Please, Rocky, Don't Go

Let's observe a moment of silence to mark the end of City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's political career. Once he finishes his current term in office, he's over. Term limits keep him from running again. No way voters will promote this guy to the District Attorney's Office. Taxpayers are still too hot about getting stuck with a $1,222 bill for a fender bender involving his city-issued SUV while his wife was at the wheel and he was partying it up at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004. This self-promoting creep isn't going anywhere but down when he leaves his eighth-floor office. But, consider the big picture. Until he checks out for the final time, we need Rocky the Reject to stick around to balance the mayor's push for control at City Hall.

A crucial detail is being overlooked in the sanctimonious chatter coming from all quarters of the city, from the L.A. Times editorial pages to blogger Amy Alkon to the South Robertson Neighborhood Council, urging Rocky to resign. Mark your calendars - Rocky will be out of office in 22 months - on June 30, 2009. It's not that far off. If it seems too long to wait, consider what would most likely occur if Rocky were to suffer a rare pang of conscience this morning and walk out of City Hall and never return.

The City Council could order up an election and place his job on the same ballot as the presidential primary down the line in February 2008. Fat chance. Or, it could call a special election at a cost estimated by the City Clerk's Office at $6 million-to-$7 million. Even less likely. By the way, doesn't it seem odd that taxpayers so incensed by a $1,222 repair bill would want to foot a multi-million-dollar tab to oust the bastard? If voters were so upset about the matter, wouldn't they be lining up to sign recall petitions? This week, recall organizer Andrew Ahlering reported one small donation of less than $100 and he knows his chances of evicting Rocky the Reject are slim.

More likely, of course, if Rocky resigned or even if he were somehow miraculously recalled, there will be no special election. Instead, Antonio the Conniver will circumvent the democratic process and pressure his minions on the City Council to appoint one of his most loyal members, Jack Weiss, to fill out the rest of Rocky's term. Then Jack the Mayor's Slave could run as an incumbent for a full, four-year term in March 2009, a race that he already intends to run. The mayor's office had no response to this scenario.

As of right now, it doesn't seem likely that Rocky the Reject is going anywhere anytime soon. His spokesman, Nick Velasquez, lauded Rocky's accomplishments in office, on gangs and cleaning up the city, and said he intends to stay where he is.

And, face it, the city of Los Angeles is probably better off having Rocky stand in the way of the mayor's dreams of ruling city government. We need these two rivals keeping one another's lust for power in check. Just look at the agony on their faces as they worked side-by-side at a gang raid two weeks ago in Wilmington. The mayor would love for Rocky the Reject to step aside so that he could call all of the shots and set the agenda for the City Attorney's Office.

The mayor so wants his man in that office that it's even possible that Antonio the Conniver's handlers played a role in Rocky's downfall, helping to orchestrate the series of negative stories about the SUV and the city attorney's staff handling babysitting and other chores for Rocky. The king of opposition research - Ace Smith - not only oversaw the mayor's last campaign and remains a trusted advisor, but he managed Jerry Brown's campaign for attorney general in 2006 against Rocky the Rejected. It's well within the realm of possibility that Ace the Dirt Flinger knew all about Rocky's weaknesses and was waiting for just the right moment to leak them to the press. In June, as things heated up over the mayor's dissolving marriage and rumors of an affair, perhaps the time arrived. Or not. Ace refuses to answer questions on the matter. In an e-mail this week, he said: "What you are doing is unethical - printing speculation based on nothing."

Let's just hope Rocky doesn't go the redemption route and bloody himself again on the campaign trail.

A possible case of political arson

If Karl Rove or someone like him can politicize the Justice Department and bring about the firing of U.S. attorneys who have run afoul of the White House game plan, is a similar plot involving another federal agency - the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - so far-fetched?

We've known for more than a decade that the L.A. Fire Department is rife with complaints of sexual and racial discrimination. But it's only now, 15 months before the presidential election, that the EEOC is taking on a top-to-bottom look at the way the department works.

If the EEOC levies a fat fine, and orders a series of corrective measures against the city, the political benefits to a Republican running for the White House might be significant. Coming at a crucial time for Hillary Clinton to make a good impression on California voters, she would find a major player in her statewide campaign, Antonio the Conniver and his out-of-control city, getting yet another dose of bad national press.

Recent high-profile cases brought against the fire department are nothing to shove under the rug. The record, $6.2 million jury award given to 39-year-old firefighter Brenda Lee, who was mistreated by her supervisors because she is African-American and a lesbian, exposed systemic problems in the department. And the mayor certainly was wrong to bow to public pressure and veto the $2.7-million settlement that would have avoided the upcoming trial of African-American firefighter Tennie Pierce, who sued after his colleagues mixed dog food in his spaghetti dinner. Later, photos showed Pierce participating in hazing incidents, provoking a public outcry and leading to the mayor's veto. It's entirely possible that a jury will be able to entertain what seemed like mutually exclusive ideas to shallow, right-wing L.A. talk radio hosts who led the criticism of the settlement and find that, indeed, a world-champion prankster can still be the victim of racial discrimination. But these two cases pretty much represent business-as-usual for the past decade or more.

We'd be less suspicious of the EEOC's timing if the agency had stepped in after one of several audits critical of the fire department's practices toward women and people of color.

Anna Park, head regional attorney for the EEOC in Los Angeles, said the law forbids her from discussing any current investigation. But she said politics never enters into the debate. "That's sort of crazy," she said, laughing. "We don't operate like that."

There they go, again

The regional smog police - the South Coast Air Quality Management District - put their own interests of making money and cozying up to big business ahead of the public and clean air last week.

Led by corporate puppet and board chairman, William Burke, the board agreed to sell off millions of dollars of pollution credits at below-market rates to allow construction of at least 11 power plants in the region.

Many of the plants will go up in densely populated communities like Vernon, Sun Valley, and Riverside, which are already burdened with more than their fair share of pollution. The deals will generate at least $300 million for the so-called smog fighters in Diamond Bar.

"The AQMD has no business making decisions about the generation of

electrical power," said David Pettit, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which filed a lawsuit last September aimed at stopping the board's willy-nilly abuse of its power and public trust. The NRDC will be in court next week for a status conference on its legal efforts to stop the sale of the pollution credits.

The board, on an 8-3 vote, caved to sloppy reasoning that the new plants are needed to head off power outages. Representatives from the state agency that manages the state's power supply said here was no immediate need for the new plants.

The philosophy behind the pollution credit system is sound - if only the board would adhere to it. Developers are required to pay a certain amount per pound of pollution that is expected to be produced over the life of a project; in the case of a power plant, the cost for pollution credits runs into the tens of millions of dollars, anywhere from $30 million to $100 million. As the cost rises, the thinking goes, it becomes more feasible for a developer to consider alternative energy sources. Yet instead of selling the credits at market rates, the smog board will give discount prices to let the projects sail ahead, meaning the pollution credits turn into a huge subsidy for fossil fuels.

Said Jesse Marquez, president of the Coalition for a Safe Environment: "AQMD seems more concerned with counting money than protecting our air quality."

By the way, if what the smog board is doing sounds like a good idea to you, consider the outcry if one of the fossil-fuel-burning plants had been proposed for Beverly Hills or the West Side.

See you in court, LAPD

What a great idea Deputy Chief Mike Hillman came up with to videotape all major demonstrations and incidents, from roll call to the bitter end, along with narration at crucial points by commanders in the field.

Now, if only the department would agree that the tapes should be immediately turned over to the media to ensure the department's accountability to the taxpaying public.

Instead, requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and some material may be redacted.

We're having a little trouble over here figuring out what footage shot during a demonstration, say, like the one that occurred May 1 in MacArthur Park, should not be public.

Said LAPD spokesman Jason Lee: "We'll release it, but we'll have to edit it."