Thread by @KNOCKdotLA

It's 10AM on a Wednesday morning under COVID-19 lockdown, so you know what we're up to: LIVE-TWEETING CITY COUNCIL!

Link to stream: lacity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.ph…

Agenda here: clkrep.lacity.org/granicus/2020/…

Notably absent from this agenda: *any* protections for unhoused Angelinos.

Instead we have item 37:
Dr. Phil needs his star on the Walk of Fame, baby!
Recommendation from city engineer: "APPROVE the installation of the name of DR. PHIL MCGRAW at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard."

If you'd like to let the council members know that their scheduled agenda priorities are completely out of line with the urgency of this crisis, here's how you can do it:
Call [phone]. The Meeting ID is 459 499 150, then press #. Press # again for participant ID.

Looks like we are now live! The hold music just cut out... only 11 minutes late today.

Someone is snacking. There's a lot of crinkling on the audio feed. Side conversations of "...I am not, but I know people..." are coming in on hot mics.

Simple suggestion to council members: invest in some headphones to cut out no the amount of audio feedback we all have to listen to when you get unmuted.

They're discussing why they're holding motions for amendments now, public comment period will be opening up shortly. Make sure you've called in and queued up if you want to participate!

Organizers with the #HealthyLA coalition are planning to call in and demand that the city take immediate action to protect our most vulnerable neighbors during this crisis. Let's roll through those demands while the amending motions are being read into the record...

1) City needs to acquire 15,000 hotel/motel rooms to house our most vulnerable and at-risk Angelenos who are experiencing homelessness. The Mayor already voiced support for this, council needs to get on board! Only 900-1000 rooms have been identified & occupied. More are needed!

2) The city and county are receiving federal stimulus money to be used for COVID-19 related emergencies. There is more than enough coming to cover the cost for the first 90 days of hotel/motel occupancy.

3) The City needs to re-prioritize safety and infection protocols that are vital in keeping our unhoused/unsheltered brothers and sisters safe during these times. That means: supplying dumpsters, showers, hand washing stations that are getting maintenance regularly, bathrooms...

...and bathroom access, no enforcement of 56.11 or the 60 gallon rule, soap, vermin abatement, laundry vouchers, and water. Any measures that criminalize poverty and homelessness should be disbanded during this time.

Done with amending motions, ready to start public comment.

While trying to post a screenshot of @JoeBuscaino in full LAPD reserve uniform (and badge) I managed to crash my twitter window. Good times. Here's the image.

First three minutes of public comment were lost to technical difficulties. Cut in halfway through a collections agent representative demanding that debt collection be considered an "essential service" during COVID-19 crisis when somewhere around 50% of Angelenos are unemployed.

We are once again hearing from Stuart Waldman from VICA about how the city needs to stop trying to force businesses to rehire employees that were let go during the crisis.

We're hearing from a caller who has been trying to get in touch with @davidryu4u about helping get our unhoused neighbors off the street. Complaining about inability to get a meeting or call with Ryu and about this issue or any action from the agencies involved.

Caller from CD12 who helps run a food bank out of a church in that area calling in asking for support. One of the elderly housebound women they help had been reduced to eating cat food. Also demanded the city move add urgency to getting behind #ProjectRoomkey program.

Caller also demanded cancellation of rents to help prevent an explosion in the number of evictions will be hitting us in a few months if action is not taken.

Last caller made a demand that the city council members take a pay cut to match the cuts seen across much of the rest of city staff. Suggests donating that money to food banks in the light of the comment made by that caller from CD12.

Current caller @ricci_sergienko calling out the cowardice of council members hiding behind the extremely tenuous legal arguments offered by the City Attorney in last week's meeting.

Ricci was just cut off by Nury and dropped from public comment for being off topic. He was pointing out that the protests that seem to be so annoying to the council members at this point are only going to be increasing in intensity and frequency as the council refuses to act.

Now Kevin from @SunriseMvmtLA is calling out the council for their lack of action and buck-passing. Points out how the city is constantly being sued (and losing) for taking illegal actions and that passing a rent moratorium is well within their legal authority.

Now we have Rob Quan (@UnrigLA) on the line pointing out how the city has been investing incredible amounts of money in Exxon Mobil and other shady investments that have proven to be poor decisions as their value has collapsed this year. Demands public scrutiny and transparency.

.@UnrigLA bringing up the fact that the DROP program is an absurd drain on the city budget and must be dropped (pun unavoidable, I promise). Now demanding that the city commandeer hotels to help the unhoused.

.@UnrigLA now repping language justice. Points out the failings of the council to comply with interpretation requirements put forth in the Brown Act.
Also points out that the City Council President shouldn't be doing this:

https://twitter.com/LATenantsUnion/status/1254817641014804481

Last caller was reading from the same script as the previous collections industry rep. Nothing more to contribute there but to reiterate that DEBT COLLECTION IS NOT A FUCKING ESSENTIAL BUSINESS OPERATION.

Just had a caller criticizing that the City had no issue renting out the Biltmore for the @LAPDHQ officers in this crisis but has not lifted a finger to do the same for unhoused Angelenos, our most vulnerable neighbors.

Had another caller uplifting the #HealthyLA demands. Reiterating the demands for commandeering hotels for the unhoused.

Missed the last caller as it was muffled.

Now we have @jacobwooch pointing out that there is blood on the hands of council members as they continue to fail to act on commandeering hotels or on cancelling rents that are soon to be pushing thousands more onto the streets due to an inability to repay back rent after COVID.

I stepped away for a moment and missed the entire Herman Herman comment. He got cut off real quick.

Worth pointing out that @jacobwooch says he and @LATenantsUnion are planning on bringing a lawsuit against @CD6Nury for blocking them on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/LATenantsUnion/status/1254817641014804481

Current caller is pointing out that her octogenarian mother is disqualified from the Mayor's senior meals program because she is receiving meager SNAP/CalFresh benefits. Demands changes to the program and expansion of services to seniors who are home bound.

One of the last callers was the legal rep for one of the neighbors of the proposed 738 S Normandie project (Agenda Item 22). Here's a bit of visual context for where this project will be situated -- the parking lot between these two apartment buildings:

Last caller with the #HealthyLA coalition reiterated the demands of the coalition and brought up the concept of a rent jubilee. Here's a bit of context that I found quickly but haven't read through but it's a place to start reading on how this might work: marketplace.org/2020/04/02/cov…

Correction: DEBT jubilee, not rent. Point was made in contrast to the repeated calls by debt collectors to ask that their businesses be allowed to reopen as they somehow think that debt collection is an essential business.
Again, IT IS NOT.

Current and previous caller are demanding that the council make changes to the right of recall legislation to add flexibility for the business owners. These callers don't seem to give a damn about the workers, just "the economy."

Third call in a row about "empowering businesses" and removing "additional layers of regulation" regarding the right of recall. The issue here is rebuttal presumption discussed at length in previous session.
These callers keep showing that they care about businesses, not people.

Wow. Was that last caller the first debt collector they actually hung up on?

Current caller who meets the definition of landlord balks at the fact that he is called a "landlord" -- wow.

Wants to know why he "should be sacrificed in this economy" because without rent he can't pay his mortgage.
Again, folks seem to be forgetting that owning a MULTIFAMILY BUILDING and being a LANDLORD is an INVESTMENT that carries RISK.
He's not the one that's facing eviction.

Current caller represents a commercial landlord that is asking for an extension on the payback period for commercial rents to 12 months given the massive effective increase in rent that comes with tacking those repayments onto future rent obligations.

Something that seems to be lost to this commercial landlords is that the businesses that were already struggling to make rent in the past will likely have no capacity to make those repayments even over a 12 month period.

The simple fact of the matter is that while we're under lock down ALL RENTS SHOULD BE CANCELLED. COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL BOTH. MORTGAGES SHOULD BE SUSPENDED. SHUT THAT SHIT DOWN. PERIOD.

Nury just ended the public comment period a minute ago while I was seeing red. Now we're in a "fifteen minute" recess -- let's see how long it lasts! Two 20 minute recesses both became 60 minute recesses last time, so who knows?

The 738 S Normandie project is getting a lot of attention today. This project is being run by Jamison, possibly the most notorious developer in Koreatown.
If you'd like to know what kind of folks they are, here's a snippet from a Curbed LA article on another Jamison project:

And here's a link to the full 2018 Curbed Article from Blanca Barragan:
la.curbed.com/2018/3/20/1714…

And we're back! Looks like a 15 minute recess was the 20 minute recess we were promised last time. Eventually we'll get the hang of how numbers and time work under Nury's roll as City Council President.

This roll call seems pretty indicative of attention spans on the Council.

Council member @BobBlumenfield just asked the caller whose mother was having trouble accessing @MayorOfLA's senior food program to reach out to his office for assistance.

https://twitter.com/KNOCKdotLA/status/1255560340777009152

Just had a 15 aye vote on a slew of items taken on consent.

Councilman @HerbJWesson seems pretty amused by how long councilman @gilcedillo is taking to participate in these votes. Or at least it sounds like him. Either way, someone is quite amused.

Another 15 ayes for items as amended per the first few minutes of today's meeting.

We've got John Less 0(@CD12LA) asking once again to strike a portion of the right of recall legislation. The amount of time they're spending arguing about watering down the right of recall legislation and NOT focusing on protecting UNHOUSED ANGELENOS is utterly despicable.

Now we have @PaulKoretzCD5 correcting @CD12LA on his inability to understand how the rules are written. This is kind of funny.

** JOHN LEE, not Less, and ignore that 0. Typing too fast, sorry.

OK, someone needs to wake up @gilcedillo -- he keeps missing his turn to speak.

Oh man. I just missed a momentary Zoom screen cap moment where the IT folks let the whole meeting be visible. Would have been fun for context.

Looks like Gil is awake now and un-muted.

Gil is arguing that retraining is supposed to be for "same or similar jobs" -- not anything along the lines of the straw man that John Lee is trying to make. Says something along the lines of "we're trying to find a problem rather than the solution"

"You're not going to have to retrain a busboy into a chef at Spago's" - Gil Cedillo

The pile on against John Lee continues? @PaulKrekorian jumping in to agree with most of what @gilcedillo had to say though he is saying that some of the language is less clear than it ought to be. He wants to remove the punitive damages provision from the legislation.

Summary of @PaulKrekorian's point is (roughly) that "As long as new hires don't require training they can be brought in before re-hires that would require training"

Now @BobBlumenfield is further clarifying that the training is a matter of degrees rather than merely existing -- hiring a junior concierge from outside of the hotel vs. training up a busboy is allowed in regard to priority.

And John Lee just withdrew his amendment after literally everyone who spoke told him he was wrong.

Motion just passed unanimously.

Someone on mic just said "oh jesus" when Ryu recused himself from voting on Item 30 -- relating to the "Emergency Rental Assistance Subsidy Program Trust Fund"
Krekorian and Price are also recused.
(Some) landlords ain't voting on this.

Item 30 passed 12 ayes to none.

Item 60 up for a vote now. Looks like (another) unanimous vote.

Item 60: "ADOPT the accompanying RESOLUTION to include in the City's 2019-20 Federal Legislative Program OPPOSITION for the Environmental Protection Agency's relaxation of environmental rules in response to the COVID-19 pandemic" on environmental justice grounds.

Now on to Item 69. I am struck by the fact that this motion seems to be missing a key component: WE DO NOT HAVE A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF THE LANDLORDS IN THIS CITY. So how the FUCK does he proposed HCID send all of them a letter about how not to be assholes during this crisis?

Motion: "INSTRUCT the Los Angeles Housing and Community Investment Department (HCIDLA) ... to notify by mail all residential rental property owners and tenants in HCIDLA's database of their housing rights and responsibilities during the COVID-19 local emergency period."

And the motion passes unanimously.

Now to item 72: Mitch wants to "TRANSFER and APPROPRIATE $1,000,000 in the AB1290 Fund No. 53P, Account No. 281206 (CD 13 Redevelopment Projects - Services) to the HCIDLA Rental Assistance Fund"

Correction, that was Item 73, not 72. Mitch is now talking about 72 in relation to installing a plaque at the intersection of Hollywood Blvd & McCadden Pl to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Pride Parades in LA.

For some reason these two motions were voted on simultaneously and passed unanimously.

Now we are on to agenda item 75 -- @BobBlumenfield doesn't want small businesses to have 12 months to repay rent. He seems confused about the definition of a small business in the motion. Bizarre.

Somehow he thinks that Shake Shack and Starbucks would qualify for deferral under this motion.

He just said "the notion of the motion" and it made me smile. We need more rhymes in city council!

Looks like @BobBlumenfield just wants a report back before voting on the item. Two folks tripped over themselves to second it as soon as he asked for the report back.
HOLY SHIT WE'RE BACK TO BUSCAINO ON SCREEN AND WHY THE FUCK IS HE IN A COP UNIFORM?!?!?!

The legal analyst is saying that this motion has an exclusion for publicly traded companies, so half of what @BobBlumenfield said was entirely irrelevant.

Oh hey, @PaulKoretzCD5 is kinda hitting the points that were brought up during the public comment period.

https://twitter.com/KNOCKdotLA/status/1255565844664311808

Councilman @PaulKoretzCD5 is pointing out that deferring three months of back rent to be repaid over a three month period would likely put a lot of small businesses out of businesses. Glad that some folks kinda get it.
But again. CANCEL THE FUCKING RENT.

Now @MitchOFarrell is pointing out that the city of LA doesn't have any equivalent of HCID for commercial properties. It's almost as though the city should have some kind of registry for these things so that they can stop rent-gouging and other fuckery from taking place.

SO MANY HOT MICS GODDAMNIT MUTE YOUR SHIT.

Just had @MitchOFarrell ask for a carve out to exclude essential businesses that are continuing to operate at full capacity during this crisis. Doesn't mention anything about any increased costs associated (like PPE) with doing so.

Motion 75 votes: 15 ayes. Motion passes with a friendly amendment.
It's a theme.

Moving on to item 77: @PaulKrekorian and @CurrenDPriceJr are both recused from voting on this item. @MitchOFarrell is asking for a friendly amendment to include a Spanish translation of the form. @BobBlumenfield accepts that amendment and wants to include more languages as well.

Bets on a 13-0 vote? I mean, is there any doubt?

There we go. Unanimous vote (less recusals) yet again. Motion passes.

SO MANY SECONDS for @mikebonin's verbal motion regarding Venice Blvd.

And we're now on to the adjourning motions. Thank you all for tuning in!
Come back same time next week?
Maybe?
We don't know when the next meeting will be.
Tuesday? Wednesday?
We'd love to know, @CD6Nury. Tell us. Please.