Friday, December 12, 2008

School Notes

The L.A. school board on Tuesday approved plans for a campus at Angels Gate. Read the story in the Daily Breeze.

San Pedro High School cheered its new gym in a ceremony Thursday night. The Daily Breeze headline “Pirates treasure new gym” expresses the school’s enthusiasm for the new facility. View the photo album here.

Big game today – The San Pedro and Narbonne high school football teams are competing for the L.A. City Section Championship at 1 p.m. at the Coliseum today. The Pirate Booster Club is offering free bus rides from San Pedro High School at 11 a.m. The game will be rebroadcast Sunday at 8 a.m. on KLCS (the school district station) and at 2:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Sunday on LA36 (the L.A. city station), according to the Daily Breeze Pure Preps blog.

5 comments:

IronHead433 said...

21 - 21

Anonymous said...

Sunshine for Solar
GuestWords
By Jack Humphreville

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council placed the multibillion dollar Solar Energy measure on the March ballot (Proposition B) with very little financial or operational input from the Department of Water and Power. Of course, DWP was not aware of the program that had been in the works for almost two years until contacted by a Los Angeles Times reporter a few days before the Mayor’s grand announcement.

Now compare this to Edison which has filed reams of documents relating to its rooftop solar project with the Public Utility Commission and its Division of Ratepayer Advocates, which has a detailed analysis of the cost to Rate Payers.

And where are the DWP’s audited financials for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008? If DWP were held to the same requirements as Edison, the audits would have been available on or before September 30. Edison is even held to a higher standard. For example, Edison is required to disclose on its balance sheet unfunded pensions and post retirement medical benefits. One stumbling block may involve the co-mingling of DWP funds with those of the budget challenged City.

And where is the Industrial, Economic and Administrative Survey that is mandated every five years by the City Charter? This strategic review of DWP’s operations, finances, and management was due in October 2007, over a year ago. Many issues need to be addressed, including the progress made by DWP since the previous survey. From what we understand, a significant portion of the IEA Survey has been completed, but is being “reviewed” by the City Hall insiders.

So how do we explain City Hall’s uninformed decision to place this multibillion solar project, the largest in DWP history, on the ballot, even though an ordinance would accomplish the same end (other than elimination of competitive bidding)? Very simple: follow the cash!

For a few million dollars in campaign contributions by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (the DWP union that represents 95% of DWP’s workers), the Mayor (up for reelection), Jack Weiss (candidate for City Attorney), Wendy Greuel (candidate for Controller), and the seven other Council Members who are up for reelection … are willing to forego competitive bidding and grant the IBEW a monopoly on all work that will cost the Rate Payers several hundred million dollars! It’s really that simple.

If you support Solar Power, Vote NO on Proposition B. Solar Yes, Prop B No.

http://www.citywatchla.com

IronHead433 said...

""Anonymous said""

Come out from behind the curtain......

Anonymous said...

""IronHead433 said""

"Come out from behind the curtain......"

Anonymous said...

Analysis calls ambitious L.A. solar plan 'extremely risky'
An outside consultant says Measure B, which easily made the March 3 ballot, is more costly than portrayed by the city's Department of Water and Power.

By David Zahniser
December 19, 2008


Opponents have called Measure B a backdoor mechanism to make voters sign off on a huge package of DWP rate increases. And they accused Garcetti and Miller of concealing the findings of the private analysts, P.A. Consulting Group.

"That's the problem with City Hall," said former DWP Commission President Nick Patsaouras, who opposes Measure B and is running for city controller. "They think the average taxpayer is not smart enough to tell them the truth."

In a Nov. 4 e-mail obtained by The Times, Miller told Garcetti that he entered into a "quick contract with a very reputable firm" to study the solar plan at Garcetti's request. He offered to keep the analysis from other council members even as he complained that DWP officials had failed to do their own thorough analysis of the measure. "It concerns me greatly that the department did not come forward with this information themselves," Miller wrote. "It would have been as available to them as it was to me."

Miller later concluded: "Since this request came directly from you, I am not sharing this with [Councilwoman] Wendy [Greuel] or the other members until you clear it."

L.A. Times: http://www.latimes.com