May 28, 2026 • 33 mins
The race for Los Angeles mayor is tightening fast. New polling shows Karen Bass, Nithya Raman, and Spencer Pratt locked in a razor-close battle just days before Tuesday’s primary — and now Governor Gavin Newsom is jumping in with a late endorsement of Bass. Meanwhile, City Hall is exploring whether Angelenos could soon pay more for basic city services, while the L.A. City Council delays planned minimum wage increases for tourism workers.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Monks and maryl hosted by Michael Monks and
Chris Merrill.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is Monks and Merrill. Demand subscribe to the podcast.
We encourage you to do just that so you never
miss another moment of Monks and his buffoonery. Follow us
on the social media is at Monks and Merrill, at
Monks and Meryl, all right, not buffoonery.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's fine.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I feel bad about it now, like that was a
cheap shot. Now it's cool, feel like I shouldn't have taken that.
I don't mind our buffoon I'm rubbering your glue. How
about our buffoonery? How does that sound?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I don't want to be no, not your class. Like
I always tell all my friends love you. Yeah, but
when the s HiT's the fan, Yeah, I'm taking the
deal and testifying against you.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Oh so don't get too close to me. Okay, one
hundred percent agree with you on that. Yeah. I was
looking at the latest polling numbers that just came out
and I was surprised to see this. The UC Burke
the La Times poll shows bass and the lead in
the mayor's race, but rather than Pratt in second place,
they've got Ramin in second place.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
That this is a big shake up in terms of polls.
We had seen some recent polls that basically made it
look like this is going to be a Bass Pratt
event in November, no question about it, which is exactly
what Mayor Bass wants because she views Spencer Pratt as
a more easily defeated opponent come the general election, and
(01:32):
when they pull folks about how you would vote between
those two in the fall, that seems to be the case.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
And why is that? I think it's pretty simple that
it's a largely blue area that Bass would be the
Democrat on the ballot. Pratt, with very little experience, is
gonna is going to pull as the Republican even though
it's a non partisan race, and Pratt's really saying I'm
running as a non partisan. He's been a Republican President.
Trump says, I hope he wins. Bass is the alternative
(01:59):
to that, so goes, Look, the math is just there.
It's easy to beat this guy, exactly, That's exactly right.
But it's months away, and we've heard another reality TV
star who is there's no way this guy can come
back and beat this formidable female candidate. Yeah right, Yeah,
his name's President Trump right again, so you can't count
Spencer Pratt out. What is most interesting to me about
(02:20):
this poll. It's not that Ramen is in second place
and Bass excuse me, Pratt is in third and the
Bass still leads. This makes it look like a three
way photo finish. Now that we are days away from
election day, so we've been talking about, Okay, is it
going to be Bass versus Pratt in November? Or is
it going to be Bass versus Councilman Nat thea Ramen
(02:42):
in November. This poll indicates it could be Ramen versus
Pratt right in November mayor Bass has not looked this
vulnerable in the primary in a single poll. No. And
so this poll by the UC.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and the LA Times did
this and can junction with each other. Bass is at
twenty six percent, Ramen is at twenty five percent, and
Pratt is at twenty two percent, And when you account
for the margin of error, that's a three way tie.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I don't believe it. And in this event, if nobody
gets over fifty percent, the top two advance, I don't
believe this pole. You don't believe this pole. It does
show that Bass basically capped out compared to the last
poll that this group did.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
You see Berkeley in LA Times. She's cap whereas Ramen
and Pratt each added about eight points.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, they did, which would indicate that all of a sudden,
we've got people who are coalescing behind those two, which
means I'm going to guess Adam Miller voters or undecided
right leaning voters are undecided, not happy with the city
voters are moving toward Pratt and the Ray Wang voters
have said our candidate can't win, We're gonna have to
throw it behind the other Democratic socialist Nithew Ramen. That's
(03:55):
what you might read into this. I just don't believe
the poll.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I think this poll is it is very recent, not
just that we're reading about it today as it was
released by the LA Times, but it was conducted in
recent days. It's not that old. So we also have
to take an account that those aren't the only three
candidates in this race. And while the other two candidates
who have waged campaigns, raised a lot of money, organized
(04:21):
events and that sort of thing, they're pulling way behind.
They are pulling enough to spoil the race for one
or two of these candidates. Ray Wong, who is to
the left of Ramen in this poll, is getting nine right,
she's pulling votes from Ramen so much so does the
Ramen camp believe that. La Material has reported this morning
(04:43):
that the Ramen camp reached out to the Huang camp
and said, please drop out, Please drop out of the race.
You're getting nine percent of the vote.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
We're hanging by the skin of our teeth here, possibly
getting knocked out in the primary round because Spencer Pratt
is a breathing down our neck. Yeah, and we the
polls do show this, by the way, that Ramen beats Bass.
There's still a lot of undecided in those polls, but
the polls as of now show that in a head
(05:15):
to head Romen beats Bass. Well, this stass beats Pratt.
This is what Ramen was trying to point out at
the last debate, which was honestly not good for her
at all. Pratt looked like he won that one. Bass
did fine, and Romen looked like she was stammering a bit.
But she did make the point that those two are
working together because they know I would beat either one
(05:36):
of them. I mean, according to the point at that time,
she's not necessarily wrong. But again, she hasn't let the
world on fire. But how much do you believe these polls?
I don't buy this pole. I saw that last debate.
I've seen the polls up until now. This one feels
like an outlier to me. I don't think that, here
we are, five days before the election, that people are
suddenly like, you know, I think I like that Nthia
(05:56):
Ramen now and just don't see that happen.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
No, I agree, I wouldn't call an outlier. I thought
about calling in an outlier. Well I did it, I know,
but you're wrong. And here's why, go on. Outlier tends
to be a significant swing. Like let's say there's a
race between two guys in the last month.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Eight point swing for two of the candidates over the
span of a few weeks. Their gains aren't that shocking
to me. All of the polls, including this one, show
a pretty close race between the top three candidates that
it's basically anybody's game now. It's true, most of the
other ones indicate that bass is maybe comfortably more comfortably
advancing to the primary. She's leading in this poll, she's
(06:32):
leading by more in the other ones, whereas Pratt and Bass.
Excuse me, Ramen and Pratt are interchangeable in that number
two slot. This one's different. It's basically a three way tie. Here,
Ray Huang getting nine percent and Adam Miller, the tech
entrepreneur whose campaign really never took off despite the millions
he's spent out of his own bank account, he's getting five.
(06:54):
So between the two of them in this poll, that's
fourteen percent, and you still have ten percent saying undecided.
Put all of that together, you've got twenty four percent.
If those two candidates weren't in this race and the
undecided weren't in it, where do you apply that. That's
that could break You're days away. You might have these
candidates reaching out to those two other campaigns saying if
(07:16):
you would just stop, they won't. I don't understand what, thanks, Eric,
I'll just put the ad that up and if you
take the fourteenth all this is to say, minus the
twenty two stop it so confused. Next Tuesday is going
to be a very interesting night, and I'm so glad
(07:37):
I will be on vacation and you and Gary Hoffin
will have it covered. In the nighttime, I will be
watching the onslaught the blood bath, all of it. But
did you see that that he took He took a
vacation day on your election. Shock that he's allowed to
do that. I am back in the day, the old days.
Remember when the news reporter said to be here for
big news days.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Absolutely, I got promoted to host I'm talking about Yeah, Well,
I mean I don't answer to the newsroom anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Wow. So I will be in Carmel by.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
The Sea.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Back in the day, program director.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Either back in the day, women weren't in the news
anchor boot, how far back in the day do you
want to go?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Eric, Eric is in shock? Yeah, Eric, yes, I have
to deal with this as well as John. I was
gonna say, this is brutal. All right, So we know
this mayor's race is tight, the governor's race is tight two,
but the.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Current governor is weighing in not on the governor's race
hasn't endorsed anybody there, uh huh. But Governor Newsom has
made his choice in the LA mayor's race. Will it
fix these poll numbers?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Thanks?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Eric, that's next. As Monks and Merrill continues.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You're listening to Monks and Merrill on Demand from KFI
am six forty more stimulating talk.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
It's monks and.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Merrill at the two o'clock hour here on a Thursday.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
So I'll be with you. So glad here we are, sorry,
just right well left for two o'clock and you're telling
me what da god waving oatmeal lost track of time?
You know, we were talking about the uh well you
were talking at depth about numbers around the mayor's race. Yeah,
and you wanted to go, well, the mayor Bass has
twenty six, Ramen has twenty five. That's up from seventeen.
(09:18):
Pratt has twenty two, that's up from fourteen. Now, if
you take the nine from uh Ray Wang, and then
you take the five from Adam Miller, plus you take
the autopost and the plane, and then you've got the undecided,
and then you also take the combination of people who
might be voting multiple times, you may be able to
add that up to ninety four percent. I was very confused.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
But lick your thumb, stick it in the air. Yes
see how the wind is blowing that my index finger.
You would be wrong.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And then you have to consider that as well. What's
the humidity? You got to think about that, right, do
that in Yeah, if you take the wing direction of
the speed is blowing at about nine miles an hour
from the northeast, then you're gonna have an issue with
whatever it is. It's enough that Gavin Newsome got involved.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Indeed, because this pole comes out this morning, the La
Times publishes the poll that they did in conjunction with
UC Berkeley. They find that Mayor Bass is still in
the lead, right, but only with twenty six percent of
the vote. And they have found that Councilman Nythia Ramen
is second with twenty five percent, just a point behind Bass,
and Spencer.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Pratt is at twenty two basically considering the margin of error.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, it's a statistical tie.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
So we've got a three way, ugliest three way in
LA history.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Yay. So Governor Newsom says who you should vote for?
He says Bass, Of course he does. Is just gonna
help or hurt her. She has the endorsement of every
mainstream Democratic leader and union and union. Yeah, she really
(10:49):
does have quite a coalition, including the DSA members of
the city council who are endorsing Bass over their DSA
colleague with Nidia Ramen, which is little odd.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
That seems very strange to me, I don't think the
Newsome endorsement. Obviously, to some of our listeners who aren't
voting for Bass to begin with, it's not a great
piece of news. They don't care, or it would affect
the way they vote in the opposite direction. I think
more broadly, it doesn't hurt. At the very least, it
may help in other ways if folks are weighing, like,
I don't know. Bass.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
You know wasn't great with the fires and the city's
a little messy. But I like Newsome. Yeah, and he
says we should stick with Bass. Fine, But like she's
got both of the US Senators, a lot of the
congressional delegation in southern California are behind her, and like
we said, the city council, the supervisors, the unions, they're
(11:42):
all for Bass.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I also think it's interesting how few people have made
up their minds thus far. This blows my mind. From NBCLA, the.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
La County Registrar Recorder's Office says has of today, more
than four hundred and fifty thousand vote by mail ballots
have been returned.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
That seems like a lot.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
But and here in Burbank, at this voting center, at
the Magnolia Park United Methodist Church. Some people came to
vote today. I like to come in person to make
it seems more legitimate to me.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I don't trust the males.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
I would like to clean la up.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
He doesn't trust the males. White men. He just said
he didn't trust the males.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
It's gonna trust the males.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Cute the US males system, see feminist.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah. So I'm a little confused by that because he
doesn't trust that the post office is going to get
his ballot in, but he trusts that a little old
lady picking up ballots from drop boxes is going to
get it right.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I dropped my ballot off.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
What honest question, what's the difference between me dropping my
ballot and a little blue mailbox on a street corner
and me dropping off my ballot in a ballot box
on a different street corner. Maybe the degree to wish
it can be tampered. I mean, but it's not easy
to get into a mailbox, Certainly, it's I think more
(13:01):
difficult to get into a ballot box. I don't think
it is. No, I think it is. I don't think it. Yeah,
I think it is. I mean, well, why don't we
go out today and we'll try to break into each
for okay, that's a full videotape. It'll be great social content.
We will videotape good idea, the sound effort. Will you
grab the VCR. We're gonna videotape this today. I'm on it.
We'll make some copies and distribute it at the family reunion.
(13:23):
I still think it matters four hundred thousand. Why are
we talking eight percent return rate right now? Eight percent?
That seems remarkably low considering how many people got mail
in ballots that we go. Okay, let me ask this.
Do you think that's indicative of apathy towards this election?
Dingo's is exactly what I was gonna say. You don't
(13:45):
think it's about people saying I don't trust the mail
system and I'm going to vote in person on that day.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I'm sure they're gonna be people showing up to vote. Sure,
But California does make it very convenient by sending you
the ballot, and they also send you a lot of
materials where you're supposed to be able to look through
impartial either statements from the campaigns themselves, which aren't impartial,
of course, but the documents themselves are cumulatively impartial. They
make it very easy to be informed and to vote,
(14:09):
So yeah, you can. If you don't think the candidates
are inspiring, you're not inspired to vote. And it's so
interesting that there is a highly competitive anybody's ballgame election
at both the gubernatorial level and the Los Angeles mayoral level, the.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Largest state in the nation by population and the second
largest city in the nation, and we've got eight percent
return rate just a few days before the election.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
And you have candidates in both of those fields, in
the gubernatorial race and the lamyoral race, who are not
getting more than a quarter of pole respondents. In fact,
the gubernatorial candidates would love to have Karen Bass's twenty
six percent.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
They don't.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
You barely see them nipping twenty if you're in the
top two, with the rest of them still in the teens.
I mean, it's so spread out, but nobody and either
of these big races are running away with it. And
it's been the state of the race since last year.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
What are we going to see for a participating participation
rate this time around going to be? Is it even
going to hit forty percent for the primary?
Speaker 4 (15:13):
No?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
No, no, that would be way too much for any state.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
So but this is what bothers me. And I know
it's philosophical. I'm kind of screaming at the wind. I
get this, But especially in the jungle primary, where if
you get fifty percent of the vote, we're done. There's
no general election. I hate that. So that means you've
got a minority of people choosing for the majority, which
I guess you can say is the problem with the election.
(15:38):
Even the general election, oftentimes you have the minority of
people choosing for the majority. It just it's of all
the things that people want to point to in our
election system as being wrong, that's one that frustrates me
the most. And it's not the system that's wrong. It's
the participants, of course it is.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
And when you look at Los Angeles in particular, we
do spend a lot of time talking about La City
proper because it's government is so influential to the rest
of the region. On the mailing list, and I am
on their mailing list, and.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I get that.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Think about somebody like Unice's Hernandez, a city councilman who's
somewhat controversial because she is a kind of the spokesperson
of the dsa type of policies, and she represents MacArthur
Park and we know that that's a disaster. She is
in office because she won in the primary. Yeah, back
in twenty two.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
How many votes do you think she got to be
a city council member in the city of Los Angeles,
a city of four million people, and she's you know,
divide that up over fifteen council district six eight.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I like it when Eric's here, we have more sound effects.
Is good?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Sixteen thousand votes and you are on the city council
for four years. That's it in Los Angeles, California. Making
a decision that affects four million people. Every decision affects
four million people, even though it's the sixteen thousand in
your district, and that's all you got. You gotta vote.
Are you got to suffer the consequences?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, it's frustrating to me. Frustrating? All right? You uh,
You're already paying too much to live, to build, to park,
to film, to open, to repair, to breathe in Los Angeles,
and now city Hall says, you just want to study
whether or not you should pay a little more the
cost recovery cash register next Monks and Merril KFI AM
(17:28):
six forty. We are live everywhere on the iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
You're listening to Monks and Meryll on demand from KFI AM.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You'll find us on the iHeart Radio app as well
on demand anytime, and that's where you can get the podcast.
Go ahead, hit that subscribe button and never miss a
moment of Monks and Meryl. Social media at Monks and Meryl,
at Monks and Maryland, all the socials I think our
socials today where oh it was diva Day, wasn't it
on the social media's I don't really pay attention to
which she gave me instruction to be a diva today? No,
(17:59):
I think he was mocking me by asking you to
be a diva, which I'm not a diva. Oh I
didn't edit it, but he was recording me in the hallway.
Unless a coworkers said that was a little sassy. Oh, okay,
so sassy. We can't read that however you want. Okay,
I got it anyway, you'll have to see it. I
haven't seen the fun of the finished product, but you
can at Monks and maryl At Monks and Meryl. Do
(18:20):
you know there are times that We do stories about development,
we do stories about rebuilding after the fires. We do
stories about the businesses that are trying to operate in
Los Angeles, and they have a number of obstacles. And
I think to myself, I really believe the biggest problem
(18:43):
we have in the City of Los Angeles anyway, and
other cities don't have this issue, but the City of
Los Angeles, they're just not charging enough. You should run
for city council because that is a winning message. Unfortunately
it is. And I feel like what we should do
is change the city Charter, which is basically the institution
of the city, to charge people more in nonsense BS fees.
(19:07):
There is a motion at Los Angeles City Hall. This
is like a bill that that members introduce. There's a
motion that would, if.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Approved, be another dang ballot measure come November, right when
you're voting on all this city charter stuff, los Angeles people.
It would amend the charter so that all of the
Charter and Ordnance departments, so that is every basically standing
department you got at city Hall, okay, that they would
be able to follow a regular what they call a
(19:38):
fee study.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Oh goodness study, at least study schedule, and that's kind
of like what we get when we talk about sewer
rate water rate increases. You tend to get three or
five years worth, like this is how much you're going
to pay this year, this is how much you're going
to pay next year based on our estimated needs. And
then it's approved by the boards and goes up one
(20:00):
hundred and fifty percent over the course of that period
and in dose it so they want to evaluate if
you're paying enough in fees. Now, that doesn't mean that
your fees are going to go up, but what it
means is your fees are going to go up, that's right.
They say that because the budget has been so difficult.
I wonder why the budget has been so difficult at
city Hall. City fees, brad pipes ain't cheap. City fees
(20:23):
and fines have not kept up with the cost of
providing services, and they say that the general fund therefore
may be subsidizing services that are supposed to pay for themselves. Well,
like what correct pipe exchange programs? You know.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I remember one of the first city hall meetings that
I covered was a committee meeting, and the city Council
was about to embark upon reviewing its recycling situation. You know,
governments can make money on recycling, Yeah, because they collect
it and it's sold.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Los Angeles was losing money on recycling. Now, there were
market factors in that, because I guess China has stopped
buying so much stuff, and that was part of it.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
But leave it to La you know, to be the
city to figure out how to lose money on things
that other cities are able to capitalize on.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
We did it.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
It's like I always say about the government here take
that des moines. It's not a serious government to begin with,
and that's mainly because they never take a moment for
introspection when you screw up. Do you ever think, well,
what did I do wrong?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
There? No, and that's part of what's pushing this. You don't,
I don't what. No, the city doesn't do that. The
city doesn't know. But I'm saying that's part of what
should But that is part of what's pushing this measure forwards.
Oh you think this is introspection, No, this is exactly
the opposite. What this is doing is saying, rather than
us having to evaluate on our own as city council
(21:56):
members if we should raise fees, we are going to
put into play this committee that's going to take a
look at cost recovery programs, which means fees, and then
what could we do. We had to do this. It
was in the city charter that we had to have
a regular update. So since it's charter mandated, that means
that we didn't really have a choice but to raise
(22:17):
fees because there it is in the charter and the
study was done. And what are we We're just politicians.
We can't make decisions.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
This is a city government that, on two key issues,
is having to backtrack. And we're going to talk about
one of them in the next segment about that ut
the hospitality workers and now they're having to punt on
that raise that they promised them to thirty dollars an hour.
The other one is that mansion tax. And both of
those issues, and I'll talk more about this coming out,
(22:45):
but both of those issues, opponents were like, you do
this at your own peril, City of La, and the
LA government scoffs at them and says sure, sure, Jan
Sure Jam and then it all plays out and it
is the mess as foretold by the profits, and then
the city government is like, how could anybody have seen
(23:08):
this coming, we've got to make some adjustments. So they
are also making adjustments on measure u LA. Of course
they're thinking of changing the rates that wish they charge
developers of multifamilies, for example, because that's all slowed because
of the mansion tax. As foretold by the profits, they
don't listen. They don't do anything to clean up the
public realm. They don't do anything to clean up the
(23:30):
homeless problem.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
All they care about are the people that show up
at every meeting during a work day, and ye'll see
a few times and they give them whatever they want,
no introspection on how to clean up a city to
attract more businesses, to attract more homeowners. Honestly, you can't
go to a meeting without hearing the following constantly on
(23:53):
repeat or one of the other hits. When we fight,
we win, we fight, we win, uh huh when we fight,
then everybody else shouts we win when we fight. They
always do it three times, and with I've learned as
usually somebody yell and then the rest will yell out
(24:14):
see sipite, and it works.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
They get whatever they want every time.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
What if I wanted to go to like a commercial
break when we fight si Waita. The city voted to
give the unions whatever they wanted. Businesses push back. Now
the unions aren't happy. Huh no, no sick. Now that
LA is retreating, what does that mean for the future
of the democratic socialist agenda? The minimum wage retreat is
(24:44):
next on Monks and Merrill. When she's say.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Go on the news lasts for.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Which Grassy is.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
You're listening to Monks and Meryl Onder the air from
kfi AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Available anywhere on the iart Radio app. Monks and Merrill
wrapping things up on this Thursday afternoon. If you missed
a moment of the show, get the podcast KFIAM six
forty dot com or on the iHeartRadio app. Click on
the subscribe button and it will be delivered to you,
no problems, no effort at all.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Every day, think that I would like to listen to
the Garyan Shannon Show tomorrow. Why because it sounds like
they're going to talk about dog shooting people.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
That sounds like a Gary and Shannon topic. Sure they'll
have some fun with it. Yeah, I'm kind of looking
forward to it. Now, all right, let's get stuff finished here.
We got one more segment to go and then we're
out of here.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Man. Okay, we actually already talked about this, we did,
but now they finalize, Oh it's done to you.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Yeah, So what has happened is said city Hall. Sometimes
things need two votes, okay, and so we give all
the attention during the first vote, but technically it's not done.
It's not finished. You need to vote on it twice. Okay,
guarantee it's how you really are.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
In this case, the city Council had previously approved the
mandate to raise the minimum ways for hotel workers and
concessioneers at the airport to thirty dollars an hour in
time for the twenty twenty eight Summer Olympics.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
With increases coming every year starting in July of this year.
So what five weeks or so away, you would start
to get dollar a little more than a dollar each
year in twenty six, twenty seven, two and a half
dollars a year, Yeah, until thirty Yeah, because I think
the minimum wage is over twenty currently those guys, and
it will go up. I mean it's a significant increase.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
I would say. So it's a ten percent increase, nearly
ten percent increase every year. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Yeah, So it's about thirty percent increase when it's all
said and done.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
However, what happened was that the business community said, this
is not working, and so we obviously the city council
wasn't listening to us, Our police fell on deaf years.
They passed it anyway, because in large part you've got
the Democratic Socialists that are on the city council, and
you also have a lot of people that are like,
we should raise the minimum wage for these particular sectors
who definitely don't make contributions to our campaigns. Why wouldn't
(26:52):
they're not playing favorites. And so they said, yeah, we're
going to do that for this union. So the business
community said, this is absolute trap. This hike on our
employee expenses over two years when both of these sectors
are experiencing declines. And other businesses took a look at
this and they said, we agree, this is this is blown.
(27:12):
They'll come for us next exactly what they did. And
so they said, what do you want radio hosts making
thirty dollars an hour?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
What is this Soviet Russia?
Speaker 2 (27:23):
What's their union? Because it seems to be working, Oh,
unite here Local eleven. Uh So that's what we got
to get with so we may come upwards to thirty
bucks an hour. So what happened was the business is
put together this petition to have a citizen initiative on
the ballot, and they got enough petition signatures in order
to have us vote on whether or not to repeal
the business tax. If you repealed the tax on businesses
(27:45):
in the city of Los Angeles, you're talking about over
a billion dollars that would be cut from the city budget.
And what happened was every year, every year, and the
businesses went, yeah, you want to you wanna start mandating
these ridiculous minimum wages. We can't pay you taxes anymore.
And the city went, oh, my gosh, if we don't
have a billion dollars, how we're going to buy crack
pipes and then give kickbacks to all of the unions
(28:06):
that got us selected in the first place. So the
city said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What if we
just delayed the implementation of said minimum wage hikes for
a couple of years? And the business has said, we're listening.
They said, what if we just undo our vote to
do that? Would you be willing to drop the issue?
(28:30):
And it sounds like the business community said, yeah, we would. Now,
what I think is interesting about this is that they've
dropped it now. So what it is going to take
until twenty thirty now for this to go into a factory. Yeah,
they'll raise the wages, the minimum wages for these two
sectors to twenty five dollars next year and then twenty
seven fifty by twenty twenty eight. So that's two fifty
(28:51):
lower than what the union's all thought.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
For a lot. If you're a mom and pop hotel,
that's tough. Well, of course it is. And it's still
planned to go to thirty dollars by twenty thirty. Now
what I think this, but don't forget this isn't just
about the hourly wage. That's all we're talking about there,
But these businesses also have to increase their health care
contributions for these workers, sure, which is another significant cost.
(29:15):
I mean all I hate that health insurance is connected
to employment. It's really hard on on small businesses especially.
It's ridiculous the healthcare system the way that we do
it here in America.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
To have the great coverage provided to us by our
very fine doctors, of course, but it's it's it's a
rough way to get there.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
And this is one of the ways. The answer from
city Hall to these folks not being able to afford
a nice apartment or groceries or gas is never, what
have our policies done? No, no, there's no there's no interest.
(29:51):
But we already know there's a built in premium in
southern California. We talked about this, I think yesterday in
the context of housing. It's it's the weather tax you
called it. I mean, it's a beautiful place to sunshine tax, yeah,
tax and sunshine tax, sure, whatever, it's it's an expensive
place to live. But when you throw on top of
it a lot of these policies, these poor economic choices necessary. Yeah,
(30:11):
that's why it's every time, every day, you know how
many more sales taxes we're gonna have by the end
of this year, considering what folks are probably going to
vote to support next week and then in November. Every
time you turn around, either the government is enacting an
increase on you or you are agreeing to one.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
So I think this is interesting when we talk specifically
about this issue about the minimum wage hicking, the businesses
that are saying, if you do this, we're gonna We're
gonna make it so that voters really think hard about
repealing the business tax. The labor unions are pissed. So
labor unions say that basically the city has betrayed them.
It is you've betrayed us. But I'm fascinated by this.
(30:56):
The labor union is so upset because they don't have
all the leverage. Yeah, that's the thing that is the
most remarkable to me. When we fight, we win. That's
what we say. When we fight, we win. We fought,
we won, and we lost. But that's not the same.
We already have the T shirts printed, she said, Luis, sir,
that's not quite exaccurate. That is racist. So I think
(31:18):
sit is. Guys, I don't know, I'm gonna be racist
if I don't know what I'm saying. Oh sure, here's
what I think is fascinating about the changing landscape of
the city of Los Angeles. Spencer Pratt may not win,
but you can't ignore the fact that there's there's movement
of foot The businesses might not be able to delay
(31:41):
this minimum wage check forever, but they definitely got it
delayed for a little while. There is a shift happening
in southern California politics away from the Democratic Socialists. Now,
I say that now knowing full well it's possible Nythia
Rahman ekes out a win over Spencer Pratt to become
number two one that ballot come Tuesday, and we could
end up having Ramen is the mayor. I fully accept
(32:03):
that that's a possibility. But I'm telling you, as far
as the sentiment in this town goes, it's shifting.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Take that into consideration that Nitthia Ramen may lose in
the primary. That's the DSA candidate who loses in the primary.
There are two of the four members of the DSA
City Council, two DSA members of the city council, I
should say, Unsicis Hernandez and Hugosta Martinez who are being
challenged in their primaries for reelection, and as far as
(32:31):
I can tell, I haven't seen any polling in those
two races, they could be forced into a runoff. So
you have the possibility here of Nithia Ramen being knocked
down a peg by being wiped out in the primary
of the mayoral race. And then you have two DSA
council members who could be booted off of the council
come November. And on top of the unit here at
(32:52):
Local eleven, which is one of the I mean, they're
not DSA technically, but they might as well be. This
would be quite a shift in LA's political power class.
And on Matt, we're out the godfather of talk radio,
the Great John Colbet, steps into the padded room. Next,
he's got gubernatorial front Ridder right now, Steve Hilton joining
him at four o'clock.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Make sure you catch that. In the meantime, Debra Mark
standing by with news KFI AM six forty. We're live
everywhere in the iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
App is KFI on Demand.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
You've been listening to Monks and Merrill. Hear the show
live weekdays from noon to three on KFI AM six
forty at anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Monks and maryl hosted by Michael Monks and
Chris Merrill.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is Monks and Merrill. Demand subscribe to the podcast.
We encourage you to do just that so you never
miss another moment of Monks and his buffoonery. Follow us
on the social media is at Monks and Merrill, at
Monks and Meryl, all right, not buffoonery.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's fine.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I feel bad about it now, like that was a
cheap shot. Now it's cool, feel like I shouldn't have taken that.
I don't mind our buffoon I'm rubbering your glue. How
about our buffoonery? How does that sound?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I don't want to be no, not your class. Like
I always tell all my friends love you. Yeah, but
when the s HiT's the fan, Yeah, I'm taking the
deal and testifying against you.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Oh so don't get too close to me. Okay, one
hundred percent agree with you on that. Yeah. I was
looking at the latest polling numbers that just came out
and I was surprised to see this. The UC Burke
the La Times poll shows bass and the lead in
the mayor's race, but rather than Pratt in second place,
they've got Ramin in second place.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
That this is a big shake up in terms of polls.
We had seen some recent polls that basically made it
look like this is going to be a Bass Pratt
event in November, no question about it, which is exactly
what Mayor Bass wants because she views Spencer Pratt as
a more easily defeated opponent come the general election, and
(01:32):
when they pull folks about how you would vote between
those two in the fall, that seems to be the case.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
And why is that? I think it's pretty simple that
it's a largely blue area that Bass would be the
Democrat on the ballot. Pratt, with very little experience, is
gonna is going to pull as the Republican even though
it's a non partisan race, and Pratt's really saying I'm
running as a non partisan. He's been a Republican President.
Trump says, I hope he wins. Bass is the alternative
(01:59):
to that, so goes, Look, the math is just there.
It's easy to beat this guy, exactly, That's exactly right.
But it's months away, and we've heard another reality TV
star who is there's no way this guy can come
back and beat this formidable female candidate. Yeah right, Yeah,
his name's President Trump right again, so you can't count
Spencer Pratt out. What is most interesting to me about
(02:20):
this poll. It's not that Ramen is in second place
and Bass excuse me, Pratt is in third and the
Bass still leads. This makes it look like a three
way photo finish. Now that we are days away from
election day, so we've been talking about, Okay, is it
going to be Bass versus Pratt in November? Or is
it going to be Bass versus Councilman Nat thea Ramen
(02:42):
in November. This poll indicates it could be Ramen versus
Pratt right in November mayor Bass has not looked this
vulnerable in the primary in a single poll. No. And
so this poll by the UC.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and the LA Times did
this and can junction with each other. Bass is at
twenty six percent, Ramen is at twenty five percent, and
Pratt is at twenty two percent, And when you account
for the margin of error, that's a three way tie.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I don't believe it. And in this event, if nobody
gets over fifty percent, the top two advance, I don't
believe this pole. You don't believe this pole. It does
show that Bass basically capped out compared to the last
poll that this group did.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
You see Berkeley in LA Times. She's cap whereas Ramen
and Pratt each added about eight points.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, they did, which would indicate that all of a sudden,
we've got people who are coalescing behind those two, which
means I'm going to guess Adam Miller voters or undecided
right leaning voters are undecided, not happy with the city
voters are moving toward Pratt and the Ray Wang voters
have said our candidate can't win, We're gonna have to
throw it behind the other Democratic socialist Nithew Ramen. That's
(03:55):
what you might read into this. I just don't believe
the poll.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I think this poll is it is very recent, not
just that we're reading about it today as it was
released by the LA Times, but it was conducted in
recent days. It's not that old. So we also have
to take an account that those aren't the only three
candidates in this race. And while the other two candidates
who have waged campaigns, raised a lot of money, organized
(04:21):
events and that sort of thing, they're pulling way behind.
They are pulling enough to spoil the race for one
or two of these candidates. Ray Wong, who is to
the left of Ramen in this poll, is getting nine right,
she's pulling votes from Ramen so much so does the
Ramen camp believe that. La Material has reported this morning
(04:43):
that the Ramen camp reached out to the Huang camp
and said, please drop out, Please drop out of the race.
You're getting nine percent of the vote.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
We're hanging by the skin of our teeth here, possibly
getting knocked out in the primary round because Spencer Pratt
is a breathing down our neck. Yeah, and we the
polls do show this, by the way, that Ramen beats Bass.
There's still a lot of undecided in those polls, but
the polls as of now show that in a head
(05:15):
to head Romen beats Bass. Well, this stass beats Pratt.
This is what Ramen was trying to point out at
the last debate, which was honestly not good for her
at all. Pratt looked like he won that one. Bass
did fine, and Romen looked like she was stammering a bit.
But she did make the point that those two are
working together because they know I would beat either one
(05:36):
of them. I mean, according to the point at that time,
she's not necessarily wrong. But again, she hasn't let the
world on fire. But how much do you believe these polls?
I don't buy this pole. I saw that last debate.
I've seen the polls up until now. This one feels
like an outlier to me. I don't think that, here
we are, five days before the election, that people are
suddenly like, you know, I think I like that Nthia
(05:56):
Ramen now and just don't see that happen.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
No, I agree, I wouldn't call an outlier. I thought
about calling in an outlier. Well I did it, I know,
but you're wrong. And here's why, go on. Outlier tends
to be a significant swing. Like let's say there's a
race between two guys in the last month.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Eight point swing for two of the candidates over the
span of a few weeks. Their gains aren't that shocking
to me. All of the polls, including this one, show
a pretty close race between the top three candidates that
it's basically anybody's game now. It's true, most of the
other ones indicate that bass is maybe comfortably more comfortably
advancing to the primary. She's leading in this poll, she's
(06:32):
leading by more in the other ones, whereas Pratt and Bass.
Excuse me, Ramen and Pratt are interchangeable in that number
two slot. This one's different. It's basically a three way tie. Here,
Ray Huang getting nine percent and Adam Miller, the tech
entrepreneur whose campaign really never took off despite the millions
he's spent out of his own bank account, he's getting five.
(06:54):
So between the two of them in this poll, that's
fourteen percent, and you still have ten percent saying undecided.
Put all of that together, you've got twenty four percent.
If those two candidates weren't in this race and the
undecided weren't in it, where do you apply that. That's
that could break You're days away. You might have these
candidates reaching out to those two other campaigns saying if
(07:16):
you would just stop, they won't. I don't understand what, thanks, Eric,
I'll just put the ad that up and if you
take the fourteenth all this is to say, minus the
twenty two stop it so confused. Next Tuesday is going
to be a very interesting night, and I'm so glad
(07:37):
I will be on vacation and you and Gary Hoffin
will have it covered. In the nighttime, I will be
watching the onslaught the blood bath, all of it. But
did you see that that he took He took a
vacation day on your election. Shock that he's allowed to
do that. I am back in the day, the old days.
Remember when the news reporter said to be here for
big news days.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Absolutely, I got promoted to host I'm talking about Yeah, Well,
I mean I don't answer to the newsroom anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Wow. So I will be in Carmel by.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
The Sea.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Back in the day, program director.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Either back in the day, women weren't in the news
anchor boot, how far back in the day do you
want to go?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Eric, Eric is in shock? Yeah, Eric, yes, I have
to deal with this as well as John. I was
gonna say, this is brutal. All right, So we know
this mayor's race is tight, the governor's race is tight two,
but the.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Current governor is weighing in not on the governor's race
hasn't endorsed anybody there, uh huh. But Governor Newsom has
made his choice in the LA mayor's race. Will it
fix these poll numbers?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Thanks?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Eric, that's next. As Monks and Merrill continues.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You're listening to Monks and Merrill on Demand from KFI
am six forty more stimulating talk.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
It's monks and.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Merrill at the two o'clock hour here on a Thursday.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
So I'll be with you. So glad here we are, sorry,
just right well left for two o'clock and you're telling
me what da god waving oatmeal lost track of time?
You know, we were talking about the uh well you
were talking at depth about numbers around the mayor's race. Yeah,
and you wanted to go, well, the mayor Bass has
twenty six, Ramen has twenty five. That's up from seventeen.
(09:18):
Pratt has twenty two, that's up from fourteen. Now, if
you take the nine from uh Ray Wang, and then
you take the five from Adam Miller, plus you take
the autopost and the plane, and then you've got the undecided,
and then you also take the combination of people who
might be voting multiple times, you may be able to
add that up to ninety four percent. I was very confused.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
But lick your thumb, stick it in the air. Yes
see how the wind is blowing that my index finger.
You would be wrong.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And then you have to consider that as well. What's
the humidity? You got to think about that, right, do
that in Yeah, if you take the wing direction of
the speed is blowing at about nine miles an hour
from the northeast, then you're gonna have an issue with
whatever it is. It's enough that Gavin Newsome got involved.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Indeed, because this pole comes out this morning, the La
Times publishes the poll that they did in conjunction with
UC Berkeley. They find that Mayor Bass is still in
the lead, right, but only with twenty six percent of
the vote. And they have found that Councilman Nythia Ramen
is second with twenty five percent, just a point behind Bass,
and Spencer.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Pratt is at twenty two basically considering the margin of error.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, it's a statistical tie.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
So we've got a three way, ugliest three way in
LA history.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Yay. So Governor Newsom says who you should vote for?
He says Bass, Of course he does. Is just gonna
help or hurt her. She has the endorsement of every
mainstream Democratic leader and union and union. Yeah, she really
(10:49):
does have quite a coalition, including the DSA members of
the city council who are endorsing Bass over their DSA
colleague with Nidia Ramen, which is little odd.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
That seems very strange to me, I don't think the
Newsome endorsement. Obviously, to some of our listeners who aren't
voting for Bass to begin with, it's not a great
piece of news. They don't care, or it would affect
the way they vote in the opposite direction. I think
more broadly, it doesn't hurt. At the very least, it
may help in other ways if folks are weighing, like,
I don't know. Bass.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
You know wasn't great with the fires and the city's
a little messy. But I like Newsome. Yeah, and he
says we should stick with Bass. Fine, But like she's
got both of the US Senators, a lot of the
congressional delegation in southern California are behind her, and like
we said, the city council, the supervisors, the unions, they're
(11:42):
all for Bass.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I also think it's interesting how few people have made
up their minds thus far. This blows my mind. From NBCLA, the.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
La County Registrar Recorder's Office says has of today, more
than four hundred and fifty thousand vote by mail ballots
have been returned.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
That seems like a lot.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
But and here in Burbank, at this voting center, at
the Magnolia Park United Methodist Church. Some people came to
vote today. I like to come in person to make
it seems more legitimate to me.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I don't trust the males.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
I would like to clean la up.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
He doesn't trust the males. White men. He just said
he didn't trust the males.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
It's gonna trust the males.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Cute the US males system, see feminist.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah. So I'm a little confused by that because he
doesn't trust that the post office is going to get
his ballot in, but he trusts that a little old
lady picking up ballots from drop boxes is going to
get it right.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I dropped my ballot off.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
What honest question, what's the difference between me dropping my
ballot and a little blue mailbox on a street corner
and me dropping off my ballot in a ballot box
on a different street corner. Maybe the degree to wish
it can be tampered. I mean, but it's not easy
to get into a mailbox, Certainly, it's I think more
(13:01):
difficult to get into a ballot box. I don't think
it is. No, I think it is. I don't think it. Yeah,
I think it is. I mean, well, why don't we
go out today and we'll try to break into each
for okay, that's a full videotape. It'll be great social content.
We will videotape good idea, the sound effort. Will you
grab the VCR. We're gonna videotape this today. I'm on it.
We'll make some copies and distribute it at the family reunion.
(13:23):
I still think it matters four hundred thousand. Why are
we talking eight percent return rate right now? Eight percent?
That seems remarkably low considering how many people got mail
in ballots that we go. Okay, let me ask this.
Do you think that's indicative of apathy towards this election?
Dingo's is exactly what I was gonna say. You don't
(13:45):
think it's about people saying I don't trust the mail
system and I'm going to vote in person on that day.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I'm sure they're gonna be people showing up to vote. Sure,
But California does make it very convenient by sending you
the ballot, and they also send you a lot of
materials where you're supposed to be able to look through
impartial either statements from the campaigns themselves, which aren't impartial,
of course, but the documents themselves are cumulatively impartial. They
make it very easy to be informed and to vote,
(14:09):
So yeah, you can. If you don't think the candidates
are inspiring, you're not inspired to vote. And it's so
interesting that there is a highly competitive anybody's ballgame election
at both the gubernatorial level and the Los Angeles mayoral level, the.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Largest state in the nation by population and the second
largest city in the nation, and we've got eight percent
return rate just a few days before the election.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
And you have candidates in both of those fields, in
the gubernatorial race and the lamyoral race, who are not
getting more than a quarter of pole respondents. In fact,
the gubernatorial candidates would love to have Karen Bass's twenty
six percent.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
They don't.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
You barely see them nipping twenty if you're in the
top two, with the rest of them still in the teens.
I mean, it's so spread out, but nobody and either
of these big races are running away with it. And
it's been the state of the race since last year.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
What are we going to see for a participating participation
rate this time around going to be? Is it even
going to hit forty percent for the primary?
Speaker 4 (15:13):
No?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
No, no, that would be way too much for any state.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
So but this is what bothers me. And I know
it's philosophical. I'm kind of screaming at the wind. I
get this, But especially in the jungle primary, where if
you get fifty percent of the vote, we're done. There's
no general election. I hate that. So that means you've
got a minority of people choosing for the majority, which
I guess you can say is the problem with the election.
(15:38):
Even the general election, oftentimes you have the minority of
people choosing for the majority. It just it's of all
the things that people want to point to in our
election system as being wrong, that's one that frustrates me
the most. And it's not the system that's wrong. It's
the participants, of course it is.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
And when you look at Los Angeles in particular, we
do spend a lot of time talking about La City
proper because it's government is so influential to the rest
of the region. On the mailing list, and I am
on their mailing list, and.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I get that.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Think about somebody like Unice's Hernandez, a city councilman who's
somewhat controversial because she is a kind of the spokesperson
of the dsa type of policies, and she represents MacArthur
Park and we know that that's a disaster. She is
in office because she won in the primary. Yeah, back
in twenty two.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
How many votes do you think she got to be
a city council member in the city of Los Angeles,
a city of four million people, and she's you know,
divide that up over fifteen council district six eight.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I like it when Eric's here, we have more sound effects.
Is good?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Sixteen thousand votes and you are on the city council
for four years. That's it in Los Angeles, California. Making
a decision that affects four million people. Every decision affects
four million people, even though it's the sixteen thousand in
your district, and that's all you got. You gotta vote.
Are you got to suffer the consequences?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, it's frustrating to me. Frustrating? All right? You uh,
You're already paying too much to live, to build, to park,
to film, to open, to repair, to breathe in Los Angeles,
and now city Hall says, you just want to study
whether or not you should pay a little more the
cost recovery cash register next Monks and Merril KFI AM
(17:28):
six forty. We are live everywhere on the iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
You're listening to Monks and Meryll on demand from KFI AM.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You'll find us on the iHeart Radio app as well
on demand anytime, and that's where you can get the podcast.
Go ahead, hit that subscribe button and never miss a
moment of Monks and Meryl. Social media at Monks and Meryl,
at Monks and Maryland, all the socials I think our
socials today where oh it was diva Day, wasn't it
on the social media's I don't really pay attention to
which she gave me instruction to be a diva today? No,
(17:59):
I think he was mocking me by asking you to
be a diva, which I'm not a diva. Oh I
didn't edit it, but he was recording me in the hallway.
Unless a coworkers said that was a little sassy. Oh, okay,
so sassy. We can't read that however you want. Okay,
I got it anyway, you'll have to see it. I
haven't seen the fun of the finished product, but you
can at Monks and maryl At Monks and Meryl. Do
(18:20):
you know there are times that We do stories about development,
we do stories about rebuilding after the fires. We do
stories about the businesses that are trying to operate in
Los Angeles, and they have a number of obstacles. And
I think to myself, I really believe the biggest problem
(18:43):
we have in the City of Los Angeles anyway, and
other cities don't have this issue, but the City of
Los Angeles, they're just not charging enough. You should run
for city council because that is a winning message. Unfortunately
it is. And I feel like what we should do
is change the city Charter, which is basically the institution
of the city, to charge people more in nonsense BS fees.
(19:07):
There is a motion at Los Angeles City Hall. This
is like a bill that that members introduce. There's a
motion that would, if.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Approved, be another dang ballot measure come November, right when
you're voting on all this city charter stuff, los Angeles people.
It would amend the charter so that all of the
Charter and Ordnance departments, so that is every basically standing
department you got at city Hall, okay, that they would
be able to follow a regular what they call a
(19:38):
fee study.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Oh goodness study, at least study schedule, and that's kind
of like what we get when we talk about sewer
rate water rate increases. You tend to get three or
five years worth, like this is how much you're going
to pay this year, this is how much you're going
to pay next year based on our estimated needs. And
then it's approved by the boards and goes up one
(20:00):
hundred and fifty percent over the course of that period
and in dose it so they want to evaluate if
you're paying enough in fees. Now, that doesn't mean that
your fees are going to go up, but what it
means is your fees are going to go up, that's right.
They say that because the budget has been so difficult.
I wonder why the budget has been so difficult at
city Hall. City fees, brad pipes ain't cheap. City fees
(20:23):
and fines have not kept up with the cost of
providing services, and they say that the general fund therefore
may be subsidizing services that are supposed to pay for themselves. Well,
like what correct pipe exchange programs? You know.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I remember one of the first city hall meetings that
I covered was a committee meeting, and the city Council
was about to embark upon reviewing its recycling situation. You know,
governments can make money on recycling, Yeah, because they collect
it and it's sold.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Los Angeles was losing money on recycling. Now, there were
market factors in that, because I guess China has stopped
buying so much stuff, and that was part of it.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
But leave it to La you know, to be the
city to figure out how to lose money on things
that other cities are able to capitalize on.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
We did it.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
It's like I always say about the government here take
that des moines. It's not a serious government to begin with,
and that's mainly because they never take a moment for
introspection when you screw up. Do you ever think, well,
what did I do wrong?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
There? No, and that's part of what's pushing this. You don't,
I don't what. No, the city doesn't do that. The
city doesn't know. But I'm saying that's part of what
should But that is part of what's pushing this measure forwards.
Oh you think this is introspection, No, this is exactly
the opposite. What this is doing is saying, rather than
us having to evaluate on our own as city council
(21:56):
members if we should raise fees, we are going to
put into play this committee that's going to take a
look at cost recovery programs, which means fees, and then
what could we do. We had to do this. It
was in the city charter that we had to have
a regular update. So since it's charter mandated, that means
that we didn't really have a choice but to raise
(22:17):
fees because there it is in the charter and the
study was done. And what are we We're just politicians.
We can't make decisions.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
This is a city government that, on two key issues,
is having to backtrack. And we're going to talk about
one of them in the next segment about that ut
the hospitality workers and now they're having to punt on
that raise that they promised them to thirty dollars an hour.
The other one is that mansion tax. And both of
those issues, and I'll talk more about this coming out,
(22:45):
but both of those issues, opponents were like, you do
this at your own peril, City of La, and the
LA government scoffs at them and says sure, sure, Jan
Sure Jam and then it all plays out and it
is the mess as foretold by the profits, and then
the city government is like, how could anybody have seen
(23:08):
this coming, we've got to make some adjustments. So they
are also making adjustments on measure u LA. Of course
they're thinking of changing the rates that wish they charge
developers of multifamilies, for example, because that's all slowed because
of the mansion tax. As foretold by the profits, they
don't listen. They don't do anything to clean up the
public realm. They don't do anything to clean up the
(23:30):
homeless problem.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
All they care about are the people that show up
at every meeting during a work day, and ye'll see
a few times and they give them whatever they want,
no introspection on how to clean up a city to
attract more businesses, to attract more homeowners. Honestly, you can't
go to a meeting without hearing the following constantly on
(23:53):
repeat or one of the other hits. When we fight,
we win, we fight, we win, uh huh when we fight,
then everybody else shouts we win when we fight. They
always do it three times, and with I've learned as
usually somebody yell and then the rest will yell out
(24:14):
see sipite, and it works.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
They get whatever they want every time.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
What if I wanted to go to like a commercial
break when we fight si Waita. The city voted to
give the unions whatever they wanted. Businesses push back. Now
the unions aren't happy. Huh no, no sick. Now that
LA is retreating, what does that mean for the future
of the democratic socialist agenda? The minimum wage retreat is
(24:44):
next on Monks and Merrill. When she's say.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Go on the news lasts for.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Which Grassy is.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
You're listening to Monks and Meryl Onder the air from
kfi AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Available anywhere on the iart Radio app. Monks and Merrill
wrapping things up on this Thursday afternoon. If you missed
a moment of the show, get the podcast KFIAM six
forty dot com or on the iHeartRadio app. Click on
the subscribe button and it will be delivered to you,
no problems, no effort at all.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Every day, think that I would like to listen to
the Garyan Shannon Show tomorrow. Why because it sounds like
they're going to talk about dog shooting people.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
That sounds like a Gary and Shannon topic. Sure they'll
have some fun with it. Yeah, I'm kind of looking
forward to it. Now, all right, let's get stuff finished here.
We got one more segment to go and then we're
out of here.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Man. Okay, we actually already talked about this, we did,
but now they finalize, Oh it's done to you.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Yeah, So what has happened is said city Hall. Sometimes
things need two votes, okay, and so we give all
the attention during the first vote, but technically it's not done.
It's not finished. You need to vote on it twice. Okay,
guarantee it's how you really are.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
In this case, the city Council had previously approved the
mandate to raise the minimum ways for hotel workers and
concessioneers at the airport to thirty dollars an hour in
time for the twenty twenty eight Summer Olympics.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
With increases coming every year starting in July of this year.
So what five weeks or so away, you would start
to get dollar a little more than a dollar each
year in twenty six, twenty seven, two and a half
dollars a year, Yeah, until thirty Yeah, because I think
the minimum wage is over twenty currently those guys, and
it will go up. I mean it's a significant increase.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
I would say. So it's a ten percent increase, nearly
ten percent increase every year. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Yeah, So it's about thirty percent increase when it's all
said and done.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
However, what happened was that the business community said, this
is not working, and so we obviously the city council
wasn't listening to us, Our police fell on deaf years.
They passed it anyway, because in large part you've got
the Democratic Socialists that are on the city council, and
you also have a lot of people that are like,
we should raise the minimum wage for these particular sectors
who definitely don't make contributions to our campaigns. Why wouldn't
(26:52):
they're not playing favorites. And so they said, yeah, we're
going to do that for this union. So the business
community said, this is absolute trap. This hike on our
employee expenses over two years when both of these sectors
are experiencing declines. And other businesses took a look at
this and they said, we agree, this is this is blown.
(27:12):
They'll come for us next exactly what they did. And
so they said, what do you want radio hosts making
thirty dollars an hour?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
What is this Soviet Russia?
Speaker 2 (27:23):
What's their union? Because it seems to be working, Oh,
unite here Local eleven. Uh So that's what we got
to get with so we may come upwards to thirty
bucks an hour. So what happened was the business is
put together this petition to have a citizen initiative on
the ballot, and they got enough petition signatures in order
to have us vote on whether or not to repeal
the business tax. If you repealed the tax on businesses
(27:45):
in the city of Los Angeles, you're talking about over
a billion dollars that would be cut from the city budget.
And what happened was every year, every year, and the
businesses went, yeah, you want to you wanna start mandating
these ridiculous minimum wages. We can't pay you taxes anymore.
And the city went, oh, my gosh, if we don't
have a billion dollars, how we're going to buy crack
pipes and then give kickbacks to all of the unions
(28:06):
that got us selected in the first place. So the
city said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What if we
just delayed the implementation of said minimum wage hikes for
a couple of years? And the business has said, we're listening.
They said, what if we just undo our vote to
do that? Would you be willing to drop the issue?
(28:30):
And it sounds like the business community said, yeah, we would. Now,
what I think is interesting about this is that they've
dropped it now. So what it is going to take
until twenty thirty now for this to go into a factory. Yeah,
they'll raise the wages, the minimum wages for these two
sectors to twenty five dollars next year and then twenty
seven fifty by twenty twenty eight. So that's two fifty
(28:51):
lower than what the union's all thought.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
For a lot. If you're a mom and pop hotel,
that's tough. Well, of course it is. And it's still
planned to go to thirty dollars by twenty thirty. Now
what I think this, but don't forget this isn't just
about the hourly wage. That's all we're talking about there,
But these businesses also have to increase their health care
contributions for these workers, sure, which is another significant cost.
(29:15):
I mean all I hate that health insurance is connected
to employment. It's really hard on on small businesses especially.
It's ridiculous the healthcare system the way that we do
it here in America.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
To have the great coverage provided to us by our
very fine doctors, of course, but it's it's it's a
rough way to get there.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
And this is one of the ways. The answer from
city Hall to these folks not being able to afford
a nice apartment or groceries or gas is never, what
have our policies done? No, no, there's no there's no interest.
(29:51):
But we already know there's a built in premium in
southern California. We talked about this, I think yesterday in
the context of housing. It's it's the weather tax you
called it. I mean, it's a beautiful place to sunshine tax, yeah,
tax and sunshine tax, sure, whatever, it's it's an expensive
place to live. But when you throw on top of
it a lot of these policies, these poor economic choices necessary. Yeah,
(30:11):
that's why it's every time, every day, you know how
many more sales taxes we're gonna have by the end
of this year, considering what folks are probably going to
vote to support next week and then in November. Every
time you turn around, either the government is enacting an
increase on you or you are agreeing to one.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
So I think this is interesting when we talk specifically
about this issue about the minimum wage hicking, the businesses
that are saying, if you do this, we're gonna We're
gonna make it so that voters really think hard about
repealing the business tax. The labor unions are pissed. So
labor unions say that basically the city has betrayed them.
It is you've betrayed us. But I'm fascinated by this.
(30:56):
The labor union is so upset because they don't have
all the leverage. Yeah, that's the thing that is the
most remarkable to me. When we fight, we win. That's
what we say. When we fight, we win. We fought,
we won, and we lost. But that's not the same.
We already have the T shirts printed, she said, Luis, sir,
that's not quite exaccurate. That is racist. So I think
(31:18):
sit is. Guys, I don't know, I'm gonna be racist
if I don't know what I'm saying. Oh sure, here's
what I think is fascinating about the changing landscape of
the city of Los Angeles. Spencer Pratt may not win,
but you can't ignore the fact that there's there's movement
of foot The businesses might not be able to delay
(31:41):
this minimum wage check forever, but they definitely got it
delayed for a little while. There is a shift happening
in southern California politics away from the Democratic Socialists. Now,
I say that now knowing full well it's possible Nythia
Rahman ekes out a win over Spencer Pratt to become
number two one that ballot come Tuesday, and we could
end up having Ramen is the mayor. I fully accept
(32:03):
that that's a possibility. But I'm telling you, as far
as the sentiment in this town goes, it's shifting.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Take that into consideration that Nitthia Ramen may lose in
the primary. That's the DSA candidate who loses in the primary.
There are two of the four members of the DSA
City Council, two DSA members of the city council, I
should say, Unsicis Hernandez and Hugosta Martinez who are being
challenged in their primaries for reelection, and as far as
(32:31):
I can tell, I haven't seen any polling in those
two races, they could be forced into a runoff. So
you have the possibility here of Nithia Ramen being knocked
down a peg by being wiped out in the primary
of the mayoral race. And then you have two DSA
council members who could be booted off of the council
come November. And on top of the unit here at
(32:52):
Local eleven, which is one of the I mean, they're
not DSA technically, but they might as well be. This
would be quite a shift in LA's political power class.
And on Matt, we're out the godfather of talk radio,
the Great John Colbet, steps into the padded room. Next,
he's got gubernatorial front Ridder right now, Steve Hilton joining
him at four o'clock.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Make sure you catch that. In the meantime, Debra Mark
standing by with news KFI AM six forty. We're live
everywhere in the iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
App is KFI on Demand.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
You've been listening to Monks and Merrill. Hear the show
live weekdays from noon to three on KFI AM six
forty at anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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