Sunland-Tujunga Slap in the Face Part II
We mentioned yesterday about the scene at the Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council Land Use Committee Monday night. Here's some more information.
The representative from Wendy Greuel's office was none other than Planning Director Dale Thrush. According to attendees at the meeting, Thrush told the committee that Greuel's office did indeed know that City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo was negotiating a shady, backroom deal with Home Depot.
Thrush's logic is that the city and the City Attorney's are the plaintiffs in the law suit with Home Depot. Therefore the City is under no obligation to consult with Neighborhood Councils or anyone else representing the citizenry. Wow, that really sucks!
The representative from Wendy Greuel's office was none other than Planning Director Dale Thrush. According to attendees at the meeting, Thrush told the committee that Greuel's office did indeed know that City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo was negotiating a shady, backroom deal with Home Depot.
Thrush's logic is that the city and the City Attorney's are the plaintiffs in the law suit with Home Depot. Therefore the City is under no obligation to consult with Neighborhood Councils or anyone else representing the citizenry. Wow, that really sucks!
Labels: dale thrush, home depot, rocky delgadillo, sunland-tujunga, wendy greuel
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 3/12/2008 12:57:00 AM
21 Comments:
Look, this sucks. But what you're amitinging is, it's cirizens (ST) vs Hd and you're expecting everyone else to eat the costs, of your not wanting a certain type of store, when others have far more serious problems. You were told that all along, but insisted on making Wendy out some sort of People's Hero -- YOUR CALL.
For what it's worth, it's not just YOU: CityWatch had a bunch of stuff, no, on how YOUR NC was redefining NC's citywide. Right. And on Wendy Greuel as "the people's hero." At least some others had the guts to say what they mean all along.
Here is another slap in the face.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_8540841
Homicide rate climbs in L.A.
Even as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief William Bratton boasted Tuesday that they are halfway to their goal of hiring 1,000 new cops by 2010, rising homicides continue to plague the city.
With police puzzled by the brazen attacks - including the shooting death of a 17-year-old football star Jamiel Shaw Jr. in Arlington Heights and the shooting of a 6-year-old boy in Harbor Gateway - a police commissioner called for an examination into causes of the surge in violence.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I wonder if Los Angeles being a sanctuary city has anything to do with higher murder rates and an ever increasing gang problem.
1:04 It's late, you must need some sleep because you aren't making any sense!
1:34 Tell the city hands off our Trash Tax and Prop S money. It's for the Police only. Let's see who else lies!!
When will the neighborhood councils realizes that the whole NC concept is just a way to keep the constituency quiet.
It's not a bonafide way to participate in the running of the city.
That's what money is for.
That's what power is for.
That's what lawyers are for.
Even though AV is not a lawyer.
Anyway, stop whining about Home Depot, et al. It'll bring jobs and taxes to the area, instead of another big, empty lot.
And stop thinking that the NCs can really affect change.
MS, sure seems like the old backroom deal has gone down, and soon there will be a joint statement by the HD people in conjunction with the city attorneys office and some other grand poobah telling everyone to be patient because the peoples best interest's are being considered 100% and that local small to medium sub contractors will get first shot and a 5% push on any competitive bids,thereby assuring the local community that not only will a new HD be a benefit to local small business but that once a month "Smoochy the Clown" will hold free seminars for all local kids.
Then Delgadillo in tears, will hold a press conference and cop a plea that although he understands the concerns of the local community vis a vis HD, he was unable to stop the project because it was all signed sealed and delivered by his predecessor or someone else, and that in order to stave off a law suit that would benefit no one, he could only request that some changes be made that would actually be a wonderful thing for the ST community.
This will be coming down on the people of ST very soon, expect it.
MS, you better call out the troops at this point because the only thing guys like Delgadillo fear is bad publicity and the spotlight.
Public outrage, negative media coverage, and the possibility Delgadillo losing votes next election is your leverage.
Greuel's rep was just giving people the cold, hard truth -- the City Atty can do pretty much whatever behind the scenes in legal matters and involved officials have to stay quiet about it.
'ucks rocks, but that's the truth.
.......the same for Elephant Hill in El Sereno.
Uh, a correction; it is the City and the City Council who are represented by the City Attorney. 8:34am is probably right. The elected officials probably have to stay out of anything, especially if named as a plantiff in a suit. Sunland-Tujunga, pay attention to more important stuff. Prepare to advance your front lines - the enemy is moving into the city.
If the Home Depot suit was against the City, then the City Council makes the decision. The City Attorney, as their legal counsel, only advises them.
Although the City Council is under no legal obligation to involve or even inform the public, the question is whether or not they should have at least told the people that talks were taking place and allowed the public to speak up on the concept of a deal.
I don't know if it happened here, but I've seen it happened before. The Councilmember of the area publicly supports the community. The City Council gives her a win with their vote. But everyone knows that a lawsuit will be filed so the matter, which should be a public policy decision, is not resolved secretly without the public even knowing what's going on. The Councilmember then tries to say that she tried her best. It's what gives politics a bad name.
If the City Attorney met with the CM and/or her staff, then they should have at least provided a confidential heads up to the NC executive committee. At the very least get their input ahead of time.
This will not do Wendy any favors. As much as this old, dead Republican Mayor hates the NIMBY/CAVE/BANANA movement I know that there is a growing revolution of folks who are PISSED out there and the way the City and the developers have handled things has not done them any favors at all.
Expect Zev to run and probably win as well as some anti-development CM candidates. They may even partner with the unions if the Clowncil and Mayor try to take their raises away.
In theory, you're right -- providing a confidential 'heads up' to NC heads is courtesy.
But Mr Mayor, given the large amounts of unfortunate unprofessionalism by some NCs, if I were a councilmember, I'd think twice about this.
I'm not saying anything about Sunnland-Tujunga NC. Just that in the NC microverse, there is some major ugly behavior.
Petrified, your right, there are some ungly situations out there. Don't you think, it could be because of learned behavior hoisted on us by our elected and appointed officials?
Don't your realize that public officials are supposed to serve us. NC's are made up of WE the people, We the citizen of Los Angeles, that means ALL OF US. They are not there just for their own benefit.
If the type of outrageous behavior that Home Depot toward the citizens of Sunland-Tujunga is rewarded by our city, hang on, because you can expect the same ride in your community. Whose is going to be there to defend your Community's Specific Plans and your rights?
You are very narrowly focused. Are you really eager to punish all NC's because of the actions of a few misguided people? They can be voted out much easier than city officials when necessary. I can understand their frustration with a city that listens but doesn't hear them! Doesn't anyone realize the amount of power the City Attorney and the City Council have. Especially when their in cahoots together! Their statements regarding Home Depot are almost identical. Doesn't that make you wonder?
It is with careful and focused intent that the reality of this Home Depot being planted in ST is being engineered into a pattern of downward movement into the darker and heavier energies that are at the lower end of the scale in which the human body can exist. Ha!
So instead of decisions about our community's being made in public, developers file a lawsuit, regardless of how weak it may be, and that allows the City Council to do in public what they don't have the guts to do in public -- supporter the developer and campaign contributors. what's wrong with this picture?
Well Petrafried you make some good points.
However I think it has to be case by case but generally there has to be some level of collaboration and disclosure.
Some have referred to some in the Sunland-Tujunga area as wackos. And yes, I am guilty of it myself. Joe Barrett has the list.
HOWEVER...I have never and no one else could ever accuse Abby Diamond and Joe Barrett of being anything less than professional, responsible, accountable and reasonable in this matter. I don't see why Wendy Greuel could not have given them a courtesy heads up. I really think that would have saved a lot of aggravation no matter what ultimately happens. However the CM and the City Attorney have created the perception of more of the same, more backroom dealing, more shadiness, etc.
Its going to backfire on the City and the developers. The developers are going to find themselves in some deep shit. And as a pro-development capitalist I find that unfortunate. We could have made it work for everyone. But we got stupid.
10:20: You have an insulate little town, which may in fact have an NC that reflects the community. At my NC, which represents some 17,000 homes (it's pretty much all single family houses, and affluent), the same 20 Board members keep getting elected, no one from the community ever shows up, an 99.99% wouldn't know what the NC does or who's on the Board.
A: mostly retired busybodies with power and control issues. There are a few people who seem to have been motivated by true community interests at heart, like the overdevelopment we're all upset about. But others on this NC, and on a couple I know about, including the HOA's for the area (the same people often in both groups) think they should control the whole area themselves, and are bossy, arrogant and rude. A closed clique of like minds.
We know about one set of groups that shook down developers for many millions of dollars, and MS opined that kind of thing prompted SB1818.
Others can be wacko, and not even have a pretense of professionalism, from Glassell Park/ Lincoln Heights to SLA to ... Then there are some like in Venice, where the usual cast of characters show up and couldn't run a hot dog stand on their own.
Point being: If they let your NC make decisions that involve the whole city in an expensive lawsuit, and if NC's think the CM should do whatever they tell her/him, it would be a bad precedent. NC's are advisory.
Too bad you're in this fix. I'm more concerned about the schools, healthcare clinics and hospitals collapsing from too many illegals and their huge birth rates, forcing my taxes to rise, my getting stuck in gridlock when I leave my house.
Oh I disagree with the person who says that NC's cannot change the way the city runs. You will eat those words someday.
3:14: You're obviously one of those mean-spirited, spiteful people who join other mean old people to take over the NC's being referred to.
You're showing exactly why creatures like you should be doing anything else BUT trying to run the city.
Hope you're not affiliated with any ST people, or I'll start rooting for HD.
Nope. I'm not a mean spiteful NC board member who is trying to take over anything. I've been around them since the beginning and I know the power they could possess though.
Our NC is never in the news for anything silly or controversial. We are solid, look at both sides of all issues, listen to our stakeholders and have not been involved in a takeover or had anyone try to take us over.
I am not affiliated with Sunland-Tujunga NC in any way, but I have supported them in some of their efforts because they have good outreach and I read about them. But that is the extent of that.
Guess again.
Why can't someone support the NC system without being part of one of the mean, dysfunctional ones?
Most of us are quite normal. I guess that's why you don't hear about us.
Sunland/Tujunga or Montrose, I wonder just what is the long range vision of some elites for the Valley is?
Certainly there is some manner of homogeneous culture that is coming into being; look alike communities maybe decades in the works.
I am not sure of Wendy's credibility as a protector of Sunland/Tujunga, but I am still glad she saved the hilltops of Shadow Hills and Sun Valley from development. That may be as best she can being that what is happening is much bigger than what a local politician can handle.
If Sunland has a Sheriff or ours is Leroy Baca, then it's high time he use his authority as an elected official to better serve those that put him into office because, according to SC rulings and our founding laws, in the county only the Governor can match him.
Sheriff Richard Mack of AZ won against Clinton and other top heavy intrusions. Others sheriffs in the South, Middle, and South West are picking up the ball when its dropped by city councils, chiefs o police whether be rank and file of head man. If Sunland is really this upset, remind Baca of what he has authority to do and should.
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