April 6, 2025 • 36 mins
Michael Monks breaks down the alarming $1 billion budget deficit haunting the city of Los Angeles, exploring exactly how city officials got it so wrong. With revealing clips from Mayor Bass and city administrators, Michael revisits the warnings and promises that didn’t add up. Plus, how is LA spending tens of millions more on parking enforcement than it brings in? Michael investigates the costly mismanagement behind LA’s parking problem.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
This is Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News with un til nine
o'clock tonight. How about some journalism this evening. Journalism a
big winner in Southern California today. Journalism the horse, a
cult sired by the famous horse Curlin, has won the
Santa Anita Derby and the half million dollar prize. Journalism
now considered a favorite, maybe the favorite for the Kentucky
(00:32):
Derby four weeks from now, after running right here in
Southern California.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
That's exciting.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Florida has beat Auburn in the first game of the
Final four clash of Secs Titans, seventy nine to seventy three.
The Gators will play Monday for the national title against
the winner of the Houston Duke game that's underway right now.
We saw another win for the Dodgers, three to one
over the Phillies in Philly. La is now nine and
one on the season. That's a hot start for the
defending world champions and the Angels. My beloved Angels are
(01:02):
hosting Cleveland in Anaheim, LA is four and three right now.
We'll see if they stay above five hundred here in
the early part of the season. They are winning right
now on the top of the second three to one,
and that is your KFI sports report. It was a
heck of a drive into Burbank today from downtown LA.
Traffic was clogged down there. It's always clogged, but today
(01:25):
there are protests. Thousands of people are out in the
streets speaking out against President Trump, elon Musk tariffs, all
sorts of topics. It's called hands off and these protests
are happening all across the country, including right here. There's
a big rally at Pershing Square this afternoon, followed by
(01:46):
a march to city Hall, and as I understand it,
these demonstrators carried a twenty foot tall balloon of the
image of President Trump wearing a diaper and a fifteen
foot tall helium filled balloon representing tru Trup wearing a
Russian military uniform. During that march, it was nearly a
mile long walk across sidewalks and streets downtown all the
(02:08):
way to city Hall. That could still be underway. There
are other protests today in Glendale, Hollywood, Riverside, Santa Ana,
and Palm Springs. Next hour, we're going to talk about
tariffs because Governor Newsom has declared that California is going
to work on its own deals with foreign countries after
this week sweeping tariff policy announced by the White House.
(02:29):
We saw the stocks tank this week and now there
are fears about rising prices, potential job losses, a lot
of worries out there as we watch this very strange
period in American history and see how this Trump policy
plays out. But we've got this hour first, and I
want to tell you about some new neighbors that I
(02:49):
got in the Fashion District downtown. They're not my building,
they are outside of it, and they live in some
new tents. I am seeing more tents on the sidewalk
outside my building that I have seen in the two
years and two and a half months that I have
lived in downtown LA. We've seen one or two pop
(03:10):
up over that time at different times, but they don't
last very long. I'm in the Fashion District and that's
you know, a couple of blocks from skid Row, but
there seems to be a pretty clear delineation usually like
it's a hard stop for the row of tents that
you see in skid Row, it stops and then you're
in the Flower District, the Fashion District and you just
see an occasional pop up tent there. But lately they're
(03:34):
adding up, so they're creeping closer skid Row, creeping closer
to the Fashion District, and that has me wondering is
homelessness getting better in Los Angeles, Like the LA Homeless
Services Authority and the city and the County of Clane
based on their counts from the past two years.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I mean, we have some.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Big news this week on the local homeless front. We
saw the new sales tax go up that we voted
for in Los Angeles County to support homeless programs. We
saw LA County decide to cut off its funding starting
next year too the LA Homeless Services Authority and create
its own homeless department. We saw the City Council in
(04:16):
Los Angeles tell Mayor Karen Bass, no, you can't have
all the money that you've asked for for your inside
Safe Homeless program. And just yesterday we saw LA Homeless
Services Authority CEO Valicia Adams Kellum announce her resignation just
a few days after La County decided they were no
longer going to give the agency hundreds of millions of
dollars starting next year, So we're going to talk about that.
(04:42):
Adams Kellum tried to get the Board of Supervisors to
change their minds, and I'm going to play for you
part of what she said, because it struck me while
I was watching this on Tuesday that not only was
the County's relationship with LASA clearly over, as demonstrated by
what happened while adams Kellum was talking, but I think
(05:05):
adams Kellum's career, at least in that position was also
very clearly coming to an end. I'm going to place
some sound from that presentation for you. And then over
at City Hall, council members taking a harder stance against
Mayor Karen Bass and her inside Safe programs. The mayor
hat asked for like forty six million dollars for this
(05:26):
quarter to continue operating her policy that we don't know
a whole lot about it. Even council members don't get
all of the data or the information that they want
about it. So they said, no, you can't have it all.
You can have twenty nine point one million dollars. Instead,
because a lot of that money is spoken for. We
want to make sure the vendors are paid. We're going
to get into that this hour as well. But I
(05:49):
want to hear from you. I mean, am I seeing things.
It feels like it's gotten worse in my neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I know I'm unique in our area and that I
kind of live in the midst of it, but it's
getting worse in the midst of it from my vantage point.
Do you think any of the news this week will
make the homeless situation better in La in La County?
Do you think it's getting better? Do you think there's
(06:16):
anything they can do to make it better? The sales
tax has gone up, the new homeless department is being
stood up, LAS has basically been defunded. City council is
starting to get a little stronger, apparently towards Mayor Bass's
Inside Safe program. Do you think any of this is
going to make a difference in the presence in the
volume of homeless homelessness across the city in the county.
(06:37):
You open up the iHeartRadio app, click on that talkback button,
and we're gonna play some of your messages during the
show tonight. Also tonight a marine biologist on the front
line of trying to save sea lions and dolphins sickened
and dying by that toxic algae at our beaches. And
next hour, Democratic US Senator Adam Schiff joins us. He'll
talk about the tariffs, and then we'll have republic and
(07:00):
State Senator Tony Strickland. He'll be here to weigh in
on California's financial state. Spoiler alert. He doesn't think we're
in a good financial position, and he'll share with us
what he thinks the state should do based on some
Republican ideas. That's all I had tonight on Michael Monks Reports,
We're with you till nine o'clock. Hope you can stay
(07:22):
with us, Hope you can join our conversation. We'll continue.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
KFI AM six forty live 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 I know
there's a lot of worry all across the country, really
at this point across the world about price increases, economic
impacts from the sweeping policies announced by President Trump as
(07:52):
it relates to tariffs across the globe. But we are
already facing rising prices in Los Angeles County. And if
you don't like it, thank your neighbors. Because this was
voted on LA County voter's last November approved measure A
increasing the sales tax, putting a full half cent addition
(08:13):
on it, replacing a quarter cent edition, solely to fund
homeless programs and to keep people from falling into homelessness.
So there's a whole lot of different pieces to this,
but it's mostly homeless stuff. The previous quartercent sales tax
was supposed to expire in twenty twenty seven. This new
one does not expire. It would have to go back
to the ballot again for people to repeal it. So
(08:36):
now we're stuck with this one. A lot more money
is going to be coming in to fight homelessness. This
was a big, big week for homelessness in Los Angeles County,
a lot of changes. This sales tax went into effect
on Monday. On Tuesday, LA County voted to leave basically
the LA Homeless Services Authority, the joint agency governed by
(08:58):
the County and the City of Los Angeles. They're tired
of all of the poor audits, all of the misinformation
or lack of information and data on outcomes on whether
the programs are even working. So La County's going to
do its own thing. And that left the city in
a lurch. City council members came crawling to the Board
of Supervisors begging them not to break up. But then
(09:18):
that same day, city council members told Mayor Karen Bash
she can't have all the money that she's asked for
for her Inside Safe Homeless program. And then yesterday the
loss of CEO announced her resignation. This was a consequential
week for homelessness in La and La County. And I
want to hear from you. Do you think it will
make a difference. Do you anticipate things improving with more
(09:42):
money at different department, maybe a little more resolved to
see results from our government officials Before we went to
break I told you I'm seeing in my own neighborhood
more tents popping up. I lived downtown. I'm not far
from skid Row, but skid Row's gotten closer in the
past few weeks, and I'm curious what you think up
the iHeartRadio app. Click on that talkback button and we
(10:02):
will place some of your messages during the course of
this program. At the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday,
as I noted, they voted to create their own homeless department.
They're going to handle their own money from here on out,
and they're basically defunding LASA. But before they voted to
do so, five members of the Los Angeles City Council
(10:23):
finished up their own meeting at City Hall and then
they marched up to the Kenneth Han County Building to
talk to the supervisors. And I want you to hear
what City Councilman Bob Blumenfield told the supervisors.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Measure A is not just county dollars. These are Angelino's
who not only supported this, but who are the majority
of the homeless folks. So you know, I think of
the old store. When you go in a store, if
you break it, you own it. So you know, we're
breaking up LASA. Here is the way I see what's happening.
And there's going to be a lot of ownership on
(10:57):
the county in terms of the responsibilities for service. And
I know it's not technically.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Breaking it up.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
But you pull out all of that money.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
It's just the city.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Basically at this point what.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
LASSO would just become an outgrowth of the city and
we'd have to figure out how to manage that situation.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
That's what they're going to have to figure out how
to manage because all of those measure a dollars, as
he mentioned the sales tax dollars, those are going to
the county. Now they're going to share it with the
cities based on their homeless count So LA will still
get a disproportionate share, or I should say a proportionate
share compared to the other cities. City Councilman Nitthia Rahman,
who chairs the city Council's Homeless Committee, also went and
(11:39):
kind of refused to stop talking. Let's hear from her.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
We've had a ten percent reduction in street homelessness thanks
to our work and investments citywide, and a forty percent
reduction in street homelessness provements in that data, and we've
already been able to use that data to make significant
improvements in the number of people moving indoors and off
the streets. I thought I would have three minutes. That's
what I staff told me, I'm just going to finish
(12:03):
reading this, if that's okay.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I've also so do you hear her there? Basically, these
council members showed up, they did not have a scheduled presentation.
They were put in the gallery with people like you
and me. If you wanted to talk to the supervisors,
and everybody was given one minute. Counselman Nithia Rahman did
not agree to that and continued talking.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
Potentially jeopardizing all of the shared progress that we've made.
Our hundreds of millions of dollars in investments are invested
in shared programs that are at risk of falling apart
when you move quickly, and we are also at a
time of great federal funding risk. What we need right
now is collaboration and planning, trying to start, not uncertainty,
and I remain uncertain about why moving from one bureaucracy
(12:46):
to another will actually help us achieve the outcomes.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Thank you that we have.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Already been moving towards and that we desperately want to
get to.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
So she went on for about three minutes, in spite
of Supervisor Katherine Barger saying thank you repeatedly and asking
her to stop But what was really interesting was that
the CEO of LASS, of the very agency that this
vote was about, at the County building to enhance transparency.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
I promised that we would improve our operations, and we have.
We've implemented twenty new data dashboards that provide unprecedented insight
into how our system functions, the questions you had about
functions and system improvements. We can actually provide that data
to you today and it is on our public website
and it's public facing. To improve our contracting, we're at
(13:36):
eighty percent.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Becover Michaels.
Speaker 8 (13:39):
Please can we give her, given the fact that she
is over lost, I'd like to give her an initial
thirty seconds.
Speaker 7 (13:46):
To finish another thirty seconds to improve provider payments, we
worked with all of you to ensure that we would
have advanced systems where we would reconcile and providers no
longer waiting months and months. We've made a lot of
the changes that you.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
She's basically trying to make the case that we have
helped make for her agency to be saved way possible,
but they did not even bring her to a table
to make any sort of presentation at all.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
As I said before, they turn her mic off again.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
Me and my daughter's experienced homelessness.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Right, she's about to share her personal story about how
she and her daughter experienced homelessness together, and they knocked
the mic off. The county's done with LASA, and now
she Alicia adams Kellum is also done with LOSSA because
three days after that meeting where the supervisors voted to
leave the organization and create their own homeless department, adam's
(14:40):
Kellum resigned. She does expect to remain on board for
a transition period of about one hundred and twenty days
longer if needed, she says. She says she's incredibly proud
of Loss's talented and dedicated staff and deeply grateful for
their tireless work. She says, I thank them and the
Commission for the opportunity to serve as CEO for our
partnership in reducing homelessness in our region.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
But has she.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Is it getting better? Will it get better? I want
to know what you think about all of these moving
parts that we've seen happen this week, and whether you
feel any sense of optimism now that all of these
sweeping changes have taken place. Again, a very consequential week
as it relates to homelessness and the City of Los
Angeles and the County of Los Angeles. Open up the
(15:29):
iHeartRadio app, click on that talkback button and we will
play some of your messages coming up. And after we
get back from a little break, I'm going to take
you to LA City Hall. We're these same council members
who were begging to keep LASA together. We're also saying, hey,
we're not so sure about the way we're spending our
homeless money, so we need to get a better handle
(15:51):
on it. And they shot down mare Bass's request for
a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
That's next.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks. This is Michael Monks Reports. We're with
you till nine o'clock tonight, keeping tabs on the news
from the week and the week ahead. And it was
a busy week on the homeless front across Los Angeles County.
Lots of big things happening. What does it mean for
(16:20):
our future? Do you feel better about the government and
its response to homelessness moving forward?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Are you more optimistic now?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
That La County is leaving the LA Homeless Services Authority
founding its own homeless department, Now that the city Council
is looking a little tougher against the inside Safe program
by the mayor, And now that the CEO of the
La Homeless Services Authority has announced her resignation, And now
that you are paying more on just about everything you
buy because of the sales tax voters approved last November
(16:50):
to support homeless programs. You can join our conversation right
here tonight. Open up that iHeartRadio app, click on the
talkback button. Let's hear from Larie.
Speaker 8 (17:00):
When are the taxpayers going to realize the money that's
supposed to go to the homeless people don't go to
the homeless people. I became homeless under the Biden administration.
I've been begging for help. They refuse to give it
to me. Why because I have a part time job.
I am sixty years old, I'm living on the streets.
The cachet they want to provide me. I have the
(17:22):
jump to hoops and go through this Leigo Shavigo stuff
and it's alone.
Speaker 9 (17:26):
I have to pay it back.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And now let's hear from Lauri.
Speaker 10 (17:32):
Okay, Monks, no, I don't think anything's going to get
better now. I don't live in La County, but I
drive down there quite often with my daughter and we
see it everywhere. It's not going away. And then those
clowns are going to make some department and they're going
to employ all the losers that lost the two billion. Wow,
(17:54):
that's smart.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I think Laurie is talking about the two point three
billion dollars that was identified by a third party audit
group ordered by a federal judge by the way to
take a look at the way LASA and the city
were spending their money on homeless funds. And they didn't
necessarily say that the money was lost or unaccounted for.
They were just saying it wasn't properly accounted for. And
(18:17):
that's pretty damning when you're talking about government spending two
point three billion dollars worth. And one of the key
findings of that audit was something that was repeated from
an audit from last year, that this money is going
out the door to third party homeless service providers without
any set expectations, without any metrics to measure on whether
(18:40):
that money was used successfully. So, for example, let's say
that you spend money with through your sales tax, the
county collects it, they put it into the fund that
they send over to LASA, and then LASA has its
money to pay these third party providers. And let's say
there is a homeless shelter that says, I take in
(19:01):
ten people with the money you give me, and because
they stay with me, after ninety one hundred and twenty days,
they'll be sober, they'll be cleaned up, and they'll be
ready to work. And that's something you can measure. They're
taking ten people in and the result I expect is
(19:25):
that these folks will be employed at the end of
their stay. Instead, third party providers were just being paid
money and there were no expectations, at least not documented.
And that most recent audit is what seem to really
speed up the process of the county leaving lossap. The
(19:48):
poor accounting, the lack of demonstrable metrics, and the lack
of demonstrable success. Join our conversation the iHeartRadio app. Click
on that talkback button and we'll get your comments in
here as well. It was interesting to watch on Tuesday
as La City Council members crawled over to the LA
Board of Supervisors meeting the County Board of Supervisors meeting,
(20:08):
begging the county to keep LASA intact again. This is
a joint operation by the county and the city to
address homelessness, and without the county it's just the city
with a lot less money and a lot fewer people
working on the issue. So five council members walked over
to beg but before they did that, the same day
(20:28):
there was also a city council meeting taking place, and
Mayor Karen Bass was already ordered last year by the
city Council in the new budget process to come and
ask for her Inside Safe homeless program money every quarter
rather than just getting a big lump sum at the
beginning of the year and doing whatever they want with it.
(20:50):
But the city now faces a billion dollar budget shortfall.
Suddenly everybody is very budget conscience. City administrative Officer Matt
and Sabo recommend and did the transfer of about forty
six point one million dollars to cover cost forty six
point one million dollars to cover cost related to Inside
Safe and other initiatives to address homelessness. But instead, on Tuesday,
(21:14):
the City Council voted fourteen to zero to transfer twenty
nine point one million dollars instead. That's a difference of
seventeen million from the original request. And they also said, yes,
you can have twenty nine point one, but we want
several reports. We want questions answered because we are not
(21:35):
getting the information that we want or need about Inside Safe.
This twenty nine point one million includes twelve point one
for booking agreements. Keep in mind, Inside Safe is basically
a hotel program. These homeless folks are gathered out of
their camps and placed in motels. Twelve point one for
(21:57):
the fiscal year, second in th third quarters, two point
seven million for occupancy costs. What does that mean? Ten
point seven million dollars for the Inside Safe Motel Interim
Housing Portfolio Service provider first quarter remaining. Did you see
the language that's used? How can you even understand what
(22:21):
these millions of dollars are being used. What was explained
by members of council is that those costs had already
been incurred. Basically, either third party homeless service of providers
or the motels hotels that are working with the mayor
on this program had already done the work, so they
(22:43):
should be paid for it. So that's the money that
they gave out, but they weren't too excited about the
rest of the funds. We talked last week with city
councilmen Monica Rodriguez about her frustrations related to homeless spending
and the city's budget and all that, and that was
on Saturday last week. But on Tuesday at this meeting,
(23:05):
she was also pretty ticked off. Let's hear what she
had to say.
Speaker 11 (23:09):
My frustration about how this program has operated is obviously
no secret. The fact that we are accepting after the
Budget Committee gave a very clear instruction about the data
that was supposed to be provided to this council with
respect to the inside safe operations, and that these reports
(23:31):
still have a litany going back for over a year
of blank spaces with pending information only underscores the failure
for LASA to give us real time data and the
Mayor's office I don't understand given this fiscal crisis. By
(23:51):
the way, happy National Financial.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Literacy Month, she's getting sassy.
Speaker 11 (23:58):
Okay, we are in a fiscal crisis, and yet we
have not cut off the spigot for funding that continues
to allow the Mayor's office to expend these resources and
put a gun to her head to say, well, if
we don't pay the bill, all these service providers in
(24:18):
all these rooms are going to go under. That wasn't
the way this was intended.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I love it when La Signora gets a little feisty
down there and she is really ticked off lately, especially
about homeless spending. She's been on at the longest. She
was criticizing inside Safe last year, she was criticizing LASA
last year. She called for a city homeless department to
be created last year. So she's not gotten any happier
(24:47):
about the situation. But in our previous segment, you heard
city Councilman Bob Blouomenfield go to the County Board of
Supervisors and say, please, don't break up with us, Let's
keep LASA intact. However, he notes that there are problems
even with the spending at the city and its inside
Safe program spearheaded by the mayor, let's hear from him.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
And first and foremost, we want to make sure that
that service providers are not carrying any debt, any millions
of dollars or any debt. So we're going to make
sure that the money that they are owed gets out
the door. But we also want to make sure service
providers are documenting their expenses and their services are getting
advances for are rendered in a way that's producing results.
That's why I supported all the amendments today that we're
(25:30):
introduced for more details for greater council involvement and how
we move forward.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
But it's also why with.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
Council Women Ramen, we introduced an amendment to hold quarter
three advances, not the money that's oh to ensure that
there's greater council involvement in oversight over the limited general
fund dollars that we're spending. We need to make sure
that service providers are focused on throughput and the city
verifies services that are being rendered. There's a real possibility
(25:57):
that if people are not moving onto permanent housing, they
may move to another interim site in the city because
it's not sustainable to continue funding motels with booking agreements
that are not Alliance compliant.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
So now they're asking questions that maybe would have been
better asked a year ago, but they're asking them now.
That's why I'm asking you, do you feel a change
in the air. Do you sense something different? Are you
more optimistic about the city and the county and the
response to homelessness. Join the conversation, open the iHeart media,
excuse me, the iHeartRadio app, and click on that talkback
button and let us know. I want to be clear.
(26:29):
City Councilman Nthia Rahman, who basically violated the public speaking
rules at the county meeting, said during this city council
meeting before she went down and disrespected the supervisors that
this vote not to give the mayor all the money
she wants for inside Safe should not be seen as
a slight. They just want to make sure that they
(26:52):
are quote better at doing the work that we have
all committed to over and over again, over and over again.
Is correct? Will it work this time? Remains to be seen.
Up next, a conversation with a marine biologist on the
front lines of helping those six sea lions and dolphins
who are dying across southern California beaches.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI
News with you till nine o'clock tonight. Tragedy has unfolded
on beaches across southern California, sea lions, dolphins, birds falling
sick and dying because of a toxic algae bloom in
the water. Some of the animals can be saved, some can't.
(27:37):
And one of the people working to help these sea
mammals is Dave Batter, a marine biologist at the Marine
Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, and he joins us now,
Dave Bater, I'm so grateful for the time you're giving us.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Thanks for being with us.
Speaker 9 (27:50):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
I know this is a very challenging time for your organization.
We're seeing a lot of headlines, a lot of news
updates coming out of the beach areas. What is the
situation in your fascetability right now? What can you tell
us about what's going on with your patients.
Speaker 9 (28:04):
Yeah, right now, we have a massive harmful alva bloom
off the coast of Los Angeles and actually throughout southern California.
There's an algae planktonic algae out there that's creating neurotoxins
called demoic acid builds up in the food chain, eventually
concentrating into animals like California sea lions, dolphins, and seabirds,
(28:29):
causing symptoms like seizures, lethargy, abnormal behavior, sometimes aggressive behavior,
and sometimes death for the animals as well.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
What does it mean though, to be infected by this
or to be affected by this when we hear that
they are sick. What's going on?
Speaker 9 (28:51):
So the toxin is a neurotoxin. It affects obviously, they're
nerves and some organ function as well. The toxin causes
the nerves to to fire uncontrollably, which leads to the
symptoms like seizures, and really the animals are having a
hard time, you know, with all of their nervous functions
and can cause them to act abnormally and wind up
(29:16):
in places that they shouldn't be. And unfortunately for a
lot of them, the toxicity this time around seems to
be higher than it has in the past and causing
a lot of fatalities as well.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
That's what I wanted to ask, because you're an organization
that deals with sick sea mammals, But have you ever
seen it on this scale before?
Speaker 9 (29:38):
So this is the fourth year of a harmful algabom
of this type, which is really unprecedented. In twenty twenty three,
we had at that time the most massive, harmful alglabloom
of this type in southern California. This year, it seems worse,
but it's important to remember we had a similar bloom
(30:01):
of this type of algae in twenty two, twenty three,
twenty four, and now again in twenty five, and it
seems to be that twenty five is the worst of
all of those years.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
You mentioned that sometimes these animals are ending up in
places they're not supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Where are those places?
Speaker 9 (30:19):
Yeah, I guess we should rephrase that, because when we
go to the beach, we're going to a place that
is the wild. You know, going to the beach is
the same as going to the Santa Monica Mountains or
up here in the Saint Gabriels. You're going to a
wild place, and you should expect to see wildlife. When
I say that they're in places that they shouldn't be,
it's more like the places that we shouldn't we don't
(30:42):
normally expect that see them. And you know, on our
popular beaches alone, to sea lions in particular like to
hang out in groups. So it's really that this neurotoxin
is affecting their ability to you know, make decisions and
really do normal activities of the California sea lions. But
(31:03):
we need to remember that when we go to the beach,
we're going to the wild, and we need to give
wild animals the space they deserve, especially at this time
when the animals are so sick. You want to make
sure we give animals fifty feet of space at least,
and if you're worried, give us a college.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
We're talking with Dave Bator or marine biologists with the
Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. We're not talking
just sea lions in this case, Is that right? I mean,
sea lions have seemed to grab a lot of headlines,
but other animals are being impacted by this.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (31:32):
Unfortunately, we're seeing quite a few dolphins also show up
on our local beaches as well as seabirds, and it's
particularly tragic for dolphins. Most of them, actually all of
them are. When we find them, they're either no longer
alive or really close to death, and the only treatment
(31:56):
really is humane euthanasia. It's important to remember whens get sick,
they're sick at sea. They don't come to shore ever,
and if they're so sick that they end up washing ashore.
They're really close to death and they're suffering. It's important
that we remember that because we don't want to increase
their suffering at all. I know a lot of people
(32:17):
want to do something to help, and they want to
push the animals back out to sea, but really those
animals are if they go back into the ocean, likely
to drown, and if we're to interact with them, likely
to cause them additional stress in their last moments. We
have to remember that and you see these animals. Give
these animals the dignity to deserve in those last moments
(32:39):
and call eight hundred three to nine whale, let us
come down and let us manage the situation. It's the
best thing we can do.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
That is what I wanted to ask you.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
It does sound like in your response there that there's
really there's not much that we can do as humans
other than calling more skilled humans like you. As heartbreaking
as it is to see a dolphin washed.
Speaker 9 (32:58):
Ashore, yeah, it's been causing quite a toll on our
staff as well. You can imagine. Well, it's so many
animals being so impacted. It's hard on all of us,
and it's important to remember that we were doing our
best to manage the situation as best we can, and
(33:20):
sometimes the outcomes aren't positive. But it's also good to
remember that for those animals we can get to in time,
we can provide treatment, we can help them with their symptoms,
we can sedate them, we can give them anti seizure medicines,
and for a lot of these animals, we're able to
rehabilitate them, get them back to help and get them
back out into the oceans.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
What type of difficult decisions are your staff having to make,
because if you come across some of these animals and
you have so many in your care already, are you
having to make determinations on wish ones you can take
in and wish ones just have to be left behind.
Speaker 9 (33:58):
Unfortunately, that's the case. We have so many animals that
are stranding on our local beaches that we have only
so many rescue trucks that we can go out to
pick up those animals and bring them back. But fortunately
we have a wonderfully dedicated group of volunteers that are
out on our local beaches. We call them the Piniped Patrol.
(34:18):
When we have an animal that strands, we're able to
call in those volunteers who can stay with the animal,
help engage the public, inform them of what's happening, keep
the animals safe, keep the public safe.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
How does this end?
Speaker 9 (34:32):
So these blooms tend to last in the past four
to eight weeks. Unfortunately, we're I think we're in a
new normal now. You know, it's not normal for us
to have blooms of this type four years in a row.
They usually were somewhere between three and seven years apart,
and the duration of these sort of unknown. Right now,
(34:55):
it's not abating, it's as concentrated as it has been,
and we're least five weeks in right now, so we're
hopeful that it follows the same path and we're able
to see an end to this in the next few weeks.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
It's such a terrible situation to think of our beautiful
beaches being the scene of such tragedy. We're talking about
pregnant sea lions giving birth to stillborn pops and all
of these affected animals, whether they be sea lions, seabirds,
or dolphins. So I'm sure the community would express its
gratitude to you for the work that your organization is doing, Dave,
(35:30):
and we do thank you for taking some time out
of all of the work that you're doing to talk
to us about it.
Speaker 9 (35:34):
Thank you, yeah, thank you. We deeply appreciate the community
that stepped up. We've seen so much wonderful support for us,
and I just want to say thank you to everybody
who's listening for the contributions that you've made.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
In our next hour, the president's tariff policy has California
looking to chart its own path with the world, and
we're joined by US Senator Adam Schiff to talk about
the new tariffs and Republican state Senator Tony Strickland on
GOP prior parities for the state budget. This is Michael
Monks's reports on kf I AM six forty KFI.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 7 (36:10):
H
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
This is Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News with un til nine
o'clock tonight. How about some journalism this evening. Journalism a
big winner in Southern California today. Journalism the horse, a
cult sired by the famous horse Curlin, has won the
Santa Anita Derby and the half million dollar prize. Journalism
now considered a favorite, maybe the favorite for the Kentucky
(00:32):
Derby four weeks from now, after running right here in
Southern California.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
That's exciting.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Florida has beat Auburn in the first game of the
Final four clash of Secs Titans, seventy nine to seventy three.
The Gators will play Monday for the national title against
the winner of the Houston Duke game that's underway right now.
We saw another win for the Dodgers, three to one
over the Phillies in Philly. La is now nine and
one on the season. That's a hot start for the
defending world champions and the Angels. My beloved Angels are
(01:02):
hosting Cleveland in Anaheim, LA is four and three right now.
We'll see if they stay above five hundred here in
the early part of the season. They are winning right
now on the top of the second three to one,
and that is your KFI sports report. It was a
heck of a drive into Burbank today from downtown LA.
Traffic was clogged down there. It's always clogged, but today
(01:25):
there are protests. Thousands of people are out in the
streets speaking out against President Trump, elon Musk tariffs, all
sorts of topics. It's called hands off and these protests
are happening all across the country, including right here. There's
a big rally at Pershing Square this afternoon, followed by
(01:46):
a march to city Hall, and as I understand it,
these demonstrators carried a twenty foot tall balloon of the
image of President Trump wearing a diaper and a fifteen
foot tall helium filled balloon representing tru Trup wearing a
Russian military uniform. During that march, it was nearly a
mile long walk across sidewalks and streets downtown all the
(02:08):
way to city Hall. That could still be underway. There
are other protests today in Glendale, Hollywood, Riverside, Santa Ana,
and Palm Springs. Next hour, we're going to talk about
tariffs because Governor Newsom has declared that California is going
to work on its own deals with foreign countries after
this week sweeping tariff policy announced by the White House.
(02:29):
We saw the stocks tank this week and now there
are fears about rising prices, potential job losses, a lot
of worries out there as we watch this very strange
period in American history and see how this Trump policy
plays out. But we've got this hour first, and I
want to tell you about some new neighbors that I
(02:49):
got in the Fashion District downtown. They're not my building,
they are outside of it, and they live in some
new tents. I am seeing more tents on the sidewalk
outside my building that I have seen in the two
years and two and a half months that I have
lived in downtown LA. We've seen one or two pop
(03:10):
up over that time at different times, but they don't
last very long. I'm in the Fashion District and that's
you know, a couple of blocks from skid Row, but
there seems to be a pretty clear delineation usually like
it's a hard stop for the row of tents that
you see in skid Row, it stops and then you're
in the Flower District, the Fashion District and you just
see an occasional pop up tent there. But lately they're
(03:34):
adding up, so they're creeping closer skid Row, creeping closer
to the Fashion District, and that has me wondering is
homelessness getting better in Los Angeles, Like the LA Homeless
Services Authority and the city and the County of Clane
based on their counts from the past two years.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I mean, we have some.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Big news this week on the local homeless front. We
saw the new sales tax go up that we voted
for in Los Angeles County to support homeless programs. We
saw LA County decide to cut off its funding starting
next year too the LA Homeless Services Authority and create
its own homeless department. We saw the City Council in
(04:16):
Los Angeles tell Mayor Karen Bass, no, you can't have
all the money that you've asked for for your inside
Safe Homeless program. And just yesterday we saw LA Homeless
Services Authority CEO Valicia Adams Kellum announce her resignation just
a few days after La County decided they were no
longer going to give the agency hundreds of millions of
dollars starting next year, So we're going to talk about that.
(04:42):
Adams Kellum tried to get the Board of Supervisors to
change their minds, and I'm going to play for you
part of what she said, because it struck me while
I was watching this on Tuesday that not only was
the County's relationship with LASA clearly over, as demonstrated by
what happened while adams Kellum was talking, but I think
(05:05):
adams Kellum's career, at least in that position was also
very clearly coming to an end. I'm going to place
some sound from that presentation for you. And then over
at City Hall, council members taking a harder stance against
Mayor Karen Bass and her inside Safe programs. The mayor
hat asked for like forty six million dollars for this
(05:26):
quarter to continue operating her policy that we don't know
a whole lot about it. Even council members don't get
all of the data or the information that they want
about it. So they said, no, you can't have it all.
You can have twenty nine point one million dollars. Instead,
because a lot of that money is spoken for. We
want to make sure the vendors are paid. We're going
to get into that this hour as well. But I
(05:49):
want to hear from you. I mean, am I seeing things.
It feels like it's gotten worse in my neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I know I'm unique in our area and that I
kind of live in the midst of it, but it's
getting worse in the midst of it from my vantage point.
Do you think any of the news this week will
make the homeless situation better in La in La County?
Do you think it's getting better? Do you think there's
(06:16):
anything they can do to make it better? The sales
tax has gone up, the new homeless department is being
stood up, LAS has basically been defunded. City council is
starting to get a little stronger, apparently towards Mayor Bass's
Inside Safe program. Do you think any of this is
going to make a difference in the presence in the
volume of homeless homelessness across the city in the county.
(06:37):
You open up the iHeartRadio app, click on that talkback button,
and we're gonna play some of your messages during the
show tonight. Also tonight a marine biologist on the front
line of trying to save sea lions and dolphins sickened
and dying by that toxic algae at our beaches. And
next hour, Democratic US Senator Adam Schiff joins us. He'll
talk about the tariffs, and then we'll have republic and
(07:00):
State Senator Tony Strickland. He'll be here to weigh in
on California's financial state. Spoiler alert. He doesn't think we're
in a good financial position, and he'll share with us
what he thinks the state should do based on some
Republican ideas. That's all I had tonight on Michael Monks Reports,
We're with you till nine o'clock. Hope you can stay
(07:22):
with us, Hope you can join our conversation. We'll continue.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
KFI AM six forty live 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 I know
there's a lot of worry all across the country, really
at this point across the world about price increases, economic
impacts from the sweeping policies announced by President Trump as
(07:52):
it relates to tariffs across the globe. But we are
already facing rising prices in Los Angeles County. And if
you don't like it, thank your neighbors. Because this was
voted on LA County voter's last November approved measure A
increasing the sales tax, putting a full half cent addition
(08:13):
on it, replacing a quarter cent edition, solely to fund
homeless programs and to keep people from falling into homelessness.
So there's a whole lot of different pieces to this,
but it's mostly homeless stuff. The previous quartercent sales tax
was supposed to expire in twenty twenty seven. This new
one does not expire. It would have to go back
to the ballot again for people to repeal it. So
(08:36):
now we're stuck with this one. A lot more money
is going to be coming in to fight homelessness. This
was a big, big week for homelessness in Los Angeles County,
a lot of changes. This sales tax went into effect
on Monday. On Tuesday, LA County voted to leave basically
the LA Homeless Services Authority, the joint agency governed by
(08:58):
the County and the City of Los Angeles. They're tired
of all of the poor audits, all of the misinformation
or lack of information and data on outcomes on whether
the programs are even working. So La County's going to
do its own thing. And that left the city in
a lurch. City council members came crawling to the Board
of Supervisors begging them not to break up. But then
(09:18):
that same day, city council members told Mayor Karen Bash
she can't have all the money that she's asked for
for her Inside Safe Homeless program. And then yesterday the
loss of CEO announced her resignation. This was a consequential
week for homelessness in La and La County. And I
want to hear from you. Do you think it will
make a difference. Do you anticipate things improving with more
(09:42):
money at different department, maybe a little more resolved to
see results from our government officials Before we went to
break I told you I'm seeing in my own neighborhood
more tents popping up. I lived downtown. I'm not far
from skid Row, but skid Row's gotten closer in the
past few weeks, and I'm curious what you think up
the iHeartRadio app. Click on that talkback button and we
(10:02):
will place some of your messages during the course of
this program. At the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday,
as I noted, they voted to create their own homeless department.
They're going to handle their own money from here on out,
and they're basically defunding LASA. But before they voted to
do so, five members of the Los Angeles City Council
(10:23):
finished up their own meeting at City Hall and then
they marched up to the Kenneth Han County Building to
talk to the supervisors. And I want you to hear
what City Councilman Bob Blumenfield told the supervisors.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Measure A is not just county dollars. These are Angelino's
who not only supported this, but who are the majority
of the homeless folks. So you know, I think of
the old store. When you go in a store, if
you break it, you own it. So you know, we're
breaking up LASA. Here is the way I see what's happening.
And there's going to be a lot of ownership on
(10:57):
the county in terms of the responsibilities for service. And
I know it's not technically.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Breaking it up.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
But you pull out all of that money.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
It's just the city.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Basically at this point what.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
LASSO would just become an outgrowth of the city and
we'd have to figure out how to manage that situation.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
That's what they're going to have to figure out how
to manage because all of those measure a dollars, as
he mentioned the sales tax dollars, those are going to
the county. Now they're going to share it with the
cities based on their homeless count So LA will still
get a disproportionate share, or I should say a proportionate
share compared to the other cities. City Councilman Nitthia Rahman,
who chairs the city Council's Homeless Committee, also went and
(11:39):
kind of refused to stop talking. Let's hear from her.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
We've had a ten percent reduction in street homelessness thanks
to our work and investments citywide, and a forty percent
reduction in street homelessness provements in that data, and we've
already been able to use that data to make significant
improvements in the number of people moving indoors and off
the streets. I thought I would have three minutes. That's
what I staff told me, I'm just going to finish
(12:03):
reading this, if that's okay.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I've also so do you hear her there? Basically, these
council members showed up, they did not have a scheduled presentation.
They were put in the gallery with people like you
and me. If you wanted to talk to the supervisors,
and everybody was given one minute. Counselman Nithia Rahman did
not agree to that and continued talking.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
Potentially jeopardizing all of the shared progress that we've made.
Our hundreds of millions of dollars in investments are invested
in shared programs that are at risk of falling apart
when you move quickly, and we are also at a
time of great federal funding risk. What we need right
now is collaboration and planning, trying to start, not uncertainty,
and I remain uncertain about why moving from one bureaucracy
(12:46):
to another will actually help us achieve the outcomes.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Thank you that we have.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Already been moving towards and that we desperately want to
get to.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
So she went on for about three minutes, in spite
of Supervisor Katherine Barger saying thank you repeatedly and asking
her to stop But what was really interesting was that
the CEO of LASS, of the very agency that this
vote was about, at the County building to enhance transparency.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
I promised that we would improve our operations, and we have.
We've implemented twenty new data dashboards that provide unprecedented insight
into how our system functions, the questions you had about
functions and system improvements. We can actually provide that data
to you today and it is on our public website
and it's public facing. To improve our contracting, we're at
(13:36):
eighty percent.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Becover Michaels.
Speaker 8 (13:39):
Please can we give her, given the fact that she
is over lost, I'd like to give her an initial
thirty seconds.
Speaker 7 (13:46):
To finish another thirty seconds to improve provider payments, we
worked with all of you to ensure that we would
have advanced systems where we would reconcile and providers no
longer waiting months and months. We've made a lot of
the changes that you.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
She's basically trying to make the case that we have
helped make for her agency to be saved way possible,
but they did not even bring her to a table
to make any sort of presentation at all.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
As I said before, they turn her mic off again.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
Me and my daughter's experienced homelessness.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Right, she's about to share her personal story about how
she and her daughter experienced homelessness together, and they knocked
the mic off. The county's done with LASA, and now
she Alicia adams Kellum is also done with LOSSA because
three days after that meeting where the supervisors voted to
leave the organization and create their own homeless department, adam's
(14:40):
Kellum resigned. She does expect to remain on board for
a transition period of about one hundred and twenty days
longer if needed, she says. She says she's incredibly proud
of Loss's talented and dedicated staff and deeply grateful for
their tireless work. She says, I thank them and the
Commission for the opportunity to serve as CEO for our
partnership in reducing homelessness in our region.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
But has she.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Is it getting better? Will it get better? I want
to know what you think about all of these moving
parts that we've seen happen this week, and whether you
feel any sense of optimism now that all of these
sweeping changes have taken place. Again, a very consequential week
as it relates to homelessness and the City of Los
Angeles and the County of Los Angeles. Open up the
(15:29):
iHeartRadio app, click on that talkback button and we will
play some of your messages coming up. And after we
get back from a little break, I'm going to take
you to LA City Hall. We're these same council members
who were begging to keep LASA together. We're also saying, hey,
we're not so sure about the way we're spending our
homeless money, so we need to get a better handle
(15:51):
on it. And they shot down mare Bass's request for
a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
That's next.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks. This is Michael Monks Reports. We're with
you till nine o'clock tonight, keeping tabs on the news
from the week and the week ahead. And it was
a busy week on the homeless front across Los Angeles County.
Lots of big things happening. What does it mean for
(16:20):
our future? Do you feel better about the government and
its response to homelessness moving forward?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Are you more optimistic now?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
That La County is leaving the LA Homeless Services Authority
founding its own homeless department, Now that the city Council
is looking a little tougher against the inside Safe program
by the mayor, And now that the CEO of the
La Homeless Services Authority has announced her resignation, And now
that you are paying more on just about everything you
buy because of the sales tax voters approved last November
(16:50):
to support homeless programs. You can join our conversation right
here tonight. Open up that iHeartRadio app, click on the
talkback button. Let's hear from Larie.
Speaker 8 (17:00):
When are the taxpayers going to realize the money that's
supposed to go to the homeless people don't go to
the homeless people. I became homeless under the Biden administration.
I've been begging for help. They refuse to give it
to me. Why because I have a part time job.
I am sixty years old, I'm living on the streets.
The cachet they want to provide me. I have the
(17:22):
jump to hoops and go through this Leigo Shavigo stuff
and it's alone.
Speaker 9 (17:26):
I have to pay it back.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And now let's hear from Lauri.
Speaker 10 (17:32):
Okay, Monks, no, I don't think anything's going to get
better now. I don't live in La County, but I
drive down there quite often with my daughter and we
see it everywhere. It's not going away. And then those
clowns are going to make some department and they're going
to employ all the losers that lost the two billion. Wow,
(17:54):
that's smart.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I think Laurie is talking about the two point three
billion dollars that was identified by a third party audit
group ordered by a federal judge by the way to
take a look at the way LASA and the city
were spending their money on homeless funds. And they didn't
necessarily say that the money was lost or unaccounted for.
They were just saying it wasn't properly accounted for. And
(18:17):
that's pretty damning when you're talking about government spending two
point three billion dollars worth. And one of the key
findings of that audit was something that was repeated from
an audit from last year, that this money is going
out the door to third party homeless service providers without
any set expectations, without any metrics to measure on whether
(18:40):
that money was used successfully. So, for example, let's say
that you spend money with through your sales tax, the
county collects it, they put it into the fund that
they send over to LASA, and then LASA has its
money to pay these third party providers. And let's say
there is a homeless shelter that says, I take in
(19:01):
ten people with the money you give me, and because
they stay with me, after ninety one hundred and twenty days,
they'll be sober, they'll be cleaned up, and they'll be
ready to work. And that's something you can measure. They're
taking ten people in and the result I expect is
(19:25):
that these folks will be employed at the end of
their stay. Instead, third party providers were just being paid
money and there were no expectations, at least not documented.
And that most recent audit is what seem to really
speed up the process of the county leaving lossap. The
(19:48):
poor accounting, the lack of demonstrable metrics, and the lack
of demonstrable success. Join our conversation the iHeartRadio app. Click
on that talkback button and we'll get your comments in
here as well. It was interesting to watch on Tuesday
as La City Council members crawled over to the LA
Board of Supervisors meeting the County Board of Supervisors meeting,
(20:08):
begging the county to keep LASA intact again. This is
a joint operation by the county and the city to
address homelessness, and without the county it's just the city
with a lot less money and a lot fewer people
working on the issue. So five council members walked over
to beg but before they did that, the same day
(20:28):
there was also a city council meeting taking place, and
Mayor Karen Bass was already ordered last year by the
city Council in the new budget process to come and
ask for her Inside Safe homeless program money every quarter
rather than just getting a big lump sum at the
beginning of the year and doing whatever they want with it.
(20:50):
But the city now faces a billion dollar budget shortfall.
Suddenly everybody is very budget conscience. City administrative Officer Matt
and Sabo recommend and did the transfer of about forty
six point one million dollars to cover cost forty six
point one million dollars to cover cost related to Inside
Safe and other initiatives to address homelessness. But instead, on Tuesday,
(21:14):
the City Council voted fourteen to zero to transfer twenty
nine point one million dollars instead. That's a difference of
seventeen million from the original request. And they also said, yes,
you can have twenty nine point one, but we want
several reports. We want questions answered because we are not
(21:35):
getting the information that we want or need about Inside Safe.
This twenty nine point one million includes twelve point one
for booking agreements. Keep in mind, Inside Safe is basically
a hotel program. These homeless folks are gathered out of
their camps and placed in motels. Twelve point one for
(21:57):
the fiscal year, second in th third quarters, two point
seven million for occupancy costs. What does that mean? Ten
point seven million dollars for the Inside Safe Motel Interim
Housing Portfolio Service provider first quarter remaining. Did you see
the language that's used? How can you even understand what
(22:21):
these millions of dollars are being used. What was explained
by members of council is that those costs had already
been incurred. Basically, either third party homeless service of providers
or the motels hotels that are working with the mayor
on this program had already done the work, so they
(22:43):
should be paid for it. So that's the money that
they gave out, but they weren't too excited about the
rest of the funds. We talked last week with city
councilmen Monica Rodriguez about her frustrations related to homeless spending
and the city's budget and all that, and that was
on Saturday last week. But on Tuesday at this meeting,
(23:05):
she was also pretty ticked off. Let's hear what she
had to say.
Speaker 11 (23:09):
My frustration about how this program has operated is obviously
no secret. The fact that we are accepting after the
Budget Committee gave a very clear instruction about the data
that was supposed to be provided to this council with
respect to the inside safe operations, and that these reports
(23:31):
still have a litany going back for over a year
of blank spaces with pending information only underscores the failure
for LASA to give us real time data and the
Mayor's office I don't understand given this fiscal crisis. By
(23:51):
the way, happy National Financial.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Literacy Month, she's getting sassy.
Speaker 11 (23:58):
Okay, we are in a fiscal crisis, and yet we
have not cut off the spigot for funding that continues
to allow the Mayor's office to expend these resources and
put a gun to her head to say, well, if
we don't pay the bill, all these service providers in
(24:18):
all these rooms are going to go under. That wasn't
the way this was intended.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I love it when La Signora gets a little feisty
down there and she is really ticked off lately, especially
about homeless spending. She's been on at the longest. She
was criticizing inside Safe last year, she was criticizing LASA
last year. She called for a city homeless department to
be created last year. So she's not gotten any happier
(24:47):
about the situation. But in our previous segment, you heard
city Councilman Bob Blouomenfield go to the County Board of
Supervisors and say, please, don't break up with us, Let's
keep LASA intact. However, he notes that there are problems
even with the spending at the city and its inside
Safe program spearheaded by the mayor, let's hear from him.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
And first and foremost, we want to make sure that
that service providers are not carrying any debt, any millions
of dollars or any debt. So we're going to make
sure that the money that they are owed gets out
the door. But we also want to make sure service
providers are documenting their expenses and their services are getting
advances for are rendered in a way that's producing results.
That's why I supported all the amendments today that we're
(25:30):
introduced for more details for greater council involvement and how
we move forward.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
But it's also why with.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
Council Women Ramen, we introduced an amendment to hold quarter
three advances, not the money that's oh to ensure that
there's greater council involvement in oversight over the limited general
fund dollars that we're spending. We need to make sure
that service providers are focused on throughput and the city
verifies services that are being rendered. There's a real possibility
(25:57):
that if people are not moving onto permanent housing, they
may move to another interim site in the city because
it's not sustainable to continue funding motels with booking agreements
that are not Alliance compliant.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
So now they're asking questions that maybe would have been
better asked a year ago, but they're asking them now.
That's why I'm asking you, do you feel a change
in the air. Do you sense something different? Are you
more optimistic about the city and the county and the
response to homelessness. Join the conversation, open the iHeart media,
excuse me, the iHeartRadio app, and click on that talkback
button and let us know. I want to be clear.
(26:29):
City Councilman Nthia Rahman, who basically violated the public speaking
rules at the county meeting, said during this city council
meeting before she went down and disrespected the supervisors that
this vote not to give the mayor all the money
she wants for inside Safe should not be seen as
a slight. They just want to make sure that they
(26:52):
are quote better at doing the work that we have
all committed to over and over again, over and over again.
Is correct? Will it work this time? Remains to be seen.
Up next, a conversation with a marine biologist on the
front lines of helping those six sea lions and dolphins
who are dying across southern California beaches.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI
News with you till nine o'clock tonight. Tragedy has unfolded
on beaches across southern California, sea lions, dolphins, birds falling
sick and dying because of a toxic algae bloom in
the water. Some of the animals can be saved, some can't.
(27:37):
And one of the people working to help these sea
mammals is Dave Batter, a marine biologist at the Marine
Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, and he joins us now,
Dave Bater, I'm so grateful for the time you're giving us.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Thanks for being with us.
Speaker 9 (27:50):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
I know this is a very challenging time for your organization.
We're seeing a lot of headlines, a lot of news
updates coming out of the beach areas. What is the
situation in your fascetability right now? What can you tell
us about what's going on with your patients.
Speaker 9 (28:04):
Yeah, right now, we have a massive harmful alva bloom
off the coast of Los Angeles and actually throughout southern California.
There's an algae planktonic algae out there that's creating neurotoxins
called demoic acid builds up in the food chain, eventually
concentrating into animals like California sea lions, dolphins, and seabirds,
(28:29):
causing symptoms like seizures, lethargy, abnormal behavior, sometimes aggressive behavior,
and sometimes death for the animals as well.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
What does it mean though, to be infected by this
or to be affected by this when we hear that
they are sick. What's going on?
Speaker 9 (28:51):
So the toxin is a neurotoxin. It affects obviously, they're
nerves and some organ function as well. The toxin causes
the nerves to to fire uncontrollably, which leads to the
symptoms like seizures, and really the animals are having a
hard time, you know, with all of their nervous functions
and can cause them to act abnormally and wind up
(29:16):
in places that they shouldn't be. And unfortunately for a
lot of them, the toxicity this time around seems to
be higher than it has in the past and causing
a lot of fatalities as well.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
That's what I wanted to ask, because you're an organization
that deals with sick sea mammals, But have you ever
seen it on this scale before?
Speaker 9 (29:38):
So this is the fourth year of a harmful algabom
of this type, which is really unprecedented. In twenty twenty three,
we had at that time the most massive, harmful alglabloom
of this type in southern California. This year, it seems worse,
but it's important to remember we had a similar bloom
(30:01):
of this type of algae in twenty two, twenty three,
twenty four, and now again in twenty five, and it
seems to be that twenty five is the worst of
all of those years.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
You mentioned that sometimes these animals are ending up in
places they're not supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Where are those places?
Speaker 9 (30:19):
Yeah, I guess we should rephrase that, because when we
go to the beach, we're going to a place that
is the wild. You know, going to the beach is
the same as going to the Santa Monica Mountains or
up here in the Saint Gabriels. You're going to a
wild place, and you should expect to see wildlife. When
I say that they're in places that they shouldn't be,
it's more like the places that we shouldn't we don't
(30:42):
normally expect that see them. And you know, on our
popular beaches alone, to sea lions in particular like to
hang out in groups. So it's really that this neurotoxin
is affecting their ability to you know, make decisions and
really do normal activities of the California sea lions. But
(31:03):
we need to remember that when we go to the beach,
we're going to the wild, and we need to give
wild animals the space they deserve, especially at this time
when the animals are so sick. You want to make
sure we give animals fifty feet of space at least,
and if you're worried, give us a college.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
We're talking with Dave Bator or marine biologists with the
Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. We're not talking
just sea lions in this case, Is that right? I mean,
sea lions have seemed to grab a lot of headlines,
but other animals are being impacted by this.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (31:32):
Unfortunately, we're seeing quite a few dolphins also show up
on our local beaches as well as seabirds, and it's
particularly tragic for dolphins. Most of them, actually all of
them are. When we find them, they're either no longer
alive or really close to death, and the only treatment
(31:56):
really is humane euthanasia. It's important to remember whens get sick,
they're sick at sea. They don't come to shore ever,
and if they're so sick that they end up washing ashore.
They're really close to death and they're suffering. It's important
that we remember that because we don't want to increase
their suffering at all. I know a lot of people
(32:17):
want to do something to help, and they want to
push the animals back out to sea, but really those
animals are if they go back into the ocean, likely
to drown, and if we're to interact with them, likely
to cause them additional stress in their last moments. We
have to remember that and you see these animals. Give
these animals the dignity to deserve in those last moments
(32:39):
and call eight hundred three to nine whale, let us
come down and let us manage the situation. It's the
best thing we can do.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
That is what I wanted to ask you.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
It does sound like in your response there that there's
really there's not much that we can do as humans
other than calling more skilled humans like you. As heartbreaking
as it is to see a dolphin washed.
Speaker 9 (32:58):
Ashore, yeah, it's been causing quite a toll on our
staff as well. You can imagine. Well, it's so many
animals being so impacted. It's hard on all of us,
and it's important to remember that we were doing our
best to manage the situation as best we can, and
(33:20):
sometimes the outcomes aren't positive. But it's also good to
remember that for those animals we can get to in time,
we can provide treatment, we can help them with their symptoms,
we can sedate them, we can give them anti seizure medicines,
and for a lot of these animals, we're able to
rehabilitate them, get them back to help and get them
back out into the oceans.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
What type of difficult decisions are your staff having to make,
because if you come across some of these animals and
you have so many in your care already, are you
having to make determinations on wish ones you can take
in and wish ones just have to be left behind.
Speaker 9 (33:58):
Unfortunately, that's the case. We have so many animals that
are stranding on our local beaches that we have only
so many rescue trucks that we can go out to
pick up those animals and bring them back. But fortunately
we have a wonderfully dedicated group of volunteers that are
out on our local beaches. We call them the Piniped Patrol.
(34:18):
When we have an animal that strands, we're able to
call in those volunteers who can stay with the animal,
help engage the public, inform them of what's happening, keep
the animals safe, keep the public safe.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
How does this end?
Speaker 9 (34:32):
So these blooms tend to last in the past four
to eight weeks. Unfortunately, we're I think we're in a
new normal now. You know, it's not normal for us
to have blooms of this type four years in a row.
They usually were somewhere between three and seven years apart,
and the duration of these sort of unknown. Right now,
(34:55):
it's not abating, it's as concentrated as it has been,
and we're least five weeks in right now, so we're
hopeful that it follows the same path and we're able
to see an end to this in the next few weeks.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
It's such a terrible situation to think of our beautiful
beaches being the scene of such tragedy. We're talking about
pregnant sea lions giving birth to stillborn pops and all
of these affected animals, whether they be sea lions, seabirds,
or dolphins. So I'm sure the community would express its
gratitude to you for the work that your organization is doing, Dave,
(35:30):
and we do thank you for taking some time out
of all of the work that you're doing to talk
to us about it.
Speaker 9 (35:34):
Thank you, yeah, thank you. We deeply appreciate the community
that stepped up. We've seen so much wonderful support for us,
and I just want to say thank you to everybody
who's listening for the contributions that you've made.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
In our next hour, the president's tariff policy has California
looking to chart its own path with the world, and
we're joined by US Senator Adam Schiff to talk about
the new tariffs and Republican state Senator Tony Strickland on
GOP prior parities for the state budget. This is Michael
Monks's reports on kf I AM six forty KFI.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 7 (36:10):
H
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