August 18, 2025 • 36 mins
Alex Stone reports Texas House Democrats are finally heading back to Austin after a two-week standoff over redistricting. Their return clears the path for Republicans to push through new congressional maps that could net them five extra House seats. But the fight’s just getting started—California is threatening to redraw its own maps in the opposite direction, giving Democrats more seats to cancel out Texas’s move. Heather Brooker: How “Clean L.A. with Me” is transforming filthy city streets into something Angelenos can be proud of. Michael Monks: City liability payouts have hit record highs—and that’s why your sidewalks are still a Monks continues: With lawsuits draining city funds, can anything be done to stop the bleeding and finally fix the problem?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's k IF.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am six forty and you're listening to The Conway
Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Mark Thompson here for Tim. I kind of like it
when all the other Conway kids are here. I feel like,
I mean, I'm filling in in the band, but the
rest of the band is here, Hey, Mark, Yeah, exactly,
got Angel and Croze and Belly owned. The only regular
band member who is, of course not here is Steffouche,
(00:27):
who had the insanely dramatic, incredibly worrying and horribly awful
car wreck and so many of you have stepped up
in the go fundme effort to support him and his
miraculous survival. Is literally that a miracle And we'll talk
(00:48):
more about it. And you know, now he's sort of
this celebrity. I mean I heard him checking in on
the weekend. And but filling in for Steffusche is Tony,
who I know from my show that I do daily,
because Tony is a regular part of my show that's
on daily on YouTube and also Tuesdays, Yeah, Mondays and Tuesdays,
he does to the show there, So great to have
(01:08):
him there. That's the Mark Thompson Show. This The Conway
Show and Alex Stone, the master of journalism, standing by
with a story that has broken big and may very
much affect politics here in California, even though it is
a story about Texas or originates in Texas.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
What's up, Alex Stone?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Yeah, hey, yeah, And it was great to hear the
Fooshan on the air last week.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
Hend really good.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, he sounded so much better than I thought he
would sound too. I mean, when you see those pictures
of that car wreck, God.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
And the horrors of what he described he went through
just terrible.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, the whole thing was sort of a was It
almost seemed unreal as you hear like these two bystanders
like they're rocking the car back and forth to rock
it off of his arm, which is pinned underneath. I mean,
it's just and then as they pull him away, it
was like a like one of those superhero movies. As
(02:03):
they pulled the person away, the car burst into flames.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I mean, it just was incredible.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Don't you hope that you would be that person too
if you rolled up on it?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Oh of course that I'm not just you know, shooting
it from my you know, Facebook page that I sit.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
There thinking well, I don't want to get involved, like
you know, I'm going to back up traffic if I
stop here. You have that moment where to be that
kind of person where you just jump out of your
car and do it.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, I know you're right. And those people didn't think
I mean, I didn't think about it.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
They just did it. They just stopped and helped. Yeah, exactly.
All right.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So tell me about the Texas House and what's happening
down there.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Yeah, so enough Democrats said they returned to Austin today
they gabbled in with enough to move forward for the
first time in a number of weeks. The Democrats were
on a chartered plane from Chicago, and they boarded the plane.
They returned to Austin and arrived back and so it
was time to get going. They walked into the Capitol
in Texas and I had c that were cheering them on,
(03:01):
their supporters who liked what they did over these last
couple of weeks against changing the congressional boundaries. Sounded like
this as they walked into the state House. Their supporters
there and the lawmakers were not arrested. Had been threatened
by the governor and others.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
Has said they were.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Away, and by them being back, this now clears the
way for Republicans in Texas to go ahead with the
changes that they want to net five new House seats
next year, and with the pressure from the President wanting
them to do it. He today got involved again pushing
them to go ahead and get it done.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
And today they gabbled in a quorum is present, so they've.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Got the quorum now, and the House Speaker telling members today,
here they go.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
We are done waiting. We have a quorum.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Now is the time for action.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
We'll move quickly and the schedule will be demanding until
our work is complete.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
And the work is complete means that the Republicans will
get those five additional seats or more, but they are.
This is the second special legislative session. The first one
went could put because the Democrats weren't there. And now
on the main item on the second agenda is again redistricting.
So they've got enough members to conduct business. They told everybody,
(04:14):
we're not going to do it today, come back Wednesday
to get to work. But those who left the state
were told today you're only going to be allowed to
leave the capitol after you check in, essentially with like
a parole agent and make sure that because we're going
to watch you to make sure you don't leave again.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
Members who have not been president until today, for whom
arrest warrants were issued, will be granted written permission to
leave only after agreeing to be released into the the
custody of a designated DPS officer appointment.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
The Department of Public Safety officer is going to be
watching over them.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
And that's tru By the way, that's ridiculous. They can't
enforce that. I mean, that's absurd.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
But yeah, well, I mean, they didn't arrest anybody either,
and they thread that. So but it came as Democrats
in California today said, all right, we're ready to go
forward with the plans to retaliate against Texas and get
the lines redrawn in Californi to counter those five seats
of Texas. Republicans plan to pick up. The plan would
be five seats in California if they get it on
the ballot and voters approve it in November. And today
(05:10):
Democrats say, here's saying.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Donald Trump lit this fire when he pressured Texas to.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Change the rules mid gang.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
California is answering that attack.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
And Governor Abbott was asked today his thoughts about what
California's doing and what Governor Newsm's.
Speaker 7 (05:23):
Doings of a state disagree with him on that, and
for him to be able to get anything passed, he
has to have two thirds of the state agree with
him on it.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It is a joke.
Speaker 7 (05:31):
He's posturing for the presidency and doing nothing more than that.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Is all talk and no action.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Now, one thing, dabbit, Maybe two thirds of Californians are
against willy nilly redrawing district lines, but it's not the
same thing if you ask California, based on the political
makeup of California, if it is to counter the Republicans
in Texas, it's a much more likely thing if it
gets on the ballot that it would pass. But some
Republicans mark in Texas are now saying that they want
(05:58):
to change their new map tad more than five new
Republican seats, so that California has a harder time than
five Democrat seats. So I mean, it's really this tit
for tat, this fight growing between the two most populated states.
Now you've got other states jumping in saying, well, we
could get involved in this as well. We'll give you
this many Republican seats, will give you this many Democrats.
(06:20):
So yeah, I mean, it's really one upping the other one.
The new redistricting bill in Texas, they've got to go
through all of the legislative process that they normally have,
so it can take a while. Special Session goes for
thirty days. It probably won't take that long to get
it approved in Texas, but it could be a while.
But they're gonna get going, no doubt, especially with again
(06:40):
the backing of the President today. They're going to push
it at California is going to do the Democrats in
the state everything they can to get it on the ballot,
and it's really game on. And you've still got some
states saying this is ridiculous, that this is all political,
that it should go to the census and then districting
(07:00):
based on representation, but other states like California and Texas
are saying no, that this is politics and they're going
to do what they can.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, it's politics in the New Age, it would say,
I mean, Jerrymander's been around since the beginning of the republic,
but this is like an arms race of reditionric as
you say, you know, you're you know, he's going to
be in Texas, then it's gonna be in California and
takes no, no, no, no, We're actually going to do it
even bigger than we'd originally said.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
All right, and now.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Illinois, you know what we can do?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah, I mean there's just a h there's a sense
that it's a different kind of politics. I understand it's politics,
but if you sort of if your ideal of America
is one person, one vote, you know, if that the
people's voice is somehow reflected by representation.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I mean you could are you a million different ways.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
There's money in politics and everybody's a corporate tool and
all this stuff, But if your ideal is one person,
one vote, then this is definitely going the wrong direction
on that.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Well, and you look at the maps in both Texas
and California that have been put out, and some of
the districts are ridiculous, you know, you know, you look
at northern California, it's like all the red areas at
far northern California and then this long skinny thing all
the way down the coast to pick up all the
blue that would fill the outnumber all the red up
in the top and same thing in parts of Texas.
(08:12):
You look and there are some districts that are these
crazy you know, long, skinny s shaped things that are
all I mean, the districts are nothing like what you
would normally think of. And it's on both sides to
pick up the votes that they want.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, Alex Stone, always on it. Thank you for this.
Look forward to being in touch.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Thanks Mark.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, Alex Stone from ABC News on the redistricting plan Texas.
Back in session, they get the quorum and so now
it's onto that agenda item and if they get it passed,
then we in California strike back with our own and
it goes on. And when we come back, there is
a new program, Clean La with Me. I mean, it's
(08:52):
not so new, and it's a nonprofit and this program
organizes weekly neighborhood clean ups across the city. And the
city of La needs programs like this. Sadly, we as
residents need to kind of do stuff to clean up
our city. So we'll check in on how Clean La
(09:16):
with Me is transforming streets. What kind of transformation can
we expect? Might it get some actual momentum the trashy
streets of La.
Speaker 8 (09:27):
Next you're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from
KFI AM six forty Conway Away.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Mark Thompson here, the rest of the Conway kids. We're
still waiting to get daily improvements in the condition of Staffush,
who is our brother, and everything is going great for
him in that recovery. Thanks to everybody who has asked
about Staffush and also is following that case so closely,
and in fact, you know later in the week we'll
(09:56):
of course talk to him. KFI AM six forty one
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio. There's an interesting program going
on in the city of La and it's really a
credit to an example of how one person can just
make a difference in a neighborhood in a city because
we always think, oh I can't do anything, everything so overwhelming,
you know, how can I possibly make a difference? And
(10:17):
Heather Rooker is here from KFINE News. This is called
Clean La with Me. But it just did start with
one guy.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
It did.
Speaker 9 (10:25):
His name is Juan Nawla and really the name just
says it all Clean La with Me. And this is
a movement he started about ten months or so ago.
He originally moved here from the East coast and he
came out to La. He was so excited to pursue
some business opportunities when he came out here. And when
he got here, he tells me that he was shocked
(10:47):
by how much trash and garbage there was piled up
all over our city. He could not believe it, and
he really wanted to do something about it.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
He says that he's picked up more than fifteen hundred
bags of trash in ten months.
Speaker 9 (11:01):
That's right, and it's probably even more than that now
since I spoke with him several weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Here's a little bit of one. What he sounds like
such a beautiful place and it's so sad that it's
so trushy.
Speaker 9 (11:12):
He tells me he couldn't stand the side of all
the trash littered across La La Land. So ten months
ago he started cleaning the streets of La with a broom,
a bag, and his own two hands.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
I mean that's crazy, Heather, I mean, that really is right.
Speaker 9 (11:26):
It is crazy, But I think it really speaks to
how if you want to do something, you can, And
that's what Wan even said to me. He said it
started off with something simple, just stopping by a neighborhood
where he saw a bunch of trash and starting to
pick it up. Then the next day he had some
trash bags with him and he brought a broom. And
eventually these small acts of just like cleaning up neighborhoods
(11:49):
became something where he every week. Now he looks for
neighborhoods and has weekly meetups. He started filming himself and
sharing his progress and what he was doing on social media.
It went crazy viral. Lots of local news outlets have
picked it up. We picked up the story here, and
he now has weekly meetups where dozens and hundreds of
(12:10):
people meet up with him to help pick up this trash.
And it's really a sight to see he's picking up
things like Starbucks cups, like we see him in the
video I posted on Kfi's Instagram page picking up a
Starbucks cup going up.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
This is David's cup and this was his.
Speaker 9 (12:25):
Order, and then we see him picking up you know,
somebody else's up. We're just so careless.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Sometimes David leaves his crap everywhere.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
I got David. Somebody call out that David.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
So he's picked up momentum as a result of this effort.
It really did just start with one person.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
It really did.
Speaker 9 (12:45):
It started with him just picking up some trash in
his neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Has the city like connected with him at all too?
Speaker 9 (12:54):
Yeah, So this is a problem, and this is something
that I talked with him at linked about and he's
also very passionate about this too. When he saw that
there was a problem and he wanted to take action,
He says, he's reached out to the city of La
multiple times and asked for help. And I don't know
if do you have the sound cued up there of
what he says.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Or let me try everywhere.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
So whatever I can clean, I just do it.
Speaker 10 (13:17):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Wow, let me try one more spot. If the if
the government, if the Meyers, if the governor, if they're
not doing it, we have to come and start doing it.
Speaker 9 (13:27):
Videos of him picking up trash on the streets of
La have gone viral right now. Wan says he's using
the power of community to mobilize volunteers across neighborhoods.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
All right, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
I actually got to know I actually got you know,
got to know you through Instagram.
Speaker 9 (13:45):
That was somebody who found him on Instagram and sound
and following. So here's what he did. He says he
contacted the city several city departments as a matter of fact,
and the only response that he got back was from
a couple of people in the shine La department. He
said he reached out to the they replied back and said, hey,
this is great. Why don't you come to our shine
La event and get a photo op with the mayor.
(14:06):
Mayor Bass would love to take a photo of you.
And in his mind, he says, well, that's just a
photo op. You're not actually going to come out and
help me, Like, give me some trash bags, give me
some manpower, give me a dumpster to put this trash
in something. He says He's reached out repeatedly to the
city and his either and now they are not responding
to him at all.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Wow, that is so stereotypical. If you will, I mean,
it's what you conceive of. And I reached out for
help and the city said, you need a license to
do what you're doing, you need a permit to do
what you're doing. You've a cease and desist. And now
they didn't say that. I'm just in my mind that's
the way it works. So he wanted some kind of
substance of help from the city.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
And he got Yeah.
Speaker 9 (14:48):
I think he was telling them, Hey, I've got a
movement going on here. We're really making a difference. You know,
over a thousand was probably almost two thousand bags of trash.
Now that he's picked up from the city and we
see him doing it every week, every day, it's it's
sort of taken over his career. He came out here
for another business and now he is the clean la
with me guy.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So, you know, I don't mean to always suggest he's
achieved a certain kind of critical mass with this, you know,
amal respective you think, hey, why don't you become a
what is it five O ones three or whatever?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
It might be some kind of nonprofit.
Speaker 9 (15:21):
It is a nonprofit. He has turned it into a nonprofit. Yeah,
he's done that now so that he can accept donations
to buy the trash bags. He's also taken the donations
and he has built his own trash receptacles and in
certain places where trash seems to accumulate a lot, he's
put trash bins there and then he goes out every
week and he disposes of them himself. Now, some critics
(15:46):
and some people are saying Hey, the sannitation workers in
la are not going to like this. That's their job.
That's you know, he's kind of treading on a union
job there. So there is some questions about that. Is
he allowed to do it? Is he allowed to continue
to do it regardless The majority of people, especially when
we posted this on our social media and on our website,
(16:06):
say this is a good thing, but people are frustrated
that our tax dollars are not going towards these kinds
of efforts that this man has had to do it
and carry the physical burden and financial burden himself.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I mean it's one of those situations in which of
you ask Angelinos, they go, it's great. I mean the
city is clearly overmatched by the number of people who
are trashing the city. Yeah, so why not have individual efforts?
If it was neighborhood Watch, you wouldn't go, Well, the
cops union is really going to get angry for you
putting together neighborhood Watch. No, we need to do it
because the cops are overstressed. And similarly, to clean up
(16:40):
the city, we need a coalition of people who are
ready to actually do it.
Speaker 9 (16:44):
And he is out there doing it like when you
see the piles of trash that he's found in these neighborhoods.
I mean it's not just paper, it's cardboard boxes, it's furniture,
it's a lot of liquor bottles, it's a lot of
just like junk and gunk that you see piled up
on the side of the And this man is stopping, saying,
this is not going to happen in this city that
(17:04):
is so beautiful and loved by so many people. And
he is making something happen. He is making a change
happen in his community, and other people are on board
now and helping him.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
I'm telling you that's a kid's little story book, because
it's the story of one man coming to a big city,
being surprised at how much dirt, grime and trash there is,
deciding I'm going to, as one man, just grab a
trash bag and start sweeping up and cleaning up this
city that I love, and.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Then others pitch in.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
He before you know, it has a whole community of
over one hundred people, and it will only grow.
Speaker 9 (17:41):
It will only grow. And you're right, he's like big
lights of Hollywood. It's la He had this vision in
his mind of what it was going to be like
here and he got here and he was like, it's
dirty and there's trash everywhere.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
How can we say?
Speaker 3 (17:56):
This is the.
Speaker 9 (17:56):
Hollywood, the Lalla land that we all love and it's
just so so filled. So if anybody wants more information
about how they can read about his efforts or even help,
they can go to our website, kay if i am
six forty dot com. It's also posted on our Instagram
and our Facebook page, so if people want to check
that out as well.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I want to write that children's book, do it? Wan
nala is is how do you say his last name?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Nuala?
Speaker 9 (18:20):
You're right?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Wala Yeah, yeah, wan Is My main character comes to
the big city, wants to be a celebrity or wants
to be part of the shimmer that is hollywod sure
realizes that there is no shimmer in Hollywood, that it's
a kind of a fraud.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
You got to make your own shimmer.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
You got to make you got to bring the shimmer. Yeah,
I love it. We're writing. This is how you write.
We are we're writing.
Speaker 9 (18:40):
We are listen a brainstorming. You know, I'm almost brought
in a game for you today. If we had had
more time. I was going to bring in a fun
game that we could play, maybe the.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Feather Brooker loves games. We had a good one, I
think a couple of weeks ago. But anyway, this is
a great story and so far things have worked out.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Sorry, wish him the best.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, thank you. It's called clean La with me and
again all the information on our website to find out
more and maybe even get in touch when we come back.
The city is in trouble in another way, the payouts
that the city has had to endure around city liability,
they've reached an all time high. That's one reason that
(19:16):
the sidewalks may not be getting cleaned up, or why
they may not be getting repaired.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Michael Monks with us next to talk about it.
Speaker 8 (19:24):
You're listening to Tim conwaytun you're on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
There is a bizarre story and I really wanted to
get to the story on my show that I do
into a daily YouTube show, and I forgot and now
I see it again. I pushed it to Sharon Bellio
and we will do it here. So I will. I'll
premiere it here. Even though it was supposed to have
premiered it earlier today. But it's related to the big
summit that everybody's talking about. But it's the story not
(19:53):
told and I will I promise you haven't heard anywhere.
I mean, maybe you've heard it, but it's not in
any way played up as high profile story.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
But we'll do that a little bit later.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
We're still talking about LA and the challenges in LA,
and the latest comes from kfive's Michael Monks, who reports
on the payouts that the city has had to issue.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I mean, you know, Monks, it's crazy. I'm seeing the numbers.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Three million dollars to a wedding photographer aftert he was
injured when he tripped over a damaged sidewalk in Woodland Hills.
A wedding photographer gets his three million he was injured
when he tripped over a damaged sidewalk.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Oh that's the same guy. They printed it twice, but
they might have paid him twice.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
Honestly, they write these checks so casually.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
You know.
Speaker 11 (20:38):
When I first started here and was assigned to City Hall,
at one of the very first meetings that I sat in,
I noticed that the city Council was rolling through about
ten legal settlements. Now, back where I'm from, legal settlements
that the smaller city would settle, it was a big deal.
I mean, you would usually know the circumstances. If they're
settling for a million bucks, you certainly know the circumstances.
(20:59):
But they were rattling off these numbers, you know, the
so and so versus the city of La eight hundred thousand,
so and so versus the city of La two fifty
so and so versus City of La one point twenty
five million.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I started adding these up, and I called the news director.
Speaker 11 (21:12):
I said, I think I'm just gonna I'm gonna file
something on this, because that they settled for like eight
million dollars in one meeting. What I didn't know, because
I was new, was how routine this has become. And
so now I'm watching every meeting and there's usually eight
to ten lawsuits that they're settling.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
And that's because they recognize these have already been adjudicated
and therefore there's no reason to do anything but just
rubbers damp them.
Speaker 11 (21:37):
A lot of times, when anybody is facing a lawsuit,
you consider your options. One, are you actually guilty? Are
you liable? Did you do the thing you're being sued
for so you moved to settle in hopes of avoiding
a jury trial where you might find yourself having to
pay more than you anticipated. But this is a situation
(21:58):
where it often looks like this that he's not fighting
at all. This is an issue that was raised during
the last budget cycle was how exactly are we litigating?
Are we fighting to the best of our ability against
some of these cases at least to get a lower
settlement amount, because this is the deal. Back in two
thousand and six, the city settled lawsuits for a total
(22:22):
of thirty five million dollars. In the past two fiscal years,
it's been over five hundred million dollars half a billion dollars,
and when you take into consideration the budget constraints at
La City Hall, it's a very serious issue. So City
Controller Kenneth Mihea has said, we're going to audit this thing.
(22:42):
We're going to audit what's your risk management situation? How
are you doing to prevent lawsuits from happening in the
first place? In two can we get this cost down?
He put out a rather colorful video. He's very he
likes to use social media, but this was some colorful language.
Lit'ten know what he's said.
Speaker 12 (23:00):
It's unsustainable. What the hell is the City of Los
Angeles doing about these liabilities? Are we just going to
keep paying these out? Are people just gonna keep getting hurt? Well,
that is why we launched an audit on the city's
risk management policies and practices on reducing harm.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
And these liability payouts.
Speaker 10 (23:20):
If you don't know, these liability payots are some of
the biggest reasons why the city's undergoing layoffs of city employees,
Why departments are getting cut, Why services for you all
are getting cut.
Speaker 12 (23:33):
Why your streets and your.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Sidewalks look like dookie.
Speaker 12 (23:38):
Why city facilities that you walk into look like dukie.
Why our childcare centers got shut down, Why senior meals
got canceled? Y'all, These liability payouts are unsustainable.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Are you familiar with dukie? Mark Tom say, I'm very
fried with it. So that's what he's saying.
Speaker 11 (24:01):
It's like, Look, your streets are a mess because we
have no money. The city facilities you go in our
mess because we have no money. Programs that you care about,
services that matter to you are being cut or reduced
because of these massive liability payments. When you think about
the current fiscal year, where they had to save as
(24:21):
much as they could, cut as much as they could
to get out of a one billion dollar deficit, this
liability money would have gone along way.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Yeah, put some back behind them.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
What is the if you had to break it out, like,
is there one area where there's a lot. Is that
sidewalk stuff? Is it trip and fall stuff? Is it
cop stuff? Is it what part of the city is
the one that they're settling out the most.
Speaker 11 (24:46):
It's cop stuff. It's the police department more than anything.
It is settlements involving the LAPD. Now that may not
be the quantity, but the quality of that settlement. As
all price taggers, you might have more what they call
trip and fall cases involving infrastructure, light fixtures falling on people,
someone falling on the sidewalk. You may have more of
(25:07):
those cases, but the most expensive ones are settlements involving
the Los Angeles Police Department. And so you do have
some members of city Council who are angry that one
the LAPD is the most significant part of the budget
every year and they still don't have as many officers
as they would like to have. So these members of
council will often vote against anything that has to do
(25:28):
with giving more money on top of what was already budgeted.
In fact, they vote against everything that comes from the
LAPD Foundation, which is a nonprofit that says, hey, we're
going to pay so that whatever precinct can repaint the office.
They vote no on that, even though it doesn't cost
the city anything, because that's how adamant they are in
their opposition to any additional dollars going to the LAPD,
(25:50):
primarily because of these payouts.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Wow, that's wild.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
There's just a culture of total resistance within the city council, and.
Speaker 11 (25:57):
Now we seem to be because of this fiscal crisis,
and it's starting to you know, there's not much left
to cut. You know, when you think about the condition
of Los Angeles, how filthy it is, how dark it
is because of street lights being out in the street
Lights Bureau being cut because there's no money. If you
can't see in your neighborhood, if if trash may be impacted,
if you see the animal shelters overcrowded. You're finally paying
(26:20):
attention to city finances. You're understanding in a way you
might not have before, what this city budget crunch.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Means can you can you just linger for one second
over the break? And I thought you might be tracking
another story. I don't want I always have to ask,
all right, I want to follow up because I want
to talk about reforms and then and one other thing
with you real quick. Yeah, Michael Monks reporting on what
is more bad fiscal news for the city already buried
(26:49):
and now buried under all of these city liability payouts
that are just stacked on top of each other. And
you know, it's just a very tough spot for what
is a great city, but it's a great city buried
under debt.
Speaker 8 (27:00):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Mark Thompson here for Tim Conway Junior. We're talking about
the city of La buried in debt and the latest
reason it's buried in debt, I mean, or an additional
reason is the city liability payouts. They've reached an all
time high and they just don't have money to do
things like, you know, repair the roads, repair the sidewalks.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Michael Monks is here from KFI News.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
So is there any kind of you know, you were
talking about the fact that They're churning out so many
of these checks, and the multiplier on what it was
twenty years ago is just insane. It's just so much
more money being settled here and paid out in these
city settlements. Are there any efforts or any conversations around
the ways to address this and fix it.
Speaker 11 (27:46):
It's a five hundred percent increase in twenty years on
how much they're spending to settle legal of lawsuits that
are brought against the city. Again, just to reiterate, in
two thousand and six, the total amount that the city
paid and liability claims was thirty five million dollars. The
combined payout in the past two fiscal years is over
five hundred million. I mean, that is very significant. The
issue was addressed in earnest during the budget negotiations that
(28:10):
took place in the spring. We started the new fiscal
year on July one, they have to approve a budget
before then. And finally folks at city Hall were saying,
this doesn't look like a good thing. We should probably
bring this to heal, we should do something about this,
and they are. They've got various motions to evaluate how
the city fights back.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
But still the city has.
Speaker 11 (28:32):
A city attorney and a city attorney's office, and these
city attorneys often litigate on behalf of the city. But
there are also bills associated with outside council that are
brought in. And there's a recent case where outside council
was brought in to argue for the the some of
the immigration related stuff, and the city had budgeted I
believe about eight hundred may five hundred to eight hundred
(28:52):
thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Over two years.
Speaker 11 (28:54):
The bill came back within two weeks worth of work
at one point eight million dollars. What And this is
the kind of budgeting and spending that goes on at
La City Hall, not to mention the spending around homeless
programs that aren't necessarily bearing fruit like they wanted. It's
just a very strange operation. Recall last year that the
(29:14):
recycling program was losing money even though that was a
program designed to bring in some revenue. You know, they
collect materials and they sell them to overseas markets. They're
losing money on that. Everything is just leaking.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I mean, let me just go back to the legal
bills for a second. I mean, you I think have
a responsibility to say, hey, guys, this bill is way
out of line, we're going to renegotiate it, or you're
never going to do business with our city again.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
I mean, you can't tell me.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
There's usually an estimate on the part of these attorneys,
even if they're doing private contractor work the way they
are at the city, they'll tell you we think it'll
probably be half a million dollars our legal our time
would be between this and this.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
They have to be held to account for that.
Speaker 11 (29:57):
And then you have that law firm, which is usually
one of the higher price law firms in town, turning
around and suing you.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Now now they were your allies, and now.
Speaker 11 (30:05):
They're your enemies in court, and now you're fighting these
high price lawyers.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Actually we're going to go.
Speaker 11 (30:09):
To Oh it's a tough situation all around. I mean,
this city has nothing going for it financially. It has
a bad reputation for its business climate. It has a
bad reputation for how expensive it is to live here.
So there are no real invitations to make investments. You
see a lot of the priorities at city Hall going
(30:30):
in the direction that also dissuades folks from making business investments.
Whether it's raising the minimum wage to thirty dollars an
hour in certain sectors, hotels threatening to close just in
time for the Olympics to show up. And that's the
elephant in the room too, right, I mean, in twenty
twenty eight, the Olympic Games are coming to Los Angeles,
and when you look around at the condition of the
(30:51):
city right now, forget about the politics, forget about even
what we're talking about right now, the very specific issues
out of city Hall. Just take in the environment. Yeah,
it's not good, it's dirty, it's filthy, it's not ready,
and it doesn't look like it's even ready to be ready.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
I was ready.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
I was reading about this this morning, I think at
the LA Times, and I was talking to John Cobblet
about just this thing, like, you know, there's this pushback
to having the games, to hosting the games, like we're
not ready for all the reasons you just mentioned it more.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
But I that's not an option. First of all, you're.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Obligated in all kinds of ways, you know, legal and otherwise,
and from a business standpoint. But you know, when you
lay it out the way you lay it out, it
at least puts some meat on the bones. I never
really could understand that conversation about, well, the games are
really something that we may not be suited for right now.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
In Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
The games bring in a lot of money, right but
the idea is somehow that the town has gotten so
rickety and it just may not be ready for prime time.
Speaker 11 (31:55):
Just think about your commute, and not just you, everyone
who's listening. Think about your commute, if you were driving
across town from your home to your workplace, or if
your kid goes to school at any distance from your home.
Think about what you see if you live in Los
Angeles city proper. Just the random little pockets where the
grass is growing over the sidewalk, where the piles of
trash are unaddressed. I mentioned this a lot on the
(32:17):
area I live in, downtown Los Angeles, and a cities
downtown should really represent what the city stands for. I mean,
this is a place where your biggest businesses tend to locate.
This is a place where your finest restaurants tend to
be located, and some of your finest residences tend to
be in your downtown core. And that's true for Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
But you wouldn't know that.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
You really would not.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Know that it is so filthy.
Speaker 11 (32:44):
The entire area is covered in graffiti, the entire area
is covered in trash, and all of the sidewalks are
covered in tents.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, sadly, you're right. I was just downtown LA this
past weekend. There are amazing restaurants, there's a great life there,
but you're stepping over a lot of life that's not
so great.
Speaker 11 (33:03):
I tell everyone that downtown Los Angeles is a very
fine neighborhood. When you're looking physically up a beautiful architecture,
the weather's fantastic, you see all of the you know,
the awnings for all these fine restaurants and cool places
to hang out. But unfortunately you do have to watch
where you're walking very carefully.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
I mean, when they held the Olympics in Rio, Rio
isn't exactly wall to wall gorgeous. They had the swimming
events in a waterway that was full of fecal matter.
You remember that things They were testing it and saying
telling swimmers don't and boaters they're rowing like, don't let
that stuff hit you in the face. I mean, so,
I'm just saying that, you know, in the Olympic sweepstakes
(33:41):
of cleanliness, we may be right in the dirty hunt.
Speaker 11 (33:46):
You know, in nineteen eighty four, the last time LA
hosted the Olympics, My understanding is that it was one
of the most financially successful games in history, and that
may still hold true, that it was just a very
good event, that so much money came in, that they
started a foundation that is still bearing fruit for youth
sports all around the area this time around, I don't know.
(34:09):
I mean, do you think that we are in a
position to trust this city to pull off these games
when they can't clean the sidewalks.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Well, they have a problem with what you've talked about
and what we first sit in this room discussing, which
is city liability in those payouts. So that is a problem.
We are, We're poor, we don't have any money now
eighty four, because you mentioned it, that was you Broth
who came in and he made a bunch of corporate sponsorships.
Now you don't think anything of corporate sponsorship, but at
(34:39):
the time that was really breakthrough. You know, to make
these deals with major corporations, they may need major corporate
underwriting that spills over into the city for some of
the cleanup we're talking about. I mean, there is a
real opportunity there for Los Angeles taking to rise out
of the ashes. But we got to step up, and
we may have to get corporate underwriting.
Speaker 11 (34:57):
You would think that that is the goal point where
you and say, Okay, we're going to get out of
this rut that LA has been in since you know,
the pandemic really induced a lot of the what's these
seemingly insurmountable problems, especially homelessness and criminality, and and the
type of environment that we're in because of so many
businesses that close and because of so many rules that
(35:18):
went away during that period that allowed this to fester
into the problem that it's become. But where are the
people of action? That's what I don't see any real
conversations about the aesthetics of this city. I'm frankly, if
you would just put lipstick on the pig, right, let's
just do that, right. No one's even talking about the lipstick.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
That's a fair point, it really is. But there's still time,
and my hope is that you know, someone or some
coalition of people rise to the challenge.
Speaker 11 (35:51):
Something important happens before the Olympics come, and that's next
year there's a mayoral election and I will be curious
to see how big of an issue the Olympics and
the condition of the city will role that will play
in the campaign.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Oh, it'll definitely be a front and center issue. Great stuff,
Michael Monks. Thank you for being here, my pleasure. I
always love seeing you. All Right, when we come back,
I will share with you the story that you might
have seen reported a couple of places, but it's not
the mainstream story being talked about from that Putin Trump
summit in Alaska. But it is the weirdest story to
(36:27):
emerge from that summit. We'll have it for you next
hour KFI AM six forty We are live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Now you
can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty
four to seven pm Monday through Friday, and anytime on
demand on the iHeart Radio app.
It's k IF.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am six forty and you're listening to The Conway
Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Mark Thompson here for Tim. I kind of like it
when all the other Conway kids are here. I feel like,
I mean, I'm filling in in the band, but the
rest of the band is here, Hey, Mark, Yeah, exactly,
got Angel and Croze and Belly owned. The only regular
band member who is, of course not here is Steffouche,
(00:27):
who had the insanely dramatic, incredibly worrying and horribly awful
car wreck and so many of you have stepped up
in the go fundme effort to support him and his
miraculous survival. Is literally that a miracle And we'll talk
(00:48):
more about it. And you know, now he's sort of
this celebrity. I mean I heard him checking in on
the weekend. And but filling in for Steffusche is Tony,
who I know from my show that I do daily,
because Tony is a regular part of my show that's
on daily on YouTube and also Tuesdays, Yeah, Mondays and Tuesdays,
he does to the show there, So great to have
(01:08):
him there. That's the Mark Thompson Show. This The Conway
Show and Alex Stone, the master of journalism, standing by
with a story that has broken big and may very
much affect politics here in California, even though it is
a story about Texas or originates in Texas.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
What's up, Alex Stone?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Yeah, hey, yeah, And it was great to hear the
Fooshan on the air last week.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
Hend really good.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, he sounded so much better than I thought he
would sound too. I mean, when you see those pictures
of that car wreck, God.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
And the horrors of what he described he went through
just terrible.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, the whole thing was sort of a was It
almost seemed unreal as you hear like these two bystanders
like they're rocking the car back and forth to rock
it off of his arm, which is pinned underneath. I mean,
it's just and then as they pull him away, it
was like a like one of those superhero movies. As
(02:03):
they pulled the person away, the car burst into flames.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I mean, it just was incredible.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Don't you hope that you would be that person too
if you rolled up on it?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Oh of course that I'm not just you know, shooting
it from my you know, Facebook page that I sit.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
There thinking well, I don't want to get involved, like
you know, I'm going to back up traffic if I
stop here. You have that moment where to be that
kind of person where you just jump out of your
car and do it.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, I know you're right. And those people didn't think
I mean, I didn't think about it.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
They just did it. They just stopped and helped. Yeah, exactly.
All right.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So tell me about the Texas House and what's happening
down there.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Yeah, so enough Democrats said they returned to Austin today
they gabbled in with enough to move forward for the
first time in a number of weeks. The Democrats were
on a chartered plane from Chicago, and they boarded the plane.
They returned to Austin and arrived back and so it
was time to get going. They walked into the Capitol
in Texas and I had c that were cheering them on,
(03:01):
their supporters who liked what they did over these last
couple of weeks against changing the congressional boundaries. Sounded like
this as they walked into the state House. Their supporters
there and the lawmakers were not arrested. Had been threatened
by the governor and others.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
Has said they were.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Away, and by them being back, this now clears the
way for Republicans in Texas to go ahead with the
changes that they want to net five new House seats
next year, and with the pressure from the President wanting
them to do it. He today got involved again pushing
them to go ahead and get it done.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
And today they gabbled in a quorum is present, so they've.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Got the quorum now, and the House Speaker telling members today,
here they go.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
We are done waiting. We have a quorum.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Now is the time for action.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
We'll move quickly and the schedule will be demanding until
our work is complete.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
And the work is complete means that the Republicans will
get those five additional seats or more, but they are.
This is the second special legislative session. The first one
went could put because the Democrats weren't there. And now
on the main item on the second agenda is again redistricting.
So they've got enough members to conduct business. They told everybody,
(04:14):
we're not going to do it today, come back Wednesday
to get to work. But those who left the state
were told today you're only going to be allowed to
leave the capitol after you check in, essentially with like
a parole agent and make sure that because we're going
to watch you to make sure you don't leave again.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
Members who have not been president until today, for whom
arrest warrants were issued, will be granted written permission to
leave only after agreeing to be released into the the
custody of a designated DPS officer appointment.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
The Department of Public Safety officer is going to be
watching over them.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
And that's tru By the way, that's ridiculous. They can't
enforce that. I mean, that's absurd.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
But yeah, well, I mean, they didn't arrest anybody either,
and they thread that. So but it came as Democrats
in California today said, all right, we're ready to go
forward with the plans to retaliate against Texas and get
the lines redrawn in Californi to counter those five seats
of Texas. Republicans plan to pick up. The plan would
be five seats in California if they get it on
the ballot and voters approve it in November. And today
(05:10):
Democrats say, here's saying.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Donald Trump lit this fire when he pressured Texas to.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Change the rules mid gang.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
California is answering that attack.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
And Governor Abbott was asked today his thoughts about what
California's doing and what Governor Newsm's.
Speaker 7 (05:23):
Doings of a state disagree with him on that, and
for him to be able to get anything passed, he
has to have two thirds of the state agree with
him on it.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It is a joke.
Speaker 7 (05:31):
He's posturing for the presidency and doing nothing more than that.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Is all talk and no action.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Now, one thing, dabbit, Maybe two thirds of Californians are
against willy nilly redrawing district lines, but it's not the
same thing if you ask California, based on the political
makeup of California, if it is to counter the Republicans
in Texas, it's a much more likely thing if it
gets on the ballot that it would pass. But some
Republicans mark in Texas are now saying that they want
(05:58):
to change their new map tad more than five new
Republican seats, so that California has a harder time than
five Democrat seats. So I mean, it's really this tit
for tat, this fight growing between the two most populated states.
Now you've got other states jumping in saying, well, we
could get involved in this as well. We'll give you
this many Republican seats, will give you this many Democrats.
(06:20):
So yeah, I mean, it's really one upping the other one.
The new redistricting bill in Texas, they've got to go
through all of the legislative process that they normally have,
so it can take a while. Special Session goes for
thirty days. It probably won't take that long to get
it approved in Texas, but it could be a while.
But they're gonna get going, no doubt, especially with again
(06:40):
the backing of the President today. They're going to push
it at California is going to do the Democrats in
the state everything they can to get it on the ballot,
and it's really game on. And you've still got some
states saying this is ridiculous, that this is all political,
that it should go to the census and then districting
(07:00):
based on representation, but other states like California and Texas
are saying no, that this is politics and they're going
to do what they can.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, it's politics in the New Age, it would say,
I mean, Jerrymander's been around since the beginning of the republic,
but this is like an arms race of reditionric as
you say, you know, you're you know, he's going to
be in Texas, then it's gonna be in California and
takes no, no, no, no, We're actually going to do it
even bigger than we'd originally said.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
All right, and now.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Illinois, you know what we can do?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah, I mean there's just a h there's a sense
that it's a different kind of politics. I understand it's politics,
but if you sort of if your ideal of America
is one person, one vote, you know, if that the
people's voice is somehow reflected by representation.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I mean you could are you a million different ways.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
There's money in politics and everybody's a corporate tool and
all this stuff, But if your ideal is one person,
one vote, then this is definitely going the wrong direction
on that.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Well, and you look at the maps in both Texas
and California that have been put out, and some of
the districts are ridiculous, you know, you know, you look
at northern California, it's like all the red areas at
far northern California and then this long skinny thing all
the way down the coast to pick up all the
blue that would fill the outnumber all the red up
in the top and same thing in parts of Texas.
(08:12):
You look and there are some districts that are these
crazy you know, long, skinny s shaped things that are
all I mean, the districts are nothing like what you
would normally think of. And it's on both sides to
pick up the votes that they want.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, Alex Stone, always on it. Thank you for this.
Look forward to being in touch.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Thanks Mark.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, Alex Stone from ABC News on the redistricting plan Texas.
Back in session, they get the quorum and so now
it's onto that agenda item and if they get it passed,
then we in California strike back with our own and
it goes on. And when we come back, there is
a new program, Clean La with Me. I mean, it's
(08:52):
not so new, and it's a nonprofit and this program
organizes weekly neighborhood clean ups across the city. And the
city of La needs programs like this. Sadly, we as
residents need to kind of do stuff to clean up
our city. So we'll check in on how Clean La
(09:16):
with Me is transforming streets. What kind of transformation can
we expect? Might it get some actual momentum the trashy
streets of La.
Speaker 8 (09:27):
Next you're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from
KFI AM six forty Conway Away.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Mark Thompson here, the rest of the Conway kids. We're
still waiting to get daily improvements in the condition of Staffush,
who is our brother, and everything is going great for
him in that recovery. Thanks to everybody who has asked
about Staffush and also is following that case so closely,
and in fact, you know later in the week we'll
(09:56):
of course talk to him. KFI AM six forty one
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio. There's an interesting program going
on in the city of La and it's really a
credit to an example of how one person can just
make a difference in a neighborhood in a city because
we always think, oh I can't do anything, everything so overwhelming,
you know, how can I possibly make a difference? And
(10:17):
Heather Rooker is here from KFINE News. This is called
Clean La with Me. But it just did start with
one guy.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
It did.
Speaker 9 (10:25):
His name is Juan Nawla and really the name just
says it all Clean La with Me. And this is
a movement he started about ten months or so ago.
He originally moved here from the East coast and he
came out to La. He was so excited to pursue
some business opportunities when he came out here. And when
he got here, he tells me that he was shocked
(10:47):
by how much trash and garbage there was piled up
all over our city. He could not believe it, and
he really wanted to do something about it.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
He says that he's picked up more than fifteen hundred
bags of trash in ten months.
Speaker 9 (11:01):
That's right, and it's probably even more than that now
since I spoke with him several weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Here's a little bit of one. What he sounds like
such a beautiful place and it's so sad that it's
so trushy.
Speaker 9 (11:12):
He tells me he couldn't stand the side of all
the trash littered across La La Land. So ten months
ago he started cleaning the streets of La with a broom,
a bag, and his own two hands.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
I mean that's crazy, Heather, I mean, that really is right.
Speaker 9 (11:26):
It is crazy, But I think it really speaks to
how if you want to do something, you can, And
that's what Wan even said to me. He said it
started off with something simple, just stopping by a neighborhood
where he saw a bunch of trash and starting to
pick it up. Then the next day he had some
trash bags with him and he brought a broom. And
eventually these small acts of just like cleaning up neighborhoods
(11:49):
became something where he every week. Now he looks for
neighborhoods and has weekly meetups. He started filming himself and
sharing his progress and what he was doing on social media.
It went crazy viral. Lots of local news outlets have
picked it up. We picked up the story here, and
he now has weekly meetups where dozens and hundreds of
(12:10):
people meet up with him to help pick up this trash.
And it's really a sight to see he's picking up
things like Starbucks cups, like we see him in the
video I posted on Kfi's Instagram page picking up a
Starbucks cup going up.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
This is David's cup and this was his.
Speaker 9 (12:25):
Order, and then we see him picking up you know,
somebody else's up. We're just so careless.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Sometimes David leaves his crap everywhere.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
I got David. Somebody call out that David.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
So he's picked up momentum as a result of this effort.
It really did just start with one person.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
It really did.
Speaker 9 (12:45):
It started with him just picking up some trash in
his neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Has the city like connected with him at all too?
Speaker 9 (12:54):
Yeah, So this is a problem, and this is something
that I talked with him at linked about and he's
also very passionate about this too. When he saw that
there was a problem and he wanted to take action,
He says, he's reached out to the city of La
multiple times and asked for help. And I don't know
if do you have the sound cued up there of
what he says.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Or let me try everywhere.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
So whatever I can clean, I just do it.
Speaker 10 (13:17):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Wow, let me try one more spot. If the if
the government, if the Meyers, if the governor, if they're
not doing it, we have to come and start doing it.
Speaker 9 (13:27):
Videos of him picking up trash on the streets of
La have gone viral right now. Wan says he's using
the power of community to mobilize volunteers across neighborhoods.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
All right, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
I actually got to know I actually got you know,
got to know you through Instagram.
Speaker 9 (13:45):
That was somebody who found him on Instagram and sound
and following. So here's what he did. He says he
contacted the city several city departments as a matter of fact,
and the only response that he got back was from
a couple of people in the shine La department. He
said he reached out to the they replied back and said, hey,
this is great. Why don't you come to our shine
La event and get a photo op with the mayor.
(14:06):
Mayor Bass would love to take a photo of you.
And in his mind, he says, well, that's just a
photo op. You're not actually going to come out and
help me, Like, give me some trash bags, give me
some manpower, give me a dumpster to put this trash
in something. He says He's reached out repeatedly to the
city and his either and now they are not responding
to him at all.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Wow, that is so stereotypical. If you will, I mean,
it's what you conceive of. And I reached out for
help and the city said, you need a license to
do what you're doing, you need a permit to do
what you're doing. You've a cease and desist. And now
they didn't say that. I'm just in my mind that's
the way it works. So he wanted some kind of
substance of help from the city.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
And he got Yeah.
Speaker 9 (14:48):
I think he was telling them, Hey, I've got a
movement going on here. We're really making a difference. You know,
over a thousand was probably almost two thousand bags of trash.
Now that he's picked up from the city and we
see him doing it every week, every day, it's it's
sort of taken over his career. He came out here
for another business and now he is the clean la
with me guy.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So, you know, I don't mean to always suggest he's
achieved a certain kind of critical mass with this, you know,
amal respective you think, hey, why don't you become a
what is it five O ones three or whatever?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
It might be some kind of nonprofit.
Speaker 9 (15:21):
It is a nonprofit. He has turned it into a nonprofit. Yeah,
he's done that now so that he can accept donations
to buy the trash bags. He's also taken the donations
and he has built his own trash receptacles and in
certain places where trash seems to accumulate a lot, he's
put trash bins there and then he goes out every
week and he disposes of them himself. Now, some critics
(15:46):
and some people are saying Hey, the sannitation workers in
la are not going to like this. That's their job.
That's you know, he's kind of treading on a union
job there. So there is some questions about that. Is
he allowed to do it? Is he allowed to continue
to do it regardless The majority of people, especially when
we posted this on our social media and on our website,
(16:06):
say this is a good thing, but people are frustrated
that our tax dollars are not going towards these kinds
of efforts that this man has had to do it
and carry the physical burden and financial burden himself.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I mean it's one of those situations in which of
you ask Angelinos, they go, it's great. I mean the
city is clearly overmatched by the number of people who
are trashing the city. Yeah, so why not have individual efforts?
If it was neighborhood Watch, you wouldn't go, Well, the
cops union is really going to get angry for you
putting together neighborhood Watch. No, we need to do it
because the cops are overstressed. And similarly, to clean up
(16:40):
the city, we need a coalition of people who are
ready to actually do it.
Speaker 9 (16:44):
And he is out there doing it like when you
see the piles of trash that he's found in these neighborhoods.
I mean it's not just paper, it's cardboard boxes, it's furniture,
it's a lot of liquor bottles, it's a lot of
just like junk and gunk that you see piled up
on the side of the And this man is stopping, saying,
this is not going to happen in this city that
(17:04):
is so beautiful and loved by so many people. And
he is making something happen. He is making a change
happen in his community, and other people are on board
now and helping him.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
I'm telling you that's a kid's little story book, because
it's the story of one man coming to a big city,
being surprised at how much dirt, grime and trash there is,
deciding I'm going to, as one man, just grab a
trash bag and start sweeping up and cleaning up this
city that I love, and.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Then others pitch in.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
He before you know, it has a whole community of
over one hundred people, and it will only grow.
Speaker 9 (17:41):
It will only grow. And you're right, he's like big
lights of Hollywood. It's la He had this vision in
his mind of what it was going to be like
here and he got here and he was like, it's
dirty and there's trash everywhere.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
How can we say?
Speaker 3 (17:56):
This is the.
Speaker 9 (17:56):
Hollywood, the Lalla land that we all love and it's
just so so filled. So if anybody wants more information
about how they can read about his efforts or even help,
they can go to our website, kay if i am
six forty dot com. It's also posted on our Instagram
and our Facebook page, so if people want to check
that out as well.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I want to write that children's book, do it? Wan
nala is is how do you say his last name?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Nuala?
Speaker 9 (18:20):
You're right?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Wala Yeah, yeah, wan Is My main character comes to
the big city, wants to be a celebrity or wants
to be part of the shimmer that is hollywod sure
realizes that there is no shimmer in Hollywood, that it's
a kind of a fraud.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
You got to make your own shimmer.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
You got to make you got to bring the shimmer. Yeah,
I love it. We're writing. This is how you write.
We are we're writing.
Speaker 9 (18:40):
We are listen a brainstorming. You know, I'm almost brought
in a game for you today. If we had had
more time. I was going to bring in a fun
game that we could play, maybe the.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Feather Brooker loves games. We had a good one, I
think a couple of weeks ago. But anyway, this is
a great story and so far things have worked out.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Sorry, wish him the best.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, thank you. It's called clean La with me and
again all the information on our website to find out
more and maybe even get in touch when we come back.
The city is in trouble in another way, the payouts
that the city has had to endure around city liability,
they've reached an all time high. That's one reason that
(19:16):
the sidewalks may not be getting cleaned up, or why
they may not be getting repaired.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Michael Monks with us next to talk about it.
Speaker 8 (19:24):
You're listening to Tim conwaytun you're on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
There is a bizarre story and I really wanted to
get to the story on my show that I do
into a daily YouTube show, and I forgot and now
I see it again. I pushed it to Sharon Bellio
and we will do it here. So I will. I'll
premiere it here. Even though it was supposed to have
premiered it earlier today. But it's related to the big
summit that everybody's talking about. But it's the story not
(19:53):
told and I will I promise you haven't heard anywhere.
I mean, maybe you've heard it, but it's not in
any way played up as high profile story.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
But we'll do that a little bit later.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
We're still talking about LA and the challenges in LA,
and the latest comes from kfive's Michael Monks, who reports
on the payouts that the city has had to issue.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I mean, you know, Monks, it's crazy. I'm seeing the numbers.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Three million dollars to a wedding photographer aftert he was
injured when he tripped over a damaged sidewalk in Woodland Hills.
A wedding photographer gets his three million he was injured
when he tripped over a damaged sidewalk.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Oh that's the same guy. They printed it twice, but
they might have paid him twice.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
Honestly, they write these checks so casually.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
You know.
Speaker 11 (20:38):
When I first started here and was assigned to City Hall,
at one of the very first meetings that I sat in,
I noticed that the city Council was rolling through about
ten legal settlements. Now, back where I'm from, legal settlements
that the smaller city would settle, it was a big deal.
I mean, you would usually know the circumstances. If they're
settling for a million bucks, you certainly know the circumstances.
(20:59):
But they were rattling off these numbers, you know, the
so and so versus the city of La eight hundred thousand,
so and so versus the city of La two fifty
so and so versus City of La one point twenty
five million.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I started adding these up, and I called the news director.
Speaker 11 (21:12):
I said, I think I'm just gonna I'm gonna file
something on this, because that they settled for like eight
million dollars in one meeting. What I didn't know, because
I was new, was how routine this has become. And
so now I'm watching every meeting and there's usually eight
to ten lawsuits that they're settling.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
And that's because they recognize these have already been adjudicated
and therefore there's no reason to do anything but just
rubbers damp them.
Speaker 11 (21:37):
A lot of times, when anybody is facing a lawsuit,
you consider your options. One, are you actually guilty? Are
you liable? Did you do the thing you're being sued
for so you moved to settle in hopes of avoiding
a jury trial where you might find yourself having to
pay more than you anticipated. But this is a situation
(21:58):
where it often looks like this that he's not fighting
at all. This is an issue that was raised during
the last budget cycle was how exactly are we litigating?
Are we fighting to the best of our ability against
some of these cases at least to get a lower
settlement amount, because this is the deal. Back in two
thousand and six, the city settled lawsuits for a total
(22:22):
of thirty five million dollars. In the past two fiscal years,
it's been over five hundred million dollars half a billion dollars,
and when you take into consideration the budget constraints at
La City Hall, it's a very serious issue. So City
Controller Kenneth Mihea has said, we're going to audit this thing.
(22:42):
We're going to audit what's your risk management situation? How
are you doing to prevent lawsuits from happening in the
first place? In two can we get this cost down?
He put out a rather colorful video. He's very he
likes to use social media, but this was some colorful language.
Lit'ten know what he's said.
Speaker 12 (23:00):
It's unsustainable. What the hell is the City of Los
Angeles doing about these liabilities? Are we just going to
keep paying these out? Are people just gonna keep getting hurt? Well,
that is why we launched an audit on the city's
risk management policies and practices on reducing harm.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
And these liability payouts.
Speaker 10 (23:20):
If you don't know, these liability payots are some of
the biggest reasons why the city's undergoing layoffs of city employees,
Why departments are getting cut, Why services for you all
are getting cut.
Speaker 12 (23:33):
Why your streets and your.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Sidewalks look like dookie.
Speaker 12 (23:38):
Why city facilities that you walk into look like dukie.
Why our childcare centers got shut down, Why senior meals
got canceled? Y'all, These liability payouts are unsustainable.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Are you familiar with dukie? Mark Tom say, I'm very
fried with it. So that's what he's saying.
Speaker 11 (24:01):
It's like, Look, your streets are a mess because we
have no money. The city facilities you go in our
mess because we have no money. Programs that you care about,
services that matter to you are being cut or reduced
because of these massive liability payments. When you think about
the current fiscal year, where they had to save as
(24:21):
much as they could, cut as much as they could
to get out of a one billion dollar deficit, this
liability money would have gone along way.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Yeah, put some back behind them.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
What is the if you had to break it out, like,
is there one area where there's a lot. Is that
sidewalk stuff? Is it trip and fall stuff? Is it
cop stuff? Is it what part of the city is
the one that they're settling out the most.
Speaker 11 (24:46):
It's cop stuff. It's the police department more than anything.
It is settlements involving the LAPD. Now that may not
be the quantity, but the quality of that settlement. As
all price taggers, you might have more what they call
trip and fall cases involving infrastructure, light fixtures falling on people,
someone falling on the sidewalk. You may have more of
(25:07):
those cases, but the most expensive ones are settlements involving
the Los Angeles Police Department. And so you do have
some members of city Council who are angry that one
the LAPD is the most significant part of the budget
every year and they still don't have as many officers
as they would like to have. So these members of
council will often vote against anything that has to do
(25:28):
with giving more money on top of what was already budgeted.
In fact, they vote against everything that comes from the
LAPD Foundation, which is a nonprofit that says, hey, we're
going to pay so that whatever precinct can repaint the office.
They vote no on that, even though it doesn't cost
the city anything, because that's how adamant they are in
their opposition to any additional dollars going to the LAPD,
(25:50):
primarily because of these payouts.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Wow, that's wild.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
There's just a culture of total resistance within the city council, and.
Speaker 11 (25:57):
Now we seem to be because of this fiscal crisis,
and it's starting to you know, there's not much left
to cut. You know, when you think about the condition
of Los Angeles, how filthy it is, how dark it
is because of street lights being out in the street
Lights Bureau being cut because there's no money. If you
can't see in your neighborhood, if if trash may be impacted,
if you see the animal shelters overcrowded. You're finally paying
(26:20):
attention to city finances. You're understanding in a way you
might not have before, what this city budget crunch.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Means can you can you just linger for one second
over the break? And I thought you might be tracking
another story. I don't want I always have to ask,
all right, I want to follow up because I want
to talk about reforms and then and one other thing
with you real quick. Yeah, Michael Monks reporting on what
is more bad fiscal news for the city already buried
(26:49):
and now buried under all of these city liability payouts
that are just stacked on top of each other. And
you know, it's just a very tough spot for what
is a great city, but it's a great city buried
under debt.
Speaker 8 (27:00):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Mark Thompson here for Tim Conway Junior. We're talking about
the city of La buried in debt and the latest
reason it's buried in debt, I mean, or an additional
reason is the city liability payouts. They've reached an all
time high and they just don't have money to do
things like, you know, repair the roads, repair the sidewalks.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Michael Monks is here from KFI News.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
So is there any kind of you know, you were
talking about the fact that They're churning out so many
of these checks, and the multiplier on what it was
twenty years ago is just insane. It's just so much
more money being settled here and paid out in these
city settlements. Are there any efforts or any conversations around
the ways to address this and fix it.
Speaker 11 (27:46):
It's a five hundred percent increase in twenty years on
how much they're spending to settle legal of lawsuits that
are brought against the city. Again, just to reiterate, in
two thousand and six, the total amount that the city
paid and liability claims was thirty five million dollars. The
combined payout in the past two fiscal years is over
five hundred million. I mean, that is very significant. The
issue was addressed in earnest during the budget negotiations that
(28:10):
took place in the spring. We started the new fiscal
year on July one, they have to approve a budget
before then. And finally folks at city Hall were saying,
this doesn't look like a good thing. We should probably
bring this to heal, we should do something about this,
and they are. They've got various motions to evaluate how
the city fights back.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
But still the city has.
Speaker 11 (28:32):
A city attorney and a city attorney's office, and these
city attorneys often litigate on behalf of the city. But
there are also bills associated with outside council that are
brought in. And there's a recent case where outside council
was brought in to argue for the the some of
the immigration related stuff, and the city had budgeted I
believe about eight hundred may five hundred to eight hundred
(28:52):
thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Over two years.
Speaker 11 (28:54):
The bill came back within two weeks worth of work
at one point eight million dollars. What And this is
the kind of budgeting and spending that goes on at
La City Hall, not to mention the spending around homeless
programs that aren't necessarily bearing fruit like they wanted. It's
just a very strange operation. Recall last year that the
(29:14):
recycling program was losing money even though that was a
program designed to bring in some revenue. You know, they
collect materials and they sell them to overseas markets. They're
losing money on that. Everything is just leaking.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I mean, let me just go back to the legal
bills for a second. I mean, you I think have
a responsibility to say, hey, guys, this bill is way
out of line, we're going to renegotiate it, or you're
never going to do business with our city again.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
I mean, you can't tell me.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
There's usually an estimate on the part of these attorneys,
even if they're doing private contractor work the way they
are at the city, they'll tell you we think it'll
probably be half a million dollars our legal our time
would be between this and this.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
They have to be held to account for that.
Speaker 11 (29:57):
And then you have that law firm, which is usually
one of the higher price law firms in town, turning
around and suing you.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Now now they were your allies, and now.
Speaker 11 (30:05):
They're your enemies in court, and now you're fighting these
high price lawyers.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Actually we're going to go.
Speaker 11 (30:09):
To Oh it's a tough situation all around. I mean,
this city has nothing going for it financially. It has
a bad reputation for its business climate. It has a
bad reputation for how expensive it is to live here.
So there are no real invitations to make investments. You
see a lot of the priorities at city Hall going
(30:30):
in the direction that also dissuades folks from making business investments.
Whether it's raising the minimum wage to thirty dollars an
hour in certain sectors, hotels threatening to close just in
time for the Olympics to show up. And that's the
elephant in the room too, right, I mean, in twenty
twenty eight, the Olympic Games are coming to Los Angeles,
and when you look around at the condition of the
(30:51):
city right now, forget about the politics, forget about even
what we're talking about right now, the very specific issues
out of city Hall. Just take in the environment. Yeah,
it's not good, it's dirty, it's filthy, it's not ready,
and it doesn't look like it's even ready to be ready.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
I was ready.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
I was reading about this this morning, I think at
the LA Times, and I was talking to John Cobblet
about just this thing, like, you know, there's this pushback
to having the games, to hosting the games, like we're
not ready for all the reasons you just mentioned it more.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
But I that's not an option. First of all, you're.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Obligated in all kinds of ways, you know, legal and otherwise,
and from a business standpoint. But you know, when you
lay it out the way you lay it out, it
at least puts some meat on the bones. I never
really could understand that conversation about, well, the games are
really something that we may not be suited for right now.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
In Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
The games bring in a lot of money, right but
the idea is somehow that the town has gotten so
rickety and it just may not be ready for prime time.
Speaker 11 (31:55):
Just think about your commute, and not just you, everyone
who's listening. Think about your commute, if you were driving
across town from your home to your workplace, or if
your kid goes to school at any distance from your home.
Think about what you see if you live in Los
Angeles city proper. Just the random little pockets where the
grass is growing over the sidewalk, where the piles of
trash are unaddressed. I mentioned this a lot on the
(32:17):
area I live in, downtown Los Angeles, and a cities
downtown should really represent what the city stands for. I mean,
this is a place where your biggest businesses tend to locate.
This is a place where your finest restaurants tend to
be located, and some of your finest residences tend to
be in your downtown core. And that's true for Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
But you wouldn't know that.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
You really would not.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Know that it is so filthy.
Speaker 11 (32:44):
The entire area is covered in graffiti, the entire area
is covered in trash, and all of the sidewalks are
covered in tents.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, sadly, you're right. I was just downtown LA this
past weekend. There are amazing restaurants, there's a great life there,
but you're stepping over a lot of life that's not
so great.
Speaker 11 (33:03):
I tell everyone that downtown Los Angeles is a very
fine neighborhood. When you're looking physically up a beautiful architecture,
the weather's fantastic, you see all of the you know,
the awnings for all these fine restaurants and cool places
to hang out. But unfortunately you do have to watch
where you're walking very carefully.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
I mean, when they held the Olympics in Rio, Rio
isn't exactly wall to wall gorgeous. They had the swimming
events in a waterway that was full of fecal matter.
You remember that things They were testing it and saying
telling swimmers don't and boaters they're rowing like, don't let
that stuff hit you in the face. I mean, so,
I'm just saying that, you know, in the Olympic sweepstakes
(33:41):
of cleanliness, we may be right in the dirty hunt.
Speaker 11 (33:46):
You know, in nineteen eighty four, the last time LA
hosted the Olympics, My understanding is that it was one
of the most financially successful games in history, and that
may still hold true, that it was just a very
good event, that so much money came in, that they
started a foundation that is still bearing fruit for youth
sports all around the area this time around, I don't know.
(34:09):
I mean, do you think that we are in a
position to trust this city to pull off these games
when they can't clean the sidewalks.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Well, they have a problem with what you've talked about
and what we first sit in this room discussing, which
is city liability in those payouts. So that is a problem.
We are, We're poor, we don't have any money now
eighty four, because you mentioned it, that was you Broth
who came in and he made a bunch of corporate sponsorships.
Now you don't think anything of corporate sponsorship, but at
(34:39):
the time that was really breakthrough. You know, to make
these deals with major corporations, they may need major corporate
underwriting that spills over into the city for some of
the cleanup we're talking about. I mean, there is a
real opportunity there for Los Angeles taking to rise out
of the ashes. But we got to step up, and
we may have to get corporate underwriting.
Speaker 11 (34:57):
You would think that that is the goal point where
you and say, Okay, we're going to get out of
this rut that LA has been in since you know,
the pandemic really induced a lot of the what's these
seemingly insurmountable problems, especially homelessness and criminality, and and the
type of environment that we're in because of so many
businesses that close and because of so many rules that
(35:18):
went away during that period that allowed this to fester
into the problem that it's become. But where are the
people of action? That's what I don't see any real
conversations about the aesthetics of this city. I'm frankly, if
you would just put lipstick on the pig, right, let's
just do that, right. No one's even talking about the lipstick.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
That's a fair point, it really is. But there's still time,
and my hope is that you know, someone or some
coalition of people rise to the challenge.
Speaker 11 (35:51):
Something important happens before the Olympics come, and that's next
year there's a mayoral election and I will be curious
to see how big of an issue the Olympics and
the condition of the city will role that will play
in the campaign.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Oh, it'll definitely be a front and center issue. Great stuff,
Michael Monks. Thank you for being here, my pleasure. I
always love seeing you. All Right, when we come back,
I will share with you the story that you might
have seen reported a couple of places, but it's not
the mainstream story being talked about from that Putin Trump
summit in Alaska. But it is the weirdest story to
(36:27):
emerge from that summit. We'll have it for you next
hour KFI AM six forty We are live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Now you
can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty
four to seven pm Monday through Friday, and anytime on
demand on the iHeart Radio app.
Tim Conway Jr. on Demand News
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