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| Election 2024: Cities, LA County are political bedfellows when it comes to Measure G – Daily News | | A funny thing happened during the rollout of a weighty ballot measure that would radically change the governance of Los Angeles County: cities began to chime in.
At first glance, this seems counterintuitive. Why should the 88 cities in the county care one iota about Measure G, which would expand the number of seats on the county Board of Supervisors; make changes to the inner workings of county government by tightening up ethics policies and requiring longer periods for airing department budgets.
For the 1 million unincorporated residents and their communities, the measure is directly applicable. The supervisors are essentially their mayors and city council members. They determine everything from parking restrictions to street sweeping, and more recently rules for short-term housing rentals, to name a few. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2024-10-04 | | | | LA Mayor Karen Bass picks Jim McDonnell as new LAPD chief | LAist | | Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced Friday that Jim McDonnell will be the city’s next police chief, ending a months-long search after Michel Moore said he was retiring from the department’s top job.
McDonnell is familiar to many Angelenos. He served with the Los Angeles Police Department for 29 years, and later was elected to L.A. County sheriff. He most recently served as the director of the University of Southern California's Price School’s Safe Communities Institute. [Article] | | by , . 2024-10-04 | | | | Klamath River dam removal brings hope for threatened salmon - Los Angeles Times | | SOMES BAR, Calif. — Over the last month, salmon have gathered in clear pools in the Salmon River as they have returned to their spawning grounds.
This undammed river, a tributary of the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border, is one of the last remaining strongholds of a type of salmon that is increasingly at risk of extinction: spring-run Chinook.
The salmon population here has sharply declined in the last decade. But the recent removal of four dams on the Klamath is bringing new hope among biologists, environmental activists and Indigenous leaders that the fish could begin to recover.
“Dam removal couldn’t come at a better time,” said Toz Soto, the Karuk Tribe’s fisheries program manager. “We really need to build this population back before we lose it completely.”
Biologists expect that with the dams now removed and the Klamath flowing freely, all types of native fish will benefit, including fall-run and spring-run Chinook as well as coho salmon, steelhead trout and Pacific lampreys. The dismantling of the dams will allow salmon to swim upstream and spawn along more than 400 miles of the Klamath and its tributaries, reaching cold spring-fed waters that have been inaccessible for more than a century.
Spring-run Chinook were once abundant along the river. They return from the ocean in the spring, and unlike other types of salmon, they arrive holding large quantities of fat, which enables them to spend months maturing in freshwater and to venture farther upstream into the riffles and rapids of mountain streams. They spawn in late September and early October.
Their high fat content traditionally made the fish a delicious and valuable food source for the Native people who caught them. But they were largely wiped out when dams were erected and blocked access to many of their original habitats.
Scientists expect that the diminished population of spring-run Chinook will make their recovery more difficult and time-consuming than for other types of salmon, and that restoring them to their historical habitats in the upper Klamath River will likely require human intervention.
For now, there are two areas where spring-run Chinook return annually in the Klamath’s lower tributaries: one in the Trinity River, where some spawning occurs in a hatchery, and in the undammed Salmon River and the creeks that feed it.
One morning in mid-August, Soto stood on a roadside scanning the gently flowing Salmon River.
“There he is. See him?” Soto said. “It’s a springer, for sure.”
He pointed to a dark shape in the water that was drifting at a spot where the rocky bottom descended into a deep pool.
The fish, more than two feet long, was difficult to spot. Then, for a moment, its silvery side shimmered in the sun.
Also standing by the river was Karuna Greenberg, restoration director of the nonprofit Salmon River Restoration Council.
Each summer in July, Greenberg helps organize an annual snorkel survey in which dozens of volunteers swim along the river and count the number of spring-run Chinook salmon, as well as summer steelhead.
From 1990 until 2016, the surveys found an average of more than 700 salmon annually, with some years bringing more than twice that . But in the last decade, the numbers have fallen. This year, the survey found just 115 salmon — the fourth-lowest count to date.
“It’s been pretty depressing over the last several years,” Greenberg said.
California declared the Klamath population of spring-run Chinook threatened in 2022. Greenberg’s group and the Karuk Tribe have also petitioned the federal government to protect the fish under the Endangered Species Act. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-10-04 | | | | Proposition 5 could unleash a flood of public projects — and tax hikes - Los Angeles Times | | Money for new fire stations, repaved roads, renovated libraries and more is on the ballot in the city of Santa Clara next month. Voters in the Silicon Valley suburb of 127,000 will decide if they’ll pony up for a $400-million bond measure to finance the improvements.
Californians have made hundreds of decisions like these over the decades, but this time there’s a twist. No one knows how many votes it will take to win.
The uncertainty comes from a quirk of California’s complicated electoral system. In years past, local bond campaigns like Santa Clara’s Measure I needed two-thirds support for passage. Now, a statewide ballot measure, Proposition 5, may change that.
If approved by a majority of California voters, Proposition 5 would decrease the approval threshold for local bonds from two-thirds to 55%, making it easier to fund low-income housing, expand roads and transit, renovate parks and construct other public infrastructure projects.
Should Proposition 5 win, Measure I and 17 other local bond measures on the November ballot would concurrently benefit from the lower threshold. That means their fate could depend not only on local voters but on those across California.
“It is kind of like going down a black hole and holding your breath,” said Santa Clara City Councilmember Karen Hardy, a backer of Measure I.
On its face, Proposition 5 might seem like a dry, bureaucratic change to how communities pay for public improvements. But it has the potential to unleash a flood of new projects — and tax increases to finance them.
Since 2002, local governments and special districts in California have put 151 bond measures before voters, according to Michael Coleman, a municipal finance consultant who tracks the issue. Just more than half passed, securing the two-thirds margin necessary. Had 55% instead been the threshold, 86% of the bond measures would have been approved.
“It would have been a huge difference,” Coleman said.
Should Proposition 5 pass, Coleman expects that many more local governments will bring bonds to the ballot. They’re one of the few ways to increase property taxes — often the revenue source to repay the bonds — given public financing rules inaugurated by the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. Voters lowered the approval threshold for local school bonds from two-thirds to 55% in 2000, which led to a surge in their introduction and passage.
Supporters of Proposition 5 include labor, affordable housing and local government interests.
John Gioia, a longtime supervisor in Contra Costa County, said the needs of cities and counties are just as great as those of schools. As climate change leads to more frequent and severe natural disasters, local governments will need to find ways to finance clean water, resiliency and sea-level rise projects, he said. Those concerns, he said, only add to the deficits in homeless housing and traditional infrastructure facing communities across the state.
“The cost to do nothing is more than the cost of doing something,” Gioia said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-10-04 | | | | Morning Report: Bombshell Claim Hits the County | Voice of San Diego | | A prominent county official is alleging that County Supervisors Nora Vargas and Terra Lawson-Remer illegally obstructed his bid to become the county’s top bureaucrat. [Article] | | by , . 2024-10-04 | | | | L.A. County Opens Recruitment for Assistant CIO | | Los Angeles County officially named Peter Loo its chief information officer over the summer, and now it’s recruiting for his second-in-command.
The county has opened recruitment for an assistant CIO (ACIO) in the Office of the CIO (OCIO), a “highly visible role with an opportunity to make an impact across the county,” according to the recruitment notice.
“We are seeking a strategic leader with substantial experience in driving transformational change,” the posting says. “The ideal candidate will possess a profound understanding of IT architecture and platforms, coupled with a proven ability to foster and sustain productive relationships with internal and external stakeholders, IT technical staff, legal teams, and industry experts.” [Article] | | by , . 2024-10-04 | | | | Time and funding are running out for Little Tokyo senior meal program - Los Angeles Times | | Little Tokyo Senior Nutrition Services delivers more than 100 meals daily to seniors in Little Tokyo and Boyle Heights — a vital service to those who can no longer cook or shop for groceries independently. But the program is facing an uncertain future. Many of its staff and volunteers are the same age as the people they serve.
Perhaps more pressing are the funding challenges the meals program is facing. Little Tokyo Senior Nutrition Services is funded by the city of Los Angeles through a subcontract it has with the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, which in turn is contracted with the city Department of Aging.
Kuba alleges the Watts Labor Community Action Committee has not been reimbursing her organization fully or on time for senior services, which has led to delays in paying the caterer, Far Bar, a gastropub in Little Tokyo, for meals.
The Watts Labor Community Action Committee, one of the biggest contractors with the city of Los Angeles, provides community services throughout downtown and South L.A. Chief Executive Tim Watkins contends that Little Tokyo Senior Nutrition Services had overcharged for services. The Department of Aging declined to comment publicly on the issue and said it hoped to bring the two parties to a resolution.
Meanwhile, time and funding are running out for the meals program, Kuba said. Raising awareness for fundraising to keep the program going has been difficult, and the waiting list of 50 people is only getting longer, she said.
Setsuko Nakama, the executive director of the program, is now in her seventies but still takes the bus and train from Riverside to Little Tokyo every morning to help deliver two dozen meals to Boyle Heights residents. Grasping the railing with one hand and the meals with the other, she inches her way up the stairs in her slippers to one individual’s apartment.
On this particular day, it’s Keyoshi Saito’s 90th birthday and Nakama has brought his daily copy of the Los Angeles Times with an extra dessert alongside his meal. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-10-04 | | | | California law boosts wildlife protections and connectivity - Los Angeles Times | | Cities and counties must soon consider the impact of development on wildlife connectivity in their land-use plans following the passage of a law intended to promote safe travel across habitat fragmented by urban sprawl and freeways.
Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed AB 1889, which directs local leaders to identify connectivity areas and then “avoid, minimize or mitigate” impacts to them so animals can rove unimpeded to find food, shelter and mates. Though not required, that could entail constructing crossings, erecting wildlife-safe fencing and setting aside land.
The law, dubbed the Room to Roam Act, “helps local officials plan for safer development so that California’s resilient wildlife has a chance to survive and thrive,” said J.P. Rose, urban wildlands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity, which sponsored the bill.
By front-loading consideration of wildlife connectivity, “planners, builders and communities have a clearer picture of which areas are safer to build for both people and wildlife,” he said. The issue isn’t currently addressed until the end of the planning process.
Another top aim of the law is to loop cities and counties into a statewide effort to protect the movement of wildlife. Another successful law passed two years ago required the California Department of Transportation to make wildlife crossings a priority when it plans new road projects. But advocates feared a local government might greenlight development that stymied taxpayer-supported protections.
The latest legislation is an effort to “get everybody moving in the same direction,” Mari Galloway, California program director for the Wildlands Network, a co-sponsor of the bill, told The Times after the bill cleared the Legislature. Room to Roam requires local jurisdictions to identify existing and planned passages so they’re not undermined.
If successful, proponents say the law will help safeguard California’s biodiversity. For some animals, like genetically isolated mountain lions in Southern California’s Santa Monica and Santa Ana mountains, safe passage across whizzing freeways and concrete landscapes could stave off an extinction vortex. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-10-04 | | | | California fire chiefs blast federal rules on aircraft use - Los Angeles Times | | An aerial firefighting task force has been thwarted — and sometimes grounded — by a new interpretation of a U.S. Forest Service policy that prohibits contractors from providing flight supervision over federal lands, according to Southern California fire chiefs.
“I don’t understand why they’ve chosen this time to reinterpret this longstanding procedure,” said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone. “Why are they moving the goalposts now, during fire season? The timing couldn’t be worse.”
The dispute is the latest to have local fire authorities at odds with the Forest Service amid a punishing season that’s seen more than a million acres of land burn across the state. Some county chiefs have also spoken out about Forest Service staffing shortages they say resulted in delayed federal responses to recent fires, including the Airport fire that destroyed homes in Orange and Riverside counties.
Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy has written to Congress requesting an investigation into the issue.
“This policy application defies common sense at a time when we all know wildfire is, if not the worst threat to public safety in the state of California and throughout the West, pretty close to the top,” he said.
The Forest Service said the policy is a longstanding business rule that applies to aviation operations nationwide. “We had a lack of clarity on the policy, so some people were using it inappropriately,” said Adrienne Freeman, an agency spokesperson.
At the heart of the dispute is the Quick Reaction Force, a 24/7 aerial task force staffed by the fire departments of Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties. Its fleet consists of three night-flying helitankers, a mobile base that can mix 18,000 gallons of retardant per hour and an intelligence helicopter that is typically staffed by pilots under contract with the Orange County Fire Authority who manage the airspace and tell the other helicopters where to make drops.
The task force has been operating for several years without issue. But in July, the local agencies received word from the Forest Service that contractors could no longer provide aerial supervision over fires burning on federal land. When the QRF is deployed to these fires, it generally must be overseen by an aerial supervisor who is an agency employee.
The Forest Service has 11 aircraft capable of performing this supervision in California, but only one — an airplane — can do so at night, Freeman said. That plane is at times unavailable because it’s already deployed, has logged too many flight hours, needs to refuel or requires repairs or maintenance. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-10-04 | | | | Barger motion targets dumping, mulching | News | avpress.com | | The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider a motion introduced by Supervisor Kathryn Barger to combat illegal dumping and unregulated mulching. [Article] | | by , . 2024-10-04 | | | | Editorial: Newsom is right to crack down on Norwalk for banning homeless shelters - Los Angeles Times | | What was the Norwalk City Council thinking? Los Angeles County had 75,000 homeless people at last count. Voters have repeatedly said in polls and surveys that reducing homelessness should be among the government’s top priorities, and people want to see humane solutions, such as more housing and shelters.
So what did Norwalk leaders do? In August, they adopted a 45-day moratorium on homeless shelters and supportive housing. Even after Gov. Gavin Newsom and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta warned the ban violated several state planning and fair housing laws, Norwalk leaders went ahead and voted in September to extend the moratorium to August 2025 — blocking Los Angeles County from launching a new effort to move people living in an encampment along the 105 Freeway into a nearby motel.
That’s outrageous. Now Newsom has cracked down on Norwalk — and rightfully so.
The governor announced Thursday that his administration is decertifying Norwalk’s state-mandated housing plan. The decision makes the city ineligible for certain funding and triggers the “builder’s remedy,” a provision in state law that lets developers apply to build whatever they want so long as the project includes units for low- or middle-income people.
The state’s crackdown on Norwalk’s obstruction is necessary and it sends a clear message to other NIMBY cities. For too long, the state took a hands-off approach, deeming housing and homelessness decisions a local control issue. As a result too many cities were allowed to limit growth, which is why the state has an affordable housing and homelessness crisis today. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-10-04 | | | | California Reports Bird Flu in 2 People in Contact With Infected Cows - Times of San Diego | | California, the biggest U.S. milk-producing state, on Thursday confirmed two human cases of bird flu in people who had contact with dairy cattle infected by the virus. [Article] | | by , Times of San Diego. 2024-10-04 | | | | Bird flu deaths increasing among California dairy cows - Los Angeles Times | | As California struggles to contain an increasing number of H5N1 bird flu outbreaks at Central Valley dairy farms, veterinary experts and industry observers are voicing concern that the number of cattle deaths is far higher than anticipated.
Although dairy operators had been told to expect a mortality rate of less than 2%, preliminary reports suggest that between 10% and 15% of infected cattle are dying, according to veterinarians and dairy farmers.
“I was shocked the first time I encountered it in one of my herds,” said Maxwell Beal, a Central Valley-based veterinarian who has been treating infected herds in California since late August. “It was just like, wow. Production-wise, this is a lot more serious than than we had hoped. And health-wise, it’s a lot more serious than we had been led to believe.”
A total of 56 California dairy farms have reported bird flu outbreaks. At the same time, state health officials have reported two suspected cases of H5N1 infections among dairy workers in Tulare County, the largest dairy-producing county in the nation. With more than 600,000 dairy cows, the county accounts for roughly 30% of the state’s milk production.
Beal’s observations were confirmed by others during a Sept. 26 webinar for dairy farmers that was hosted by the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program — an arm of the industry-funded California Dairy Research Foundation. A summary of the findings and observations was reported in a newsletter published earlier this week by the program.
Beal, along with Murray Minnema, another Central Valley veterinarian, and Jason Lombard, a Colorado State University veterinarian, described their observations and data to dairy farmers to help them anticipate the signs of, and treatments for, the virus.
The webcast was not made available to The Times.
“The animals really don’t do well,” Beal told The Times.
He said the infected cows he has seen are not dissimilar to people who are suffering from a typical flu: “They don’t look so hot.” [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-10-04 | | | | New LAPD chief McDonnell’s legacy in Long Beach bodes well for Angelenos – and for regional teamwork – Daily News | | Jim McDonnell, selected by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to lead the LAPD on Friday, isn’t a newcomer to the mammoth agency. He spent the majority of his career there — about 28 years.
He’s also no stranger to standing at the helm of a massive law-enforcement agency, having served as Los Angeles County Sheriff for four years.
But before McDonnell made his bid to become county sheriff, he served as the chief of the Long Beach Police Department from 2010 to 2014. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2024-10-04 | | | | The $1M house at heart of Andrew Do scandal says a ton about SoCal real estate | LAist | | One thing that's jumped out to some readers about the unfolding civil fraud allegations tied to public funds directed by Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do: What (or really, how little) $1 million buys you here in Southern California.
Or as one commenter on our Instagram post regarding the recent account of the home's purchase by the supervisor's daughter, Rhiannon Do, said:
"I can't believe that's a million-dollar house."
To which another person responded:
"That's the real crime here."
Welcome to the harsh reality of the California real estate market. [Article] | | by , . 2024-10-04 | | | | Opinion: San Diego's EMS System Is Now a Model of Collaboration and Excellence - Times of San Diego | | San Diego’s emergency medical services system stands as a testament to the power of collaboration and innovative leadership, resulting in unprecedented levels of service for our community. Under the guidance of our dedicated fire chiefs and in partnership with Falck Mobile Health, San Diego’s EMS system has provided residents with the best care possible, even in the most challenging times. [Article] | | by , Times of San Diego. 2024-10-04 | | | | Former L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell named LAPD’s new chief – Daily News | | An eight-month search to find the Los Angeles Police Department’s next police chief came to an end on Friday, Oct. 4, with Mayor Karen Bass announcing that former Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell will fill the role, a crucial appointment in part because the city will host the 2028 Olympics.
McDonnell, who served one term as sheriff from 2014 to 2018 and also at one time was the Long Beach Police Department’s top cop, returns to LAPD, where he worked for 28 years, achieving the rank of assistant chief. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2024-10-04 | | | | First phase of CDC survey on health impacts of sewage crisis launching | | People who live and work near the U.S.-Mexico border have complained for years about the ill effects from the cross-border pollution: noxious odors, headaches, breathing difficulties, nausea, stomach ailments.
They now will have a face-to-face opportunity to tell the nation’s public health agency how the toxic mix of sewage and other contaminants that spill into the Tijuana River Valley affects them.
The effort kicks off Thursday with a large team from San Diego County and San Diego State University notifying more than 6,000 homes of an upcoming visit by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the possibility that their household may be selected for an interview, county public health officials said Wednesday.
In cooperation with the county and state, the CDC will conduct 210 door-to-door surveys with randomly selected households from 2-7 p.m. Oct. 17-19. Each survey, expected to last about 15 minutes, is in-person, voluntary and anonymous. [Article] | | by , San Diego Union-Tribune. 2024-10-04 | | | | OC Supervisor Katrina Foley announces $3.2 million Grant to reconstruct public docks in Dana Point Harbor - PublicCEO | | Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley announces the award of the state’s $3.2 Million grant in support of rehabilitating the deteriorating Orange County Sailing and Events Center floating docks and improving dock facilities to comply with ADA access requirements. [Article] | | by , Public CEO. 2024-10-04 | | | | Opinion: Proposition 35 could take funding from valuable health programs | | In a huge win for California children and families, this year Sacramento elected leaders decided to include funding in the state budget to protect Medi-Cal coverage for our state’s babies, toddlers and youngest children, helping to eliminate bureaucratic hurdles that would otherwise cause 1.2 million children to lose their access to health coverage.
But there’s a catch: If voters approve Proposition 35 this November, funding for continuous Medi-Cal coverage for children up to age 5 — and several other health care-related programs — goes away.
As a mom of a 3-year-old, like many parents and caregivers, I know firsthand how critical the first years of a child’s life are. Ninety percent of brain development occurs in the first five years of life. This is the time when conditions like asthma, hearing loss and autism can be addressed and intervened early, giving a child the best possible odds to thrive.
Rolling back funding for a policy that ensures young children from low-income families can get the care they need to put them on a path toward a healthy life could prove devastating. Voters should vote “no” on Prop 35.
This setback is only one example of the harm to Californians that would result from Proposition 35. [Article] | | by , San Diego Union-Tribune. 2024-10-04 | | |
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