Bruno, the LA Watchdog: Why Van Gogh Cut His Ear Off

Bruno has only two pictures on his doghouse walls: A shot of the woman who rescued me from life on the streets, and a painting of some buddies and me playing poker.

An art expert, I ain't.

But I know a good story when I hear one like the one in the Dog Trainer today on the Los Angeles County Museum Art, not because of the art - I leave that to Big Dog Eli Broad -- but because the guy who runs the place makes a $1 million a year.

And some of that is our money!  And you thought we were broke just because we're letting dangerous criminals out of prison by the thousands and our lives are in danger because firefighters have to take extra time off the job to keep the city's checks from bouncing.

LACMA gets a lot of money from the public, about a quarter of its $74-million operating budget from L.A. County in 2008 -- including $201,432 toward the salary and benefits of Michael Govan, the museums director.

I wonder if he likes pictures of dogs playing poker?

In fairness, and Bruno always tries to be fair, the guy apparently gets high marks for fundraising, which according to him, he does almost every night.

He definitely does not, however, get high marks for media relations. Dog Trainer reporters Alan Zarembo and Mike Boehm asked him about his fund raising schedule.

"Do you have any idea how much that costs in baby-sitting?" he replied.
 
The reporters added that he said it "jokingly," but it sounds to me like the jokes on us.

Bruno has no puppies around the house, but I imagine if I was pulling in a million bucks a year with taxpayer help, he wouldn't joke about paying the teenager down the block $5 an hour for watching the kids - especially to reporters!

And for the record, Govan has only one kid.

If it would help, Bruno would babysit for free and teach the kid to play poker.  Most kids, however, find me kind of scary.

Woof!