WEHOville had a peek through West Hollywood’s current Demand Register, the list of municipal expenditures City Council is set to approve at their meeting Monday. Here are the interesting things we found:
City Hall loves coffee. Gourmet Coffee Services will receive two checks from WeHo for a total of $4,100.27.
Money is pouring into the municipal pool. $75,000 goes to California Commercial Pools for a “main drain replacement,” and Aqua Source Inc. gets paid $36,041.07 for “pool accutabs” (i.e. chlorine, $12,026.07) and maintenance services ($24,015).
Taxpayers are picking up a hefty tab for The Pickup. American GTS billed $97,736.62 for operating the nightlife trolley service, while Block by Block charged $10,722.51 to staff it with security ambassadors. Another $2,877.88 will be paid to Symblaze for promoting the service on social media. #doyouridethepickup #meeither
The Melrose Hellscape Streetscape Project racked up a $525,784.55 construction bill from Sully-Miller Contracting Co.
Conference trips for city staff members, as well as Mayor Sepi Shyne, cost $6,420.51. Expenses include airfare, per diem, etc. Director of Finance and Technology Services Lorena Quijano’s trip to the Government Finance Officers Association Conference in Portland came in at $2,116.73.
Costs for the Laurel House renovation project are already piling up, even though construction hasn’t even begun. Page & Turnbull, which gave a virtual public presentation of their work thus far this week, will get a check for $19,380, while Challenge Graphics will get paid $1,358.05 for “postcards.” Did you get one? What did it say? Alison Lancaster, who made a stellar career choice, will receive $1,400 for a “tree inventory” of the property (she also gets $918.75 for an unrelated “ficus tree evaluation”).
Photographer John Viscott will make $2,645 for taking pictures at five city events.
In a change of pace, Mayor Pro Tem John Erickson will essentially be sending a pay check ($7,452) to Planned Parenthood instead of receiving one from them. Erickson is the nonprofit organization’s Vice President of Public Affairs, Communications, and Marketing in Los Angeles. (Planned Parenthood is also reported to have received $1 million in donations from Bird and Lime, the city’s scooter vendors, but that’s another story).
The register is rife with expenses for random contracted services:
- $1,200 for “women’s health trainings” by Sarah Nunnink.
- $900 for Have Be Productions for producing the Lesbian Speaker Series.
- $9,000 for Designing in Color for a speech on “racialized space in architecture” at the Government Alliance on Race and Equity.
Must have been a good speech!
Those were on the low end; others weren’t so cost-efficient.
Healthcare in Action’s mobile health clinic van thing cost $46,354. How many of you received services from it? What do you mean you never saw it?
Pathways walks off with $12,393 for pre-school services (which few kids are receiving apparently).
Invoices from WeHo Pride are still rolling in — $161,656.76 for event producer JJLA and $791,769.07 for the Sheriff’s Department for policing it.
WeHo contributes $434,283.21 to the budget of the West Hollywood Marketing Corporation, better known as Visit West Hollywood.
The city is also spending:
- $48,594.57 on street sweeping (SCA of CA LLC),
- $101,261.25 on removing graffiti (Woods Maintenance Services Inc.),
- $49,936.50 on meter maintenance and collection (Laz Karp Associates),
- $170,365.80 on trash and recycling (Athens Services)
- $20,000 on real-time vehicle tracking (Cubic Transportation Systems), whatever that is.
And last but not least, city staff’s payroll came in at $941,115.52.
The total amount in checks issued Sept. 8 and after was $5,404,868.58.
View the entire register here.
Communists bringing more graft and corruption? No effing way!
Well, that was confusing. Some of these appear to be monthly expenses, some one-time, some perhaps annual with no differentiation. Some necessary and some not, for sure.
Love this breakdown of critical (to have) information.
Thank you, Mr Garcia.
No wonder West Hollywood is falling apart…all of the money is going to ridiculous expenditures that do nothing for the growth, safety and appeal of the city. It seems like WeHo has become a con artist’s paradise and massive cash grab.
Having read the indictment and thorough NYT article about Senator Bob Menendez, one can easily see how the dots connect through the Demand Register in our postage stamp of a city.
The payroll needs to be cut in half. It’s outrageous.
And when requested services you require are busy, slow, unreceptive, or unreachable, we will not hear a peep from you. Correct?
I guess you’ve never requested services since they are currently ALL the things you list.
These positions are waaay over salaried. The salaries are, with benefits, exceed private industry. The GOVERNMENT INDUSTIRAL COMPLEX is very alive and well.
What would you do with fewer bureaucrats to tell you how to live? Whatever would you do? Oh no!
That Lime and Bird scooters are a major financial supporter of Planned Parenthood, an organization that I personally contribute to monthly, is hugely troublesome as the salaried vice president of Planned Parenthood sits on the West Hollywood city council which administers the city’s scooter programming. This is more concerning as Erickson has a history of unprofessional and conflict of interest with Planned Parenthood and monies involving the City of West Hollywood. I truly believe these donations are what keeps these scooters 🛴 on our city streets although the majority of citizens find them hazardous and a burden and want them… Read more »
Is this true? Is there proof?
I think we need a full accounting and investigation, per this article and other sources, it’s very true.
Imagine bragging about paying money to an organization that kills babies and was founded to explicitly target women of color.
Thank you Brandon for picking up on several mentions of the Demand Register recently. The Devil is always in the details and the DR should be a must read for every resident. It presents the dots which can also be connected to CC Initiatives and Presentations.
Hi, I just need clarification – are the expenses cited for one month? A year?? Or??? Thanks very much.
This piece is an excellent example of why local news outlets are necessary. How many residents bother to look past the simple description of an item on a Council agenda? The idea of thus article is to get residents interested in questioning the :”city’s” expenditures and finding out where their money is gong. “Question authority” was a watch-phrase in the 1970s – WHY NOT NOW??
Lime and Bird scooters gave a million dollars to Planned Parenthood???
Since when is Lime and Bird scooters, a rogue, irresponsible, pillar of unaccountability and recklessness so inclined to support such a worthwhile cause that has nothing to do with junk mobility?
But hey, good for them.
The devil is in the details! The details here demand some questions, and there might well be legitimate answers to these questions but unasked questions don’t get answers. I applaud WEHOville for highlighting the need for accountability in public expenditures. I have a few questions of my own, and there are no amounts too small for scrutiny. The city paid $468.85 to CEB (Continuing Education of the Bar) for CA Criminal Law Updates; who on city staff is practicing criminal law? The city paid WEHO Collision Center $5,443.71 for auto body repair; does the city not carry collision insurance on… Read more »