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ERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - As Angelenos swelter through July, LA’s local leaders are sweating too—not from the heat, but from the faint worry that their cushy routine of snack budgets, no-bid contracts, six-figure salaries, and endless summer breaks might finally be at risk. Governing in LaLa Land.
A trifle... will do the trick!
Cream Puff Council, Supersized Supervisors (Corrected)
City Councilmembers make $238,478 a year for roughly 124 meetings—$1,924 per session, cheaper than a Dodgers front-row seat, with fewer snacks and a stronger whiff of failure.
Supervisors earn $226,000 for about 44 meetings—$5,144 a pop—factoring in recesses, holiday closures, and days off to rename parks after donors.
Both gigs come with an army of staff and interns, and generous time off. City Council gets two to three weeks off-camera in summer; Supervisors coast through August and December with barely a quorum.
City Council’s a cream puff gig; Supervisors add gold leaf frosting.
Before hibernating, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson crowned Bob Blumenfield “public service champ.” Nothing screams champ like coasting into recess while pedestrian deaths multiply and renters panic.
Beaches in California are public, FYI.
County Board: Summer Snack Governance
Tuesday, the five Supervisors overseeing a $48 billion bureaucracy tackle LA’s crises with flair: approving a $1 million sole-source PR contract to the California Mental Health Services Authority for Instagram ads to lure mental health workers. Hashtags: solving the psychiatric workforce crisis, one click at a time.
They’ll extend emergency procurement powers for January’s fires and windstorms. LA declares so many emergencies, they deserve a loyalty card: ten crises, one no-bid contract free.
The County is spending over $200,000 to keep Probation staff and juvenile halls stocked with snacks—chips for meetings, cookies for youth events, Cheetos for detained kids in treatment. Innovative approach to systemic failure using Flamin’ Hots as therapy tools.
Juvenile halls will also get airport-style body scanners and canine units. Snacks and surveillance: the County’s rehab plan.
A mega motion demands six departments, plus First 5 LA and the Office of Immigrant Affairs, produce disaggregated no-show data, guardianship protocols, and social media campaigns. Immigrant families need housing, not PowerPoints.
Beach sand replenishment for five coastal sites is sold as public safety, but developers and gentrifiers cheer while taxpayers pay. Meanwhile, record numbers of seals and dolphins wash up dead along our warming coast, casualties of toxic blooms ignored by a snack-obsessed Board.
Smart Speaker: Can we have a round of applause for Supervisor Horvath and a bucket of fish for Flipper! (APPLAUSE!)
LACMA gets parkland rent-free for a decade; residents pay $25 to enter. Public service, redefined.
The CARE Court alignment plan promises to “align timelines and convene stakeholder forums”—reform’s favorite costume, with zero results. [See JCOD failure at bottom]
A closed-session lawsuit, buried in the supplemental agenda, hints at the California Attorney General suing the County for something serious enough to hide where transparency dies.
And Sarah Mahin’s $375,000 salary as Homeless Services Director proves LA’s crisis needs one more administrator while tents line every sidewalk. If Supervisors housed people like they fund chips, LA would be Copenhagen. But Copenhagen has public bathrooms, too.
WANTED: Purple Hearts to receive Honorary Scroll!
Measure G: Bureaucracy’s Summer Project
Wednesday at 5pm, the Governance Reform Task Force, led by Pomona College professor Sara Sadhwani, meets to implement Measure G—voter-approved reforms to expand the Board from five to nine and create an ethics commission.
Their first meeting was performative gravitas: land acknowledgments, self-congratulation, zero deliverables. Now, they’re forming a subcommittee to draft bylaws for governing their own governing. Lofty goals include public budget hearings and a 2026 ethics commission. Nothing says accountability like more leaders studying leadership.
Sadhwani and Fernando Guerra, LA’s go-to governance experts, earned Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s praise for their brilliance recently. In Steve Lopez’s snoozerview, Guerra called Mayor Bass a “coalition builder” recalibrating to confront Trump, while Sadhwani praised her “strong leadership” against federal overreach, dodging local failures. Ask them for a plan to fix sidewalks or unlock bathrooms. You’ll get a subcommittee.
Find information on oddly scheduled meetings here: LA BOS
Olympics, FIFA, and Fan Safety
While leaders dream of FIFA and Olympic glory, LA’s infrastructure crumbles. Mega-events need safe streets, transit, and bathrooms, but with tents on sidewalks and potholes growing, the City and County can’t guarantee fans won’t trip en route to the stadium.
Sadhwani and Guerra, basking in Horvath’s praise for their brave insider takes, are too busy giving her a performative diversity moment to notice. Another glossy promise, another taxpayer bill.
Locked Bathrooms, Unlocked Absurdity
ICE agents were caught peeing on a local elementary school campus, joining unhoused Angelenos in the city’s grim bathroom lottery. Public restrooms are scarcer than honest lobbyists because park bathrooms stay locked till 10am.
Meanwhile, the new Intuit Dome boasts more than 1,100 toilets—a national stadium record. No word yet if ICE agents can drop in to unload a --
Get him out of here!
While fans flush in style, LA waits for leaders who prioritize sanitation over $1M PR campaigns.
Another day, another six-month delay. [JCOD failure]
On February 21, 2025, I requested a simple spreadsheet of Justice Care and Opportunity Department (JCOD) grants. Five months later, LA County Counsel sent partial data, claiming compliance. I asked the obvious follow-up: “Where’s the $41.6 million in grants going? Who are the ‘treasured’ NGO partners getting paid for these programs?”
Their July 7 response: “We’re still searching. Check back August 25.”
Six months to produce basic expenditure data on public funds—transparency, LA County style.
Meanwhile, the Board of Supervisors convenes Measure G meetings to draft bylaws for “accountability.” Irony so thick it needs a subcommittee.
They can list $41.6 million in grants on two pages flat but need half a year to say where it went.
Transparency isn’t a structure you build. It’s a muscle you use.
Get with it, BOS
Barbara Ferrer, #HorvathTownHall
Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Director of L.A. County Department of Public Health with Miguel A. Santana...
Trump's disastrous cuts to public health are going to affect LA County -- Supervisor Hovath says we "can plan ahead, and we can fight back."
Join @lapublichealth Director Dr. Ferrer and Horvath for a Telephone Town Hall TOMORROW, Tuesday July 8 at 6pm on the federal funding cuts. Dial in here: 855-905-3299
You can also tune in online here: access.live/horvathtownhall
(Eric Preven is a Studio City-based TV writer-producer, award-winning journalist, and longtime community activist who won two landmark open government cases in California.)
