Tuesday Thread: Laws, Schmaws - We Want Four More Years!
The City Council, having received a 10-page opinion letter from the City Attorney questioning the legality of the "ethics" ballot measure that would weaken term limits, did what any prudent legislative body would do: mock it and proceed apace.The Daily News quotes City Council President Eric Garcetti as saying, "The election is three months away, and a lot of this is insider baseball on technicalities that the general public doesn't care about."
Council Member Herb Wesson likewise added, regarding City Attorney Delgadillo, "We asked him to draft the language on this . . . . We did not ask him to put in his 2 cents' worth."
Read all about it, then blog away.
Mayor Sam, alas, is apparently stuck in the seventh level of Ad-Hell-Phia purgatory.
Posted by Walter Moore @ 8/01/2006 08:22:00 AM
33 Comments:
I'm not sure whether more time in office would make a difference, in the City Council performance. I do not want their participation to be any weaker than it already is. Council members should (in my opinion)be more focused on their neighborhoods and jobs. We have had an example of that in CD 14 with a council member who broke every promise to his voters, and is now Mayor, still wants to do every job except his own. Every Councilmember should be accountable for his or her performance while in office. If they made more of an effort, insisted on more participation from voters,that may work. Nothing like letting voters experience first hand what Democracy is all about.
Herb Wesson and group asking for the City Attorney's input on a proposed law usually costs more than 2 cents. I am no Delgadillo fan but he is THE CITY ATTORNEY and falls within the parameters of his job to give LEGAL OPINIONS and forewarn lawmakers when they are approaching something ILLEGAL.
Some elements of this supposed "ethics policy" may be unnecessary or even a step backward, and Garcetti thinks this is "not significant." How arrogant. Another reason why neither he nor other council members deserve another four years in this highly paid office. VOTE NO on this and VOTE NO on the housing bond measure.
Rocky did his job, did what he is supposed to do, what he has been elected to do. Reminder as to three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. Don't remember another one called "rubber-stamp"!
WTF!!! ""The election is three months away, and a lot of this is insider baseball on technicalities that the general public doesn't care about."
WTF!!!!
Can you say, "contempt for the voters?" Sure you can.
These clowns have shown the voters of this city they don't give a shit about anyone but themselves. Then they have the audacity to scream because Rocky gave them the LAW and they still want to ignore it. LA has the weakess, lamess, most ignorant council members in the nation. Because no one respects them they have attracted a circus of losers at public comment at every meeting. That has never happened in council before this group. NO EXTENSION OF TERM LIMITS. Watch these idiots vote for it tomorrow and again by passing the VOTERS.
Check out Garcetti's lame, fluff blog. He brags about cutting business taxes; what about residents taxes? Let's hope he is not able to add the flawed housing bond measure and extension of term limits to two of his other "accomplishments" listed on his blog:
-Established the first Office of Immigrant Affairs.
-Championed legislation recognizing matricula cards for identification.
Give these idiots another four years, them and Moyor Polloarigosa will "bond" the crap out of the remaining Middle Class in this city. NO MORE !!!
August 01, 2006 8:56 AM,
"Every Councilmember should be accountable for his or her performance while in office."
They are held accountable, my friend. Every four years, you and your neighbors have the option of letting them go to bat again, or to send them packing. But you keep electing the same 'clowns', so this is no one's fault but your own.
MAV might have broken his promise to CD14 voters, but they didn't seem to care, since the overwhelming majority of voters there supported his run form Mayor.
August 01, 2006 11:14 AM,
Where's the weblink to the blog, you dumb fuck?!?!?!
Okay, clearly you all have opinions on this stuff, BUT HOWM MANY OF YOU WILL SHOW UP AT CITY HALL TOMORROW WHEN THEY VOTE?
I can tell you from experience that they listen when 4 or 5 people show up but it takes at least that many. Are you all just bullshit hot air, or are you actually going to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for the actions your representatives take?
Just in the interest of giving the voters a real choice, it makes sense to separate the ballot items. I usually hate initiatives, but extending term limits is the kind of broad, intuitive concept that should be put before voters.
I also think that at this point most Angelenos are satisfied with their councilmembers and that it would pass on its own. But it needs to be debated on its own and not alongside other ethics reforms.
To 9:00 and 9:47, I think Wesson and others were upset with the content of Delgadillo's report, not the fact that he submitted it, which very clearly is part of his job. I haven't read it so I don't know if he's injected politics into the report.
It brings up an interesting question: What motivation does Rocky have to see this go down? Is he looking for a council seat? What district would it be?
11:49
Hey Einstein, let me spell this out for you, slowly, put your little fingers on the keyboard, go to Google (that's what is called a search engine), and type in "E-R-I-C G-A-R-C-E-T-T-I B-L-O-G.
Measure is linked to "ethics" ONLY because these self-serving "leaders" know that is the only way it could possibly pass public muster, that the public would look at the title "ethics" on the ballot and be conned into thinking that that is what they are voting for. Otherwise, why would anyone want to vote to keep these dudes in office, and certainly not to approve an extension put forward by the very same individuals who would benefit from the measure they are promoting!?
Screw the laws. We council refuse to get real jobs.
Mr. SilverSpoon Garcetti you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Funny today city council waited til the very end after 3 hours to have public comment at the end. Too bad those losers Zuma Dogg, Matt Dowd and the other mental case were still there. These guys have made a mockery of city council. They are showing every day absolutely no respect for these clowns and there's not a damn thing they can do about it.
Daily News not only has the story posted they have one of the best Opinion pieces I've read. I love when they state the obvious.
......"It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for these pathetic politicians, so desperate to hang on to the cushy life that their privileged positions afford...Just days ago they thought they had come up with the perfect scheme:
Get some fat cats to pay for a poll saying they could bamboozle the public into extending term limits dressed as ethics reform.
I want to see if any Neighborhood Councils show up to speak against this. Where are they when the city needs them?
Every time the City Council pulls a self serving stunt like this, or limiting public comment to one minute, their arrogance and outright contempt for the people show through.
Imagine for a moment if I were to ram through a ByLaws change in my NC that extended my term as President. How late would those who curse the ground I drive on be up screaming about how "power hungry, self serving or self promoting" I was? How many calls for a "City Attorney investigation" would there be?
How many would say the "NWNC should dump him for his unethical behavior to get their credibility back, the Congress should expel him" yada yada yada.
These calls were made by a few of our Mayor Sam All-Stars and nothing of the sort even took place. In fact every move I made was in accordance with the City Attorney.
The City Council routinely cites the City Attorney when they don't want to do something. They don't even try based on the "advise" of the City Attorney. Now they are exposing the City to a lawsuit because they want to deceive the voters into giving them another four years.
This is just the kind of nonsense that gets the voters all worked up and I would venture a guess that those that come out strongly for it may suffer in March.
If 200 years as a Council Staffer/Mayors Aid/Lobbyist ect followed by 8 years as a Council Member isn't enough time to "learn the job" then perhaps you are incompetent. Since I have yet to meet a single councilmember who I would truly deem incompetent, I would say that argument doesn't pass the smell test.
The President of the United States only gets eight years, (I know rough example but go with me here) then the LA City Council can handle 8 as well.
Bypassing public comment or NC input is also another indicator of their utter contempt for the people who bothered to vote for them.
Relaxing the term limits is a good idea...but unfortunately, the current councilmembers who have been voted in were the opportunists who took over the more experienced and passionate members that the council districts possessed with the previous council members of the 90's.
Hey 1:55 pm -- Where are they [Neighborhood Councils] when the city needs them? Do you work on a NC or sub-committee of a NC? Why not? Because you don't have the time? Well, we who do volunteer on the NC or sub-committees of same usually have jobs or businesses to attend to during the normal work day and sitting in Council chambers for 5 hours while they push "specials" to the end of the agenda and if NCs are there to speak against an item, then it goes to the very very very end of the agenda; we are there when we can get there -- at a cost to ourselves and our families. What NC or committee are you joining
Term limits are great for bloggers. And they provide for a lot of entertaining races. The thought of a termed-out Tom LaBonge running for Mayor is a completely promising one from the entertainment perspective.
And rumors that I'm running for his seat are completely unsubstantiated.
Yes, it is unfortunate that the only folks who seem to regularly want to come to speak at Council are those who may be more interested in hearing themselves speak than in communicating about any substantive issue!? But, hey, why should the rest of us bother, when the folks in the horseshoe don't really care what the public thinks? when they are more concerned about giving themselves a cushy job than in providing service to the public!?
For the amount of money those good for nothing sons of bitches make they can listen to a few people who like to hear themselves speak.
We have to listen to their crap.
In a perfect world, diligent and informed voters would indeed have a meaningful choice of candidates, and the election of an incumbent would constitute a vote of confidence.
Alas, we don't live in that world. Most people don't even bother to register, much less vote. The media here, moreover, simply ignore candidates unless they're already in office, or have raised huge amounts of money (with which to buy advertising). Special interests likwise spend money not on candidates who are looking out for the public interest, but who instead will advance their special interests.
Term limits are a way to level the playing field a little, so that voters have more meaningful choices. Clean money likewise is intended to encourage and facilitate campaigns by people who will do the right thing, as opposed to people who can raise the most money for advertising.
Anyway, I'll post a link to Rocky's letter, and quote same.
Let's listen to Alger, he knows something about arrogance. If you look up the word arrogance in the dictionary you will find Alger's picture.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
Walter at 6:26, that's an intelligent comment about the actual issue at hand. What the hell is it doing on this blog?
I'm somebody who pays attention to this stuff (and doesn't work in government) and I'm on the fence here. I definitely think the assemblymembers should get longer terms and maybe the senators too, but 12 years for the mayor? No way.
When I heard my councilman pitch it, he said eight years isn't long enough to actually get the bigger things done. On another topic, he joked about the proposed Hollywood Central Park (over the 101 from above Hollywood Blvd. to Fountain). He said every politician needs a "big dig" to leave behind.
We all want the park, but we know it's going to take at least 10 years to do. What's Garcetti's motivation to work on it if it won't even break ground while he's in office? By contrast, it's very possible for a mayor, a controller, or a city attorney to leave a meaningful legacy in eight years.
On the flip side, the power of the incumbency is a heck of a thing. Most people don't pay enough attention to vote their councilman out. If it's hard after four years, I can't imagine how hard it will be after eight.
LOL.
I don't buy the "need more time" argument for a minute.
It takes just four years, after college, to become a doctor -- someone who is allowed to open up a fellow citizen and re-wire him.
Our nation won World War II in about four years.
We ask far less of City Council Members, yet we are supposed to believe they need more time to accomplish it? I just don't buy it -- especially given what they do with the terms they get. Visits to "Sister Cities"? One proposal after another to raise our taxes?
As for the argument that some public works take longer than eight years, so what? That doesn't mean the City Council Members have to be there the whole time. Workers come and go, engineers, too. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was the great wall. They weren't even built in a lifetime.
I say throw them out, especially since they're just going to run for other public offices anyway. These people would last about five minutes in the private sector.
Anyone willing to bet what the vote will be tomorrow when they take this up? will any of them actually vote NOT to go ahead for November?
Maybe Rosendahl, because he says only rational approach would be to link the term limits extension to full public financing? But, as for the others, hey, why bother paying attention to a legal opinion provided by the City's lawyer!?
My God, I ACTUALLY AGREE WITH ALGER!!!
This is not good!
Mayor Sam, Walter, Mailander, Alger and Dave for Democracy.
As one of the anonymous pions that post sometimes, can i just say this has been the most intelligent dialogue this blog has had in a really long time.
No crazy name calling, nothing based on race, it was a thoughtful, insightful debate.
Mayor Sam -- PLEASE figure out a way to force these type of conversations on the blog. Less hate, more debate.
August 01, 2006 12:01 PM,
If I wanted to Google the blog, I would have. I know all about search engines (Google Hacks is my favortie book ever!), I'm sure I can teach you a thing or two.
I guess it's just too much to ask you to post an HTML link, right?
Continued exposure to this blog has been proven to boost a reader's IQ and civility by, on average, 5% per week. When people who engage in name-calling jsee how reasonable people can conduct civil discussions, they learn how to do the same. Reasonable people can agree to disagree, and can agree to change their minds.
Today's vote will separate "real leaders" from the clowns wasting our tax dollars. Let's see who has the balls to vote against this. Let's face it these council members jobs aren't that hard. They attend community meetings, events, have a staff of 10, get free cars, gas, cell phones, food sometimes. Constituents services are potholes, street lighting, grafitti, bulky items etc. THIS IS NOT BRAIN SURGERY FOLKS.
Sadly, the really passionately candidates who have a heart and dedicated work ethic and want to make a difference just don't have the money to run against these morons.
None of the current city council members are worthy of having their term extended. I've lived here for 10 years now and have not seen improvement within the So Cal basin. I've seen the opposite -- a decline in everything from the freeways, closed hospitals, closed elementary school to poor housing conditions and favoritism of certain districts over others. These council people and their predecessors have not done their jobs AT ALL. Neither is our Mayor. Giving these folks 4 more years will only continue the decline of this city and its surrounding communities. As an active voter, my vote in November will be NO to this term increase.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home