Chief Beck's program on financial disclosure for narcotics officers should now be extended to cover employees and administrators of the L.A. Planning Department.
Nobody will be forced to comply - they can request transfer to Animal Services and take an equivalent position working at the dog pound.
I am taking the City to court as we speak for the installation of traffic barriers that were installed in our community with nothing more than an approved motion by City Council introduced by then Councilman Ludlow. It was presented without ANY required legal documents, sign offs or studies. the community was not notified and our Fire Station was not alerted. They woke up to a full barrier right next to their station preventing them from immediate access to our community. When Councilman Wesson took over he continued imposing his will on city agencies to move forward with the project even though they knew there was no legal justification other than the motion passed. A lawyer in our community was working with Ludlow at the time and was the liasion for the traffic barrier group. What takes most communities years and years to get approved, our group got approved in less a year.
I woke up to the fact that City Council is run by Lords and Ladies who are granted a fiefdom and basically use it to whatever purpose they like without oversite and with support from their City Council members. Vote for mine, I'll vote for yours. When I asked a few of the agencies how they justified moving forward without proper procedures and documents (like required sign offs from the city agencies) they said they did it all the time. If a Councilperson wanted something done they did it. I asked how they got away with it. They answered.... people don't have the money to sue City Council. True that. But my lawyer is doing it on contingency. Thanks Jill for shining a much needed light on City Hall Shenanigans. Councilman Wesson used city funds, took city agency time, supported the reinstallation of temporary barriers when the community pulled down the originals and gave the group additional city money to help pay fees when they couldn't raise the funds. And we wonder why we are broke and considered the 2nd most corrupt city in America? As they say...the devil is in these details.
@eyeonthings I do not know if "I am taking the city to court" means you have already filed or intend to file. Beware of the judges. I trust your attorney knows how to use CCP 170.6.
I was conducting research 3 years ago at the Los Angeles City Clerk's office when I noticed an odd phenomenon.
While studying photocopies of motions passed by the Council Subommittee on Housing, I became perplexed at the placement of Councilmember Herb Wesson's signature.
The final page of a council motion will usually consist of a partial page of text (the last paragraph or sentences of the motion) followed by signature lines with a councilmembers name typed in below.
Garcetti, Huizar or whoever signed their name in the designated space.
But Wesson might sign over the signature line or completely below it or below and oriented 45 deg. or 90 deg to the signature line or even above the signature line and into the body of the text.
Why was it so difficult for Councilmember Wesson to sign a motion in the designated space??
Does he refuse to look at the signature page even just to find the correct spot to place the the point of his pen and begin signing?
Maybe that is the explanation.
I developed my own unsubstantiated hypothesis to account for randomness in the Wesson signature placement.
I think Wesson took a stack of blank council stationary and wrote his signature once on each sheet but varied the placement on the page. I believe the sheets of paper (empty except for the signature) were then kept by Council President Garcetti.
In the interest of efficiency, a motion could be passed out of subcommittee without delay if Herb Wesson wasn't available when the signature page was ready for signing.
The subcommittee secretary could select from the Wesson signed blanks estimating the one which could land Wesson's signature as close as possible to the designated signature line. This sheet could then be used to type up the original copy of the final page of text and signature lines.
@lollipoptheif @eyeonthings It wouldn't surprise me -- it's similar to their voting machines in council chambers set to automatically YES, even if they're in the bathroom. It is not usual for there to be more Yes votes than councilmembers in the Chambers. I hear that the City Atty has designated the bathroom as part of the Council Chamber so that the votes taken during personal hygiene time count. According to the Brown Act all deliberation and voes are supposed to be in public.
@ftch @lollipoptheif @eyeonthings I have heard, but I have not seen the actual paper work, that the City Attorney has opined that the bathrooms including the toilet stalls are part of the Council Chamber, and hence, it is OK for them to "vote" even those they may be removing substances through orifices or adding substances through nasal passages.
Under Garcetti the entire council was involved in a massive criminal enterprise where the voes had been sold and bought contrary to the penal code.
The #1 problem facing not only Los Angeles, and the state of California but the entire nation is massive corruption and incompetence from the lowest level to the White House (i.e. Tim Geithner). This corruption and incompetence is costing us literally trillions upon trillions of dollars in productivity, but we never see the losses as the wealth is often stolen before we get to see it.
How much better off would Los Angeles, be if the CRA Hollywood-Highland Project had not lost over $424 Million dollar? That is money that disappears into the pockets of the politicos like Riordan, Gacertti, Villababosa.
Let's remember that after Bradley tried to bring civil service to the higher echelon of City Government, Riordan is the one who killed Civil Service based on merit and instead instituted the present system based upon corruption. Now the man who paved the way for corruption and incompetence which has BKed Los Angeles is blaming the workers. 82 years old or 102 years old, these crooks belong in prison and not retreated with honor just because they have been able to fool all the people all the time.
@abramsrl @lollipoptheif @eyeonthings
If it's a designatec public space, then the public ought to have access to it per the Brown Act. The next time one of them is trying to vote from the bathroom, ask to go back there, and see what they say.
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Thank you Doug Haines for your tenacity. Thank you Judge Ann I. Jones for your findings. Thank you Jill Stewart for your reporting. Please, please, please don't let this story die. I want the City Attorney's office to launch a full scale investigation and not just on this particular project; on the whole system! It's time this cozy arrangement between commercial developers and the LA City Government be exposed and ended.
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I agree that we need an investigation but the City Attorney is forbidden by law to investigate his own clients. We need not go into what a corrupt fool the current City Atty has proven to be. No attorney can investigate his own client.
Because Garcetti's Dad ws the District Attorney,the county District Attorney's office has a conflict of interest in addition to Cooley being as corrupt as everyone else. fraud and fraud occurs right in front of him, but he remains quiet to shield the guilty.
That leave a Federal Grand Jury by the US Attorney for the Central District of California. Thus, we need a comprehensive investigation into all the City Hall corruption, but especially into the falsification of the emergency response times. Tony V and Garcetti have know since 2005 that the LAFD data were lies causing needless deaths. Thus, they know in 2011, when the response times were significantly worse than in 2005, that cutting any money from the LAFD would increase emergency response times and thus increase deaths.
We know why Garcetti and Tony V cut the LAFD. The city was running a deficit and people had realized that the CRA funds could be used by the City council to pay for LAFD, LAPD, libraries and even parks. If the extra CRA funds were used to pay for basic city services, where would Garcetti get the loot to give to his developer buddies? Thus, the solution was to cut the LAFD and kill a few more people so that Eli Board could get his $52 Mi and CIM Group could get their millions, while the people got more death.
Only a Federal Grand Jury has the power to conduct such a far ranging investigation into the years of massive developer corruption especially in Hollywood, and how Angelenos are now paying with their lives.
@abramsrl Thanks for this breakdown. Of course, how could I forget about papa Garcetti, our former DA?!?!?!
Well then, have the Feds got the nerve to upset the apple cart by starting to dig into this? I wonder.......
@lollipoptheif @philipmershon Although I did not have any facts about California, it has been a fear of mine that the Obama Administration would play politics with the US Atty for the Central District of California.
I guess it comes down to the personal integrity of André Birotte Jr. Esq. I have never met the man and I have never heard anything about him. Thus, I have no opinion about his integrity.
I see that CityWatchLA's Friday issue has a story about the need for a Federal Grand Jury -- near the bottom of the list
sorry to break the bad news so belatedly but -
6 months after President Obama took office he submitted a statutory 30 day notification to Congress that the Inspector General for the Sacramento region would be removed from his position.
Inpector General positions are usually not subject to involvement by the administration. They are not prosecutors. Their reports and recommendations are advisory in nature.
It seems that President Obama himself was issuing a strong advisory concerning the I.G.'s desire to report an Mayor Johnson's foundations and funding.
The bigger picture:
during the Obama Presidency, apple carts operated by Democrat crooks shall remain untouched, unfettered and escorted directly to the express lane.
That's the problem, with the foolish Dems thinking that Tony V is some sort of Pied Piper of the Mexicans. How demeaning that Obama thinks he can appoint who speaks for the Mexican American population, but I digress.
Is the current US Atty just another Gonazales doing the bidding of his boss? Who knows, maybe not. But, you've hit the nail on the head
Now if people have enough sense to demand the US Atty investigation. Without some indication of community support, it won't happen
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I find it interesting that no City official attempted to defend what they did at the City Council Planning and Land Use Management meeting in this case. No one. They know they grossly violated rights.
Unlike other adjoining and more livable cities like Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and Santa Monica, the City of Los Angeles City Council does not read staff reports or pay a bit of attention to anything other than whether or not the local Council member supports the development project. The lack of listening by Council is also a giant violation of due process rights of the public appealing bad bad zoning decisions of the Planning Department and the mayoral crony rubber stamp "Planning" Commission.
You may want to reconsider your criticism of the L.A. City Council.
Why not show a little gratitude even if nobody was listening to your input, the council had the nobility to afford you the opportunity to present your input before them.
The City Council could have chosen to forego wasting any of their time not listening to you.
A councilmember may submit a Rule 23 motion for vote when in session. If the Rule 23 passes, the council permits itself to take final vote on the underlying motion even though it was not on the days agenda at the start of the session.
If you just happen to be in Council chambers during an open session when a Rule 23 is proposed and passed, then you have the fortuitous opportrunity to offer your 60 or 120 seconds of input.
Otherwise, you are out of luck. The council must be able to act quickly on urgent items brought to their attention after the agenda was set.
The Rule 23 Motion certifies the validity of those circumstances. The explanation provided by the Rule 23 Motion need not be rational or verifiable or correct. All it needs is the votes to pass.
Councilmember Huizar used a Rule 23 motion for the City Council to give $495,000 to GTWT in order to purchase the real estate parcel adjoined to the south of the city owned property containing the former LAPD Hollenbeck Station.
Councilmember Huizar may call it a loan and may direct the Controller to draw up a payment schedule; however a non-recourse note unsecured to any underlying collateral is subject to repayment at the discretion of the borrower.
According to the payment schedule for the GTWT note of $495,000. all principal and interest payments are now completed and past. Ask Jose Huizar and Eric Garcetti where we can find the first dime.
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