Big Gun Hired for Analysis of Visitors Bureau

Alarmed by big bills for limousines, four-star hotel suites and gourmet dinners, City Controller Laura Chick has hired a big gun to analyze spending at the L.A. Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Chick has retained former state Auditor Kurt Sjoberg to go through the bureau’s books to see whether the city’s money is being spent properly. Los Angeles pays the bureau up to $18 million a year to promote tourism and line up conventions.

The Times has reported in recent weeks that bonuses were paid to bureau salespeople for booking conventions that later canceled, and that bureau bigwigs spent thousands of city tax dollars taking VIPs to a Wimbledon tennis match and dinner at Kensington Palace.

“The reports have been troubling--renting a hall at Kensington Palace, half a million dollars for limousines,” Chick said. “The taxpayers need to know if their dollars are being spent wisely and effectively and what they are getting in return.”

Sjoberg was the state’s top auditor from 1989 to 2000, after which he went into private practice. His company will be paid $67,300 for the audit.

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Assembly Speaker Takes Advantage of His Perks

While legislators in Sacramento struggle to close a $23.6-billion hole in the state budget, spending on perks has continued unabated.

Shortly after Herb Wesson of Culver City was sworn in as Assembly speaker, the order went out for two new Buick Park Avenues, each costing about $40,000. One of the vehicles is for driving Wesson around Los Angeles and the other for travels around Sacramento.

Each comes with a state sergeant-at-arms as a chauffer and a full array of security gear, including a CHP radio and flashing police lights, said Jon Waldie, chief administrative officer of the Assembly Rules Committee.

“They are both there to use for business in Los Angeles and Sacramento,” Waldie said.

For personal trips, Wesson also has a $40,000 Cadillac Seville mostly paid for from his $400-per-month auto allowance as a legislator. A spokesperson for Wesson said the vehicles are necessary for him to do his job, and noted that previous speakers also have had multiple cars at their disposal.

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Pagans Retract Offer to Libertarian Candidate

You know your campaign is in trouble when the pagans won’t let you speak.

While participating in the Snake Parade in Berkeley in March, Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Gary Copeland was asked by organizers to speak at Pagan Pride Day on Sept. 14 in San Francisco. They later retracted the invitation, explaining that the event is run as a nonprofit corporation. By promoting political campaigns, it would risk losing its tax-free status.

“Rejected even by pagans,” said Copeland, a self-labeled Druid existentialist who lives in Trabuco Canyon. “It is amazing how free speech can be controlled by government.”

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County Supervisor Lists On-Camera Etiquette

He’s known as the biggest ham among Ventura County politicians. And Supervisor John Flynn of Oxnard didn’t disappoint as he and other supervisors recently discussed transmitting the board’s Tuesday morning meetings live on the Internet.

With a vaudevillian flourish, Flynn unfurled a sheet of paper and asked his colleagues to prepare for the digital debut by following his rules for behavior:

5. There will be no swearing.

4. Board members will not be disagreeable.

3. Board members will always smile and be cool.

2. Board members will wear makeup.

Flynn’s No. 1 rule? Be careful where you scratch.

The tart-tongued Flynn admits he probably will be the first to break decorum. “I’m getting better. I keep a card in front of me that says, ‘Stay cool,’” he said. “I’ll just have to let loose with it when I go in the back room.”

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Hahn, Soboroff Finish Rematch in a Dead Heat

L.A. Mayor James K. Hahn hasn’t seen much of his mayoral rival since he took office last July. So when he got together Wednesday with Steve Soboroff to tout an electric car program at Playa Vista--the Westside development Soboroff is running--the former candidate decided to have some fun with the man who beat him.

“We had a race about a year ago and you cleaned my clock then,” Soboroff told Hahn. “We’re going to have a race again here, and this time I want it to be a tie.”

The mayor accepted the challenge, and the two men hopped behind the wheels of two electric cars the size of golf carts and took a spin around the parking lot.

Hahn was ahead for most of the course, but Soboroff pulled even as they reached the finish line.

“Dead heat,” Soboroff declared, as they clambered out and shook hands. “You play fair.”

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Congressman Stumped by Mystery Vegetable

Rep. Christopher Cox is the kind of guy who reads D’Tocqueville for fun.

So a group of second-graders witnessed a rare moment when the Newport Beach Republican was stumped by a word in a book he was reading to the class about giant vegetables falling from the sky.

The word: arugula. “I’ve come across a vegetable I don’t know,” Cox said (pronouncing it air-a-gula instead of a-roog-ula).

The leafy green vegetable, which is from the mustard family and has a slightly peppery taste, stumped the teacher, too. She guessed that it was the sweet, sliced white vegetable that’s great with dips--also known as jicama.

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Points Taken

* Democratic state Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento) was not amused last week when Republican Sen. Ray Haynes of Riverside criticized her leadership of a budget subcommittee that handles health issues. Problem is he confused Ortiz, who does not chair the committee, with former state Sen. Hilda Solis (D-El Monte), who had previously chaired the panel. “I was close,” Haynes said, noting the philosophical similarities between Ortiz and Solis.

* Angelenos can rest easy knowing the city’s FOG (Fats, Oils and Grease) Control program is working. Fats and grease from restaurants caused 28% fewer sewer system clogs and overflows during the last quarter, city officials proclaimed this week in a news release. Does that mean L.A. is eating more healthfully?

* Holy mackerel! Gov. Gray Davis has hooked the endorsement of the Fishermen’s Union of America, AFL-CIO, according to a campaign news release. Davis gushed that he was “grateful to have earned the support of the Fishermen,” making them sound more rock ‘n’ roll than rock cod. No word on whether Davis will get support from fisherwomen.

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You Can Quote Me

“You should all know how that name is spelled in this building.”

--Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, responding to a request by a court reporter to spell her name before testifying at a secession hearing in the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, which is named after her father.

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Graduation Giggles

Mayor James K. Hahn shares a laugh with high school seniors from the Los Angeles Police Academy’s magnet schools as they stand for inspection during graduation Thursday. Seniors received their diplomas from the program, which was created in 1996 by the Los Angeles Unified School District, the LAPD and 21st Century Insurance to develop quality future law enforcement officers.

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Times staff writers Matea Gold, Jean Pasco, Julie Tamaki and Catherine Saillant contributed to this week’s column. Columnist Patt Morrison is on assignment.