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Thursday, September 25, 2008

David Hernandez Woke Up and Saw His Shadow; Four More Years of Alarcon and LeBong

Despite a violation of California's constitution that bans a ballot proposition covering more than one subject, an Appeals Court ruled against a coalition of citizens led by activist David Hernandez in affirming Measure R, the shady term limits law.

The court ruled:

"Appellants point to nowhere in the California Constitution, or elsewhere in state law, expressly imposing a single subject restriction on ballot measures sponsored by the governing body of a charter city such as Los Angeles. The Constitution must be interpreted by the language in which it is written, since "'courts are no more at liberty to add provisions to what is therein declared in definite language than they are to disregard any of its express provisions.'" (Delaney v. Superior Court (1990)50 Cal.3d 785, 799.) We conclude the single subject rule does not apply to a city council sponsored ballot measure such as Measure R."

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14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Angelenos need to start following the money trail. City Council needs to demonstrate leadership and make a motion mandating full disclosure of all monetary contributions made by lobbyists in Council Files. This will be a best practice approach while supporting “transparency”.

September 25, 2008 9:08 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Same decision that the court made a long time ago.

September 25, 2008 9:10 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Zorro and The Cheerleader.

I can't wait.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

September 25, 2008 11:57 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

The court’s decision on the appeal still does not make the outright deceitful action of the Los Angeles City Council, to a member, any bit moral, even though it may be “legal.”

They ARE complete and total liars by the very fact of creating the proposition and campaigning for its passage in the way that they did. They took to heart that phrase attributable to P.T. Barnum: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

An up-front and honest approach would have been to divide the measure into two separate propositions to be voted upon since the proposition was correctly noted to be two items under the single proposition. Only in that way would each measure be fairly offered for evaluation by the voters. Passage was the goal of the council. Fairness and clarity had no purpose in their design of the proposition.

The next time any council member pontificates on the fairness of anything or person, THIS proposition of theirs works as the example of their hypocrisy. "Role Models" and "Leadership" should be words that each council member- especially on those Friday awards days- should not ever utter in connection with their performance, unless it is with reference to dishonesty and self-gain as it relates to their constituents and everything else they do.

Do not forget the OTHER gem of a lie, Proposition S, the "10% reduction” in phone tax that offered a net change of imposing a “VOTER-approved tax of 9% in place of an existing and doomed 10% legislator created tax. This preempted the inevitability of a “Zero percent” outcome, which would have happened if no one voted for this measure because the tax would be ended by a pending court decision. On top of all this, the new tax EXPANDED the range of tax authority to pave the way for even more taxes to be levied in the future.

So that's the L.A. City Council's level of operation for elections. You can only imagine the level of dishonesty behind the things that aren't as visible.

In CD-14 Eagle Rock
- and shame on you especially, Jose, for your characteristically poor choices for actions (including imposition of “no smoking” laws at Farmer's Markets, calling for mandatory calorie count notices in food franchises) and your passivity on real issues (Jamiel's Law and densification in building, for starters).

September 26, 2008 3:03 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Thank you David for the courage to go after these morons who lied, were sneaky, deceitful and place a ballot measure that was so confusing to voters it passed. We need to make these bafoons on council accountable. They have ruined our city with their wild & wasteful spending. Can someone name ONE thing they have done to better our city? LA is begining to look like LAS VEGAS with all those damn billboards.

September 26, 2008 6:22 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Is isn't about the contributions given by lobbyists. That's the point that the Neighborhood Council people made when they fought the ballot measure.

It's about all the money that they get other people to contribute (mainly clients, attorneys in law firms, contractors, people who work for developers, etc.)

September 26, 2008 7:56 AM  

Blogger Michael Higby said:

So you guys bitch about too much Obama and too much Palin and only three comments on the most significant LA news in the last day?

September 26, 2008 8:34 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

quit crying and learn to run a campaign! if you spent half as much time looking at voter rolls and walking precincts as you did crying about how they lie, cheat and steal you too could be in a position of power and lie, cheat, and steal.

"El que no vota, no se queja"

September 26, 2008 10:12 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Overturning it would have been significant news. This is not significant. Nothing changes as a result. It's worth posting, that is not my point. But don't be discouraged over lack of comments on the topic. It's kind of a big news day.

September 26, 2008 10:41 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

THE COURTS ARE WORKING WITH THE GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATURE AGAINST THE PEOPLE WHY ELSE WOULD A LAW HAVE TO BE SLIPPED THROUGH OR BURIED IN THE TEXT OF ANOTHER BILL. THIS SHOULD BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL NATIONWIDE THIS IS A FORM OF FRAUD AND PURGURGERY WHICH DEPENDS ON THE IGNORANCE OF THE PEOPLE TO PASS IT. CRIME IS STILL CRIME AND THIS GROUP CONTINUES TO BRAKE THE LAW.

September 26, 2008 1:37 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Michael, you say that as if we had all guessed there were a different ending. Who seriously thought that measure would get overturned in court? Who? Right or wrong is irrelevant. We knew what would happen.

September 26, 2008 3:54 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Hey everyone,I'm sorry the Prop R appeal didn't go through, but, don't let the present councilmembers "War Chests" scare you from finding other qualified candidates for Council and working you tush off to help get them elected. Just because the Judge stupidly saids Prop R can't be repealed, we can still take the councilmembers we don't want out ourselves at with the ballot box!

Let's get busy!!!!

September 26, 2008 6:55 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

IF YOU CAME UP WITH A LAW OR ORGANIZATION TO RECALL COUNCILMEMBERS OR GIVE POWER TO THE PEOPLE. THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES WOULD HAVE DIFFICULITY UNDERSTANDING WHAT YOU WERE TRYING TO DO FOR YOUSELF AND THEM. THEY ARE CONDITIONED THAT THEY CANNOT DO ANYTHING!!! THIS ATTITUDE MUST CHANGE!!! THIS IS ONE PROBLEM THE OTHER IS FINDING A FORUM TO ORGANIZED AND ALLOW THE CITIZENS TO MEET AND POOL THERE THOUGHTS ON WHAT COULD BE DONE THE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS ARE NOT DESIGNED FOR THIS!!

September 27, 2008 2:06 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

We have an organization called
SAVING LA PROJECT (SLAP) who's goal to make L.A. transparent and work for the people. Next meeting is Saturday, Oct 4 at 1 pm after t LANCC's meeting at Charo on Valley Blvd In E. LA. Come get involved.

Doing something is better than just talking and doing nothing! We need to make sure that what happened with Prop R is never repeated. We can do that by outreaching to and educating the to the masses. Remember the "broken window syndrome" we need to concentrate and fix what's broken in L.A. first. It's being sold out to the higest bidder.

September 28, 2008 9:43 AM  

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