Villaraigosa heads to Mexico for cultural event and business meetings

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is scheduled to visit Mexico over the next four days to lead a delegation of authors, artists, filmmakers and musicians to the 2009 Guadalajara International Book Fair, where Los Angeles has been declared the guest of honor.

Villaraigosa also plans to meet with business leaders in Guadalajara and Mexico City to encourage investment in Los Angeles, according to a statement released by his press office.

--Phil Willon

L.A. faces $1-billion deficit by 2013; budget chief calls for pension reforms

Los Angeles could be facing a $1-billion deficit by the time Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wraps up his second term in 2013, a dire forecast driven primarily by escalating employee pension costs and stagnant tax revenues, the city’s top budget analyst said today.

The grim budget outlook comes a day after the city’s credit rating was downgraded by Fitch Ratings, which will probably make it more expensive for the city to borrow money.

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, L.A.'s top budget official, told the City Council that deep, severe cuts to departments and services are unavoidable if the city hopes to repair its finances, and that both the mayor and council must consider creative ways to raise revenue, including privatizing the Los Angeles Convention Center and L.A. Zoo.

Closing the budget shortfalls in the years ahead also will require significant reform of the city pension systems, such as creating a lower tier of benefits for retiring city employees. That would require voter approval, Santana told the council.

L.A. credit rating takes a hit in light of grim budget outlook

Los Angeles is about to pay a price for its financial woes.

The city’s credit was downgraded today by Fitch Ratings on $2.94 billion in debt, meaning that borrowing money will become more expensive for Los Angeles as it grapples with a $98-million current-year budget shortfall and faces the prospect of graver fiscal woes in the years ahead.

The financial ratings service credited Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council for taking aggressive action to whittle down the budget gap, but added it wasn’t enough and that the ratings outlook for the city remains negative. Fitch Ratings, in a statement released today, said the “city’s economic decline, as evidenced by high unemployment, sales tax weakness, assessed value losses and high home foreclosure ... will impede financial recovery."

“It signals that we have some very difficult choices to make in the future," said Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, the city’s top budget official. “We simply cannot be spending at the rate that we have in the past."

Tomorrow, Santana is scheduled to brief the council on the downgrade, as well as the city’s financial status.

Council President Eric Garcetti said the rating downgrade shows that the city still needs to make sweeping structural changes to its $7.05-billion budget. Even after winning concessions from city unions, including pay cuts and an early retirement program, the city still faces a $98-million shortfall in the current budget year and a $408-million budget gap next year.

-- Phil Willon at L.A. City Hall

L.A. gets $60-million stimulus grant for 'smart grid' electric power system

The federal government today awarded Los Angeles a $60-million grant to help modernize the city’s electrical power system.

The money will be used for “smart grid" demonstration projects at USC and UCLA. The projects will allow the city’s Department of Water and Power, the largest municipal utility in the nation, to use advanced meters and other technology at the universities to chart how power is being consumed, forecast demand and potential outages, and seek ways to reduce energy use.

The projects will include efforts to integrate plug-in hybrid electric vehicles onto the grid.
 
The grant is among $620 million that the U.S. Department of Energy awarded for demonstration projects across the country and is funded by the federal stimulus program.

“We’ve said from the beginning that much of what we’re doing here in Los Angeles can and will be replicated nationally," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said during a morning news conference with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis at Los Angeles Trade and Technical College.

Southern California Edison Co. received a $40-million grant for a smart grid demonstration project in Irvine. Edison also received a $24.9-million grant to test utility-scale lithium-ion batteries to store energy from windmills in Tehachapi.
 
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. received a $25-million grant to test underground “compressed air energy storage" near Bakersfield.

-- Phil Willon at L.A. City Hall

Charity Thanksgiving dinners, turkey giveaways planned for Southern California

Several charity Thanksgiving dinners and turkey giveways are planned today in Southern California, highlighted by a dinner tonight hosted by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Cardinal Roger Mahoney for 600 Para Los Ninos children and their families at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Villaraigosa will also give out turkeys and groceries this morning as part of the Jackson Limousine Service’s 23rd annual turkey dinner giveaway. The event begins at 8 a.m. at 3669 W. Slauson Ave. and more than 10,000 people are expected to attend. A line formed outside overnight.

City Councilmen Dennis Zine and Bernard Parks are expected to be on hand as officials from three taxi companies -- Yellow Cab, City Cab and United Checker Cab -- announce plans to donate 200 turkeys to various food banks and charity organizations. Parks will also donate turkeys to 8th District residents from his office at 8475 S. Vermont Ave. 

L.A. Council candidates trade accusations over ties to Villaraigosa

With just two weeks before the Dec. 8 runoff election, accusations are flying between the two candidates vying to replace former Los Angeles City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel in the 2nd District, which stretches from Sherman Oaks and Studio City to Sunland-Tujunga.

Last week, Assemblyman Paul Krekorian sent a mailer depicting his opponent, former Paramount Pictures executive Christine Essel, as the “consummate downtown political insider” and trying to link her to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had a weak showing in the San Fernando Valley in his March re-election campaign.

Krekorian’s brochure included a 2000 letter sent on official stationery by then-Assembly Speaker Villaraigosa expressing gratitude to Essel for hosting a meet-and-greet at her home. The mailer claimed the letter thanked Essel “for launching his mayoral campaign with a fundraiser.”

But Essel’s campaign said the event had nothing to do with Villaraigosa’s mayoral campaign and no money was raised for him at the event.  A Villaraigosa spokeswoman confirmed those statements.

Villaraigosa was just one of a number of guests, including state Treasurer Bill Lockyer and state Sen. Carol Liu, invited by Essel to speak to a group of women at her home on different occasions, according to her campaign.

Essel’s spokesman said she has never hosted a fundraiser for Villaraigosa. She gave him a total of $1,000 for his mayoral campaign in 1999 and 2001, according to the city's ethics website.

L.A. mayor selects new housing chief from Chicago

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today announced his selection of Douglas Guthrie to become the new general manager of the city’s Housing Department.

Guthrie, a former top official at the Chicago Housing Authority, most recently worked with private ventures focused on affordable urban development and the redevelopment of old public housing into mixed-use city centers.

Guthrie served for six years as president of Kimball Hill Urban Centers in Chicago, which built mixed-income affordable housing in many depressed city centers that most traditional developers would avoid, including a project with former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, one of Villaraigosa’s long-time political supporters.

L.A. City Council lists top 10 places where bureaucracy makes it hard to film

The Los Angeles City Council, in an attempt to stem runaway production and make television and motion picture filming less of a hassle in the city, ordered up a list of the 10 most popular locations where bureaucratic regulations and other factors make it hard to film, with hopes of eventually fixing the situation.

The worst of the worst are, in no particular order: the

• Hollywood sign.

• Griffith Park Observatory.

• Los Angeles Zoo.

• Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce headquarters.

• AT&T Building downtown.

• Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center.

• Farmers and Merchants Bank downtown.

• Japanese American National Museum.

• Library Park, also known as Maguire Gardens, at the Los Angeles Central Library.

• Terminal Annex Post Office near Union Station downtown.

The city’s financial analysts compiled the list with the help of film industry location managers through their union, the Motion Picture and Theatrical Trade Teamsters Local 399.

The location mangers said those sites are difficult to film for a variety of reasons, including rental costs, difficulty securing permits, government regulations restricting public access and even things such as restrictions on providing food for crew members.

“Los Angeles is the film capital of the world, but there are too many places in which we tell filming to go away,’’ said Council President Eric Garcetti.
 

Charlie Beck named L.A.'s new chief of police

The Los Angeles City Council today appointed Charlie Beck as the city's new police chief.

The council unanimously approved Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's nomination at a hearing this morning. There was no organized opposition to the nomination of Beck, currently an LAPD deputy chief, but the stakes are high.

The choice comes at a time of uncertainty for the department as Beck will be given the task of sustaining former Police Chief William J. Bratton’s hard-won gains amid dwindling city budgets. Beck, 56, has risen quickly through the department’s command ranks in recent years and was viewed widely as the favorite to be selected by the mayor.

From his success in rehabilitating the Rampart Division, which had been at the center of a corruption scandal, and later as head of the LAPD’s forces in South Los Angeles, he has earned praise from police and civic leaders for blending a tough stance on crime with a progressive approach to improving the police department’s relationship with the public.

L.A. mayor and teachers union to compete for control of Jefferson High

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the teachers union will compete for control of Jefferson High School under one of the nation’s most closely watched school-improvement initiatives. Today marks the first key deadline — the final day for groups inside or outside the Los Angeles Unified School District to turn in “letters of intent” for reform plans.

Up for grabs are 12 struggling existing schools and 18 campuses that are scheduled to open next fall.

The joust over Jefferson, located in the Central Alameda neighborhood south of downtown Los Angeles, was both revealed and underscored by dueling news conferences this morning. United Teachers Los Angeles struck first, at 7 a.m., in front of the Jefferson entrance. The timing had more to do with allowing students and teachers to participate before the start of school than with upstaging the mayor, but the rhetoric was nonetheless defiant toward outside forces seeking to take over.

“Politicians have to stop using public education as their means to beat their chests,” said UTLA President A.J. Duffy. “As they say in the commodities market, this is all about their futures -- their political futures.”

30 L.A. schools: Who gets to run them? Key deadline today in reform plan

Today marks the first key deadline for a much-watched school-reform plan that allows groups inside or outside the Los Angeles Unified School District to bid for control of 12 struggling schools as well as 18 newly constructed campuses. Groups must turn in “letters of intent” by the end of the day signaling their plans to submit full-fledged bids by Jan. 11. [Note, an earlier headline for this post mistakenly said 12 schools instead of 30.]

The reform effort will be highlighted at two competing news conferences, the first one called by the school district’s teachers union and the other by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The United Teachers Los Angeles event, at Jefferson High School in Central Alameda, was set to start at 7 a.m., to allow teachers to participate before their classes begin.  UTLA has predicted that groups of teachers will submit bids for every school on the list.

As of Friday, groups apparently spearheaded by teachers had turned in letters of intent for Griffith Joyner Elementary in Watts and Hyde Park Elementary in Hyde Park as well as Jefferson High.

At Jefferson, UTLA’s leadership also is expected to offer its first reaction to Friday’s forecast by L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines that employees should accept a 12% pay cut as well as furlough days for next year.

L.A. law group offers to help needy vets battle bureaucracy [Updated]

A Los Angeles-based law organization today launched a new program to provide free legal assistance to veterans who hit bureaucratic roadblocks when filing claims for federal medical and mental health benefits.

Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm, will offer the free service throughout Southern California and, in partnership with other volunteer attorneys, in more than 25 states.

“Many veterans who return home to their families are facing a system that routinely rejects their benefit claims,’’ Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a Veterans Day news conference to announce the effort. “That’s absolutely unacceptable. We can and must do more for our nation’s heroes.”

Public Counsel President Hernán D. Vera said the effort would help the 1.7 million troops deployed to Afghanistan and Iran, many of whom have been denied benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, traumatic brain injury and other combat-related injuries. The program also will help the tens of thousands of homeless veterans living on the nation’s streets to collect government assistance.

“The veterans’ homeless population is skyrocketing. Nearly one out of every four homeless individuals we see on the streets of Los Angeles wore the uniform protecting our country. But only one in 10 receive the government services that they’re entitled to,” Vera said.

The legal program, called the Center for Veterans Advancement, will provide free legal representation in court as well as for administrative proceedings with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration, all branches of the military and with other local and national agencies.

Job training programs set to receive some of L.A.'s federal stimulus money

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today announced that the city is making $10.3 million in federal stimulus money available for worker training programs.

The grants will be issued by the Community Development Department. Of the $10.3 million, $4 million will be used for vocational training for 1,000 workers and $6.3 million will be available to train an estimated 2,000 people for high-wage jobs in healthcare, construction, transportation and other sectors.

Villaraigosa said the city has received $43.7 million in job training funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act so far, and between $300 million and $400 million in overall stimulus money.

-- Phil Willon at L.A. City Hall

L.A. school leaders, community groups to debunk inflammatory flier aimed at undocumented parents [Updated]

Two L.A. Unified School District leaders plan to hold a news conference this morning with community groups to debunk a Spanish-language flier claiming illegal-immigrant parents who sign a petition calling for a charter school will be deported.

[Updated at 8:45 a.m.: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that the teachers union was holding the news conference.]

The 10 a.m. news conference outside the teachers union headquarters in the Wilshire District is the latest development in ongoing disagreements over a proposal to improve 30 struggling or new campuses, with the school district and its teachers union stalled in crucial negotiations.

[Updated at 8:59 a.m.: A previous version of this post said the disagreement was over control of the schools, but actually involves proposals to improve the campuses.]

Becoming a charter school is one option for the 30 campuses designated for reform plans. Charters are independently managed and frequently nonunion. They often have been criticized by United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union, but there is no evidence the union's leadership is responsible for the flier.

Participants in today’s news conference are expected to include school board President Monica Garcia, school board member Yolie Flores Aguilar and representatives of several allied community organizations.

Flores Aguilar authored the resolution that allows groups inside or outside the district to bid for control of new or struggling schools. Garcia is a close ally of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has supported the Flores Aguilar resolution.

L.A. redevelopment chief to leave Villaraigosa administration [Updated]

Cecilia V. Estolano, head of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, said today that she would resign to take a job with an Oakland-based environmental group focused on generating green jobs in underserved neighborhoods.

The departure was the latest sign of a reshuffling in the administration of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, coming one month after he announced the resignation of H. David Nahai, the former head of the Department of Water and Power.

Estolano said that she did not yet know what her title would be at Green for All but that she planned to leave her CRA post at the end of this month. She said she was excited about trying to replicate the city’s job-creation and environmental programs in other communities across the nation.

“This is a great opportunity for us to take what we’ve done in Los Angeles to scale nationally,” said Estolano, who added that she had been talking with the group for a month.

DWP drops plan to hire former Assembly speaker as consultant

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has dropped plans for retaining former state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez as one of the utility’s subcontractors.

The DWP Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to pay Conservation Strategy Group $232,500 over the next six months to monitor legislation and regulatory matters in Sacramento, an amount considerably less than the utility planned to spend two months ago. The panel, whose members are appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, also decided that the utility no longer needs to hire Mercury Public Affairs, a firm that includes Nuñez, as a subcontractor at a rate of $120,000 a year.

The plan for hiring Nunez had drawn fire from some DWP critics. The utility already retains two other former state lawmakers: former Assemblyman Wally Knox, who was hired by DWP General Manager S. David Freeman as a top executive, and former Assemblywoman Cindy Montañez, who works as a $15,000-a-month consultant.

When the lobbying contract was proposed two months ago, DWP Commission President Lee Kanon Alpert questioned whether it was too much. The original proposal called for Conservation Strategy Group to receive up to $600,000 annually.

Villaraigosa wants city buildings opened to TV, film production

To stem the outflow of film and other entertainment production jobs from Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa met this morning with representatives from more than 20 city departments to find ways to make it easier for producers to shoot locally.

Villaraigosa has already ordered general managers to appoint film “liaisons" in every department to help production companies cut through the bureaucracy and coordinate production work. Today he also asked them to identify all city buildings, parking lots and other facilities producers could use for films, television, commercials and other projects, according to a spokesman for the mayor.

The agencies include the Los Angeles Zoo, Department of Water and Power, Port of Los Angeles, Department of Transportation and Department of General Services.

According to the California Film Commission, the state’s share of U.S. feature film production fell to 31% in 2008 from 66% in 2003. Most of that drop-off was in the Los Angeles area, where feature filming in 2008 was nearly half what it was at its peak in 1996.

A survey by FilmL.A. Inc., which coordinates permits for location filming, found that only 57% of all TV pilots were shot in the L.A. area this year, down from 81% in 2004.

The City Council is already considering offering tax refunds to production companies and tax credits to building owners who make their sites available for filming. The council also wants to increase the availability of power nodes downtown so filmmakers don’t have to rely on portable generators, saving money and reducing noise levels for downtown residents.

-- Phil Willon at L.A. City Hall

New LAPD chief to be named this morning

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is scheduled to appoint a new police chief today at 11 a.m. at the Getty House, the mayor's official residence.

Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Charlie Beck, Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell and Deputy Chief Michel Moore met one on one with Villaraigosa on Sunday for about an hour each. The candidates each met with Villaraigosa for several hours last week, and the mayor's request to see them again appeared to indicate that the choice was not an easy one.

Villaraigosa has said that picking the person to succeed William J. Bratton, who departed Saturday after seven years as chief, will be one of the most serious decisions he makes in office.

Beck, McDonnell and Moore each bring unique qualities and leadership styles to the table and would make very different chiefs. With the city facing a severe budget shortfall and general economic woes threatening to push crime higher, Bratton's successor will have the challenging task of continuing to make gains on crime rates -- or at least minimizing losses -- while keeping up morale among the rank and file.

-- Joel Rubin

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Charlie Beck tapped by mayor as new LAPD chief

Sea cucumbers, an Asian delicacy, seized at U.S.-Mexico border

New LAPD chief to be named this morning

MTA's rail-car contract falls apart at last minute, scuttling hundreds of jobs [Updated]

A tentative and controversial deal to build 100 rail cars for Los Angeles County's transit system has fallen through -- taking with it plans to build a $70-million factory that would have created hundreds of local jobs.

Last-minute negotiations failed to result in a contract with AnsaldoBreda, an Italian manufacturer that is three years behind schedule on an existing contract to deliver 50 rail cars to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Despite those delays -- and the delivery of cars that were 6,000 pounds heavier than specified -- AnsaldoBreda was positioned to win the new $300-million contract through an option with a deadline of Friday at midnight.

Just weeks ago, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had hailed the impending deal because the company said it would build the rail cars at a new Los Angeles factory. Villaraigosa had cited a study estimating that the plant would deliver $368 million in economic activity, including 650 factory jobs and close to 1,000 union construction jobs to build the facility. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor had lobbied the MTA board in favor of the contract.

Today, the mayor expressed disappointment. "In these tough economic times, it was important to make every effort to bring good jobs to L.A. and simultaneously exercise due diligence to protect public funds in pursuing this contract,” Villaraigosa said in a statement. “Unfortunately after months of negotiations, at the last minute, satisfactory financial guarantees were not provided and the deal was not signed.”

Hours before the deadline, the company raised new issues -- including a cap on daily penalties for delivering rail cars behind schedule, said MTA spokesman Marc Littman. Transit-agency negotiators declined to make additional concessions and the time period to reach an agreement expired.

The deal’s disintegration has ramifications beyond the future work, said MTA board member Richard Katz, a Villaraigosa appointee. He cited an agreement under which AnsaldoBreda was going to provide two free rail cars, which sell for $3 million each, to make up for building the vehicles heavier than specified. The heavier cars forced the MTA to reinforce some bridges.

In tones that reflected the soured relations between the company and local officials, Katz called AnsaldoBreda “unprofessional and so unbusinesslike,” and said the company's inability to perform under its existing contract could result in litigation.

Officials from AnsaldoBreda could not be reached, but the company has defended its work and says it can point to the successful delivery of rail cars in other cities.

[Updated at 10:26 p.m.: In a statement, AnsaldoBreda president and CEO Giancarlo Fantappié said that his company had provided sufficient financial safeguards for MTA and that he regretted a deal could not be reached "despite multiple efforts to negotiate in good faith on both sides." He added: "Despite this turn of events, Los Angeles continues to represent a focal point for our strategy in America." AnsaldoBreda is eligible to take part in new bidding to build the rail cars.]

The MTA intends to rebid the work quickly and hopes to sign a contract that will result in local jobs, Katz said.

The effort to exercise the option with AnsaldoBreda has long had critics, including county Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who in a statement called the latest development “a victory for taxpayers.”

The company “failed once again to deliver on a promise made to the people of Los Angeles County," said Antonovich, who also sits on the MTA board. “Los Angeles city insiders and special interests attempted to ram through a substandard outfit, creating costly delays in the MTA's ability to seek a legitimate firm to build rail cars.”

-- Howard Blume

Seventh L.A. pension board member resigns

Continuing an exodus that began six months ago, a pension board appointee of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa resigned today, the seventh to depart amid increased scrutiny of the state’s public employee retirement systems.

Board member Moctesuma Esparza did not respond to a request for comment on his departure from the City Employees’ Retirement System, whose investment portfolio suffered a 20% loss last year.

But a spokeswoman for the mayor confirmed last week that the city’s lawyers were trying to determine if Assembly Bill 1584, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Oct. 18, made it impossible for Esparza to serve on the seven-member board.

AB 1584, written by Assemblyman Edward Hernandez (D-West Covina), bars volunteer pension board members, such as Esparza, from selling investment products to public employee retirement systems in California in their professional lives.

L.A. employee unions agree to pay cuts in light of budget shortfall

A group that represents 22,000 city employees in Los Angeles has approved a new contract that seeks to reduce salary costs at City Hall by $78 million, officials said today.

Workers with the Coalition of L.A. City Unions voted to ratify the contract, which was renegotiated last month by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council. The city is facing a $405-million budget shortfall.

The contract cuts 3.5 hours of pay out of each coalition member’s 80-hour paycheck.

The vote by the coalition’s members will allow the council to move forward with a plan for allowing 2,400 workers to retire up to five years early with full benefits. A final decision on that proposal is expected next week.

-- David Zahniser at L.A. City Hall

For now, L.A. council agrees to maintain size of LAPD despite budget shortfall

The Los Angeles City Council agreed today to maintain the Los Angeles police force at 9,963 officers this year, but members said they would assess the city’s ability to maintain that size of the force on a monthly basis.

With the council trying to close a $405-million budget shortfall this year, Council President Eric Garcetti said the city would proceed with new police academy classes only “as we can afford them.”

Each month, the LAPD, city personnel officials and top budget analysts will be required to submit reports to the council detailing attrition rates, retirements and the number of recruits scheduled to enter the academy.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pledged in 2005 to add 1,000 officers to the police force for a total of 10,181. The council’s action, he said in a statement today, will allow the Police Department to “maintain the current deployment levels that have allowed our city to reach historic crime reductions.”

-- Maeve Reston at L.A. City Hall

L.A. Council ignores Trutanich warning, backs signs for theater at L.A. Live

The Los Angeles City Council today unanimously backed city building officials’ authority to issue six controversial sign permits at the L.A. Live entertainment district downtown, a direct challenge to City Atty. Carmen Trutanich’s warning that officials could be prosecuted if they allow the signs to go up.

With today’s backing from the council, Building and Safety general manager Raymond Chan said he plans to issue the permits despite Trutanich’s warning. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also supports issuing the permits, said Jeff Carr, the mayor’s chief of staff.

The action comes just days after the owner of the downtown entertainment complex, Anschutz Entertainment Group, accused Trutanich of trying to “bully’’ the company by blocking signs for its new Regal Cinemas before the movie theater’s grand opening on Tuesday.

William W. Carter, the chief deputy city attorney, warned the council before its vote that granting the permits to AEG could “unravel” a new sign ban approved by the council in August that prohibits all digital signs, supergraphics and freeway facing billboards. Outdoor advertising companies had successfully challenged the city’s past sign restrictions because the council had granted similar exemptions, he said.

Police Commission begins interviews today for next LAPD chief

The Los Angeles Police Commission is meeting today to begin interviewing candidates vying to become the next chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Four department insiders are considered the front-runners, according to those monitoring the confidential selection process. The top candidates are said to be assistant chiefs Jim McDonnell, Earl Paysinger and Sharon Papa, and Deputy Chief Charlie Beck.

They are seeking to replace outgoing Chief William J. Bratton, who is leaving to take a civilian job.

LAPD-watchers cautioned that the competition is far from over and that much rests with the candidates' interviews with the commission and later with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has the final say.

Read the complete story on the search for a new L.A. police chief.

-- Joel Rubin

Photos: Jim McDonnell, Earl Paysinger, Sharon Papa and Charlie Beck. Credit: Los Angeles Times

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Villaraigosa launches anti-poverty program using $18 million in federal money

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today unveiled a new anti-poverty program that will include 21 Family Source centers throughout the city as one-stop shops for applying for financial, educational and some healthcare assistance programs.

The centers are scheduled to open Jan. 4 and will be in some of the most impoverished pockets of the city.

Villaraigosa said the coordinated program comes at a critical time for many in a city where the unemployment rate is cresting near 14% and more than 28,000 families have lost their homes in the past two and a half years.

“Now more than ever we need to act," Villaraigosa said.

The program will receive $18 million in federal grants and stimulus money.

City Councilman Richard Alarcon said the program enhances L.A.’s ability to attract more federal money and grants from nonprofit foundations, and allows the city to provide more efficient and effective outreach to those in need even at a time when the city is struggling with a $405-million budget deficit.

“We have less to work with and more problems to address," he said. “The bottom line is we are going to provide better services to more people who need them more than ever."

Along with signing up for social aid, the service centers will be able to provide adults with everything from child care service to helping with job placement. For youth, the centers will provide educational assistance, offering tutoring, mentoring and arts instruction.

-- Phil Willon at L.A. City Hall