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