Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
Speaker 2: We're with you till nine o'clock tonight. We got a
Speaker 2: lot of news to get through, but first a quick update.
Speaker 2: Third quarter just started in downtown LA. The Lakers are
Speaker 2: down right now in the first round of the playoffs
Speaker 2: against the Timberwolves. It's sixty two to forty eight there.
Speaker 2: The Clippers went down in ot in Denver one twelve
Speaker 2: to one ten. The Dodgers lost today two at the
Speaker 2: Texas Rangers, four to three. Angels right now in Anaheim,
Speaker 2: bottom of the second the Giants are leading the Angels
Speaker 2: two to nothing. And of course, the Kings and the
Speaker 2: Oilers kickoff their first round NHL Playoffs.
Speaker 3: Game on Monday night.
Speaker 2: Lots going on in LA's sports right now, and that
Speaker 2: is your KFI Sports Report. It has been just over
Speaker 2: one hundred days since we first saw the smoke rising
Speaker 2: up in the Palisades. It's been just over three months
Speaker 2: since we first saw the fire spark in the Palisades,
Speaker 2: and of course, that same day a big fire with
Speaker 2: spark in the Altadena area, forever changing the landscape, the
Speaker 2: literal landscape, the political landscape, the cultural landscape of Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: And what do we have to show for it since
Speaker 2: Well depends on who you ask. If you talk to
Speaker 2: government officials, they like to use the phrase cutting red tape.
Speaker 2: They've been cutting red tape. Governor Newsom himself put out
Speaker 2: a news release this week saying, in one hundred days
Speaker 2: since the fire, we've been cutting red tape to help
Speaker 2: rebuild Los Angeles faster and stronger. Some of the stats
Speaker 2: he puts out, sixteen thousand VERST responders and recovery personnel
Speaker 2: were deployed here, two and a half billion dollars in
Speaker 2: small business administration assistants one hundred million dollars, and individual
Speaker 2: assistance has been dispersed. All of this sort of thing,
Speaker 2: twelve thy five hundred right of entry forms submitted.
Speaker 3: Eight schools out of eight.
Speaker 2: Have been back in in person instruction, and eight out
Speaker 2: of nine water systems have been reactivated. If you talk
Speaker 2: to La Mayor Bass, things are going well, cutting red tape,
Speaker 2: cutting through bureaucracy, getting the city back on its feet
Speaker 2: after this massive disaster in the Palisades, But if you're
Speaker 2: on the ground and you're talking to residents, it's quite
Speaker 2: a different thing. In fact, some people who are working
Speaker 2: on the rebuilt effort are disputing what Mayor Bass has
Speaker 2: had to say about the recovery and its speed and
Speaker 2: the processes that are in place to make it faster.
Speaker 2: Let's hear this report from Fox eleven.
Speaker 4: LA's disaster recovery is on track to be the fastest
Speaker 4: in modern California history.
Speaker 5: All smiles, but things are going slowly. I know we've
Speaker 5: brought things to her attention.
Speaker 6: Luke Melcher, a contractor working in the Palisades and even
Speaker 6: fire zones one hundred days in and crews like his
Speaker 6: continue clearing burn debris on some lots while others look untouched.
Speaker 6: According to the LA Department of Building and Safety last week,
Speaker 6: of the nearly seven thousand buildings destroyed in the Palisades,
Speaker 6: twelve permits have been issued to rebuild the main issues.
Speaker 5: I would say, we're our closing out inspections just waiting
Speaker 5: on the city to get out close out our fire
Speaker 5: debris permits. Although they published a guideline, each inspector seems
Speaker 5: to have a different criteria that he's.
Speaker 2: Following twelve permits to rebuild have been issued, that's all.
Speaker 2: And there were many more than twelve houses that were destroyed.
Speaker 2: And that's what you keep hearing from the residents on
Speaker 2: the ground is, man, this is not going well. They're
Speaker 2: also facing challenges with insurance. California has already had difficulty
Speaker 2: with insurance companies, and there's been a lot of criticism
Speaker 2: lately towards State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who has missed
Speaker 2: some important meetings, who's been traveling a lot on the
Speaker 2: taxpayer done when he's the point person, he's the guy
Speaker 2: who's supposed to be helping regulate these companies, helping to
Speaker 2: make insurance more affordable for Californians. Of course he would
Speaker 2: say that's what he is doing. He was also in
Speaker 2: the Palisades recently. Let's hear this report from Fox eleven.
Speaker 6: Are you seeing one main particular complaint among residents now?
Speaker 7: I think the issues that we hear over and over
Speaker 7: again are now like it goes in stages right immediately
Speaker 7: after the fires. We want to focus on getting those
Speaker 7: claims paid immediately.
Speaker 6: Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Laura in the Palisades says, California is
Speaker 6: having an insurance crisis as race increased for homeowners statewide,
Speaker 6: essentially build for natural disasters.
Speaker 7: This is why we need to focus on mitigation. Bring
Speaker 7: the price down, bring competition back into the areas, and
Speaker 7: bring the insurance rates down. Eventually.
Speaker 6: What do you think the city could be doing better?
Speaker 3: Well, I think we could always do things better.
Speaker 4: I mean, the one issue that we're grappling with now,
Speaker 4: as we talk about regularly, is waving fees, and so
Speaker 4: we're working on that now to see what that.
Speaker 8: Would mean to the budget, what that would mean to
Speaker 8: the budget, and that is a significant question right now because,
Speaker 8: of course, the City of Los Angeles faces about a
Speaker 8: billion dollar budget shortfall, and in the upcoming week next week,
Speaker 8: Mayor Bass on Monday, in fact, will present her proposed budget.
Speaker 2: It's not looking good. In fact, in our next hour,
Speaker 2: we'll have some audio from a Friday night appearance she
Speaker 2: made to Black Lives Matters Los Angeles where she flat
Speaker 2: out said yes, she is going to propose layoffs in
Speaker 2: that budget. She says she hopes there's remedies for it.
Speaker 2: She hopes it doesn't happen, but it will be part
Speaker 2: of her proposal. These fires have played a significant role
Speaker 2: in the city's financial situation, but they've also played a
Speaker 2: more significant role in the direct, everyday lives of people
Speaker 2: who live in the Palisades and people who live in Altadna.
Speaker 2: There was a couple of weeks ago a Palisades Community
Speaker 2: Council meeting. It was hosted on Zoom and one of
Speaker 2: their special guests was from an organization called Haggarty Consulting.
Speaker 2: This is a group that Mayor Bass used executive authority
Speaker 2: to hire on a ten million dollar one year contract
Speaker 2: to help speed up to help cut that red tape,
Speaker 2: to get people in the process of rebuilding their homes
Speaker 2: more quickly. But people in the Palisades would say, and
Speaker 2: in fact did say during this meeting, that's not happening.
Speaker 2: In fact, Haggarty, why don't you tell us what exactly
Speaker 2: you do here? And the answer, I'm this consulting firm.
Speaker 2: It's pretty deflating. It's a lot of consultants speak, but
Speaker 2: it's also not an answer really at all. These folks
Speaker 2: who live in one of the most beautiful places on earth,
Speaker 2: who saw their homes go up in flames, who saw
Speaker 2: their entire community disappeared asked what are you doing here,
Speaker 2: and could not get a response from an organization that
Speaker 2: has been brought into the city to help facilitate the
Speaker 2: process of rebuilding the price tag of ten million dollars
Speaker 2: possibly now the city says, look, it's a contract that
Speaker 2: says up to ten million dollars and we're paying them
Speaker 2: by the hour, and we're only paying them for the
Speaker 2: work that's done. Well, it makes you curious to know
Speaker 2: how much has been paid up to this point, because
Speaker 2: what has been done they could not say. In our
Speaker 2: next segment, I'm going to bring to you some sound
Speaker 2: from that meeting. It's a pretty shocking meeting where these
Speaker 2: frustrated residents ask this consultant what are you doing? And
Speaker 2: the consultant really could not give a good answer. And
Speaker 2: after that, we're going to have a longer interview with
Speaker 2: a resident of the Palisades to dive a little deeper
Speaker 2: into the frustration that they're feeling. Why is it taking
Speaker 2: so long to get things moving there? Why is the
Speaker 2: messaging from city hall so different from the experiences on
Speaker 2: the ground. And by the way, you don't have to
Speaker 2: live in the Palisades or an Altadena, Pasadena Malibu to
Speaker 2: feel frustration right now about living in La and living
Speaker 2: in La County. In fact, there is clear evidence that
Speaker 2: people all over the county are not feeling good about
Speaker 2: living here right now. The tenth Annuel UCLA Luskin School
Speaker 2: Quality of Life Index, it's a survey of LA County
Speaker 2: and it shows that we're at our lowest feeling about
Speaker 2: living here, same as last year, lowest feeling ever, tied
Speaker 2: with last year and tied again with twenty twenty two
Speaker 2: for the lowest rating. We're going to dive into what
Speaker 2: that survey found about why people feel this way about
Speaker 2: living here right now, and then we got a big
Speaker 2: eight o'clock hour as well. I hope you'll stick around
Speaker 2: for the whole thing. We got a lot to get
Speaker 2: through because the city budget is going to be proposed
Speaker 2: on Monday, and they are facing serious headwinds on their finances,
Speaker 2: and Mayor Bass said Friday night layoffs are going to
Speaker 2: be part of her proposal. The LAPD is out with
Speaker 2: a new ad campaign. They're down about fifteen hundred officers
Speaker 2: from their goal of ten thousand.
Speaker 3: They think a new YouTube video is going to turn
Speaker 3: that around.
Speaker 2: And then why aren't Canadians coming to California anymore. Take
Speaker 2: a guess, will a new campaign help bring Canucks back
Speaker 2: to La, back to California. We'll take a look at
Speaker 2: what's going on with that as well. Big two hours
Speaker 2: ahead here on Michael Monk's Reports. Stick around with us
Speaker 2: on this beautiful Saturday night here in southern California.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: This is Michael Monk's Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
Speaker 2: News with you till nine o'clock tonight. Boy, the bottom
Speaker 2: has really fallen out in downtown LA. The timber Wolves
Speaker 2: have opened up a twenty four point lead on the
Speaker 2: Lakers towards the end of the third quarter, now eighty
Speaker 2: five to sixty one. Don't know what's happened there. The
Speaker 2: Clippers have already lost in overtime, the Dodgers lost to Day,
Speaker 2: the Angels are losing. We just might have one of
Speaker 2: those days in LA sports. We're definitely having one of
Speaker 2: those periods of time in Pacific Palisades and the residents
Speaker 2: there who are hoping to rebuild their homes and their
Speaker 2: community and the vibe that they had there are really
Speaker 2: ticked off. And there was a community council meeting last week.
Speaker 2: It was hosted online, so I peeped it and they
Speaker 2: had invited a representative from Haggarty Consulting. This is the
Speaker 2: private consulting firm that La Mayor bast happed to help
Speaker 2: lead the recovery effort, help facilitate the cutting of red
Speaker 2: tape so that we could move quickly. And this poor
Speaker 2: guy named Harrison Newton, who's just a guy who works
Speaker 2: at this firm, represented Haggerty on this call. He spoke
Speaker 2: for about thirty five minutes, but after he was finished talking,
Speaker 2: those residents were scratching their heads. They were not sure
Speaker 2: what they heard. Let's hear a little bit of the frustration.
Speaker 9: Give me a concrete example of something you did in
Speaker 9: a prior disaster such as Lehina or Paradise or wherever
Speaker 9: you guys go to do this, that is not just
Speaker 9: another layer of bureaucracy, because that's what it feels like
Speaker 9: at the moment. I'm looking for a concrete example of
Speaker 9: something that you did that moved things forward and moved
Speaker 9: the needle, and I'd appreciate hearing it now, not later.
Speaker 3: Silence. Okay, take that back, Harrison and respond at.
Speaker 10: Some point.
Speaker 3: Silence.
Speaker 9: Hello.
Speaker 11: Yeah, you know, I don't mean to be sussful, and
Speaker 11: I do intend to provide that information. We also have
Speaker 11: a website that has a lot of examples of our work.
Speaker 3: You know, I what I I want.
Speaker 9: To off the top of your head, just something that
Speaker 9: you did. I mean, it's got to be a memorable
Speaker 9: moment for you. If this is what you specialize.
Speaker 2: In, silence? Can you believe that? Go to our website
Speaker 2: and see what we do. Well, he does, start to
Speaker 2: formulate some form of an answer, and this minute clip
Speaker 2: will give you an idea of what the entire presentation
Speaker 2: was like.
Speaker 11: You know, so, I mean I think you know, I
Speaker 11: want to go down that road. You know, every community
Speaker 11: that we work in their recovery and what we do
Speaker 11: with them is kind of unique.
Speaker 3: Okay, just one thing though, Just one thing.
Speaker 11: So you know, in communities we've worked in where we've
Speaker 11: worked on long term recovery, we've done work to make
Speaker 11: sure that loan processing is faster and more effective and
Speaker 11: more communicated to communities we've made well. See, so if
Speaker 11: I give an example of apologies, but if I give
Speaker 11: an example I could give.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is.
Speaker 11: Literally what we do all day, every day. So when
Speaker 11: you talk about opt in and out opt out processes
Speaker 11: and making sure the community is aware of those and
Speaker 11: trying to leverage all the assets to making sure that
Speaker 11: as many people can go through that process as they can,
Speaker 11: those are all things we're supporting. So I would really
Speaker 11: suggest that you know, in this case, almost everything that
Speaker 11: is happening when there's augmentation support, it's happening with the
Speaker 11: augmentation support. That's the point of it.
Speaker 2: Leverage the assets, augmentation support, that's the point of it.
Speaker 2: So if you're scratching your head wondering what that means,
Speaker 2: you're not alone because these residents didn't really know what
Speaker 2: he was talking about either. Let's hear that, and.
Speaker 3: We're trying to make this What that means, I don't
Speaker 3: even know what is augmentation support what it means.
Speaker 11: It just means more people working on the recovery every day,
Speaker 11: so that the missions and the work of the recovery
Speaker 11: can happen more fast, can happen more effectively and efficiently.
Speaker 11: So you're bringing more people to bear so they're less
Speaker 11: thinly stretched and you're achieving work faster.
Speaker 3: That's just a little taste.
Speaker 2: There were more than two hundred people on this call
Speaker 2: listening to this presentation, including city council woman Tracy Park,
Speaker 2: who was not there the whole time. But man, these
Speaker 2: people were angry about it, including a guy named David Howard.
Speaker 2: He works here at iHeart Los Angeles and lives in
Speaker 2: the Palisades. His family lost their home in the fire,
Speaker 2: and he did not mince words when he addressed Haggarty Consulting.
Speaker 12: I'm angry, really angry, because I spent twenty five minutes
Speaker 12: listening to you speak and I don't know what you said.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, okay, And.
Speaker 12: It's not great. It's not to rip you or go,
Speaker 12: but you got to start providing answers. And when you
Speaker 12: tell us you're alignment the Mayor's office, that's a problem
Speaker 12: because she has not been there for us before the fire,
Speaker 12: and she's not here for us right now. So the
Speaker 12: lip service and the holding hands and the kumbaya it's over.
Speaker 12: It's over.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 12: You got to start producing ten million dollars, ten million dollars,
Speaker 12: Pay me ten million dollars, and I'll do exactly what
Speaker 12: you just did.
Speaker 2: Say nothing ooh, and that it gives you another indication
Speaker 2: that they're not happy with La Mayor Bass either. He
Speaker 2: says she wasn't there for us before the fires. She's
Speaker 2: not been there for as afterwards. He's quite angry. A
Speaker 2: lot of residents in the Palisades are angry, and at
Speaker 2: this opportunity for Haggarty Consulting to come in and explain
Speaker 2: what they do, it seems like they blew it because
Speaker 2: these residents are not satisfied. And I know that because
Speaker 2: I had a longer conversation with David Howard, and he
Speaker 2: explained where this frustration is coming from, not just at
Speaker 2: the lack of clarity from this presentation by Haggarty, but
Speaker 2: through the whole thing, the fire itself and the aftermath
Speaker 2: of it that they are still dealing with. And he
Speaker 2: paints a completely different picture than what we hear from
Speaker 2: our elected officials and the consultants that they hire. And
Speaker 2: you're going to hear more from David Howard, whom I
Speaker 2: spoke with at length.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI on demand.
Speaker 2: KFIAM six forty five everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3: This is Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 2: I'm Michael Monks from KFI News We're with you till
Speaker 2: nine o'clock tonight and every Saturday night.
Speaker 3: Thanks for being with us.
Speaker 2: If you heard our last segment, you heard some very
Speaker 2: frustrated residents of Pacific Palisades talking to a consultant hired
Speaker 2: by Mayor Bass the City of Los Angeles to help
Speaker 2: oversee the recovery process to help things go more smoothly.
Speaker 2: Those residents say things aren't going more smoothly and they
Speaker 2: don't know what these consultants are doing. I told you
Speaker 2: I caught up with one of the residents to talk
Speaker 2: a bit more about that experience. Here's my interview with
Speaker 2: David Howard. This meeting looked like a lot of people
Speaker 2: were frustrated. We're one hundred days after the fire. Why
Speaker 2: are people still frustrated? What's taking so long?
Speaker 12: Well, we're frustrated because there's no answers. Right. We sat
Speaker 12: there for thirty five minutes in that last meeting, and
Speaker 12: the chat room is blowing up because this person that
Speaker 12: was speaking, mid level manager, which quite honestly shouldn't have
Speaker 12: been the one that was representing because he's way over
Speaker 12: his skis, just didn't provide any insight, answers, plans, nothing
Speaker 12: to that effect. So we're all sitting there kind of
Speaker 12: shaking our heads.
Speaker 3: What did you expect from that meeting?
Speaker 2: I mean, if they tell you Haggarty consulting is coming on,
Speaker 2: you must have thought this was a good opportunity to
Speaker 2: get a better understanding of what they were supposed to
Speaker 2: be doing.
Speaker 12: Yeah, great question. So what we expected was some sort
Speaker 12: of plan after being in the Palisades for ninety days,
Speaker 12: analyzing kind of where everything was based on the different
Speaker 12: phases of debris removal, and what kind of was phase
Speaker 12: three even though it's not defined as phase three, Like
Speaker 12: what's the solution, what's the plan, and how we're going
Speaker 12: to move forward with all the different elements that go
Speaker 12: into the rebuild, both on an individual basis for individual
Speaker 12: homes and also for the town.
Speaker 2: I got the sense that people were kind of chomping
Speaker 2: at the bit before this meeting even started to ask
Speaker 2: those questions of Haggarty, like what have you done now?
Speaker 2: Maybe they were being generous, thinking they were going to
Speaker 2: get an answer without having to prompt, But was that
Speaker 2: the sense that people had been talking behind the scenes
Speaker 2: or to neighbor to neighbor, what are these guys doing?
Speaker 12: Well, that's the great, that's the question of the day, right,
Speaker 12: They're getting paid a lot of money. And I think
Speaker 12: the thing that's set everybody off really was at the
Speaker 12: end of his you know, him giving his speech, which
Speaker 12: again I think I compared with you a couple of
Speaker 12: days ago that it made Kamala Harris's Dorito's speech sound
Speaker 12: like I had a dream from MLK. Nobody understood what
Speaker 12: was being said. And at the very end of the speech,
Speaker 12: instead of having hands come up and saying, hey, we're
Speaker 12: going to take some questions, we were told that we
Speaker 12: would not be allowed to ask any questions, and then
Speaker 12: all the questions that did be put into a chat
Speaker 12: or to an email address and they would vet those
Speaker 12: questions and then get back to us. That was the
Speaker 12: breaking point.
Speaker 2: You said on the call. I mean, it's there for
Speaker 2: everyone to see in public. Now you're angry. What are
Speaker 2: you angry about?
Speaker 12: Well, we're angry about the incompetence, the ineptitude, the lack
Speaker 12: of communication, the cover up, all the things that you know,
Speaker 12: if someone's going to pay a lot of money, taxpayer
Speaker 12: dollars to provide a solution, that provide that solution has
Speaker 12: not been discussed and quite Frankly, I don't think they
Speaker 12: have a solution, and it was an embarrassing moment. It
Speaker 12: was insulting. It was insulting to us as residents of
Speaker 12: the city, to us as taxpayers, to us who are
Speaker 12: just basically looking for guidance and answers in leadership. None
Speaker 12: of those none of that was displayed at all. And
Speaker 12: the fact that this gentleman that was speaking referred to
Speaker 12: the fact that they're aligned with Karen Bass was probably
Speaker 12: not the best thing to say to a bunch of
Speaker 12: people who are not really feeling super competent or kind
Speaker 12: of comfortable with the fact that Karen Bass is going
Speaker 12: to lead us through this disaster, knowing that we feel
Speaker 12: she was a big part of the reason why we
Speaker 12: got put in this position in the first place.
Speaker 2: That was exactly what was going to ask next, because
Speaker 2: that was a moment in the meeting where you criticized
Speaker 2: him for saying, you know that they're aligned with the
Speaker 2: mayor's office. We know that you have a lot of
Speaker 2: ongoing frustrations with the mayor's office, but we've also seen
Speaker 2: the mayor spending more time in the palisades and directing
Speaker 2: or at least alerting the media that hey, I'm going
Speaker 2: to be here for this thing, and we all show
Speaker 2: up to see what's going on. Is the relationship not
Speaker 2: good between the neighborhood and the mayor.
Speaker 12: I would say that there's a lot of distrust. And
Speaker 12: I would say that these kind of moments of you know,
Speaker 12: the moment, the press moments, when the cameras are coming
Speaker 12: out and she's out in front of telling the story,
Speaker 12: there's a lot of things happening behind that story that
Speaker 12: people don't know about. For instance, when they showed the
Speaker 12: first home being built on Depaw and the palisades, you know,
Speaker 12: starting to be rebuilt, that house by itself to get
Speaker 12: that permit pulled was actually pulled by Bass's office because
Speaker 12: they had to do a press conference. It was not
Speaker 12: easy for the contractors. Matter of fact, the contractor was
Speaker 12: a kind of surprised by all of the hooplet around
Speaker 12: it because of everything he had gone through, the builder,
Speaker 12: the architect had gone through, and the landlord had gone
Speaker 12: through to even have that moment. And so what it
Speaker 12: may look like at a press conference is not what
Speaker 12: it really looks like behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: What does it look like behind the scenes now, I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously you and your neighbors are in a pretty rough spot.
Speaker 2: It's still pretty raw. I imagine there's been a little bit
Speaker 2: of progress. What's going on in the Palisades.
Speaker 12: Well, I will say this. I will say we are
Speaker 12: seeing progress with lots being cleared, and that feels really good.
Speaker 12: And you know, based on the speed of which the
Speaker 12: Army Corps is moving, is very positive. That said, a
Speaker 12: lot of DeBras being left on the properties. So after
Speaker 12: the Army Corps leaves, there's many neighbors and friends that
Speaker 12: are actually having to call in private contractors after the
Speaker 12: fact to clean up the pieces that were left by
Speaker 12: the Army Corps. Which again, nothing's free, even though all
Speaker 12: that quote unquote free debris removal is now having to
Speaker 12: be paid out of pocket from residents because the Army
Speaker 12: Corps left it on their lots. So there we see progress,
Speaker 12: but it's slow. The permitting process is still, you know,
Speaker 12: not where it needs to be, and we'll have to
Speaker 12: see over the next few weeks, you know how it
Speaker 12: continues to develop, good or bad.
Speaker 2: You mentioned on the call to the consultant, give me
Speaker 2: a ten million dollars. I'll do exactly what you did,
Speaker 2: say nothing and I could feel your anger in that.
Speaker 2: But if they gave you ten million dollars to figure
Speaker 2: out something good to do for the palisades right now,
Speaker 2: to speed things along, what do you think you and
Speaker 2: other residents would want to do with that kind of money.
Speaker 12: Well, first off, I'm not sure it really needs to
Speaker 12: cost ten million dollars right the residents can give input,
Speaker 12: we can provide, you know, enough data points that we
Speaker 12: can come up with a plan that's logical. And again,
Speaker 12: at this point, there is zero plan, and so what
Speaker 12: we can do with it. I don't think we need
Speaker 12: to spend ten million dollars. I think we just need
Speaker 12: to ask the right people what they need, and we
Speaker 12: don't need consultants to do that.
Speaker 2: I think we got a lot left to learn still
Speaker 2: about the cause and the aftermath and the response. But
Speaker 2: I hope that you know that our thoughts are still
Speaker 2: with you and all of your neighbors and whatever we
Speaker 2: can do to help you know where to find us.
Speaker 12: Yeah, no, we appreciate that. I think the best thing
Speaker 12: we can do is to can you continue to out
Speaker 12: this kind of it is to expose the just the
Speaker 12: incompetence and the lack of just the to not be
Speaker 12: able to take a consultancy from us getting paid three
Speaker 12: million dollars right and get answers. It's just it's criminal.
Speaker 12: And you know, it's always about following the money. You
Speaker 12: got to follow the money, and if you follow the money.
Speaker 12: I'd love to know and we'd all like to know
Speaker 12: why Haggarty was chosen, because so far, based on what
Speaker 12: they've done and what they shared, it was the wrong
Speaker 12: It was the wrong group to be spending all those
Speaker 12: tax dollars on.
Speaker 3: Thank you, David, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2: David Howard is easy to catch up with here at
Speaker 2: iHeartMedia Los Angeles because he works here alongside us. Of course,
Speaker 2: his family did lose their home in the Palisades fire,
Speaker 2: so we're grateful that he took some time to talk
Speaker 2: to us about the situation going on still in the
Speaker 2: palace side in the Palisades. You hear that frustration up next.
Speaker 2: You don't have to live in the Palisades or Alta
Speaker 2: Dina to feel frustration about living in Los Angeles or
Speaker 2: La County. New survey is out from UCLA and it
Speaker 2: shows that basically morale around here is the lowest it's
Speaker 2: ever been.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI am six forty on demand KFI.
Speaker 2: AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This
Speaker 2: is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News
Speaker 2: here with you till nine o'clock tonight. If you've been
Speaker 2: listening this hour, you heard some frustrated residents of Pacific
Speaker 2: Palisades really lash out at not just the city, but
Speaker 2: also this consulting firm that the city had hired called
Speaker 2: Haggarty Consulting, a ten million dollar one year contract and
Speaker 2: these residents don't think there's been anything to show for it.
Speaker 2: And one of the representatives from that firm spoke to
Speaker 2: the Pacific Palisades Community Council and got a near full
Speaker 2: And if you miss any of that, you can listen
Speaker 2: to the podcast when it goes up after the broadcast
Speaker 2: on the iHeartRadio app. You can also join this conversation.
Speaker 2: We'd love to hear from you as well. You open
Speaker 2: up the iHeartRadio app, click on that talkback button and
Speaker 2: you got about thirty seconds to tell us how you feel.
Speaker 3: And that's what Nick has done. Let's hear from him.
Speaker 10: Well, So, Michael, this is Nick from Sam Pedro. I
Speaker 10: just don't even understand I am so frustrated with these people.
Speaker 10: And I don't even live in the fire zones, but
Speaker 10: Karen Bass is an absolute idiot. She does not do
Speaker 10: anything but smile and put some phony ass bs out
Speaker 10: to everybody, and people were still stupid enough to buy it.
Speaker 10: Saying with Ricardo Laura saying with Governor Newsom.
Speaker 2: Nick appreciate the talk back and would love to know
Speaker 2: how the wind is in San Pedro. We heard City
Speaker 2: Councilman Tim mcgscar, who represents San Pedro and the LA
Speaker 2: City Hall, that the wind is better in San Pedro
Speaker 2: for sailing and San Pedro should host that event in
Speaker 2: the Olympics, not Long Beach. Well, that that venue list
Speaker 2: came out and LA twenty eight hasn't budged on that.
Speaker 2: I'm anxious to hear what might happen in the week
Speaker 2: ahead on that front as well. We'll bring you the
Speaker 2: latest as it happens here on KFI News on whether
Speaker 2: the battle over the wind between San Pedro and Long
Speaker 2: Beach materializes for Olympic sailing. You know, if you also
Speaker 2: want to weigh in on what we're talking about, you
Speaker 2: can follow me online at Mike Monks LA M I
Speaker 2: C M O nks La, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok wherever. If
Speaker 2: you pull up my Instagram, you can see a nice
Speaker 2: picture that I posted a day of a chicken and
Speaker 2: waffle sandwich at a new place at Seventh and Fig
Speaker 2: downtown where the Target is and that little food hall
Speaker 2: they have downstairs. I'm a big sucker for chicken and waffles.
Speaker 2: And I mentioned that because it was a great day
Speaker 2: today walking around town. I live downtown, walking around downtown sunshining,
Speaker 2: you know a lot of people out and about shopping
Speaker 2: in the fashion districts Anti Alley, in the middle of
Speaker 2: downtown where where the big box stores are.
Speaker 3: You know, it was a good day.
Speaker 2: But it's like I always say, downtown La is beautiful
Speaker 2: when you're looking up, and I mean not optimistically but
Speaker 2: literally physically looking up, because when you're looking down, you're
Speaker 2: seeing a lot of slop, maybe even things that scare you,
Speaker 2: certainly things that will disgust you or even depress you.
Speaker 2: And I realize that that's a sentiment that's shared no
Speaker 2: matter where you live in La County, if you live
Speaker 2: amongst some of the mentally ill, the drug addicted, that
Speaker 2: terrorize small businesses, that disrupt traffic, that scare you when
Speaker 2: you're walking, or if you live in an area that
Speaker 2: burned to the ground in January and you're still searching
Speaker 2: for answers on how to rebuild your life, or if
Speaker 2: you just think it's too expensive to live here, if
Speaker 2: you don't think that the government is working well on
Speaker 2: your behalf. Of course, you can weigh in on the
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app by clicking on that talkback button. But people
Speaker 2: have weighed in recently in the tenth annual UCLA Luskin
Speaker 2: School Quality of Life Index. This is a survey they
Speaker 2: do every year across La County, and what they have
Speaker 2: found this year is that the overall rating, where they
Speaker 2: take people's answers on nine specific questions and combine them
Speaker 2: to a cumulative score, it's at the lowest it's ever been.
Speaker 2: Now it does tie last year and also twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: so it looks like in twenty twenty three we're little
Speaker 2: more optimistic about La County, but now we're back down
Speaker 2: to a rating of fifty three. It was fifty three
Speaker 2: last year, fifty five and twenty twenty three, and fifty
Speaker 2: three in twenty twenty two. It has declined since twenty
Speaker 2: and twenty twenty one when it was at fifty eight.
Speaker 2: So what are the issues that are making people feel
Speaker 2: bad about living here? Because again you look around and
Speaker 2: it's like so close to paradise. Weather's great, the scenery
Speaker 2: is good. Man. You can catch a vibe when there's
Speaker 2: no traffic and you're on the freeway and the palm
Speaker 2: tree silhouettes are there in the iconic buildings.
Speaker 3: We all know the Hollywood sign. I mean you're in
Speaker 3: La Baby.
Speaker 2: But overall, people are just not happy about a lot
Speaker 2: of different things. People are basically asked, how do you
Speaker 2: feel about this or that issue? And they respond and
Speaker 2: whether they feel positively or negatively. Cost of living forty
Speaker 2: one percent. That's down nine points from ten years ago
Speaker 2: when the survey first happened. Public safeties down so seven
Speaker 2: seven points over ten years only fifty six. Healthcare down
Speaker 2: six percent to sixty four. How do you feel about
Speaker 2: your own neighborhood that's down five points from seventy one
Speaker 2: to sixty six. What about traffic, Well, that's down five
Speaker 2: points to fifty three. Education down five points to forty nine,
Speaker 2: the environment down four points to fifty seven. Jobs, and
Speaker 2: the economy down four points to fifty four. And relations
Speaker 2: between people of different races, ethnicities and religions down three
Speaker 2: points from ten years ago to sixty six. So from
Speaker 2: ten years ago, all the metrics down, down, down, down, down,
Speaker 2: and that's how they come up with this cumulative score
Speaker 2: of fifty three. That we are at the rock bottom.
Speaker 2: This survey is also bad news for La Mayor Caaren Bess.
Speaker 2: They have asked people's favorability of this mayre for the
Speaker 2: three years now that she's been in office. During the
Speaker 2: survey twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, and this year.
Speaker 2: When you go back to twenty twenty three, which was
Speaker 2: her first year in office, she had a total favorable
Speaker 2: response of forty six percent against twenty three percent who
Speaker 2: had an unfavorable opinion of her. By last year it
Speaker 2: started to change a little bit, but not terrible forty
Speaker 2: two percent favorability rating, thirty two percent unfavorable, the rest
Speaker 2: no comment. But now now it's bad. Her favorable rating
Speaker 2: is thirty seven percent, so it dropped five points, but
Speaker 2: her unfavorable rating went up seventeen percent to forty nine percent.
Speaker 2: And now she's underwater. And you have to imagine that
Speaker 2: is directly tied to the wildfires because goodness knows, there
Speaker 2: was homelessness and crime and all of that during the
Speaker 2: first two years, but then this fire happened, and people
Speaker 2: are not happy with the way the city has responded,
Speaker 2: especially La Mayor Karen Bass. Now, there were some specific
Speaker 2: questions this year in the survey about the fires. They
Speaker 2: asked whether people would be willing to pay higher taxes
Speaker 2: to improve wildfire response. Eleven percent say very willing, forty
Speaker 2: one percent say somewhat willing. The rest are either not
Speaker 2: too willing or not willing at all. Lots of people
Speaker 2: were touched by this fire. Twenty eight percent say the
Speaker 2: statement I made myself better prepared for a future emergency.
Speaker 2: Twenty eight percent say that applies to me a great deal.
Speaker 2: Forty five percent say it applies to me a little.
Speaker 10: So.
Speaker 2: A lot of people took heed like ugh, so it's
Speaker 2: a bad situation. What if it comes for me? Sixty
Speaker 2: four percent of responders know someone who lost their home
Speaker 2: or business, either well or a little bit. Fifty six
Speaker 2: percent volunteer to donate and help. We saw a lot
Speaker 2: of people come out to help because people want to
Speaker 2: improve their lives. People want a better community, and as
Speaker 2: terrible as these fires were it really gave La an
Speaker 2: opportunity to show that it is a community. We we're
Speaker 2: so disjointed and separated by freeways and all that, but
Speaker 2: this was an opportunity to shine.
Speaker 3: But now.
Speaker 2: Now the smoke is cleared and the rebuilding is supposed
Speaker 2: to begin, and people aren't happy, and there's a lot
Speaker 2: of blame on La Mayor pass and she is going
Speaker 2: to take center stage again on Monday. She's going to
Speaker 2: do two important things on Monday, and we will be
Speaker 2: covering it all day. And she gave a little preview
Speaker 2: last night speaking to a group of Black Lives Matters
Speaker 2: Los Angeles. We're gonna talk about what she said about
Speaker 2: the city's dire financial condition. She'll be giving a budget
Speaker 2: proposal on Monday and the State of the City address.
Speaker 2: We'll preview that in the next hour here on Michael
Speaker 2: Monks Reports on KFI AM six forty
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty on demand