April 15, 2025 • 29 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 2 (04/15) - Michael Monks comes on the show to talk about the financial mess that LA County is in. LADWP claims they can't be sued for the reservoir being empty in Pacific Palisades. More than 20,000 IRS agents are accepting Pres. Trump's resignation offer. A suspect in New Mexico is accused of firebombing a Tesla showroom and a Republican Party office.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can if I am six forty you're listening to the
John Cobelt Podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We're on every
day from one until four o'clock, and every day after
the show, you can hear it as a podcast John
Cobelt Show on demand also on the iHeart app. We
have much to cover this hour. We're going to be
(00:21):
talking with Alex Stone at two thirty because this is
a fascinating story, aren't bank break ins and jewelry heists
really entertaining? The owners of a jewelry store in La
say they had twenty million dollars worth of jewels stolen.
They cut their way in, the bad guys, disabled the
(00:43):
security cameras and took cash, gold bars, and jewelry. Alex
will describe what happened for us coming up after two thirty,
and we're also going to tell you about the LEDWP
which did not fill up that one hundred and seventeen
million gallon in reservoir, so there was very little water
available for the Palisades fire. They are now claiming that
(01:06):
they cannot be legally sued for not providing the water.
It's hard to believe how abusive the l A d
WP is in that Genie Kinoniez. We'll give you the
whole legal argument coming up, but first, Michael Munks from
Cape My News. Michael, Good afternoon, John.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I'm in downtown LA checking to see if any city
or county officials are suspects in that jewelry heights since
they're in such desperate need of money.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Oh, that's a good idea, yeah, because they steal stuff
every day. They steal our money every day, So why
not go for the gold bars and the jewelry. They
can make a lot of thinker look more quickly. Yeah,
all right, So what's uh? What's this? They've got a
new budget coming out and they have a big deficit.
(01:56):
They've got billions of dollars that they have to pay
over years for all the pedophile they employees who were
sexually abusing seven thousand kids over the years at the
juvenile centers and in the prisons. What how is it
that they got a budget and no county employee loses
their job.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, it sounds like they have somehow managed to stack
the numbers in a way that will keep everyone who
is currently employed still employed. That's different than what the
City of Los Angeles is facing with. Their own budget crisis,
where we might find out next week there could.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Be up to thousands of layoffs.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
But at the county, they've got a forty seven point
nine billion dollar budget for the new fiscal year that
starts on July first. It's being talked about as we
speak at the County building. County CEO Fecia Davenport is
speaking to the Board of Supervisors right this.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Moment about this budget.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
But as you noted, they are feeling some very serious pain,
some of it self inflicted. You're talking about a four
billion dollars settlement of nearly seven thousand claims of sexual
abuse against county workers, mainly at probate camps and probation halls,
and Fishia Davenport, the county CEO, says they're going to
feel the impacts of that settlement for years to come,
(03:08):
probably through the budget in twenty fifty. So if you're
still on the air at that point, we'll still be
talking about this, John.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
You know something, if they don't get their act together,
I will be I am not going to rest until
all this nonsense stops. Well, you know, well, they got
to go ahead.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I was just going to say, this is a county
that is in significant transition. Just a couple of weeks ago,
they said, look, we're going to create a new department,
a Department of Homelessness, because they want to keep better
track of the money that's being spent on homelessness. So
they are basically defunding the LA Homeless Services Authority. They're
going to keep that stuff in how so, this is
going to be more responsibility over money as their own
(03:46):
per strings get tighter. It's also a county government that
is about to expand. Starting in twenty twenty eight, LA
County residents will be voting for a county executive sort
of like a county mayor, and then in twenty thirty
two there will be four more supervisor positions available, bringing
the total to nine supervisors. So the government is growing,
their budget is constrained. They're looking at three percent cuts
(04:09):
across every single department. But Fisha Davenport, as you've noted,
says we're going to eliminate hundreds of vacant positions, but
we're not laying off anybody currently working.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
This county executive. What is the difference between that position
and this county CEO. Feshia Davenport, who is presenting the
budget proposal today.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
It's basically the difference between a city manager and a mayor.
The city manager is typically appointed and answers to the board,
whereas the mayor answers to the electorate. And of course
there are checks and balances incorporated into city or county charters.
But this will be an elected person with executive authority,
and that person will be responsible for setting the budget
(04:55):
as we move forward with consent.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So soon we're going to have a count mayor.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
In effect, there's going to be a more powerful position
than the mayor of Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
That would appear. Wow. And then we're gonna have nine
county supervisors.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, four years after So they'll elect the county executive
in twenty twenty eight. They're waiting until twenty thirty two
for the additional supervisors because they want to get the
census finished and the redistricting to know how to draw
all of those new districts. These are folks who say, look,
there's five of us in a county of ten million.
We're representing two million people each. It wasn't designed for
(05:32):
one person to represent this many people, So let's divide
it up a little more.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
No, they represent more people than many governors haveing states.
There are plenty of states with less than two million people.
If that's exactly, I just so, I just don't get it.
They got a billion dollars they got to pay for
the wildfires, They got all this money they got to
pay to settle the sex abuse claims. Then you have
Trump threatening to pull federal funding. Where is all this
(06:00):
money lying around if they don't have to lay anybody
off it. It just doesn't add up to me that.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
You nailed a couple of other important points. They've got
the wildfires to contend with. They're estimating costs for the
county somewhere around a billion dollars. Some of that might
be reimbursable from the federal government. But then on the
other hand, they're having difficulty building a relationship with the
new federal government, President Trump, and you know he's not
happy with cities that have established sanctuary statuses and FISHA.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Davenport says at.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Least thirteen percent of the county budget comes through either
direct federal funding or grants, and that could all be
threatened because of a poor relationship with the administration in Washington.
So they're facing a lot of challenges right now, and
again it's being talked about this second at the County
building here in downtown LA. May seventh is the date
(06:49):
people will want to pencil in if they want to
say anything about the state of the budget. We should
note there is a very expensive purchase also on the
horizon by the county. They're looking to move out of
the building they're currently meeting, and they have signed documents
to purchase a skyscraper here in downtown LA to move
the county government there.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
They're buying a skyscraper. They got money for that.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
They've got money to buy a skyscraper, and they want
to move the government to the skyscraper.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Why don't they move the government out of the country.
You could probably get a cheap skyscraper somewhere in South America.
That'd be a better place for them. Maybe I just
like a train there. I'm looking at Davenport's quotes in
one story. Our revenue outlook is challenging. To put it mildly,
the amount of new funding in the budget is at
(07:38):
a five year low, and we're in an uncharted territory
with all these pressures, the wildfires, the sex abuse settlement,
threat of deep cuts in federal funding. The abuse settlement
is the costliest in county history. I don't know they
ought to be making emergency maneuvers now because they're gonna sink.
(08:00):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And those are probably the comments that we're hearing right
now from supervisors who are asking, you know, what does
the path forward look like? You know, it's one thing
to go through a challenging budget cycle. Every government has
to contend with this from time to time if the
economy goes poorly. But to see an outlook that says,
at least one situation like this abuse settlement is going
to impact you for decades to come.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
That's really troubling, and so they should be maneuvering.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
But instead of figuring out where, you know, some serious
cuts might come, right now, it's just a three percent
across the board. While they're jockeying to create a new
department that will handle all of those homeless funds that
come from the sales tax, while also building a skyscraper,
or not building but acquiring a skyscraper, while also expanding
the size of the elected officials within the government.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
It's a lot to juggle, all right. Michael Monks, CAF
I do is Thank you always a pleasure, Thank thank
you very much. When we come back, LEDWP says it
can't be sued for not filling up the reservoir. Really,
we'll have that for you.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
All right, two of thirty. Alex Stone coming on. Exciting
break in in uh Los Angeles when the bad guys
somehow cut their way into a jewelry store and stole
twenty million dollars worth of gold and jewels and cash.
We'll talk about that with Alex Stone coming up at
(09:30):
two thirty. Okay. One of the most incompetent, egregious blunders
ever to be seen in US history was the boneheads
blockheads at the LADWP LA Department of Order and Power.
They had a one hundred and seventeen million gallon reservoir,
(09:56):
it's called the Santa Andez Reservoir in the Palisades, and
they didn't fill it up. It was empty for over
a year. Supposedly they were supposed to fix a cover
like a big pool cover, and they didn't because they're
stupid and they don't care. And it's run by a
(10:16):
bubblehead named Janice Keinoniez, who is not hired on merit.
I think that's for certain. She still has her job
because Karen Bass hired her, and Karen Bass only hires
incompetent people, it seems, I mean, the list of buffoons
that she has hired is incredible, and Kenoniez is exhibit A.
(10:42):
So imagine, imagine showing up for work and you have
you know, your your CEO of the Department of Water
and Power, right, you're supposed to provide water. You've got
a reservoir that was built in nineteen sixty four specifically
to put out fires. There's a history. There was a
(11:05):
famous fire in bel Air in nineteen sixty one. You
should look it up. There was a lot of movie
stars running for their lives. Richard Nixon lived there at
the time, and that was such a spectacular fire that
everyone realized that all the towns in the foothills of
(11:29):
the Santa Monica Mountains there and that's from bel Air
all the way to the Palisades, are in grave fire danger.
They need a water supply, So the DWP dug a
big hole Santetez Reservoir in the Palisades and Genie Quinoniez
was not intelligent enough to fill it right before. She
had many months. I mean this. They they drained the
(11:52):
reservoir back in I think January of twenty twenty four,
so she had about, you know, eight nine months before
the dry season is over, before the wet season starts.
And unfortunately last year of the dry season extended all
(12:12):
the way into January and we had these terrible fires.
So the Pacific Palisades residents and they've got a lot
of money and a lot of lawyers. They have sued
the DWP and in return, the Department of Order Power says,
we are immune. You can't do that. And they're relying
(12:37):
on a nineteen eleven California Supreme Court decision to defend
themselves against the lawsuits. It's Munger, Tolls and Ulson, that's
a big deal law firm, and the attorneys are arguing
that the utility did not have a contract to provide
the water, claiming that California courts have long rejected attempts
(13:01):
to hold water utilities liable for a failure to provide
water to fight fires unless there was a specific contract,
And they're citing the case of Kniehause Brothers versus Contracostal
Water from nineteen eleven. In that case, it was a
dispute between a utility and a landowner. The landowner's mill
(13:23):
burned down because he stopped paying his water bill. In
that case, the landowner had a contract with a water
district to supply water to fire hydrants on the property,
but he stopped paying when the district changed hands and
the new owners raised the rates. And in that case
they said, I guess the judge said that unless there's
(13:47):
a specific contract, you're not liable. I don't know if
that's true, but Alexander Robertson is representing the plaintiffs the
residents said the argument doesn't make sense because the utilities
own manual states that the reservoir was built specifically to
suppress fires and other customer needs. And they're not even
(14:11):
a leedging breach of contract. But there because there wasn't
a contract, but the government action caused the damage. And
he said, if that is true, then the LADWP is
liable and can be held liable. I think it makes
(14:33):
absolute sense that the LEDWP would be held liable for
not filling the reservoir that was designed to fight fires.
As you know, there were only three million gallons of
water in three tanks instead of one hundred and seventeen
million gallons in the reservoir, So they were missing one
(14:54):
hundred and seventeen million out of one hundred and twenty
million gallons, and the hydrants went dry after twelve hours.
And everybody is supposedly doing an investigation. But the bubblehead Quinones,
who is not hired on merit is not only still
has her job, not only did her actions lead to
(15:15):
the burning down of the Palisades, she still has her job,
and she's she's got these these expensive attorneys fighting the lawsuits.
So now what are ratepayers in LA are paying for
these attorneys to say the LADWP isn't liable for not
filling the reservoir? Well, who is Is the LADWP liable
(15:38):
for anything? If you're supposed to provide water, If you
have a reservoir designed to put out fires and you
don't put water in the reservoir, how are you not liable?
I mean we are run by I don't know. Are
they morons or are they evil or both? What a
(15:58):
horrible argument from those lawyers, kiss cruel Well, what's the
point of having the government, then why don't we just
dismantle the whole thing. If they don't have to fill
the reservoir, if they're not legally required to provide water
to put out the fires, why do we even have them?
What's the point.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
We're on every day from one until four and then
after four o'clock John cobelt Show on demand on the
iHeart app. That's the podcast version, and you can hear
what you missed. We were going to have Alex Stone
on from ABC now he's going to be coming on
just after three o'clock and to talk about that massive
(16:46):
break in at the La Jewelry store where the thieves
might have stolen twenty million dollars worth of stuff, jewelry, gold,
and cash. So Alex'll be on just after Debra's News
at three o'clock. With that, there are some good news.
More than twenty thousand IRS agents are accepting Trump's resignation offer.
(17:09):
How about that?
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Oh no, oh, that's job that is.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
They're they're they're gonna quit. They're quitting their jobs. Maybe
we can have a bake sale for them or something.
Can you Yeah I can.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
I can make vegan brownies or something.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Yeah, I was gonna say some some vegan cookies.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Yeah, why not.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
The IRS is going to lose in total a third
of its staff this year, it had one hundred thousand
and it's going to lose over thirty thousand, and twenty
thousand are resigning all in one swoop right now.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Well, maybe the few left will actually answer phone calls.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
They weren't answering them when they had they were at
full strength, I know.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
But maybe they want to keep their jobs, and so
they have to, you know, they have to explain why
they're worthy of stay.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Oh, all the ones that are left, Yeah, they could
do something. So and and and critics are afraid that
a lot of Americans are going to start cheating on
their taxes because there's not that many employees around to
do the audits. People wouldn't do that, would would they would? They?
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Of course not.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
And losing one third of the I R S means
less revenue that the federal government can waste. And there's
going they're going to be abandoning some audits, current audits
and future audits. And so they're expecting taxpayers to go crazy,
go rogue. Why did they announce that today today's the
(18:43):
test day. They should have told people last week and
then they could have started cheating.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
There's a method to their madness.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, imagine a world. You know, I heard Trump uh
today in an interview. You know, he's constantly on somewhere.
He's like he's own cable channel. And I heard a
clip where he was publicly floating the idea of maybe
no more income tax. I like that that he you know,
(19:14):
maybe the tariffs we started charging these countries, you know,
these exorbited tariffs, and that'll fund the government and we
don't have to pay income tax anymore. It's like, all right, sold,
tell me, tell me more. Because up up in the
eighteen hundreds, that's how we financed the nation was with tariffs.
There was not an income tax. I don't think the
(19:35):
income tax happened until nineteen thirteen. Because if you give
the government too much money, here's what they do with it.
Gavin Newsom signed a bailout of the illegal alien healthcare
program in this state nearly three billion dollars. This is
(19:56):
such a botch by the idiot news He thought that
giving every illegal alien healthcare would cost about six billion.
He missed by about six billion. It's actually going to
cost twelve billion. And last month he asked the legislature
(20:23):
to approve a three and a half billion dollar loan,
and on top of the three and a half billion
dollar loan, another three billion dollars would be formally appropriated,
so that six and a half billion dollars on top
of the six billion they expected to spend. This is
(20:44):
all unnecessary, This is garbage. Nobody except California is giving
away illegal alien healthcare, at least not like this. There's
a million and a half illegal immigrants enrolled in medical
and they had projected it would cost under six billion.
They were way off. According to this report. In one year,
(21:07):
the costs have surged far past that estimate. So not
only does he give out free medical care to everyone
who breaks the law and gets into California as an
illegal alien, he also he gives free medical care. And
he couldn't even estimate what it was going to cost.
(21:28):
And we have like a seventy billion dollar budget deficit
in the state and it looks like almost ten percent
of that is just illegal alien healthcare. And the Republicans
in Washington are planned to cut hundreds of billions dollars
(21:48):
from medicaid because of massive overspending, and of course people
are going to be screaming bloody murder over that, except
this is why the funds have to be cut. They
have to cut the funds in washing In because this
is what Newsom is doing with some of the funds,
and then he runs short and we have to cover
it here in in the state. Every all the Democrats
(22:18):
and Sacramento know what's going on. But they call the
illegal aliens vulnerable California communities. Let me repeat that, vulnerable
Californian communities. No, they're not. They're not Californians. They're they're
from other countries. They're they're intruders. And in the next
(22:42):
year's budget he wants another four and a half billion
in extra medical funding, even though the state is way
in the red, to cover next year's illegal alien overspending.
This is so wrong and irresponsible and stupid. I mean
he did no, I mean even idiots wouldn't do this.
(23:05):
You give the money away to illegal foreigners, and our
and our gas prices, our gas prices are four ninety
five a gallon, and you wonder why they're so high
because they take the tax money and they spend it
on illegal alien healthcare that no one else will do,
no one else will do. Look at this all right. Today,
(23:28):
California is at four eighty eight, and Mississippi's at two
seventy one, So's Tennessee and Oklahoma. Texas is at two
seventy five, So is South Carolina. Louisiana's two seventy eight,
Kentucky two seventy nine, uh, New Jersey's two ninety nine,
(23:49):
Massachusetts two ninety five. You could look at well populated
left wing states and they're still under three bucks and
we're at four eighty eight. And why because the money
from the gas tax goes into the general fund and
then they steal it from the general fund to give
a legal aliens free healthcare. This is wrong. Got more
(24:12):
coming up.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
A six moistline is running on Friday again eight seven
seven Moist eighty six eight seven seven Moist eighty six,
or the use the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app.
And you could follow us on social media at John
Cobelt Radio at John Cobelt Radio on all the platforms
to keep track of all this nonsense. Do you remember
(24:39):
a guy named Sam Brinton. He was the bald, red, lipsticked,
red dressed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Disposition.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
I'm looking at his picture.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You remember this guy?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
I don't. I had to look him up.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Oh he was, Yeah, he was a crazy person. He
worked for the Office of Nuclear Energy, and he actually
became the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition.
I guess that's all the used nuclear fuel. And he
was the first non binary person to be appointed to
(25:26):
a position like this. And he was known for his
red lipstick, red dresses, red shoes, And it turned out
he had a strange compulsion to steal luggage, if you
remember three times he was charged in November of twenty
(25:46):
twenty two, and then July of twenty twenty two, and
also in September of twenty twenty two, he was stealing
luggage and running off with it and they caught him
and they fired. Well, we've got another guy like this,
a suspect in New Mexico, also a guy that wears lipstick,
(26:10):
and he's been accused of fire bombing a Tesla's showroom
and a Republican Party office, and the FBI dragged him
out into the street shirtless. This guy is named Jamison Wagner.
He's a member of a group called five hundred Queer Scientists,
(26:30):
and he's charged with two counts of malicious damage or
destruction of property. Faces up to twenty years in prison.
He lit up. He's charged with an arson attack and
an Albuquerque Tesla showroom, lighting up two vehicles and spray
painting other cars with swastikas and graffiti. That was in February.
(26:52):
Then in March he attacked a Republican Party New Mexico office,
spray painting with the inscription icy was KKK. Eventually they
were This guy was tracked down and he's being charged
with a whole slew of federal crimes. So he's going
to be going to prison. And this guy is another guy.
(27:17):
He's fat, he's balding. The lipstick does not help the look.
Have you seen him?
Speaker 4 (27:28):
No? No, not the second guy that you just said,
the other one.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
You know one pictures where lipstick another one's looks blue
blue lipstick.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, this guy's got a scruffy beard, scruffy mustache. The
crazy eyes. There you go. Most of the people in
these Tesla attacks, yeah, are are either part of organized
groups or they're independently insane. It is not a movement
across the country, no matter how the media hypes all
(28:02):
this nonsense. Because I went through these statistics yesterday, ninety
eight percent, ninety eight percent of the country thinks that
the government is wasting lots of money. Most of the
country is for whatever Elon Musk is doing and what
Trump is doing. So there is no outpouring of revolt
(28:24):
going on. It's just these random mental patients running around,
and some of them are organized mental patients because they're
funded by some left wing organization. Mostly, I mean, what
did I just tell you We're blowing billions of dollars
on illegal alien healthcare. Put that up in a proposition.
(28:47):
See if it passes, even in California, that would be
voted down. People should be really pissed off and angry
with how your money is being stolen and wasted. And
in the rest of the country they are, and they're
applauding what's going on. But you know, much of the
media is just covering whether some random MS thirteen gang
(29:09):
member was thrown into that El Salvador in prison without
the proper paperwork being processed. Just like there's this alternate
reality going on whenever you turn on the television. All right,
when we return, now, we're gonna have Alex Stone on right,
because there's this big heist in La got a jewelry
(29:29):
store broken into. They stole lots of gold and lots
of jewelry and cash. How did they do it? Because
they did it and nobody noticed until it was Teborah
Mark is live in the CAFI twenty four our newsroom. Hey,
you've been listening to The John Covelt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI AM six
forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
(29:52):
and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
Can if I am six forty you're listening to the
John Cobelt Podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We're on every
day from one until four o'clock, and every day after
the show, you can hear it as a podcast John
Cobelt Show on demand also on the iHeart app. We
have much to cover this hour. We're going to be
(00:21):
talking with Alex Stone at two thirty because this is
a fascinating story, aren't bank break ins and jewelry heists
really entertaining? The owners of a jewelry store in La
say they had twenty million dollars worth of jewels stolen.
They cut their way in, the bad guys, disabled the
(00:43):
security cameras and took cash, gold bars, and jewelry. Alex
will describe what happened for us coming up after two thirty,
and we're also going to tell you about the LEDWP
which did not fill up that one hundred and seventeen
million gallon in reservoir, so there was very little water
available for the Palisades fire. They are now claiming that
(01:06):
they cannot be legally sued for not providing the water.
It's hard to believe how abusive the l A d
WP is in that Genie Kinoniez. We'll give you the
whole legal argument coming up, but first, Michael Munks from
Cape My News. Michael, Good afternoon, John.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I'm in downtown LA checking to see if any city
or county officials are suspects in that jewelry heights since
they're in such desperate need of money.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Oh, that's a good idea, yeah, because they steal stuff
every day. They steal our money every day, So why
not go for the gold bars and the jewelry. They
can make a lot of thinker look more quickly. Yeah,
all right, So what's uh? What's this? They've got a
new budget coming out and they have a big deficit.
(01:56):
They've got billions of dollars that they have to pay
over years for all the pedophile they employees who were
sexually abusing seven thousand kids over the years at the
juvenile centers and in the prisons. What how is it
that they got a budget and no county employee loses
their job.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, it sounds like they have somehow managed to stack
the numbers in a way that will keep everyone who
is currently employed still employed. That's different than what the
City of Los Angeles is facing with. Their own budget crisis,
where we might find out next week there could.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Be up to thousands of layoffs.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
But at the county, they've got a forty seven point
nine billion dollar budget for the new fiscal year that
starts on July first. It's being talked about as we
speak at the County building. County CEO Fecia Davenport is
speaking to the Board of Supervisors right this.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Moment about this budget.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
But as you noted, they are feeling some very serious pain,
some of it self inflicted. You're talking about a four
billion dollars settlement of nearly seven thousand claims of sexual
abuse against county workers, mainly at probate camps and probation halls,
and Fishia Davenport, the county CEO, says they're going to
feel the impacts of that settlement for years to come,
(03:08):
probably through the budget in twenty fifty. So if you're
still on the air at that point, we'll still be
talking about this, John.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
You know something, if they don't get their act together,
I will be I am not going to rest until
all this nonsense stops. Well, you know, well, they got
to go ahead.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I was just going to say, this is a county
that is in significant transition. Just a couple of weeks ago,
they said, look, we're going to create a new department,
a Department of Homelessness, because they want to keep better
track of the money that's being spent on homelessness. So
they are basically defunding the LA Homeless Services Authority. They're
going to keep that stuff in how so, this is
going to be more responsibility over money as their own
(03:46):
per strings get tighter. It's also a county government that
is about to expand. Starting in twenty twenty eight, LA
County residents will be voting for a county executive sort
of like a county mayor, and then in twenty thirty
two there will be four more supervisor positions available, bringing
the total to nine supervisors. So the government is growing,
their budget is constrained. They're looking at three percent cuts
(04:09):
across every single department. But Fisha Davenport, as you've noted,
says we're going to eliminate hundreds of vacant positions, but
we're not laying off anybody currently working.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
This county executive. What is the difference between that position
and this county CEO. Feshia Davenport, who is presenting the
budget proposal today.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
It's basically the difference between a city manager and a mayor.
The city manager is typically appointed and answers to the board,
whereas the mayor answers to the electorate. And of course
there are checks and balances incorporated into city or county charters.
But this will be an elected person with executive authority,
and that person will be responsible for setting the budget
(04:55):
as we move forward with consent.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So soon we're going to have a count mayor.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
In effect, there's going to be a more powerful position
than the mayor of Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
That would appear. Wow. And then we're gonna have nine
county supervisors.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, four years after So they'll elect the county executive
in twenty twenty eight. They're waiting until twenty thirty two
for the additional supervisors because they want to get the
census finished and the redistricting to know how to draw
all of those new districts. These are folks who say, look,
there's five of us in a county of ten million.
We're representing two million people each. It wasn't designed for
(05:32):
one person to represent this many people, So let's divide
it up a little more.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
No, they represent more people than many governors haveing states.
There are plenty of states with less than two million people.
If that's exactly, I just so, I just don't get it.
They got a billion dollars they got to pay for
the wildfires, They got all this money they got to
pay to settle the sex abuse claims. Then you have
Trump threatening to pull federal funding. Where is all this
(06:00):
money lying around if they don't have to lay anybody
off it. It just doesn't add up to me that.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
You nailed a couple of other important points. They've got
the wildfires to contend with. They're estimating costs for the
county somewhere around a billion dollars. Some of that might
be reimbursable from the federal government. But then on the
other hand, they're having difficulty building a relationship with the
new federal government, President Trump, and you know he's not
happy with cities that have established sanctuary statuses and FISHA.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Davenport says at.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Least thirteen percent of the county budget comes through either
direct federal funding or grants, and that could all be
threatened because of a poor relationship with the administration in Washington.
So they're facing a lot of challenges right now, and
again it's being talked about this second at the County
building here in downtown LA. May seventh is the date
(06:49):
people will want to pencil in if they want to
say anything about the state of the budget. We should
note there is a very expensive purchase also on the
horizon by the county. They're looking to move out of
the building they're currently meeting, and they have signed documents
to purchase a skyscraper here in downtown LA to move
the county government there.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
They're buying a skyscraper. They got money for that.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
They've got money to buy a skyscraper, and they want
to move the government to the skyscraper.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Why don't they move the government out of the country.
You could probably get a cheap skyscraper somewhere in South America.
That'd be a better place for them. Maybe I just
like a train there. I'm looking at Davenport's quotes in
one story. Our revenue outlook is challenging. To put it mildly,
the amount of new funding in the budget is at
(07:38):
a five year low, and we're in an uncharted territory
with all these pressures, the wildfires, the sex abuse settlement,
threat of deep cuts in federal funding. The abuse settlement
is the costliest in county history. I don't know they
ought to be making emergency maneuvers now because they're gonna sink.
(08:00):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And those are probably the comments that we're hearing right
now from supervisors who are asking, you know, what does
the path forward look like? You know, it's one thing
to go through a challenging budget cycle. Every government has
to contend with this from time to time if the
economy goes poorly. But to see an outlook that says,
at least one situation like this abuse settlement is going
to impact you for decades to come.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
That's really troubling, and so they should be maneuvering.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
But instead of figuring out where, you know, some serious
cuts might come, right now, it's just a three percent
across the board. While they're jockeying to create a new
department that will handle all of those homeless funds that
come from the sales tax, while also building a skyscraper,
or not building but acquiring a skyscraper, while also expanding
the size of the elected officials within the government.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
It's a lot to juggle, all right. Michael Monks, CAF
I do is Thank you always a pleasure, Thank thank
you very much. When we come back, LEDWP says it
can't be sued for not filling up the reservoir. Really,
we'll have that for you.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
All right, two of thirty. Alex Stone coming on. Exciting
break in in uh Los Angeles when the bad guys
somehow cut their way into a jewelry store and stole
twenty million dollars worth of gold and jewels and cash.
We'll talk about that with Alex Stone coming up at
(09:30):
two thirty. Okay. One of the most incompetent, egregious blunders
ever to be seen in US history was the boneheads
blockheads at the LADWP LA Department of Order and Power.
They had a one hundred and seventeen million gallon reservoir,
(09:56):
it's called the Santa Andez Reservoir in the Palisades, and
they didn't fill it up. It was empty for over
a year. Supposedly they were supposed to fix a cover
like a big pool cover, and they didn't because they're
stupid and they don't care. And it's run by a
(10:16):
bubblehead named Janice Keinoniez, who is not hired on merit.
I think that's for certain. She still has her job
because Karen Bass hired her, and Karen Bass only hires
incompetent people, it seems, I mean, the list of buffoons
that she has hired is incredible, and Kenoniez is exhibit A.
(10:42):
So imagine, imagine showing up for work and you have
you know, your your CEO of the Department of Water
and Power, right, you're supposed to provide water. You've got
a reservoir that was built in nineteen sixty four specifically
to put out fires. There's a history. There was a
(11:05):
famous fire in bel Air in nineteen sixty one. You
should look it up. There was a lot of movie
stars running for their lives. Richard Nixon lived there at
the time, and that was such a spectacular fire that
everyone realized that all the towns in the foothills of
(11:29):
the Santa Monica Mountains there and that's from bel Air
all the way to the Palisades, are in grave fire danger.
They need a water supply, So the DWP dug a
big hole Santetez Reservoir in the Palisades and Genie Quinoniez
was not intelligent enough to fill it right before. She
had many months. I mean this. They they drained the
(11:52):
reservoir back in I think January of twenty twenty four,
so she had about, you know, eight nine months before
the dry season is over, before the wet season starts.
And unfortunately last year of the dry season extended all
(12:12):
the way into January and we had these terrible fires.
So the Pacific Palisades residents and they've got a lot
of money and a lot of lawyers. They have sued
the DWP and in return, the Department of Order Power says,
we are immune. You can't do that. And they're relying
(12:37):
on a nineteen eleven California Supreme Court decision to defend
themselves against the lawsuits. It's Munger, Tolls and Ulson, that's
a big deal law firm, and the attorneys are arguing
that the utility did not have a contract to provide
the water, claiming that California courts have long rejected attempts
(13:01):
to hold water utilities liable for a failure to provide
water to fight fires unless there was a specific contract,
And they're citing the case of Kniehause Brothers versus Contracostal
Water from nineteen eleven. In that case, it was a
dispute between a utility and a landowner. The landowner's mill
(13:23):
burned down because he stopped paying his water bill. In
that case, the landowner had a contract with a water
district to supply water to fire hydrants on the property,
but he stopped paying when the district changed hands and
the new owners raised the rates. And in that case
they said, I guess the judge said that unless there's
(13:47):
a specific contract, you're not liable. I don't know if
that's true, but Alexander Robertson is representing the plaintiffs the
residents said the argument doesn't make sense because the utilities
own manual states that the reservoir was built specifically to
suppress fires and other customer needs. And they're not even
(14:11):
a leedging breach of contract. But there because there wasn't
a contract, but the government action caused the damage. And
he said, if that is true, then the LADWP is
liable and can be held liable. I think it makes
(14:33):
absolute sense that the LEDWP would be held liable for
not filling the reservoir that was designed to fight fires.
As you know, there were only three million gallons of
water in three tanks instead of one hundred and seventeen
million gallons in the reservoir, So they were missing one
(14:54):
hundred and seventeen million out of one hundred and twenty
million gallons, and the hydrants went dry after twelve hours.
And everybody is supposedly doing an investigation. But the bubblehead Quinones,
who is not hired on merit is not only still
has her job, not only did her actions lead to
(15:15):
the burning down of the Palisades, she still has her job,
and she's she's got these these expensive attorneys fighting the lawsuits.
So now what are ratepayers in LA are paying for
these attorneys to say the LADWP isn't liable for not
filling the reservoir? Well, who is Is the LADWP liable
(15:38):
for anything? If you're supposed to provide water, If you
have a reservoir designed to put out fires and you
don't put water in the reservoir, how are you not liable?
I mean we are run by I don't know. Are
they morons or are they evil or both? What a
(15:58):
horrible argument from those lawyers, kiss cruel Well, what's the
point of having the government, then why don't we just
dismantle the whole thing. If they don't have to fill
the reservoir, if they're not legally required to provide water
to put out the fires, why do we even have them?
What's the point.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
We're on every day from one until four and then
after four o'clock John cobelt Show on demand on the
iHeart app. That's the podcast version, and you can hear
what you missed. We were going to have Alex Stone
on from ABC now he's going to be coming on
just after three o'clock and to talk about that massive
(16:46):
break in at the La Jewelry store where the thieves
might have stolen twenty million dollars worth of stuff, jewelry, gold,
and cash. So Alex'll be on just after Debra's News
at three o'clock. With that, there are some good news.
More than twenty thousand IRS agents are accepting Trump's resignation offer.
(17:09):
How about that?
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Oh no, oh, that's job that is.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
They're they're they're gonna quit. They're quitting their jobs. Maybe
we can have a bake sale for them or something.
Can you Yeah I can.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
I can make vegan brownies or something.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Yeah, I was gonna say some some vegan cookies.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Yeah, why not.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
The IRS is going to lose in total a third
of its staff this year, it had one hundred thousand
and it's going to lose over thirty thousand, and twenty
thousand are resigning all in one swoop right now.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Well, maybe the few left will actually answer phone calls.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
They weren't answering them when they had they were at
full strength, I know.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
But maybe they want to keep their jobs, and so
they have to, you know, they have to explain why
they're worthy of stay.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Oh, all the ones that are left, Yeah, they could
do something. So and and and critics are afraid that
a lot of Americans are going to start cheating on
their taxes because there's not that many employees around to
do the audits. People wouldn't do that, would would they would? They?
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Of course not.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
And losing one third of the I R S means
less revenue that the federal government can waste. And there's
going they're going to be abandoning some audits, current audits
and future audits. And so they're expecting taxpayers to go crazy,
go rogue. Why did they announce that today today's the
(18:43):
test day. They should have told people last week and
then they could have started cheating.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
There's a method to their madness.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, imagine a world. You know, I heard Trump uh
today in an interview. You know, he's constantly on somewhere.
He's like he's own cable channel. And I heard a
clip where he was publicly floating the idea of maybe
no more income tax. I like that that he you know,
(19:14):
maybe the tariffs we started charging these countries, you know,
these exorbited tariffs, and that'll fund the government and we
don't have to pay income tax anymore. It's like, all right, sold,
tell me, tell me more. Because up up in the
eighteen hundreds, that's how we financed the nation was with tariffs.
There was not an income tax. I don't think the
(19:35):
income tax happened until nineteen thirteen. Because if you give
the government too much money, here's what they do with it.
Gavin Newsom signed a bailout of the illegal alien healthcare
program in this state nearly three billion dollars. This is
(19:56):
such a botch by the idiot news He thought that
giving every illegal alien healthcare would cost about six billion.
He missed by about six billion. It's actually going to
cost twelve billion. And last month he asked the legislature
(20:23):
to approve a three and a half billion dollar loan,
and on top of the three and a half billion
dollar loan, another three billion dollars would be formally appropriated,
so that six and a half billion dollars on top
of the six billion they expected to spend. This is
(20:44):
all unnecessary, This is garbage. Nobody except California is giving
away illegal alien healthcare, at least not like this. There's
a million and a half illegal immigrants enrolled in medical
and they had projected it would cost under six billion.
They were way off. According to this report. In one year,
(21:07):
the costs have surged far past that estimate. So not
only does he give out free medical care to everyone
who breaks the law and gets into California as an
illegal alien, he also he gives free medical care. And
he couldn't even estimate what it was going to cost.
(21:28):
And we have like a seventy billion dollar budget deficit
in the state and it looks like almost ten percent
of that is just illegal alien healthcare. And the Republicans
in Washington are planned to cut hundreds of billions dollars
(21:48):
from medicaid because of massive overspending, and of course people
are going to be screaming bloody murder over that, except
this is why the funds have to be cut. They
have to cut the funds in washing In because this
is what Newsom is doing with some of the funds,
and then he runs short and we have to cover
it here in in the state. Every all the Democrats
(22:18):
and Sacramento know what's going on. But they call the
illegal aliens vulnerable California communities. Let me repeat that, vulnerable
Californian communities. No, they're not. They're not Californians. They're they're
from other countries. They're they're intruders. And in the next
(22:42):
year's budget he wants another four and a half billion
in extra medical funding, even though the state is way
in the red, to cover next year's illegal alien overspending.
This is so wrong and irresponsible and stupid. I mean
he did no, I mean even idiots wouldn't do this.
(23:05):
You give the money away to illegal foreigners, and our
and our gas prices, our gas prices are four ninety
five a gallon, and you wonder why they're so high
because they take the tax money and they spend it
on illegal alien healthcare that no one else will do,
no one else will do. Look at this all right. Today,
(23:28):
California is at four eighty eight, and Mississippi's at two
seventy one, So's Tennessee and Oklahoma. Texas is at two
seventy five, So is South Carolina. Louisiana's two seventy eight,
Kentucky two seventy nine, uh, New Jersey's two ninety nine,
(23:49):
Massachusetts two ninety five. You could look at well populated
left wing states and they're still under three bucks and
we're at four eighty eight. And why because the money
from the gas tax goes into the general fund and
then they steal it from the general fund to give
a legal aliens free healthcare. This is wrong. Got more
(24:12):
coming up.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
A six moistline is running on Friday again eight seven
seven Moist eighty six eight seven seven Moist eighty six,
or the use the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app.
And you could follow us on social media at John
Cobelt Radio at John Cobelt Radio on all the platforms
to keep track of all this nonsense. Do you remember
(24:39):
a guy named Sam Brinton. He was the bald, red, lipsticked,
red dressed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Disposition.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
I'm looking at his picture.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You remember this guy?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
I don't. I had to look him up.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Oh he was, Yeah, he was a crazy person. He
worked for the Office of Nuclear Energy, and he actually
became the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition.
I guess that's all the used nuclear fuel. And he
was the first non binary person to be appointed to
(25:26):
a position like this. And he was known for his
red lipstick, red dresses, red shoes, And it turned out
he had a strange compulsion to steal luggage, if you
remember three times he was charged in November of twenty
(25:46):
twenty two, and then July of twenty twenty two, and
also in September of twenty twenty two, he was stealing
luggage and running off with it and they caught him
and they fired. Well, we've got another guy like this,
a suspect in New Mexico, also a guy that wears lipstick,
(26:10):
and he's been accused of fire bombing a Tesla's showroom
and a Republican Party office, and the FBI dragged him
out into the street shirtless. This guy is named Jamison Wagner.
He's a member of a group called five hundred Queer Scientists,
(26:30):
and he's charged with two counts of malicious damage or
destruction of property. Faces up to twenty years in prison.
He lit up. He's charged with an arson attack and
an Albuquerque Tesla showroom, lighting up two vehicles and spray
painting other cars with swastikas and graffiti. That was in February.
(26:52):
Then in March he attacked a Republican Party New Mexico office,
spray painting with the inscription icy was KKK. Eventually they
were This guy was tracked down and he's being charged
with a whole slew of federal crimes. So he's going
to be going to prison. And this guy is another guy.
(27:17):
He's fat, he's balding. The lipstick does not help the look.
Have you seen him?
Speaker 4 (27:28):
No? No, not the second guy that you just said,
the other one.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
You know one pictures where lipstick another one's looks blue
blue lipstick.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, this guy's got a scruffy beard, scruffy mustache. The
crazy eyes. There you go. Most of the people in
these Tesla attacks, yeah, are are either part of organized
groups or they're independently insane. It is not a movement
across the country, no matter how the media hypes all
(28:02):
this nonsense. Because I went through these statistics yesterday, ninety
eight percent, ninety eight percent of the country thinks that
the government is wasting lots of money. Most of the
country is for whatever Elon Musk is doing and what
Trump is doing. So there is no outpouring of revolt
(28:24):
going on. It's just these random mental patients running around,
and some of them are organized mental patients because they're
funded by some left wing organization. Mostly, I mean, what
did I just tell you We're blowing billions of dollars
on illegal alien healthcare. Put that up in a proposition.
(28:47):
See if it passes, even in California, that would be
voted down. People should be really pissed off and angry
with how your money is being stolen and wasted. And
in the rest of the country they are, and they're
applauding what's going on. But you know, much of the
media is just covering whether some random MS thirteen gang
(29:09):
member was thrown into that El Salvador in prison without
the proper paperwork being processed. Just like there's this alternate
reality going on whenever you turn on the television. All right,
when we return, now, we're gonna have Alex Stone on right,
because there's this big heist in La got a jewelry
(29:29):
store broken into. They stole lots of gold and lots
of jewelry and cash. How did they do it? Because
they did it and nobody noticed until it was Teborah
Mark is live in the CAFI twenty four our newsroom. Hey,
you've been listening to The John Covelt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI AM six
forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
(29:52):
and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
The John Kobylt Show News
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John Kobylt
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