Speaker 1: And we continue at one oh five in the afternoon
Speaker 1: on the John Phillips Show, Mister Randy Wings in Culver City.
Speaker 2: John, a new.
Speaker 3: Report from the State Legislative Analysts Office has shown in
Speaker 3: the last seven years as governor, Gavin Newsom has increased
Speaker 3: spending in the state of California by one hundred billion
Speaker 3: dollars a year.
Speaker 4: Accountability, accountability, accountability.
Speaker 1: Well, at least we have all of this to show
Speaker 1: for it.
Speaker 5: I don't know why we're so damned sheepish.
Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is
Speaker 1: a telephone number one eight hundred two two two five
Speaker 1: two two two. All right, let's go back to the
Speaker 1: sound of last night's debate between Spencer Pratt, who is
Speaker 1: running for mayor of Los Angeles of reality TV fame,
Speaker 1: incumbent Mayor Karen Bassie wants another four years, and socialist
Speaker 1: councilwoman Nitthia Rahman.
Speaker 3: I feel like I've got the Jeopardy board here. All right, John,
Speaker 3: our topics are the fires, crime, homelessness, the budget, housing
Speaker 3: SB seventy nine, or Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Let's do homelessness.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, here we go.
Speaker 4: We're going to talk about homelessness. Four years ago when
Speaker 4: we did a debate. It was a number one topic.
Speaker 4: It is right up there again.
Speaker 2: Karen Bess did a great job. Good job, Karen.
Speaker 6: This is an.
Speaker 4: Issue that continues to challenge the city, homelessness. Many residents
Speaker 4: say the homeless in their neighborhoods make them feel unsafe.
Speaker 4: They feel the homeless have more rights than the residents do.
Speaker 4: So these are two yes or no questions for each
Speaker 4: of you right now. Getting off the street is voluntary?
Speaker 4: Should that change if a bed or a shelter is available,
Speaker 4: Mister Pratt, We're going to start with you, yes or no.
Speaker 7: It's illegal to live on the street, so yes, everyone
Speaker 7: needs to go inside.
Speaker 8: A may Or Bass, everybody needs to go inside. Making
Speaker 8: it illegal and arresting people is not the way to
Speaker 8: say solve this problem.
Speaker 3: Miss Ramen, really, because when we did that, we didn't
Speaker 3: have as much of a problem as we have now.
Speaker 1: What could she point to from her four years is
Speaker 1: mayor that has made homelessness better. Having the cops look
Speaker 1: the other way as they break every rule in the
Speaker 1: book has given us the bedlam that we have on
Speaker 1: a daily basis. Ms.
Speaker 9: Ramen, Yes, people people need to go inside when they're
Speaker 9: offered shelter they go inside.
Speaker 3: It is unanimous here Colleen does not like Nithea.
Speaker 2: Who does what if Colleen lives in Sherman Oaks.
Speaker 4: Next question, do you support the ordinance that restricts encampments
Speaker 4: in front of schools or daycare centers?
Speaker 6: Mayor Bass?
Speaker 4: I'm going to start with you, yes or no? Ms Raman,
Speaker 4: Yes or no.
Speaker 9: I you know I support keeping our streets safe. I
Speaker 9: did vote against the structure of this particular ordinance, and
Speaker 9: it is because yes or no, it does not the way.
Speaker 6: This ordinance was structured. It does not keep our children safe.
Speaker 6: It doesn't keep our children safe.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: Why does it take that long to get a yes
Speaker 1: or no out of this lady?
Speaker 3: Because it doesn't sound good when you are asked, should
Speaker 3: we make sure there are no homeless encampments near schools?
Speaker 3: And she says no, so she has to qualify it,
Speaker 3: even though she has voted against clearing homeless encampments in
Speaker 3: front of schools over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: You know, having her on the stage, maybe Joe Pollock
Speaker 1: is onto something. It does make Karen Bass look reasonable
Speaker 1: standing next to this complete whack job lunatics.
Speaker 6: It doesn't keep our children safe enough.
Speaker 4: It's a simple yes or no question, mister Pratt, Pauline
Speaker 4: is done.
Speaker 7: What I was saying is she's fighting because she doesn't
Speaker 7: think there's a difference between one foot or five hundred
Speaker 7: feet for kids' safety with drug addicts.
Speaker 4: From machete out in front of yes or no.
Speaker 1: I love my Spencer Pratt. He's so fantastic.
Speaker 3: Can you remember another time in any mayoral debate that
Speaker 3: we've covered over the last decade where someone said the
Speaker 3: term machetes on the stage?
Speaker 1: Well, Daddy Trejo, he did cut an ad for Kevin
Speaker 1: da Leone, didn't He?
Speaker 3: Yes, he did, But I think I already took it
Speaker 3: off the wall because it did not think it was
Speaker 3: ever going to be relevant.
Speaker 7: Again, of course, we do not want a camments in
Speaker 7: front of schools.
Speaker 3: Although we did see Kevin de Leone at the governor's debate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was he doing there?
Speaker 2: He had a big fu beard going on.
Speaker 7: Of course, we do not want a camments in front
Speaker 7: of schools, parks, daycare.
Speaker 3: I don't views where you talked about how is that
Speaker 3: a hard question?
Speaker 1: That's a layup where you talked.
Speaker 10: About inside safe. Let's go into that a little bit.
Speaker 10: You've suggested that there has been progress made, but even
Speaker 10: the Los Angeles Homeost Services Authority, which the city contracts with,
Speaker 10: has said that upwards of forty percent have left and
Speaker 10: gone back to the street. I mean there's a concern
Speaker 10: that a lot of money is being spent. There's been
Speaker 10: some progress, certainly not enough. I'll have you defend your program.
Speaker 8: So Conan, I declare a state of emergency on day
Speaker 8: one because I know that what Angelinos want to see
Speaker 8: are their streets clear.
Speaker 2: So when are we getting to that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the deal with declaring a state of emergency?
Speaker 1: You can declare a state of emergency if you don't
Speaker 1: do anything to combat the problem. You can make as
Speaker 1: many declarations as you want. Nothing's going to improve.
Speaker 3: Well, the point of the state of emergency was to
Speaker 3: have a big problem. That means nothing. At the same time,
Speaker 3: it also means that there was zero oversight of the
Speaker 3: money she was spending because it's an emergency, and that's
Speaker 3: how we got to motel rooms that cost seventeen thousand
Speaker 3: dollars per bed per month.
Speaker 1: So it was a license to burn money.
Speaker 8: Yes, Insight Safe is the only city wide program that
Speaker 8: we have had that has reduced homelessness two years in
Speaker 8: a row.
Speaker 11: Prior to that, there.
Speaker 3: Was nobody's buying that. Nobody who lives here believes these
Speaker 3: numbers who out.
Speaker 1: There on planet Earth outside of maybe people who work
Speaker 1: for her, is buying into that nonsense.
Speaker 3: She is saying that it's eighteen percent better than it was.
Speaker 3: If that's true, nobody's noticing it. And you want to add,
Speaker 3: you want to know how that's not true. Look at
Speaker 3: the place where it's the most visible, skid row. It
Speaker 3: ain't eighteen percent better there, it's worse.
Speaker 8: Prior to that, there was no citywide strategy and homelessness
Speaker 8: was going up year after year.
Speaker 11: We need to have an in touch.
Speaker 3: They also change the methodology of how they count in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, but we're not going to get into
Speaker 3: the details of that.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you something else. It's not just seeing people
Speaker 1: on the streets, it's seeing the remnants of people living
Speaker 1: on the streets. La is dirtier now than it has
Speaker 1: been in my entire life, and it's not even close.
Speaker 1: There is trash everywhere, there is graffiti everywhere. Nothing is
Speaker 1: being kept up.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm going to be as bold to say
Speaker 3: that in a couple of years. If things really turn
Speaker 3: the corner up in Oakland, the city of LA is
Speaker 3: going to be known as the city of Dumpy.
Speaker 11: We need to.
Speaker 8: Have an entirely new system that is frankly independent.
Speaker 2: Have a new system. You're in charge now.
Speaker 8: We need to have an entirely new system that is
Speaker 8: frankly independent that in the city of Los Angeles, because
Speaker 8: we need to build out services once we get people
Speaker 8: off the street. The same report also said that sixty
Speaker 8: percent of the people in insight say stay inside.
Speaker 1: Imagine being a bass voter and listening to this and going, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what, she's good enough.
Speaker 2: This is LA. But that is a low bar.
Speaker 11: So it is a program that is working. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Does it need to be there, we go, she's back
Speaker 1: at it.
Speaker 8: Absolutely? Does it need to be better? Does it need
Speaker 8: to be more cost effective? And we're working on that
Speaker 8: right now. By building temporary structures on city owned property.
Speaker 11: We can do this Los Angeles.
Speaker 8: We have been doing it for the last three years
Speaker 8: and it's the first time homelessness has gone down.
Speaker 2: I don't know about that.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you if her performance, which is been universally
Speaker 1: regarded as atrocious, is good enough to get a second term,
Speaker 1: we're done. I don't think you understand what kind of
Speaker 1: ridicule is coming our way when the Olympics come to town.
Speaker 1: But it's not gonna be fun. And you know what,
Speaker 1: We're walking into this eyes wide open. It's not as
Speaker 1: if she has everyone snookered into thinking that she was
Speaker 1: doing a bang up job as mayor. We're all aware
Speaker 1: that she's a failure.
Speaker 12: Councilmember, Ramen, So you promise to clear half of the
Speaker 12: encambments by the Olympics and all of it by the
Speaker 12: end of the term if you get elect bitter Yeah,
Speaker 12: my question to you, you've been in.
Speaker 2: I do like that. The Telemunda guy calls her Ramen.
Speaker 12: My question to you, you've been in the city council
Speaker 12: for five years. Why are we barely seeing this plant yesterday?
Speaker 12: I think it was posted on your Instagram and is
Speaker 12: just realistic.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, it's really oh it too.
Speaker 1: Well. They have a lot in common with Shang in
Speaker 1: any number of ways.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, at least she's got a badonka donc Absolutely.
Speaker 9: It's realistic, and it's realistic because I've done.
Speaker 6: It in my own district.
Speaker 9: This is exactly the plan that I've I've operationalized in
Speaker 9: my district to get.
Speaker 3: I go to Sherman Oaks A lot people are not
Speaker 3: happy with your job performance.
Speaker 1: She did get re elected. How that happened, I don't know,
Speaker 1: because everyone I know that lives in that district or
Speaker 1: has the business in that district, has some sort of
Speaker 1: horror story involving her in her office.
Speaker 9: To get a fifty four percent reduction intensity came in
Speaker 9: my district in three years, ok, in three years, yes,
Speaker 9: and I am one council member and proposing a plan
Speaker 9: for an entire city.
Speaker 3: At this she is the head of the Homelessness Department,
Speaker 3: the Homeless Committee in Los Angeles. She has been in
Speaker 3: charge of since twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: And before she was elected to the council, she came
Speaker 1: from one of those phony, blooney homeless groups.
Speaker 9: And proposing a plan for an entire city at this time,
Speaker 9: it is absolutely realistic.
Speaker 6: But what I want to go back to.
Speaker 9: Is the idea that we are satisfied with our homelessness
Speaker 9: system right now. I don't think anybody in Los Angeles
Speaker 9: right now can say that we are satisfied with spending
Speaker 9: extraordinary amounts of money on our homelessness response and getting
Speaker 9: only incremental progress.
Speaker 6: In response, I want to change that.
Speaker 3: Let's use the dollar you're in the city council right now.
Speaker 1: She is so bad. I'm telling you, I know that
Speaker 1: she is of the belief that Spencer Pratt and Karen
Speaker 1: Bass are working together. I am now starting to think
Speaker 1: that she and Karen Bass are working together because she
Speaker 1: is so bad that she makes Karen Bass look like
Speaker 1: an adult standing next to her. So what you're saying
Speaker 1: is she's the ugly friend at the bar one hundred percent,
Speaker 1: or the kids call them the grenade.
Speaker 9: Let's use the dollars that we're spending. Let's actually build
Speaker 9: out a real system that can get as many people
Speaker 9: indoors as possible. Let's not put them into one hundred
Speaker 9: thousand dollars a year motel.
Speaker 6: Rooms for a year or more per person.
Speaker 9: This system is not fiscally sustainable, and we must work
Speaker 9: to end this crisis with urgency and with accountability right now.
Speaker 12: So you'll make it into sure they've been so clear
Speaker 12: all of the comments. By the end of your term,
Speaker 12: if you get a.
Speaker 6: Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Come on, who's believing that nobody?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 10: Mate?
Speaker 8: I have to respond because I know the statistics she's
Speaker 8: talking about in her district, But the statistics are there
Speaker 8: because of inside Safe.
Speaker 2: They both want credit for the failure.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, because she is called on inside Safe.
Speaker 3: Repeter, you didn't understand, Johnny, this hits the different when
Speaker 3: you live in the city.
Speaker 1: As someone who used to live in Los Angeles County,
Speaker 1: it's entertainment for me to watch. I guess I go
Speaker 1: there for the airport and go to the office and
Speaker 1: for entertainment and for restaurants and those sorts of things.
Speaker 1: But my god, I am so glad I do not
Speaker 1: live in that city on a day to day basis.
Speaker 2: I wish I could say.
Speaker 8: That because she has called on Insights Safe repeatedly, I
Speaker 8: took the initiative to go into her district to make
Speaker 8: sure that that encampments were How.
Speaker 3: Many stories have we done of naked people attacking people
Speaker 3: on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks in the last four years?
Speaker 1: How many have we done in the last two weeks.
Speaker 8: Clear, we absolutely need a new system and it has
Speaker 8: to have a comprehensive approach.
Speaker 11: And there's no rooms for one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: You're right, they're more than that.
Speaker 4: We need to move on. So, mister Pratt, you have
Speaker 4: been cytical of what you.
Speaker 3: Consider seriously with the squabbling that's going on in the
Speaker 3: blame game, Spencer Pratt looked like the adult.
Speaker 2: In the room.
Speaker 1: Oh, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: You have been cytical of what you consider failures of
Speaker 4: the current administration on this issue. You advocate for what
Speaker 4: some have called get help or get out of the way.
Speaker 4: What is that and how do you do it?
Speaker 5: I don't know who made up that name.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know how you say. Some have called
Speaker 3: what you want to do this? What does that mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a weird way to ask a question. Colleen's
Speaker 1: been around for a while.
Speaker 7: First off, let's I just want to say, Counsel of
Speaker 7: Robin acts like she doesn't have any authority with this homelessness.
Speaker 7: She was the third most powerful person in city council,
Speaker 7: she runs the homeless housing thing.
Speaker 5: She acts like this is just may or best.
Speaker 7: First off, inside safe, I like to say, inside is
Speaker 7: safe makes all of us outside unsafe. The reality is,
Speaker 7: no matter how many beds you give these people, they
Speaker 7: are on super meth.
Speaker 1: Fact Jack true, they are on fentanyl.
Speaker 7: The DEA statistics says ninety three percent of this is
Speaker 7: a drug addiction problem.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1: As someone who has seen many homeless people on the
Speaker 1: streets of Los Angeles. The answer, of course is duh na.
Speaker 5: Councilman Robin's plan for treatment.
Speaker 7: First, I will go below the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with
Speaker 7: her and we can find some of these people she's
Speaker 7: gonna offer treatment for. She's gonna get stabbed in the
Speaker 7: neck these people.
Speaker 2: I needed this debate, I really did.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I love the fact that these two
Speaker 1: women are getting at least a glimpse into reality because
Speaker 1: they both exist in these bubbles where everyone is just
Speaker 1: as Kookie left when as they are, and that's all
Speaker 1: they hear all day long, and they give each other awards,
Speaker 1: and they congratulate one another, and they thank each other
Speaker 1: for their leadership, and they never hear the alternate point
Speaker 1: of view. And right now they're getting it in the
Speaker 1: face like a two by four.
Speaker 3: Well, and there's this kind of rule in your inelected
Speaker 3: office that you have to talk as politely as possible
Speaker 3: about this program. Right now, Spencer Pratt is talking about
Speaker 3: this program the way every single resident talks about this
Speaker 3: program to their neighbors and to their friends. They all
Speaker 3: are sick and tired of the drug addict bombs and
Speaker 3: they use way more harsh language than that.
Speaker 7: But we're governed by the FCC. These people do not
Speaker 7: want a bed. They will Fennel or Superman.
Speaker 2: Super math. You take super meth.
Speaker 1: You can leap tall buildings in a single bound, or
Speaker 1: at least think you can.
Speaker 7: These ideas costs US over four hundred million dollars to
Speaker 7: house for.
Speaker 5: Sixty seventy What did you say?
Speaker 7: Three thousand people for four hundred million is absolute failure
Speaker 7: for both of them.
Speaker 5: They're a team.
Speaker 1: So he came prepared. Oh yeah, and he brought the receipts.
Speaker 3: So somebody just emailed this wondering if he did his
Speaker 3: debate prep by watching the two person debate that happened
Speaker 3: the night before at the Sherman Oaks home Owners Association
Speaker 3: and realized that he knew exactly where they were going
Speaker 3: with every single one of these questions.
Speaker 1: Oh, he does his research. When he came in for
Speaker 1: the hour and we interviewed him on just about every
Speaker 1: subject that the next mayor of Los Angeles is going
Speaker 1: to face. During one of the commercial breaks, we were
Speaker 1: talking about housing and I referenced something that Palmer Lucky,
Speaker 1: who was a billionaire, put out on X about what
Speaker 1: he would do to solve the housing problem in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: and it was an interesting take. Essentially said that a
Speaker 1: lot of the areas with the worst crime are central
Speaker 1: to the city and they're close to public transit, they're
Speaker 1: close to the freeways, they're close to a lot of
Speaker 1: things that people need and use. And if public safety
Speaker 1: became your number one priority and you made those areas
Speaker 1: safe to live in, well, there's a lot of existing
Speaker 1: housing right now that normal people won't live in because
Speaker 1: it's too dangerous that suddenly becomes available overnight. And he
Speaker 1: was taking notes and he had an eight in and
Speaker 1: he goes, remind me later tonight, we're going to read
Speaker 1: that thread and we're going to talk to him and
Speaker 1: we're going to figure out how to incorporate this into
Speaker 1: our platform. He's not someone who just is cavalier about
Speaker 1: these things. He studies, he does his homework, and he
Speaker 1: shows up prepared.
Speaker 4: So Council Member rom And you have thirty seconds story.
Speaker 9: I want to just say to everybody who's watching today,
Speaker 9: you're going to watch today as Mayor Bass and Spencer
Speaker 9: Pratt attacked me because they want to run against each other.
Speaker 6: In the general election.
Speaker 9: Each of them thinks that running against each other is
Speaker 9: what's going to help them win, and they don't want
Speaker 9: to run against me because my ideas, which are based
Speaker 9: on real results in my district, which.
Speaker 1: Are based on what Mao had to say many moons ago, which.
Speaker 9: Are based on real data, a real analysis of the system,
Speaker 9: and a focus on accountability and using every dollar as
Speaker 9: effectively as possible, which.
Speaker 6: We have done in my district. I want to take
Speaker 6: the city wide.
Speaker 9: This is why this is happening today.
Speaker 4: Becaus, and we're out of time. I'm going to give
Speaker 4: each of you thirty seconds to respond to this.
Speaker 13: Can I start with you, and then I'm going to
Speaker 13: go to Mayorbell. First off, Mayor Bass and I are
Speaker 13: definitely not working together. I've blamed this verson for burning
Speaker 13: my house and my parents' house and my town and
Speaker 13: all my neighbors down.
Speaker 7: I am not working with Mayorbas. Second off, if.
Speaker 2: I'm it just keeps getting better and better.
Speaker 1: Johnny eight hundred two two two five two two two
Speaker 1: is a telephone number one eight hundred two two two
Speaker 1: five two two two If you'd like to email the show.
Speaker 1: You can do so at Johnny don't like show at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't like show at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. And Randy. Now that we've crossed the halfway
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Speaker 1: All right, let's go back to the sound of last
Speaker 1: night's Los Angeles My oral debate hosted by NBC Channel four.
Speaker 3: So when we last left you, Ramen was accusing Spencer
Speaker 3: Pratt and Karen Bass of ganging up on her so
Speaker 3: they could both go into the runoff.
Speaker 7: I've blamed this version for Birdie, my house and my parents' house,
Speaker 7: and my town and all my neighbors down.
Speaker 5: I am not working with Mayor Bass.
Speaker 7: Second off, if I wanted to run against anybody, it
Speaker 7: would be the council member.
Speaker 5: Who is terrible.
Speaker 1: Mayor, She is terrible?
Speaker 5: Who is terrible?
Speaker 7: Mayor Bass has at least been a mayor for almost
Speaker 7: four years, and as she talked about earlier, the unions,
Speaker 7: all the unions endorsed Mayor Bass.
Speaker 5: You think it's easier to run against.
Speaker 7: The incumbent mayor with all the unions or a random
Speaker 7: city council member who's been a failure for six years.
Speaker 1: That one burned, by the way, random city council member. Oh,
Speaker 1: she's not gonna like that for six years.
Speaker 5: I would much rather run against Councilwoman Ramin.
Speaker 10: Thank you very much, very much, Christer patt So Mayor
Speaker 10: though specifically, there's a lot of money, billions that are
Speaker 10: spent on the homeless. Invents a lot of that and
Speaker 10: it goes to five one C, three's and nonprofits. Now
Speaker 10: we're hearing the Department of Justice has a lawsuit against
Speaker 10: the director of Abundant Blessings twenty three million dollars.
Speaker 1: They allege that was siphoned.
Speaker 3: That was the guy who was contracted to provide services
Speaker 3: for an inside safe hotel that pocketed the money and
Speaker 3: the money he was supposed to use to feed the homeless.
Speaker 2: He bought Ramen noodles with.
Speaker 10: It project home Key, I believe, not a statewide project
Speaker 10: to real estate developers accused of siphoning off forty million.
Speaker 10: There's a perception that we don't know where the money's
Speaker 10: going and that we have the legislative analysts and Sacramento
Speaker 10: said their twenty six billion dollars in state funds. We're
Speaker 10: not sure if that did any good.
Speaker 1: So how can we.
Speaker 10: Have confidence that the investment we are making in the
Speaker 10: future is not going into the pocket of some director
Speaker 10: who will end up in federal courts.
Speaker 8: First of all, I don't think it's talking that you
Speaker 8: do find corruption in big programs like this, and I
Speaker 8: think it.
Speaker 3: Is extreme, including corruption coming directly from the head of
Speaker 3: LASA that she appointed, Valicia Adams Kellum. Oh wait, excuse me,
Speaker 3: doctor Valicia Adams Kellum at a salary of four hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty thousand dollars a year, who a bunch on
Speaker 3: top of a whole bunch of other misconduct, was writing
Speaker 3: checks from LASA to her husband's nonprofit.
Speaker 1: And it's not like they're just stealing from the till.
Speaker 1: You're the sugar mama that's making it rain. You're the
Speaker 1: one that's making all of these people rich.
Speaker 8: Extremely important to hold them completely accountable. But I will
Speaker 8: just say that for the first time, we've had a
Speaker 8: reduction of homelessness.
Speaker 1: Nope, just think about what she just said right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's theft, but who cares. It's working.
Speaker 3: We don't know where any of the money's been spent.
Speaker 3: But don't you worry. It's working great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to the right people. You know, it's
Speaker 1: going to my friend two years.
Speaker 8: In a row because of policies that I have put
Speaker 8: in place. I also believe we need to have an
Speaker 8: overhaul of the system.
Speaker 2: You're in charge.
Speaker 1: She really thinks we're dumb, doesn't she. She got elected.
Speaker 3: People in this city looked at a choice between her
Speaker 3: and Rick Caruso and chose the communist.
Speaker 1: By the way, have you seen that he's been posting
Speaker 1: on social media a lot lately?
Speaker 3: Rick Caruso has decided instead of getting into politics, he
Speaker 3: wants to be an influencer.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's because he spent all that time with oj
Speaker 1: not Simpson, but Y Walchlin's daughter.
Speaker 2: Olivia Jade Yes.
Speaker 3: Fun fact, when the big bust at USC happened, with
Speaker 3: all the call Edge admission scandals, which included Lorie Lochlin's
Speaker 3: kid getting into usc because of a bribe. Olivia Jade
Speaker 3: was partying on Rick Caruso's yacht.
Speaker 1: You know, I keep having to remind myself that I
Speaker 1: need to elaborate and explain who I'm talking about. When
Speaker 1: I say that Rick Caruso likes to spend a lot
Speaker 1: of his downtime on his yacht with OJ, people get
Speaker 1: the wrong impression.
Speaker 5: What's going on in America.
Speaker 3: That man will have the capital on those two letters
Speaker 3: for a very, very very long time.
Speaker 1: Christ in Peace Jews.
Speaker 8: But I can tell you the streets that we have cleared,
Speaker 8: crime is down.
Speaker 3: Where where is crime down? There have been literally burglaries
Speaker 3: every single day in the last month in the San
Speaker 3: Fernando Valley.
Speaker 8: Firefighters don't have to go out. Fighters spend thirty percent
Speaker 8: up of their time putting out fires that are related
Speaker 8: to homelessness.
Speaker 11: Business.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, it's fifty percent. That's what the fire
Speaker 1: chief who you fired said.
Speaker 3: Well, and in some stations, like the one near MacArthur Park,
Speaker 3: it's eighty percent.
Speaker 11: To homelessness.
Speaker 8: Businesses are able to have customers.
Speaker 2: You mean all the ones that are closing.
Speaker 1: It's the crisis levels for Heaven's Jake, kids.
Speaker 8: Are able to walk to school and parents without navigating tents.
Speaker 11: That's what I would say.
Speaker 1: But I go back to our conversation yesterday with the
Speaker 1: woman running for insurance Commissioner. She said one of the
Speaker 1: big reasons that people can't buy insurance in California is
Speaker 1: because of the crime.
Speaker 8: But I have to say about my colleague here is that, yes,
Speaker 8: she is a member of city council.
Speaker 11: She chairs the Homelessness.
Speaker 8: Committee, but she also in order to get anything passed
Speaker 8: in city council, she has to build an alliance with
Speaker 8: her colleagues, and she has not been successful in doing that,
Speaker 8: which is why she has not been able.
Speaker 1: To pass that she's talking about.
Speaker 2: Thank you, council member, Bradmen. So this also happened under
Speaker 2: your Brammen.
Speaker 1: You know who this guy reminds me of?
Speaker 2: Who's that?
Speaker 1: Who is the guy from the Princess Bride? Ohn Inigo Montoya?
Speaker 12: Yeah, h council member of Bradmen, So this also happened under.
Speaker 3: Your watch the councilor Ramen, you kill my father prepared
Speaker 3: to die.
Speaker 12: Your plan calls for fully staffing the Bureau of Homelessness oversight,
Speaker 12: which the city council established under your leadership. So the
Speaker 12: question is, why is it not fully stuffed as we.
Speaker 6: Speak, it's not so uh, I.
Speaker 2: Boy, she is so rattled, she is.
Speaker 1: This is the first time she's probably been challenged in
Speaker 1: a good long time.
Speaker 9: I as part of my efforts to create accountability on homelessness,
Speaker 9: I've been pushing for greater oversight within the city. Right now,
Speaker 9: in the city, there is no one who is watching
Speaker 9: our dollars.
Speaker 6: There's no one even.
Speaker 2: You're in charge.
Speaker 1: It's a cowek will brand.
Speaker 3: And in fact, Los Angeles' charter is set up in
Speaker 3: that we are a weak mayor system. The city council
Speaker 3: technically has more power than the mayor.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe that's part of the problem.
Speaker 9: Even as we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year,
Speaker 9: there is no accountability in the city. There's no staff
Speaker 9: at the city that are making sure that every single
Speaker 9: dollar that you are spending your tax dollars are going
Speaker 9: to the issue of homelessness. People are not watching to
Speaker 9: make sure those are going towards outcomes. They're not watching
Speaker 9: to make sure that every dollar is being spent appropriately.
Speaker 9: That is because the city has not invested in oversight.
Speaker 6: I've been put by the.
Speaker 3: Way there there is a mechanism for oversight in the
Speaker 3: controller's office, and the mayor blocked the controller from auditing
Speaker 3: inside safe. And she was asked about it at the
Speaker 3: debate the other night with Phil Schumann in Nitia in
Speaker 3: Sherman Oaks, and she said, I don't like the idea
Speaker 3: of elected officials auditing other elected officials.
Speaker 1: Most transparent mayor at the Los Angeles history.
Speaker 9: In oversight, I've been pushing for exactly that oversight. I
Speaker 9: created the first data around performance that the city had
Speaker 9: because I pushed and it happened. I established the Bureau
Speaker 9: of Homelessness Oversight through my powers as a council member.
Speaker 6: But the mayor is the execs.
Speaker 3: So either you do have a lot of power or
Speaker 3: you have no power. She is really not good at this,
Speaker 3: she's terrible.
Speaker 6: But the mayor is the executive.
Speaker 3: I have known for a very long time how terrible
Speaker 3: she is at her job. But she is also terrible
Speaker 3: at campaigning.
Speaker 6: But the mayor is the executive of the city.
Speaker 9: She has the power to move departments, to hire, and
Speaker 9: to build out the staffing. A year after this was established,
Speaker 9: No new staff members have been hired for this. No
Speaker 9: leadership has been hired.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you, mister Pratt. This next question is
Speaker 4: we're doing about sixty seconds.
Speaker 3: Mayor Bath would like to respond, I heard we might
Speaker 3: might be my favorite moment of the entire debate.
Speaker 2: We no, I'm just go ahead, man, we thank you.
Speaker 3: Let me just Spencer comes off this thing looking like
Speaker 3: a real nice guy.
Speaker 1: He does a gentleman.
Speaker 11: Let me just say.
Speaker 8: That the bureau that the councilwoman is referring to is
Speaker 8: being staffed. Half the staff are there now, and.
Speaker 11: We have been reducing homelessness. Again.
Speaker 3: No, she has decided, whoever is in charge of her
Speaker 3: campaign has said, just say over and over and over
Speaker 3: and over again until you're blue in the face, that
Speaker 3: homelessness is down.
Speaker 1: I guess they must have polling that shows that someone
Speaker 1: out there believes that.
Speaker 8: For the first time and building out a system that
Speaker 8: needs to be built. The problem with my colleagues, though,
Speaker 8: and I appreciate your interest in data and all of that.
Speaker 8: That is important, but I believe it was important to
Speaker 8: act in this city. Angelinos do not want to see
Speaker 8: encampments on your street.
Speaker 4: Thank you, mail, Sorry, Okay, mister Pratt, mister Pratt, thank
Speaker 4: you for directing traffic up here. We appreciate it.
Speaker 1: All right, we're going to take a quick break. When
Speaker 1: we return, we'll tell you what Spencer Pratt had to
Speaker 1: say about that last exchange. Eight hundred two two two
Speaker 1: five two two two East telephone number one eight hundred
Speaker 1: two two two five two two two. If you'd like
Speaker 1: to email the show, you can do so at Johnny
Speaker 1: don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny don't
Speaker 1: like show at Gmail. And Randy ere monitoring the mail bag.
Speaker 3: Dan writes in it, Johnny don't like show at gmail
Speaker 3: dot com. And he thought it would be wise if
Speaker 3: I made a drop out of Nithia, needing a hard reboot.
Speaker 6: It's not so I.
Speaker 3: Control out delete Nithia, it's so I.
Speaker 1: All right, let's hear what the candidates have to say
Speaker 1: about this Broke Gas Cities budget.
Speaker 4: How does your professional experience qualify you to make sure
Speaker 4: and to oversee a budget the size of LA's fourteen
Speaker 4: billion dollar budget. We know you're passionate about what you're doing.
Speaker 4: We know you're an entrepreneur, but this is a fourteen
Speaker 4: billion dollar budget. What kind of experience do you bring
Speaker 4: to the table for.
Speaker 7: That, Well, thankfully, I have common sense and I'm humble,
Speaker 7: I have humility. I'm going to surround myself with the
Speaker 7: smartest people in the world because I actually don't have
Speaker 7: to balance the budget.
Speaker 5: The mayor doesn't, but balance much.
Speaker 7: She has a CEO, she has a team, and we're
Speaker 7: not gonna be that's true, yep. And we're not going
Speaker 7: to say she's the best team. But she has a
Speaker 7: team and they balance the budget. My job is to
Speaker 7: be as crazy as this will sound, I'm the adult
Speaker 7: in the room here at Spencer Pratt and that's what
Speaker 7: it is.
Speaker 1: That's what he is. Having a good time he is
Speaker 1: and you can tell that he's enjoying it when I
Speaker 1: talked about Bianco yesterday at the gubernatorial debate about how
Speaker 1: he came off as angry and how it's so important
Speaker 1: even when you're critical of what's going on in the system,
Speaker 1: to be the happy warrior. You can be as critical
Speaker 1: as Spencer Pratt has been at this debate but still
Speaker 1: come off as likable. It's difficult to do, and sometimes
Speaker 1: it can be like threading the needle, but it's just
Speaker 1: such a better look than coming off as angry, and
Speaker 1: that's what.
Speaker 5: It's that's what it's come to.
Speaker 7: And so I've planned on putting people that actually wan
Speaker 7: want to make sure all of our money, like counsel
Speaker 7: Councilwoman Rahman was saying, is accounted for pure transparency, every dollar,
Speaker 7: all of our tax money. And again back to what
Speaker 7: council Woman rom is saying about that in her own district,
Speaker 7: she let one of these NGOs. A building was on
Speaker 7: the market for three million is sold for eight million
Speaker 7: dollars to the NGO. With that tax money that she's
Speaker 7: so concerned about she wants to watch it all. She
Speaker 7: can't even keep track of the ENGOs in her own
Speaker 7: district stealing our tax money.
Speaker 5: So when I'm.
Speaker 1: Boy, this is refreshing. It really is.
Speaker 5: When I'm doing the budget, you.
Speaker 3: Know those Caruso debates, he really didn't go for the kill.
Speaker 3: Spencer is educated on the issues and he's going for it.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind, this guy has a background in political science.
Speaker 1: His bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California is
Speaker 1: in political science. So he's not walking into this blind.
Speaker 7: When I'm doing the budget, We're gonna make sure no
Speaker 7: was stealing our money.
Speaker 4: Council member Raman, you have a response for that, I'm
Speaker 4: I'm not sure.
Speaker 3: Boy, she'd had to do the hard reboot every time
Speaker 3: she seriously thought, Oh, this guy's up a phone I'm
Speaker 3: gonna have I'm not evenna have to worry about.
Speaker 1: Him, and he caught her flat footed.
Speaker 9: I'm I'm I'm not sure what specific building Spencer Pratt
Speaker 9: is referring.
Speaker 3: To, but I will also just say that I'll post
Speaker 3: the link afterwards.
Speaker 9: I will also just say that we have pushed extremely
Speaker 9: hard to build the oversight system, so much so that
Speaker 9: I had to go out and get philanthropic.
Speaker 6: Support to create the.
Speaker 9: Data for performance oversight and accountability at the city. The
Speaker 9: city was refusing to put our dollars and our people
Speaker 9: towards it.
Speaker 6: This is important. Your tax dollars deserve to be watched.
Speaker 9: You deserve a system that responds to you with responsibility
Speaker 9: and accountability.
Speaker 6: That's what I want to establish.
Speaker 4: Robin, thank you, and Verve asked you have a response
Speaker 4: that as well.
Speaker 8: Sure, again, what I have done on my watch is
Speaker 8: reduced homelessness for the first time.
Speaker 2: Every single chance she can.
Speaker 1: Never misses an opportunity.
Speaker 8: What I have done on my watch has reduced homelessness
Speaker 8: for the first time two years in a row.
Speaker 11: We absolutely need.
Speaker 1: I think that's her tick when she's lying, is to
Speaker 1: use the word absolutely.
Speaker 2: It's a lot of people's tick.
Speaker 8: Absolutely absolutely, We absolutely need a system, a system that
Speaker 8: is able to provide services to people. It has been woefully,
Speaker 8: mopefully unacceptable what has been happening so far.
Speaker 2: I feel you're in charge of that system.
Speaker 1: She thinks she's just going to get a pass for
Speaker 1: the chaos going on everywhere.
Speaker 8: I feel we're moving in the right direction, and under
Speaker 8: my watch, we will continue to do that because we
Speaker 8: need to make comprehensive changes to what has been going
Speaker 8: on for so many years, years before frankly, either of
Speaker 8: us arrived.
Speaker 1: In all right. That was the sound from last night's
Speaker 1: La mayoral debate, hosted by NBC four