City Hall has succeeded in using the old “pig-in-a-tutu” trick to win another battle in its ongoing war against L.A.’s honest business people.

Yesterday, the Court of Appeals reversed the Superior Court, and reinstated an unfair and anti-business ordinance that singles out a few hotels near the airport to pay higher wages than everyone else, while simultaneously establishing a new bureaucratic programs ostensibly to “help” those same hotels.  (Click here to read the court opinion yourself.)

The events leading up to this extremely bad decision were as follows:

In November 2006, Mayor Villaraigosa and the City Council passed a law requiring airport hotels to pay a higher minimum wage than all the other businesses in this state are required to pay. 

Sounds totally fair, right?  Apparently City Hall, having already provided  hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies and tax cuts for downtown hotel developers, wanted to go that “extra mile” by driving up their competitors’ operating costs.  It’s called “pay to play.”

In December 2006, the airport hotel owners and other businesses fought back.  They submitted a referendum petition with over 103,000 signatures to repeal the ordinance. Getting 103,000 signatures is huge, by the way; total turnout in the City’s March 2007 election was 109,570.

Presenting the petition legally forced City Hall either to let voters decide the issue, or to repeal the ordinance voluntarily.

In January 2007, the Mayor and City Council, rather than let unwashed and uninformed voters like you decide the issue, repealed the ordinance on their own. 

That could have, and should have, been the end of the story.  But, no.

In February 2007, the Mayor and City Council passed a new ordinance, just like the old one in that it would still require the airport hotels to pay a higher minimum wage than everyone else.

The “new” ordinance, however, contained some additional provisions, to make it seem different from the old one.  This was the old “pig-in-a-tutu” trick. 

To transform the pig into a ballerina officially, the new ordinance declared that the area around the airport would now be known as the “Airport Hospitality Enhancement Zone.”  (You could not make this stuff up.)

The new ordinance called for some street improvements.  It also called for a city “training” program for hotel employees:  “This device is called a ‘vacuum cleaner.’”  Plus, the city would spend $50,000 to “study” how to the hotels could get more business.  (I guess “lower prices” doesn’t count.)

The hotels and other groups immediately filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court to invalidate the new ordinance.  The Superior Court Judge immediately saw right through City Hall’s use of the old tutu trick.  Judge Yaffee threw out the new ordinance and found that the Mayor and City Council acted in bad faith by passing it. 

That could have, and should have, been the end of the story.  But, no.

Villaraigosa and the City Council, having refused to let you vote on the matter, likewise refused to follow the Superior Court’s decision.  Instead, they appealed the decision and, yesterday, they won.  The Court of Appeals justices felt that the tutu had, in fact, transformed the pig into a ballerina.

So, congratulations, City Hall.  You really stuck it to the city’s businesses and voters.  You got away with it.  The special interests building hotels downtown with taxpayers’ money can breathe a sigh of relief, while all the other businesses see that they must “pay to play” in this city.  Lesson learned. 

Meanwhile, anyone contemplating opening a business in the City of Los Angeles will see how little sense it makes to do so, when there are so many other venues that actually welcome new businesses and treat them fairly.

If you own, or ever hope to own, a business in the City of L.A., or if you realize how important it is for businesses to survive and thrive here, you need to help “fire” Villaraigosa and the City Council.  Why not start today by contributing to the Committee to Elect Walter Moore?  I’ve fought in courts for over 20 years to protect the rights of people who own businesses.  Help elect me, and I’ll fight for your rights in City Hall.  Contribute today.