Zev Yaroslavsky

L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has his own Web page on the Internet at the expense of "us" taxpayers. We paid $1,800 to have his Web page set up, and it costs us an additional amount per month in access and maintenance fees. Ringmaster Zev says the county is close to being bankrupt, but it didn't stop him from starting his own little circus! Come on fellow taxpayers, let's face reality here. How many middle-class taxpayers have access to the Internet, let alone own computers? The cost of Zev's circus can be put to a better use, especially at a time when L.A. County is in financial trouble!

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky wants the board to consider tearing down part of the troubled Men's Central Jail and building a facility to house mentally ill and drug addicted inmates, which he says would offer all prisoners a better chance of rehabilitation while potentially saving the county millions of dollars. Supervisors have been struggling over what to do with their aging and overcrowded jails for more than a year. Sheriff Lee Baca, who oversees the nation's largest jail system, initially called for spending nearly $1.4 billion to replace or renovate the Men's Central Jail and the adjacent Twin Towers, but the price tag was more than supervisors would accept.

It was exactly a year ago that L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky began seeing a blur out of his right eye. His optometrist told him his vision had diminished 22% since the previous exam, and suggested he get checked out for diabetes. Diabetes? Yaroslavsky shrugged it off, even though his mother, who died of cancer when Zev was 10, had diabetes. He had been feeling fatigued and frequently thirsty, but his nonstop schedule was explanation enough.

The Ford Theatres in Hollywood is featuring a new performance series named after county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky as part of its new 2013 summer season. The season, which was announced this week, includes Mandy Patinkin with the Pasadena Pops, Complexions Contemporary Ballet and the Lula Washington Dance Theatre. Last year, organizers announced that the Ford would undergo a multimillion-dollar renovation that would include new seating and resurfacing to prevent leaks. The reported price tag for this first stage of renovations was $7.5 million, with the money coming from the county.

At night, when it's time to put away the cares of the nation's second-largest city, Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky dreams to the chatter of an all-news radio station. His home, in the Fairfax district, is a drab yellow structure with peeling paint and a dirt-patched front lawn.

Former Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus said Tuesday she will not run for the seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors being vacated by retiring Supervisor Ed Edelman, which strengthens the candidacy of Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. Her decision eliminated a potential big-name opponent for Yaroslavsky, a declared supervisorial candidate widely viewed as the front-runner. Last week, another well-known potential foe, state Senate leader David A.

Community leaders say they hope Sherman Oaks and other communities will band together to persuade the City Council to appoint an interim council member for the 5th District when Zev Yaroslavsky leaves office in December. These activists plan to take their fight south of the Santa Monica Mountains by asking the Westside communities in Yaroslavsky's district to join a Sherman Oaks' letter-writing campaign.

Powered by its media-savvy newest member, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors entered the television age Tuesday. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky joined Gloria Molina--herself no stranger to the lure of publicity--and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke in approving a proposal to televise the board's weekly meetings. In his inauguration speech Monday, Yaroslavsky had made televised board meetings one of the key components of his bid to open up county government.

Citing the divisiveness and "obscenely excessive" cost of running against a powerful fellow Democrat, state Senate leader David Roberti (D-Van Nuys) said Wednesday that he will not enter the race to succeed retiring Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman. Roberti's decision made veteran Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, also a Democrat, the clear front-runner to replace Edelman, political consultants said.

Challenger Laura Lake accused Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky of running on a platform of broken promises, while Yaroslavsky accused Lake of flip-flopping on a key mass transit issue as the two candidates squared off at a forum last week. "If you like the way the city has been governed, vote for the incumbent; if you want change, this is the time," said Lake, an environmental activist who is making a second bid to win the council seat Yaroslavsky has held for 18 years.

If you have the money and the desire, certain parts of the Hollywood Bowl can be renamed after you and your loved ones under a new plan from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The orchestra received approval from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to pursue a plan that would allow the selling of naming rights for certain sections of the historic outdoor music venue. Money raised from the naming rights would go toward improvements to the Bowl's infrastructure. PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures by The Times The orchestra shell and the Bowl itself will not be renamed.

Perhaps more than any other local politician, Zev Yaroslavsky has made the arts a priority - not just as an agenda item for meetings of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, but as a personal passion. A lifelong fan of the performing arts, he can be regularly seen mingling with crowds at concerts around the city. Next week, Yaroslavsky will put his oratory skills to use as the narrator of Aaron Copland's "A Lincoln Portrait," which will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

It was more than 20 years ago that I covered my first meeting of the Los Angeles City Council. As I headed to the chambers, a colleague advised me to take special note of two members: Richard Alatorre, he said, understood city politics better than anyone, and the expert on all matters relating to money was Zev Yaroslavsky. Yaroslavsky came to the council in 1975, and by the late '80s was brash enough to run against incumbent Mayor Tom Bradley. Yaroslavsky dropped out of that race a few months before election day in 1989.

Zev Yaroslavsky has been a fixture of Los Angeles politics since he was 26 years old, and his decision not to join the campaign for mayor deprives the field - and the electorate - of one of the region's most enduring and respected political figures. It also threatens to narrow the debate over the city's future, as Yaroslavsky, 63, won't be in the campaign to offer his particular vision, which encompasses both the city's physical design and its fiscal health. Among the candidates, City Councilman Eric Garcetti has emerged as a leading proponent of a certain idea of Los Angeles - one that is taller and denser, with high-rise corridors paralleling public transportation.

Los Angeles political veteran Zev Yaroslavsky's decision to forgo next year's race for mayor leaves a field dominated by City Hall insiders and heightened anxieties among some civic leaders about whether the remaining contenders will aggressively confront the city's continuing financial crisis. Yaroslavsky, an L.A. County supervisor from the Westside known for his mastery of budgets and blunt speaking style, announced Thursday that he would leave the campaign to a "new generation of leaders" - dashing the hopes of those who looked to him for a candid conversation about the city's budget predicament and a different vision for dealing with it. With Yaroslavsky out, three city elected officials - City Controller Wendy Greuel and council members Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry - lead the pack in the run-up to next March's election.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky delivered pointed criticism Tuesday of a move to place a measure on the November ballot that would ask voters to extend term limits that now stand to oust four members of the board. Yaroslavsky pointed out that the motion, written by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, could undo a law approved by voters a decade ago that limited supervisors to three terms. "I just think this makes a mockery of us," Yaroslavsky said. The board ended up postponing the issue for a week.

Negotiations to settle a lawsuit and allow a three-story, 123-unit senior citizen housing project to be built on a prime Ventura Boulevard site are nearing completion, despite vocal protests of homeowners. Opponents of the project are also complaining that the sensitive talks on the Woodman Avenue-Ventura Boulevard project involve Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky and the developer's attorney, Benjamin Reznik, who helped raise money for Yaroslavsky's abortive 1989 mayoral bid. City Atty. James K.

If the Los Angeles mayoral election were held tomorrow, three candidates would be elbowing for the lead: City Councilman Eric Garcetti, City Controller Wendy Greuel and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. That comes from a new poll, conducted by the Center for the Study of Los Angeles and based on interviews of 1,600 city residents. The results of the survey will be formally released this week. There are reasons not to give those results too much weight. It's almost a year until voters will cast ballots; not all the candidates who may run have entered; money is still being amassed; messages for the campaign have yet to be refined, debates held and advertisements aired.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors oversees a vast operation: It incarcerates thousands of inmates; it cares for children whose parents have abused or neglected them; it runs hospitals, clinics, beaches, harbors, parks and a welfare system. So it's no surprise that the board's meetings draw animated commentary. What is surprising is what those commenters want to talk about. At a recent meeting of the board, the first member of the public to comment was Eric Preven, who calls himself "The County Resident from District 3. " He used his allotted time to raise questions about the county's legal bills and to complain that a report about those bills had been delayed.