Breaking News: LA City Council Just Voted to Require Neighborhood Council Boardmemebers to Fill Out FORM 700
Neighborhood Council went to City Council and ended up having to fill out a Form 700.
NC wanted to be able to create Council files, just like City Council does, so they can introduce issues to city council for consideration . So it was on the LA City Council agenda today.
At the last second CM Greig Smith brought up the point, if you wanna play this and be a legislator -- you have to have full disclousure, and made an amendment to require NC members to fill out a Form 700, now, since they wanna play with the big boys and introduce motion.
Janice Hahn stood up and asked that the item be sent back to the ethics commission for a recommendation.
Council voted to chuck the ethics recommendation, and approve NC's request to be allowed to open "Council files" that may be introduced before City Council (3 per year, per council) -- and therefore become MORE than just an advisory role.
Council returned the favor by making all NC boardmembers fill out a Form 700. Which means a lot of Boardmembers will probably just say, "F*** it!", and walk away, rather than go through a full financial disclosure at an NC level.
AND, just because Garshady's City Council will consider your motion...doesn't mean City Council will ever actually vote to approve any of these NC motions (unless it suits them) -- but now you gotta fill out the Form 700. (I'm sure City Council is laughing their asses off right now.)
And you gotta either love Greig Smith, or not...right now. I think the biggest bamboozle is that City Council added the Form 700 requirement at the last minute, before the vote, without giving it back to NC members to give them the option to review the changes. (Nothing new at LA City Council. The elected body that makes changes to legislation AFTER the public hearings, then doesn't allow follow-ups...LOL!)
BUT CHARTER SCHOOL OPERATORS DON'T HAVE TO FILL OUT A FORM 700. Greig Smith for LAUSD President!
UPDATE: Overall, although we may lose some good people from the NC system who simply may not feel like disclosing a million dollar stock portfolio, no matter how much they wanna help the community -- this could also shake out some of the type of shadiness that the pueblos have been complaining about regarding various NCs throughout the City who have been taken over by people with personal interests at hand.
zumadogg@gmail.com
Thanks to Matt Dowd's communications director for bringing this to the pueblo's attention!
NC wanted to be able to create Council files, just like City Council does, so they can introduce issues to city council for consideration . So it was on the LA City Council agenda today.
At the last second CM Greig Smith brought up the point, if you wanna play this and be a legislator -- you have to have full disclousure, and made an amendment to require NC members to fill out a Form 700, now, since they wanna play with the big boys and introduce motion.
Janice Hahn stood up and asked that the item be sent back to the ethics commission for a recommendation.
Council voted to chuck the ethics recommendation, and approve NC's request to be allowed to open "Council files" that may be introduced before City Council (3 per year, per council) -- and therefore become MORE than just an advisory role.
Council returned the favor by making all NC boardmembers fill out a Form 700. Which means a lot of Boardmembers will probably just say, "F*** it!", and walk away, rather than go through a full financial disclosure at an NC level.
AND, just because Garshady's City Council will consider your motion...doesn't mean City Council will ever actually vote to approve any of these NC motions (unless it suits them) -- but now you gotta fill out the Form 700. (I'm sure City Council is laughing their asses off right now.)
And you gotta either love Greig Smith, or not...right now. I think the biggest bamboozle is that City Council added the Form 700 requirement at the last minute, before the vote, without giving it back to NC members to give them the option to review the changes. (Nothing new at LA City Council. The elected body that makes changes to legislation AFTER the public hearings, then doesn't allow follow-ups...LOL!)
BUT CHARTER SCHOOL OPERATORS DON'T HAVE TO FILL OUT A FORM 700. Greig Smith for LAUSD President!
UPDATE: Overall, although we may lose some good people from the NC system who simply may not feel like disclosing a million dollar stock portfolio, no matter how much they wanna help the community -- this could also shake out some of the type of shadiness that the pueblos have been complaining about regarding various NCs throughout the City who have been taken over by people with personal interests at hand.
zumadogg@gmail.com
Thanks to Matt Dowd's communications director for bringing this to the pueblo's attention!
Posted by Zuma Dogg @ 1/15/2008 01:13:00 PM
24 Comments:
HA ! HA !
Dgarzila, you stay away from my neighborhood! You a bad mutha F@#$%*
Dgarzila, YOU ARE TRULY MAGNIFICENT. GLAD I DIDN'T ENCOUNTER YOU ON THE SLOPES OF MITTENWALD.
PEACE
you know the strangest thing about this is that the CCA ,one Los Angeles biggest lobbying groups , opposed the ability of neighborhood councils to make council file motions.
You think they might have suspected something like this was going to happen?
Good way to clean up Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council.
Now maybe the junior-wannabe mini-councilmembers will go back to dealing with LOCAL stuff, like NCs were DESIGNED to do in the first place.
How about requiring the Neighborhood Councils to update their web sites on a timely basis.
Good for Greg. After Alarcon acted very disreputably and called his questioning the motion "shameful."
Smith stood up for himself and said he'd never so malign another CM or a community member just because someone didn't like his ideas. Later Alarcon claimed he was just being "passionate" but he really showed his true colors -- a street urchin. No sooner has he gotten elected to one office, whether CM or State Assembly, and he was off running for the next job, sometimes the day after. When you want to see a pol just out for himself and using his position to ingratiate himself with the unions, and whoever he's trying to please (he'd better give up any prayer of higher office with his mean, ultra-leftist and pro-illegal stances) look no further.
Why would Alarcon have pushed so hard against Smith? Maybe he wants to use his own, largely immigrant and even illegal, NC to validate his own views on the Council?
Smith's motion carried unanimously, though -- as Cardenas pointed out, if NC's want to become legislative bodies by putting forth motions, pay the price or go back to being advisory. They range from busybodies to genuine do-gooders to fruitcakes, often not elected by let alone to a majority of the community.
Cooley now makes more than the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of V P Cheney. (O K, Cheney gets a free house and some other perks.) This is a good time for a huge raise, when the Council was given crapola over an intended raise of some $7000? And so what if Cooley didn't want to run for the job again -- he's done what, exactly?
Cooley is in the County system and subject to Bd of Sups. and the LA City Council is not responsible- (wait, there's more to this sentence that could end here)- for his operations or salary.
And "Yes" Cooley doesn't NEED a pay raise since going into an elected public office should be done with eyes wide open, knowing that the the pay is not going to be "competitive" like a private sector job.
All other politicians have no reason to expect private sector type raises. If they don't like the pay situation, don't run for office; no one is forced into the jobs. Many of them should be forced OUT, however.
And these hefty bumps in pay just have no real correlation to anything in real life anyway. Just another way to squeeze out some tax dollars for themselves, no matter what the fiscal condition is at the moment.
Outcome: A Fine public service, as usual, from your political "representatives."
3:20pm,
Nice commentary.
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen (removes hat and bows low with flourish):
So, certain sots on certain NC's will have to fill out Form 700 (raises eyebrow). Now, THIS ought to be interesting! How many of you out there want to wager that the ones who walk away are the ones who have something to hide. (Smiles) Yes, it will be interesting to see who walks and who does not. But even more interesting is the information that will come out on the Form 700, for even Nero would have to admit that all roads, if you will, eventually lead back to Rome, savvy?
Alger and the "Do It Center" are glad that they are not around for this.
This is exactly why I was AGAINST the NCs getting this "power."
When the NC board members make the salary of the Clowncil, then they can fill out a form. Given that the NCs are VOLUNTEER - the 700 is useless.
Today my friends the first shot was fired - this time by Smith and the Clowncil - in the second war for secession.
And this time - its not going to be old white people running the show.
The 40something PTA moms, dads and newly minted condow owning taxpayers are about to wake the fuck up.
And it starts today.
AANC- Angelenos to Abolish Neighborhood Councils
Aye, Captain Jack - mayhap that Bradley feller o' Glassell Park NC doth be needful o' resignin' his post?
our translation of Capt. Jack:
things on those 700 forms may in fact link back to shady deals by these very council people.
Huizar maybe. we're just guessing.
in fact, maybe this Greig Smith sword is more far reaching and double edged to boot. savvy????
Does this mean that NC members have to recuse themselves from votes that they have a financial interest in, or is the filing of such forms for information only?
So NCs don't like form 700. It looks like some of us want power and money without accountability, eh? Welcome to the big time, punks. Another secession campaign won't save any of us from being held accountable either.
There are plenty of cranks and shady ones that won't be stopped by a 700. Lots of kooks don't have any money.
And again - you can't compare NCs to Clowncil people when they don't make any money.
I agree that we give Janice Hahn credit for being against the motion.
I have to admit, I had to file a Form 700 when I was a Commissioner and it is honestly and truly not that big of a deal. It's a pretty vague form. For example, one question, Is your income between $20K - $49K, $50K - $200K, or $201K - $500K, etc. and you check the box. You list stocks, etc. that is over a certain amount. If the form 700 really worked guys, we would have a less monetarily-oriented Council, wouldn't you say? It doesn't mean much now, I don't think.
I would not have been "for" the motion because I know that unpaid volunteers don't want their neighbors to know what they have. I think it's more that than the fact that we're going to find NC board members flushed with money from developers.
But I guess we'll see...
To the person who asked about whether or not NC board members have to recuse themselves, the answer is yes. But we've always had to do that. You just have to be the one to say, "I have a conflict of interest here and must recuse myself".
Of course IF you don't, no worries as there is no DONE jail.
I'm not sure how this will all pan out. I really don't know why this was so important to Greig. I asked him when we were down there last time on the issue, and he told me he just wanted a shortened version of the 700.
Adages for wanna be politicians to remember:
Be careful what you wish for.
There's more than one way to skin a cat.
You can't beat city hall.
There are more, but these seem most relevant. Amateurs should not be surprised when professionals beat them every time.
Back to the boardwalk.
(P.S. Mayor Sam never misses a chance to grind for secession; it is dead and so is his idol, Mayor Hertzberg)
MEAT stop hijacking One Who Knows, cause I know One Who Knows, One Who Knows is a friend of mine - you are no One Who Knows.
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