Greig Smith: Sleep Your Way To Success or How I Screwed The Neighborhood Councils
In honor of Clowncilman's Greig Smith's big slap in the face to Neighborhood Council's Tuesday, here is a campaign video from back in the day when Gre-ig was a wannabe Clowncilman. Count how many promises he didn't keep.
Of course, maybe he was too busy sleeping.
Of course, maybe he was too busy sleeping.
Labels: greig smith, los angeles politics, neighborhood councils
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 1/16/2008 12:54:00 AM
28 Comments:
Oh my god. After today's council meeting, I can't believe you found this.
Wake him up! Vote No on Measue S.
I can't wait to see you know who try to spin this.
If it wasn't sad, it would be laughable.
No kidding. I'll be watching this.
Go Mayor! Jeeez, You are nailing it!
BUREAU OF
---*---
MISSING
PERSONS
Directed By~
GREIG SMITH
___________
Greig Smith’s office set up a Kustom Signal Pole-Mounted 275 Radar Speed Display along Mason Ave north of Roscoe Blvd. Shoudn't we have a streaming video cam installed in the chamber solely focused on him? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Gee, what a shame. A bunch of little anonymous NC members won't be able to gang up on their Councilmember or someone else in the community as easily as they'd hoped. They have to be transparent, like the City Council members and the Mayor. Maybe we should start bugging them about and investigating who they're banging, too, to be really fair.
Maybe another condition for being able to propose policy is getting assigned snotty, nasty nicknames in this blog, and having the likes of zuma, matt and hunt show up harassing them at "public comment." And I can think of a few other perks they should experience, if they really want things to be more fair.
"""They have to be transparent, like the City Council members and the Mayor""
Ok clowncil staffer no the NC members are VOLUNTEERS you moron who care about their community. The clowncil are the highest paid in the city making way over $150,000 but can't even attend 3 little meetings a week sitting with respect in their chairs. And we all know where the Mayor's been the last weeks with all the money he's making.
When you speak at City Hall,
Th Council members have side conversations and wander around the room.
They get paid to sit and listen
I am a NC member.
I don't get paid to go speak,
get reimbursed for the over $10.00 parking fee,Nor do I get paid by a job.
When I go, I want them to sit down,shut up and listen to what people have to say.
Yeah, maybe we're volunteers, but we get fifty grand of taxpayer money a year to spend and we're jockeying for more and more power every time we get the chance. Do ya maybe think those who think we should tell the public who we are and what our financial interests are might have a point?
Maybe, we need to jockey for more power to help fix everything that is so screwed up?
Volunteers don't get paid,
why should that imformation need to go public?
Yesterday, very few people, probably around 10 spoke up for the policemen and Women,regarding financial disclosure.
4 of those were from Sunland -Tujunga, Way to go!
Don't go looking for ulterior motives.
It sounds as if YOU, have something to hide.
SILVER & GOLD UPDATE:
For those people following this:
Remember ZD's "silver-guru" said silver would drop to 15.56 before it takes off above the 16.++ high it was at.
So when I noticed it dropped to 15.85, I called him to see if that was the "close enough" sell-off he was waiting for.
Well, the guy must have platinum cajones, cause he is still saying he is hanging out waiting for the further drop to 15.56.
ZD doesn't have enough chronic to chill out for THAT low...and I would have been happy at 15.85 -- EVEN IF IT DOES DROP DOWN TO 15.65.
CLOSE ENOUGH, Y'ALL!!! Let's see if ZD's cajones are of the proper metallic content.
MEANWHILE...there is a lot of selling off and market manipulation going on, right now, trying to stabilize the stock market.
Silver just dropped from 16.10 to 15.78 since i've been typing this..maybe this will be my guru's 15.56 bottom?
If you got gold, hold! But there's still risk on the downside in the short term...but I'm comfortable with these levels...even though they say gold can still drop to 850 (or even 825) before it goes up to over 1000.
do i really need to disclose? why? i'm not a broker? but to be safe:
disclosure: auy, kgc (it's not gold, just gold mining...i didn't talk about gold mining in the story...i don't think i needed to disclose, y'all.)
NC's have done more in their communities then the damn council members who get a huge salary. Its embarrassing when an NC hosts an event and does all the work then the dumb ass council person wants to take credit, put their photo on the flyer and show up and pretend its their event. Bullshit. IT happens alot and NC's are tired of it. Look around the city and a lot of major issues have been taken care of NOT by council member but NC's
E-R in Sunland Tujunga -
Never pay for parking when you go to City Hall. Your chair gets 3 passes in the mail and they are for your board to share. Even if your chair doesn't give you a parking pass, if you call your councilperson, she will do it.
Neighborhood Councils don't pay for parking. You should never pay.
In calling for greater accountability of NCs who dispense public funds on one hand and desire to influence land use decisions and citywide legislation on the other, there is no question in my mind that Greig Smith did the right thing. At the very least, he is attempting to keep the playing field as level as possible.
And even though I have a terrible crush on Janice Hahn, I can't help but think that, through her quotes, she is steadily becoming an "enabler" of Valley Secession.
As to the future, if the NCs don't mind the extra discipline of filling out a 700 form, there is a big chance that some NCs in the Valley will get up to speed very quickly with Council File Motions. (Not likely to happen tomorrow, but...) The most clever NCs could work together to "share" unused motions (like credits) -- creating a stronger political bond in the Valley leading to that day (or the days) of The Valley vs. The City Council (or at the very least, City Council Committees).
And, given all the money, newly realized grassroots policy, and political single-mindedness thus established in said Valley...
What would happen if the Valley didn't get it's way?
Jack Hoff you make a good point in that yes, a level of transparency at the NC level is not necessarily a bad thing considering the nonsense we see going on places like Glassell Park or Playa Vista for example.
However, to expect NC members to have the same level of reporting as unpaid volunteers as opposed to Council members who are making high six figure, executive level salaries is a bit much and could have a chilling effect on participation.
At the same time, Smith is disengenious in proposing this in that it was brought last minute and as a surprise attack. If this issue of transparency was important to him why wasn't he coming out to the Councils and discussing the importance of his views? Regardless of what he may think he was doing it creates a terrible perception on the part of the Councils who are already pissed.
For Pete's sake, I don't understand what all the fuss is about. It takes THREE Neighborhood Councils to introduce a council file. One Councilmember also wants to mico-manage how NCs go about getting together to submit the file. The actual legislating is still completed by the City Council. If the file isn't acted on in 2 years, it dies. However, NC's will be able to support and follow up on their issue.
Between VICA, Central Commerce and some members of the City Council, I have never heard of so many cry babies who are so scared to death of losing or sharing their power, which is an absolute joke! What is going on that we don't know about? Some Councilmembers have apparently forgotten who they work for. We, their "constiuents", put them in office in the first place!
By the way, has anyone given any thought that VICA and Commerce Central should also be filling out the Form 700. They also have financial dealing with our city and influence people in high places. Hmmmm.... Just a thought! I also wonder why THEY would be so suspicious of wrong doing of NCs. How many of them actually live in our City and serve on their NCs? Perhaps NCs and the communties they represent have been the real victims. Regarding the 700 Form for NCs, they are all volunteers and and do not receive a salary, however, I can understand filing out Conflict of Interest forms.
Thanks for the response, Mayor Sam. NCs are not the only appointed/elected volunteer groups out there who don't get a paycheck for their service to community. In CA, there are commissions, boards, mayors and entire city councils that are unpaid but must file the appropriate papers to ensure transparency and full disclosure.
To date, many NC elections (are they even held anymore?) still are barely competitive, while a CM is elected by a majority of registered voters within a district -- not the broad stakeholder definition NCs operate by. That an NC would be pissed at a CM doesn't surprise me a bit -- many times that is the reason why people seek election to an NC ("leverage").
What also doesn't surprise me is that the NCs in favor of Council File Numbers didn't have enough game to anticipate and/or weren't prepared to deal with opposing arguments or amendments such as Smith's. Instead, we hear a collective whine -- not persuasive.
The NC system is still in it's infancy. Recent reports surely attest to that. Last I checked (which was a while ago) more than 500,000 Angelenos were still unrepresented by an NC.
NCs will be great things in the future for broader community input, but the formula for success still isn't quite there.
Pushing council file numbers or going over a councilmember's head has always appeared to me to be a weak play guaranteed to elevate a few without serving the needs of many.
Apologies for the length of my screed.
Jack,
There may be commissions, boards, mayors and entire city councils that do not get paid, but there is a big difference between them and a NC.
Each of the entities you mention are able to make binding decisions. NCs are not. IMO, NCs should not be required to fill out form 700 until they have that power.
Thanks for your addition Joe B.
That is a significant difference.
The Planning Commissions should have the same standards as the one The Consent Degree is trying to set for the LAPD officers which is much more detailed and invasive than the Form 700.
All those commissioners get hired as lobbyists after.
No one is going to hire an NCer to be a lobbyist.
Not even Black Bradley.
jack hoff, you're absolutely right that many N C elections are "barely competitive," like mine. One of the wealthiest in the city, so it's not a matter of being too poor to know any better -- in fact, I'd bet that in districts like Alarcon's and Hahn's, two who were most in favor of these expanded rights for NC's, they can get their NC's to pretty much rubber- stamp their own wishes.
In my neighborhood, no one knows who the Board is, let alone that there even is an NC in most cases.
And yet the NC committees, like Land Use, have split their area into sub-areas and micromanage land use decisions, like variances. This is done by busybody old ladies and guys, on the whole. Many of whom DO indeed, as jack hoff also said, join the NC precisely to get "leverage" against a CM they're mad at for not caving in to them.
Then as NC Board Members, they run around to other HOA's and NC's to drum up recruits for their vendettas against the CM. (HOA's which are privately funded, are allowed to be more openly hostile to the Councilmember on their website and meetings; however, in my NC, the Pres and Recording Secretary of the NC used "public comment" time to distribute and verbally promote literature hostile to the NC and calling for action against him/her. These people KNOW how to use the NC while keeping their anonymity where convenient, while using their "position" to claim authority to represent the neighborhood to outsiders.)
Their boundaries are not regulated, and these people are sharks -- many retired lawyers, studio executives or producers, people who know how to manipulate any system.
Even the Board members presumably representing the local schools, businesses, etc., are homeowners who just put on the second hat. Those positions don't bring in new blood. There is no active recruiting in the small business community, in case those people do show up and dilute their power.
No way can you extrapolate from them to some poor area, or a place like S-T that sounds like a 50's town.
When I see the people from my NC sitting there smugly playing their games,
NC's are a fantastic idea. Problem is they are not working. Budgets are going to feed board members, and pay salaries to translators and childcare and rent. These expenses should not be paid by the NC but by the people that need these services.
It would be a shame for NC's to fail, but that is what is happening. They are in need of support and help from the city. I hope something changes or they will not survive.
8:45, are you a City Council staff or possibly an elected official? Or, are you a developer?
You appear to be very self righteous, a know it all snob and very bitter! What do you contribute to your community if anything other than criticism.
It's wonderful that people finally are participating and have a say in their neighborhoods. The NC system is doing what it is supposed to do. It may not be perfect but neither is this city's government. We will work out the kinks and it will continue to improve contrary to your negative point of view. Why don't you roll up your shirt sleeves and give us a hand or would you rather just wimmper?
11:33: You are naively stupid and willfully blind. Obviously you're a simple-minded soul with no clue. How dare you denigrate someone's detailed analysis of their reality, just because it isn't yours, and you live in a dull world where precisely those kinds of people have manipulated you your whole, simple life? Lord save us from bitter ignoramuses like you -- you're the one who's bitter because reality intrudes on your fantasy.
2:37 said: "Even the Board members presumably representing the local schools, businesses, etc., are homeowners who just put on the second hat. Those positions don't bring in new blood. There is no active recruiting in the small business community, in case those people do show up and dilute their power.
No way can you extrapolate from them to some poor area, or a place like S-T that sounds like a 50's town."
It's obvious that you know nothing about S-T or our NC. It is a very diverse NC with 21 community board members who previously had not been involved officially with city government before the NC came into being. They have representatives from every aspect of the community, including businesses, who desire to volunteer to help improve the quality of life for everyone in the community, not just a select few and they are succeeding, look at them go!! Their accomplishments are exceptional.
In all fairness, because you are not satisfied with the performance of the NC in your community, it is disrespectful to knock other communitites and their NC's.
I see a little problem with the 700 Forms and I'd like someone to explain it to me.
All Council Files aren't on financial issues. Council Files on developments are automatically made into Council Files and no developer has to fill out a Form 700.
So did Smith just allow developers who propose projects to automatically initiate council file numbers without checking their finances but force NC's to expose theirs?
This doesn't seem to be legal to me.
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