March 30, 2025 • 37 mins
Michael Monks kicks off the show with an overview of his week covering City Hall, setting the stage for an in-depth discussion with LA City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez. They delve into the city's financial turmoil and the council's recent decision to explore seizing control of LAHSA spending, addressing concerns over mismanagement and lack of transparency. The conversation sheds light on the factors contributing to Los Angeles' budget crisis and potential solutions. Later, Michael examines the council's initiative to enforce decorum during meetings by cracking down on the use of offensive language.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We're with you till nine o'clock tonight, a big couple
of hours for you. Lots of stuff to talk about
and some important folks coming on to talk about those issues.
So so glad you're with us. On this beautiful, cool
(00:26):
Saturday evening. In southern California, the Dodgers and the Tigers
knotted up at two and the top of the third. Hey,
the Angels got their first win of the season over
the White Sox. One nothing where five hundred one in
one right now for the California excuse me, the California Angels,
the Los Angeles Angels. I'm glad I stumbled there because
(00:49):
I do have a question.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Maybe some of you listeners can help me with.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I'm a transplant, you know that, and you know during
Thursday's festivities for Opening Day around the Dodgers, I had
a question. Do we give the same hype in this
region for the Angels? Is there a disparity in the
way we in the media treat these two baseball teams,
and am I allowed to be an Angels fan. I
(01:12):
like their uniforms better, and I like an underdog. You
can let me know if you've got a moment. Pull
up the iHeart radio app, click on that talkback button. Obviously,
I'm a generic hometown team guy. I'd like to see
the Dodgers do well, like to see the Angels do well,
and so forth. Grew up a Reds fan, of course,
but you know I live here now, so I'm looking
(01:33):
to invest some emotions. I'm always prepared to be disappointed
as a Cincinnati Reds fan, so the Angels seem.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Like a likely choice. Let me know what you think.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Click on that talkback button on the iHeartRadio app and
let me know. I mean, is there a disparity there?
Are you an Angels fan and you don't think we
do enough for the team in Anaheim? Love to hear
from you. We Alstoll got the first team into the
Final four today. If any of you are still paying
attention to college basketball now that so many of our
(02:05):
teams are out of the running, Florida has moved on
after beating Texas Tech and Duke and Alabama are at
the half looking for that second slot. Duke up by
nine right now on two more games tomorrow to complete
the final four. And that's your KFI sports report. How
about that. We're gonna talk a little bit more about
(02:25):
sports though as it impacts Los Angeles because the Olympics
are coming to town, right the biggest sporting event that
you could possibly have, that's us. We're hosting the games
in twenty twenty eight, and we're not ready. Man, we
are not ready. If you happen to catch me talking
with Tiffany Hobbs before we switched over to this show,
(02:49):
I compared it to basically, you got a party. The
guests are at the door and you're still naked. You're
not clean, you're not showered. The caterers aren't there, you
got no food, the decorations aren't up. The place is
a mess, and it's time and it just feels like
(03:11):
we're not ready to be ready.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Look, stuff is happening. Votes are taking place, evaluations are underway,
and venues are being selected. The City Council in la
this week at a meeting in van Nist the van
Nis City Hall, which they're doing one some month on
a special Friday every month, they'll be meeting at that
city building. They did it this week. They've approved some
(03:33):
changes to the proposed venue plan for the twenty twenty
eight Olympic Games. Now, most of these we already knew about,
with basketball moving to Inglewood and that sort of thing.
We know where most of these things are taking place.
We did here this week that soccer will be at
the Rose Bowl, which is exciting. But forget about the
money troubles in the city, the aesthetics of the city
(03:57):
right now, the traffic and all of that, and just
think about the games themselves and where they're going to be,
because this is what they voted on. Well, there's an
event in the Olympics called sailing. We got a great,
big ocean to host something like that, and that particular
event has been slated to take place at the Long
Beach Pier. La City Councilman Tim mccoscar is not happy
(04:19):
about that. He represents the Port of La communities, the
Harbor communities as well as Watts and other communities in
San Pedro. He thinks sailing should not be in Long Beach.
It should be in San Pedro, and he spoke quite
passionately about this on Friday. I assembled some of his quotes.
(04:42):
It's not like one long quote. I put them together.
But let's hear what he had to say.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Moving sailing to San Pedro is better for the athlete,
It's better for the sport of sailing, it's better for
safety and security, it's better for the viewer, and it's
better for Los Angeles. Every single experienced sailor, from Olympians
to folks that run the sale GP event tell us
that the winds are consistent and better in San Pedro.
(05:06):
What will it be for the athlete? Better wind and spectators?
What will it be for safety and security? I guarantee
you that San Pedro would be the safest Olympic event
in the history of the Olympics. But I will tell
you that selling tickets to the number of maybe ten
thousand or selling tickets to the number of zero has
a mathematical and financial difference. And it's not gonna be
(05:28):
born by Long Beach. It's gonna be born by us.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It's not gonna be born by Long Beach. It's gonna
be born by us. So will we have some battling
going on between the harbor communities here in La County
over where the event of sailing is going to be
Counselman McCosker got a motion approved as part of this
approval process, and they're going to look at the merits
of hosting sailing in San Pedro. But that's where we are.
(05:55):
We are three years out and we're fire about the wind.
The wind is better in San Pedro, he says, it's
better than it is in Long Beach. I want to
hear from you about the state of the Olympics. We
got a lot of stuff to talk about in the
next two hours. But I'm curious, Am I wrong? I
(06:17):
just get the sense that Los Angeles has slated to
host this world important event and a lot of people
are going to be here. Do you get the sense
that we're ready? Do you think this is gonna happen?
Do you think it will be a success. Cheer me
(06:38):
up or agree with me, whatever it is. Open up
that high Heart radio app. I Heart Radio app. Click
on the talkback button and we will play some of
your comments throughout this broadcast. Don't forget Yes, I also
want to hear from Angels fans and Dodgers fans about
whether there's a disparity in how we feel about our
two Major League baseball teams, very very curious as as
(07:00):
a transplant to Los Angeles looking for a team to
get behind this season. Coming up, I'll be joined by
city councilmen Monica Rodriguez. She's going to explain why she
has long been calling out the amount of money that
is spent on homeless programs in Los Angeles and the
lack of results as she sees it. She's been calling
(07:21):
for changes for well over a year at this point,
and now it's all coming to a head. She's also
going to talk a bit about why the city is
basically broke, with a billion dollar budget shortfall expected as
the new fiscal year approaches. At the end of this hour,
I'm going to play some examples for you about why
public comments at Los Angeles City Hall probably do need
(07:43):
to be dialed back a bit. There's a motion to
ban a couple of profane, offensive words, and if you
think that this is just council being silly, you got
to hear how crazy these comments can get.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
That's this hour. Next hour is big as well.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
LA County District Attorney Nathan Hawkman will join us and
explain why he thinks the death pitally should be back
on the table in this county. In some cases will
also be joined by La City Councilman Hugo Soda Martinez.
He was the one pushing for additional protections for illegal
immigrants in the city that was approved this week. He'll
talk about why that's all ahead on Michael Monks Reports
(08:21):
here on KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Demand KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We're with you till nine o'clock tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
One of the.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Biggest critics of the way LA spends its homeless money
and the work of the LA Homeless Services Authority has
been City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez. She's been removed from the
Homeless Committee and other committees, and she's our guest now.
Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, thanks.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So much for being with us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
You this week referred to the LA Homeless Services Authority
as a monstrosity as the sinking Titanic. I'm getting the
feeling that you don't like this organization.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Very much.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Well, let's just say they have worn their welcome with me.
I have been for since I've been on the council.
I served on the Homelessness and Housing Committee and have
worked with many of the changes in leadership that have
occurred over at LASSA, and at times when I thought
(09:30):
we were making progress, and I actually I've done everything
and exhausted my efforts to try and get detailed reports
and outcomes associated with the work. This most recent transition
has left me, frankly, just at a loss. Where data,
basic data wasn't being communicated and shared. There was a
(09:54):
lot of conflation of the work between LASA with the
Mayor's Inside Safe Initiative, and so it just lent itself
to having even less transparency associated with the work that
was being funded, and just you know, growing frustrations mounting
from not just myself, with my colleagues. However, I was
just the one that finally had enough and had the
(10:18):
I think the political will to say that's it, We've
got to stop this nonsense. And I think given the
fiscal circumstances of what we're going through right now, people
are and I said this, you know, to several others
that questioned whether or not I would have the support
to do it. I think we're at a time where
you just are hard pressed to You can't keep continuing
(10:38):
to fund the failure it has been. It's just been
really there's been too many examples of their failures that
there's just you can't continue to enable this funding, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I think it was about a year ago I was
covering a city Council meeting where you had issued a
proposal of creating a homeless department within City Hall, a
standalone homeless department that would basically leave loss. I mean,
you've been criticizing this for a long time. Have you
felt alone at City Hall and saying something's not right here,
(11:13):
We've got to make a change.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Yes. I think my colleagues have been affording a lot
of grace to the efforts associated with inside Faith and
you know, attempting to try and see if they could
recalibrate the work that was associated with LASA, and I've
just you know, I've gone at it for so long,
and when my office was instrumental in rolling out, for example,
(11:40):
the RV program that we are now potentially going to
be expanding city wide, the process that I've done in
my district was far more cost effective and we could
actually show the tangible results with the work that we
were doing. I was just, you know, frankly, it was
just it's so obscene money that we put towards these
(12:01):
efforts to not show any real meaningful results that we
can be able to share with constituents. So I just
I kept pushing back, but everybody wanted, well, let's give
it a chance. And then I said, We've given it
way too many chances already. I'm like, this is it.
Cut the cord. We're done.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
So the City Council has voted to explore whether it's
able to bypass LASA and work directly with homeless service
providers and handle those contracts internally. Last week we heard
from City councilmen Nitthia Rahman, one of your colleagues, and
you might not have been at that meeting, I know
you were away for a couple of them, where we
heard her say there's no individual task at City Hall
(12:40):
with keeping track of the homeless spending, particularly as it
relates to those homeless service providers and LASA. And so
there was a motion that also moved forward last week
to figure out how to not a department, but a
bureau could be created at City Hall, and that really
struck me. Has alarming that we're now confessing publicly that
(13:05):
there has been no real accountability at City Hall on
the dollars that are going out to LASA and then
out into the world. I mean, is my understanding of
that correct?
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Your understanding of what you know, what she said and
what her action was you know is correct. However, I
will say to suggest that we haven't had the structure
in place, I'll put it to you this way. How
is it that for a three hundred and fifty thousand
dollars program, the RV pilot that I created, I can
(13:36):
tell you exactly how much we spent and what we
got for that money, That we have removed one hundred
and five RVs, and that we have housed two hundred
over two hundred individuals. I can tell you that with
three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. How come I can't
give you that date? And I can tell you what
locations we went to, and I can tell you on
what date those actions occurred. Now, the Mayor's Office has
(13:57):
decided to administer their inside Safe Initiative, and LASA is
an important has been part of those efforts. How come
the Homeless Emergency Account and the reports that come back
from inside safe have blanks associated with the data that
there themselves are enacting the work on. So I'm sorry,
I don't accept that the fact that people have continued
(14:21):
to fund when they aren't getting data in return to
me is a problem. Don't suggest that, oh, we didn't
have anyone in place to do that work. No, the
people in charge of doing that work are not giving
you the data period.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I know you've also been a critic about the relationship
between the city and the county and what the county's
role is in this, and it all gets, frankly a
little bit confusing even for me who sits through all
of these meetings. And it's got to be so for
the public that we have to inform. But we're not
talking about chump change here. Billions and billions of dollars
are going out and it looks like the numbers of
(14:57):
homeless people might go down again in the area. But
even if it's ten thousand more people, of course, the
humanity side of us all were like, that's great for
those ten thousand people, whatever that means. But if you're
still seeing homeless camps by your kids, park outside your
kids' school, if you're seeing RVs parked along the street,
if you feel unsafe where you have invested in a
(15:18):
business or a home, or where your family likes to go.
None of this matters. And it feels like, even with
that small success of ten thousand more people housed or
at least no longer unsheltered, we should be getting more
for all of this money.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Why aren't we.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
Well, I'll be honest. First of all, the suggestion that
we're taking that face value that there has been reduction,
I think is an insult to people's intelligence. I think
the reality is that LASA has not garnered they have
not engendered the trust to suggest that when they say
that there's been a reduction, that we can in fact
(15:55):
say that. And remember, LASA covers well beyond the city
of Los Angeles. They also covered the remaining eighty seven
cities that are within La County because their service area
is beyond the city of Los Angeles. So I want
to first preface that statement. You can't talk about a
reduction for LASSA and not get the detail. You know,
the devil is always in the details. Where was the reduction.
(16:18):
But to Loss's credit, I will say they've even said
they've announced prematurely, and I think this was a political move,
but they announced that, well, our numbers are down. Oh
but by the way, our data is incomplete, So how
can you announce how can you celebrate something versus, you know,
(16:39):
kind of hooray our numbers are down with incomplete data.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
We'll talk more with Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez next. The city
faces a one billion dollar budget shortfall. We'll talk about
how it happened and what it means.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with until nine o'clock tonight. LA City Councilman Monic
Rodriguez is with us. A critic of homeless spending, removed
from multiple council committees. You were also removed from the
budget committee.
Speaker 6 (17:17):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (17:18):
Correct? And Public Safety committee?
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Right?
Speaker 2 (17:20):
And you know, I'm sure there's something to be read
into that, and it seems like that budget committee is
going to be quite busy coming up. I certainly sat
through a lot of those meetings with you all last year,
and watch how complicated the work is. It's going to
be real serious this time when we're talking about a
one billion dollar shortfall and not a lot of goodwill
(17:42):
from the public based on the results of the services
that we're supposed to be getting in Los Angeles, I mean,
how deep?
Speaker 5 (17:50):
How deep are we in well? I, first of all,
I would say that the work is serious all the time.
It's not just in the moments of these crisis where
now we find ourselves in thisychal situation. I had been
pushing back on a lot of the expenditures last year,
and having just had a conversation with my colleague who
now chairs Budget Committee, Miss Yeraslovski, I made it a
(18:12):
point to say, hey, I tried to warn everybody about
the oversight of these dollars, and now here we are.
So I think this is a moment that forces recalibration.
My big concern is that there has been so much
effort and focus around homelessness, not to suggest that it's
not important. Of course it's important, But when you look
(18:34):
at the amount of money per individual that is being
expended in this effort without the tangible results. For me,
it's really problematic when Angelino's who survive on far less
are being left without the basic fundamental city services that
their taxpayer, that their taxpayer dollars are supposed to provide for.
(18:54):
And so for me, I've made it really clear this
city needs to focus on the funda mental services that
matter to all Angelinos and we have a lot that
stacked against us from HLA that is requiring far more
greater investments in infrastructure. We can't just repave a street
(19:14):
without making sure that we have AVA compliant sidewalks with
curb cuts along with bike paths. You know, just there's
there's a lot, there's a number of complications that are
happening right now. We're looking at an economic environment with
businesses that are struggling, and you know, we depend very
(19:35):
much on a lot of the local tax revenue, and
so there's just there's there's a lot of challenges ahead,
but I also believe that there's a lot of opportunity.
I was in the Olympics committee this morning and I
made it very clear to the folks at LA twenty
eight our ability to help pull ourselves out of this
environment that we're in is really going to rely on
(19:56):
local businesses having an opportunity to be part of the contracts,
the contracting and business opportunities associated with these large scale
events that are coming to Los Angeles. So I think
there's just a lot of work that we have to
dig into doing. But I will tell you there cannot
be a sustaining of the status quo of the investments
around homelessness the way that it's been happening. If the
(20:17):
county is about to pull out, we have to equally
be prepared to take our money and manage it in
house and be far more efficient in how we're doing it.
But I will tell you I will absolutely not support
and I've been voting against it for the better part
of the year now. I will absolutely not support these
(20:39):
efforts being managed out of political office because we need
it to be audited. We need to make sure that
there aren't sole source contracts being awarded, and we need
to make sure that we can show results for every
dollar that's being spent.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And I know you've got a run, and I've appreciated
the time that you gave us. By when we think
about the results we want to see on homelessness, sometimes
it's difficult to even see what's going on in your
streets across town. I live in downtown LA because it's
literally dark, and you have the problems that you mentioned
with roads and sidewalks in that sort of thing. The
(21:16):
public facing services that people interact with the most, that
they expect the most. Hopefully we never need a police officer.
Hopefully we never need an EMT or firefighter, but we
do need somebody to come get the trash, We need
somebody to make sure the street is clean, and that
sort of thing. It strikes me that those might be
the things that fall first if these layoffs come to fruition.
(21:38):
Can you help us understand what we're in for when
that conversation gets more serious in the coming weeks.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Well, I would say that life safety. Life safety issues
are always going to be paramount when it comes to
the budget, and if you look at the city's budget,
you'll see that substantially the most amount of money is
dedicated to our public safety response. And so secondarily, you
(22:05):
also have a number of the important critical services of like,
for example, sanitation because of you know, the you know,
the sanitary issues and the water quality, all of those things,
those are really important. So those will generally those are
all considered public safety related, if you will, and so
those will always be a very strong investment that the
(22:26):
city makes. My bigger concern is for all the other
efforts that are also important because frankly, without it, it
increases our liabilities. So for example, our inability to resurface
roads or to repair sidewalks, that's where a lot of
our liabilities payouts come come in.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, people are falling there, tripping and falling on sidewalk,
or they're crashing because of the infrastructure, you're getting sued
over it, and then you don't have the money to
fix it correct.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
So this is where this is where we have you know,
that is what is continued to be constrained and we've
got to get out from under that. And so those
things also matter, But we also have to have a
much more aggressive stance when it comes to again we
are repeating, we have to hold the city the county accountable,
(23:14):
for example, to address the critical mental health and substance
use disorder issues that we see on our streets. Because
even if we have some of these individuals, given the
nature of the acuity of whatever they're struggling with, they
can't be served by the resources that we have because
we don't have the mental health department, we don't have
you know, public health in our wheelhouse, and so those
(23:37):
services are really we require the county to do their part,
and I know through the Alliance settlement they have attempted
to help us hold the county accountable to those pieces.
For my part, I've had conversations both with Supervisor Coyvap
as well as Supervisor Barger because we need, I, you know,
I need that partnership and support from them to hold
(23:58):
those departments accountable from the case because those have been
woefully absent and we need to make sure that they're
providing the beds that help to service those individuals because
those are some of the chronic responses that we have
to give that are really depleting a lot of our
energy and resources. And that's you know, again, it's a
big challenge because people have to be willing to accept
(24:20):
those services, and that is part of a longer, you know,
larger problem that we have at hand. But I understand people,
I completely understand people's frustration. I'm going to do my
part to make sure that I continue to advance a
lot of the work that I know we've piloted my
district that have been both effective and cost you know,
(24:42):
really cost effective in terms of generating results.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
La City council Woman Monic Rodriguez so grateful for the
time you gave us. Thanks for helping us understand these issues.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Up next, the city Council has moved to ban certain
derogatory and offensive words from its meetings. We'll give you
some examples to show why they think it's necessary. We
want to hear from you too. Open the iHeartRadio app,
click on the talkback button and we'll play some of
your messages.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Just ahead, you're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monk's Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with until nine o'clock tonight.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
At the top of the show, I asked you.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Dear listeners, is there a disparity in the way local
media treat the Dodgers and the Angels. I'm a transplant,
I'm here two years now, but opening day coverage got
me thinking, hey, look the Angels were playing two. I mean,
we literally say at the top of every hour KFI
AM six forty, Los Angeles, Orange County. So do we
(25:45):
need to throw some more love at the Angels? And Plus,
you know I'm looking for a team to get behind.
I left the Cincinnati area northern Kentucky. You know, we're
all Reds fans there, and so I'm a little bit
used to cheering for a team that's, I won't say
a bad team, a team that struggled in recent years.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
So I'm leaning Angels.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
You know, I like an underdog story, and you know
that's just kind of what I'm thinking like that. I
like their colors. And you know, the Dodgers have enough fans, right,
they have enough success. They don't need another guy moving
here from Kentucky and cheering them on. So I asked
you to give me some perspective on what the deal is,
which way my allegiance should go, and what you think
about that type of coverage. I also asked you what
(26:23):
you think about the Olympics coming to LA based on
where we stand now, whether we're ready. And you can
join this conversation by opening up the iHeartRadio app, clicking
on that talkback button, and we're going to play some
of your comments throughout the time we have together tonight,
We've already got some messages, Raoul, are we ready?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Let's hear from.
Speaker 7 (26:44):
Question K In the two stadiums are is completely different.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
If you go to an Angels game in Orange County
versus the Dodgers game in LA it is a completely
different vibe.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
Quite honestly, the pods or where.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
You roll agrees with that sentiment. A Padres fan here
in Los Angeles, and I gotta get to say, everyone
loves San Diego. It appears just just generically, not just
the sports teams, but it seems to be a low
key big city. Let's hear from Lurie.
Speaker 7 (27:16):
There is a huge disparity between the Angels and the Dodgers,
But unlike the Dodgers, the Angels do not know how
to get the word out that there they're good. I've
been an Angels fan forever. I was also a Dodger fan,
and I'm still a fan. But the media doesn't pay
(27:38):
attention to the Angels at all. It doesn't matter, they
just don't pay attention to them.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
So yeah, what I love about Lorie's message the most
is I can hear myself in the background. I mean,
she got on that talk back app immediately while I
was still broadcasting.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Way to go, Laurie. Let's hear from Steve Hey Monks.
Speaker 8 (27:56):
This is Stephen Bakersfield. I grew up in Orange County
and have been an Angels fan my whole life. They're
just not as popular as a lovable loser Cubs, but
they're California as lovable losers, and they used to be
the California Angels, and I think they should still be.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
The California Angels. So was it really a slip up piece? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
You know what I remember as a kid is that
movie Angels in the Outfield, and I think that there
were still California Angels at that time when that came out. So,
you know, again not being from here, and I know
their name has evolved many times over the years. We
got another comment from our friend Laurie.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Hi.
Speaker 7 (28:33):
This is Laurie from Corona. I called earlier about the Angels.
Now about the Olympics, it's embarrassing. I don't want the
Olympics coming here. We are a big embarrassment right now.
There's too much that needs to be done. Oh we're
going to be an Olympics with no cars? Sure we are.
We have nothing. We have a bunch of ugly, homeless,
(28:57):
drug addicted people all on the streets and they don't.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
Care about that.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
There you go, Laurie, still listening to us too. Well,
let's hear from Cynthia. Cynthia here, Hi.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Michael Monks. I'm calling from LA. I'm a big fan
of yours, your show. I love you on KFI listen
all the time. Love tis too. Yeah, just wanted to
comment on the Dodger Angel thing. Born and raised in
LA and always will be Dodger fan. Yay World Champs. Anyway,
I get the thing about the You're in Ohio, so
(29:29):
the red would be probably your.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Quick note to Cynthia and everybody else that these talkback
options do have a time limit, so I think it
cut her off there. But what she was getting at is,
you know, being a redspan. Maybe I'm attracted more to
the red of the Angels, might be a bit of
a different hue, but I can adjust to that, I think.
So we've got more space for your comments coming up
in the next hour as well. Just open up the
(29:52):
iHeartRadio app, click on that talkback button. What do you
think is there a disparity here in the way we
talk about the Dodgers and the Angels and wish mind
should I be on I'm looking for a team here.
And also what do you think about the Olympics? Are
we ready? Are we going to be able to pull
this off? We do want to hear from you. Also,
just because I was a Reds fan, please don't say
(30:13):
I was from Ohio. I am from Kentucky. I'm from
northern Kentucky, Covington, Kentucky. Yes, it is connected to Cincinnati
by a bridge, but you have to go there to
understand that the rivalry is. Maybe it's like Orange County
to LA right, except not the same state. So not
from Ohio, from Kentucky, Ohio Valley yes, Cincinnati Metro.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Yes, but Covington, Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Let's talk more crazy and go back to Los Angeles
City Hall because as we've talked about last week, as
you've heard on other shows here on KFI, the council
has a motion moving through to get people to stop
using some types of profanity. I go to city Hall
a lot, and if I'm not at city Hall, I'm
sitting here streaming their meetings and covering them for you
so you know what's going on. And my goodness. The
public comments are just out of control. I want to
(30:58):
give you a little taste. Let's hear the first file
number three.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
A little short Spanish police officer turn it to my
apartment and committed sexual acts against me.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
This is why we have the problems that we have.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
You've got to pay ten.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
Your time is up.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
A little Spanish police officer came in, you know. I mean,
these are the types of wild accusations and weirdness that
you just hear. In general, La City Hall have covered
municipal government for a long time, and most of the
time cities will get this stuff under control. You just
have a certain amount of decorum, and yes you should
be able to express outrage and anger in that sort
(31:33):
of thing, but there is nothing like what you see
at La City Hall. The next one you're gonna hear
as a guy who he is an Asian man, but
he does speak perfect English. However he trolls the council
like this, which islands.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Would you like to speak.
Speaker 9 (31:49):
To uh missa city attorney if you allow me, I
would like to speak all nineteen twenty and twenty one
and then general if you are you'll.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
Have three minutes for the items and one minute for
general public comment.
Speaker 9 (32:04):
Uh Star Wars item nineteen, if you allow me, Sung
Jing Chen the way and Shung Chu.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Chu young no, And I hope he's not the way.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I'm prepared to bleep things, but I don't know what
he's saying or singing, but he does that a lot.
And he also talks about hookers on Figueroa and how
he enjoys them. And I mean, this guy is a regular,
but these he's not the only one who sings. I mean,
this is Los Angeles, right, We're all show people in
some way. Let's hear this next guy.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Two hundred and eighteen thousand each is what we pay
to you.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
So can you pretend to listen. It's the least that
you can do.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
And you know, people are just always going against the
council members in that way, and the council people do
not often listen to public comment because it is usually
filled with garbaenter. You've got people down there with real
grievances and real concerns, and that's what is hurt the most,
I think by the profanity and the nastiness that comes
(33:06):
from these regular gangflies who are there speaking the way
they do is that you're really hurting people with proper
concerns because folks tune out or they don't come at
all because it's such a show. The next guy you're
gonna hear is also one of the biggest violators of decorum.
The two words they want to ban at Los Angeles
City Hall right now, the in word and the sea word.
(33:30):
That is how frequently they are stated during public comment.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Let's hear this.
Speaker 10 (33:34):
We shall recognize the necessary proofs.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
The theholic sauce.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Did not exist, gay little holocaust denihilism in the middle
of a city council meeting not real.
Speaker 10 (33:45):
And the enforcement against sleeping in line in a mother
fool street when you're homeless.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I've been an outrage about this.
Speaker 10 (33:55):
That's the reason why I've used intensifiers. I use signs,
I use my art to identify the slums of Alay
and your rights to a life. But no, they're saying,
get your storage, get your sleeping off the streets. Now
into my general public comment, I read into the record.
(34:18):
My view about Los Angeles is being dirty. I talked
about this guy every meeting. I got your attention.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Now every meeting, whether it's the regular council, if it's
a committy word. That's his reference to what they're trying
to ban. He speaks at every committee meeting, no matter
what's on the agenda, he shows up. And the way
it works at City Hall is you you get the
option to speak on an item on the agenda up
to three items, for which they will give you three minutes,
and then they will give you an additional minute for
(34:47):
general comment, so you can get up to four minutes.
And that's a lot of time to listen to these rants,
and nobody takes better advantage of it than this next
guy who often talks in voices through a puppet.
Speaker 10 (34:58):
You'll have three minutes for the items mornings, and here
we are a game, and that is not his actual
item number.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Continue, So.
Speaker 11 (35:13):
In word item is it not just repeatedly dropping nineteen?
Can I speak on that?
Speaker 3 (35:20):
D e I he's white?
Speaker 1 (35:22):
By the way, Adam twenty one.
Speaker 11 (35:25):
Trimming trees in city for for nitia ramen noodle and
known certified.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Nod noodle, noodle, noodle noddle.
Speaker 11 (35:38):
Racism five thousand dollars that finally found under the mattress
mattresses of city all offices. That's where you've been bending
over all those campaign donors right in the round, going
to rap.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
Round.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Well I'm just rapping.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 11 (35:59):
Number twenty four, Well we got mony cow frigis the biggest,
fattest piece of the council.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
She wants to do housing bonds.
Speaker 11 (36:14):
They no game housing bonds.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
That now there is no live bleeping at city Hall.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
So all of those inwards and swords and other swear
words that he just let rip, they're heard by everybody
else who is there. And since this motion was announced,
he and some of the other gadflies have taken full
advantage because it's clearly targeted to them, and it has
amplified their showmanship. To put it mildly, it's only gotten worse.
(36:43):
And I think, certainly if you listen to GFI enough,
you know it takes a lot to find sympathy for
council members. But they are so brutal, and not just
to the council members but some of the appointed staff,
city attorneys, city clerks. The things that they say to
these folks is just unreal. But again, it's so disruptive
to folks who come down there with real valid concerns
(37:04):
or you know, it's still a city building. Sometimes there's
just some pomp and circumstance that takes place. The softball team,
the swim team, the academic team, some kid who did well,
or some organization being honored, and they're brought down to
city Hall and they have to sit through this before
their moment. It's pretty disgusting, but I sit through that
three times a week minimum. I thought i'd share a
(37:26):
little bit of that with you. Hey, we got a
lot more coming up. In the next hour, LA County
DA Nathan Hofckman will be with us to talk about
why the death penalty is coming back, and no, it's
not because of those swear words. I got another hour
of Michael Monks Reports just ahead here on KFI AM
six forty
Speaker 1 (37:43):
KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We're with you till nine o'clock tonight, a big couple
of hours for you. Lots of stuff to talk about
and some important folks coming on to talk about those issues.
So so glad you're with us. On this beautiful, cool
(00:26):
Saturday evening. In southern California, the Dodgers and the Tigers
knotted up at two and the top of the third. Hey,
the Angels got their first win of the season over
the White Sox. One nothing where five hundred one in
one right now for the California excuse me, the California Angels,
the Los Angeles Angels. I'm glad I stumbled there because
(00:49):
I do have a question.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Maybe some of you listeners can help me with.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I'm a transplant, you know that, and you know during
Thursday's festivities for Opening Day around the Dodgers, I had
a question. Do we give the same hype in this
region for the Angels? Is there a disparity in the
way we in the media treat these two baseball teams,
and am I allowed to be an Angels fan. I
(01:12):
like their uniforms better, and I like an underdog. You
can let me know if you've got a moment. Pull
up the iHeart radio app, click on that talkback button. Obviously,
I'm a generic hometown team guy. I'd like to see
the Dodgers do well, like to see the Angels do well,
and so forth. Grew up a Reds fan, of course,
but you know I live here now, so I'm looking
(01:33):
to invest some emotions. I'm always prepared to be disappointed
as a Cincinnati Reds fan, so the Angels seem.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Like a likely choice. Let me know what you think.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Click on that talkback button on the iHeartRadio app and
let me know. I mean, is there a disparity there?
Are you an Angels fan and you don't think we
do enough for the team in Anaheim? Love to hear
from you. We Alstoll got the first team into the
Final four today. If any of you are still paying
attention to college basketball now that so many of our
(02:05):
teams are out of the running, Florida has moved on
after beating Texas Tech and Duke and Alabama are at
the half looking for that second slot. Duke up by
nine right now on two more games tomorrow to complete
the final four. And that's your KFI sports report. How
about that. We're gonna talk a little bit more about
(02:25):
sports though as it impacts Los Angeles because the Olympics
are coming to town, right the biggest sporting event that
you could possibly have, that's us. We're hosting the games
in twenty twenty eight, and we're not ready. Man, we
are not ready. If you happen to catch me talking
with Tiffany Hobbs before we switched over to this show,
(02:49):
I compared it to basically, you got a party. The
guests are at the door and you're still naked. You're
not clean, you're not showered. The caterers aren't there, you
got no food, the decorations aren't up. The place is
a mess, and it's time and it just feels like
(03:11):
we're not ready to be ready.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Look, stuff is happening. Votes are taking place, evaluations are underway,
and venues are being selected. The City Council in la
this week at a meeting in van Nist the van
Nis City Hall, which they're doing one some month on
a special Friday every month, they'll be meeting at that
city building. They did it this week. They've approved some
(03:33):
changes to the proposed venue plan for the twenty twenty
eight Olympic Games. Now, most of these we already knew about,
with basketball moving to Inglewood and that sort of thing.
We know where most of these things are taking place.
We did here this week that soccer will be at
the Rose Bowl, which is exciting. But forget about the
money troubles in the city, the aesthetics of the city
(03:57):
right now, the traffic and all of that, and just
think about the games themselves and where they're going to be,
because this is what they voted on. Well, there's an
event in the Olympics called sailing. We got a great,
big ocean to host something like that, and that particular
event has been slated to take place at the Long
Beach Pier. La City Councilman Tim mccoscar is not happy
(04:19):
about that. He represents the Port of La communities, the
Harbor communities as well as Watts and other communities in
San Pedro. He thinks sailing should not be in Long Beach.
It should be in San Pedro, and he spoke quite
passionately about this on Friday. I assembled some of his quotes.
(04:42):
It's not like one long quote. I put them together.
But let's hear what he had to say.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Moving sailing to San Pedro is better for the athlete,
It's better for the sport of sailing, it's better for
safety and security, it's better for the viewer, and it's
better for Los Angeles. Every single experienced sailor, from Olympians
to folks that run the sale GP event tell us
that the winds are consistent and better in San Pedro.
(05:06):
What will it be for the athlete? Better wind and spectators?
What will it be for safety and security? I guarantee
you that San Pedro would be the safest Olympic event
in the history of the Olympics. But I will tell
you that selling tickets to the number of maybe ten
thousand or selling tickets to the number of zero has
a mathematical and financial difference. And it's not gonna be
(05:28):
born by Long Beach. It's gonna be born by us.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It's not gonna be born by Long Beach. It's gonna
be born by us. So will we have some battling
going on between the harbor communities here in La County
over where the event of sailing is going to be
Counselman McCosker got a motion approved as part of this
approval process, and they're going to look at the merits
of hosting sailing in San Pedro. But that's where we are.
(05:55):
We are three years out and we're fire about the wind.
The wind is better in San Pedro, he says, it's
better than it is in Long Beach. I want to
hear from you about the state of the Olympics. We
got a lot of stuff to talk about in the
next two hours. But I'm curious, Am I wrong? I
(06:17):
just get the sense that Los Angeles has slated to
host this world important event and a lot of people
are going to be here. Do you get the sense
that we're ready? Do you think this is gonna happen?
Do you think it will be a success. Cheer me
(06:38):
up or agree with me, whatever it is. Open up
that high Heart radio app. I Heart Radio app. Click
on the talkback button and we will play some of
your comments throughout this broadcast. Don't forget Yes, I also
want to hear from Angels fans and Dodgers fans about
whether there's a disparity in how we feel about our
two Major League baseball teams, very very curious as as
(07:00):
a transplant to Los Angeles looking for a team to
get behind this season. Coming up, I'll be joined by
city councilmen Monica Rodriguez. She's going to explain why she
has long been calling out the amount of money that
is spent on homeless programs in Los Angeles and the
lack of results as she sees it. She's been calling
(07:21):
for changes for well over a year at this point,
and now it's all coming to a head. She's also
going to talk a bit about why the city is
basically broke, with a billion dollar budget shortfall expected as
the new fiscal year approaches. At the end of this hour,
I'm going to play some examples for you about why
public comments at Los Angeles City Hall probably do need
(07:43):
to be dialed back a bit. There's a motion to
ban a couple of profane, offensive words, and if you
think that this is just council being silly, you got
to hear how crazy these comments can get.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
That's this hour. Next hour is big as well.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
LA County District Attorney Nathan Hawkman will join us and
explain why he thinks the death pitally should be back
on the table in this county. In some cases will
also be joined by La City Councilman Hugo Soda Martinez.
He was the one pushing for additional protections for illegal
immigrants in the city that was approved this week. He'll
talk about why that's all ahead on Michael Monks Reports
(08:21):
here on KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Demand KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We're with you till nine o'clock tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
One of the.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Biggest critics of the way LA spends its homeless money
and the work of the LA Homeless Services Authority has
been City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez. She's been removed from the
Homeless Committee and other committees, and she's our guest now.
Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, thanks.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So much for being with us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
You this week referred to the LA Homeless Services Authority
as a monstrosity as the sinking Titanic. I'm getting the
feeling that you don't like this organization.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Very much.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Well, let's just say they have worn their welcome with me.
I have been for since I've been on the council.
I served on the Homelessness and Housing Committee and have
worked with many of the changes in leadership that have
occurred over at LASSA, and at times when I thought
(09:30):
we were making progress, and I actually I've done everything
and exhausted my efforts to try and get detailed reports
and outcomes associated with the work. This most recent transition
has left me, frankly, just at a loss. Where data,
basic data wasn't being communicated and shared. There was a
(09:54):
lot of conflation of the work between LASA with the
Mayor's Inside Safe Initiative, and so it just lent itself
to having even less transparency associated with the work that
was being funded, and just you know, growing frustrations mounting
from not just myself, with my colleagues. However, I was
just the one that finally had enough and had the
(10:18):
I think the political will to say that's it, We've
got to stop this nonsense. And I think given the
fiscal circumstances of what we're going through right now, people
are and I said this, you know, to several others
that questioned whether or not I would have the support
to do it. I think we're at a time where
you just are hard pressed to You can't keep continuing
(10:38):
to fund the failure it has been. It's just been
really there's been too many examples of their failures that
there's just you can't continue to enable this funding, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I think it was about a year ago I was
covering a city Council meeting where you had issued a
proposal of creating a homeless department within City Hall, a
standalone homeless department that would basically leave loss. I mean,
you've been criticizing this for a long time. Have you
felt alone at City Hall and saying something's not right here,
(11:13):
We've got to make a change.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Yes. I think my colleagues have been affording a lot
of grace to the efforts associated with inside Faith and
you know, attempting to try and see if they could
recalibrate the work that was associated with LASA, and I've
just you know, I've gone at it for so long,
and when my office was instrumental in rolling out, for example,
(11:40):
the RV program that we are now potentially going to
be expanding city wide, the process that I've done in
my district was far more cost effective and we could
actually show the tangible results with the work that we
were doing. I was just, you know, frankly, it was
just it's so obscene money that we put towards these
(12:01):
efforts to not show any real meaningful results that we
can be able to share with constituents. So I just
I kept pushing back, but everybody wanted, well, let's give
it a chance. And then I said, We've given it
way too many chances already. I'm like, this is it.
Cut the cord. We're done.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
So the City Council has voted to explore whether it's
able to bypass LASA and work directly with homeless service
providers and handle those contracts internally. Last week we heard
from City councilmen Nitthia Rahman, one of your colleagues, and
you might not have been at that meeting, I know
you were away for a couple of them, where we
heard her say there's no individual task at City Hall
(12:40):
with keeping track of the homeless spending, particularly as it
relates to those homeless service providers and LASA. And so
there was a motion that also moved forward last week
to figure out how to not a department, but a
bureau could be created at City Hall, and that really
struck me. Has alarming that we're now confessing publicly that
(13:05):
there has been no real accountability at City Hall on
the dollars that are going out to LASA and then
out into the world. I mean, is my understanding of
that correct?
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Your understanding of what you know, what she said and
what her action was you know is correct. However, I
will say to suggest that we haven't had the structure
in place, I'll put it to you this way. How
is it that for a three hundred and fifty thousand
dollars program, the RV pilot that I created, I can
(13:36):
tell you exactly how much we spent and what we
got for that money, That we have removed one hundred
and five RVs, and that we have housed two hundred
over two hundred individuals. I can tell you that with
three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. How come I can't
give you that date? And I can tell you what
locations we went to, and I can tell you on
what date those actions occurred. Now, the Mayor's Office has
(13:57):
decided to administer their inside Safe Initiative, and LASA is
an important has been part of those efforts. How come
the Homeless Emergency Account and the reports that come back
from inside safe have blanks associated with the data that
there themselves are enacting the work on. So I'm sorry,
I don't accept that the fact that people have continued
(14:21):
to fund when they aren't getting data in return to
me is a problem. Don't suggest that, oh, we didn't
have anyone in place to do that work. No, the
people in charge of doing that work are not giving
you the data period.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I know you've also been a critic about the relationship
between the city and the county and what the county's
role is in this, and it all gets, frankly a
little bit confusing even for me who sits through all
of these meetings. And it's got to be so for
the public that we have to inform. But we're not
talking about chump change here. Billions and billions of dollars
are going out and it looks like the numbers of
(14:57):
homeless people might go down again in the area. But
even if it's ten thousand more people, of course, the
humanity side of us all were like, that's great for
those ten thousand people, whatever that means. But if you're
still seeing homeless camps by your kids, park outside your
kids' school, if you're seeing RVs parked along the street,
if you feel unsafe where you have invested in a
(15:18):
business or a home, or where your family likes to go.
None of this matters. And it feels like, even with
that small success of ten thousand more people housed or
at least no longer unsheltered, we should be getting more
for all of this money.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Why aren't we.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
Well, I'll be honest. First of all, the suggestion that
we're taking that face value that there has been reduction,
I think is an insult to people's intelligence. I think
the reality is that LASA has not garnered they have
not engendered the trust to suggest that when they say
that there's been a reduction, that we can in fact
(15:55):
say that. And remember, LASA covers well beyond the city
of Los Angeles. They also covered the remaining eighty seven
cities that are within La County because their service area
is beyond the city of Los Angeles. So I want
to first preface that statement. You can't talk about a
reduction for LASSA and not get the detail. You know,
the devil is always in the details. Where was the reduction.
(16:18):
But to Loss's credit, I will say they've even said
they've announced prematurely, and I think this was a political move,
but they announced that, well, our numbers are down. Oh
but by the way, our data is incomplete, So how
can you announce how can you celebrate something versus, you know,
(16:39):
kind of hooray our numbers are down with incomplete data.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
We'll talk more with Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez next. The city
faces a one billion dollar budget shortfall. We'll talk about
how it happened and what it means.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with until nine o'clock tonight. LA City Councilman Monic
Rodriguez is with us. A critic of homeless spending, removed
from multiple council committees. You were also removed from the
budget committee.
Speaker 6 (17:17):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (17:18):
Correct? And Public Safety committee?
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Right?
Speaker 2 (17:20):
And you know, I'm sure there's something to be read
into that, and it seems like that budget committee is
going to be quite busy coming up. I certainly sat
through a lot of those meetings with you all last year,
and watch how complicated the work is. It's going to
be real serious this time when we're talking about a
one billion dollar shortfall and not a lot of goodwill
(17:42):
from the public based on the results of the services
that we're supposed to be getting in Los Angeles, I mean,
how deep?
Speaker 5 (17:50):
How deep are we in well? I, first of all,
I would say that the work is serious all the time.
It's not just in the moments of these crisis where
now we find ourselves in thisychal situation. I had been
pushing back on a lot of the expenditures last year,
and having just had a conversation with my colleague who
now chairs Budget Committee, Miss Yeraslovski, I made it a
(18:12):
point to say, hey, I tried to warn everybody about
the oversight of these dollars, and now here we are.
So I think this is a moment that forces recalibration.
My big concern is that there has been so much
effort and focus around homelessness, not to suggest that it's
not important. Of course it's important, But when you look
(18:34):
at the amount of money per individual that is being
expended in this effort without the tangible results. For me,
it's really problematic when Angelino's who survive on far less
are being left without the basic fundamental city services that
their taxpayer, that their taxpayer dollars are supposed to provide for.
(18:54):
And so for me, I've made it really clear this
city needs to focus on the funda mental services that
matter to all Angelinos and we have a lot that
stacked against us from HLA that is requiring far more
greater investments in infrastructure. We can't just repave a street
(19:14):
without making sure that we have AVA compliant sidewalks with
curb cuts along with bike paths. You know, just there's
there's a lot, there's a number of complications that are
happening right now. We're looking at an economic environment with
businesses that are struggling, and you know, we depend very
(19:35):
much on a lot of the local tax revenue, and
so there's just there's there's a lot of challenges ahead,
but I also believe that there's a lot of opportunity.
I was in the Olympics committee this morning and I
made it very clear to the folks at LA twenty
eight our ability to help pull ourselves out of this
environment that we're in is really going to rely on
(19:56):
local businesses having an opportunity to be part of the contracts,
the contracting and business opportunities associated with these large scale
events that are coming to Los Angeles. So I think
there's just a lot of work that we have to
dig into doing. But I will tell you there cannot
be a sustaining of the status quo of the investments
around homelessness the way that it's been happening. If the
(20:17):
county is about to pull out, we have to equally
be prepared to take our money and manage it in
house and be far more efficient in how we're doing it.
But I will tell you I will absolutely not support
and I've been voting against it for the better part
of the year now. I will absolutely not support these
(20:39):
efforts being managed out of political office because we need
it to be audited. We need to make sure that
there aren't sole source contracts being awarded, and we need
to make sure that we can show results for every
dollar that's being spent.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And I know you've got a run, and I've appreciated
the time that you gave us. By when we think
about the results we want to see on homelessness, sometimes
it's difficult to even see what's going on in your
streets across town. I live in downtown LA because it's
literally dark, and you have the problems that you mentioned
with roads and sidewalks in that sort of thing. The
(21:16):
public facing services that people interact with the most, that
they expect the most. Hopefully we never need a police officer.
Hopefully we never need an EMT or firefighter, but we
do need somebody to come get the trash, We need
somebody to make sure the street is clean, and that
sort of thing. It strikes me that those might be
the things that fall first if these layoffs come to fruition.
(21:38):
Can you help us understand what we're in for when
that conversation gets more serious in the coming weeks.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Well, I would say that life safety. Life safety issues
are always going to be paramount when it comes to
the budget, and if you look at the city's budget,
you'll see that substantially the most amount of money is
dedicated to our public safety response. And so secondarily, you
(22:05):
also have a number of the important critical services of like,
for example, sanitation because of you know, the you know,
the sanitary issues and the water quality, all of those things,
those are really important. So those will generally those are
all considered public safety related, if you will, and so
those will always be a very strong investment that the
(22:26):
city makes. My bigger concern is for all the other
efforts that are also important because frankly, without it, it
increases our liabilities. So for example, our inability to resurface
roads or to repair sidewalks, that's where a lot of
our liabilities payouts come come in.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, people are falling there, tripping and falling on sidewalk,
or they're crashing because of the infrastructure, you're getting sued
over it, and then you don't have the money to
fix it correct.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
So this is where this is where we have you know,
that is what is continued to be constrained and we've
got to get out from under that. And so those
things also matter, But we also have to have a
much more aggressive stance when it comes to again we
are repeating, we have to hold the city the county accountable,
(23:14):
for example, to address the critical mental health and substance
use disorder issues that we see on our streets. Because
even if we have some of these individuals, given the
nature of the acuity of whatever they're struggling with, they
can't be served by the resources that we have because
we don't have the mental health department, we don't have
you know, public health in our wheelhouse, and so those
(23:37):
services are really we require the county to do their part,
and I know through the Alliance settlement they have attempted
to help us hold the county accountable to those pieces.
For my part, I've had conversations both with Supervisor Coyvap
as well as Supervisor Barger because we need, I, you know,
I need that partnership and support from them to hold
(23:58):
those departments accountable from the case because those have been
woefully absent and we need to make sure that they're
providing the beds that help to service those individuals because
those are some of the chronic responses that we have
to give that are really depleting a lot of our
energy and resources. And that's you know, again, it's a
big challenge because people have to be willing to accept
(24:20):
those services, and that is part of a longer, you know,
larger problem that we have at hand. But I understand people,
I completely understand people's frustration. I'm going to do my
part to make sure that I continue to advance a
lot of the work that I know we've piloted my
district that have been both effective and cost you know,
(24:42):
really cost effective in terms of generating results.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
La City council Woman Monic Rodriguez so grateful for the
time you gave us. Thanks for helping us understand these issues.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Up next, the city Council has moved to ban certain
derogatory and offensive words from its meetings. We'll give you
some examples to show why they think it's necessary. We
want to hear from you too. Open the iHeartRadio app,
click on the talkback button and we'll play some of
your messages.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Just ahead, you're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monk's Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with until nine o'clock tonight.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
At the top of the show, I asked you.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Dear listeners, is there a disparity in the way local
media treat the Dodgers and the Angels. I'm a transplant,
I'm here two years now, but opening day coverage got
me thinking, hey, look the Angels were playing two. I mean,
we literally say at the top of every hour KFI
AM six forty, Los Angeles, Orange County. So do we
(25:45):
need to throw some more love at the Angels? And Plus,
you know I'm looking for a team to get behind.
I left the Cincinnati area northern Kentucky. You know, we're
all Reds fans there, and so I'm a little bit
used to cheering for a team that's, I won't say
a bad team, a team that struggled in recent years.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
So I'm leaning Angels.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
You know, I like an underdog story, and you know
that's just kind of what I'm thinking like that. I
like their colors. And you know, the Dodgers have enough fans, right,
they have enough success. They don't need another guy moving
here from Kentucky and cheering them on. So I asked
you to give me some perspective on what the deal is,
which way my allegiance should go, and what you think
about that type of coverage. I also asked you what
(26:23):
you think about the Olympics coming to LA based on
where we stand now, whether we're ready. And you can
join this conversation by opening up the iHeartRadio app, clicking
on that talkback button, and we're going to play some
of your comments throughout the time we have together tonight,
We've already got some messages, Raoul, are we ready?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Let's hear from.
Speaker 7 (26:44):
Question K In the two stadiums are is completely different.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
If you go to an Angels game in Orange County
versus the Dodgers game in LA it is a completely
different vibe.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
Quite honestly, the pods or where.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
You roll agrees with that sentiment. A Padres fan here
in Los Angeles, and I gotta get to say, everyone
loves San Diego. It appears just just generically, not just
the sports teams, but it seems to be a low
key big city. Let's hear from Lurie.
Speaker 7 (27:16):
There is a huge disparity between the Angels and the Dodgers,
But unlike the Dodgers, the Angels do not know how
to get the word out that there they're good. I've
been an Angels fan forever. I was also a Dodger fan,
and I'm still a fan. But the media doesn't pay
(27:38):
attention to the Angels at all. It doesn't matter, they
just don't pay attention to them.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
So yeah, what I love about Lorie's message the most
is I can hear myself in the background. I mean,
she got on that talk back app immediately while I
was still broadcasting.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Way to go, Laurie. Let's hear from Steve Hey Monks.
Speaker 8 (27:56):
This is Stephen Bakersfield. I grew up in Orange County
and have been an Angels fan my whole life. They're
just not as popular as a lovable loser Cubs, but
they're California as lovable losers, and they used to be
the California Angels, and I think they should still be.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
The California Angels. So was it really a slip up piece? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
You know what I remember as a kid is that
movie Angels in the Outfield, and I think that there
were still California Angels at that time when that came out. So,
you know, again not being from here, and I know
their name has evolved many times over the years. We
got another comment from our friend Laurie.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Hi.
Speaker 7 (28:33):
This is Laurie from Corona. I called earlier about the Angels.
Now about the Olympics, it's embarrassing. I don't want the
Olympics coming here. We are a big embarrassment right now.
There's too much that needs to be done. Oh we're
going to be an Olympics with no cars? Sure we are.
We have nothing. We have a bunch of ugly, homeless,
(28:57):
drug addicted people all on the streets and they don't.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
Care about that.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
There you go, Laurie, still listening to us too. Well,
let's hear from Cynthia. Cynthia here, Hi.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Michael Monks. I'm calling from LA. I'm a big fan
of yours, your show. I love you on KFI listen
all the time. Love tis too. Yeah, just wanted to
comment on the Dodger Angel thing. Born and raised in
LA and always will be Dodger fan. Yay World Champs. Anyway,
I get the thing about the You're in Ohio, so
(29:29):
the red would be probably your.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Quick note to Cynthia and everybody else that these talkback
options do have a time limit, so I think it
cut her off there. But what she was getting at is,
you know, being a redspan. Maybe I'm attracted more to
the red of the Angels, might be a bit of
a different hue, but I can adjust to that, I think.
So we've got more space for your comments coming up
in the next hour as well. Just open up the
(29:52):
iHeartRadio app, click on that talkback button. What do you
think is there a disparity here in the way we
talk about the Dodgers and the Angels and wish mind
should I be on I'm looking for a team here.
And also what do you think about the Olympics? Are
we ready? Are we going to be able to pull
this off? We do want to hear from you. Also,
just because I was a Reds fan, please don't say
(30:13):
I was from Ohio. I am from Kentucky. I'm from
northern Kentucky, Covington, Kentucky. Yes, it is connected to Cincinnati
by a bridge, but you have to go there to
understand that the rivalry is. Maybe it's like Orange County
to LA right, except not the same state. So not
from Ohio, from Kentucky, Ohio Valley yes, Cincinnati Metro.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Yes, but Covington, Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Let's talk more crazy and go back to Los Angeles
City Hall because as we've talked about last week, as
you've heard on other shows here on KFI, the council
has a motion moving through to get people to stop
using some types of profanity. I go to city Hall
a lot, and if I'm not at city Hall, I'm
sitting here streaming their meetings and covering them for you
so you know what's going on. And my goodness. The
public comments are just out of control. I want to
(30:58):
give you a little taste. Let's hear the first file
number three.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
A little short Spanish police officer turn it to my
apartment and committed sexual acts against me.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
This is why we have the problems that we have.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
You've got to pay ten.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
Your time is up.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
A little Spanish police officer came in, you know. I mean,
these are the types of wild accusations and weirdness that
you just hear. In general, La City Hall have covered
municipal government for a long time, and most of the
time cities will get this stuff under control. You just
have a certain amount of decorum, and yes you should
be able to express outrage and anger in that sort
(31:33):
of thing, but there is nothing like what you see
at La City Hall. The next one you're gonna hear
as a guy who he is an Asian man, but
he does speak perfect English. However he trolls the council
like this, which islands.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Would you like to speak.
Speaker 9 (31:49):
To uh missa city attorney if you allow me, I
would like to speak all nineteen twenty and twenty one
and then general if you are you'll.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
Have three minutes for the items and one minute for
general public comment.
Speaker 9 (32:04):
Uh Star Wars item nineteen, if you allow me, Sung
Jing Chen the way and Shung Chu.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Chu young no, And I hope he's not the way.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I'm prepared to bleep things, but I don't know what
he's saying or singing, but he does that a lot.
And he also talks about hookers on Figueroa and how
he enjoys them. And I mean, this guy is a regular,
but these he's not the only one who sings. I mean,
this is Los Angeles, right, We're all show people in
some way. Let's hear this next guy.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Two hundred and eighteen thousand each is what we pay
to you.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
So can you pretend to listen. It's the least that
you can do.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
And you know, people are just always going against the
council members in that way, and the council people do
not often listen to public comment because it is usually
filled with garbaenter. You've got people down there with real
grievances and real concerns, and that's what is hurt the most,
I think by the profanity and the nastiness that comes
(33:06):
from these regular gangflies who are there speaking the way
they do is that you're really hurting people with proper
concerns because folks tune out or they don't come at
all because it's such a show. The next guy you're
gonna hear is also one of the biggest violators of decorum.
The two words they want to ban at Los Angeles
City Hall right now, the in word and the sea word.
(33:30):
That is how frequently they are stated during public comment.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Let's hear this.
Speaker 10 (33:34):
We shall recognize the necessary proofs.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
The theholic sauce.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Did not exist, gay little holocaust denihilism in the middle
of a city council meeting not real.
Speaker 10 (33:45):
And the enforcement against sleeping in line in a mother
fool street when you're homeless.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I've been an outrage about this.
Speaker 10 (33:55):
That's the reason why I've used intensifiers. I use signs,
I use my art to identify the slums of Alay
and your rights to a life. But no, they're saying,
get your storage, get your sleeping off the streets. Now
into my general public comment, I read into the record.
(34:18):
My view about Los Angeles is being dirty. I talked
about this guy every meeting. I got your attention.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Now every meeting, whether it's the regular council, if it's
a committy word. That's his reference to what they're trying
to ban. He speaks at every committee meeting, no matter
what's on the agenda, he shows up. And the way
it works at City Hall is you you get the
option to speak on an item on the agenda up
to three items, for which they will give you three minutes,
and then they will give you an additional minute for
(34:47):
general comment, so you can get up to four minutes.
And that's a lot of time to listen to these rants,
and nobody takes better advantage of it than this next
guy who often talks in voices through a puppet.
Speaker 10 (34:58):
You'll have three minutes for the items mornings, and here
we are a game, and that is not his actual
item number.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Continue, So.
Speaker 11 (35:13):
In word item is it not just repeatedly dropping nineteen?
Can I speak on that?
Speaker 3 (35:20):
D e I he's white?
Speaker 1 (35:22):
By the way, Adam twenty one.
Speaker 11 (35:25):
Trimming trees in city for for nitia ramen noodle and
known certified.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Nod noodle, noodle, noodle noddle.
Speaker 11 (35:38):
Racism five thousand dollars that finally found under the mattress
mattresses of city all offices. That's where you've been bending
over all those campaign donors right in the round, going
to rap.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
Round.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Well I'm just rapping.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 11 (35:59):
Number twenty four, Well we got mony cow frigis the biggest,
fattest piece of the council.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
She wants to do housing bonds.
Speaker 11 (36:14):
They no game housing bonds.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
That now there is no live bleeping at city Hall.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
So all of those inwards and swords and other swear
words that he just let rip, they're heard by everybody
else who is there. And since this motion was announced,
he and some of the other gadflies have taken full
advantage because it's clearly targeted to them, and it has
amplified their showmanship. To put it mildly, it's only gotten worse.
(36:43):
And I think, certainly if you listen to GFI enough,
you know it takes a lot to find sympathy for
council members. But they are so brutal, and not just
to the council members but some of the appointed staff,
city attorneys, city clerks. The things that they say to
these folks is just unreal. But again, it's so disruptive
to folks who come down there with real valid concerns
(37:04):
or you know, it's still a city building. Sometimes there's
just some pomp and circumstance that takes place. The softball team,
the swim team, the academic team, some kid who did well,
or some organization being honored, and they're brought down to
city Hall and they have to sit through this before
their moment. It's pretty disgusting, but I sit through that
three times a week minimum. I thought i'd share a
(37:26):
little bit of that with you. Hey, we got a
lot more coming up. In the next hour, LA County
DA Nathan Hofckman will be with us to talk about
why the death penalty is coming back, and no, it's
not because of those swear words. I got another hour
of Michael Monks Reports just ahead here on KFI AM
six forty
Speaker 1 (37:43):
KFI AM six forty on demand
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