WalterMooreSays.com by Walter Moore, February 7, 2010

Here’s a recap and update on Villaraigosa’s plan to use his phony “budget crisis” and fake layoffs to dupe you into letting him sell your streets and parking structures:

On June 4, 2009 — over eight months ago — I told you, based on my review of a City real estate contract with a company called “Loop Capital,” that, “Your Streets Are Officially ‘For Sale.’” Then I predicted exactly what is happening now:

1. Anyhow, here’s how it’ll play out:  deficit won’t go away; cuts won’t work; Villaraigosa reluctantly returns to City Council — with a buyer in tow, courtesy of Loop Capital — to save the day by selling the street[s].
2. Crisis averted, the budget will balance, and everyone will be happy until — surprise — street parking starts costing $15 and $20 per hour, just like the other private parking places in town.

On November 30, 2009, while you and I were eating turkey leftovers, the special interests and career politicians amended the real estate listing agreement to sell our streets.  Villaraigosa promised to pay a lucrative sales commission to:  JP Morgan Chase; Ramirez & Co.; and Loop Capital, LLC.  The contract refers to them as “The Three Advisors.”  You and I can refer to them as the three something else’s.

On January 29, 2010, I warned you that Villaraigosa was using the phony budget crisis to implement the parking scam.  I’ve written several essays since then, including one showing that “Villaraigosa and City Council Have ALREADY DECIDED to Sell Your Streets.”

Now David Zahniser and Phil Willon of the Los Angeles Times are on the trail, too.  Take a look at what they’ve discovered:

1. “I’m sure there will be a lot of interest in this,” said Thomas Lanctot, a principal with William Blair & Co., which advised Chicago on its decision to award a 99-year lease for all of its parking garages in 2006. “There’s an enormous amount of private capital out there that is looking for public infrastructure investment.”
2. *           *           *
3. Weeks before [February 1], parking garage companies and their lobbyists began making the rounds of City Hall.  [City Administrative Officer] Santana met last month with LAZ Parking, the Hartford, Conn., company that, as part of a group led by Morgan Stanley, won a 75-year, $1.15-billion lease to manage 45,000 parking meters in Chicago.
4. That deal provided a one-time windfall for Chicago but also led to parking meter rate hikes and a political backlash, with some upset residents bashing meters with tire irons. The city’s inspector general later criticized the meter deal, saying the city leased them in a “hasty” transaction for $974 million less than they were worth.

Did I call this right, or what?  Villaraigosa and the City Council are “playing” the press and the taxpayers:

1. •Revenues are down a paltry 2.63%, and are at the third-highest level in history, but these career politicians spin this minor blip into a “budget crisis.”
2. •Villaraigosa announces that he’s supposedly “laying off” 1,000 employees, but all he’s doing is transferring them.
3. •Villaraigosa tells you to chose between police and firefighters, on the one hand, or public parking and golf courses on the other, but meanwhile his irresponsible spending spree never stops.  Indeed, his 2009-2010 budget always called for City Hall to spend $400 million more than the City took in last year, as I pointed out in May 2009.
4. •The City Council says it has postponed budget discussions for 30 days, but it has already decided started spending nearly a million to sell your streets.  Meanwhile, it turns out they have tucked away $30 million of our money in slush funds for which they do not account.

Let’s hope that the L.A. Times will keep going with this story and, in particular, will start explaining to its readers that:  i) the City’s revenues are down a mere 2.63%; ii) the layoffs are not layoffs at all, but mere transfers; iii) this street sale scam has been in the works since at least June 4, 2009, when yours truly broke the story; iv) Illinois taxpayers have filed a lawsuit contesting the “sweetheart deal” in Chicago, and the Illinois Attorney General is investigating the transaction, which, according to a local TV station, “ushered in dramatic parking rate hikes across the city.”

Stay tuned, and tell everyone you know to start paying attention.  We already got ripped off on the DWP rate hikes and the phony phone tax.  Let’s not let it happen again with our streets and parking structures.

View Contact Summary Sheet.