March 5, 2026 • 28 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 3 (03/05) - LA City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez comes on the show to talk about why she said the the homeless problem in LA is not a money issue but a “leadership failure”. A CSU Bakersfield assistant coach was moonlighting as a pimp in 4 states and a man stole a flamingo at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Gas prices have gone up nationwide.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't. I am six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobel Podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We're on every day
from three till six, then after six o'clock John Cobel
Show on demand. That's the podcast and that's what you
listen to in case you miss any part here, and
it's been quite a program already. We are going to
(00:20):
now talk with Monica Rodriguez, excuse me, city councilwoman here
in Los Angeles. There was a housing and Homelessness committee
yesterday and she said very clearly that the homelessness in
LA it's not a money issue, it's a leadership failure
(00:42):
and really described how the whole structure is a disaster.
You know, the city and county county had this joint
operation over the last thirty plus years and it was
called LASSA La Housing Services Authority, and the county got
out of it, but the city is still part of
that agency and just nothing's worked, and it is billions
(01:05):
of dollars that have been flushed down the toilet. We're
going to get Monica Rodriguez on now. Monica, how are
you hi?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm pretty good.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
What made you finally announce publicly that hey, not a
money issue.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, I think it's far from saying that all of
a sudden. I've been calling this out for the last
few years, and in fact introduced the motion to separate
from LASA and establish actually our own homelessness department two
years ago. In fact, it was MS Rahman who was
chair of the committee had been obstructing scheduling that item
(01:44):
for yesterday was three hundred and sixteen days since the
report was available for us to discuss it. But since
that time that the report was completed so that we
could discuss and have a pathway to figure out what
to do next and separating ourselves, the county had already
pulled out. A lot of dynamics have changed, but it's
far from all of a sudden. I have been calling
(02:06):
this out for some.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Time, yes, And I didn't mean to suggest that you
hadn't been on top of this for a long time.
It just seemed that this headline really popped out in
a way that I hadn't seen any public official acknowledge.
And I'm glad you did it. And look, it's pretty
clear after all these years and these billions of dollars
and now you have these various investigations going on that
(02:29):
a lot of this money is getting looted by these nonprofits,
and I just suspect that there's a lot of kickbacks
going on to people in government.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I wouldn't go as far as to, you know, suggest
that it's kickbacks. I just think there's clearly no evaluation
of the contracts that are being administered. And one of
the problems that I think people have rallied upon is
like just or relied upon rather is to offer outreach services.
(03:00):
But as I described it in committee yesterday, I so
that's the equivalent of offering a number of hostesses at
a restaurant with no new tables, so all you're doing
is taking reservations. It's we have a system that is
outreach rich and housing poor. You also have a number
of individuals that are suffering with mental health and substance
(03:21):
use disorder that are frankly within the purview of the
county to address. But where's the level of accountability across
all of these systems to help ensure that those things
are happening and they're being they're they're seeing them all
the way through. It's not simply housing. It depends on
the circumstances of the individual, and the reality is is
that everyone is at a different juncture in this in
(03:44):
their state of homelessness.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
But intelligent people would be able to analyze what you're
analyzing and arrange the departments, the organ the whole organization
so that it addresses all the different components of homelessness
and just done what you've been saying. The whole thing's
a mess, and it's uncoordinated, and the whole system obviously
(04:08):
doesn't work. You just open your eyes and walk around town.
So what's wrong with the people who work in the agencies,
who work for the government, what's wrong with them? Why
can't they put it to get it together?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I think the challenge is is that you have a combination.
So like again, a lot of moving parts at LASA.
You have seen and just in the time that I've
been on the City Council, it seems like the leadership
changes at LASA every two years, and so the conversations
started over and over again. It's why I coined the
phrase get me off this marry go around from hell.
(04:41):
We kept starting the conversation over again because new leadership
would come in. You would see some minimal changes or
things that were coming in. But the reality is is
that these systems are structured in a way that are
not being directed by the elected officials who would be accountable.
LASA was an in intermediary and it continues to be
(05:01):
an intermediary where the county has now removed themselves from it.
But here we are as a city is still tethered
to best and so my push has constantly been we
need to set something up within the city that would
be able to operate in the contract management space to
do that oversight and that we can have direct accountability
(05:22):
on because right now what we're doing is we've got
to pass through and it's clear that there's no accountability
with the contracts that are being awarded. So if you
have a department that manages it in house, we should
be able to evaluate, have the metrics, and have directed
exposure to what the results of the work are. There's
a number of redundancies in contracts that are going out
(05:44):
around outreach services and alike, but you don't see the transition.
I asked the question back when Lakasa was being formed,
which is a new agency that was that's not LASA.
They changed the name and so called it Lakasa was
based on the La County to Measure a proposal where
(06:04):
all of the moneies are now being distributed there that agency.
When we were getting briefed on how does the structure work,
and it's still unclear to me how it all truly functions,
But when we were having a conversation about it, it
was constantly the word accountability was thrown into the mix.
And what I asked was, with all of the same
actors involved in this structure, help me understand what is
(06:29):
going to be different and what consequences for failures to
perform is going to be Meaning who's going to lose
their contract? And what are the metrics around who loses
their contract if you can evaluate and when you evaluate
whether or not they're performing. And I couldn't get a
clear answer, but.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
What you're talking about here, it's like a clause specifically
a metric to judge performance and what the ramifications are
if you don't meet those metrics. That is built into
every business contract that I've ever seen or been a
part of. That is that is automatic. And this is
what I don't understand. You got fifteen council members here
in the mayor and this isn't automatically built in to
(07:08):
every agreement with every single uh nonprofit organization. UH. And
there's must be hundreds of them that have been gotten
tax money all these years. I mean, that's that's.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well again, I'm just I'm going I'm going back to again.
You're saying that this was directly under the purview of
the council. This is what's being administered by LASSA, which
is separate, which is why I wanted to bring it
in because then you have the direct accountability. What I
was also explaining to you is that this new system
La CASA, which is born out of the measure aid
(07:39):
tax money that the county passed, that has a number
of elected officials serving on the board, And to me,
I asked the same question, how are you going to
evaluate the performance issues around these same nonprofits? We so
have the same problem, and I'm not I don't have
any greater clarity on that new structure, whether not that's
(08:00):
going to happen or how that's going to happen. All right,
So my point is is that that's why we have
to we have to tighten it, rein it in, and
we have to so that we can directly be held
accountable to the performances of those that we contract.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Can you can you hang on for another segment? You
got time?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Okay, all right, let me just take a quick break here.
Monica Rodrigas with the City Council. She says money is
not the issue with this persistent homelessness in La.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
We're talking to Monica Rodriguez and the Housing and Homelessness
committee that she's on, and she said publicly yesterday it's
not a money issue. The persistent homelessness a leadership failure.
The whole system just simply doesn't work. Monica, did the
other council members outside of a couple, we probably would
(08:58):
list the same names. Are they moved at all by this?
Do they care at all? I mean, it seems obvious
that the system has to be completely redesigned here and
LASSA is a sunk ship. Do they share your urgency so?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well? First of all, I want to correct you. I
actually was removed from the committee back in twenty twenty four,
so I haven't been on it for well over a year.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Oh you went to speak to the committee, then, correct I.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Went to speak to the committee because I have a
number of colleagues that are new and just to give
some historical context and to address the motion that was
being heard. That was one that I had introduced two
years ago. So you know I have if you look
at the votes on whether it was some of the
money that was being allocated for the for Insight Safe
(09:50):
on the homeless emergency account, I was a solo vote.
I think I'm trying to recall if I have gotten
any other of members. No, I think I think I
still remained the whole no vote on that. M coscar
I think voted no on one on one of the
last homeless emergency accounts. But for more than gosh, a
(10:14):
year and a half, two years, I'd been voting against
a lot of these things and introducing a number of
these motions. But no that most of the committee work
and the conversations were not advancing out of the committee.
That Ni chared they.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Were not even getting out of the committee because they
didn't have the votes.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
No, because she wouldn't schedule.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Them, wouldn't schedule votes.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
She wouldn't schedule them, or she would continue the item,
so it just would never There was there was never
a position being taken.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
This is billions of dollars of our tax money. This
is this is where I start wondering, Okay, what's the
real story here.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Well, that that's what frustrated me. And I opened my
comments with whatever you know, and I think we know
what the impetus is. But whatever the impetus was, for
now these items being scheduled. I'm glad that we're here
because you know, too much time has passed and the
people deserve to have greater accountability with their money. But
(11:20):
they deserve as long as those but these issues but
being shown. They weren't being addressed.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
But it's not just accountability. There has to be success.
There has to be execution and with the result that
these these people are off the streets number one, and
that they're getting some kind of help or treatment that
is beneficial for them. And and you know, accountability means
all right, will tell you you know where the money
(11:46):
was wasted. I want to know where the money worked.
And because I don't think it's worked much at all, well.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
I will say this. I started a program, an RV
to home program that was removing RVs and housing people.
And with the start of just a three hundred and
fifty thousand dollars grant that I got from the Hilton
Foundation and the subsequent additional state money that we received
from a grant. We've housed over three hundred individuals and
(12:15):
destroyed over one hundred and fifty RVs. So there are
cost effective solutions. I'm piloting that in my district and
now working to expand that city wide. But I'm trying
to develop proofs of concept so that my colleagues will
have other examples that they can use and that we
can fund so that we don't have to rely on
these service providers that are just being awarded contracts in
(12:38):
that way. But I will tell you, even when I
started that program, I was told by a number of
service providers, oh, well, people that live in our vs
don't identify as being homeless, and we change that narrative
based on the program that based on the model that
we've developed in my district.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
All right, well, listen, I appreciate you coming on and
talking about this, and I hope we can talk more
about this because it's this is a tremendous amount of money,
and I'm glad your your pilot program is working out.
But to me. If there is any glimmer of success,
then it should immediately be replicated in a similar way.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
All right, well thanks, that's why we're actually and it's
now been adopted for citywide implementation. Now I got to
get somebody to give me more money so that we
can expand it citywide and fund it citywide.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
All right, thank you, Monica Rodriguez City council woman.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
You can follow us at John Cobelt Radio, on social
media at John Cobelt Radio, or subscribe on YouTube to
look at our videos every night. And you know, last
night's video was the celebration of the demise of Genice
Quinonez as head of the DWP, the woman who didn't
fill the reservoir head is as empty as that reservoir.
(14:02):
But she's going on to Puerto Rico to run the
electrical grid there, so the people in Puerto Rico will
be living in the dark for quite some time. You
could see that video. You could subscribe YouTube dot com
slash at John Cobelt Show. YouTube dot com slash at
John Cobelt Show. Okay, every once in a while, I
give Deborah a choice which story she wants to hear.
So the categories are the high school basketball coach who's
(14:28):
a pimp or the tourist who stole a live flamingo
from a Las Vegas hotel. Which would you like? But
she's passed out. I don't think she's paying attention. She's
not paying attention. Oh this is fascinating. So does that
mean I get to pick? Well? Yeah, yeah, but I
want to see, like, what is she doing. She's got
her head down and it's behind the monitor. I'm watching
(14:48):
on a screen. Maybe she's on the phone. Is she
on the phone? Oh, she didn't ever have phones on? Oh?
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Okay, sorry? Were you talking to me? You know, I
do put news together around here.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
It looked like you were asleep, had your head down,
and I thought she passed out? Last many guns?
Speaker 4 (15:07):
What were you talking about?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I was gonna play game with you here. Okay, Eric,
you can play too, all right? Cool? All right? In
a tie, vote though you break the time? Okay. Uh,
you got your choice of stories, Deborah. Uh, the local
basketball coach who's a pimp or the tourist who stole
a live flamingo from the Las Vegas hotel the pimp.
(15:28):
Oh good, okay, all right, clean sweep, all right, three
for the pimp. She's just nervous.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
That I didn't know because I didn't have my headphones on.
I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Okay, all right, here we go cal State Bakersfield, UH.
The men's basketball college. Rod Barnes back in August, got
an anonymous email from a tipster said that Barnes's assistant coach,
Kevin Mays, was working on the side as a pimp.
(15:59):
And it turns out it may be true. There's a
whole lot of charges against Mays, and Barnes is now resigned,
and so did the athletic director, Kyle Conder. The tipster
wrote in all capital letters, fix it or the whole
staff will fall. This is a first warning and a
(16:20):
final warning. And it turns out it was a true story. Mays,
the assistant, is now being held without bail. Eleven criminal
and misdemeanor charges pimping, possession of automatic firearms, high capacity magazines,
possession of meth and marijuana, intent to sell six hundred
(16:42):
images of youth or child pornography, and distribution of the
pornography to someone under the age of eighteen. That's your
assistant basketball. Yeah, he arrived in twenty nineteen to be
the assistant and on his application he wrote that he
(17:02):
was driven by basketball, team building and helping young men. Well,
that's one way. I'm glad he wasn't my coach. That's
one way to improve the morale. You know.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
One little side piece to this. No, what, Well it's
cal State University, Bakersfield. Yeah, he was an assistant coach
paid by the school. Yeah, tax dollars went to his cell.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Well, I guess it wasn't enough. Is more lucrative? Four states?
Four states, Las Vegas, Nevada, of course, Oregon, Washington, and California.
That was his operating area. The email said important message
nine one one, nine one one. He is trafficking a
girl by the name of blank. And then there were
(17:50):
more emails and this person knew the victim new Maze
through previous travel for sex work.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
How many recruits do you think you got by sending
some girls over to their hotel on an official visit?
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That probably was Maybe that's why the athletic director resigned.
In the head coach resigned, although they claimed they didn't
know anything about it. But you know, if you have
an especially good recruiting yearable. Yeah, yeah, he was a
professional gambler and was he a hunter too? He wasn't
(18:28):
that bad. You came out against hunters and fishermen.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
I heard, Yes, I did. Yeah, people off the monks
and merrill.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Way to bond. But the audience. Those two guys are
trying to build a new audience, and here you go
popping off and.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Yeah, I'm authentic.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
No, I'll not get more trouble here. May's told the
tipster he was a professional gambler. Okay, So May's got
involved and threatened to take away the person's child if
Mays was exposed. So he threatened to take away I
guess the sex workers child.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
I god, that that is reprehensible.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Now you want to hear about the the tourist that
stole alive Flamingo. You're not gonna like this.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Well, that's why I didn't choose that.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Mitchell Fairburn, thirty three year old guy, thirty three years old.
You know you're supposed to be past this. He's from Ontario, Canada,
and at the Flamingo Hotel they have a cage with
you know, a little enclave with flamingos, and I guess
he got loaded and he kidnapped Peachy the flamingo. Do
(19:55):
you guess he got loaded? I wasn't there. I don't know.
Around five in the morning, they caught him on camera
and it was a bright, pink Chilian flamingo. Grabbed it
by the neck and started laughing, and he shouted, I'm
taking it home. He then dragged the three foot flamingo
(20:18):
into an elevator and took it up and took it
up to his room on the fourteenth floor.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
And what did he do with it?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
And he recorded this on his phone, and he chased
the bird and then pinned it down and clipped its
wings and then tried to pop the wing back in place.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Jean, I don't want to hear this anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I'm not terrible. Yeah, and it harmed the flamingo. The
poor thing needed stitches.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Sean, we got the point.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I didn't do it.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
I know, but I don't think you want to hear
any more of that. We need to do the same
to this idiot.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
He claimed he knew what he was doing because he's a.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Farm Oh sure, uh okay.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Footage from his phone. Oh and there was he had
a friend do this. Born Fairbarn Uh and his friend
chased peache through the hallway, then started choking it as
they posed for photos. They took selfies and they found
a large bloody feather in the hotel room. He was
charged with torturing, maiming and harming an animal.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Is it die?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
No? No, but it had to be taken to a
veterinarian Uh And it's recovering though. Two other Flamingos were
also injured during the incident, but they're expecting that Peachee
will make a full recovery.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
I want to punch that guy in the you know.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
What trunk do you have to be? You know, people are.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
I'm telling you, when people are cruel to animals, they did,
they deserve the death penalty.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Well, you know, often animal cruelty leads to horrible cross
against people.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
The animals are so defenseless.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
What's gonna do? Right? You know?
Speaker 4 (22:08):
And why.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Canadian farm boy loaded?
Speaker 6 (22:13):
He just wants us to adopt peach Angel Martinez, She says,
can we can we do that for the show?
Speaker 4 (22:18):
We have a Well.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, I don't think living in an enclosure at the
Flamingo Hotel is much funny, right exactly?
Speaker 4 (22:24):
So working with you or being with you, with you
every day. John, you have a farm at home?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Bring it home.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
I have a farm at home.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
You have, I told you yesterday your doctor Doolittle.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Like, yes, I have a lot of one more that
live inside the house. Okay, I don't have a farm.
I don't have that much land in.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Your spacious bougie backyard. You can't put peache.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Peach probably would get attacked by red tailed hawks. I
don't even let my little.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Dog out a big enclosure.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
You know you've got a pretty nice place up there.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
No, I don't have the art.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
You got room for a flamingo?
Speaker 4 (23:06):
No, I don't. You don't have a backyard very small.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
You're listening to John cobelts on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
You can follow us a John Cobelt Radio on social
media or subscribe on YouTube, YouTube dot com slash at
John co Belt's show. And you should watch the Genese
Communias celebration on the video from yesterday when in our
first hour, also of another new video up tonight. So
you could just spend your whole evening with us afternoons
on the radio evenings watching the videos. And we got
(23:38):
Conway coming up in just a few minutes here on KFI.
It's the gas prices are going up rapidly because of
Trump's war in Iran. Gas prices have gone up nationwide
by twenty seven cents in just a week. But look
(23:59):
at it this way, the average around the country is
still only three dollars in twenty five cents. In fact,
that there are there's still eighteen states, eighteen states that
sell gas for under three dollars a gallon. However, in
California it is four dollars in eighty one cents. We're
(24:21):
headed towards five very soon. We're at four eighty one.
The average is three twenty five. In Oklahoma, you can
get it for two seventy nine. And there's eighteen states,
like I said, under under three bucks. And I would
like to look at the other left wing states that
you think might be prone to excessive taxes. Well, Massachusetts
(24:45):
is only three h nine, New Jersey is only three thirteen,
New York three sixteen, and Illinois three point thirty six.
We're at four eighty one. We're almost forty cents higher
than the next most expensive gasoline state. And there's more
(25:07):
to come. I mean, the price could go up more
because of Iran, but it's definitely going to go up
more because now we're entering the summer blended season. By
the way, this is all because they're stealing money through
these taxes and they're trying to drive out the oil
(25:30):
and gas business with their regulations. It's under the cover
of under the cover of climate change, but of course
the climate has not cooled at all. It's actually got warmer.
So we've done nothing but cost ourselves. Well. Newsom has
done nothing but cost us billions of dollars in excessive
(25:51):
gas and oil prices, excessive electricity prices and switching to
summer wen means it's another ten to fifteen cent increase
coming up because we're down to six refineries in the
state and a short list of Asian countries that can
provide us with the summer blend China, India, Saudi Arabia,
(26:16):
Singapore and South Korea, and of course all the mayhem
going on in the Middle East could affect those shipments.
We are losing twenty percent of our domestic gasoline production
because of the two closures in the past few months.
Phillip sixty six in Wilmington, Valero in Benetia, up in
(26:37):
northern California. According to Andy Watts from Chevron, prices are
already high in California because of taxes, but what if
you can't get the products that you need and the
remaining refineries are warning that there's even new regulations from
the California Air Resources Board on top of the summer
(27:00):
lend prices, on top of the Iranian war prices, and
these new amendments could cause gas prices to rise another
seventy four cents according to the Legislative Analyst Office and
Sacramento the Government. The government's own analysts say that carbs
(27:24):
regulations at another seventy four cents. So he had seventy
four cents plus fifteen for the summer blend, plus the
twenty seven we've already got, and you're you're looking, well,
there's one estimate that within a year we're hitting six
dollars and two cents.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Six.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Now they're talking six within the year. And again we
got eighteen states where gas starts with a two and
we're looking at a six. Please keep voting the way
you're voting. We've Conway coming up next. Mark Thompson will
(28:03):
be filling in tomorrow and I'll be back On Monday,
Michael Krazer has the news live in the KFI twenty
four our newsroom. 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 demand on
the iHeartRadio app KFI Am six more stimulating talk
Can't. I am six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobel Podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We're on every day
from three till six, then after six o'clock John Cobel
Show on demand. That's the podcast and that's what you
listen to in case you miss any part here, and
it's been quite a program already. We are going to
(00:20):
now talk with Monica Rodriguez, excuse me, city councilwoman here
in Los Angeles. There was a housing and Homelessness committee
yesterday and she said very clearly that the homelessness in
LA it's not a money issue, it's a leadership failure
(00:42):
and really described how the whole structure is a disaster.
You know, the city and county county had this joint
operation over the last thirty plus years and it was
called LASSA La Housing Services Authority, and the county got
out of it, but the city is still part of
that agency and just nothing's worked, and it is billions
(01:05):
of dollars that have been flushed down the toilet. We're
going to get Monica Rodriguez on now. Monica, how are
you hi?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm pretty good.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
What made you finally announce publicly that hey, not a
money issue.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, I think it's far from saying that all of
a sudden. I've been calling this out for the last
few years, and in fact introduced the motion to separate
from LASA and establish actually our own homelessness department two
years ago. In fact, it was MS Rahman who was
chair of the committee had been obstructing scheduling that item
(01:44):
for yesterday was three hundred and sixteen days since the
report was available for us to discuss it. But since
that time that the report was completed so that we
could discuss and have a pathway to figure out what
to do next and separating ourselves, the county had already
pulled out. A lot of dynamics have changed, but it's
far from all of a sudden. I have been calling
(02:06):
this out for some.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Time, yes, And I didn't mean to suggest that you
hadn't been on top of this for a long time.
It just seemed that this headline really popped out in
a way that I hadn't seen any public official acknowledge.
And I'm glad you did it. And look, it's pretty
clear after all these years and these billions of dollars
and now you have these various investigations going on that
(02:29):
a lot of this money is getting looted by these nonprofits,
and I just suspect that there's a lot of kickbacks
going on to people in government.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I wouldn't go as far as to, you know, suggest
that it's kickbacks. I just think there's clearly no evaluation
of the contracts that are being administered. And one of
the problems that I think people have rallied upon is
like just or relied upon rather is to offer outreach services.
(03:00):
But as I described it in committee yesterday, I so
that's the equivalent of offering a number of hostesses at
a restaurant with no new tables, so all you're doing
is taking reservations. It's we have a system that is
outreach rich and housing poor. You also have a number
of individuals that are suffering with mental health and substance
(03:21):
use disorder that are frankly within the purview of the
county to address. But where's the level of accountability across
all of these systems to help ensure that those things
are happening and they're being they're they're seeing them all
the way through. It's not simply housing. It depends on
the circumstances of the individual, and the reality is is
that everyone is at a different juncture in this in
(03:44):
their state of homelessness.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
But intelligent people would be able to analyze what you're
analyzing and arrange the departments, the organ the whole organization
so that it addresses all the different components of homelessness
and just done what you've been saying. The whole thing's
a mess, and it's uncoordinated, and the whole system obviously
(04:08):
doesn't work. You just open your eyes and walk around town.
So what's wrong with the people who work in the agencies,
who work for the government, what's wrong with them? Why
can't they put it to get it together?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I think the challenge is is that you have a combination.
So like again, a lot of moving parts at LASA.
You have seen and just in the time that I've
been on the City Council, it seems like the leadership
changes at LASA every two years, and so the conversations
started over and over again. It's why I coined the
phrase get me off this marry go around from hell.
(04:41):
We kept starting the conversation over again because new leadership
would come in. You would see some minimal changes or
things that were coming in. But the reality is is
that these systems are structured in a way that are
not being directed by the elected officials who would be accountable.
LASA was an in intermediary and it continues to be
(05:01):
an intermediary where the county has now removed themselves from it.
But here we are as a city is still tethered
to best and so my push has constantly been we
need to set something up within the city that would
be able to operate in the contract management space to
do that oversight and that we can have direct accountability
(05:22):
on because right now what we're doing is we've got
to pass through and it's clear that there's no accountability
with the contracts that are being awarded. So if you
have a department that manages it in house, we should
be able to evaluate, have the metrics, and have directed
exposure to what the results of the work are. There's
a number of redundancies in contracts that are going out
(05:44):
around outreach services and alike, but you don't see the transition.
I asked the question back when Lakasa was being formed,
which is a new agency that was that's not LASA.
They changed the name and so called it Lakasa was
based on the La County to Measure a proposal where
(06:04):
all of the moneies are now being distributed there that agency.
When we were getting briefed on how does the structure work,
and it's still unclear to me how it all truly functions,
But when we were having a conversation about it, it
was constantly the word accountability was thrown into the mix.
And what I asked was, with all of the same
actors involved in this structure, help me understand what is
(06:29):
going to be different and what consequences for failures to
perform is going to be Meaning who's going to lose
their contract? And what are the metrics around who loses
their contract if you can evaluate and when you evaluate
whether or not they're performing. And I couldn't get a
clear answer, but.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
What you're talking about here, it's like a clause specifically
a metric to judge performance and what the ramifications are
if you don't meet those metrics. That is built into
every business contract that I've ever seen or been a
part of. That is that is automatic. And this is
what I don't understand. You got fifteen council members here
in the mayor and this isn't automatically built in to
(07:08):
every agreement with every single uh nonprofit organization. UH. And
there's must be hundreds of them that have been gotten
tax money all these years. I mean, that's that's.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well again, I'm just I'm going I'm going back to again.
You're saying that this was directly under the purview of
the council. This is what's being administered by LASSA, which
is separate, which is why I wanted to bring it
in because then you have the direct accountability. What I
was also explaining to you is that this new system
La CASA, which is born out of the measure aid
(07:39):
tax money that the county passed, that has a number
of elected officials serving on the board, And to me,
I asked the same question, how are you going to
evaluate the performance issues around these same nonprofits? We so
have the same problem, and I'm not I don't have
any greater clarity on that new structure, whether not that's
(08:00):
going to happen or how that's going to happen. All right,
So my point is is that that's why we have
to we have to tighten it, rein it in, and
we have to so that we can directly be held
accountable to the performances of those that we contract.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Can you can you hang on for another segment? You
got time?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Okay, all right, let me just take a quick break here.
Monica Rodrigas with the City Council. She says money is
not the issue with this persistent homelessness in La.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
We're talking to Monica Rodriguez and the Housing and Homelessness
committee that she's on, and she said publicly yesterday it's
not a money issue. The persistent homelessness a leadership failure.
The whole system just simply doesn't work. Monica, did the
other council members outside of a couple, we probably would
(08:58):
list the same names. Are they moved at all by this?
Do they care at all? I mean, it seems obvious
that the system has to be completely redesigned here and
LASSA is a sunk ship. Do they share your urgency so?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well? First of all, I want to correct you. I
actually was removed from the committee back in twenty twenty four,
so I haven't been on it for well over a year.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Oh you went to speak to the committee, then, correct I.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Went to speak to the committee because I have a
number of colleagues that are new and just to give
some historical context and to address the motion that was
being heard. That was one that I had introduced two
years ago. So you know I have if you look
at the votes on whether it was some of the
money that was being allocated for the for Insight Safe
(09:50):
on the homeless emergency account, I was a solo vote.
I think I'm trying to recall if I have gotten
any other of members. No, I think I think I
still remained the whole no vote on that. M coscar
I think voted no on one on one of the
last homeless emergency accounts. But for more than gosh, a
(10:14):
year and a half, two years, I'd been voting against
a lot of these things and introducing a number of
these motions. But no that most of the committee work
and the conversations were not advancing out of the committee.
That Ni chared they.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Were not even getting out of the committee because they
didn't have the votes.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
No, because she wouldn't schedule.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Them, wouldn't schedule votes.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
She wouldn't schedule them, or she would continue the item,
so it just would never There was there was never
a position being taken.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
This is billions of dollars of our tax money. This
is this is where I start wondering, Okay, what's the
real story here.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Well, that that's what frustrated me. And I opened my
comments with whatever you know, and I think we know
what the impetus is. But whatever the impetus was, for
now these items being scheduled. I'm glad that we're here
because you know, too much time has passed and the
people deserve to have greater accountability with their money. But
(11:20):
they deserve as long as those but these issues but
being shown. They weren't being addressed.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
But it's not just accountability. There has to be success.
There has to be execution and with the result that
these these people are off the streets number one, and
that they're getting some kind of help or treatment that
is beneficial for them. And and you know, accountability means
all right, will tell you you know where the money
(11:46):
was wasted. I want to know where the money worked.
And because I don't think it's worked much at all, well.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
I will say this. I started a program, an RV
to home program that was removing RVs and housing people.
And with the start of just a three hundred and
fifty thousand dollars grant that I got from the Hilton
Foundation and the subsequent additional state money that we received
from a grant. We've housed over three hundred individuals and
(12:15):
destroyed over one hundred and fifty RVs. So there are
cost effective solutions. I'm piloting that in my district and
now working to expand that city wide. But I'm trying
to develop proofs of concept so that my colleagues will
have other examples that they can use and that we
can fund so that we don't have to rely on
these service providers that are just being awarded contracts in
(12:38):
that way. But I will tell you, even when I
started that program, I was told by a number of
service providers, oh, well, people that live in our vs
don't identify as being homeless, and we change that narrative
based on the program that based on the model that
we've developed in my district.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
All right, well, listen, I appreciate you coming on and
talking about this, and I hope we can talk more
about this because it's this is a tremendous amount of money,
and I'm glad your your pilot program is working out.
But to me. If there is any glimmer of success,
then it should immediately be replicated in a similar way.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
All right, well thanks, that's why we're actually and it's
now been adopted for citywide implementation. Now I got to
get somebody to give me more money so that we
can expand it citywide and fund it citywide.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
All right, thank you, Monica Rodriguez City council woman.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
You can follow us at John Cobelt Radio, on social
media at John Cobelt Radio, or subscribe on YouTube to
look at our videos every night. And you know, last
night's video was the celebration of the demise of Genice
Quinonez as head of the DWP, the woman who didn't
fill the reservoir head is as empty as that reservoir.
(14:02):
But she's going on to Puerto Rico to run the
electrical grid there, so the people in Puerto Rico will
be living in the dark for quite some time. You
could see that video. You could subscribe YouTube dot com
slash at John Cobelt Show. YouTube dot com slash at
John Cobelt Show. Okay, every once in a while, I
give Deborah a choice which story she wants to hear.
So the categories are the high school basketball coach who's
(14:28):
a pimp or the tourist who stole a live flamingo
from a Las Vegas hotel. Which would you like? But
she's passed out. I don't think she's paying attention. She's
not paying attention. Oh this is fascinating. So does that
mean I get to pick? Well? Yeah, yeah, but I
want to see, like, what is she doing. She's got
her head down and it's behind the monitor. I'm watching
(14:48):
on a screen. Maybe she's on the phone. Is she
on the phone? Oh, she didn't ever have phones on? Oh?
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Okay, sorry? Were you talking to me? You know, I
do put news together around here.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
It looked like you were asleep, had your head down,
and I thought she passed out? Last many guns?
Speaker 4 (15:07):
What were you talking about?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I was gonna play game with you here. Okay, Eric,
you can play too, all right? Cool? All right? In
a tie, vote though you break the time? Okay. Uh,
you got your choice of stories, Deborah. Uh, the local
basketball coach who's a pimp or the tourist who stole
a live flamingo from the Las Vegas hotel the pimp.
(15:28):
Oh good, okay, all right, clean sweep, all right, three
for the pimp. She's just nervous.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
That I didn't know because I didn't have my headphones on.
I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Okay, all right, here we go cal State Bakersfield, UH.
The men's basketball college. Rod Barnes back in August, got
an anonymous email from a tipster said that Barnes's assistant coach,
Kevin Mays, was working on the side as a pimp.
(15:59):
And it turns out it may be true. There's a
whole lot of charges against Mays, and Barnes is now resigned,
and so did the athletic director, Kyle Conder. The tipster
wrote in all capital letters, fix it or the whole
staff will fall. This is a first warning and a
(16:20):
final warning. And it turns out it was a true story. Mays,
the assistant, is now being held without bail. Eleven criminal
and misdemeanor charges pimping, possession of automatic firearms, high capacity magazines,
possession of meth and marijuana, intent to sell six hundred
(16:42):
images of youth or child pornography, and distribution of the
pornography to someone under the age of eighteen. That's your
assistant basketball. Yeah, he arrived in twenty nineteen to be
the assistant and on his application he wrote that he
(17:02):
was driven by basketball, team building and helping young men. Well,
that's one way. I'm glad he wasn't my coach. That's
one way to improve the morale. You know.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
One little side piece to this. No, what, Well it's
cal State University, Bakersfield. Yeah, he was an assistant coach
paid by the school. Yeah, tax dollars went to his cell.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Well, I guess it wasn't enough. Is more lucrative? Four states?
Four states, Las Vegas, Nevada, of course, Oregon, Washington, and California.
That was his operating area. The email said important message
nine one one, nine one one. He is trafficking a
girl by the name of blank. And then there were
(17:50):
more emails and this person knew the victim new Maze
through previous travel for sex work.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
How many recruits do you think you got by sending
some girls over to their hotel on an official visit?
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That probably was Maybe that's why the athletic director resigned.
In the head coach resigned, although they claimed they didn't
know anything about it. But you know, if you have
an especially good recruiting yearable. Yeah, yeah, he was a
professional gambler and was he a hunter too? He wasn't
(18:28):
that bad. You came out against hunters and fishermen.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
I heard, Yes, I did. Yeah, people off the monks
and merrill.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Way to bond. But the audience. Those two guys are
trying to build a new audience, and here you go
popping off and.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Yeah, I'm authentic.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
No, I'll not get more trouble here. May's told the
tipster he was a professional gambler. Okay, So May's got
involved and threatened to take away the person's child if
Mays was exposed. So he threatened to take away I
guess the sex workers child.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
I god, that that is reprehensible.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Now you want to hear about the the tourist that
stole alive Flamingo. You're not gonna like this.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Well, that's why I didn't choose that.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Mitchell Fairburn, thirty three year old guy, thirty three years old.
You know you're supposed to be past this. He's from Ontario, Canada,
and at the Flamingo Hotel they have a cage with
you know, a little enclave with flamingos, and I guess
he got loaded and he kidnapped Peachy the flamingo. Do
(19:55):
you guess he got loaded? I wasn't there. I don't know.
Around five in the morning, they caught him on camera
and it was a bright, pink Chilian flamingo. Grabbed it
by the neck and started laughing, and he shouted, I'm
taking it home. He then dragged the three foot flamingo
(20:18):
into an elevator and took it up and took it
up to his room on the fourteenth floor.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
And what did he do with it?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
And he recorded this on his phone, and he chased
the bird and then pinned it down and clipped its
wings and then tried to pop the wing back in place.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Jean, I don't want to hear this anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I'm not terrible. Yeah, and it harmed the flamingo. The
poor thing needed stitches.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Sean, we got the point.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I didn't do it.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
I know, but I don't think you want to hear
any more of that. We need to do the same
to this idiot.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
He claimed he knew what he was doing because he's a.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Farm Oh sure, uh okay.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Footage from his phone. Oh and there was he had
a friend do this. Born Fairbarn Uh and his friend
chased peache through the hallway, then started choking it as
they posed for photos. They took selfies and they found
a large bloody feather in the hotel room. He was
charged with torturing, maiming and harming an animal.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Is it die?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
No? No, but it had to be taken to a
veterinarian Uh And it's recovering though. Two other Flamingos were
also injured during the incident, but they're expecting that Peachee
will make a full recovery.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
I want to punch that guy in the you know.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
What trunk do you have to be? You know, people are.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
I'm telling you, when people are cruel to animals, they did,
they deserve the death penalty.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Well, you know, often animal cruelty leads to horrible cross
against people.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
The animals are so defenseless.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
What's gonna do? Right? You know?
Speaker 4 (22:08):
And why.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Canadian farm boy loaded?
Speaker 6 (22:13):
He just wants us to adopt peach Angel Martinez, She says,
can we can we do that for the show?
Speaker 4 (22:18):
We have a Well.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, I don't think living in an enclosure at the
Flamingo Hotel is much funny, right exactly?
Speaker 4 (22:24):
So working with you or being with you, with you
every day. John, you have a farm at home?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Bring it home.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
I have a farm at home.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
You have, I told you yesterday your doctor Doolittle.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Like, yes, I have a lot of one more that
live inside the house. Okay, I don't have a farm.
I don't have that much land in.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Your spacious bougie backyard. You can't put peache.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Peach probably would get attacked by red tailed hawks. I
don't even let my little.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Dog out a big enclosure.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
You know you've got a pretty nice place up there.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
No, I don't have the art.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
You got room for a flamingo?
Speaker 4 (23:06):
No, I don't. You don't have a backyard very small.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
You're listening to John cobelts on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
You can follow us a John Cobelt Radio on social
media or subscribe on YouTube, YouTube dot com slash at
John co Belt's show. And you should watch the Genese
Communias celebration on the video from yesterday when in our
first hour, also of another new video up tonight. So
you could just spend your whole evening with us afternoons
on the radio evenings watching the videos. And we got
(23:38):
Conway coming up in just a few minutes here on KFI.
It's the gas prices are going up rapidly because of
Trump's war in Iran. Gas prices have gone up nationwide
by twenty seven cents in just a week. But look
(23:59):
at it this way, the average around the country is
still only three dollars in twenty five cents. In fact,
that there are there's still eighteen states, eighteen states that
sell gas for under three dollars a gallon. However, in
California it is four dollars in eighty one cents. We're
(24:21):
headed towards five very soon. We're at four eighty one.
The average is three twenty five. In Oklahoma, you can
get it for two seventy nine. And there's eighteen states,
like I said, under under three bucks. And I would
like to look at the other left wing states that
you think might be prone to excessive taxes. Well, Massachusetts
(24:45):
is only three h nine, New Jersey is only three thirteen,
New York three sixteen, and Illinois three point thirty six.
We're at four eighty one. We're almost forty cents higher
than the next most expensive gasoline state. And there's more
(25:07):
to come. I mean, the price could go up more
because of Iran, but it's definitely going to go up
more because now we're entering the summer blended season. By
the way, this is all because they're stealing money through
these taxes and they're trying to drive out the oil
(25:30):
and gas business with their regulations. It's under the cover
of under the cover of climate change, but of course
the climate has not cooled at all. It's actually got warmer.
So we've done nothing but cost ourselves. Well. Newsom has
done nothing but cost us billions of dollars in excessive
(25:51):
gas and oil prices, excessive electricity prices and switching to
summer wen means it's another ten to fifteen cent increase
coming up because we're down to six refineries in the
state and a short list of Asian countries that can
provide us with the summer blend China, India, Saudi Arabia,
(26:16):
Singapore and South Korea, and of course all the mayhem
going on in the Middle East could affect those shipments.
We are losing twenty percent of our domestic gasoline production
because of the two closures in the past few months.
Phillip sixty six in Wilmington, Valero in Benetia, up in
(26:37):
northern California. According to Andy Watts from Chevron, prices are
already high in California because of taxes, but what if
you can't get the products that you need and the
remaining refineries are warning that there's even new regulations from
the California Air Resources Board on top of the summer
(27:00):
lend prices, on top of the Iranian war prices, and
these new amendments could cause gas prices to rise another
seventy four cents according to the Legislative Analyst Office and
Sacramento the Government. The government's own analysts say that carbs
(27:24):
regulations at another seventy four cents. So he had seventy
four cents plus fifteen for the summer blend, plus the
twenty seven we've already got, and you're you're looking, well,
there's one estimate that within a year we're hitting six
dollars and two cents.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Six.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Now they're talking six within the year. And again we
got eighteen states where gas starts with a two and
we're looking at a six. Please keep voting the way
you're voting. We've Conway coming up next. Mark Thompson will
(28:03):
be filling in tomorrow and I'll be back On Monday,
Michael Krazer has the news live in the KFI twenty
four our newsroom. 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 demand on
the iHeartRadio app KFI Am six more stimulating talk
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John Kobylt
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