April 20, 2025 • 35 mins
Michael Monks opens the show with a local sports update before diving into a sobering look at life in Los Angeles 100 days after the devastating fires. He contrasts Mayor Bass’s optimistic public comments with growing frustration from Palisades residents who feel left behind. Michael investigates the $10 million contract with Hagerty Consulting that’s yielded little visible recovery progress and speaks with resident David Howard about the city’s red tape and broken promises. Plus, a new survey shows Angelenos are overwhelmingly unhappy with their quality of life.
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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.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We're with you till nine o'clock tonight. We got a
lot of news to get through, but first a quick update.
Third quarter just started in downtown LA. The Lakers are
down right now in the first round of the playoffs
against the Timberwolves. It's sixty two to forty eight there.
(00:28):
The Clippers went down in ot in Denver one twelve
to one ten. The Dodgers lost today two at the
Texas Rangers, four to three. Angels right now in Anaheim,
bottom of the second the Giants are leading the Angels
two to nothing. And of course, the Kings and the
Oilers kickoff their first round NHL Playoffs.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Game on Monday night.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Lots going on in LA's sports right now, and that
is your KFI Sports Report. It has been just over
one hundred days since we first saw the smoke rising
up in the Palisades. It's been just over three months
since we first saw the fire spark in the Palisades,
(01:09):
and of course, that same day a big fire with
spark in the Altadena area, forever changing the landscape, the
literal landscape, the political landscape, the cultural landscape of Los Angeles.
And what do we have to show for it since
Well depends on who you ask. If you talk to
government officials, they like to use the phrase cutting red tape.
(01:33):
They've been cutting red tape. Governor Newsom himself put out
a news release this week saying, in one hundred days
since the fire, we've been cutting red tape to help
rebuild Los Angeles faster and stronger. Some of the stats
he puts out, sixteen thousand VERST responders and recovery personnel
were deployed here, two and a half billion dollars in
small business administration assistants one hundred million dollars, and individual
(01:58):
assistance has been dispersed. All of this sort of thing,
twelve thy five hundred right of entry forms submitted.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Eight schools out of eight.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Have been back in in person instruction, and eight out
of nine water systems have been reactivated. If you talk
to La Mayor Bass, things are going well, cutting red tape,
cutting through bureaucracy, getting the city back on its feet
after this massive disaster in the Palisades, But if you're
(02:29):
on the ground and you're talking to residents, it's quite
a different thing. In fact, some people who are working
on the rebuilt effort are disputing what Mayor Bass has
had to say about the recovery and its speed and
the processes that are in place to make it faster.
(02:51):
Let's hear this report from Fox eleven.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
LA's disaster recovery is on track to be the fastest
in modern California history.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
All smiles, but things are going slowly. I know we've
brought things to her attention.
Speaker 6 (03:04):
Luke Melcher, a contractor working in the Palisades and even
fire zones one hundred days in and crews like his
continue clearing burn debris on some lots while others look untouched.
According to the LA Department of Building and Safety last week,
of the nearly seven thousand buildings destroyed in the Palisades,
twelve permits have been issued to rebuild the main issues.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
I would say, we're our closing out inspections just waiting
on the city to get out close out our fire
debris permits. Although they published a guideline, each inspector seems
to have a different criteria that he's.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Following twelve permits to rebuild have been issued, that's all.
And there were many more than twelve houses that were destroyed.
And that's what you keep hearing from the residents on
the ground is, man, this is not going well. They're
also facing challenges with insurance. California has already had difficulty
(04:01):
with insurance companies, and there's been a lot of criticism
lately towards State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who has missed
some important meetings, who's been traveling a lot on the
taxpayer done when he's the point person, he's the guy
who's supposed to be helping regulate these companies, helping to
make insurance more affordable for Californians. Of course he would
(04:22):
say that's what he is doing. He was also in
the Palisades recently. Let's hear this report from Fox eleven.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
Are you seeing one main particular complaint among residents now?
Speaker 7 (04:33):
I think the issues that we hear over and over
again are now like it goes in stages right immediately
after the fires. We want to focus on getting those
claims paid immediately.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Laura in the Palisades says, California is
having an insurance crisis as race increased for homeowners statewide,
essentially build for natural disasters.
Speaker 7 (04:54):
This is why we need to focus on mitigation. Bring
the price down, bring competition back into the areas, and
bring the insurance rates down. Eventually.
Speaker 6 (05:02):
What do you think the city could be doing better?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Well, I think we could always do things better.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I mean, the one issue that we're grappling with now,
as we talk about regularly, is waving fees, and so
we're working on that now to see what that.
Speaker 8 (05:16):
Would mean to the budget, what that would mean to
the budget, and that is a significant question right now because,
of course, the City of Los Angeles faces about a
billion dollar budget shortfall, and in the upcoming week next week,
Mayor Bass on Monday, in fact, will present her proposed budget.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It's not looking good. In fact, in our next hour,
we'll have some audio from a Friday night appearance she
made to Black Lives Matters Los Angeles where she flat
out said yes, she is going to propose layoffs in
that budget. She says she hopes there's remedies for it.
She hopes it doesn't happen, but it will be part
of her proposal. These fires have played a significant role
(06:01):
in the city's financial situation, but they've also played a
more significant role in the direct, everyday lives of people
who live in the Palisades and people who live in Altadna.
There was a couple of weeks ago a Palisades Community
Council meeting. It was hosted on Zoom and one of
(06:22):
their special guests was from an organization called Haggarty Consulting.
This is a group that Mayor Bass used executive authority
to hire on a ten million dollar one year contract
to help speed up to help cut that red tape,
to get people in the process of rebuilding their homes
more quickly. But people in the Palisades would say, and
(06:45):
in fact did say during this meeting, that's not happening.
In fact, Haggarty, why don't you tell us what exactly
you do here? And the answer, I'm this consulting firm.
It's pretty deflating. It's a lot of consultants speak, but
(07:08):
it's also not an answer really at all. These folks
who live in one of the most beautiful places on earth,
who saw their homes go up in flames, who saw
their entire community disappeared asked what are you doing here,
and could not get a response from an organization that
(07:29):
has been brought into the city to help facilitate the
process of rebuilding the price tag of ten million dollars
possibly now the city says, look, it's a contract that
says up to ten million dollars and we're paying them
by the hour, and we're only paying them for the
work that's done. Well, it makes you curious to know
(07:50):
how much has been paid up to this point, because
what has been done they could not say. In our
next segment, I'm going to bring to you some sound
from that meeting. It's a pretty shocking meeting where these
frustrated residents ask this consultant what are you doing? And
the consultant really could not give a good answer. And
(08:14):
after that, we're going to have a longer interview with
a resident of the Palisades to dive a little deeper
into the frustration that they're feeling. Why is it taking
so long to get things moving there? Why is the
messaging from city hall so different from the experiences on
the ground. And by the way, you don't have to
(08:35):
live in the Palisades or an Altadena, Pasadena Malibu to
feel frustration right now about living in La and living
in La County. In fact, there is clear evidence that
people all over the county are not feeling good about
living here right now. The tenth Annuel UCLA Luskin School
Quality of Life Index, it's a survey of LA County
(08:57):
and it shows that we're at our lowest feeling about
living here, same as last year, lowest feeling ever, tied
with last year and tied again with twenty twenty two
for the lowest rating. We're going to dive into what
that survey found about why people feel this way about
(09:20):
living here right now, and then we got a big
eight o'clock hour as well. I hope you'll stick around
for the whole thing. We got a lot to get
through because the city budget is going to be proposed
on Monday, and they are facing serious headwinds on their finances,
and Mayor Bass said Friday night layoffs are going to
be part of her proposal. The LAPD is out with
(09:42):
a new ad campaign. They're down about fifteen hundred officers
from their goal of ten thousand.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
They think a new YouTube video is going to turn
that around.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
And then why aren't Canadians coming to California anymore. Take
a guess, will a new campaign help bring Canucks back
to La, back to California. We'll take a look at
what's going on with that as well. Big two hours
ahead here on Michael Monk's Reports. Stick around with us
on this beautiful Saturday night here in southern California.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monk's Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you till nine o'clock tonight. Boy, the bottom
has really fallen out in downtown LA. The timber Wolves
have opened up a twenty four point lead on the
Lakers towards the end of the third quarter, now eighty
five to sixty one. Don't know what's happened there. The
(10:38):
Clippers have already lost in overtime, the Dodgers lost to Day,
the Angels are losing. We just might have one of
those days in LA sports. We're definitely having one of
those periods of time in Pacific Palisades and the residents
there who are hoping to rebuild their homes and their
community and the vibe that they had there are really
(10:59):
ticked off. And there was a community council meeting last week.
It was hosted online, so I peeped it and they
had invited a representative from Haggarty Consulting. This is the
private consulting firm that La Mayor bast happed to help
lead the recovery effort, help facilitate the cutting of red
tape so that we could move quickly. And this poor
(11:22):
guy named Harrison Newton, who's just a guy who works
at this firm, represented Haggerty on this call. He spoke
for about thirty five minutes, but after he was finished talking,
those residents were scratching their heads. They were not sure
what they heard. Let's hear a little bit of the frustration.
Speaker 9 (11:40):
Give me a concrete example of something you did in
a prior disaster such as Lehina or Paradise or wherever
you guys go to do this, that is not just
another layer of bureaucracy, because that's what it feels like
at the moment. I'm looking for a concrete example of
(12:03):
something that you did that moved things forward and moved
the needle, and I'd appreciate hearing it now, not later.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Silence. Okay, take that back, Harrison and respond at.
Speaker 10 (12:19):
Some point.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Silence.
Speaker 9 (12:23):
Hello.
Speaker 11 (12:24):
Yeah, you know, I don't mean to be sussful, and
I do intend to provide that information. We also have
a website that has a lot of examples of our work.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
You know, I what I I want.
Speaker 9 (12:41):
To off the top of your head, just something that
you did. I mean, it's got to be a memorable
moment for you. If this is what you specialize.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
In, silence? Can you believe that? Go to our website
and see what we do. Well, he does, start to
formulate some form of an answer, and this minute clip
will give you an idea of what the entire presentation
was like.
Speaker 11 (13:06):
You know, so, I mean I think you know, I
want to go down that road. You know, every community
that we work in their recovery and what we do
with them is kind of unique.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Okay, just one thing though, Just one thing.
Speaker 11 (13:20):
So you know, in communities we've worked in where we've
worked on long term recovery, we've done work to make
sure that loan processing is faster and more effective and
more communicated to communities we've made well. See, so if
I give an example of apologies, but if I give
an example I could give.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I mean, this is.
Speaker 11 (13:40):
Literally what we do all day, every day. So when
you talk about opt in and out opt out processes
and making sure the community is aware of those and
trying to leverage all the assets to making sure that
as many people can go through that process as they can,
those are all things we're supporting. So I would really
suggest that you know, in this case, almost everything that
(14:01):
is happening when there's augmentation support, it's happening with the
augmentation support. That's the point of it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Leverage the assets, augmentation support, that's the point of it.
So if you're scratching your head wondering what that means,
you're not alone because these residents didn't really know what
he was talking about either. Let's hear that, and.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
We're trying to make this What that means, I don't
even know what is augmentation support what it means.
Speaker 11 (14:30):
It just means more people working on the recovery every day,
so that the missions and the work of the recovery
can happen more fast, can happen more effectively and efficiently.
So you're bringing more people to bear so they're less
thinly stretched and you're achieving work faster.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
That's just a little taste.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
There were more than two hundred people on this call
listening to this presentation, including city council woman Tracy Park,
who was not there the whole time. But man, these
people were angry about it, including a guy named David Howard.
He works here at iHeart Los Angeles and lives in
the Palisades. His family lost their home in the fire,
(15:14):
and he did not mince words when he addressed Haggarty Consulting.
Speaker 12 (15:18):
I'm angry, really angry, because I spent twenty five minutes
listening to you speak and I don't know what you said.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Oh yeah, okay, And.
Speaker 12 (15:28):
It's not great. It's not to rip you or go,
but you got to start providing answers. And when you
tell us you're alignment the Mayor's office, that's a problem
because she has not been there for us before the fire,
and she's not here for us right now. So the
lip service and the holding hands and the kumbaya it's over.
It's over.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Now.
Speaker 12 (15:48):
You got to start producing ten million dollars, ten million dollars,
Pay me ten million dollars, and I'll do exactly what
you just did.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Say nothing ooh, and that it gives you another indication
that they're not happy with La Mayor Bass either. He
says she wasn't there for us before the fires. She's
not been there for as afterwards. He's quite angry. A
lot of residents in the Palisades are angry, and at
(16:17):
this opportunity for Haggarty Consulting to come in and explain
what they do, it seems like they blew it because
these residents are not satisfied. And I know that because
I had a longer conversation with David Howard, and he
explained where this frustration is coming from, not just at
the lack of clarity from this presentation by Haggarty, but
(16:40):
through the whole thing, the fire itself and the aftermath
of it that they are still dealing with. And he
paints a completely different picture than what we hear from
our elected officials and the consultants that they hire. And
you're going to hear more from David Howard, whom I
spoke with at length.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
You're listening to KFI on demand.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
KFIAM six forty five everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
This is Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News We're with you till
nine o'clock tonight and every Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Thanks for being with us.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
If you heard our last segment, you heard some very
frustrated residents of Pacific Palisades talking to a consultant hired
by Mayor Bass the City of Los Angeles to help
oversee the recovery process to help things go more smoothly.
Those residents say things aren't going more smoothly and they
don't know what these consultants are doing. I told you
I caught up with one of the residents to talk
(17:35):
a bit more about that experience. Here's my interview with
David Howard. This meeting looked like a lot of people
were frustrated. We're one hundred days after the fire. Why
are people still frustrated? What's taking so long?
Speaker 12 (17:47):
Well, we're frustrated because there's no answers. Right. We sat
there for thirty five minutes in that last meeting, and
the chat room is blowing up because this person that
was speaking, mid level manager, which quite honestly shouldn't have
been the one that was representing because he's way over
his skis, just didn't provide any insight, answers, plans, nothing
(18:07):
to that effect. So we're all sitting there kind of
shaking our heads.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
What did you expect from that meeting?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I mean, if they tell you Haggarty consulting is coming on,
you must have thought this was a good opportunity to
get a better understanding of what they were supposed to
be doing.
Speaker 12 (18:20):
Yeah, great question. So what we expected was some sort
of plan after being in the Palisades for ninety days,
analyzing kind of where everything was based on the different
phases of debris removal, and what kind of was phase
three even though it's not defined as phase three, Like
what's the solution, what's the plan, and how we're going
to move forward with all the different elements that go
(18:42):
into the rebuild, both on an individual basis for individual
homes and also for the town.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I got the sense that people were kind of chomping
at the bit before this meeting even started to ask
those questions of Haggarty, like what have you done now?
Maybe they were being generous, thinking they were going to
get an answer without having to prompt, But was that
the sense that people had been talking behind the scenes
or to neighbor to neighbor, what are these guys doing?
Speaker 12 (19:08):
Well, that's the great, that's the question of the day, right,
They're getting paid a lot of money. And I think
the thing that's set everybody off really was at the
end of his you know, him giving his speech, which
again I think I compared with you a couple of
days ago that it made Kamala Harris's Dorito's speech sound
like I had a dream from MLK. Nobody understood what
(19:32):
was being said. And at the very end of the speech,
instead of having hands come up and saying, hey, we're
going to take some questions, we were told that we
would not be allowed to ask any questions, and then
all the questions that did be put into a chat
or to an email address and they would vet those
questions and then get back to us. That was the
breaking point.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You said on the call. I mean, it's there for
everyone to see in public. Now you're angry. What are
you angry about?
Speaker 12 (19:58):
Well, we're angry about the incompetence, the ineptitude, the lack
of communication, the cover up, all the things that you know,
if someone's going to pay a lot of money, taxpayer
dollars to provide a solution, that provide that solution has
not been discussed and quite Frankly, I don't think they
have a solution, and it was an embarrassing moment. It
(20:21):
was insulting. It was insulting to us as residents of
the city, to us as taxpayers, to us who are
just basically looking for guidance and answers in leadership. None
of those none of that was displayed at all. And
the fact that this gentleman that was speaking referred to
the fact that they're aligned with Karen Bass was probably
(20:43):
not the best thing to say to a bunch of
people who are not really feeling super competent or kind
of comfortable with the fact that Karen Bass is going
to lead us through this disaster, knowing that we feel
she was a big part of the reason why we
got put in this position in the first place.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
That was exactly what was going to ask next, because
that was a moment in the meeting where you criticized
him for saying, you know that they're aligned with the
mayor's office. We know that you have a lot of
ongoing frustrations with the mayor's office, but we've also seen
the mayor spending more time in the palisades and directing
or at least alerting the media that hey, I'm going
to be here for this thing, and we all show
up to see what's going on. Is the relationship not
(21:18):
good between the neighborhood and the mayor.
Speaker 12 (21:21):
I would say that there's a lot of distrust. And
I would say that these kind of moments of you know,
the moment, the press moments, when the cameras are coming
out and she's out in front of telling the story,
there's a lot of things happening behind that story that
people don't know about. For instance, when they showed the
first home being built on Depaw and the palisades, you know,
(21:44):
starting to be rebuilt, that house by itself to get
that permit pulled was actually pulled by Bass's office because
they had to do a press conference. It was not
easy for the contractors. Matter of fact, the contractor was
a kind of surprised by all of the hooplet around
it because of everything he had gone through, the builder,
the architect had gone through, and the landlord had gone
(22:07):
through to even have that moment. And so what it
may look like at a press conference is not what
it really looks like behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
What does it look like behind the scenes now, I mean,
obviously you and your neighbors are in a pretty rough spot.
It's still pretty raw. I imagine there's been a little bit
of progress. What's going on in the Palisades.
Speaker 12 (22:26):
Well, I will say this. I will say we are
seeing progress with lots being cleared, and that feels really good.
And you know, based on the speed of which the
Army Corps is moving, is very positive. That said, a
lot of DeBras being left on the properties. So after
(22:47):
the Army Corps leaves, there's many neighbors and friends that
are actually having to call in private contractors after the
fact to clean up the pieces that were left by
the Army Corps. Which again, nothing's free, even though all
that quote unquote free debris removal is now having to
be paid out of pocket from residents because the Army
(23:08):
Corps left it on their lots. So there we see progress,
but it's slow. The permitting process is still, you know,
not where it needs to be, and we'll have to
see over the next few weeks, you know how it
continues to develop, good or bad.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
You mentioned on the call to the consultant, give me
a ten million dollars. I'll do exactly what you did,
say nothing and I could feel your anger in that.
But if they gave you ten million dollars to figure
out something good to do for the palisades right now,
to speed things along, what do you think you and
other residents would want to do with that kind of money.
Speaker 12 (23:43):
Well, first off, I'm not sure it really needs to
cost ten million dollars right the residents can give input,
we can provide, you know, enough data points that we
can come up with a plan that's logical. And again,
at this point, there is zero plan, and so what
we can do with it. I don't think we need
to spend ten million dollars. I think we just need
(24:04):
to ask the right people what they need, and we
don't need consultants to do that.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I think we got a lot left to learn still
about the cause and the aftermath and the response. But
I hope that you know that our thoughts are still
with you and all of your neighbors and whatever we
can do to help you know where to find us.
Speaker 12 (24:19):
Yeah, no, we appreciate that. I think the best thing
we can do is to can you continue to out
this kind of it is to expose the just the
incompetence and the lack of just the to not be
able to take a consultancy from us getting paid three
million dollars right and get answers. It's just it's criminal.
(24:40):
And you know, it's always about following the money. You
got to follow the money, and if you follow the money.
I'd love to know and we'd all like to know
why Haggarty was chosen, because so far, based on what
they've done and what they shared, it was the wrong
It was the wrong group to be spending all those
tax dollars on.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Thank you, David, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
David Howard is easy to catch up with here at
iHeartMedia Los Angeles because he works here alongside us. Of course,
his family did lose their home in the Palisades fire,
so we're grateful that he took some time to talk
to us about the situation going on still in the
palace side in the Palisades. You hear that frustration up next.
You don't have to live in the Palisades or Alta
(25:20):
Dina to feel frustration about living in Los Angeles or
La County. New survey is out from UCLA and it
shows that basically morale around here is the lowest it's
ever been.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
You're listening to KFI am six forty on demand KFI.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This
is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News
here with you till nine o'clock tonight. If you've been
listening this hour, you heard some frustrated residents of Pacific
Palisades really lash out at not just the city, but
also this consulting firm that the city had hired called
(26:00):
Haggarty Consulting, a ten million dollar one year contract and
these residents don't think there's been anything to show for it.
And one of the representatives from that firm spoke to
the Pacific Palisades Community Council and got a near full
And if you miss any of that, you can listen
to the podcast when it goes up after the broadcast
on the iHeartRadio app. You can also join this conversation.
(26:22):
We'd love to hear from you as well. You open
up the iHeartRadio app, click on that talkback button and
you got about thirty seconds to tell us how you feel.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
And that's what Nick has done. Let's hear from him.
Speaker 10 (26:32):
Well, So, Michael, this is Nick from Sam Pedro. I
just don't even understand I am so frustrated with these people.
And I don't even live in the fire zones, but
Karen Bass is an absolute idiot. She does not do
anything but smile and put some phony ass bs out
to everybody, and people were still stupid enough to buy it.
(26:55):
Saying with Ricardo Laura saying with Governor Newsom.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Nick appreciate the talk back and would love to know
how the wind is in San Pedro. We heard City
Councilman Tim mcgscar, who represents San Pedro and the LA
City Hall, that the wind is better in San Pedro
for sailing and San Pedro should host that event in
the Olympics, not Long Beach. Well, that that venue list
came out and LA twenty eight hasn't budged on that.
(27:20):
I'm anxious to hear what might happen in the week
ahead on that front as well. We'll bring you the
latest as it happens here on KFI News on whether
the battle over the wind between San Pedro and Long
Beach materializes for Olympic sailing. You know, if you also
want to weigh in on what we're talking about, you
can follow me online at Mike Monks LA M I
(27:42):
C M O nks La, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok wherever. If
you pull up my Instagram, you can see a nice
picture that I posted a day of a chicken and
waffle sandwich at a new place at Seventh and Fig
downtown where the Target is and that little food hall
they have downstairs. I'm a big sucker for chicken and waffles.
And I mentioned that because it was a great day
(28:04):
today walking around town. I live downtown, walking around downtown sunshining,
you know a lot of people out and about shopping
in the fashion districts Anti Alley, in the middle of
downtown where where the big box stores are.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
You know, it was a good day.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
But it's like I always say, downtown La is beautiful
when you're looking up, and I mean not optimistically but
literally physically looking up, because when you're looking down, you're
seeing a lot of slop, maybe even things that scare you,
certainly things that will disgust you or even depress you.
And I realize that that's a sentiment that's shared no
(28:42):
matter where you live in La County, if you live
amongst some of the mentally ill, the drug addicted, that
terrorize small businesses, that disrupt traffic, that scare you when
you're walking, or if you live in an area that
burned to the ground in January and you're still searching
for answers on how to rebuild your life, or if
(29:06):
you just think it's too expensive to live here, if
you don't think that the government is working well on
your behalf. Of course, you can weigh in on the
iHeartRadio app by clicking on that talkback button. But people
have weighed in recently in the tenth annual UCLA Luskin
School Quality of Life Index. This is a survey they
(29:26):
do every year across La County, and what they have
found this year is that the overall rating, where they
take people's answers on nine specific questions and combine them
to a cumulative score, it's at the lowest it's ever been.
Now it does tie last year and also twenty twenty two,
so it looks like in twenty twenty three we're little
(29:47):
more optimistic about La County, but now we're back down
to a rating of fifty three. It was fifty three
last year, fifty five and twenty twenty three, and fifty
three in twenty twenty two. It has declined since twenty
and twenty twenty one when it was at fifty eight.
So what are the issues that are making people feel
bad about living here? Because again you look around and
(30:10):
it's like so close to paradise. Weather's great, the scenery
is good. Man. You can catch a vibe when there's
no traffic and you're on the freeway and the palm
tree silhouettes are there in the iconic buildings.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
We all know the Hollywood sign. I mean you're in
La Baby.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
But overall, people are just not happy about a lot
of different things. People are basically asked, how do you
feel about this or that issue? And they respond and
whether they feel positively or negatively. Cost of living forty
(30:52):
one percent. That's down nine points from ten years ago
when the survey first happened. Public safeties down so seven
seven points over ten years only fifty six. Healthcare down
six percent to sixty four. How do you feel about
your own neighborhood that's down five points from seventy one
(31:14):
to sixty six. What about traffic, Well, that's down five
points to fifty three. Education down five points to forty nine,
the environment down four points to fifty seven. Jobs, and
the economy down four points to fifty four. And relations
between people of different races, ethnicities and religions down three
(31:38):
points from ten years ago to sixty six. So from
ten years ago, all the metrics down, down, down, down, down,
and that's how they come up with this cumulative score
of fifty three. That we are at the rock bottom.
This survey is also bad news for La Mayor Caaren Bess.
(32:00):
They have asked people's favorability of this mayre for the
three years now that she's been in office. During the
survey twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, and this year.
When you go back to twenty twenty three, which was
her first year in office, she had a total favorable
response of forty six percent against twenty three percent who
had an unfavorable opinion of her. By last year it
(32:23):
started to change a little bit, but not terrible forty
two percent favorability rating, thirty two percent unfavorable, the rest
no comment. But now now it's bad. Her favorable rating
is thirty seven percent, so it dropped five points, but
(32:44):
her unfavorable rating went up seventeen percent to forty nine percent.
And now she's underwater. And you have to imagine that
is directly tied to the wildfires because goodness knows, there
was homelessness and crime and all of that during the
first two years, but then this fire happened, and people
(33:05):
are not happy with the way the city has responded,
especially La Mayor Karen Bass. Now, there were some specific
questions this year in the survey about the fires. They
asked whether people would be willing to pay higher taxes
(33:27):
to improve wildfire response. Eleven percent say very willing, forty
one percent say somewhat willing. The rest are either not
too willing or not willing at all. Lots of people
were touched by this fire. Twenty eight percent say the
(33:49):
statement I made myself better prepared for a future emergency.
Twenty eight percent say that applies to me a great deal.
Forty five percent say it applies to me a little.
Speaker 10 (33:57):
So.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
A lot of people took heed like ugh, so it's
a bad situation. What if it comes for me? Sixty
four percent of responders know someone who lost their home
or business, either well or a little bit. Fifty six
percent volunteer to donate and help. We saw a lot
(34:20):
of people come out to help because people want to
improve their lives. People want a better community, and as
terrible as these fires were it really gave La an
opportunity to show that it is a community. We we're
so disjointed and separated by freeways and all that, but
this was an opportunity to shine.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
But now.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Now the smoke is cleared and the rebuilding is supposed
to begin, and people aren't happy, and there's a lot
of blame on La Mayor pass and she is going
to take center stage again on Monday. She's going to
do two important things on Monday, and we will be
covering it all day. And she gave a little preview
last night speaking to a group of Black Lives Matters
(35:09):
Los Angeles. We're gonna talk about what she said about
the city's dire financial condition. She'll be giving a budget
proposal on Monday and the State of the City address.
We'll preview that in the next hour here on Michael
Monks Reports on KFI AM six forty
Speaker 1 (35:28):
KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We're with you till nine o'clock tonight. We got a
lot of news to get through, but first a quick update.
Third quarter just started in downtown LA. The Lakers are
down right now in the first round of the playoffs
against the Timberwolves. It's sixty two to forty eight there.
(00:28):
The Clippers went down in ot in Denver one twelve
to one ten. The Dodgers lost today two at the
Texas Rangers, four to three. Angels right now in Anaheim,
bottom of the second the Giants are leading the Angels
two to nothing. And of course, the Kings and the
Oilers kickoff their first round NHL Playoffs.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Game on Monday night.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Lots going on in LA's sports right now, and that
is your KFI Sports Report. It has been just over
one hundred days since we first saw the smoke rising
up in the Palisades. It's been just over three months
since we first saw the fire spark in the Palisades,
(01:09):
and of course, that same day a big fire with
spark in the Altadena area, forever changing the landscape, the
literal landscape, the political landscape, the cultural landscape of Los Angeles.
And what do we have to show for it since
Well depends on who you ask. If you talk to
government officials, they like to use the phrase cutting red tape.
(01:33):
They've been cutting red tape. Governor Newsom himself put out
a news release this week saying, in one hundred days
since the fire, we've been cutting red tape to help
rebuild Los Angeles faster and stronger. Some of the stats
he puts out, sixteen thousand VERST responders and recovery personnel
were deployed here, two and a half billion dollars in
small business administration assistants one hundred million dollars, and individual
(01:58):
assistance has been dispersed. All of this sort of thing,
twelve thy five hundred right of entry forms submitted.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Eight schools out of eight.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Have been back in in person instruction, and eight out
of nine water systems have been reactivated. If you talk
to La Mayor Bass, things are going well, cutting red tape,
cutting through bureaucracy, getting the city back on its feet
after this massive disaster in the Palisades, But if you're
(02:29):
on the ground and you're talking to residents, it's quite
a different thing. In fact, some people who are working
on the rebuilt effort are disputing what Mayor Bass has
had to say about the recovery and its speed and
the processes that are in place to make it faster.
(02:51):
Let's hear this report from Fox eleven.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
LA's disaster recovery is on track to be the fastest
in modern California history.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
All smiles, but things are going slowly. I know we've
brought things to her attention.
Speaker 6 (03:04):
Luke Melcher, a contractor working in the Palisades and even
fire zones one hundred days in and crews like his
continue clearing burn debris on some lots while others look untouched.
According to the LA Department of Building and Safety last week,
of the nearly seven thousand buildings destroyed in the Palisades,
twelve permits have been issued to rebuild the main issues.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
I would say, we're our closing out inspections just waiting
on the city to get out close out our fire
debris permits. Although they published a guideline, each inspector seems
to have a different criteria that he's.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Following twelve permits to rebuild have been issued, that's all.
And there were many more than twelve houses that were destroyed.
And that's what you keep hearing from the residents on
the ground is, man, this is not going well. They're
also facing challenges with insurance. California has already had difficulty
(04:01):
with insurance companies, and there's been a lot of criticism
lately towards State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who has missed
some important meetings, who's been traveling a lot on the
taxpayer done when he's the point person, he's the guy
who's supposed to be helping regulate these companies, helping to
make insurance more affordable for Californians. Of course he would
(04:22):
say that's what he is doing. He was also in
the Palisades recently. Let's hear this report from Fox eleven.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
Are you seeing one main particular complaint among residents now?
Speaker 7 (04:33):
I think the issues that we hear over and over
again are now like it goes in stages right immediately
after the fires. We want to focus on getting those
claims paid immediately.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Laura in the Palisades says, California is
having an insurance crisis as race increased for homeowners statewide,
essentially build for natural disasters.
Speaker 7 (04:54):
This is why we need to focus on mitigation. Bring
the price down, bring competition back into the areas, and
bring the insurance rates down. Eventually.
Speaker 6 (05:02):
What do you think the city could be doing better?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Well, I think we could always do things better.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I mean, the one issue that we're grappling with now,
as we talk about regularly, is waving fees, and so
we're working on that now to see what that.
Speaker 8 (05:16):
Would mean to the budget, what that would mean to
the budget, and that is a significant question right now because,
of course, the City of Los Angeles faces about a
billion dollar budget shortfall, and in the upcoming week next week,
Mayor Bass on Monday, in fact, will present her proposed budget.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It's not looking good. In fact, in our next hour,
we'll have some audio from a Friday night appearance she
made to Black Lives Matters Los Angeles where she flat
out said yes, she is going to propose layoffs in
that budget. She says she hopes there's remedies for it.
She hopes it doesn't happen, but it will be part
of her proposal. These fires have played a significant role
(06:01):
in the city's financial situation, but they've also played a
more significant role in the direct, everyday lives of people
who live in the Palisades and people who live in Altadna.
There was a couple of weeks ago a Palisades Community
Council meeting. It was hosted on Zoom and one of
(06:22):
their special guests was from an organization called Haggarty Consulting.
This is a group that Mayor Bass used executive authority
to hire on a ten million dollar one year contract
to help speed up to help cut that red tape,
to get people in the process of rebuilding their homes
more quickly. But people in the Palisades would say, and
(06:45):
in fact did say during this meeting, that's not happening.
In fact, Haggarty, why don't you tell us what exactly
you do here? And the answer, I'm this consulting firm.
It's pretty deflating. It's a lot of consultants speak, but
(07:08):
it's also not an answer really at all. These folks
who live in one of the most beautiful places on earth,
who saw their homes go up in flames, who saw
their entire community disappeared asked what are you doing here,
and could not get a response from an organization that
(07:29):
has been brought into the city to help facilitate the
process of rebuilding the price tag of ten million dollars
possibly now the city says, look, it's a contract that
says up to ten million dollars and we're paying them
by the hour, and we're only paying them for the
work that's done. Well, it makes you curious to know
(07:50):
how much has been paid up to this point, because
what has been done they could not say. In our
next segment, I'm going to bring to you some sound
from that meeting. It's a pretty shocking meeting where these
frustrated residents ask this consultant what are you doing? And
the consultant really could not give a good answer. And
(08:14):
after that, we're going to have a longer interview with
a resident of the Palisades to dive a little deeper
into the frustration that they're feeling. Why is it taking
so long to get things moving there? Why is the
messaging from city hall so different from the experiences on
the ground. And by the way, you don't have to
(08:35):
live in the Palisades or an Altadena, Pasadena Malibu to
feel frustration right now about living in La and living
in La County. In fact, there is clear evidence that
people all over the county are not feeling good about
living here right now. The tenth Annuel UCLA Luskin School
Quality of Life Index, it's a survey of LA County
(08:57):
and it shows that we're at our lowest feeling about
living here, same as last year, lowest feeling ever, tied
with last year and tied again with twenty twenty two
for the lowest rating. We're going to dive into what
that survey found about why people feel this way about
(09:20):
living here right now, and then we got a big
eight o'clock hour as well. I hope you'll stick around
for the whole thing. We got a lot to get
through because the city budget is going to be proposed
on Monday, and they are facing serious headwinds on their finances,
and Mayor Bass said Friday night layoffs are going to
be part of her proposal. The LAPD is out with
(09:42):
a new ad campaign. They're down about fifteen hundred officers
from their goal of ten thousand.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
They think a new YouTube video is going to turn
that around.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
And then why aren't Canadians coming to California anymore. Take
a guess, will a new campaign help bring Canucks back
to La, back to California. We'll take a look at
what's going on with that as well. Big two hours
ahead here on Michael Monk's Reports. Stick around with us
on this beautiful Saturday night here in southern California.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monk's Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you till nine o'clock tonight. Boy, the bottom
has really fallen out in downtown LA. The timber Wolves
have opened up a twenty four point lead on the
Lakers towards the end of the third quarter, now eighty
five to sixty one. Don't know what's happened there. The
(10:38):
Clippers have already lost in overtime, the Dodgers lost to Day,
the Angels are losing. We just might have one of
those days in LA sports. We're definitely having one of
those periods of time in Pacific Palisades and the residents
there who are hoping to rebuild their homes and their
community and the vibe that they had there are really
(10:59):
ticked off. And there was a community council meeting last week.
It was hosted online, so I peeped it and they
had invited a representative from Haggarty Consulting. This is the
private consulting firm that La Mayor bast happed to help
lead the recovery effort, help facilitate the cutting of red
tape so that we could move quickly. And this poor
(11:22):
guy named Harrison Newton, who's just a guy who works
at this firm, represented Haggerty on this call. He spoke
for about thirty five minutes, but after he was finished talking,
those residents were scratching their heads. They were not sure
what they heard. Let's hear a little bit of the frustration.
Speaker 9 (11:40):
Give me a concrete example of something you did in
a prior disaster such as Lehina or Paradise or wherever
you guys go to do this, that is not just
another layer of bureaucracy, because that's what it feels like
at the moment. I'm looking for a concrete example of
(12:03):
something that you did that moved things forward and moved
the needle, and I'd appreciate hearing it now, not later.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Silence. Okay, take that back, Harrison and respond at.
Speaker 10 (12:19):
Some point.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Silence.
Speaker 9 (12:23):
Hello.
Speaker 11 (12:24):
Yeah, you know, I don't mean to be sussful, and
I do intend to provide that information. We also have
a website that has a lot of examples of our work.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
You know, I what I I want.
Speaker 9 (12:41):
To off the top of your head, just something that
you did. I mean, it's got to be a memorable
moment for you. If this is what you specialize.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
In, silence? Can you believe that? Go to our website
and see what we do. Well, he does, start to
formulate some form of an answer, and this minute clip
will give you an idea of what the entire presentation
was like.
Speaker 11 (13:06):
You know, so, I mean I think you know, I
want to go down that road. You know, every community
that we work in their recovery and what we do
with them is kind of unique.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Okay, just one thing though, Just one thing.
Speaker 11 (13:20):
So you know, in communities we've worked in where we've
worked on long term recovery, we've done work to make
sure that loan processing is faster and more effective and
more communicated to communities we've made well. See, so if
I give an example of apologies, but if I give
an example I could give.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I mean, this is.
Speaker 11 (13:40):
Literally what we do all day, every day. So when
you talk about opt in and out opt out processes
and making sure the community is aware of those and
trying to leverage all the assets to making sure that
as many people can go through that process as they can,
those are all things we're supporting. So I would really
suggest that you know, in this case, almost everything that
(14:01):
is happening when there's augmentation support, it's happening with the
augmentation support. That's the point of it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Leverage the assets, augmentation support, that's the point of it.
So if you're scratching your head wondering what that means,
you're not alone because these residents didn't really know what
he was talking about either. Let's hear that, and.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
We're trying to make this What that means, I don't
even know what is augmentation support what it means.
Speaker 11 (14:30):
It just means more people working on the recovery every day,
so that the missions and the work of the recovery
can happen more fast, can happen more effectively and efficiently.
So you're bringing more people to bear so they're less
thinly stretched and you're achieving work faster.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
That's just a little taste.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
There were more than two hundred people on this call
listening to this presentation, including city council woman Tracy Park,
who was not there the whole time. But man, these
people were angry about it, including a guy named David Howard.
He works here at iHeart Los Angeles and lives in
the Palisades. His family lost their home in the fire,
(15:14):
and he did not mince words when he addressed Haggarty Consulting.
Speaker 12 (15:18):
I'm angry, really angry, because I spent twenty five minutes
listening to you speak and I don't know what you said.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Oh yeah, okay, And.
Speaker 12 (15:28):
It's not great. It's not to rip you or go,
but you got to start providing answers. And when you
tell us you're alignment the Mayor's office, that's a problem
because she has not been there for us before the fire,
and she's not here for us right now. So the
lip service and the holding hands and the kumbaya it's over.
It's over.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Now.
Speaker 12 (15:48):
You got to start producing ten million dollars, ten million dollars,
Pay me ten million dollars, and I'll do exactly what
you just did.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Say nothing ooh, and that it gives you another indication
that they're not happy with La Mayor Bass either. He
says she wasn't there for us before the fires. She's
not been there for as afterwards. He's quite angry. A
lot of residents in the Palisades are angry, and at
(16:17):
this opportunity for Haggarty Consulting to come in and explain
what they do, it seems like they blew it because
these residents are not satisfied. And I know that because
I had a longer conversation with David Howard, and he
explained where this frustration is coming from, not just at
the lack of clarity from this presentation by Haggarty, but
(16:40):
through the whole thing, the fire itself and the aftermath
of it that they are still dealing with. And he
paints a completely different picture than what we hear from
our elected officials and the consultants that they hire. And
you're going to hear more from David Howard, whom I
spoke with at length.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
You're listening to KFI on demand.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
KFIAM six forty five everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
This is Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News We're with you till
nine o'clock tonight and every Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Thanks for being with us.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
If you heard our last segment, you heard some very
frustrated residents of Pacific Palisades talking to a consultant hired
by Mayor Bass the City of Los Angeles to help
oversee the recovery process to help things go more smoothly.
Those residents say things aren't going more smoothly and they
don't know what these consultants are doing. I told you
I caught up with one of the residents to talk
(17:35):
a bit more about that experience. Here's my interview with
David Howard. This meeting looked like a lot of people
were frustrated. We're one hundred days after the fire. Why
are people still frustrated? What's taking so long?
Speaker 12 (17:47):
Well, we're frustrated because there's no answers. Right. We sat
there for thirty five minutes in that last meeting, and
the chat room is blowing up because this person that
was speaking, mid level manager, which quite honestly shouldn't have
been the one that was representing because he's way over
his skis, just didn't provide any insight, answers, plans, nothing
(18:07):
to that effect. So we're all sitting there kind of
shaking our heads.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
What did you expect from that meeting?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I mean, if they tell you Haggarty consulting is coming on,
you must have thought this was a good opportunity to
get a better understanding of what they were supposed to
be doing.
Speaker 12 (18:20):
Yeah, great question. So what we expected was some sort
of plan after being in the Palisades for ninety days,
analyzing kind of where everything was based on the different
phases of debris removal, and what kind of was phase
three even though it's not defined as phase three, Like
what's the solution, what's the plan, and how we're going
to move forward with all the different elements that go
(18:42):
into the rebuild, both on an individual basis for individual
homes and also for the town.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I got the sense that people were kind of chomping
at the bit before this meeting even started to ask
those questions of Haggarty, like what have you done now?
Maybe they were being generous, thinking they were going to
get an answer without having to prompt, But was that
the sense that people had been talking behind the scenes
or to neighbor to neighbor, what are these guys doing?
Speaker 12 (19:08):
Well, that's the great, that's the question of the day, right,
They're getting paid a lot of money. And I think
the thing that's set everybody off really was at the
end of his you know, him giving his speech, which
again I think I compared with you a couple of
days ago that it made Kamala Harris's Dorito's speech sound
like I had a dream from MLK. Nobody understood what
(19:32):
was being said. And at the very end of the speech,
instead of having hands come up and saying, hey, we're
going to take some questions, we were told that we
would not be allowed to ask any questions, and then
all the questions that did be put into a chat
or to an email address and they would vet those
questions and then get back to us. That was the
breaking point.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You said on the call. I mean, it's there for
everyone to see in public. Now you're angry. What are
you angry about?
Speaker 12 (19:58):
Well, we're angry about the incompetence, the ineptitude, the lack
of communication, the cover up, all the things that you know,
if someone's going to pay a lot of money, taxpayer
dollars to provide a solution, that provide that solution has
not been discussed and quite Frankly, I don't think they
have a solution, and it was an embarrassing moment. It
(20:21):
was insulting. It was insulting to us as residents of
the city, to us as taxpayers, to us who are
just basically looking for guidance and answers in leadership. None
of those none of that was displayed at all. And
the fact that this gentleman that was speaking referred to
the fact that they're aligned with Karen Bass was probably
(20:43):
not the best thing to say to a bunch of
people who are not really feeling super competent or kind
of comfortable with the fact that Karen Bass is going
to lead us through this disaster, knowing that we feel
she was a big part of the reason why we
got put in this position in the first place.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
That was exactly what was going to ask next, because
that was a moment in the meeting where you criticized
him for saying, you know that they're aligned with the
mayor's office. We know that you have a lot of
ongoing frustrations with the mayor's office, but we've also seen
the mayor spending more time in the palisades and directing
or at least alerting the media that hey, I'm going
to be here for this thing, and we all show
up to see what's going on. Is the relationship not
(21:18):
good between the neighborhood and the mayor.
Speaker 12 (21:21):
I would say that there's a lot of distrust. And
I would say that these kind of moments of you know,
the moment, the press moments, when the cameras are coming
out and she's out in front of telling the story,
there's a lot of things happening behind that story that
people don't know about. For instance, when they showed the
first home being built on Depaw and the palisades, you know,
(21:44):
starting to be rebuilt, that house by itself to get
that permit pulled was actually pulled by Bass's office because
they had to do a press conference. It was not
easy for the contractors. Matter of fact, the contractor was
a kind of surprised by all of the hooplet around
it because of everything he had gone through, the builder,
the architect had gone through, and the landlord had gone
(22:07):
through to even have that moment. And so what it
may look like at a press conference is not what
it really looks like behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
What does it look like behind the scenes now, I mean,
obviously you and your neighbors are in a pretty rough spot.
It's still pretty raw. I imagine there's been a little bit
of progress. What's going on in the Palisades.
Speaker 12 (22:26):
Well, I will say this. I will say we are
seeing progress with lots being cleared, and that feels really good.
And you know, based on the speed of which the
Army Corps is moving, is very positive. That said, a
lot of DeBras being left on the properties. So after
(22:47):
the Army Corps leaves, there's many neighbors and friends that
are actually having to call in private contractors after the
fact to clean up the pieces that were left by
the Army Corps. Which again, nothing's free, even though all
that quote unquote free debris removal is now having to
be paid out of pocket from residents because the Army
(23:08):
Corps left it on their lots. So there we see progress,
but it's slow. The permitting process is still, you know,
not where it needs to be, and we'll have to
see over the next few weeks, you know how it
continues to develop, good or bad.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
You mentioned on the call to the consultant, give me
a ten million dollars. I'll do exactly what you did,
say nothing and I could feel your anger in that.
But if they gave you ten million dollars to figure
out something good to do for the palisades right now,
to speed things along, what do you think you and
other residents would want to do with that kind of money.
Speaker 12 (23:43):
Well, first off, I'm not sure it really needs to
cost ten million dollars right the residents can give input,
we can provide, you know, enough data points that we
can come up with a plan that's logical. And again,
at this point, there is zero plan, and so what
we can do with it. I don't think we need
to spend ten million dollars. I think we just need
(24:04):
to ask the right people what they need, and we
don't need consultants to do that.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I think we got a lot left to learn still
about the cause and the aftermath and the response. But
I hope that you know that our thoughts are still
with you and all of your neighbors and whatever we
can do to help you know where to find us.
Speaker 12 (24:19):
Yeah, no, we appreciate that. I think the best thing
we can do is to can you continue to out
this kind of it is to expose the just the
incompetence and the lack of just the to not be
able to take a consultancy from us getting paid three
million dollars right and get answers. It's just it's criminal.
(24:40):
And you know, it's always about following the money. You
got to follow the money, and if you follow the money.
I'd love to know and we'd all like to know
why Haggarty was chosen, because so far, based on what
they've done and what they shared, it was the wrong
It was the wrong group to be spending all those
tax dollars on.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Thank you, David, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
David Howard is easy to catch up with here at
iHeartMedia Los Angeles because he works here alongside us. Of course,
his family did lose their home in the Palisades fire,
so we're grateful that he took some time to talk
to us about the situation going on still in the
palace side in the Palisades. You hear that frustration up next.
You don't have to live in the Palisades or Alta
(25:20):
Dina to feel frustration about living in Los Angeles or
La County. New survey is out from UCLA and it
shows that basically morale around here is the lowest it's
ever been.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
You're listening to KFI am six forty on demand KFI.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This
is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News
here with you till nine o'clock tonight. If you've been
listening this hour, you heard some frustrated residents of Pacific
Palisades really lash out at not just the city, but
also this consulting firm that the city had hired called
(26:00):
Haggarty Consulting, a ten million dollar one year contract and
these residents don't think there's been anything to show for it.
And one of the representatives from that firm spoke to
the Pacific Palisades Community Council and got a near full
And if you miss any of that, you can listen
to the podcast when it goes up after the broadcast
on the iHeartRadio app. You can also join this conversation.
(26:22):
We'd love to hear from you as well. You open
up the iHeartRadio app, click on that talkback button and
you got about thirty seconds to tell us how you feel.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
And that's what Nick has done. Let's hear from him.
Speaker 10 (26:32):
Well, So, Michael, this is Nick from Sam Pedro. I
just don't even understand I am so frustrated with these people.
And I don't even live in the fire zones, but
Karen Bass is an absolute idiot. She does not do
anything but smile and put some phony ass bs out
to everybody, and people were still stupid enough to buy it.
(26:55):
Saying with Ricardo Laura saying with Governor Newsom.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Nick appreciate the talk back and would love to know
how the wind is in San Pedro. We heard City
Councilman Tim mcgscar, who represents San Pedro and the LA
City Hall, that the wind is better in San Pedro
for sailing and San Pedro should host that event in
the Olympics, not Long Beach. Well, that that venue list
came out and LA twenty eight hasn't budged on that.
(27:20):
I'm anxious to hear what might happen in the week
ahead on that front as well. We'll bring you the
latest as it happens here on KFI News on whether
the battle over the wind between San Pedro and Long
Beach materializes for Olympic sailing. You know, if you also
want to weigh in on what we're talking about, you
can follow me online at Mike Monks LA M I
(27:42):
C M O nks La, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok wherever. If
you pull up my Instagram, you can see a nice
picture that I posted a day of a chicken and
waffle sandwich at a new place at Seventh and Fig
downtown where the Target is and that little food hall
they have downstairs. I'm a big sucker for chicken and waffles.
And I mentioned that because it was a great day
(28:04):
today walking around town. I live downtown, walking around downtown sunshining,
you know a lot of people out and about shopping
in the fashion districts Anti Alley, in the middle of
downtown where where the big box stores are.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
You know, it was a good day.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
But it's like I always say, downtown La is beautiful
when you're looking up, and I mean not optimistically but
literally physically looking up, because when you're looking down, you're
seeing a lot of slop, maybe even things that scare you,
certainly things that will disgust you or even depress you.
And I realize that that's a sentiment that's shared no
(28:42):
matter where you live in La County, if you live
amongst some of the mentally ill, the drug addicted, that
terrorize small businesses, that disrupt traffic, that scare you when
you're walking, or if you live in an area that
burned to the ground in January and you're still searching
for answers on how to rebuild your life, or if
(29:06):
you just think it's too expensive to live here, if
you don't think that the government is working well on
your behalf. Of course, you can weigh in on the
iHeartRadio app by clicking on that talkback button. But people
have weighed in recently in the tenth annual UCLA Luskin
School Quality of Life Index. This is a survey they
(29:26):
do every year across La County, and what they have
found this year is that the overall rating, where they
take people's answers on nine specific questions and combine them
to a cumulative score, it's at the lowest it's ever been.
Now it does tie last year and also twenty twenty two,
so it looks like in twenty twenty three we're little
(29:47):
more optimistic about La County, but now we're back down
to a rating of fifty three. It was fifty three
last year, fifty five and twenty twenty three, and fifty
three in twenty twenty two. It has declined since twenty
and twenty twenty one when it was at fifty eight.
So what are the issues that are making people feel
bad about living here? Because again you look around and
(30:10):
it's like so close to paradise. Weather's great, the scenery
is good. Man. You can catch a vibe when there's
no traffic and you're on the freeway and the palm
tree silhouettes are there in the iconic buildings.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
We all know the Hollywood sign. I mean you're in
La Baby.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
But overall, people are just not happy about a lot
of different things. People are basically asked, how do you
feel about this or that issue? And they respond and
whether they feel positively or negatively. Cost of living forty
(30:52):
one percent. That's down nine points from ten years ago
when the survey first happened. Public safeties down so seven
seven points over ten years only fifty six. Healthcare down
six percent to sixty four. How do you feel about
your own neighborhood that's down five points from seventy one
(31:14):
to sixty six. What about traffic, Well, that's down five
points to fifty three. Education down five points to forty nine,
the environment down four points to fifty seven. Jobs, and
the economy down four points to fifty four. And relations
between people of different races, ethnicities and religions down three
(31:38):
points from ten years ago to sixty six. So from
ten years ago, all the metrics down, down, down, down, down,
and that's how they come up with this cumulative score
of fifty three. That we are at the rock bottom.
This survey is also bad news for La Mayor Caaren Bess.
(32:00):
They have asked people's favorability of this mayre for the
three years now that she's been in office. During the
survey twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, and this year.
When you go back to twenty twenty three, which was
her first year in office, she had a total favorable
response of forty six percent against twenty three percent who
had an unfavorable opinion of her. By last year it
(32:23):
started to change a little bit, but not terrible forty
two percent favorability rating, thirty two percent unfavorable, the rest
no comment. But now now it's bad. Her favorable rating
is thirty seven percent, so it dropped five points, but
(32:44):
her unfavorable rating went up seventeen percent to forty nine percent.
And now she's underwater. And you have to imagine that
is directly tied to the wildfires because goodness knows, there
was homelessness and crime and all of that during the
first two years, but then this fire happened, and people
(33:05):
are not happy with the way the city has responded,
especially La Mayor Karen Bass. Now, there were some specific
questions this year in the survey about the fires. They
asked whether people would be willing to pay higher taxes
(33:27):
to improve wildfire response. Eleven percent say very willing, forty
one percent say somewhat willing. The rest are either not
too willing or not willing at all. Lots of people
were touched by this fire. Twenty eight percent say the
(33:49):
statement I made myself better prepared for a future emergency.
Twenty eight percent say that applies to me a great deal.
Forty five percent say it applies to me a little.
Speaker 10 (33:57):
So.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
A lot of people took heed like ugh, so it's
a bad situation. What if it comes for me? Sixty
four percent of responders know someone who lost their home
or business, either well or a little bit. Fifty six
percent volunteer to donate and help. We saw a lot
(34:20):
of people come out to help because people want to
improve their lives. People want a better community, and as
terrible as these fires were it really gave La an
opportunity to show that it is a community. We we're
so disjointed and separated by freeways and all that, but
this was an opportunity to shine.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
But now.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Now the smoke is cleared and the rebuilding is supposed
to begin, and people aren't happy, and there's a lot
of blame on La Mayor pass and she is going
to take center stage again on Monday. She's going to
do two important things on Monday, and we will be
covering it all day. And she gave a little preview
last night speaking to a group of Black Lives Matters
(35:09):
Los Angeles. We're gonna talk about what she said about
the city's dire financial condition. She'll be giving a budget
proposal on Monday and the State of the City address.
We'll preview that in the next hour here on Michael
Monks Reports on KFI AM six forty
Speaker 1 (35:28):
KFI AM six forty on demand
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