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ERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - Roughly five times as many people tuned in to the County stream as the City Hall feed this week. That says a lot about where the stakes — or at least the drama — live right now. County meetings pull big numbers when you mix high-dollar contracts, disaster declarations, and a whiff of scandal. City Hall? Even with big-ticket issues, they’re lucky to get stragglers — partly because they’ve made public participation harder, partly because their agendas often feel ceremonial, not consequential.
A masked LA City Attorney also warns speakers that they will comply or face consequences.
Board of Supervisors Meeting — August 12, 2025
Duration: 127 pages of transcript
Closed Session: Several hours behind the curtain
Act I: Highlighted Exchange – Janice Hahn & Fesia Davenport
During a discussion about relocating administrative operations to the Gas Company Tower, Supervisor Janice Hahn and CEO Fesia Davenport engaged in a tense back-and-forth. Davenport described moving non-public-facing administrative staff there while keeping constituent-facing departments in place. Hahn interjected that it was “the first time” she’d heard Davenport say they would “build a new space” for homelessness-related services. Davenport tried to clarify mid-sentence that she wasn’t proposing a whole new building — just a carved-out portion or cubicles — but Hahn kept circling back to insist “build” appear in the report back. The overlapping remarks made the subtext plain: Hahn pressing for precision, Davenport trying to retreat from it.
The So-Called Global Outage
Phones went dead. Staff blamed an “AT&T global outage.” Convenient timing, given a stacked public comment queue. Lindsey Horvath couldn’t resist twisting the knife — noting with a smile that at LACMTA, “we don’t have these problems.” That’s not just a jab at AT&T; that’s a diss at County IT… while wearing an off-the-shoulder number. 🚨 cc: Hugo.
Lindsey P. Horvath with right shoulder exposed hours before late summer holiday time...
Return from the Void
I came in hot: “I like repetition,” I said, before praising City Hall for disclosing Covington & Burling’s $1,000/hour rates, contrasting it with County opacity. Urged philanthropy to plug the SNAP hole. Called the federal drip-drip of bad news a “torrent.” Finished with: “Are you [expletive] kidding me?”
Noonish
I defended keeping the Kenn Hahn auditorium and Superior court as vibrant public spaces, mocked the optics of retreating into the tower, saluted Nella of Central City Association for good work, and cautioned, “Let’s not criticize the McCoskers for the (high-rise) subsidy program.”
The Wind-Down
Took aim at $12 million for graffiti removal (“gets my goat”), called for inspiration, questioned auctioning Malibu coastline, and pushed for accountability on $4.2M in World Cup security. Slipped in “don’t get Davenport—Debbie Downer—started” and pitched branding rights for County buildings: “Hilda Solis Village” exists… where’s the “Lindsey Horvath Tower”?
Public Comment Mood
The outage thinned the list, but those who made it brought sharper edges. Skepticism on spending, fatigue over transparency gaps, and PR jabs all landed.
Note: To: Edward Yen Cc: Norayr Zurabyan
Kudos to the Executive Office for staging one of the most chaotic meetings in modern board history — so tangled it raised questions beyond the questions.
Horvath opened with a jab at AT&T, and from there the day only grew more… educational. The Webex access number — 25337217980, then 2672025 — will live in infamy as the humiliating backup plan that somehow became the main event.
An achievement in its own way.
Where’s the transcript?
Best,
Eric Preven
One Sharp Location Recommendation
If the Supervisors must vanish for three weeks, I say: All five to Copenhagen, Denmark — rent a group bike, pedal the streets like a visiting municipal dream team. Horvath can hygge. Mitchell can compare equity plans. Hahn can measure ferry potential in the harbor. Barger can price out public safety. Solis can work the immigrant integration angle. Everyone comes back with pastry crumbs on their lapels and zero excuses about not collaborating.
Note: Hygge (pronounced roughly hoo-guh) is a Danish and Norwegian word that describes a mood of coziness, comfort, and contentment.
City Council — August 13, 2025
John Lee, CD12, is exempt from City Council rules banning signage larger than 8½×11 inches as he ignores public speakers with colleagues Heather Hutt, CD10, and Eunisses Hernandez, CD1.
On the very day Councilmember Curren Price was conspicuously absent—and amid reports that two additional felony charges were heading his way—Councilmember John Lee and Heather Hutt took the dais to shine a spotlight on Robert Ahn, President of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles (KAFLA) also a veteran Los Angeles civic figure: an attorney, former Los Angeles City Planning Commissioner (2013–2017), and the 2017 CA-34 congressional runoff opponent to Jimmy Gomez, in which he raised over $550,000
Deeply moving.
Settlement Round-Up
The City quietly signed off on a $2.81 million payout to Orion Security Solutions over a contract dispute, plus $1.15 million to Maria Lopez for a “dangerous condition of public property” claim. Below that tier were six settlements ranging from $120,000 to $895,000, covering wrongful death, excessive force, medical negligence, and false imprisonment.
Total for the day: $6,410,352 — without a single word of debate from the Council.
Wayne Spindler
The meeting’s volcanic interlude came when Spindler lobbed a C-word at Council, prompting the Council President’s Rule 7 lecture and the City Attorney’s helpful clarification: yes, “that is for the use of the C word.” He said, Moonicow Cuntriguez.
Spindler then switched to a different weapon: the United States Constitution. For each item on the agenda, he invoked the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments like a stuck record — claiming he couldn’t comment “on the advice of counsel.” He repeated the refrain half a dozen times before shifting into an indictment rant, producing a snack for Eunisses Hernandez, and wishing Council members a buffet of terminal illnesses.
Item 72 was the verbal-update fig leaf for the LA Alliance for Human Rights case — “no action will be taken” but still hustled into closed session under Government Code §§ 54956.9(d)(1), (d)(2), and (e)(2). That’s McOsker’s version of transparency: disappear for an hour-plus, come back with a shrug and a “nothing to report” on one of the most consequential homelessness lawsuits in city history.
And yes, while that was happening, Imelda Padilla floated her “adopt-a-campus” concept to make kids feel safe on the first day of school. Staff, get in there!
The Ministry of the People
COUNCIL PRESIDENT
“All right, thank you so much, everybody. That concludes public comment. We will have a couple of quick announcements before we go to further business and a very, very special one — first from our own Councilmember Raman.”
Raman beams, introduces her visiting parents from Boston. A few polite claps. Cut to the parents smiling politely, not yet knowing they are about to witness a lien ballet
Nithya Raman's CD4 Parents, who reportedly played tennis in Studio City pre-Harvard-Westlake partition!
SMART SPEAKER
In 1984, Orwell called it the “Ministry of Truth.” Here in Los Angeles, we have the “Ethics Commission” and the “Public Integrity Division.” Both sound like watchdogs, but they’re more like therapy dogs for the powerful — friendly, compliant, and trained to look the other way. For regular folks? Oh, there’s enforcement. Piles of it. $356 inspection fees, $660 non-compliance fees, $2,310 late penalties, doubled permit costs, modification fees, and liens that wreck your credit.
And who decides whether that lien lives or dies? Not a judge. Not a jury. Your City Council. The Ministry of the People.
Lien Mill Highlights
McOsker moved to waive late fees and interest for two properties because the owners “came and settled.” Padilla and Park secured continuances and similar waivers for others. Rodriguez bumped one to September. To Boston-parent eyes, it might look like “responsive government.” To City Hall veterans, it’s the lien mill in motion — squeeze penalties out on one end, wash them away on the other, all with a smile and a gavel tap.
The Svengali to the Svengalis - Rick Cole's Presentation link
Civil Service principles should be in the Charter; Detailed Rules Should Not
Smart Speaker: Thank you, Rick. Honestly — thank you for that crisp, well-branded PowerPoint on how government could work… in a parallel universe where the public is just a charming prop in your org chart.
I mean, it’s inspiring to hear about Chief Operating Officers, five-year capital plans, and Trader Joe ’ s-level customer service… but here in Los Angeles? We can’t even guarantee a two-minute comment without the council president cutting the mic.
So yes, Rick — thank you for reminding us that in this building, the system gets more design attention than the people it’s supposed to serve. And a system without the people is not the right system — it’s a private club.
We’ve already got the centralization you crave — the real action happens before the public ever sees the agenda. We’ve already got performance metrics — they just measure how efficiently dissent is removed from the room.
And banning words? Brilliant. Nothing says ‘effective governance’ like wasting money and time policing vocabulary while homelessness, corruption, and scandal pile up like uncollected liens.
You’re smart, Rick. We’re not stupid. The public isn’t asking for another layer of management — we’re asking for the right to be heard, without games, without velvet ropes, without being shuffled out like an inconvenience.
So thank you, sincerely, for showing us exactly what reform looks like when you leave the people out. It’s not reform. It’s rearranging deck chairs.
(Eric Preven is a Studio City-based television writer-producer, award-winning journalist, and longtime community activist. He is known for his sharp commentary on transparency and accountability in local government. Eric successfully brought and won two landmark open government cases in California, reinforcing the public’s right to know. A regular contributor to CityWatch, he combines investigative insight with grassroots advocacy to shine a light on civic issues across Los Angeles.)
