Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday
Steve Hymon talks with urban planner David Grannis who has good, practical solutions to Westside traffic that don't require the Mayor's transit tax scam, Measure R. Changing meter cycles on freeway offramps on the 10 and setting up reversable street lanes are among the ideas.
It's been ten years since the City's experiment with a system of advisory Neighborhood Councils has been developed and their presence is being felt. The Daily News' Rick Orlov reports that the latest move for the Councils may be for each of the panels to pony up some of their annual $50,000 a year funding to hire a lobbyist to influence the City Council.
Labels: hollywood santa parade, measure r, neighborhood councils, steve hymon, traffic, transit tax
Posted by Michael Higby @ 10/21/2008 04:00:00 AM
9 Comments:
Is Mayor Tony meddling in Pelosi's race against Cindy Sheehan? Read this from Sheehan's blog:
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1590/t/2705/blog/comments.jsp?key=346&blog_entry_KEY=21129&t=
That sucks, I was in the process of writing a sarcastic and facetious article advising NC's to hire a lobbyist to get the City Counsel to listen to them. Orlov beat me to it :)
Yea Jim, it is sad that the Neighborhood Councils have become the lapdogs of the City Council. Some of these people are so awestruck that an elected official takes acknowledges their existence that they don't do their jobs.
I know you say it sarcastically, but maybe they should seriously consider it?
I'll puke if I read one more local newspaper story about neighborhood councils that starts off by saying some stupid, trite thing thing like "sleeping giant may be waking up," or "finally coming into their own," or "finally realizing their own power" -- and most of these vapid commentaries have come out of the DN.
(Plus, Orlov makes it sound like NCs have been around for 10 years -- which shows how little he understands the history, or even bothered to check. Yeah, the charter was approved 8-9 years ago, but the first couple NCs were only formed about 6 years ago, most are only 4-5 years old, and none had any city money flowing through them until 2003.)
Next the DN will be telling us that NCs have "reached a crossroads" in their development, or they're "at a critical turning point." This is what passes for "reporting" in the City of Angles.
(Oh, and Alger, it's spelled City COUNCIL).
Can you imagine a lobbyist with 90 bosses, pulling him/her in 25 different directions on each issue?
No umbrella group of NCs has ever even been able to get half of the NC boards to agree on anything, or even send delegates with any mandate to make decisions. The renamed "Coalition" is a joke, with barely a dozen NCs ever taking any real part.
The sppointed NC Review Commission, which had board members from a number of councils, was so spread out on every issue that half their 70+ treatises were watered down "keep this the way it is" statements, or involved such limited changes that they weren't worth the two years it took to come up with them.
NCs won't have their $50,000 after this year to spend, even to "hire" a lobbyist -- or at least not as much of it. The main point of Mayor V. painting such a dismal financial picture at his recent budget day was to start the process towards cutting NC per annums.
Next fiscal year, you're looking at $25,000 per NC, max. Guaranteed,
Plus you can bet the balance that the City Attorney and/or the Controller would rule that NCs have tno right to hire someone to lobby City Council. Just as NCs can't hire a lawyer to sue the city (because they're PART of the city), there's no way the powers that belittle would allow the hiring of a paid lobbyist.
NCs have been allowed to hire consultants for specific matters such as traffic. So don't call it a lobbyist. Hire someone who happens to be a lobbyist to help them accomplish a specific task such as getting a ratepayer advocate created, or getting the OK for them to create City Council files.
Under the Brown Act, NCs can't meet with a majority of the City Council or the DWP commission.
12:16 so you mock Alger's mis-spelling and then produce this gem:
"sppointed NC Review Commission"
Oh the irony.
The NCs have never helped me. Therefore, they're useless. I'm only attracted to true power.
...said the dim bulb to the light socket...
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