March 5, 2026 • 29 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 2 (03/05) - Barak Lurie & Samantha Nussbaum come on the show to talk about the mental healthy facility scam in Cheviot Hills. LAX's "People Mover" is behind schedule and won't be ready in time for the World Cup. More on Janisse Quiñones resigning from the LADWP and new details about LADWP being included in a lawsuit have come out.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't I am six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app on every day from
three to six and then after six o'clock. Whatever you missed,
it's on the podcast John Cobelt's show on demand on
the iHeart app. We're going to talk now with a
resident from Chevyot Hills and an attorney, and it's about
(00:22):
what's become an infamous infamous spending by the city on
a homelessness project. There is a guy named Stephen Taylor,
and by through fraudulent means, falsified records, he got the
(00:43):
ability to spend eleven million dollars to buy an assisted
living facility. Then he took that eleven million dollar facility
and re sold it about ten days later for twenty
seven million dollars. And there have been federal charges brought
(01:04):
against the developer or the original owner, Stephen Taylor, and
UH the second company that bought the property, the Wineguard Center.
Two major officials have gone on leave. The locals don't
want this thing. We're going to talk by Samantha Nustbaum
because a lawsuit was filed tuesday by local residents against
(01:27):
the city and other various homelessness agencies over this deal.
Let's get Samantha Nusbaum on and then we're also going
to talk to their attorney as well.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Having us.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Thanks, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Hi, Barack, Laurie, Barock, LORC excuse me, Yeah, I've just
lost my sheet here for a second. Well, Barock, thank
you for coming on. And Samantha, thank you for coming on.
So Samantha, tell me what your You live in the
neighborhood and you don't like this yet.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, I live in the neighborhood and just sort of
as a quick backdrop and you cover the history there.
But this started as a neighborhood effort when we learned
of the project not only funded with sixty million task
payer dollars, it was turning what was then an existing
assisted senior living home into a homeless shelter. So we
(02:26):
started digging in and as a side note, it's still
being renovated on a daily basis and has yet to
house a single person since twenty twenty three. But everyone
knew there was some sort of double escrow, some extreme
pricing and this slip, but our discoveries revealed something far
(02:48):
worse because that quick slip was a pre arranged deal
which appeared to involve city orchestration, corruption, its use of funds,
and more. In addition, paperwork for this deal, including all
of those mechanics were included in the package is approved
(03:12):
by the city and the housing agencies. So as a result,
as a concerned taxpayer and neighbor, we brought all of
this to our council woman Katrslovsky multiple times since twenty
twenty four. We had private meetings and neighborhoods zooms and
can send many emails concerned citizen emails galore. And after
(03:35):
all of that, Katie Rslavski has made it clear that
alleged fraud does not impact the operation supports of moving forward.
She even told us on a zoom that the Feds
told her office to continue rehab and that it would
be a great facility. So that takes us to we
(03:57):
felt like we've done everything we can at that point
to express our concerns. So together with some other neighbors,
they formed a nonprofit called the Integrity Project. One of them, Paully,
was on your show previously, so thank you for that.
And based on our belief, we formed this nonprofit based
(04:18):
on our belief that evicting senior citizens. Stealing public funds
intended to help home most people is not unacceptable public policy.
So we arrived at our last resort, as you said,
litigation supported by the charity. There's another plaintiff, Howard Grossman,
and I filed the lawsuit, and our wonderful attorney, brock
(04:39):
Laurie's on to tell you a little bit more about that.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Okay, hell, you arrived, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
So you had to Steven Taylor, who used, if the
chargers are true, fraudulent means to buy the assisted living
facility for eleven million dollars. Ten days later, he sells
it for twenty seven million. In ten days, the property
appreciated by sixteen million dollars. The Wineguard Center purchased it.
And I remember when we first read this story, Barack
(05:06):
I said, so that extra sixteen million were there others
who took a cut? Were the people in government who
took a cut. Because what Samantha said is this deal
was pre arranged.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Yeah, it does appear to be pre arranged, and it's
pretty shocking. I mean, this is a story about non
accountability and the exploitation of that non accountability. People always
say that people are much more careful with their own
money than they are with other people's money. And in
this case, the taxpayers really are being so shafted to
the town of at least sixteen million dollars with this markup.
(05:42):
And look, it's not just a fight about three three
four oh Shelby. I mean where this whole situation is happening.
It could be repeated in any quiet neighborhood in California. Look,
the core facts are it's sold for eleven point two million,
and one week later, ten or so later days later,
it was flipped to the Wineguards Center for twenty seven million,
(06:04):
more than twenty seven million funded by taxpayers through this
project home Key. And that's where the problem lies. This
is not a difference of opinion. It's an alarming use
of public money. Period. We also believe that the deal
was pushed through with all sorts of conflicts. We know
that there were conflicts, especially with the Wineguards on our
own particular, and all sorts of concealment about that conflict.
(06:29):
And the transaction is now connected to a federal criminal investigation.
But the city is nevertheless pressing on and construction continues.
So Samantha and Howard Groseman filed this taxpayer lawsuit.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
It's a public document. You can read it anytime you like.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Just to stop, to continue to waste and to avoid
these contracts, and to hold the city accountable at the
end of the day, not just under California law, but
for moral reasons as well well. Complicate transaction.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
When do you have a scandal like this where the
price goes from eleven million to twenty seven million and
it was originally tax money that financed the deal.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Yeah, you have.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
To stop the construction and sort out who are the
criminals here because there's bad guys who walked away with
a lot of money.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Well, that's exactly right. And what we're pursuing now is
an injunction and we actually pursued recently a temporary restraining order.
Court has decided to have that hearing coming up, I
believe on the nineteenth, and we're going to have a
hearing about exactly that, to enjoin the city from continuing
the construction of this monstrosity. Of course, at the at
(07:38):
the end of the day, with such an incredible expense.
At the same time, and now the burden is on
the city to explain why they should not have to
be enjoined from proceeding with this construction. So we feel
like we're a bit in the driver's seat. The burden
is on them to prove why they should not be stopped.
But let's see what happens.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, all right, well you go through the next legal steps,
please come back on the air and let us know, right.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
We would definitely like to. We know that we'd like
to get funding for this. This is not just the
cause just for the neighbors thereby, it's a cause for
everybody because they can do it on Shelby Drive in
Cherry Hills, they can do it anywhere.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So you're looking for funding from the public.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, sorry to boss point. The nonprofit that we formed
in the neighborhood, which is really advocating for accountability, transparency
and safety, we have now been approved as a five
oh one C three charity and that charity is fundraising
(08:45):
and all of the donations received, which are fully tax deductible,
would be provided into the fund for the litigation. And
that's where plaintiffs don't seek any personal game. We're not funding,
we're not running a nonprofit to pay officers. This is
strictly for the litigation. We feel that it really is
(09:09):
important for the whole city, and could say, oh yeah,
precedent really statewide.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
All right, I only got I only got a few
seconds here. But if somebody wants to donate money to
this legal effort, how can.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
They do it?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Well, we have an Instagram account. It is the Integrity
Project with underscores between each word, and there's links there
to a go fund me. But thank you for letting
us share that information as well.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
All Right, all right, well we'll talk again. Samantha and Rock.
Thank you very much to both of you for coming on.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Jude, thank you for having us so much.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Follow us at John Cobelt Radio and social media at
John coblt Radio, and subscribe on YouTube YouTube dot com,
slash at John Cobelt Show YouTube dot com slash at
John Cobelt Show. Coming up after Devers's four thirty News,
one more Whack at the Genie kenunyas Penata. We got
a great audio clip that somebody dug up on the internet.
(10:13):
As part of our I think it would be a
month long celebration. I think we should have Jenice Kenyunia's
history month just keep enjoying the best moments of her
miserable career. Along those lines, I was waiting for this.
Do you remember the people Mover?
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, that was supposed to take passengers to Lax I
think from well, all those parking garages in Englewood, right, yes,
where is it supposed to come in from farther than that?
Or this was like a parking ride thing. You park
in the garages and then you get on the people
Mover and it's supposed to relieve a lot of traffic
(10:54):
and a lot of those those stupid rental car buses
would be gone and would open up up the horseshop.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Which would be so nice. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Well, the people Mover was supposed to be ready in
twenty twenty three, March and twenty twenty three, and then
the latest prediction was it was going to be open
in March. Now twenty twenty six, in time for the
World Cup in June. It is not going to be
(11:24):
ready for the World Cup in June.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
No.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, it's pretty shocking and it's really bizarre. I mean,
this is three point three billion dollars and it was
specifically planned to handle all the extra traffic that the
World Cup was going to bring in, and also the Olympics,
(11:47):
and then you know the general public obviously is going
to use it now and thereafter. But this was the
motivating factor. This is what happens when you have big events,
is like a city decides it's like, okay, this is
a good reason to, you know, upgrade our infrastructure. Well,
construction started way back in twenty nineteen and no problem
(12:08):
to get it ready. I mean they thought twenty twenty three,
no problem to get it ready for twenty twenty six.
But under the leadership of Karen Bass and before that
the idiot Eric Arcetti, they're better at destroying things. Karen
Bass can't build anything. And they had announced two years
ago that they were ninety five percent complete on construction.
(12:33):
So they did ninety five percent of the construction in
the first five years and they have not been able
to do the last five percent in the last two years.
It looks like that that everybody's fighting with each other.
The contractors are fighting with the city and the airport authority,
and so the rail just sits up there, and I
(12:57):
think I've seen the train sitting up there as well.
The people mover it just sits, but it doesn't move.
I guess that's the last five percentage to get it
to move. There's disagreement from the airport authority and the contractors,
and it's suposed to handle tens of thousands of people
a day between the terminals, a car rental hub, the
(13:21):
parking lots, and the metro train system. So in about
ten minutes you can hit all those stops, which most
other big city airports had people movers like this. You know,
they're called trams in other cities, so it's not a
big deal. It's very common in most cities. In fact,
(13:42):
La like to my memory for all the places I've
traveled recently, just seems to stand alone that it doesn't
have this thing and they can't finish it. So now
we are going to get the huge crowds for the
World Cup in June, and the airport's going to be
a disaster because they couldn't finish the last five percent.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Why is everybody so stupid?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Why can't Karen Bass and these airport people finish the
last five percent? Whatever the problem is, you negotiate, you
split the difference, you mediate, and you keep the construction going.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
What is this.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Meantime, even at eleven o'clock at night, that horseshoe is
horribly jammed. I was trying to get out of a
parking garage well just last week, and it's late at
night and I can't get into any of the lanes
to exit the airport.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
You can't leave the thing.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
And then to leave it, I had to cross like
four or five lanes of jam traffic with another set
of lanes merging in there.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
It's like, who designed this stupid thing.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
They're on crack, you know, all the engineers must have
been whacked out on crack or whatever the equivalent of
crack was back in the nineteen fifties or sixties, whenever
they redesigned this thing.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
You're listening to John Cobels on Demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
On car One more time. We're gonna get move. Azella's
got the fireworks.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
There we can.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
My favorite part KFI AM six forty more stimulating talk radio,
huh and the Orchestra John Cobelt Show on every day
from three until six and after six o'clock John Cobelt
Show on Demand the podcast. Oh by the way, I
mentioned that we put up videos every day on YouTube.
You should watch the video from yesterday's show. We put
(16:01):
up put up the whole celebration of the demise of
Genie Kinonia's wretched career as CEO of the Department of
Water and Power here in Los Angeles. We really enjoyed ourselves.
We enjoyed ourselves a little too much. So if you
should watch the video and it's on YouTube, it's the
(16:24):
last thing we put up. Now we have a little
PostScript here. Well, for one thing, the news broke yesterday,
and sometimes in the early stories, obviously you don't.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Know the whole story.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
So she suddenly left, and this is fourteen months after
the fire. And again she's the one who didn't fill
the reservoir, one hundred and seventeen million gallulean reservoir empty,
and she didn't she let the thousand fire hydrants broken,
and she didn't turn off the electrical to the existing
(17:02):
electrical lines. And then that night the polls tumbled down,
brought the wires with it, set fire to more dried
out brush, which burned even more homes. So it was one, two,
three strikes and Janice Konez stubbornly refused to leave. And
you know, I wouldn't leave either. You know, she spent
(17:25):
I don't know, maybe two years a little more than
that as the DWP chief and she met probably about
two million dollars because she was making seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars annually and she's going to be paid
all the way to the end of this month.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
So I figured she got fired by Karen.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Bass because Bass is running for reelection and you just
you got to clean out the barn right. Spencer Pratt
has been relentless in criticizing her over all, all of
her ineptitude, starting with the fire, but everything else. I mean,
Spencer Pratt is saying all the things that we should
(18:08):
all agree on. There's no defense for this, and she
really has no business being there, and she has no
business running for reelection. And I think she's trying to
get some of his some of his arguments swept away
and it's not gonna work. But what is she gonna do?
(18:29):
But here is even more of a reason. One of
the wildfire attorneys Trey Robertson, and he works with Roger Bailey,
who we've had on the show many time. Trey is
one of the league councils for the Pacific Palisades plaintiffs,
the homeowners, and they have been suing everybody, the city,
(18:53):
the state, and the DWP. And yesterday was when judge
overseeing the case UH told the d w P that
uh they uh that the lawsuit will proceed. The d
w P wanted out of the case. They wanted out
(19:14):
of the master complaint. I don't want to get bogged
down in in technical legal jargon, but basically they wanted
they wanted to be dropped from the lawsuit, and a
judge said no, and the l a d WP's attempt
to dismiss the case was rejected.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
And I want to thank C. C.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Woods, who writes for the Current Report dot com for
all this detail. I tell you, we have to we
have to go to the non traditional media sources to
get the truth about what's going on. Uh. So, the
court determined that the claims laid out in the master
complaint are legally sufficient to move forward. That means, and
(19:58):
this is the key here, why they had to deport
Jennie Communias to Puerto Rico. In fact, she's really going
to Puerto Rico to take over the electrical grid, so
the poor people there are going to be in the
dark for the next ten years. They've already been in
the dark for almost ten years because nobody's been able
(20:18):
to fix the electrical grid in Puerto Rico ever since
I think it was Hurricane Maria hit and that was
in twenty seventeen. Well, now they're going to be blacked
out till about twenty thirty seven. So the court said
the claims laid out and the master complaint are legally
sufficient to move forward.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
You know what this means.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
The litigation now advances into discovery. That's where internal records, communications,
engineering reports, and executive level decisions can be examined under oath.
So we're going to see all the emails and all
the text messages and all the records, and we're gonna
(21:01):
see what Genie Quinon Yez had had written over the
past over two years, like the year leading up to
the fire. Why she didn't fill the reservoir? Did she
even know the reservoir was empty? Why didn't they fix
it a month for one hundred and forty thousand dollars
like they could have? What did she do about all
(21:25):
the fire hydrant complaints? Did she even know about it?
Did she ever meet with Bass? Did she ever meet
with Kristen Crowley. Did she ever tell them, hey, we
got an empty reservoir here. Did she ever do anything
to get an alternate water supply. We're gonna find all
the back and forth, if there is any back and forth,
you know. I talked to Roger Bailey and he said,
(21:47):
he said he's not aware that anybody had any meetings
in the week leading to the fire, despite all the warnings,
despite high wind morning and high fire danger and blah
blah blah blah, had despite the Lockman fire burning, and
then it wasn't put out. Didn't seem anyone talk to
anybody when we come back. I got a player for
(22:10):
you what she did talk about during the timeframe, what
she was interested in. And you're not gonna believe this.
Speaker 6 (22:19):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI A
six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Coming up after Debra's news at five o'clock, we're gonna
have Monica Rodriguez on a city council member. She was
at the Housing and Homelesses Committee meeting here in Los Angeles,
and she said very clearly that this homeless problem is
not a money issue, It is a leadership failure, right
(22:45):
I mean, for all the extra taxes we've been socked with.
Lee's don't vote for any more homeless taxes. Please get
a member of the city council saying it's not a
money problem, it's an execution problem, which of course I
don't know. I would say, we all knew this, but
you still got a majority who voted for the stupid
(23:05):
extra tax last year. We're talking about Genie Kinoniez, who
took two million dollars plus of our water and power
money to burn down the Pacific Palisades and not fill
up the reservoir. And the reason she left so abruptly
(23:26):
to go over and destroy Puerto Rico's electrical grid is
that a judge in the lawsuit filed by the Palisades
residents said that the LEDWP will not be allowed to
get these complaints dismissed. The LEDWP wanted out of the lawsuit.
(23:52):
So now the litigation goes to discovery. Now we're going
to read all the records, all the memos, emails, texts,
all the discussions and decision making that Keinonia's was involved
in leading up to the fire. And she has rarely
said anything about the fire and about the empty reservoir,
(24:16):
but in this is just what. A couple of weeks ago,
February twenty fourth, she did speak at the Board of
Commissioners meeting at the LADWP and somebody, I guess somebody
brought up a Black History Month event that she wasn't
able to attend and listened to her response.
Speaker 7 (24:36):
Happy Black History Month. I wasn't here for the last
board meeting when we probably talked about it, so I
don't want to let that go. Thank you for the invitation.
I wasn't here for the event, but I was looking
forward to hear and how it went. So it sounds
like a success and a lot of fun. And I
miss all the food. I was in Africa, so I
(24:56):
guess I was celebrating somehow somewhere.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I was in Africa. No, not another one. Why was
she in Africa? The reservoir is empty again and closed,
and she's in Africa, like bast went to Africa?
Speaker 4 (25:13):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Why can't they stay here and keep the reservoir filled up?
Why can't they stay here and fund the fire department
and fix the fire hydrants and come up with alternative
water sources?
Speaker 4 (25:29):
That that's why can't you stay here?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And and just turn off the electricity when the fire
is happening so it doesn't get worse.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
She's in Africa. Listen to this again.
Speaker 7 (25:41):
And a lot of fun. And I miss all the food.
I was in Africa, So I guess I was celebrating
some somehow somewhere.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Hey, if they're all going to be in Africa, could
at least they hold a meeting there and make some
decisions on how to protect the rest of us from
burning to death and had having our homes.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Destroyed and our lives destroyed?
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Sheez?
Speaker 4 (26:05):
But were those clips we played yesterday? You got those
clips around?
Speaker 1 (26:11):
She she Whenever she spoke publicly, it was always about
diversity or social justice. In fact, at that interview she
did on a radio station where she talked the reasons
she was attracted to the job.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Was commitment to social justice. I'm not making this up.
Play it.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
You call it powered by equity, and I know that
it's been really important for the DWP to put an
equity lens on everything.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yes, yeah, And that's the number one thing that attracted
me to this role, coming from the communities that I
seeing what I've seen through my career and utilities and
through the military. I've been in the Coast Guard nineteen
and a half years now, so I got six more
months to qualify for my twenty years, which was my
original goal.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Wow, congratulations, thank you for your service.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
It's important to me that everything we do it's with
an equided lens and social justice and making sure that
we right the wrongs that we've done in the past
from an infrastructure perspective, and that we involved the community
in that process. And this, this utility is serious about
it is authentic about it wrong, and so I'm just
(27:21):
super excited to be part of that.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Movement right the wrongs. You're just supposed to provide water
and electricity. You're not a social justice warrior. Just give
electricity to everybody, all right, regardless of color. Just give
everybody electricity. That's your only job. Give everybody water, so
nobody's homes turned down the equity lens. I never heard
(27:45):
that phrase until a couple of years ago. Where is
this lens?
Speaker 4 (27:53):
This is this.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
It's worse than I thought, This whole DEI craze.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Worse than I thought.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Not only do you get the most incompetent and then
qualified people, but that this is all they sit around
and talk about all day. I figured they were incompetent, right,
because when you're not hiring based on accomplishments and talent
and intelligence, well then you're gonna get You're gonna get
Denise Kinonyez. But I didn't know that. I just figured
(28:21):
they'd do their jobs badly, which they do. But I
think a lot of the time they didn't even do
their jobs. They just sat around and talked about the
equity lens, the commitment to social justice. Right we come back,
we're going to talk about you know, there's another disaster
that's never getting fixed, and that's you know, the tens
of thousands of vagrants in the streets. And yesterday Monica
(28:45):
Rodrigo's councilwoman set out loud, the homelessness problem is not
a money issue, it's a leadership failure. And we'll talk
to Monica Rodriguez next. Deborah mark Lyve and the KFI
twenty four hour News Room. You've been listening to the
John Cobelt Show podcast. You can always hear the show
live on KFI AM six forty from three to six
pm every Monday through Friday, and of course anytime on
(29:08):
demand on the iHeartRadio
Speaker 6 (29:09):
App KFI AM six four six more stimulating talk,
Can't I am six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app on every day from
three to six and then after six o'clock. Whatever you missed,
it's on the podcast John Cobelt's show on demand on
the iHeart app. We're going to talk now with a
resident from Chevyot Hills and an attorney, and it's about
(00:22):
what's become an infamous infamous spending by the city on
a homelessness project. There is a guy named Stephen Taylor,
and by through fraudulent means, falsified records, he got the
(00:43):
ability to spend eleven million dollars to buy an assisted
living facility. Then he took that eleven million dollar facility
and re sold it about ten days later for twenty
seven million dollars. And there have been federal charges brought
(01:04):
against the developer or the original owner, Stephen Taylor, and
UH the second company that bought the property, the Wineguard Center.
Two major officials have gone on leave. The locals don't
want this thing. We're going to talk by Samantha Nustbaum
because a lawsuit was filed tuesday by local residents against
(01:27):
the city and other various homelessness agencies over this deal.
Let's get Samantha Nusbaum on and then we're also going
to talk to their attorney as well.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Having us.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Thanks, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Hi, Barack, Laurie, Barock, LORC excuse me, Yeah, I've just
lost my sheet here for a second. Well, Barock, thank
you for coming on. And Samantha, thank you for coming on.
So Samantha, tell me what your You live in the
neighborhood and you don't like this yet.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, I live in the neighborhood and just sort of
as a quick backdrop and you cover the history there.
But this started as a neighborhood effort when we learned
of the project not only funded with sixty million task
payer dollars, it was turning what was then an existing
assisted senior living home into a homeless shelter. So we
(02:26):
started digging in and as a side note, it's still
being renovated on a daily basis and has yet to
house a single person since twenty twenty three. But everyone
knew there was some sort of double escrow, some extreme
pricing and this slip, but our discoveries revealed something far
(02:48):
worse because that quick slip was a pre arranged deal
which appeared to involve city orchestration, corruption, its use of funds,
and more. In addition, paperwork for this deal, including all
of those mechanics were included in the package is approved
(03:12):
by the city and the housing agencies. So as a result,
as a concerned taxpayer and neighbor, we brought all of
this to our council woman Katrslovsky multiple times since twenty
twenty four. We had private meetings and neighborhoods zooms and
can send many emails concerned citizen emails galore. And after
(03:35):
all of that, Katie Rslavski has made it clear that
alleged fraud does not impact the operation supports of moving forward.
She even told us on a zoom that the Feds
told her office to continue rehab and that it would
be a great facility. So that takes us to we
(03:57):
felt like we've done everything we can at that point
to express our concerns. So together with some other neighbors,
they formed a nonprofit called the Integrity Project. One of them, Paully,
was on your show previously, so thank you for that.
And based on our belief, we formed this nonprofit based
(04:18):
on our belief that evicting senior citizens. Stealing public funds
intended to help home most people is not unacceptable public policy.
So we arrived at our last resort, as you said,
litigation supported by the charity. There's another plaintiff, Howard Grossman,
and I filed the lawsuit, and our wonderful attorney, brock
(04:39):
Laurie's on to tell you a little bit more about that.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Okay, hell, you arrived, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
So you had to Steven Taylor, who used, if the
chargers are true, fraudulent means to buy the assisted living
facility for eleven million dollars. Ten days later, he sells
it for twenty seven million. In ten days, the property
appreciated by sixteen million dollars. The Wineguard Center purchased it.
And I remember when we first read this story, Barack
(05:06):
I said, so that extra sixteen million were there others
who took a cut? Were the people in government who
took a cut. Because what Samantha said is this deal
was pre arranged.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Yeah, it does appear to be pre arranged, and it's
pretty shocking. I mean, this is a story about non
accountability and the exploitation of that non accountability. People always
say that people are much more careful with their own
money than they are with other people's money. And in
this case, the taxpayers really are being so shafted to
the town of at least sixteen million dollars with this markup.
(05:42):
And look, it's not just a fight about three three
four oh Shelby. I mean where this whole situation is happening.
It could be repeated in any quiet neighborhood in California. Look,
the core facts are it's sold for eleven point two million,
and one week later, ten or so later days later,
it was flipped to the Wineguards Center for twenty seven million,
(06:04):
more than twenty seven million funded by taxpayers through this
project home Key. And that's where the problem lies. This
is not a difference of opinion. It's an alarming use
of public money. Period. We also believe that the deal
was pushed through with all sorts of conflicts. We know
that there were conflicts, especially with the Wineguards on our
own particular, and all sorts of concealment about that conflict.
(06:29):
And the transaction is now connected to a federal criminal investigation.
But the city is nevertheless pressing on and construction continues.
So Samantha and Howard Groseman filed this taxpayer lawsuit.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
It's a public document. You can read it anytime you like.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Just to stop, to continue to waste and to avoid
these contracts, and to hold the city accountable at the
end of the day, not just under California law, but
for moral reasons as well well. Complicate transaction.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
When do you have a scandal like this where the
price goes from eleven million to twenty seven million and
it was originally tax money that financed the deal.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Yeah, you have.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
To stop the construction and sort out who are the
criminals here because there's bad guys who walked away with
a lot of money.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Well, that's exactly right. And what we're pursuing now is
an injunction and we actually pursued recently a temporary restraining order.
Court has decided to have that hearing coming up, I
believe on the nineteenth, and we're going to have a
hearing about exactly that, to enjoin the city from continuing
the construction of this monstrosity. Of course, at the at
(07:38):
the end of the day, with such an incredible expense.
At the same time, and now the burden is on
the city to explain why they should not have to
be enjoined from proceeding with this construction. So we feel
like we're a bit in the driver's seat. The burden
is on them to prove why they should not be stopped.
But let's see what happens.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, all right, well you go through the next legal steps,
please come back on the air and let us know, right.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
We would definitely like to. We know that we'd like
to get funding for this. This is not just the
cause just for the neighbors thereby, it's a cause for
everybody because they can do it on Shelby Drive in
Cherry Hills, they can do it anywhere.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So you're looking for funding from the public.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, sorry to boss point. The nonprofit that we formed
in the neighborhood, which is really advocating for accountability, transparency
and safety, we have now been approved as a five
oh one C three charity and that charity is fundraising
(08:45):
and all of the donations received, which are fully tax deductible,
would be provided into the fund for the litigation. And
that's where plaintiffs don't seek any personal game. We're not funding,
we're not running a nonprofit to pay officers. This is
strictly for the litigation. We feel that it really is
(09:09):
important for the whole city, and could say, oh yeah,
precedent really statewide.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
All right, I only got I only got a few
seconds here. But if somebody wants to donate money to
this legal effort, how can.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
They do it?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Well, we have an Instagram account. It is the Integrity
Project with underscores between each word, and there's links there
to a go fund me. But thank you for letting
us share that information as well.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
All Right, all right, well we'll talk again. Samantha and Rock.
Thank you very much to both of you for coming on.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Jude, thank you for having us so much.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Follow us at John Cobelt Radio and social media at
John coblt Radio, and subscribe on YouTube YouTube dot com,
slash at John Cobelt Show YouTube dot com slash at
John Cobelt Show. Coming up after Devers's four thirty News,
one more Whack at the Genie kenunyas Penata. We got
a great audio clip that somebody dug up on the internet.
(10:13):
As part of our I think it would be a
month long celebration. I think we should have Jenice Kenyunia's
history month just keep enjoying the best moments of her
miserable career. Along those lines, I was waiting for this.
Do you remember the people Mover?
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, that was supposed to take passengers to Lax I
think from well, all those parking garages in Englewood, right, yes,
where is it supposed to come in from farther than that?
Or this was like a parking ride thing. You park
in the garages and then you get on the people
Mover and it's supposed to relieve a lot of traffic
(10:54):
and a lot of those those stupid rental car buses
would be gone and would open up up the horseshop.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Which would be so nice. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Well, the people Mover was supposed to be ready in
twenty twenty three, March and twenty twenty three, and then
the latest prediction was it was going to be open
in March. Now twenty twenty six, in time for the
World Cup in June. It is not going to be
(11:24):
ready for the World Cup in June.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
No.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, it's pretty shocking and it's really bizarre. I mean,
this is three point three billion dollars and it was
specifically planned to handle all the extra traffic that the
World Cup was going to bring in, and also the Olympics,
(11:47):
and then you know the general public obviously is going
to use it now and thereafter. But this was the
motivating factor. This is what happens when you have big events,
is like a city decides it's like, okay, this is
a good reason to, you know, upgrade our infrastructure. Well,
construction started way back in twenty nineteen and no problem
(12:08):
to get it ready. I mean they thought twenty twenty three,
no problem to get it ready for twenty twenty six.
But under the leadership of Karen Bass and before that
the idiot Eric Arcetti, they're better at destroying things. Karen
Bass can't build anything. And they had announced two years
ago that they were ninety five percent complete on construction.
(12:33):
So they did ninety five percent of the construction in
the first five years and they have not been able
to do the last five percent in the last two years.
It looks like that that everybody's fighting with each other.
The contractors are fighting with the city and the airport authority,
and so the rail just sits up there, and I
(12:57):
think I've seen the train sitting up there as well.
The people mover it just sits, but it doesn't move.
I guess that's the last five percentage to get it
to move. There's disagreement from the airport authority and the contractors,
and it's suposed to handle tens of thousands of people
a day between the terminals, a car rental hub, the
(13:21):
parking lots, and the metro train system. So in about
ten minutes you can hit all those stops, which most
other big city airports had people movers like this. You know,
they're called trams in other cities, so it's not a
big deal. It's very common in most cities. In fact,
(13:42):
La like to my memory for all the places I've
traveled recently, just seems to stand alone that it doesn't
have this thing and they can't finish it. So now
we are going to get the huge crowds for the
World Cup in June, and the airport's going to be
a disaster because they couldn't finish the last five percent.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Why is everybody so stupid?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Why can't Karen Bass and these airport people finish the
last five percent? Whatever the problem is, you negotiate, you
split the difference, you mediate, and you keep the construction going.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
What is this.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Meantime, even at eleven o'clock at night, that horseshoe is
horribly jammed. I was trying to get out of a
parking garage well just last week, and it's late at
night and I can't get into any of the lanes
to exit the airport.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
You can't leave the thing.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
And then to leave it, I had to cross like
four or five lanes of jam traffic with another set
of lanes merging in there.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
It's like, who designed this stupid thing.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
They're on crack, you know, all the engineers must have
been whacked out on crack or whatever the equivalent of
crack was back in the nineteen fifties or sixties, whenever
they redesigned this thing.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
You're listening to John Cobels on Demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
On car One more time. We're gonna get move. Azella's
got the fireworks.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
There we can.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
My favorite part KFI AM six forty more stimulating talk radio,
huh and the Orchestra John Cobelt Show on every day
from three until six and after six o'clock John Cobelt
Show on Demand the podcast. Oh by the way, I
mentioned that we put up videos every day on YouTube.
You should watch the video from yesterday's show. We put
(16:01):
up put up the whole celebration of the demise of
Genie Kinonia's wretched career as CEO of the Department of
Water and Power here in Los Angeles. We really enjoyed ourselves.
We enjoyed ourselves a little too much. So if you
should watch the video and it's on YouTube, it's the
(16:24):
last thing we put up. Now we have a little
PostScript here. Well, for one thing, the news broke yesterday,
and sometimes in the early stories, obviously you don't.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Know the whole story.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
So she suddenly left, and this is fourteen months after
the fire. And again she's the one who didn't fill
the reservoir, one hundred and seventeen million gallulean reservoir empty,
and she didn't she let the thousand fire hydrants broken,
and she didn't turn off the electrical to the existing
(17:02):
electrical lines. And then that night the polls tumbled down,
brought the wires with it, set fire to more dried
out brush, which burned even more homes. So it was one, two,
three strikes and Janice Konez stubbornly refused to leave. And
you know, I wouldn't leave either. You know, she spent
(17:25):
I don't know, maybe two years a little more than
that as the DWP chief and she met probably about
two million dollars because she was making seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars annually and she's going to be paid
all the way to the end of this month.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
So I figured she got fired by Karen.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Bass because Bass is running for reelection and you just
you got to clean out the barn right. Spencer Pratt
has been relentless in criticizing her over all, all of
her ineptitude, starting with the fire, but everything else. I mean,
Spencer Pratt is saying all the things that we should
(18:08):
all agree on. There's no defense for this, and she
really has no business being there, and she has no
business running for reelection. And I think she's trying to
get some of his some of his arguments swept away
and it's not gonna work. But what is she gonna do?
(18:29):
But here is even more of a reason. One of
the wildfire attorneys Trey Robertson, and he works with Roger Bailey,
who we've had on the show many time. Trey is
one of the league councils for the Pacific Palisades plaintiffs,
the homeowners, and they have been suing everybody, the city,
(18:53):
the state, and the DWP. And yesterday was when judge
overseeing the case UH told the d w P that
uh they uh that the lawsuit will proceed. The d
w P wanted out of the case. They wanted out
(19:14):
of the master complaint. I don't want to get bogged
down in in technical legal jargon, but basically they wanted
they wanted to be dropped from the lawsuit, and a
judge said no, and the l a d WP's attempt
to dismiss the case was rejected.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
And I want to thank C. C.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Woods, who writes for the Current Report dot com for
all this detail. I tell you, we have to we
have to go to the non traditional media sources to
get the truth about what's going on. Uh. So, the
court determined that the claims laid out in the master
complaint are legally sufficient to move forward. That means, and
(19:58):
this is the key here, why they had to deport
Jennie Communias to Puerto Rico. In fact, she's really going
to Puerto Rico to take over the electrical grid, so
the poor people there are going to be in the
dark for the next ten years. They've already been in
the dark for almost ten years because nobody's been able
(20:18):
to fix the electrical grid in Puerto Rico ever since
I think it was Hurricane Maria hit and that was
in twenty seventeen. Well, now they're going to be blacked
out till about twenty thirty seven. So the court said
the claims laid out and the master complaint are legally
sufficient to move forward.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
You know what this means.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
The litigation now advances into discovery. That's where internal records, communications,
engineering reports, and executive level decisions can be examined under oath.
So we're going to see all the emails and all
the text messages and all the records, and we're gonna
(21:01):
see what Genie Quinon Yez had had written over the
past over two years, like the year leading up to
the fire. Why she didn't fill the reservoir? Did she
even know the reservoir was empty? Why didn't they fix
it a month for one hundred and forty thousand dollars
like they could have? What did she do about all
(21:25):
the fire hydrant complaints? Did she even know about it?
Did she ever meet with Bass? Did she ever meet
with Kristen Crowley. Did she ever tell them, hey, we
got an empty reservoir here. Did she ever do anything
to get an alternate water supply. We're gonna find all
the back and forth, if there is any back and forth,
you know. I talked to Roger Bailey and he said,
(21:47):
he said he's not aware that anybody had any meetings
in the week leading to the fire, despite all the warnings,
despite high wind morning and high fire danger and blah
blah blah blah, had despite the Lockman fire burning, and
then it wasn't put out. Didn't seem anyone talk to
anybody when we come back. I got a player for
(22:10):
you what she did talk about during the timeframe, what
she was interested in. And you're not gonna believe this.
Speaker 6 (22:19):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI A
six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Coming up after Debra's news at five o'clock, we're gonna
have Monica Rodriguez on a city council member. She was
at the Housing and Homelesses Committee meeting here in Los Angeles,
and she said very clearly that this homeless problem is
not a money issue, It is a leadership failure, right
(22:45):
I mean, for all the extra taxes we've been socked with.
Lee's don't vote for any more homeless taxes. Please get
a member of the city council saying it's not a
money problem, it's an execution problem, which of course I
don't know. I would say, we all knew this, but
you still got a majority who voted for the stupid
(23:05):
extra tax last year. We're talking about Genie Kinoniez, who
took two million dollars plus of our water and power
money to burn down the Pacific Palisades and not fill
up the reservoir. And the reason she left so abruptly
(23:26):
to go over and destroy Puerto Rico's electrical grid is
that a judge in the lawsuit filed by the Palisades
residents said that the LEDWP will not be allowed to
get these complaints dismissed. The LEDWP wanted out of the lawsuit.
(23:52):
So now the litigation goes to discovery. Now we're going
to read all the records, all the memos, emails, texts,
all the discussions and decision making that Keinonia's was involved
in leading up to the fire. And she has rarely
said anything about the fire and about the empty reservoir,
(24:16):
but in this is just what. A couple of weeks ago,
February twenty fourth, she did speak at the Board of
Commissioners meeting at the LADWP and somebody, I guess somebody
brought up a Black History Month event that she wasn't
able to attend and listened to her response.
Speaker 7 (24:36):
Happy Black History Month. I wasn't here for the last
board meeting when we probably talked about it, so I
don't want to let that go. Thank you for the invitation.
I wasn't here for the event, but I was looking
forward to hear and how it went. So it sounds
like a success and a lot of fun. And I
miss all the food. I was in Africa, so I
(24:56):
guess I was celebrating somehow somewhere.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I was in Africa. No, not another one. Why was
she in Africa? The reservoir is empty again and closed,
and she's in Africa, like bast went to Africa?
Speaker 4 (25:13):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Why can't they stay here and keep the reservoir filled up?
Why can't they stay here and fund the fire department
and fix the fire hydrants and come up with alternative
water sources?
Speaker 4 (25:29):
That that's why can't you stay here?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And and just turn off the electricity when the fire
is happening so it doesn't get worse.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
She's in Africa. Listen to this again.
Speaker 7 (25:41):
And a lot of fun. And I miss all the food.
I was in Africa, So I guess I was celebrating
some somehow somewhere.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Hey, if they're all going to be in Africa, could
at least they hold a meeting there and make some
decisions on how to protect the rest of us from
burning to death and had having our homes.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Destroyed and our lives destroyed?
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Sheez?
Speaker 4 (26:05):
But were those clips we played yesterday? You got those
clips around?
Speaker 1 (26:11):
She she Whenever she spoke publicly, it was always about
diversity or social justice. In fact, at that interview she
did on a radio station where she talked the reasons
she was attracted to the job.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Was commitment to social justice. I'm not making this up.
Play it.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
You call it powered by equity, and I know that
it's been really important for the DWP to put an
equity lens on everything.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yes, yeah, And that's the number one thing that attracted
me to this role, coming from the communities that I
seeing what I've seen through my career and utilities and
through the military. I've been in the Coast Guard nineteen
and a half years now, so I got six more
months to qualify for my twenty years, which was my
original goal.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Wow, congratulations, thank you for your service.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
It's important to me that everything we do it's with
an equided lens and social justice and making sure that
we right the wrongs that we've done in the past
from an infrastructure perspective, and that we involved the community
in that process. And this, this utility is serious about
it is authentic about it wrong, and so I'm just
(27:21):
super excited to be part of that.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Movement right the wrongs. You're just supposed to provide water
and electricity. You're not a social justice warrior. Just give
electricity to everybody, all right, regardless of color. Just give
everybody electricity. That's your only job. Give everybody water, so
nobody's homes turned down the equity lens. I never heard
(27:45):
that phrase until a couple of years ago. Where is
this lens?
Speaker 4 (27:53):
This is this.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
It's worse than I thought, This whole DEI craze.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Worse than I thought.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Not only do you get the most incompetent and then
qualified people, but that this is all they sit around
and talk about all day. I figured they were incompetent, right,
because when you're not hiring based on accomplishments and talent
and intelligence, well then you're gonna get You're gonna get
Denise Kinonyez. But I didn't know that. I just figured
(28:21):
they'd do their jobs badly, which they do. But I
think a lot of the time they didn't even do
their jobs. They just sat around and talked about the
equity lens, the commitment to social justice. Right we come back,
we're going to talk about you know, there's another disaster
that's never getting fixed, and that's you know, the tens
of thousands of vagrants in the streets. And yesterday Monica
(28:45):
Rodrigo's councilwoman set out loud, the homelessness problem is not
a money issue, it's a leadership failure. And we'll talk
to Monica Rodriguez next. Deborah mark Lyve and the KFI
twenty four hour News Room. You've been listening to the
John Cobelt Show podcast. You can always hear the show
live on KFI AM six forty from three to six
pm every Monday through Friday, and of course anytime on
(29:08):
demand on the iHeartRadio
Speaker 6 (29:09):
App KFI AM six four six more stimulating talk,
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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