Matt Szabo

Sherman Oaks Residents Enraged Over Fire Station Secrecy

Kevin James, Candidate Who Railed Against City Hall Corruption, Takes Plum Post In Garcetti Administration

Kevin James, the conservative talk show host who railed against City Hall corruption during his failed campaign for mayor, has come full circle, taking a plum position on the city's Board of Public Works.The job pays $134,000 annually, which has made it a landing spot for the mayor's friends and all ... More >>

Do Endorsements for John Choi and Mitch O'Farrell Reveal Answers for Tri-Hipster Area Voters?

Is L.A. City Council District 13 candidate John Choi a pawn of downtown City Hall interests? Does rival Mitch O'Farrell really have the support of CD 13's community activists? Will residents be screwed no matter who gets elected? All important questions as the contentious CD 13 race heads into the ... More >>

Who is Mystery Man John Choi?

To represent Hollywood, Silver Lake and Echo Park, it pays to be chosen by Maria Elena Durazo

Los Angeles City Council District 13 Primary Results: Mitch O'Farrell and John Choi Head to May Runoff

In the Los Angeles City Council District 13 race, frontrunners Mitch O'Farrell and John Choi will face each other in a May 21 runoff for one of California's most prized political seats. Past CD 13 council members have made strong runs for mayor and have served in the state legislature. With 100 per ... More >>

Los Angeles City Controller Primary: Absentee Ballot Results Show Dennis Zine Ahead of Ron Galperin

In the Los Angeles City Controller race, frontrunners Dennis Zine, Cary Brazeman, and Ron Galperin are duking it out. Zine raised more money than his two rivals -- $811,000 to Galperin's $362,000 and Brazeman's $215,000 -- but Galperin got a Los Angeles Times endorsement. As of now, Zine leads with ... More >>

Los Angeles City Council District 13 Primary: Absentee Ballot Results Show Hollywood Activist Sam Kbushyan Leading Frontrunners

In the Los Angeles City Council District 13 race, frontrunners Mitch O'Farrell, Matt Szabo, Alex De Ocampo, and John Choi are facing each other in a competitive race for one of California's most prized political seats. Past CD 13 council members have made strong runs for mayor and have served in the ... More >>

Los Angeles City Council District 11 Primary: Absentee Ballot Results Show Mike Bonin Leading by Large Margin

In the Los Angeles City Council District 11 race, frontrunner Mike Bonin, the longtime chief of staff to outgoing District 11 Councilman Bill Rosendahl, is expected to win big. But just how big? Will he grab more than 50 percent tonight and avoid a May runoff? As of now, Bonin is cleaning up with 6 ... More >>

Los Angeles City Council District 13 Primary Results: Dark horse Sam Kbushyan Hangs Tough with Frontrunners John Choi and Mitch O'Farrell

In the Los Angeles City Council District 13 race, dark horse candidate Sam Kbushyan, who was ignored by nearly all media, is keeping pace with frontrunners Mitch O'Farrell and John Choi in a competitive race for one of California's most prized political seats. Past CD 13 council members have made st ... More >>

Los Angeles City Controller Primary Results: Ron Galperin and Dennis Zine Spar in Close Contest

In the Los Angeles City Controller race, frontrunners Dennis Zine and Ron Galperin are duking it out. Zine raised more money -- $811,000 to Galperin's $362,000 -- but Galperin got a Los Angeles Times endorsement and is keeping things close. A May runoff looks likely. With 30 percent of precincts re ... More >>

Los Angeles City Council District 11 Primary Results: Mike Bonin Running Away with Race

In the Los Angeles City Council District 11 race, frontrunner Mike Bonin, the longtime chief of staff to outgoing District 11 Councilman Bill Rosendahl, is expected to win big. But just how big? Will he grab more than 50 percent tonight and avoid a May runoff? With more than 30 percent of precincts ... More >>

L.A. Sales Tax Hike: Will $211 Million Increase Fix City's Problems?

Do people trust the City Council?

L.A. City Council District 13 March Election

Hollywood and Tri-Hipster Area Produces Power Players

Eric Garcetti Is Not Endorsing A Candidate For His Council Seat, But The Candidates Are Endorsing Him

Councilman Eric Garcetti is leaving the 13th council district after three terms, and from the looks of things, he's quite popular there.Garcetti has not endorsed a successor, but all the candidates seem eager to tout their affiliation with him. The latest example of this is a mailer from Matt Szabo ... More >>

Will Los Angeles City Council District 13 Candidates Fully Address Hollywood's Affordable Housing Crisis?

Will candidates for the highly competitive Los Angeles City Council District 13 race ever seriously talk about and offer solutions for the affordable housing crisis in Hollywood and other parts of the city? That's what Coalition for Economic Survival was wondering when it attended a candidates' foru ... More >>

John Choi, Candidate For 13th Council District, Says Labor Will "Be On The Inside" If He Wins

Everybody panders a bit when they go for a labor endorsement. But at the recent SEIU endorsement meeting, John Choi set the bar for pandering very high.Choi, a candidate to replace L.A. Councilman Eric Garcetti in the 13th council district, promised that if elected, labor would "be on the inside" wh ... More >>

Measure J Transit Tax -- Too Soon?

'Temporary' hike would last to 2068, after most current voters are dead

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Absent From TV Ad For Transit Ballot Measure

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has a chance to end his term on a high note by securing passage of Measure J, the half-cent sales tax extension to fund transportation projects.The measure needs a 2/3 vote, and internal polling shows it very close to that threshold. The mayor is the key figure behind the ... More >>

Measure J: Transit Tax Extension Holds Narrow Margin in Internal Poll, But Needs More Campaign Cash to Win

Update below: Beverly Hills Unified votes to oppose Measure J, board members join No on J effort.A county sales tax measure to accelerate transportation projects has slightly more than the two-thirds level of support required for passage, according to internal polling from the Yes campaign.Measure J ... More >>

L.A. Housing Authority Scandal Blows Up: Mayor Villaraigosa Knew About CEO Payout, Despite LA Times Report

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 unra ... More >>

Occupy L.A.: City Hall Plans To Clear The Camp As Early As Monday

​Updated below with details from today's meeting. L.A. City Hall officials informed representatives of Occupy L.A. today that they intend to clear out the two-month-old encampment sometime next week.The Occupiers will be given 72 hours' notice to pack up and get out. City officials said the "evacu ... More >>

Giovanni Ramirez, Bryan Stow Beating Suspect, Exonerated Upon LAPD Arrest of 2 New Male Suspects, Reports Say

Antonio Villaraigosa and Chief Charlie Beck wrongly announcing that Giovanni Ramirez was the attacker.​Updated at the bottom: Prosecutors allege the suspects cut Stow's tongue. A notably defensive Antonio Villaraigosa was unusually short on words at a press conference this hour with Chief Char ... More >>

Will L.A. Fire Chief Millage Peaks Have the Cojones to Demand Antonio Villaraigosa's Staffers Fill Potholes?

Kyle T. WebsterL.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa​Yet another budgetary dust up is developing at Los Angeles City Hall this week, this time involving Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles Fire Department brass, whose 51 assistants may have to hit the streets to help fight fires due to a may ... More >>

Mayoral Ticket Scandal: Villaraigosa's Office Claims He Didn't Have Actual Seats To Some Events

​Politics is sometimes the fine art of b.s. In the case of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's tickets scandal, you have to trust your nose. His camp has stated that the mayor can accept valuable tickets without reporting the source and value, as required with other gifts, because he goes to events t ... More >>

City Hall's 2010 DWP Debacle

How Beutner, Carr, Carson, D'Arcy, Freeman, Greuel, Raj, Santana, Szabo, Villaraigosa & Co. pushed L.A. to the cliff edge

L.A. Council Wants Control Of Department Of Water And Power

​As the mayor's office continued to argue for the need for Department of Water and Power rate hikes, the City Council on Wednesday approved motions that would put council control of the department before voters. Councilman Greig Smith introduced the idea of a ballot initiative that, if appro ... More >>

Can Villaraigosa Furlough L.A. City Workers? In a Word, No

​Today the mayor announced a plan to furlough non-public safety employees two days a week, starting next Monday, in order to prevent the city from running out of cash.Sounds impressive, but it won't happen. Under the contract with the Coalition of L.A. City Unions, the mayor has no authority to fu ... More >>

UPDATE: Sending Trutanich to His Corner

In layoff roulette, mayor aims at city attorney but City Council won't pull trigger

Villaraigosa to Announce Governor Plans Today

The Associated Press and other sources report that L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will make an announcement today concerning his gubernatorial ambitions on The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer. The source for the story is Villaraigosa's City Hall spokesman, Matt Szabo. The CNN program will air at 1 ... More >>

Jill Stewart hits $178,789 City Council pay on KCET tonight

The folks at KCET asked me to do a two-minute essay about the Los Angeles City Council, the highest paid such body in the nation, and whether they should take a far bigger salary cut than the mere 10 percent being bandied about lately. My views air on SoCal Connected later tonight and on subsequent& ... More >>

Bratton: L.A. Is as Safe as 1956

Except the chief is manipulating numbers and acting like a politician

Pen Pushers Break Bank: Cash-Strapped L.A. City Hall Spends $1 Million on Calligraphy

Despite fiscal free fall, Villaraigosa and City Council spend public money on scrolls

Measure B: Tweet Against the Machine

How L.A. City Hall power was struck down by blogs and online social networks

Villaraigosa Paying a 'Living Wage' to Experienced Gang Bangers

By Daniel HeimpelIt's harder to get a job these days, but with a degree in Los Angeles gang-banging, you can apply to the city for a "living wage" of up to $30,000--with health insurance. Thugs who claim to have reformed, like Marlo "Bow Wow" Jones, who was recently arrested  for jacking rapper ... More >>

Villaraigosa releases secret anti-gang list from GRYD

By Daniel HeimpelA couple weeks back I asked L.A. gang czar Rev. Jeff Carr, who were the people doling out millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to largely untested non-profits who will try to prevent kids from joining gangs. Carr told me, in broad outlines, the kind of people who were on the govern ... More >>

Why Do Secret Citizens Control the Gang Contracting?

Villaraigosa says they have to be anonymous. A dead city attorney told him so

The 11 Percent Mayor Villaraigosa Lashes Back

Blasting L.A. Weekly, he says we relied on bad facts. Aides say he misspoke

Villaraigosa, the All About Me Mayor, Is Still 11 Percent There

Delgadillo, Villaraigosa and L.A'.s 2008 Anti-Gang Tax

You have to wonder if Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles City Council will come up with another "anti-gang program" that fails to woo a single kid away from gangs, now that Antonio Villaraigosa and Rocky Delgadillo are openly showing how much they loathe one another. If you didn't catch it, t ... More >>

The All-About-Me Mayor: Antonio Villaraigosa's Frenetic Self-Promotion

Hours of travel, fund-raising and PR leave little time for his job

Antonio Pinocchiosa and His Police Tax

The mayor gets caught with his hands in a $137 million cookie jar

Is Antonio Lying About Taxes?

The mayor says he allowed a record deficit, not knowing the economy had soured

Library Book Liberation Front: Don't Tax Library Books

Apolitical L.A. roars at deficit-mired Villaraigosa

Villaraigosa's Dead-End Pico and Olympic One-Way Plan ...

... hits the wall at Fairfax

Better Than Phone Tax

Villaraigosa makes a Lazarus play to keep alive a pricey, illegal tax on residents

Antonio's Kitchen Cabinet

A team advises the mayor how to fix troubled high schools. Most haven’t fixed any.

Meruelo Maddux’s Missing Asbestos

A company chaired by Villaraigosa’s biggest fat-cat contributor refuses to say where all that asbestos went

Slammed for Secret Asbestos Removal

A company chaired by Villaraigosa’s biggest fat-cat contributor refuses to say where all that asbestos went. Originally published April 5 – updated April 11

Serving Two Masters

City pension boards plan to pour a king’s ransom into urban real estate pushed by insiders like Henry Cisneros

L.A.’s Slow March to Peace