Budgets would be passed on time when he was in charge, candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger promised during his run for governor. But only a fool could have believed him.
This is California, the incorrigible state, where chaos and calamity are built into the game, and all promises turn up empty. And so the layoff notices were readied for thousands of state employees this week as we teetered at the abyss, certain that even with a budget agreement, there'll be sudden drop-offs ahead.
Meanwhile, here in Los Angeles, the largest homestead in the ungovernable state, we're less than two weeks away from a mayoral election no one is aware of.
Go ahead. Name one person who's running against the mayor whose name you can't pronounce.
OK, I'll help. The most well-known of Antonio Villaraigosa's nine challengers is attorney Walter Moore. You'd get to see Moore in action, for better or worse, except that Villaraigosa refuses to debate him or anyone else.
Why?
Because Villaraigosa's reelection has been preordained. And that, as a matter of fact, is the very reason I'm in Hancock Park on a blustery afternoon, talking to someone who's got big problems with the anointing that passes for electioneering in Los Angeles.
Attorney Jane Usher was once anointed herself, named to the Planning Commission in 2005 by none other than Villaraigosa. But once there, she found herself frequently at odds with the mayor and City Council. By December of last year, she couldn't take any more and quit before her four-year term was complete.
"City Hall is too comfy with a spirit of lawlessness that jeopardizes transparency and open government," Usher said.
Strong words, but hard to dispute.
Usher's biggest gripes?
We'd need days to get through them all, she said, but they include:
The way the mayor rushed the solar panel measure onto the ballot despite questions about cost and feasibility, and against a backdrop of support from a labor union whose support Villaraigosa might find helpful in a future run for governor.
The mayor's stony silence and City Council's towering ineptitude on the scandalous proliferation of digital billboards and supergraphics, those tacky vinyl coverings that are draped across buildings and, in some cases, make exits unusable.
And the routine granting of land-use exceptions to well-connected developers over the objections of exasperated homeowners concerned that, yet again, the city had no plan for traffic relief.
