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# Message from Mike: Targeting Vacant Properties, Fighting for Transparency
October 05 2015
Written by Mike Feuer.
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VOICES--Vacant, neglected properties--especially in neighborhoods still struggling to recover from the recession--are often sources of blight and crime.
We're establishing a new program to help turn neighborhoods around. Under our proposal (pending in the City Council) outside legal counsel will identify vacant, bank-owned problem properties and seek to be named "receivers" by a court. These receivers will then rehabilitate the properties. And there's an added bonus: There will be no cost to the taxpayers, because the outside counsel will receive funds to improve the properties, and any fees, when the properties are sold.
**Fighting For Transparency For DWP Ratepayers**
On October 15 we will be in the Court of Appeal, continuing to fight for the right of LADWP customers to know how tens of millions of their dollars have been spent in two IBEW trusts. You remember that early on in my administration I issued an opinion strongly asserting that the City Charter grants L.A.'s Controller the authority to audit the trusts-because these are public dollars. This was challenged in Court, and we won. But the other side appealed, leading to the oral argument on the 15th.
This is an important battle for transparency and accountability. We should know the outcome early next year.
*(Mike Feuer is the Los Angeles City Attorney.)*
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 81
Pub: Oct 6, 2015
{module \[1177\]}
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