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Friday, September 23, 2005

Bonin On The Case

Mike Bonin in Councilman Bill Rosendahl's office continues to come through.

As you may remember, on Tuesday, we reported that we had received reports that the West LA Democratic Club has planned to hold an anti-Arnold event at the Westchester office of Councilman Rosendahl, and that this was a fundraiser for the Democrats, a clear violation of city policy.

Rather than ignore us, cover up or deny, Bonin went to work, checking with the City Attorney and making sure the policies for use of the property were clear.

Following the event, one of our readers claimed that the Democrats did accept some contributions on the city property. Bonin went to work and makes the following report:
Mayor Sam- I looked into the reports posted on your blog, talked with officials of the organization, and spoke with some other people who actually attended the meeting. Here is what I have found out: 1) In an attempt to comply with the law, officials with the organization took pains to avoid fundraising at the event last night. They did not pitch for money, and even decided to leave the club's usual "for sale" items (t-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons, etc) at home so no sales would take place and no money would be raised. 2) After being alerted by me to reports on your blog, club leaders investigated on their own and discovered that two people wrote checks to pay their membership dues and those checks were accepted by a fellow club member. This morning, the club returned both checks. 3) After being alerted to this information, our office notified the ethics division of the office of the City Attorney. The attorney there said the club's returning the checks put them in compliance with the law. 4) The city attorney's office has agreed to contact the City Ethics Commission and get firmer and clearer guidelines that we can provide to people and organizations using the community room. As I indicated in my emails earlier this week, the West LA Democrats have been using the community since February 21, long before Bill took office, and it seems they were not provided any guidelines or restrictions regarding fundraising until we notified them this week. With the guidance of the City Attorney and the City Ethics Commission, we intend to give clear guidelines to all the groups using the community room in the Westchester Municipal Building. Thanks for alerting me to this whole thing. Mike
As you can see, the Rosendahl camp inherited a little bit of a sticky situation, but they're making the effort to resolve it and make sure everyone knows the rules ahead of the game.

In this case, that's all you can really ask for.

14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Please because you outed what they were doing they would be idiots not to resolve the issue. You busted them and now they're trying to fix it. Seems Rosendahl hasn't been in office that long and already has made a couple of big mistakes.

September 23, 2005 9:15 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

That office is a joke. It's Ruth Galanter Part II - all show and no go.

September 23, 2005 11:14 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

When your ready to run for City Council Mike, I'd be happy to support you !!

September 23, 2005 11:32 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I don't blame Rosendahl, it appears his staff jumped on this fast but I don't buy for a second that these club people didn't know what they were doing was wrong.

Senator Joe Dunn certainly has been around long enough to know the rules.

Lyn Shaw Hilfenhaus, who had her cronies (aka Sam Gompers) announcing her unfiled candadicy for the 38th Assembly District, announcing she was the Chair of the Democratic Womans Caucaus, and bashing the only filed candidate certainly knew better.

I guess the rulkes don't apply to them.

September 23, 2005 1:50 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I would not call receiving membership dues from two people, a big mistake. A very small mistake, but still a mistake and yet dealt with properly. Now if you want to talk about big mistakes, we have a very big mistake in Sacramento and an even bigger one in the White House!!

September 23, 2005 2:10 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Congrats Mayor Sam for gtting this scoop.

Receiving checks when you were expicitly told that it was illegal to do so indicates a lack of judgement, and respect for the rules of campaigning that we are trying to root out of the system, not reinforce at the grassroots level.

The mentality of "do what we can get away with and if we get caught we'll fix it later" needs to be rooted out from the system at it's core.

In this case, I would expect nothing less from a left wing liberal, or a union bosses wife. They simply expect that this is how the game is played.

If these people had any class they would renounce the illegal activities they participated in by soliciting donations on City property and move on. I have 20 bucks that says neither of them will.

September 23, 2005 3:53 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Oh please. Accepting 2 membership checks is scoop? Real bad..eww.. lock them up and the liberal union boss' wife should simply not run for office. I know you're joking, right?

If I were at an event of any kind, any where and my club chairman was in the room and I knew I owed the designated amount every year and it was overdue..... I would give them a check too.

I've not heard one piece of clear evidence that the money was more than 2 membership checks.

September 24, 2005 12:32 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

mayor sam, first - stop kissing ass. its disgusting. second, stop congratulating people for doing there job. its their fault to begin with because the counsel office is the one that schedules meetings in that community room. its not a new or unclear law requiring city attorney clarification to understand political fundraising in public facilities is against the law - every other counsel office seems to know that. funny that rosendahls office is the first to have a problem like this. i say congratulations for other counsel offices for never scheduling political fundraisers on public property.

September 24, 2005 6:46 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Sounds to me like Rosendahl's predecessor began to let the Dem club use the room and Rosendahl's staff is bringing some order to the process.

And to the last poster - "council" not "counsel".

September 24, 2005 7:24 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Bill is making many of us who live in his district appreciate how good Cindy was compared to him. Bill needs to become more humble especially in council. He leaves himself open to these kind of attacks. And please will one of his field reps tell him to stop saying in council "I'm the gay councilman." Council chambers is not the place to be announcing your sexual preference

September 24, 2005 8:32 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

correction, rosendahls predecesor didn't allow the room to be scheduled for fundraisers. so it looks like that's a development rosendahl created now that hes on city council. its very decptive for his office to imply that it was the problem from the previous representative.

but thanks for the correction on the spelling.

September 24, 2005 10:48 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

correction: the club has been meeting there since february. rosendahl took office july 1.

September 24, 2005 12:04 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

12:04

That is true, BUT Rosendahl's been allowing campaign money sense July 1st!

My hands are washed clean.

September 24, 2005 10:44 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

where's that hottie Phil Tate? I would love to serve him anytime.

Now he's a TALLLLLLLL drink of water. I hope he's not married or gay.

September 30, 2005 8:48 AM  

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