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Investigation of Voter Fraud in Arcadia Moves Forward

May 2, 2018, 5:30 am
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Some folks are apparently in a whole world of hurt. About eight of them by my count. Voter fraud is a felony, punishable by as much as three years in prison. And the investigation into voter fraud in Arcadia's 5th District by the County of Los Angeles has now already begun.

That was the big surprise at last night's Arcadia City Council meeting. And it didn't take a vote by the City Council to make this happen. Tom Beck didn't have to break away from viewing ostriches in Africa. Roger Chandler didn't need to try and stop a process that could eventually end up costing him his City Council seat. Nor did Peter Amundson need to further extend his term as Mayor by another 6 months. Nothing like that.

Rather City Staff, in the form of the City Manager and the City Attorney, took all of that revelatory material we first shared with the world here on The Tattler, plus some other equally relevant odds and ends, and packed it all off to the folks who work for the County of Los Angeles and specialize in investigating voter fraud.

They did it all by themselves. Just like responsible city officials should.

Not bad, right? That is how things are supposed to be handled according to both City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto and City Attorney Stephen Deitsch. And do you know what? I believe they got it right. And apparently so did the Arcadia City Council, who really didn't have much to vote about, or even add.

Nor did they need to give anybody any direction as it said on the Agenda Report, because the job had already been handled.

The Los Angeles County guys who deal with vote fraud investigations were apparently quite pleased to get the material, pronounced it more than enough to get their investigations started, and have already started looking into these matters. They are professionals who do this for a living, and they are now doing their jobs.

Isn't it great when things work the way they're supposed to? I think so.

Well, OK. It isn't perfect

Nothing ever is. LA County is only investigating the eight people whose names were on those deeds we published here. Just in case you're wondering why Roger Chandler was so sanguine about last night's big surprise.

There was much more fraud in that district. The estimate has it 40 households in total were involved. So obviously there is much more work to be done.

Where you can go to report Voter Fraud

You don't have to wait for City Hall to report voter fraud, you can easily do so yourself by calling the toll free 800 number supplied below. This was on the screen last night during the discussion on this topic, and I figured I'd share it with you here.


Whatever happened to the Pasadena Star News?

In the past they would have been all over a story like this. It would have been a big deal, and after they'd published a bunch of articles they would be working everyone in town for some of those investigative journalism awards they used to win.

So the question needs to be asked. Who gelded the Pasadena Star News? 

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LAT Spotlight: Sierra Madre is a Quaint Foothill Character

May 3, 2018, 5:30 am
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Mod: This "Hot Property" article ran in the Los Angeles Times on April 20, and I figured it was the proper time to repost it here. The paper covered a number of interesting feel good topics, and did it fairly well. There are a couple of inaccuracies, but what the heck. It is a good look, and a portrait of Sierra Madre in an agreeable place.

Neighborhood Spotlight: Sierra Madre is a quaint foothill character (Los Angeles Timeslink): Nestled in the scenic foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, Sierra Madre retains much of the quaint character that made the town and its surrounding environs a popular tourist destination during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The area was first settled by the Tongva people, who established a village in Sierra Madre Canyon upon moving down from the high desert into the more temperate climes of the San Gabriel Valley and Los Angeles Basin more than 1,500 years ago.

By 1881, when Massachusetts transplant Nathaniel Carter purchased more than 1,000 acres at the mouth of the canyon (800 from famed California pioneer Lucky Baldwin and the rest cobbled together from Southern Pacific Railroad holdings and other private owners) the Tongva were long gone, scattered to the four winds by Spanish missionaries.

Carter, like so many Easterners who ventured west to California in the late 1800s, had settled in the San Gabriel Valley for the betterment of his respiratory health. Finding the climate to be infinitely more agreeable than that of his native Lowell, he made plans to create a utopian community to be called Nature's Sanitorium, and on 100 nearby acres he built his estate, which he dubbed Carterhia.


Although his naming skills left much to be desired, he had chosen an excellent site for a town, which became known as Sierra Madre. The wildly popular Mt. Wilson trail, which drew hikers from across Southern California in such numbers that the authorities were obliged to levy a toll for its upkeep, had its trailhead just north of the crossroads of Baldwin Avenue and Sierra Madre Boulevard.

By the time the Pacific Electric Railway established a line to ferry visitors from Los Angeles to Sierra Madre in 1906, it was well on its way to becoming a thriving boomtown, with such modern amenities as paved roads, electric lights and telephones following on the heels of the trolley within the year.

The go-go aughts were not, however, a glimpse of things to come. After that brief growth spurt, development in Sierra Madre slowed dramatically, which had the salutary effect of preserving the rustic character and charm of the village and canyon communities, save for some midcentury suburban infill near the freeway.


Because of its small-town vibe and well-preserved historic downtown and residential neighborhoods, Sierra Madre has become a popular home-buying destination for "creatives" of the marketing variety as well as of the artistic. Close to Pasadena, and freeway-close to Los Angeles, Sierra Madre offers laid-back village living with all the conveniences of the big city a short drive away.

Neighborhood highlights

Canyon country: The 1960s are alive and well in the eclectic Sierra Madre Canyon neighborhood, where residents enjoy rustic foothill living in homes that date to the city's earliest days.

Mayberry, USA: Sierra Madre's historic downtown is a charming, walkable area of cafes, restaurants and bars.

Home, sweet home: Sierra Madre's housing stock is a pleasant mixture of styles from a succession of eras ranging from the late 1800s to 21st century.

Neighborhood challenge

Price of entry: All of that rustic charm comes at a price, with most homes asking over $1 million, although prices can run as low as the $600,000s.

Expert insight

Mike Paris, a real estate agent who's lived and worked in the area since 1998, said Sierra Madre has maintained its authentic feel through the fierce loyalty of its residents — and that probably won't change anytime soon.

"We had a local election this week, and every City Council member elected has a history of scrutinizing big development and supporting strict zoning laws,"Paris said.

The community offers a quirky mix of historic turn-of-the-century estates, 1920s bungalows and post-WWII midcentury builds. Paris said the architectural range is a boon to the neighborhood.

"Homes here range from around $500,000 to $1.7 million,"Paris said. "It's not some cookie-cutter community where everyone is in the same income bracket."

Market snapshot

In the 91024 ZIP Code, based on seven sales, the median sales price for single-family homes in February was $825,000, down 8.3% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

Report card

The single public school within the Sierra Madre boundaries, Sierra Madre Elementary, scored 905 on the 2013 Academic Performance Index.

Highlights in the area include Foothills Middle, which scored 977, and Highland Oaks Elementary, which scored 964.

Mod: All reasonably good news for a Thursday, single public school and whatever else. I promise we'll try and mix things up later this weekend.

sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
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Snopes: Is a Neo-Nazi Running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in California?

May 4, 2018, 5:30 am
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Mod: Apparently that answer is yes. And if the polls are right, Patrick Little is currently running in second place behind incumbent Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, and will likely advance to November's general election as the Republican nominee. 

link


Is a Neo-Nazi Running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in California? (Snopes link): Patrick Little has repeatedly expressed white supremacist views in his campaign, including calling for a United States"free from Jews."

California’s 2018 U.S. Senate election attracted nationwide attention in April 2018, not long after the publication of a poll showing that little-known Republican and committed neo-Nazi Patrick Little had 18 percent of support among likely primary election voters, second to incumbent Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein with 39 percent.

In the SurveyUSA poll, Little— who describes himself as a “white nationalist” — had greater support than four other candidates in the state’s open primary, which candidates of any party (or none) can enter. These included outgoing California Senate President Kevin de Léon, a Democrat, and businessman Rocky de la Fuente, a Republican.

If those poll numbers were to hold, Feinstein and Little would advance from the primary as the two top candidates and contest the general election in November. The Republican party would be represented in a national race by a candidate who advocates a future United States“free from Jews” and has repeatedly and unreservedly expressed anti-semitic and white nationalist views during his campaign.

On 28 April 2018, Newsweek (link) reported on the California primary and included a quote from one of Little’s social media profiles in which he advocated removing and barring Jewish people from the United States.

We received several enquiries from readers about the authenticity of these statements. They are authentic quotations. On his account with the social network Gab, Little made the following statement:

I propose a government that makes counter-semitism central to all aims of the state. A government:

1) Of a People, for that people, free from jews

2) That cannot revoke the right to bear arms, such that this people can remain free from jews

3) that forbids all immigration except of biological kin, where no person of jewish origin may live, vacation, or traverse

He has also espoused anti-semitic conspiracy theories, called for racial segregation (white people migrating to all-white “continuity zones” in the United States), and even appeared to threaten the extermination of Jewish people who refuse to voluntarily vacate their government employment.

In an e-mail response to our enquiries, California Republican Party spokesperson Matt Fleming told us:

Mr. Little has never been an active member of our party. I do not know Mr. Little and I am not familiar with his positions. But in the strongest terms possible, we condemn anti-semitism and any other form of religious bigotry, just as we do with racism, sexism or anything else that can be construed as a hateful point of view. 

Little is the third Republican candidate for national office during the 2018 electoral cycle to have expressed openly anti-semitic and racist views.

In March, former American Nazi Party leader Arthur Jones ran unopposed in the GOP primary for Illinois’ Third U.S. Congressional District, and will represent the party in November’s general election.

In Wisconsin’s First U.S. Congressional District, one of the Republicans seeking to replace retiring House leader Paul Ryan in November is Paul Nehlen, who has described himself as “pro-white” and frequently expresses virulently anti-semitic sentiments on social media.

In February 2018, Nehlen was permanently banned from Twitter after posting a racist cartoon in reference to the actor Meghan Markle— whose mother is black — after her engagement to Prince Harry was announced.

Mod: Here are the poll numbers from SurveyUSA. Linkhere.


Mod: I don't know what more proof anyone needs that the Republican Party is for all intents and purposes dead in California.

sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
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More Nutty Arcadians Who Think City Hall Has The Power To Silence A Free Press

May 5, 2018, 5:30 am
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Some recent arrivals to this country seem absolutely stunned by the news that reporters can freely speak their minds in America. And if these journalistic thought criminals should ever say something offensive about any of the local government officials they happen to esteem, they can't just complain to the authorities of the local regime and have them send in the police, shut down the newspapers, and arrest the offenders.

Unfortunately for them that proverbial bullet to the back of a journalist's head, preferably administered in a dark basement somewhere, just doesn't happen here much. Imagine their confusion and sadness. They seem stunned and endlessly offended by the freedom the press enjoys in the US, and in their disbelief just can't seem to stop talking about it.

As an obvious example, such is with the news surrounding their favorite government official these days, Mayor Pro Tem Sho Tay. Here is a politician who is currently under investigation by the FPPC for two full counts of campaign malfeasance. Yet somehow no news organization or writer is supposed to say anything about that because - get this - it might get in the way of his becoming Mayor.

Wild, right? Like the truth shouldn't play any role in judging the ethics and morals of the person a city selects to be its highest ranking executive. Rather those reporting this need to be silenced by the government, and their newspapers banned.

Here is the latest in a long series of letters that have been sent to Arcadia City Hall. A locale some delusional individuals believe is a palace of secrets, when in reality it is a place where hiding such things from the public is deemed criminal behavior by the State of California.

Trust me, the quickest way to get your letter printed here is to send it to City Hall.


You see, and according to this confused individual at least, reporting that Sho Tay is under investigation by Sacramento for violating state campaign laws is not appropriate news for public dissemination. Instead any accounts of his alleged corruption is part of a conspiracy to keep him from being Mayor, and the newspaper that reported this needs to be shut down by the government for saying hurtful things.

I am sorry, but such extraordinary ignorance regarding how things actually work in the world's oldest functioning democracy has to be given the notice it deserves.

But wait, there's more!

Where there are fools a really stupid social media site cannot be far behind. And these sensitive souls who want the government to ban a free press in Arcadia because it hurts their feelings do have a place to go and air out their peevish whining. And that is the Voice of Arcadia's Facebook page. 

Trust me, the VOA folks get very upset when they don't get their way. Here is yet another example of their ongoing war against a reality too cruel for them to deal with truthfully.


Just some of the craziest nonsense you'll read anywhere. Allow me to count the ways.

1) The City of Arcadia sent the evidence of voter fraud to the Los Angeles County authorities because that is who handles these cases. It is how such things are done. As City Attorney Deitsch clearly spelled out at the last City Council meeting, cities don't handle voter fraud investigations. That is for the highly trained and officially designated professionals who deal with such stuff. It is all they do. And in this instance they accepted the material, declared that it was more than enough to justify a full and thorough investigation, and have been digging into the matter ever since.

2) The first City Council member to denounce voter fraud two meetings ago was actually Sho Tay. It was he who helped agendize the topic for council discussion, and fully supported sending the evidence, first published here on The Tattler, to the County for investigation.

3) The claim that the FPPC has dismissed Sho Tay's alleged campaign violations is laughable nonsense. There were three separate charges of political malfeasance filed with the FPPC. While one was rejected, the other two were declared to have enough merit to justify an investigation. Those are now being carefully examined, and will be for at least several more weeks. After which judgements will be issued.

4) The inference that this is all the result of some vast conspiracy involving the entire city government of Arcadia, its City Council, the FPPC, the County of Los Angeles Registrar's office, the District Attorney's office, several news outlets, plus hundreds of concerned residents of all nationalities and political persuasions, is paranoia at a very disturbing level.

These Voice of Arcadia people just might be full on nuts.

So you know, next week The Tattler will be revealing some shocking new information about these investigations. Many people will like what we publish, and some won't. These reports will be posted should you care to review them, but nobody has to read anything we put here.

We're just going to let the chips fall where they may. That's the way it goes on this blog. If you don't like that, go and read something else. Or don't read anything. I don't care.

But believe me, it was never our intention to hurt anyone's feelings.

sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
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Stormy Daniels lawyer on Trump and Giuliani: 'How stupid do they think all of us are?'

May 6, 2018, 5:30 am
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Mod: You would have thought the Stormy Daniels affair would have ended by now. Instead the President of the United States, whose affair with a porn star is just as lurid as his strangely submissive relationship with Vladimir Putin, hasn't been able to make it go away, no matter how many lawyers he hires and fires. His latest barrister, the quite dotty Rudolph Giuliani, is obviously only making matters worse for kinky President Trump.

Stormy Daniels lawyer on Trump and Giuliani: 'How stupid do they think all of us are?'(The Hilllink): The attorney representing adult-film star Stormy Daniels in her defamation case against President Trump lashed out at the president and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, after the former New York mayor released a statement clarifying remarks he made on Fox News.

Michael Avenatti accused the two men of "making it up as they go along" after Giuliani released a statement Friday explaining his comments stating that Trump personally reimbursed his attorney, Michael Cohen, for the $130,000 payment made to Daniels days before the election.

Cohen has stated that the payment was meant to silence false allegations about then-candidate Trump in the days before the 2016 election.

"Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Trump are making it up as they go along. Never before has that old adage been more appropriate: “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive” - W. Scott. How stupid do they think all of us are?" he tweeted, adding the hashtag #basta.

Giuliani shocked many in Washington this week when he told Fox's Sean Hannity that Trump reimbursed Cohen through his retainer fee for the payment that critics have called a campaign finance violation, seemingly negating statements made by both Trump and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds or whatever funds, it doesn’t matter. The president reimbursed that over a period of several months,” Giuliani said Wednesday.

Trump later suggested that wasn't fully accurate in quotes to reporters at the White House, saying Giuliani"started yesterday" and will "get his facts straight."

On Friday, Giuliani attempted to clarify those remarks, claiming that his "references to timing were not describing my understanding of the president's knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters."

In an interview with NBC News, Giuliani added that he did not think Trump knew about the payout to Daniels until just weeks ago.

“I don't think the president realized he paid him back for that specific thing until we made him aware of the paperwork,” he said.

Mod: It only gets worse for the apparently senescent Mr. Giuliani.

Donald Trump and Stormy Giuliani - link
Giuliani returned to Fox News for 8 minutes. It was a disaster again. (Think Progresslink): Newly minted Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani went on Hannity last Wednesday and created major problems for his client.

He returned to Fox News and on Thursday morning and made things even worse. On Friday, he was forced to issue a statement effectively recanting everything he said the previous two days. By Saturday night he was back on Fox News. Things did not get any better. Giuliani appeared on one of Trump’s favorite programs, Justice With Judge Jeanine, which airs at 9 p.m.

He admitted that he was returning to national TV even though he is still not fully versed with the facts of the Stormy Daniels case or any other of Trump’s legal issues. “The facts I’m still learning… I’ve been on the case two weeks… I’m not an expert on the facts yet. I’m getting there,” Giuliani said.

It showed. In an interview that lasted less than 8 minutes, he made several significant errors.

Giuliani again addressed the Stormy Daniels case and the $130,000 hush money payment made by Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen to the adult film actress. If the money was intended to influence the campaign, it could violate federal law.

But Giuliani told Pirro that the donation would be legal “even if it was a campaign donation.” According to Giuliani, it was legal as a campaign donation because “the president reimbursed it fully.”

This, however, is false. While candidates can donate unlimited money to their own campaigns, all campaign donations, and loans, must be reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The failure to report the donation is a violation of federal law. The Stormy Daniels payment has never been reported to the FEC by Trump. If it was a campaign expense Trump broke the law.

Trump Is Said to Have Known of Payment to Stormy Daniels Months Before He Denied It (New York Timeslink): President Trump knew about a six-figure payment that Michael D. Cohen, his personal lawyer, made to a pornographic film actress several months before he denied any knowledge of it to reporters aboard Air Force One in April, according to two people familiar with the arrangement.

How much Mr. Trump knew about the payment to Stephanie Clifford, the actress, and who else was aware of it have been at the center of a swirling controversy for the past 48 hours touched off by a television interview with Rudolph W. Giuliani, a new addition to the president’s legal team. The interview was the first time a lawyer for the president had acknowledged that Mr. Trump had reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payments to Ms. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels.

SNL link
It was not immediately clear when Mr. Trump learned of the payment, which Mr. Cohen made in October 2016, at a time when news media outlets were poised to pay for her story about an alleged affair with Mr. Trump in 2006.

But three people close to the matter said that Mr. Trump knew that Mr. Cohen had succeeded in keeping the allegations from becoming public at the time the president denied it. Ms. Clifford signed a nondisclosure agreement, and accepted the payment just days before Mr. Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Mr. Trump has denied he had an affair with Ms. Clifford and insisted that the nondisclosure agreement was created to prevent any embarrassment to his family.

Mr. Giuliani said this week that the reimbursement to Mr. Cohen totaled $460,000 or $470,000, leaving it unclear what else the payments were for beyond the $130,000 that went to Ms. Clifford. One of the people familiar with the arrangement said that it was a $420,000 total over 12 months.

Mod: It is important to remember that we're talking about the President here. Who apparently is a very strange and creepy dude.

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Is Sho Tay Being Two-Faced On The Racism Question?

May 7, 2018, 5:30 am
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The Pasadena Star News has finally published an article covering the virulent political rhubarb taking place in Arcadia. As this area's only daily paper, and one that often likes to proclaim that "Local News Matters," this had been seen by many as a serious lapse on their part.

However, they did at last jump in, and it was a decent enough effort. There were a couple of errors, but who's perfect? It's why God put erasers on pencils, and forgave all the sinners.

Obviously the Star News worked hard to take what they believed was the middle road. They did not choose any sides, or make any untoward and rash judgement calls. At least they didn't in any obvious sense. However, that could be because they didn't have the entire story. There is something more, a lot more, and we will share that with you. But we're going to show you something else first.

On the question of racism, the paper did get it right. They also got Sho Tay to admit, and on the record no less, that the opposition to his becoming Mayor has nothing to do with race. Here is the relevant passage from their article, "Racism, campaign fraud accusations slung in Arcadia" (link).

At that meeting, Tay’s supporters and opponents made their presence known. His supporters had it firmly in their minds that those who would keep Tay from being mayor were racists.

“We are here to tell everyone we Chinese Americans will not tolerate racism,” 24-year resident Grace Kwok said. She then asked Mayor Peter Amundson to “show you respect the Chinese-American community and stand against racism” by voting in favor of Tay’s mayorship.

Tay said Friday that he has told his Asian supporters that he does not believe the criticisms he has faced are racially motivated but understands why they think that way, given that Tay is the only Asian council member in a city that is more than 59 percent Asian.

The city, which asked the D.A. to investigate, recently mailed in materials for the office to review, City Attorney Stephen Deitsch reported to the council last week. He didn’t have an estimate of how long it would take.

Tay expects the investigation results will vindicate him, Tay said. “They felt I did something wrong, but that’s their opinion,” Tay said. “I just feel bad for Peter (Amundson) — he has to do an extra 45 days of work as mayor; but for the good of the community, that’s what we needed.”

For the record, it isn't really the District Attorney that is looking at the most relevant corruption charges in this matter, it is the Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento. At least as far as the 2018 election goes, the voter fraud issue mostly involves others. Or so it appears as of now.

That said, if any Councilmember was facing the kind of charges that Sho Tay is facing, I am sure their ascension to Mayor Of Arcadia would be given the same appropriate amount of scrutiny. No matter who they are.

In that Star News passage Sho Tay is right on the money. His statement there is moderate, fair, and worthy of commendation.

However, here is the part I believe the Star News reporter didn't know about. And neither did I, for that matter. That is until a sharp-eyed reader forwarded me several screenshots. Here is one if them.


As you may be aware, the Voice of Arcadia, which is found on Facebook, has been the most bizarre pro-Sho Tay site anywhere. They are essentially claiming that there is a vast race-based conspiracy out there involving just about everyone in the government and press, and whose sole intent is to deny Sho Tay the Mayorship.

So the revelation contained in the above screenshot, that Sho Tay is one of a handful of Voice Of Arcadia administrators, is important. It means that everything appearing on this site is there subject to his approval.

Here is just one example of the many unsubstantiated and uncited charges that have been anonymously posted on the Voice of Arcadia Facebook page recently. This apparently with Sho Tay's OK.


So here is where we're at. For the Pasadena Star News article, Sho Tay says racism has played no role in the decision to delay his appointment as Mayor of Arcadia. Yet on the Voice of Arcadia page on Facebook, where Sho Tay serves as one of its few administrators, unfounded ad hominem charges of racism are made over and over again. It is practically all that gets published there.

So which is it for Sho Tay? What he said in the Pasadena Star News article, or what he allows to be posted on that one note Voice of Arcadia site he helps to run? Something that goes out to an entirely different audience?

These are two distantly different faces placed on the same head.

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The Sierra Madre City Council is voting tonight to spend $947,000 on a water meter system

May 8, 2018, 5:30 am
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Sensus Water Meter Gizmos
Before I get started on the topic du jour, I did have a question recently for City Manager Gabe Engeland on the only somewhat forgotten topic of those Library survey postcards.

I personally believe that a consensus of all the rumors states the survey results for moving the Library to the Youth Activity Center were not quite as enthusiastic as certain parties might have hoped, and their silence has since grown kind of deafening. Especially when compared to all of that wild noise they had been making. Apparently the cheerleaders have taken their pompoms and gone home.

Tattler Enquirer: Anything new on the Library survey cards?

City Manager Gabe Engeland: The library survey is currently set for discussion at the second Council meeting in May. The final draft is being finalized right now.

I then asked Gabe if he might share any of the results with me, and he demurred. Apparently announcing that is a Mayor leadership function and we're all going to have to wait until May 22nd. I suggest board games to help pass the time spent waiting.

They'll be watching you.
Sierra Madre City Council is voting tonight to spend $947,000 on a water meter system

Back to the advertised feature. So here is my question. Why is the City spending $947,000 on "smart meters" rather than using the money to pay down the water bond debt, or buy some more of those fine modern pipes? I did ask the City Manager that yesterday, and I haven't heard back yet.

Which is fine, I guess. So loaded a question probably cannot be answered that quickly. Besides, Gabe just got back from the SCAG meeting, and there is all of that new received wisdom from Hasan Ikhrata to grapple with. I hear the Man from Moscow took yet another stab at predicting the future, and who knows? Maybe this time he finally got it right.

Here is what the agenda item for these water doohickeys actually looks like (link).


While those are no doubt fine reasons for spending close to a million dollars that the City of Sierra Madre's heavily indebted water enterprise is not supposed to have, it really is a lot of dough. Especially after that seemingly endless series of water rate increases the consumers of the wet stuff have endured over the last decade or so.

And while there is no doubt that reading water meters from the comfort of an office somewhere just cannot be beat, shouldn't those past messes be cleaned up first? You know, before the water guys are allowed to get all Jetsons on us?

Apparently the restless ghost of Bruce Inman still wanders the offices of City Hall.

sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
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Sho Tay Resigns as Admin of Cultish Facebook Site "Voice of Arcadia"

May 9, 2018, 5:30 am
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On Monday The Tattler posted an article titled "Is Sho Tay Being Two-Faced On The Racism Question?" It got a pretty good response from our readership, with much of that article dealing with the confused message Arcadia's current Mayor Pro Tem was putting out about the reasons why his appointment to the largely ceremonial position of Mayor had been delayed. At least until City Hall can get a decent read on the FPPC investigation Sho Tay is currently enduring in Sacramento.

A small group of people, many of them associated with the Voice of Arcadia page on Facebook, had been quick to accuse large swathes of the population of Arcadia of racism for the crime of not venerating Mr. Tay quite as much as they do. Those so slandered include people in the media, city government, or even anyone having the temerity to identify themselves as being born in the United States. So toxic had this madness become that Sho Tay, in an article printed by the Pasadena Star News over the weekend ("Racism, campaign fraud accusations slung in Arcadia"link), felt the need to set the record straight. This was how the reporter from the Star News spelled that out:

"Tay said Friday that he has told his Asian supporters that he does not believe the criticisms he has faced are racially motivated but understands why they think that way, given that Tay is the only Asian council member in a city that is more than 59 percent Asian ... “I want the community to get along,” Tay said. “A harmonious community makes things go great — it can even make the crime rate go down when neighbors get to know each other ... I still want everyone to work together.”

This was very good news, and received positively by many of the people I had spoken to about the article. As I said on Monday (link), "In that Star News passage Sho Tay is right on the money. His statement there is moderate, fair, and worthy of commendation."

There was a fly in the ointment, however. It was discovered by a reader of this site that Sho Tay was one of a handful of admins (Facebook word for supervisors) for the source of much of the poison being leached into the community. That being Voice of Arcadia.

This appeared to the reader who had sent me the above screenshot as hypocrisy on Sho's part, and that his words of community healing in the Pasadena Star News meant very little because of that.

That was on Monday, which is when we first posted this information. By Tuesday Sho Tay apparently was no longer an admin, or even a member of, Voice of Arcadia. Here is a new screenshot where the admins of that site are listed.


As you can easily see, Sho Tay's name is no longer found there.

I guess you could call that putting your money where your mouth is, right? It seems Sho Tay had taken the criticism posted here to heart, and within a single day resigned his admin post at Voice of Arcadia.

Perhaps those individuals who are posting such terrible things about a significant portion of the population of Arcadia on that site will soon begin to realize that the person on whose behalf they claim to be speaking is no longer there with them.

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Difficult Questions - Why Sierra Madre Decided to Go Forward with $950,000 in New Water Smart Meters ... Plus: The Arcadia Disaster Explained

May 10, 2018, 5:30 am
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Mod: Remember, it is always about the money. As Gabe Engeland obliquely confirms, nothing much has changed.

Tattler: Reader asked this one today. Roughly stated, why is the City spending $950,000 on "smart meters" rather than using the money to pay down the water bond debt?

Gabe: Good question. Water leaks, lost water, and the personnel costs associated with each are larger operational cost drivers than the recently refinanced water debt. The AMI smart meters will reduce the overall costs of these categories with greater financial impact.

Tattler: Wouldn't it be more cost effective to just repair those pipes once and for all?

Gabe: By financial order of magnitude the single best thing we could do financially was to refinance the water debt, which Council did last year. The second best thing we could do was convert our meters to the AMI"smart" meter system, which Council approved tonight. The third best thing we could do was to repair the top 9 to 11 (I forget the exact number) of mains which have failed or will likely fail in the near future. Council approved the replacement of four of these mains last year and we have designed the replacement for the remaining pipes on the list, and will fix an additional 3 or 4 mains this coming year. Replacing the remaining water system will take a sustained commitment to a healthy water infrastructure system. Council has shown an great willingness to undertake this task.

Mod: Does that make any sense to you? My guess is maximizing the money take from residents through a quite large investment in smart water meter technology replaces the need for another water rate hike. This is how the city will fund the next round of water infrastructure repair and bond service. If I missed let me know.

The continuing disaster in Arcadia explained 

Mod: This comes from an Arcadia Facebook page called "Save the Highlands." Probably the best informed piece of writing on the toxic political situation there yet.


Mod: Developers and their hirelings in Arcadia are doing just about everything they can to get Asians and Caucasians at each others throats to further their lavish monetary plans. This is about as ugly a situation as I have seen anywhere, and it is being done in a very deliberate way. Fascinating, but mostly in the train wreck sense. And no, as awful as things were, it never got quite this bad in Sierra Madre. 

Uno Mas

Mod: The entire GOP is compromised.


sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
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It's Sho Time at the FPPC, and more - Documents Provided by Arcadia's Really Best

May 11, 2018, 5:30 am
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The Baloney Sho.
At the Arcadia City Council Meeting on April 24, that ill-fated evening when no new Mayor was selected despite the wishes and hisses of many assembled, Sho Tay quite incorrectly defended himself against accusations of illegal campaign finance shenanigans by proclaiming that he had obtained a special letter from the FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) absolving himself of all guilt. This magical piece of paper, however, was missing from Sho's possession at that meeting, and somehow it has never been spoken of again by the overtime Mayor Pro Tem. Perhaps you've wondered why.

However, one observant resident of Arcadia had the presence of mind to contact the FPPC and request this seemingly elusive document. The FPPC responded and, as some suspected, no such document ever existed, despite Sho's erroneous claims. What this attentive person had uncovered instead was 3 complaints filed against Sho Tay, and his idiosyncratic written responses to them.

I'm publishing these public documents here, without Sho Tay's permission, or anybody else's for that matter. These are PUBLIC DOCUMENTS that do not compromise any element of accepted privacy, and nobody in the public needs the permission of the writer to do so. There has been some confusion about the whole public document thing lately, so I thought I'd try and make the matter a little clearer. After all, this is America, and it is still a free country.

As you will see from Mr. Tay's rather insipid response, he was aware that 3 complaints had been filed against him and, based on the authors of these 3 assorted complaints, he was sure it was all a part of an evil international plot designed to ruin his good name. Something that couldn't possibly have anything to do with his own deceitful behavior, or that just perhaps he had actually done something wrong, or even illegal.

From Sho's response, you can surmise that the first complaint was about posting illegal mailers during the campaign. The second explains his incomplete information on required filings, and the third is regarding his failure to report his ownership of a certain gun shop/shooting range when he ran for office. Semi-automatic weaponry having fallen into popular disfavor as of late due to the recent mass murders of school children by those using them unsafely.

Apparently Sho believes there was no need for the public to know anything about that since his business is in another city, and not in Arcadia. Either Sho Tay never bothered to read the instructions for filling out mandatory disclosure forms, or he just hoped that no one would notice all of the smoking guns he's left lying around.

Never sent Sho a "get out of jail free" card.
So you can probably surmise where this is going. Sho Tay fibbed wildly at the City Council meeting on May 24 when he only mentioned the one complaint about the illegal campaign mailers. And he also fibbed wildly about having a "get out of jail free" card that he had obtained from the FPPC.

Sho is actually facing two open FPPC investigations, with that third complaint dismissed for a lack of merit. Or because of Sho's fulsome excuses, which in the one case seemed to work. Now all that is left for anyone to do is await Sho Time, with the only question left being how large the fines are going to be. His conviction is all but assured.

Although Sho is experiencing double vision with his FPPC woes, he is also facing allegations that the claims he made in a mailer, which is the subject of one of those FPPC complaints, contained an unfortunate and false statement.

Namely this blatant nonsense: "If you folks remember, there were times I proposed plans or ordinances to enhance the safety of our community, but I got only one vote from Council Member Roger Chandler from District 5." Followed up by, "Regretfully the other council members voted no to the proposals to fight crime even when they claim they care about safety issues."

Tom Beck has challenged Sho Tay numerous times for the date, time, and occasion that Tay made this spectacular proposal that had been turned down, and on April 17 Sho Tay feebly explained it was something in closed session so he was unable to tell anyone about it.

This prompted a series of emails from the astute Laurie Thompson to the City Manager and City Attorney requesting a copy of the notice of the agendized item in closed session that was about public safety.

I am proud to report that the City Attorney's response has finally come in, and it isn't good news for Sho Tay. The City Attorney declared there were no agendized items on public safety discussed in closed session. Despite Sho's claims.

The email from Mr. Deitsch is published below, without his permission, as yet again his is a PUBLIC DOCUMENT. Mr. Deitsch clearly knows the law and that anything he sends to a resident of Arcadia can be republished without his consent. And for you wannabe lawyers out there, along with certain gutless newspaper publishers, you can Google the Brown Act and find it for yourself.

To review, here is the list of today's revelations.

1) There is no letter from the FPPC clearing Sho's name. None. Even though he said so.

2) There was no closed session item discussing public safety, despite Sho's claim that there was.

3) There are 2 FPPC ongoing, along with quite serious investigations into Sho's illegal campaigning and falsifying required disclosures of business interests.

4) A lie to cover up a lie that he made in a campaign mailer that per California law he wasn't even supposed to be sending out.

5) His campaign was financed by 2 real estate agents that have ties to developers, one of them an agent that doesn't even live in Arcadia. And where did he spend that money again?

The Voice Of Arcadia believes this person should be the Mayor of Arcadia? As does Roger Chandler? For what possible reasons?

Where have Arcadia's ethical standards gone? Expect the city to run at the same level as Sho's campaign was run should he become Mayor.

Here's the paperwork. Enjoy. So you know, there are a lot of other documents available as well. Send me an email and I'll be more than happy to forward you a complete set (sierramadretattler@gmail.com). Pass them around to friends and family. But do be respectful. A lot of good people worked very hard to make this happen.


sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
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Sho Time 2: Downtown Brown With Dominic & Steve

May 12, 2018, 5:30 am
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Mod: Yesterday I posted the following, and I thought that there should be some follow-up so everyone might have a better understanding of exactly what went down here.


Mod: If this conversation of the city's elected leaders, along with key staff, had occurred in closed session, and Sho Tay had revealed what was said in his mailer, it would have been a clear violation of the Brown Act. However, and as resident Laurie Thompson, City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto and City Attorney Stephen Deitsch discover in the following series of emails, no such closed session conversation ever took place. In other words, Sho Tay just made this all up in order to smear his fellow City Councilmembers with the false allegation that they didn't care about crime, and then put the on an illegal postcard to boost the campaigns of Bob Harbicht and Roger Chandler. It is remarkable dishonesty on several levels. Here are the emails.

From: Laurie Thompson
Subject: Checking Back - Closed Session Violation - Request for Document (s)
Date: April 19, 2018 at 3:31:38 PM PDT
To: Dominic Lazzaretto, Stephen Deitsch, Peter Amundson

To all: I haven’t received a response from you regarding my request for the notice of the closed session Sho Tay referenced on Tuesday night. It might be because no noticed agendized item exists in which case there has been a Brown Act violation.

Or it might be because if you identify an agendized closed session item that Sho Tay was referencing, Sho Tay has committed a criminal offense in disclosing results of a closed session deliberation in a very public manner.

Or maybe it’s because Sho Tay made the whole thing up in which case Sho Tay is not presenting the truth. I don’t want to make any assumptions so I’d like a response.

Sincerely, Laurie Thompson
Long Time Arcadia Resident

From: Dominic Lazzaretto
Subject: RE: Checking Back - Closed Session Violation - Request for Document (s)
Date: April 19, 2018 at 3:41:15 PM PDT
To: Laurie Thompson, Stephen Deitsch, Peter Amundson

Laurie: Steve and I have a conference call scheduled tomorrow morning to review your request and what was said on Tuesday night. We will be in touch as quickly as we can thereafter.

Have a great day, Dominic

From: Laurie Thompson
Subject: Re: Checking Back - Closed Session Violation - Request for Document (s)
Date: April 19, 2018 at 5:18:34 PM PDT
To: Dominic Lazzaretto

Thank you.

From: Stephen Deitsch
Subject: RE: Checking Back - Closed Session Violation - Request for Document (s)
Date: April 20, 2018 at 9:50:13 AM PDT
To: Laurie Thompson, Dominic Lazzaretto, Peter Amundson

Good morning, Ms. Thompson.  Thank you for your two emails about this item.  I plan to respond to them after I review the video of this past Tuesday’s Council meeting and as part of my work day at City Hall this coming Tuesday.

Thank you again. Sincerely, Steve Deitsch

From: Stephen Deitsch
Subject: FW: Checking Back - Closed Session Violation - Request for Document (s)
Date: April 24, 2018 at 12:54:37 PM PDT
To: Laurie Thompson

Ms. Thompson, thank you again for your inquiry about Mayor Pro Tem Tay’s reference to a closed session in his public remarks at the April 17, 2018 City Council meeting.  As I indicated I would do in my April 20 email to you (below), I have now viewed and listened to the video of that portion of the April 17, 2018, City Council meeting to which you have made reference.  I can now address your inquiry.

The Ralph M. Brown Act and, in particular, Government Code Section 54963, prohibits disclosure of confidential information that has been acquired by being present in a closed session.

Mayor Pro Tem Tay briefly mentioned in his Council meeting remarks that he had met recently with Mayor Amundson and City Manager Lazzaretto, and had shared with them his thoughts about a closed session discussion.  In his remarks at the City Council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Tay clearly indicated that he was not allowed under the Brown Act to describe information he obtained at a closed session and, thus, would not be able to be specific in his description in his remarks at the Council Meeting.  He merely indicated that he shared his thoughts about such a closed session discussion with the Mayor and City Manager. As such, there has been no Brown Act violation.

To the extent your inquiry instead possibly questions whether a closed session was held by the City Council in violation of the Brown Act, I can indicate unequivocally that the City Council has lawfully listed and described on its posted agendas, and has conducted, closed session discussions fully in accordance with the Brown Act.  In particular, no discussions were conducted during my presence in any closed session which did not pertain to the closed session agenda descriptions on all posted agendas.  Of course, I hope you understand that having been present in closed sessions, I am forbidden by Government Code Section 54963 (cited above) from publicly reciting what specifically has been discussed in a City Council closed session.

I hope this addresses your concerns. Thank you again for your inquiry. Sincerely, Steve Deitsch

The postcard.

Mod: Sadly, the City Attorney had either misunderstood the nature of Ms. Thompson's request, or he didn't wish to reveal what had actually happened. Read how Laurie then holds his feet to the fire, and in the process gets Steve to unveil the following remarkable revelation. That being, Sho Tay made this all up for the purpose of a dishonest postcard the FPPC is now in the process of nailing him on.

From: Laurie Thompson
Subject: Clarification - Request for Public Records
Date: April 25, 2018 at 12:51:20 PM PDT
To: Dominic Lazzaretto, Stephen Deitsch, Peter Amundson

Dear Mr. Deitsch, Mr. Lazzareto, Mayor Amundson,

Thank you for your response but it does not accurately match my request.

Request Review Background:

 1.  MPT Tay sent out the following statement to several hundred residents in District 5 in a campaign flyer:

"If you folks remember, there were times that proposed plans of ordinances to safety of our community , but I got only one vote from Council Member Roger Chandler from District 5."

2. This statement was challenged as untruthful by Council Member Beck at a subsequent city council meeting. He requested evidence.

3. At a recent city council meeting MPT Tay gave his defense to the truth of his statement in the flyer. He indicated that his claim that proposed ordinances regarding public safety had taken place during a closed session and he could not discuss it.

4. If indeed a closed session took place he cannot discuss it.  However, he disclosed the vote and that he was referencing public safety.

5. Despite the fact he could not discuss contents of the item, all closed sessions have an agenda that is public and subject to a Public Records Search under the law.  Furthermore if the item was finalized then it becomes open to the public.

Therefore my request is simply as follows:

1. As a Public Records Search under the law, I am requesting the date of MPT Tay’s referenced closed session and a copy of the public agendized item referenced by MPT Tay. Discussion and voting on a closed session item cannot take place unless agendized.

2. If this meeting did occur, please provide the reference in the Brown Act that allows for such a meeting on the topic.

Note:  Just saying, If it was a closed session isn’t it strange that he wrote, “As you folks remember”.  How would anyone remember what had been discussed in closed session unless confidentiality had been breached?

Regards, Laurie Thompson

From: Stephen Deitsch
Subject: FW: Clarification - Request for Public Records
Date: April 26, 2018 at 11:08:34 AM PDT
To: Laurie Thompson
Cc: Dominic Lazzaretto

Dear Ms. Thompson,

Thank you for your follow-up Public Records Act request.

I shall instruct the City Clerk’s Office to aggregate all City Council meeting agendas which included closed session items on the posted agenda over the past one year period. If you instead want to have the City do so for a longer period than the one prior year, please inform me as soon as reasonably possible. The City shall thereafter transmit these agendas to you.

Your request is otherwise vague, and for that reason among others, the City is otherwise unable to reasonably respond to your request. To the extent the following somehow addresses your emails, there are no posted closed session agenda items which included a reference to ordinances related to public safety, and I am not aware of any violation of the Brown Act concerning discussions of closed session items listed on posted agendas. Nor am I aware of any other Brown Act violation.

The Public Records Act requires a public entity to produce documents responsive to a request, but does not require a public entity to answer questions beyond providing documents. To the extent that your three emails concerning this matter have posed questions regarding closed session discussions, I can only refer to the email I transmitted to you yesterday in response to your first two emails, in addition to the above response.

Sincerely, Steve Deitsch

From: Laurie Thompson
Subject: Re: Clarification - Request for Public Records
Date: April 26, 2018 at 2:44:21 PM PDT
To: Stephen Deitsch

Dear Mr. Deitsch,

Thank you for your reply.

For now, based on your statement, "there are no posted closed session agenda items which included a reference to ordinances related to public safety”, there is no need to use staff time to send me closed session agendas that document that public safety ordinances have never been included on closed sessions. You offered to send me one year of agendas but am I correct to assume that no such items were on closed sessions during Sho Tay’s  4 year tenure ?

Regards, Laurie Thompson

From: Stephen Deitsch
Subject: RE: Clarification - Request for Public Records
Date: April 26, 2018 at 2:51:45 PM PDT
To: Laurie Thompson
Cc: Dominic Lazzaretto

Ms. Thompson, the precise contents of my previous email would apply to all previous years, as well.

Sincerely, Steve Deitsch

Mod: So there you have it. A clear confirmation from the City Attorney of the City of Arcadia that the Mayor Pro Tem, Sho Tay, was not telling the truth. And did so for the purposes of an illegal political campaign postcard designed to smear his fellow City Council members on the crime issue. Case closed.

The postcard in Chinese.

sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
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The Trump Impeachment: Michael Avenatti Knows All

May 13, 2018, 6:30 am
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video link
Mod: While the world waits endlessly for the Mueller investigation to begin delivering on all of the many things they have been looking into, an alternative venue for news of Trump corruption has now opened up. The host of this bounty? Michael Avenatti, attorney to porn star and presidential date bait Stormy Daniels. It is good to see private business getting into the game. Why should it all be in the hands of the government?

Michael Avenatti Knows All (The Impeachmentlink): Michael Avenatti’s bombshell release detailing nearly $4.5 million dollars that flowed into Cohen’s Essential Consulting account at First Republic Bank during 2017 has finally linked Trump’s personal affairs to the Russia inquiry.

According to Avenatti’s documents, $500,000 dollars came from Columbus Nova, a company that was, until recently, listed as a subsidiary of the Renova Group which itself is controlled by a powerful Russian oligarch. Columbus Nova’s president is the cousin of that same Russian oligarch. Another $400,000 came from the pharmaceutical company Novartis. An additional $200,000 came from AT&T as well as $150,000 from a Korean aerospace company. Lastly, there is a $62,500 payment from Elliott Broidy as part of his settlement agreement with another woman.

As Avenatti described it, this has all the features of a pay-to-play scheme or, considering Cohen actually reached out to Novartis, an extortion scheme. But it was amazing to see how these companies tripped all over themselves trying to explain why they were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to Cohen. Even there, however, Avenatti had laid a trap, purposely not disclosing the true total dollar amounts he knew these companies had paid Cohen and waiting to see whether they would come clean on their own.

Originally, AT&T claimed the $200,00 was paid for “insight” into the new administration. Subsequently, they had to admit that the total amount paid was $600,000 over the course of 12 months. Novartis originally provided no explanation for their payment, only saying that the contract was made under a former CEO and had subsequently expired. After a second aborted explanation, Novartis’ third attempt finally came clean, admitting it had paid $1.2 million to Cohen over the course of his 12 month contract even though it was clear from their one meeting with Cohen that he could provide no useful service.

Worse, Novartis admitted that it continued to pay Cohen for essentially no reason and no services for fear of angering Trump. Columbus Nova insisted that their payments had nothing to do with the Russian oligarch and were for advice on capital formation and real estate investments. Lastly, the Korean aerospace company said that the money was for Cohen’s expertise on accounting policies.

AT&T, Novartis, and the Korean aerospace company all had important business in front of the Trump administration. AT&T was trying to merge with Time Warner over the DOJ’s objections. Novartis was one of the few pharmaceutical companies who refused to pledge to reduce drug prices and was obviously interested in the outcome of healthcare repeal and preserving its drug monopolies.

But the Korean aerospace company, despite being accused of massive accounting and billing fraud in South Korea, seemed to be the one that got the most bang for its buck, apparently now poised to win a multi-billion dollar contract to build a training jet in partnership with Lockheed. Lockheed, you might recall, was continually criticized by Trump before and after his inauguration over the cost of its F-35 fighter planes.

It’s bad enough that the corporations’ payments to Cohen indicate that pay-to-play was the immediate option in order to deal with the Trump administration. The money funneled from the Russian oligarch, however, raises even more serious question about it’s intent and purposes. That payment is the first real monetary trail that we have seen that potentially implicates the Trump team in colluding with the Russians during the 2016 campaign.

As Avenatti has joked over the last two days, Michael Cohen seems to have become a renaissance man, a true Leonardo da Vinci, specializing in the pharmaceutical, telecomm, capital markets, and accounting fields. Remarkably, these extraordinary gifts only became apparent starting in January, 2017, the very same month that Trump was inaugurated.

It appears that the only outflows from this Essential Consulting account was the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels and $1 million transferred to another Cohen account at Morgan Stanley. But the timing of those transactions indicates that there was more money coming into and out of that account than Avenatti shows in these documents. In the documents Avenatti released, we do not see the additional monies that AT&T and Novartis finally admitted to paying Cohen, nor do we see Trump’s $35,000 monthly “retainer”.

Cohen obviously has multiple bank accounts and controls numerous LLCs. It is unclear whether Avenatti has only obtained some suspicious activity reports (SAR) related to the Essential Consulting account or actually has access to bank statements for that account and potentially other Cohen accounts. And Avenatti is clearly interested in keeping that uncertainty hanging out there.


The real question, the one that Avenatti keeps raising and clearly knows the answer to, is where the rest of the money from that First Republic account actually end up. He keeps wondering whether a portion of these monies flowed to the Trump Organization or to Trump himself. And, in this entire Stormy Daniels affair, when Avenatti wonders about things, he usually knows the answer.

The ironic part of all this is that all these payments to the President’s personal attorney, which at best are clearly payments for access, are probably legal. Ever since the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell in 2016, the chances of actually convicting a politician of bribery are virtually nil and “pay-to-play” is now effectively legal. That was made clear in the case against New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. Yes, Cohen could have legal issues about not registering as a lobbyist but those penalties pale in comparison to actual public corruption.

Unfortunately, the President’s current legal strategy for dealing with the Mueller investigation is to focus on reducing the chances or options for impeachment, a largely political process. That means that being able to fall back on the legality of these payments may have less of an impact with the general public, even with portions of Trump’s base, who innately understand that these payments essentially amount to bribery and exemplify the “swamp” of corruption they (gullibly) voted to have Trump clean up.

sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
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Andy Bencosme is Still Running for Office in Arcadia

May 14, 2018, 5:30 am
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The big National Association of Realtors election is running until Friday, and the Arcadia Association of Realtors has a horse in that race by the name of Andy Bencosme. This is about a month and a week past Andy's previous electoral tilt in Sierra Madre.

As Bruce Springsteen might have put it, "Baby, he was born to run."

I couldn't figure out how to cast a ballot. But if you can click here and cast your vote.

And while we're on the topic of REALTOR® stuff, and listings that have the entire world agog with both envy and admiration, Sierra Madre has once again hit that most popular of looky-loo websites, Curbed Los Angeles, with another remarkable listing.

1949 Harwell Hamilton Harris house in Sierra Madre seeks $1.59M (Curbed Los Angeles link):




Looks like a pretty swanky place. And for that kind of bold cash, wouldn't it have to be?

sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
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The Border Rally: Just How Politically Far to the Right is Voice of Arcadia?

May 15, 2018, 5:30 am
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link to video

They will have the usual touchingly naive supporters of Sho Tay out tonight at the City Council meeting, haltingly delivering talking points the secretive Voice of Arcadia leadership will have prepared for them to read from their cell phones. A large portion of which will be about how intolerant the Arcadia Weekly and Sierra Madre Tattler are because they don't worship that doyen of mass mansionization, Sho Tay, with quite enough righteous fervency for them.

Crimes for which, in their opinion, such newsers must be shut down by Arcadia City Hall for their deviations in thought, and then banished forever.

Pretty radical stuff, yes? But is it leftwing radicalism, or rightwing radicalism? Judging by what can be found on the Voice of Arcadia Facebook page, you're going to have to assume that we're talking about the latter. Especially given their rather fulsome support for political demagogue Travis Allen and his campaign for Governor of California.

Just how reactionary is Travis Allen? Well, if you travel down to the Mexican border on May 27, you will be able to check out Travis in action for yourself. Whipping up a little old time race baiting nativism and fear of immigrants just so he get himself a few votes.


Are we to assume by their fulsome support of Travis Allen that the anonymous folks behind Voice of Arcadia don't like their neighbors of Latin American origin very much? Are they bigots? Talk about your pot calling the kettle black. Can it be that here we have yet another instance where those pointing fingers are guilty of the very things they accuse others?

In an op-ed piece titled "The California governor's race has its own version of Trump. Let's not let history repeat itself," here is how the Los Angeles Times (link) describes Travis Allen and, by inference, those who support him. You know, people like the secretive folks behind Voice of Arcadia.

Before launching his campaign for governor last year, Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) was a fairly ordinary legislator. Republican, but not in a rabble-rousing kind of way, and seemingly willing to work across the aisle to get things done. His first attention-getting legislation was a bill he co-authored in 2013 with a Democratic colleague to stop the South Coast Air Quality Management District from banning beach bonfires.

But now he's running for governor and he's changed. Last year, for example, when the Democratic-majority Legislature passed a bill to stop police from arresting children on charges of prostitution, he wrote an overwrought article suggesting that the state had legalized child prostitution.

Needless to say, that was not the case. The bill didn't make it legal for an adult to have sex with a minor, and Allen knew it. It merely declared that kids who were being sold for sex should be treated as victims rather than criminals.

But Allen clearly felt that his assertion, true or not, would feed a belief about out-of-control liberals held by the "silent majority" of conservatives he thinks exists — and would motivate them to vote for him in the June 5 statewide primary. It was part of a strategy he has followed since then of tapping into fears, making false claims, demonizing certain groups of people and promising things he can't possibly deliver. 

Politicians have, of course, always done such things to one degree or another — and we would never suggest that Allen is the only demagogue out there. But these days, in the aftermath of the November 2016 election, it no longer makes sense to ignore such irresponsible campaign behavior or to view it as the domain of only fringe candidates hoping desperately to get attention.

Hmm. "Demonizing certain groups of people,""tapping into fears,""making false claims." Yeah, I can see why Voice of Arcadia would be into old Travis. He is definitely their kind of guy.

Travis Allen facing sexual harassment charges in Sacramento

This from the Sacramento Bee (link):

On Friday, Allen was named in the Legislature’s release of sexual harassment investigative records. Allen, who the documents show was given a verbal warning but not disciplined in 2013, was accused of sliding his foot over to touch a female employee, and coming up behind her in the cafeteria to squeeze her shoulders. While Allen strongly disputes that what he did was inappropriate, the political fallout was swift. Republican Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, the author of a long-stalled whistleblower protection bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, informed Allen that she was pulling her support.

“I have no choice but to withdraw my endorsement of his candidacy,” Melendez told reporters after reviewing the claims.

Does the Voice of Arcadia support work place sexual harassment, too?

sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
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How to Fight the Property Developer: A Guide for Local Residents

May 16, 2018, 5:30 am
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Mod: This book was featured on the Save The Highlands Facebook page. You can link to its Amazon page here. I haven't read it, and I don't own a Kindle. Interesting sentence: "Many case studies of property development campaigns both won and lost are also provided." I wonder if they included anything about Measure V? Judging by some of the spelling here the author is either British or Canadian, so most likely not.


Mod: Here are three chapter previews included by Amazon.


Mod: I am not sure how much of this would apply to Sierra Madre since this is a city that has pretty much won its battles with predatory LULU development. At least for now. Plus I am sure some of the actual details are different. But it is always interesting to see how things are viewed from other perspectives and places.

sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
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Arcadia Weekly Chief Terry Miller Threatens 'Voice of Arcadia' with Legal Action Over Tom Beck Photo Theft

May 17, 2018, 4:30 am
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First I need to share something with you. I've been none too happy with the Arcadia Weekly these last two weeks. It wasn't all that long ago that Beacon Media asked me to join their papers because they wanted to "shake things up" and add a little political red meat to their otherwise bland news fare. And, as you know, it worked. More than they'd ever hoped, apparently.

But when the heat got turned up on them a little, Arcadia Weekly folded up like a cheap suitcase, and threw me deep under the bus. However, I've been thrown under buses before. Plenty of times. In these stupid times truth telling often gets you into trouble. Which is actually fun. And now I get to share this wackiness with you. It got really wild yesterday at Voice of Arcadia, which is good news for The Tattler. The issue? The illegal (and in my opinion slanderous) use of a Tom Beck photo that is property of the Arcadia Weekly. Here is how it rolled out.

(Oh, and I will not be posting that Tom Beck picture here for a very obvious reason.)


Did you catch that bit from the anonymous Voice of Arcadia clown about Terry "being perceived as being protective and biased?" My guess is that was a threat. Meaning certain gentlemen of distinction will call Terry's anxious boss again about his daring to tell the truth. Advertising apparently being more important than real news in that office these days.

One more thing. As of midnight last night the Tom Beck picture, property of Beacon Media and Terry Miller, had not been removed by Voice of Arcadia.

They had been warned.

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The New York Times: Top Republican Senator Says ‘No Reason to Dispute’ That Russia Favored Trump

May 18, 2018, 5:30 am
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Mod: It hasn't been all that good week for Donald Trump. Here is one of the reasons why things have been going so badly lately. It will only get worse.

Top Republican Senator Says ‘No Reason to Dispute’ That Russia Favored Trump (The New York Timeslink): The Republican at the helm of the Senate’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election backed on Wednesday the assessment by American intelligence agencies that Moscow favored Donald J. Trump in the race, contradicting both the president and fellow Republicans in the House.

Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that he saw “no reason to dispute” the intelligence assessment, which was delivered in the final weeks of the Obama administration.

Mr. Burr’s statement, while indirect, offered a clear rebuke to Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters in the Republican Party and in the right-wing news media, who have sought to cast the assessment as the shoddy work of Obama loyalists bitter over Mr. Trump’s election victory. Russia’s only goal, those supporters have insisted, was to sow chaos, and thus it could not have colluded with a campaign it cared little about.

The only logical conclusion, they contend, is the one that Mr. Trump has already reached: The investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, is a “witch hunt” cooked up by Democrats desperate to undermine a president they detest.

American intelligence officials, including Mr. Trump’s own appointees, who now run the agencies that compiled the assessment, say otherwise. They have repeatedly backed the work of their predecessors and sought to shield Mr. Mueller’s investigation from political attacks.

Asked at a Senate hearing on Wednesday if he stood by earlier statements that the special counsel’s investigation was not a witch hunt, Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, did not hesitate: “Yes,” he said.

And now, the intelligence assessment on Russia’s interference has the support of Mr. Burr, who said Wednesday that his committee was also continuing to investigate whether there was any collusion between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia. Examining the assessment was only the first step, the committee said.

“Committee staff have spent 14 months reviewing the sources, tradecraft and analytic work, and we see no reason to dispute the conclusions,” Mr. Burr said in the statement. “There is no doubt that Russia undertook an unprecedented effort to interfere with our 2016 elections.”

The Democratic vice chairman of the committee, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, added, “The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton.”

Mod: But you know, it probably won't be the Russia problems that will take him down. It's this. The President of the United States has now admitted to paying a porn star for her silence days before the election. This after denying the relationship and lying about the payment on a previous financial disclosure form. Can you imagine what would have happened if it had been Obama that had done that? The impeachment would have been up and rolling within weeks. 

How Mueller’s First Year Compares To Watergate, Iran-Contra And Whitewater (FiveThirtyEight link): It’s a big day for Robert Mueller and his team: One year ago today, Mueller was appointed to lead the special counsel investigation into possible ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian officials.

It’s a miracle, in some ways, that Mueller has lasted this long. President Trump’s relationship with the investigation has grown increasingly adversarial, and at many moments over the course of the past 12 months, it seemed like Mueller’s job was in jeopardy.

So this hasn’t been an easy year for Mueller, but it’s certainly been productive. Since the first indictments came down in the investigation last fall, the special counsel has racked up five guilty pleas and 14 indictments of individuals.1 He also reportedly gave a referral to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York that led to a raid on the office, home and hotel room of presidential lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, which has turned into its own separate investigation.

We’ve taken a look at how Mueller’s first year measures up against the initial 12 months of other special counsel and independent counsel investigations. In terms of the number of charges he’s been able to file, Mueller is moving quickly. At one year after the formal appointment of a special or independent counsel, only the Watergate special prosecution force had obtained more indictments and guilty pleas.


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Mark Hong Claimed This Video Never Existed & Attacked Tom Beck For Saying He'd Heard A Rumor It Does

May 19, 2018, 5:30 am
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 View videohere.

Mod: If you have been following the fool show over on the political vilification site Voice of Arcadia, you are probably up on this story. Mark Hong, an apparently lapsed attorney I've been told, and with an immense chip on his shoulder, has repeatedly attacked Tom Beck over the existence of the above video. Mark oddly claiming it never existed, and that Tom deviously made the whole story up in order to politically defeat Bob Harbicht. Something that sore loser Mr. Hong is still bitterly struggling with.

Anyway, here is an interesting email forwarded to me yesterday, written by someone who writes in both Chinese and English exceedingly well.

I just saw from the pinned-to-top post of the "Voice of Arcadia" page that "Mark Hong" is making trouble for Tom Beck about a video.

Mark Hong is accusing Tom of being dishonest, saying that Tom lied about the existence of an online Chinese language video on how to register to vote. I happened to have seen a Chinese language video on how to vote in the past city election before and I've included it here.

It was posted by "Arcadian's Rights Protection Association" (link). The narrator suggests that Harbicht& Chandler's names should be selected on the ballots. Some Chinese speaker must have seen it and told Tom about it. 

However, I suspect that due to translation inaccuracy, Tom thought it was about how to register to vote. I could be wrong. There might be another Chinese language video on how to register to vote, though I have not seen one.

Mod: Apparently Mark Hong is one of those VOA guys who thinks that anyone who didn't support Bob Harbicht this year is either racist or, if you are Asian, a "banana." A person's attitude about mansionization and community planning having something to do with their feelings about race as well.

I digress. Here is that bizarre rant from Mark Hongreferred to in the email above.

My DISHONEST TOM BECK story (too many people have been asking about it): On the campaign trail, he SPREAD A RUMOR that “The Asians” in Arcadia were conspiring to win the city council election by voter fraud.

On March 11, Dishonest Tom told me and a living room of my neighbors that Arcadia City Councilman Sho Tay and “The Asians” had made a Chinese language video on how to register to vote online.

While making imaginary check marks in the air with his right hand as if he were holding a pencil, Dishonest Tom repeated over and over: “Do you know how easy it is to JUST CHECK that you’re a US Citizen? No one ever verifies it.” I believed him and when I told Helen, she believed him.

I’ve always said there’s a difference between a witness and a rat. While I would never rat on someone to get myself out of trouble, Helen and I decided we could not sit back and witness a voter fraud conspiracy that would ultimately make ALL Asians in Arcadia look bad (e.g., John Wuo). Helen and I decided to report Sho Tay and the video so I asked for evidence.

DISHONEST TOM BECK REPLIED - IN WRITING - THAT IT WAS JUST A RUMOR!

He said he would forward evidence as soon as a group had collected it; still waiting.

I have come to believe there never was a video. I asked Sho Tay, he denied it and it looked convincing to me. I discussed this issue with City Councilwoman April Verlato, it didn’t seem like she had heard of the video. And every local Asian community activist I’ve met in the last 2 months had never heard of the video before I described it.

On the other hand, Dishonest Tom Beck says he has seen the video - in writing.

Mod: Let's take a short break here, because this really is crazy talk. Just a few sentences above Hong declares that Beck said the video was a rumor, and did so in writing. Now Mark is saying Tom claimed he has seen this video, and said that in writing as well? Just saying, you can get very dizzy reading Hong's nonsense.

If he cannot produce the video or any evidence that it ever existed, in my opinion the only honorable thing to do would be to resign. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

One last thing: a lot of people strongly encouraged me to expose all this before the election. They’re upset and I understand others will be, too. I regret that I didn’t. Deeply.

Mod: Well, maybe Mark should finally pull himself together, because we now know that this video does exist and can be easily viewed on-line. It isn't just a rumor anymore. I also rather suspect that Hong always knew of its existence as well. And if I am correct about that, maybe we now start calling him Dishonest Hong?

Oh, and as far as I know LA County is still investigating election fraud in District 5.

Somebody tell him that, OK?

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Sierra Madre Library Survey Says: Don't Move It!

May 20, 2018, 5:30 am
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Hands off.
Mod: At Tuesday evening's City Council meeting the moment we have all been waiting for will finally arrive. Those much discussed Library survey postcards have now been tabulated, the numbers examined from all of the possible angles by highly compensated statistical experts from Colorado, and with great assurance and exactitude the final results determined. And do you know what? Its just like we have been saying all along. Most folks do not want to see the Sierra Madre Public Library moved next to the community swimming pool.

If you head on over to the City of Sierra Madre website and spend a little quality time with Agenda Item #3 (link), you will be able to witness for yourself what it is you get from the National Research Center for your $18,000.

However, if you have a busy schedule, or would just prefer to spend your Sunday afternoon in front of the TV cursing out the Dodgers like I plan on doing, here it is in the briefest of all possible ways.


They go on for quite a while with their results, but that is pretty much all of it. Just fix the place, put in a few cement ramps so that the ADA people are happy, widen the aisles a little, and forget about it. That whole "21st Century Library" pitch was always an oxymoron, you know. You want to go stare at your laptop, go to Starbucks. 

It's about books. Things are supposed to be old, dusty and weird. That is the way libraries have been for centuries. It never should have even gotten to this point.

What I would like to know is this. Whatever happened to the $100,000 those highly earnest Friends of the Library people were going to spend on their feasibility study for moving the Library? Now that the issue of moving all of those books poolside is pretty much dead in the chlorinated water, or at least it damn well better be, did they actually go spend all of that money in so rash and needless a manner?

That money took a lot of serious wine drinking and brie eating by very dedicated residents to raise, you know. The Friends owe it to the battered livers of Sierra Madre. Let the people know.

Speaking of raising taxes 

Also on the schedule for Tuesday evening is yet another water rate hike. Or, for the more polite out there, a water rate adjustment. 

As we have been saying for the last decade or so here at The Tattler, every two years there will either be a water rate increase or a tax hike of some sort. You can set your clocks by it. That is just how City Hall likes to work. And it is always the last one they'll ever need, you know.

Of course it is. More on this tomorrow.

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Prop 218: New "Water Rate Adjustment" Coming Down

May 21, 2018, 5:30 am
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 Expensive date.
At tomorrow night's Sierra Madre City Council meeting yet another water rate adjustment "process" will be kicking off. Is it as severe as past ones? I have not deciphered that yet. Raftelis Financial Consultants will be in the house once again to emcee the festivities, having been rehired about a year ago.

Long time readers of this blog must be feeling a bit of deja vu. We have been down this road many times over the last ten years. Rate and tax increases seem to come down here on a two year cycle, and usually right after a City Council election has been held. This instance fits that pattern, with the last water rate increases happening in 2014, and 2016 being a utility tax year.

Proposed are water rate hikes, sewer rate hikes, tier width adjustments, and the usual balderdash about meter sizes. Below are the water rate increases, before and after. You can link to all of that rhythm in its original setting here.



As you can see, the increases are to those with 3" and 4" meter sizes. The big boys, and not most residential users. But remember, there are also the other increase categories as well, which you will have to look up for yourself. Hopefully you'll be able explain all that to me in the comments. As always, things are not immediately clear. Water rate adjustment processes being famous for their transparency challenges.

Here was the rationale for all of this in a staff report issued on May 9, 2017 (link). This was where the umpteenth rehiring of Raftellis was discussed. They were rehired at considerable expense and have been busily working on this for the last year.


In the agenda report for this item, which is the last one on tomorrow's schedule, there are some tweaks to the rationales for charging residents more for water. Here is how this is all justified now.


Pretty vague in my opinion, but these things often are. Coming right on the heels of that $1,000,000 dollar water meter spend however, asking for more money now does seem insensitive. But I suspect City Hall is not too worried about it.

This will be a Proposition 218 "process," meaning you do have the right to run around town trying to get people to sign paperwork protesting these increases. It is a lot of great exercise, but has been something residents have never quite been able to pull off in the past. We came close once, but then City Manager Elaine Aguilar threw out just enough signatures to guarantee that particular Prop 218 effort failed.


Did you notice that? That portion of the staff report for this item breaks off right in the middle of the Prop 218 explanation. Does it mean this has not been as properly noticed as it should have been? See this in the original at the bottom of page 2/7 as it transitions to page 3/7.

All protests will be due on July 24, 2018. If 50% +1 one of the needed protests are not received at the public hearing scheduled for that evening, then the water (etc.) rate increases will go through. The staff report does not say 50% +1 of what, so that will need to be asked about.

Maybe that was explained in the part that got cut off.

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