Alarcon

On the eve of his departure for the state Senate, outgoing Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon on Thursday unveiled an artist's sketch of a proposed memorial for police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty. "I think we constantly have to remind ourselves of the challenges our police and firefighters face and what they sacrifice for us," said Alarcon, who has proposed Panorama City as a site. "This week the point was made given the loss of Officer [Brian] Brown."

Saying that it has no choice in the face of persistent budget deficits, the Los Angeles City Council agreed Tuesday to examine a package of controversial cost-cutting proposals that one councilman likened to a "declaration of war" on city workers and business. The action, suggested by Councilman Bernard C. Parks, directs City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana to prepare reports in a number of areas where the city could potentially reduce costs, including doing away with a shortened work week for police officers, deferring or eliminating proposed employee raises and abandoning efforts to reduce the business tax. The city currently faces a budget shortfall of $150 million to $160 million, according to Santana, although Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and others have said it could be less than $100 million.

Six employees of Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon have been ordered to appear before a grand jury this week, six months after prosecutors obtained search warrants to determine whether the councilman has been living at his legal residence. Alarcon said Monday that his chief of staff, Saeed Ali, and five other workers in his office have received subpoenas instructing them to testify on Wednesday. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley's office received permission in January to search two homes owned by Alarcon's wife, Flora Montes de Oca -- one on Nordhoff Street in Panorama City, the other on Sheldon Street in Sun Valley.

Los Angeles Board of Public Works President Andrea Alarcon quit her post Friday, two months after she became the subject of a police investigation into possible child endangerment. In her resignation statement, Alarcon apologized to co-workers and expressed "profound regret" for what she described as "the missteps of my past. " An appointee of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, she had been under investigation since Nov. 16, when her 11-year-old daughter was found unattended at City Hall.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon will speak Thursday at a meeting of the San Fernando Valley Alcohol Policy Coalition. The coalition, represented by social service organizations, government agencies, homeowner groups and private citizens, has been holding monthly meetings since 1991 to address alcohol-related issues, said Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn. and the coalition's co-chairman.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon said Friday that he should have been notified by L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley's office that a case involving an intruder at his home had been dismissed and the suspect released from a state mental hospital. Alarcon spoke out one day after an intruder broke into his Panorama City home for a second time in six months. Lawrence Lydell Payton, 42, was arrested Thursday night on suspicion of burglary at Alarcon's Nordhoff Street home.

L.A. Councilman Richard Alarcon is hoping to save the Verdugo Hills Golf Course from residential development by adding it to the city's list of historic and cultural monuments, citing its history as a detention center for Japanese Americans during World War II. Residents contend the planned housing project would bring a torrent of vehicle traffic to the urban-rural area and get rid of a long-standing recreational resource. Other efforts to prevent development on the land have included failed attempts to rezone it or cobble together enough grants and government funding to buy it outright.

The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission voted today to impose $5,650 in fines on two elected officials -- Councilmen Herb Wesson and Richard Alarcon -- for violating rules that regulate the size and type of campaign contributions given during last year's election. Wesson, who represents parts of Koreatown and South Los Angeles, received $3,000 in fines after he accepted six contributions that exceed the city's $500 maximum during his reelection campaign. Alarcon, who represents part of the San Fernando Valley, was hit with $2,650 in fines for failing to turn in the script from an automated telephone call, taking a contribution from a lobbyist and violating two counts of receiving contributions of more than $500 from certain donors.

The tale of Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon's residency -- and the investigation into whether he lives in the district he was elected to represent -- grew more tangled Friday when he announced that he had been living just outside the area for nearly three months because of concerns about his family's safety. Alarcon, 56, said he stopped living at a house his wife owns in the 7th Council District on Nordhoff Street in Panorama City in October after a man he described as mentally ill broke into the home, changed locks on at least three doors and destroyed some of his possessions.

Richard Alarcon's "A Civics Lesson: Trust Comes First," [Dec. 13] is a prime example of the misunderstanding of the obligation owed by public officials to the electorate. Alarcon tells us that city officials, by changing their minds about the Lopez Canyon Landfill, have violated the golden rule of good government as taught in our public schools, namely that elected and appointed government officials must keep their word. The rule that should be taught, and which public officials should live by, is that one should never promise that which cannot be delivered.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office concluded Thursday that the child endangerment investigation involving city commissioner Andrea Alarcon does not rise to the level of felony charges and sent it to the city attorney's office for possible misdemeanor prosecution. Michael Gargiulo, head deputy of the district attorney's Family Violence Unit, said in a two-page report that Alarcon left her 11-year-old daughter unattended for three hours on Nov. 16, the night of a gala at City Hall.

The San Bernardino County district attorney offered a deal to Los Angeles Board of Public Works President Andrea Alarcon on Tuesday that would require her to plead guilty to drunk driving and child endangerment stemming from her arrest near Running Springs two days before New Year's. Alarcon attorney Michael Scafiddi declined to comment about the offer but told the case prosecutor that he is prepared to fight the allegations. Alarcon, 33, has been charged with misdemeanor counts that include driving under the influence and child endangerment, since her now 11-year-old daughter was in the car when she was detained by the California Highway Patrol on Highway 18 about 9 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2011.

What exactly Public Works Commissioner Andrea Alarcon did on the night of Nov. 16 remains under investigation. But this much is known: Her 11-year-old daughter was found unattended at City Hall that night, and Alarcon did not come to pick her up until 2 a.m., after the girl had been taken to the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division. Moreover, it's not the first time that Alarcon's capacity as a parent has come into question. Last year, she was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, and authorities charged her with child endangerment as well because her daughter was in the car. She has pleaded not guilty in that case, and has not been charged with anything in the most recent incident.

A member of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's staff told police that she and city commissioner Andrea Alarcon were at a downtown hotel on the night Alarcon's 11-year-old daughter was found unattended at City Hall, sources told The Times. Lorraine Green, an assistant to a top Villaraigosa aide, was the first to make contact with police officers as they searched past midnight for Alarcon, who is president of the city's Board of Public Works, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the Nov. 16 incident.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's top appointee on the Board of Public Works will take a leave of absence following a Times report that she is the subject of a child endangerment investigation, a mayoral aide said Thursday. The mayor said he did not think that Andrea Alarcon, 33, should resign from her post, which pays $130,000 per year. He would not discuss the police case, which was opened after Alarcon's 11-year-old daughter was found unattended Friday night at City Hall.

The president of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works is under investigation by Los Angeles police after her 11-year-old daughter was found unattended at City Hall last week, sources familiar with the case said Wednesday. No charges have been filed against Andrea Alarcon, 33, and she was not arrested. Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, confirmed an investigation regarding Alarcon had been referred to her office but said prosecutors requested more evidence before determining whether to file any charges.

The Los Angeles County district attorney has opened an investigation to determine whether L.A. Councilman Richard Alarcon illegally claimed a Panorama City house as his residence, prosecutors said Thursday. Investigators with the Public Integrity Division served a search warrant earlier this week at a house on Nordhoff Street where Alarcon is registered to vote. The house is owned by Alarcon's wife, Flora Montes de Oca, and is within his 7th Council District in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

Although state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Van Nuys) still has a year before term limits force him to retire, it looks like the political posturing to replace him has already begun. So far, the two top contenders for the post are former Assemblyman Richard Katz and Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who for years have had a close, friendly relationship.

L.A. Councilman Richard Alarcon is hoping to save the Verdugo Hills Golf Course from residential development by adding it to the city's list of historic and cultural monuments, citing its history as a detention center for Japanese Americans during World War II. Residents contend the planned housing project would bring a torrent of vehicle traffic to the urban-rural area and get rid of a long-standing recreational resource. Other efforts to prevent development on the land have included failed attempts to rezone it or cobble together enough grants and government funding to buy it outright.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon and his wife will face trial on 23 felony counts of perjury and voter fraud after a judge Tuesday found "more than substantial" evidence that the couple lied about where they were living so he could run for office. Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar de Longoria, citing "compelling and quite telling" photographs of the Alarcons' home at 14451 Nordhoff St. in Panorama City, found that the residence was not livable and didn't show major repairs "that were reportedly done over an extensive period of time.