Villaraigosa Asks Five Hahn Appointees to Leave Airport Board
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa yanked at least five appointees of former Mayor James Hahn from the Board of Airport Commissioners, but left unanswered the question of who would replace them in the coming weeks, Copley News Service reported. Villaraigosa, who ran as an opponent of Hahn’s $11 billion plan to remake Los Angeles International Airport, had representatives of his office call commissioners Monday to tell them that they were being asked to step down. Replacements for the Hahn appointees are not expected until after Thursday, when Villaraigosa returns from a trip to Washington, D.C.
Homeless Agency Given Scathing Review
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority has only $700,000 in the bank to cover $5 million it owes to its service providers, according to a joint city-county report released Tuesday. City Controller Laura Chick, who conducted the study with county Auditor-Controller Tyler McCauley, said the agency is more than 30 days late in meeting two-thirds of its obligations, the Daily News of Los Angeles reported. The city and county created the agency in 1993 to fund and direct local agencies engaged in helping the county’s 90,000 homeless get off the streets. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he is assigning the city’s Housing and Community Development departments as well as a private auditing and accounting firm to correct the problems identified in the review.
Couple Leaves CSUN Its Largest Cash Gift
A former San Fernando High School art teacher and her husband, who amassed a small fortune through real estate investments, have donated their $7.3 million estate to California State University, Northridge, officials announced Tuesday. The cash donation from the late Mary and Jack Bayramian is the largest in the university’s 48-year history, topping Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s $7 million gift in 2002. It will fund two scholarship programs, including $2.3 million in student scholarships for the future Valley performing arts center. Mary Bayramian had attended San Fernando Valley State College, which later became CSUN, the Daily News of Los Angeles reported.
Two Ex-Execs of Defunct HMO Arraigned
Three years after Tower Health went broke, a pair of the defunct HMO’s executives have been arrested on suspicion of misusing more than $2 million owed to doctors, authorities said Tuesday. Long Beach-based Tower was the largest provider of Medi-Cal services in Riverside and San Bernardino counties before it ran into financial problems and was seized by regulators in 2001. An investigation by the state attorney general’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse followed. The two executives were charged with grand theft, perjury, Medi-Cal fraud and filing false corporate tax reports, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Coulter to Leave JPMorgan
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Vice Chairman David Coulter will leave the third-biggest U.S. bank, 10 months after he ceded his role as head of its investment banking and asset management units in New York and took a lesser post in Los Angeles, Bloomberg news reported. Coulter became a top executive at JPMorgan Chase in 2002. But he saw his role at the bank begin to ebb with the company’s acquisition of BankOne Corp. last July. In September, the bank and Coulter agreed that he would move to Los Angeles and head the company’s West Coast operations and its private equity unit.
