May 5, 2025 • 31 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 3 (05/05) - A resident comes on the show to talk about Nick Schultz's town hall meeting regarding the bill that was blocked by CA Assembly Democrats that would've protected minors from being sex trafficked. The International Association of Fire Fighters has placed the United Firefighters of LA under a conservatorship. There was reportedly a second reservoir in Pacific Palisades that dried up as well. Congress is revoking a mandate given to CA by the EPA that was going to CA to have their own environmental policies regarding smog.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt Podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
The John Cobelt Show.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We are on every day from one untill four, and
then after four o'clock it's John Cobelt Show on demand
on the iHeart app and you could listen to what
you missed. We closed last hour. We were talking with
Daniel Guss. There's a story about the LA Fire Department
union leaders. They've been suspended. They've been investigated by the
(00:29):
union's parent organization, and the La Times now has details
on the alleged reasons. Apparently eight hundred thousand dollars in
eight hundred thousand dollars in credit card purchases that were
not properly accounted for, and so Freddie Escobar, the president,
(00:50):
has been suspended, and the secretary of this is the
LA Fire Department's union former secretary Adam Walker, former treasurer
Domingo Albaron. They're involved in this investigation as well, and
we will also suspended was two vice presidents, Cheung Ho
(01:14):
and Doug Coates.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Eight hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Escobar over a course of six years, had one thousand,
nine hundred and fifty seven transactions on his fire Union
credit card, and more than seventy percent of them have
no supporting documentation. Hey, okay, after three twenty, we'll get
(01:41):
into that. In the meantime, I want to go back
to Nick Schultz, former mayor Burbank, now the Assemblyman. He's
a rookie assemblyman. They put him in charge of the
Public Safety Committee because he's willing to keep criminals committing crimes.
He's willing to let perverts and pedophiles and predators a
(02:03):
cost teenagers and pay them for sex on the street.
That was the big ruckus in Sacramento last week. There's
a Democrat prosecutor named Maggie Crell, and she offered a
bill that would make soliciting and paying sixteen and seventeen
year olds for sex a felony automatic felony, and fifty
(02:26):
five Democrats said No. One of them was Nick Schultz,
and he runs the committee. So he grabbed the bill
from Maggie Crell and he's keeping it for himself, and
he's locking it up for a while because he doesn't
want this to be discussed anymore. Nick Schultz had a
town hall meeting on Friday, and one of our listeners
(02:49):
went and.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I guess we're going to go by.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Rick you there, Yeah, well, thank you for going, and
thank you for writing us an email summer the meeting,
and why don't you, why don't you tell me?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
How did this play out? This this meeting?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Well, when I got my wife and I got there,
we noticed a small police presence, which you know, was
was very obvious. When we went in, uh to the
the youth center. It was a it was a auditorium
and I would estimate there was about one hundred people there.
(03:31):
They had a like a table that you could sign
up to ask questions, and uh so I did that,
but you know, they wanted specifics, what did you want
to talk about? And as soon as that I saw that,
it was like it was over. There was no way
that they were gonna, you know, allow any of my questions.
(03:54):
So we sat there and a moderator started off and
told us what the format was going to be. They
were going to first, because it was an Armenian youth center,
they were going to talk about the Armenian genocide and
so forth first, and then Nick Schultz was going to
(04:18):
go into all his bills that he passed that he's
submitted and we had to listen to that, and then
it was opened up for questions, and most of the
questions were, you know, having nothing to do with the
topic that we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well they probably didn't even know a lot of these people.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Well they didn't, but it was it was kind of
interesting as they're going through and that, you know, the
people are asking their questions. There was some pushback from
people and you could tell that they all weren't, you know, liberals.
There there were some conservatives besides my for myself, but
(05:03):
there was pushback. But when it got to this, when
this this lady got up who was speaking for Alex
Baalakian and Alex Bolakian ran for US House of Representatives
this past November, and he had to leave. But this
woman spoke for him, and she was very eloquent and
(05:27):
I think she did a really a good job. But
she was getting a lot of pushback from the people
in the audience. But at first nobody said anything. It
was very very quiet.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So she asked why he voted no on not making
it a felony to pay sixteen and seventeen year olds
for sex, right, Yeah, And she was explaining the issue
everybody got quiet.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yes, here, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
And then and then you know, he started answering the
questions and you know, typical smooth legal politician, you know,
and it was just you know, stuff like penal codes
(06:18):
and you know, stuff like that, and that you know, well,
you know it's already a felony to you know, to
even contact a sixteen or seventeen year old person for sex.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, no, it is not an automatic felony to solicit
and pay for sex from sixteen to seventeen year old.
There may be other provisions about actually having sex with
the sixteen year old, but actually soliciting them and paying them. No,
it's not an automatic sellony. That's why there's that's why
(06:54):
they put up this bill. That's why there's a fight.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Right, but he made us seeing but he mean it
seem like.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It was right exactly. And that's what they do. They
they overwhelm you with verbiage. It's like verbal diarrhea.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Oh no, I've had these characters on the air and
you know, after about thirty seconds, I've forgotten the question.
And and that that that's they're trained somewhere to do that,
especially with you know, the average citizen who's not familiar
with the terms and not familiar with the jargon that
that that this guy is losing. But but absolutely, it
(07:32):
is not an automatic felony to solicit and pay a
sixteen and seventeen year old for sex. It's not right
or this, this wouldn't exist. So so so he talked
in circles and I guess that probably had a dead end.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Huh uh it did she? You know, she was trying
to rebut some stuff and you know, ask other questions,
give him other questions. And then at that point then
the the Libs got very boisterous and wanted her off
the h off the microphone.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
They did, and yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
But they shouted her down because she kept pushing the
question about buying teenagers for sex. Yes, so is there
constituency in Burbank for purchasing teenagers? Yes, so he's just
(08:31):
representing the views of the public.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I guess exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
So there's nothing wrong with it, you know, it's but
I just want to I just you know, I live
in Burbank, and I don't want this to sound like
you know, you know, he represents more areas than Burbank.
I mean, yeah, Lockercenta, Sungland, Tahonga, Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood.
(08:56):
So uh, there were some other people there from not
just Burbank, you know. So well, there's a lot more.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I'm surprised even one question was asked. Yeah, and I'm
sure it was news because.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
People don't don't don't people don't watch the news, they
don't read the news anymore. They don't know anything.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
They get agitated about one pet issue that they might have,
but for the most part, they don't know what's.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Going on exactly, you know. And that's like I heard
you earlier talking about like the gas you know, the
gasoline cost prices here, and you know that they don't.
I mean, they should care about that that, but they don't.
They don't have a clue on what's going on about that.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
No, No, we were talking because because Eric Skar, technical director,
was in Texas over the weekend and it was two
thirty nine in Texas and I saw five oh nine
today in Sherman Oaks, two thirty nine to five oh nine,
and I don't know, and any other time in my
lifetime if gas prices were that far out of whack,
(10:00):
there'd be there'd be riots in the streets and here
it's crickets, right, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Well, Rick, thank you, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yeah, just one of these things quick. So I thought
this was very ironic. At the end, they were going
to close close the program, and somebody from the audience says,
can we say the pleasure of allegiance? They go, oh, yeah, okay,
(10:29):
we'll do that.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I mean people didn't people didn't stand. People you know,
continued to sit right. Well, I think you should have
Representative Assemblyman Schultz on.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Oh I'd love to have them on, because he wouldn't
be able to snow me with his diary.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I'll tell you that all right.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Else, maybe you should speak to is Alex Bulakian.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Okay, he ran as a Republican for the House and
he lost. Laura Friedman. Friedman had Schultz's seat, but she
won and she's now congresswoman. Yeah, well, well we could
talk to him and and maybe he could explain what's
going on. I have no way of understanding any of this.
(11:15):
This is all just insane. I've got a run. I
got to do the news. Thank you for coming on, Rick,
Rick who went to the Nick Schultz town hall meeting
in Burbank Schultz, head of the Assembly Public Safety Committee,
and he doesn't think it's particularly wrong to buy a
teenager for sex. When we come back, well, it looks
(11:40):
like there's if you believe these charges from this international
fire agency, they are indicating that the union leaders for
the LA Fire Union were on the take hundreds of
thousands of dollars in credit card bills that have not
and substantiated.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Okay, get ready for this if you're just joining us.
When the big fire happened in the Palisades, one of
the first to speak out against what was going on
was the president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles,
Freddie Escobar. He detailed for us just how badly underfunded
(12:32):
the fire department was, how we had fewer fire stations
than we did in the nineteen sixties, and told us
about the thousands and thousands of vagrants that start fires
every year, which drains a tremendous amount of time from
(12:54):
the fire department. And he talked about how unprepared that
the that the city had made the LA Fire Department
with its lack of funding. Although he was supportive of
Kristen Crowley, the fire chief. So we had him on
a couple times, two, three times, and I thought he
(13:15):
was one of the good guys. Now last week a
story leaked that he had made five hundred and forty
thousand dollars last year, a lot of overtime, and that made.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Me go, huh, I.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Don't know what that's about, but you know, when you
have an underfunded fire department, you do get a big
overtime costs. So that was one of those wait and
see stories.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
But now.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
He's been suspended. He's with United Firefighters in Los Angeles,
you know, the local, and that is overseen by the
International Association of Firefighters. It oversees firefighter re unions around
(14:01):
the country. And Freddy Escobar, the president, has been suspended.
Also Vice presidents Chung Ho and Doug Coates have been suspended,
and two others, a former secretary Adam Walker and a
former treasurer, Domingo Alberon Junr, also investigated. And it's over
(14:26):
eight hundred thousand dollars in credit card purchases that were
not accounted for. Eight hundred thousand dollars from July of
twenty eighteen through November of twenty twenty four, all by himself.
They said they did an audit. Freddy Escobar had one thousand,
(14:49):
nine hundred and fifty seven separate transactions on his Union
credit card, totaling over three hundred and eleven thousand dollars.
Of those transactions have no supporting documentation, no receipts submitted.
That amounts about two hundred and thirty thousand of the total.
(15:12):
The auditors could not ascertain the purpose of these transactions,
according to the IAFF General President Edward Kelly, IAFF is
the national organization. Kelly said, there's another one hundred and
fifty some odd transactions another thirty five thousand dollars only
partially supported.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
So now we're looking at over a quarter of a million.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Dollars in credit card transactions by Freddie Escobar that doesn't
have enough or has no documentation at all. La Times
tried to contact him and didn't respond. The former secretary
of United of United Firefighters of la Is Adam Walker,
(16:00):
the former treasurer Domingo Abaran Junr they had five hundred
and thirty thousand dollars in credit card transactions with no
receipts or only partially documented. So now we are up
to eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars between the three
of them. The vice presidents Chung Ho and Doug Coates
(16:23):
suspended and accused of breaching their fiduciary duties failing to
enforce United Firefighters of La policy.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Maybe they should have noticed.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
That there were eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars worth
of charges on the fire department credit card or the
Fire Union credit card. And all this comes out of
the dues that firefighters pay, which in turn comes you know,
comes out of their paychecks, which, of course taxpayers provide
(16:55):
the money for the paychecks, which leads to the dues,
which ends up paying off the credit cards that Escobar
and Walker and Alberon were using. They found that they've
(17:17):
moved large sums of money. There was a charity account
the United Firefighters of La Fire Foundation set up for
two golf tournaments. They were supposed to raise money for
a disabled former firefighter, and Walker, the secretary says all
(17:40):
the deposits were reimbursements for out of pocketed expenses, but
the investigation showed that large sums of money moved from
the charity to his personal accounts. And Walker, the former secretary,
paid his mortgage and RV loan payments. This was money
(18:01):
for golf tournaments for a disabled firefighter. And they say,
this guy, somehow the money got diverted to pay his
mortgage and his RV and made cash ATM withdrawals at
a casino. The Times they referenced the story I told
(18:23):
you about. They found Escobar and other top union officers
for years had been patting their paychecks with overtime while
collecting five to six figure union stipends. Escobar made five
hundred and forty thousand dollars in twenty twenty two. That
was double his base salary with overtime payments. And you
get the idea. Who had it turned to here? Huh yeahoo,
(18:48):
nothing but in competence, corruption, stupidity. There's nobody to go
to Governor Newsom. That would be the stupidity category. Right now,
there's more. Rick Caruso has just posted something. Apparently there
(19:09):
was a second reservoir in the Palisades that went dry.
The New York Times has a story about it. I'll
tell you about it next. I'll tell you about Caruso's
reaction to it, that that that reservoir it was seven
hundred and seventeen million gallons sent in as that wasn't
the only reservoir that was dry up of the Palisades.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
What's everybody doing here?
Speaker 4 (19:34):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It's the John Cobelt Show caf I AM six forty
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. It'd be a good
time to give you the moistline. I can't call the moistline,
but why don't you call it for me? Eight seven
seven moist eighty six eight seven seven moist eighty six.
It would sound stupid if I said, let's play the
moistline and then it's me yelling at me eight seven
seven sixty six four seven eight. So use the talkback
(20:01):
feature on the iHeartRadio app. Okay, you ready for this? One?
New York Times apparently this came out over the weekend,
but the story was put on page A thirty two,
so I missed it. But Rick Caruso saw it and
he posted it, and I'll read you his comment about
(20:23):
it in a moment. But this is by Mike Baker
from the New York Times, and seven months before the
Palisades fire. Remember they had shut down the Santi Inez
reservoir one hundred and seventeen million gallons because it needed
its cover repaired.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Now, why a.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Reservoir needs a cover, I don't understand that to begin with,
For for forty years it never had a cover. Was
primarily used for fire protection, not drinking. Okay, So, seven
months before the fire, with the Santiez reservoir off line,
(21:06):
the city's water managers at the DWP had a plan
to revive an old reservoir to boost the capacity a bit.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Because the repair was still months away, so New York Times.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Filed a request under a public records law, and it
showed that any emails that the city had searched for
solutions to rectify the supply shortage. They had lengthy discussions
and preliminary preparations, but they never corrected the problem. In
(21:47):
June of last year, Cruz spent several days cleaning the
Pacific Palisades Reservoir. This is a different one three miles
away from Santienez. This was closed in twenty thirteen, but
they started cleaning the Pacific Palisades Reservoir to use it temporarily.
(22:12):
After the cleaning was completed, they were going to do
more work. They were to disinfect the reservoir install new pipes,
but the plan was never completed. According to Ellen Cheng,
a spokeshole for the LADWP, the city ultimately determined that
bringing back the reservoir online could have posed serious risk
(22:32):
to workers and residents because of structural and other safety issues.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Well not nearly the danger that the fire was.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
By the time the fire started, the Palisades Reservoir was
still out of service. The Santa Tez Reservoir was still
out of service. And it says, here, boy, this is
genius journalism. The inability to bring either reservoir back online
undermined the potential water supply in the area. Thank you
(23:04):
for that, because that's one hundred and seventeen million gallons.
The Pacific Palisades Reservoir could holds six million gallons, which
doesn't sound like a lot relatively, but it was double
what they had available in those three water tanks. It's
not certain how much of a difference in extra supply
it could have made, but it would have been sustain
(23:30):
water pressure in the area because the fire hydrants went dry,
or it was down to very light water pressure, which
made it the hydrants useless. Now they keep putting in
this line that we don't know it would have made
a difference. I have seen Caruso's shopping center in the
(23:51):
Palisades up close since the fire. It is really in
great condition because he hired his own fire department. And
while that costs a lot of money for an individual,
it was not that much of a cost for a city.
So if you were and that shopping center is good sized,
and if just a small at hoc fire department, private
(24:18):
fire department could say that much property, imagine if we
had tens of millions of gallons or hundreds of millions
of gallons, and we had a fully funded fire department
that didn't have one hundred fire engines disabled, it would
be an enormous difference. And anybody says otherwise is lying,
(24:40):
absolutely lying. Of course, it would have made a huge difference.
Matthew Stump is a lawyer who is part of a
legal team seven hundred and fifty wildfire victims are suing.
They've been trying to get the records and answers from
the city about the reservoirs.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
And before.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Before the city tried to add the floating cover on
the Santeinez Reservoir. City officials added a cistern at the
Palisades Reservoir where firefighters could land a helicopter to refill
their supply. So both reservoirs were considered very useful for
(25:29):
fire and the reservoir had been retired because of its
low elevation. They thought the water sitting there longer was
would create quality issues. What is quality issues in water
to be used to put out.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
A fire, but we're not drinking it? Who cares?
Speaker 2 (25:51):
No, they didn't need either reservoir for drinking purposes, quality issues.
Even water could daminated with bird poop would still put
out a fire. God, they're stupid. They're just criminally impossibly stupid.
And of course you know, recently they found there's more
(26:12):
terrors in the cover and they drained the Santainez reservoir
all over again.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
It had been one quarter filled. Here's what Caruso wrote
on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
How the head of the DWP still has a job
is unthinkable in competence at the highest level, this would
be Genie Kenoniez.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. That's right.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Only in LA does failure this big come with job security,
says Caruso. Seven months, empty reservoirs, dry hydrants. The more
we learn about the pre fire failures of our city leaders,
the more baffling the total lack of accountability at DWP becomes.
DWP did not plan, they did not act, and no
(26:55):
one has been held accountable. Mayor Bass appointed the head
of the DWP, and it's time she acts and fires.
Her Leadership means responsibility. We will see better results until
there is change, says Rick Caruso. Last we heard from
Genie Quinonyez. She was celebrating Earth Day at the meeting.
(27:19):
Still no word. Two reservoirs empty, now two of them.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty moistline.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Well, I gave you enough today, I think eight seven
seven moist eighty six. It's not like you have to
do your own research. Eight seven seven moist eighty six.
You usually talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app and we'll
play it twice on Friday.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Well, here's good news. I think the era of.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Climate change insanity is coming to an end, and it's
coming to an end in California because it looks like
one way or the other, this mandate that we all
have to buy electric cars by twenty thirty five, as
finally it's it's finally getting killed. The Congress voted two
(28:16):
hundred and forty six to one sixty four to repeal
a waiver that the EPA gave California for its ev mandate.
In other words, in order for California to force electric
vehicles on us. And remember it was one hundred percent
electric vehicles to be sold by the year twenty thirty five. Well,
(28:40):
the EPA had to grant California waiver for that, and
now Congress is taking it away. And this is a
bipartisan issue. The waiver was written so that California could
have its own environmental rules to address smog, which everyone
(29:02):
agreed with smog. But carbon dioxide from driving a gas
powered car is not smog. Carbon dioxide is what we exhale.
It's what trees and plants and grass inhale. Carbon dioxide
is not a poison. And we've had years of this nonsense,
(29:23):
and the climate is not any different still all the same.
No temperatures were lowered, so now too, it was two
sixty four, It was two forty six to one sixty four,
and in the House there were thirty five Democrats that
joined the Republicans to get rid of this California waiver.
(29:46):
And the Senate is likely to pass it as well,
and Trump will sign it, and that'll be the end
of this nonsense. And I told you it was never
ever going to get there. Most car makers are nowhere
near the sales targets by twenty twenty seven. In a
year and a half, forty three percent of an automaker's
car sales was supposed to be electric in California, and
(30:10):
it was sixty eight percent by twenty thirty. Not only that,
there's a dozen other states that decided to copy California rules.
Whatever California did, they would do well. Virginia has repealed that,
Maryland has repealed that, and now dozens of Democrats have
joined this initiative, and it looks like it looks like
(30:33):
it's going to pass, and we'll be done with this
nonsense hanging over our heads. We still have to deal
with all the excessive taxes and fees because, as we
told you earlier, Eric Sklar, our technical director, was in
Texas over the weekend Austin two dollars and thirty nine
cents for gas two thirty nine. Today I saw and
this was a common price five dollars and nine cents.
(30:57):
It's now a two dollars in seventy cent differential for
attack of twenty gallon tank of gas. That's a fifty
four dollars difference. You could fill up in Texas full
tank of gas for fifty four dollars less every week.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Than here more.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Coming up with Conway, Michael Krozer has the news live
in the CAFI twenty for our newsroom. Hey, you've been
listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You can always
hear the show live on KFI Am six forty from
one to four pm every Monday through Friday, and of
course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt Podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
The John Cobelt Show.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We are on every day from one untill four, and
then after four o'clock it's John Cobelt Show on demand
on the iHeart app and you could listen to what
you missed. We closed last hour. We were talking with
Daniel Guss. There's a story about the LA Fire Department
union leaders. They've been suspended. They've been investigated by the
(00:29):
union's parent organization, and the La Times now has details
on the alleged reasons. Apparently eight hundred thousand dollars in
eight hundred thousand dollars in credit card purchases that were
not properly accounted for, and so Freddie Escobar, the president,
(00:50):
has been suspended, and the secretary of this is the
LA Fire Department's union former secretary Adam Walker, former treasurer
Domingo Albaron. They're involved in this investigation as well, and
we will also suspended was two vice presidents, Cheung Ho
(01:14):
and Doug Coates.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Eight hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Escobar over a course of six years, had one thousand,
nine hundred and fifty seven transactions on his fire Union
credit card, and more than seventy percent of them have
no supporting documentation. Hey, okay, after three twenty, we'll get
(01:41):
into that. In the meantime, I want to go back
to Nick Schultz, former mayor Burbank, now the Assemblyman. He's
a rookie assemblyman. They put him in charge of the
Public Safety Committee because he's willing to keep criminals committing crimes.
He's willing to let perverts and pedophiles and predators a
(02:03):
cost teenagers and pay them for sex on the street.
That was the big ruckus in Sacramento last week. There's
a Democrat prosecutor named Maggie Crell, and she offered a
bill that would make soliciting and paying sixteen and seventeen
year olds for sex a felony automatic felony, and fifty
(02:26):
five Democrats said No. One of them was Nick Schultz,
and he runs the committee. So he grabbed the bill
from Maggie Crell and he's keeping it for himself, and
he's locking it up for a while because he doesn't
want this to be discussed anymore. Nick Schultz had a
town hall meeting on Friday, and one of our listeners
(02:49):
went and.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I guess we're going to go by.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Rick you there, Yeah, well, thank you for going, and
thank you for writing us an email summer the meeting,
and why don't you, why don't you tell me?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
How did this play out? This this meeting?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Well, when I got my wife and I got there,
we noticed a small police presence, which you know, was
was very obvious. When we went in, uh to the
the youth center. It was a it was a auditorium
and I would estimate there was about one hundred people there.
(03:31):
They had a like a table that you could sign
up to ask questions, and uh so I did that,
but you know, they wanted specifics, what did you want
to talk about? And as soon as that I saw that,
it was like it was over. There was no way
that they were gonna, you know, allow any of my questions.
(03:54):
So we sat there and a moderator started off and
told us what the format was going to be. They
were going to first, because it was an Armenian youth center,
they were going to talk about the Armenian genocide and
so forth first, and then Nick Schultz was going to
(04:18):
go into all his bills that he passed that he's
submitted and we had to listen to that, and then
it was opened up for questions, and most of the
questions were, you know, having nothing to do with the
topic that we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well they probably didn't even know a lot of these people.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Well they didn't, but it was it was kind of
interesting as they're going through and that, you know, the
people are asking their questions. There was some pushback from
people and you could tell that they all weren't, you know, liberals.
There there were some conservatives besides my for myself, but
(05:03):
there was pushback. But when it got to this, when
this this lady got up who was speaking for Alex
Baalakian and Alex Bolakian ran for US House of Representatives
this past November, and he had to leave. But this
woman spoke for him, and she was very eloquent and
(05:27):
I think she did a really a good job. But
she was getting a lot of pushback from the people
in the audience. But at first nobody said anything. It
was very very quiet.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So she asked why he voted no on not making
it a felony to pay sixteen and seventeen year olds
for sex, right, Yeah, And she was explaining the issue
everybody got quiet.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yes, here, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
And then and then you know, he started answering the
questions and you know, typical smooth legal politician, you know,
and it was just you know, stuff like penal codes
(06:18):
and you know, stuff like that, and that you know, well,
you know it's already a felony to you know, to
even contact a sixteen or seventeen year old person for sex.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, no, it is not an automatic felony to solicit
and pay for sex from sixteen to seventeen year old.
There may be other provisions about actually having sex with
the sixteen year old, but actually soliciting them and paying them. No,
it's not an automatic sellony. That's why there's that's why
(06:54):
they put up this bill. That's why there's a fight.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Right, but he made us seeing but he mean it
seem like.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It was right exactly. And that's what they do. They
they overwhelm you with verbiage. It's like verbal diarrhea.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Oh no, I've had these characters on the air and
you know, after about thirty seconds, I've forgotten the question.
And and that that that's they're trained somewhere to do that,
especially with you know, the average citizen who's not familiar
with the terms and not familiar with the jargon that
that that this guy is losing. But but absolutely, it
(07:32):
is not an automatic felony to solicit and pay a
sixteen and seventeen year old for sex. It's not right
or this, this wouldn't exist. So so so he talked
in circles and I guess that probably had a dead end.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Huh uh it did she? You know, she was trying
to rebut some stuff and you know, ask other questions,
give him other questions. And then at that point then
the the Libs got very boisterous and wanted her off
the h off the microphone.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
They did, and yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
But they shouted her down because she kept pushing the
question about buying teenagers for sex. Yes, so is there
constituency in Burbank for purchasing teenagers? Yes, so he's just
(08:31):
representing the views of the public.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I guess exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
So there's nothing wrong with it, you know, it's but
I just want to I just you know, I live
in Burbank, and I don't want this to sound like
you know, you know, he represents more areas than Burbank.
I mean, yeah, Lockercenta, Sungland, Tahonga, Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood.
(08:56):
So uh, there were some other people there from not
just Burbank, you know. So well, there's a lot more.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I'm surprised even one question was asked. Yeah, and I'm
sure it was news because.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
People don't don't don't people don't watch the news, they
don't read the news anymore. They don't know anything.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
They get agitated about one pet issue that they might have,
but for the most part, they don't know what's.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Going on exactly, you know. And that's like I heard
you earlier talking about like the gas you know, the
gasoline cost prices here, and you know that they don't.
I mean, they should care about that that, but they don't.
They don't have a clue on what's going on about that.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
No, No, we were talking because because Eric Skar, technical director,
was in Texas over the weekend and it was two
thirty nine in Texas and I saw five oh nine
today in Sherman Oaks, two thirty nine to five oh nine,
and I don't know, and any other time in my
lifetime if gas prices were that far out of whack,
(10:00):
there'd be there'd be riots in the streets and here
it's crickets, right, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Well, Rick, thank you, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yeah, just one of these things quick. So I thought
this was very ironic. At the end, they were going
to close close the program, and somebody from the audience says,
can we say the pleasure of allegiance? They go, oh, yeah, okay,
(10:29):
we'll do that.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I mean people didn't people didn't stand. People you know,
continued to sit right. Well, I think you should have
Representative Assemblyman Schultz on.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Oh I'd love to have them on, because he wouldn't
be able to snow me with his diary.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I'll tell you that all right.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Else, maybe you should speak to is Alex Bulakian.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Okay, he ran as a Republican for the House and
he lost. Laura Friedman. Friedman had Schultz's seat, but she
won and she's now congresswoman. Yeah, well, well we could
talk to him and and maybe he could explain what's
going on. I have no way of understanding any of this.
(11:15):
This is all just insane. I've got a run. I
got to do the news. Thank you for coming on, Rick,
Rick who went to the Nick Schultz town hall meeting
in Burbank Schultz, head of the Assembly Public Safety Committee,
and he doesn't think it's particularly wrong to buy a
teenager for sex. When we come back, well, it looks
(11:40):
like there's if you believe these charges from this international
fire agency, they are indicating that the union leaders for
the LA Fire Union were on the take hundreds of
thousands of dollars in credit card bills that have not
and substantiated.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Okay, get ready for this if you're just joining us.
When the big fire happened in the Palisades, one of
the first to speak out against what was going on
was the president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles,
Freddie Escobar. He detailed for us just how badly underfunded
(12:32):
the fire department was, how we had fewer fire stations
than we did in the nineteen sixties, and told us
about the thousands and thousands of vagrants that start fires
every year, which drains a tremendous amount of time from
(12:54):
the fire department. And he talked about how unprepared that
the that the city had made the LA Fire Department
with its lack of funding. Although he was supportive of
Kristen Crowley, the fire chief. So we had him on
a couple times, two, three times, and I thought he
(13:15):
was one of the good guys. Now last week a
story leaked that he had made five hundred and forty
thousand dollars last year, a lot of overtime, and that made.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Me go, huh, I.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Don't know what that's about, but you know, when you
have an underfunded fire department, you do get a big
overtime costs. So that was one of those wait and
see stories.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
But now.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
He's been suspended. He's with United Firefighters in Los Angeles,
you know, the local, and that is overseen by the
International Association of Firefighters. It oversees firefighter re unions around
(14:01):
the country. And Freddy Escobar, the president, has been suspended.
Also Vice presidents Chung Ho and Doug Coates have been suspended,
and two others, a former secretary Adam Walker and a
former treasurer, Domingo Alberon Junr, also investigated. And it's over
(14:26):
eight hundred thousand dollars in credit card purchases that were
not accounted for. Eight hundred thousand dollars from July of
twenty eighteen through November of twenty twenty four, all by himself.
They said they did an audit. Freddy Escobar had one thousand,
(14:49):
nine hundred and fifty seven separate transactions on his Union
credit card, totaling over three hundred and eleven thousand dollars.
Of those transactions have no supporting documentation, no receipts submitted.
That amounts about two hundred and thirty thousand of the total.
(15:12):
The auditors could not ascertain the purpose of these transactions,
according to the IAFF General President Edward Kelly, IAFF is
the national organization. Kelly said, there's another one hundred and
fifty some odd transactions another thirty five thousand dollars only
partially supported.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
So now we're looking at over a quarter of a million.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Dollars in credit card transactions by Freddie Escobar that doesn't
have enough or has no documentation at all. La Times
tried to contact him and didn't respond. The former secretary
of United of United Firefighters of la Is Adam Walker,
(16:00):
the former treasurer Domingo Abaran Junr they had five hundred
and thirty thousand dollars in credit card transactions with no
receipts or only partially documented. So now we are up
to eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars between the three
of them. The vice presidents Chung Ho and Doug Coates
(16:23):
suspended and accused of breaching their fiduciary duties failing to
enforce United Firefighters of La policy.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Maybe they should have noticed.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
That there were eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars worth
of charges on the fire department credit card or the
Fire Union credit card. And all this comes out of
the dues that firefighters pay, which in turn comes you know,
comes out of their paychecks, which, of course taxpayers provide
(16:55):
the money for the paychecks, which leads to the dues,
which ends up paying off the credit cards that Escobar
and Walker and Alberon were using. They found that they've
(17:17):
moved large sums of money. There was a charity account
the United Firefighters of La Fire Foundation set up for
two golf tournaments. They were supposed to raise money for
a disabled former firefighter, and Walker, the secretary says all
(17:40):
the deposits were reimbursements for out of pocketed expenses, but
the investigation showed that large sums of money moved from
the charity to his personal accounts. And Walker, the former secretary,
paid his mortgage and RV loan payments. This was money
(18:01):
for golf tournaments for a disabled firefighter. And they say,
this guy, somehow the money got diverted to pay his
mortgage and his RV and made cash ATM withdrawals at
a casino. The Times they referenced the story I told
(18:23):
you about. They found Escobar and other top union officers
for years had been patting their paychecks with overtime while
collecting five to six figure union stipends. Escobar made five
hundred and forty thousand dollars in twenty twenty two. That
was double his base salary with overtime payments. And you
get the idea. Who had it turned to here? Huh yeahoo,
(18:48):
nothing but in competence, corruption, stupidity. There's nobody to go
to Governor Newsom. That would be the stupidity category. Right now,
there's more. Rick Caruso has just posted something. Apparently there
(19:09):
was a second reservoir in the Palisades that went dry.
The New York Times has a story about it. I'll
tell you about it next. I'll tell you about Caruso's
reaction to it, that that that reservoir it was seven
hundred and seventeen million gallons sent in as that wasn't
the only reservoir that was dry up of the Palisades.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
What's everybody doing here?
Speaker 4 (19:34):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It's the John Cobelt Show caf I AM six forty
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. It'd be a good
time to give you the moistline. I can't call the moistline,
but why don't you call it for me? Eight seven
seven moist eighty six eight seven seven moist eighty six.
It would sound stupid if I said, let's play the
moistline and then it's me yelling at me eight seven
seven sixty six four seven eight. So use the talkback
(20:01):
feature on the iHeartRadio app. Okay, you ready for this? One?
New York Times apparently this came out over the weekend,
but the story was put on page A thirty two,
so I missed it. But Rick Caruso saw it and
he posted it, and I'll read you his comment about
(20:23):
it in a moment. But this is by Mike Baker
from the New York Times, and seven months before the
Palisades fire. Remember they had shut down the Santi Inez
reservoir one hundred and seventeen million gallons because it needed
its cover repaired.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Now, why a.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Reservoir needs a cover, I don't understand that to begin with,
For for forty years it never had a cover. Was
primarily used for fire protection, not drinking. Okay, So, seven
months before the fire, with the Santiez reservoir off line,
(21:06):
the city's water managers at the DWP had a plan
to revive an old reservoir to boost the capacity a bit.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Because the repair was still months away, so New York Times.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Filed a request under a public records law, and it
showed that any emails that the city had searched for
solutions to rectify the supply shortage. They had lengthy discussions
and preliminary preparations, but they never corrected the problem. In
(21:47):
June of last year, Cruz spent several days cleaning the
Pacific Palisades Reservoir. This is a different one three miles
away from Santienez. This was closed in twenty thirteen, but
they started cleaning the Pacific Palisades Reservoir to use it temporarily.
(22:12):
After the cleaning was completed, they were going to do
more work. They were to disinfect the reservoir install new pipes,
but the plan was never completed. According to Ellen Cheng,
a spokeshole for the LADWP, the city ultimately determined that
bringing back the reservoir online could have posed serious risk
(22:32):
to workers and residents because of structural and other safety issues.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Well not nearly the danger that the fire was.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
By the time the fire started, the Palisades Reservoir was
still out of service. The Santa Tez Reservoir was still
out of service. And it says, here, boy, this is
genius journalism. The inability to bring either reservoir back online
undermined the potential water supply in the area. Thank you
(23:04):
for that, because that's one hundred and seventeen million gallons.
The Pacific Palisades Reservoir could holds six million gallons, which
doesn't sound like a lot relatively, but it was double
what they had available in those three water tanks. It's
not certain how much of a difference in extra supply
it could have made, but it would have been sustain
(23:30):
water pressure in the area because the fire hydrants went dry,
or it was down to very light water pressure, which
made it the hydrants useless. Now they keep putting in
this line that we don't know it would have made
a difference. I have seen Caruso's shopping center in the
(23:51):
Palisades up close since the fire. It is really in
great condition because he hired his own fire department. And
while that costs a lot of money for an individual,
it was not that much of a cost for a city.
So if you were and that shopping center is good sized,
and if just a small at hoc fire department, private
(24:18):
fire department could say that much property, imagine if we
had tens of millions of gallons or hundreds of millions
of gallons, and we had a fully funded fire department
that didn't have one hundred fire engines disabled, it would
be an enormous difference. And anybody says otherwise is lying,
(24:40):
absolutely lying. Of course, it would have made a huge difference.
Matthew Stump is a lawyer who is part of a
legal team seven hundred and fifty wildfire victims are suing.
They've been trying to get the records and answers from
the city about the reservoirs.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
And before.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Before the city tried to add the floating cover on
the Santeinez Reservoir. City officials added a cistern at the
Palisades Reservoir where firefighters could land a helicopter to refill
their supply. So both reservoirs were considered very useful for
(25:29):
fire and the reservoir had been retired because of its
low elevation. They thought the water sitting there longer was
would create quality issues. What is quality issues in water
to be used to put out.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
A fire, but we're not drinking it? Who cares?
Speaker 2 (25:51):
No, they didn't need either reservoir for drinking purposes, quality issues.
Even water could daminated with bird poop would still put
out a fire. God, they're stupid. They're just criminally impossibly stupid.
And of course you know, recently they found there's more
(26:12):
terrors in the cover and they drained the Santainez reservoir
all over again.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
It had been one quarter filled. Here's what Caruso wrote
on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
How the head of the DWP still has a job
is unthinkable in competence at the highest level, this would
be Genie Kenoniez.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. That's right.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Only in LA does failure this big come with job security,
says Caruso. Seven months, empty reservoirs, dry hydrants. The more
we learn about the pre fire failures of our city leaders,
the more baffling the total lack of accountability at DWP becomes.
DWP did not plan, they did not act, and no
(26:55):
one has been held accountable. Mayor Bass appointed the head
of the DWP, and it's time she acts and fires.
Her Leadership means responsibility. We will see better results until
there is change, says Rick Caruso. Last we heard from
Genie Quinonyez. She was celebrating Earth Day at the meeting.
(27:19):
Still no word. Two reservoirs empty, now two of them.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty moistline.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Well, I gave you enough today, I think eight seven
seven moist eighty six. It's not like you have to
do your own research. Eight seven seven moist eighty six.
You usually talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app and we'll
play it twice on Friday.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Well, here's good news. I think the era of.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Climate change insanity is coming to an end, and it's
coming to an end in California because it looks like
one way or the other, this mandate that we all
have to buy electric cars by twenty thirty five, as
finally it's it's finally getting killed. The Congress voted two
(28:16):
hundred and forty six to one sixty four to repeal
a waiver that the EPA gave California for its ev mandate.
In other words, in order for California to force electric
vehicles on us. And remember it was one hundred percent
electric vehicles to be sold by the year twenty thirty five. Well,
(28:40):
the EPA had to grant California waiver for that, and
now Congress is taking it away. And this is a
bipartisan issue. The waiver was written so that California could
have its own environmental rules to address smog, which everyone
(29:02):
agreed with smog. But carbon dioxide from driving a gas
powered car is not smog. Carbon dioxide is what we exhale.
It's what trees and plants and grass inhale. Carbon dioxide
is not a poison. And we've had years of this nonsense,
(29:23):
and the climate is not any different still all the same.
No temperatures were lowered, so now too, it was two
sixty four, It was two forty six to one sixty four,
and in the House there were thirty five Democrats that
joined the Republicans to get rid of this California waiver.
(29:46):
And the Senate is likely to pass it as well,
and Trump will sign it, and that'll be the end
of this nonsense. And I told you it was never
ever going to get there. Most car makers are nowhere
near the sales targets by twenty twenty seven. In a
year and a half, forty three percent of an automaker's
car sales was supposed to be electric in California, and
(30:10):
it was sixty eight percent by twenty thirty. Not only that,
there's a dozen other states that decided to copy California rules.
Whatever California did, they would do well. Virginia has repealed that,
Maryland has repealed that, and now dozens of Democrats have
joined this initiative, and it looks like it looks like
(30:33):
it's going to pass, and we'll be done with this
nonsense hanging over our heads. We still have to deal
with all the excessive taxes and fees because, as we
told you earlier, Eric Sklar, our technical director, was in
Texas over the weekend Austin two dollars and thirty nine
cents for gas two thirty nine. Today I saw and
this was a common price five dollars and nine cents.
(30:57):
It's now a two dollars in seventy cent differential for
attack of twenty gallon tank of gas. That's a fifty
four dollars difference. You could fill up in Texas full
tank of gas for fifty four dollars less every week.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Than here more.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Coming up with Conway, Michael Krozer has the news live
in the CAFI twenty for our newsroom. Hey, you've been
listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You can always
hear the show live on KFI Am six forty from
one to four pm every Monday through Friday, and of
course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
The John Kobylt Show News
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