Green Dot Staffer Does Not Qualify for LAUSD Ballot
Zuma Dogg is reporting that Ben Austin, who has been an assistant city attorney, an aide to former Mayor Riordan and most recently part of the Green Dot charter school chain has not turned in the required number of signatures to run for the Los Angeles Board of Education seat being vacated by the retiring Marlene Canter.
Ben, considered the favorite candidate of Mayor Villaraigosa, already put up a website and was the subject of a Steve Lopez puff piece in the Former Fishwrap of Record.
At present, according to the City Clerk's office, candidates teacher Steve Zimmer and teacher/union activist Mike Stryer have qualified for the board while another presumed front runner, parent advocate Bill Ring, has not yet had his petition finally certified.
Ben, considered the favorite candidate of Mayor Villaraigosa, already put up a website and was the subject of a Steve Lopez puff piece in the Former Fishwrap of Record.
At present, according to the City Clerk's office, candidates teacher Steve Zimmer and teacher/union activist Mike Stryer have qualified for the board while another presumed front runner, parent advocate Bill Ring, has not yet had his petition finally certified.
Labels: ben austin, bill ring, green dot schools, lausd, mike stryer, steve zimmer
Posted by Michael Higby @ 12/09/2008 08:35:00 AM
18 Comments:
Wasn't Robert Urteaga responsible for this?
That has to be embarrassing for Trujillo.
9:47
Yup, this is Urteaga's screw up.
Hmmm....looks like a slick move by UTLA. Urteaga works for longtime UTLA consultant Sue Burnside, who was in charge of signature gathering according to Ben Austin as reported in Capitol Weekly.
So instead of collecting valid signatures for her new client, Austin, she sabotages him to help UTLA, who is supporting another candidate.
And now Burnside is ducking calls from Austin, according to Capitol Weekly.
!Austin would have fit in great at LAUSD- rather than pound the pavement and gather signatures, he hires a firm to do the work, doesn't monitor the progress, then lashes out with righteous indignation when it gets screwed up!
This is all very intresting!! Ben is the last candidate to take out the petition sheets, 10 days after teh fact he was to take out sheets http://cityclerk.lacity.org/election/Candidates/Nomination%20Log.pdf
I heard today that the campagin did not check their signatures but rather just turned them in. I wonder what the real story is? Why did he wait so long to take out papers?
I looked up the word "entitlement" and Ben Austen's face appeared right next to it. And then I looked up the word loser and found the same thing. For my children's sake, I am actually glad that Austen is out of the race. May the honest candidate win!
9:47am Anonymous -
Running a campaign is like running a business. As the candidate you better be prepared to ensure that you can qualify yourself onto that ballot. It's fine if you decide to delegate the work but the responsibility ultimately lies the candidate to ensure that he actually qualified. In my opinion, Ben Austen made two mistakes. 1) He was arrogant enough to believe that he was too good to actually do the work himself. 2) He believed that Michael Trujillo and by default the Mayor were going to elect him.
BTW, if Austen had been smart enough he should have ask the Mayor for Ace Smith or Park Skelton...oh, no wait they also expect you to do the work to get yourself qualified.
Arrogant Austen.
Price Is Right Sounder:
Whomp, whomp, whomp, whomp...(deflated)...WHOOOOMP.
But seriously, Eli, Antonio, Steve Barr and all those people with front-end loaded management contracts ready to be handed over must be furious. Obviously, putting Ben Austin on the LAUSD board, with three other Villar puppets would basically have turned LAUSD into a Charter factory operated by these numb skulls.
Good analysis on this thread.
Sue Burnside is a cheap political hack. She's the only signature gathering firm in town and that is the only reason candidates hire her. Not returning phone calls is a clear admission of guilt. She should man up and take responsibility for her actions. Ben should sue her! Sue sue!!! And then he should start his own signature gathering firm and put her out of business. It's a shame such a useless individual took out a great candidate - Ben would've changed the way LAUSD operates in the very best way possible.
Here's a irony to consider: The complaining missed-the-boat-and-the-ballot Ben Austin wants to hold his signature-gatherer accountable for losing an opportunity to reach a position of nearly complete immunity from accountablility.
Now, suppose that Ben Austin had already become a Board member and then (almost a certainty to happen) effed up a deal to cost we taxpayers big-time (the standard for their foul-ups), he would be unaccountable for his part.
But none of the politicians see what they or their colleagues do; and if they did, they become supportive and hospitable as with Mike Hernandez' involvement ("Exhibit 1") with on-the-job usage of illegal drugs.
The more bold opponents of offenders at most will simply take a huge step (for them) and stay silent- a VERY big step for most of them (city council meetings presented as "Exhibit 2" for showing elected AND appointed windbags in plentiful supply).
The earlier posts were on target- he would have fit in well with the incumbents on the Board. We can all be thankful for small favors... and major petition f-ups.
A CD-14 opinion.
Sue Burnside screwed Austin! she should be held accountable! Let Austin Run! He's the best candidate for LAUSD!!
When someone commits to running for school board, it is because that person cares about improving our schools, not for fame and fortune or because one feels entitled to a low paying, mind numbing, impossible second job that keeps that person away from their young family.
The only one who is arrogant here is the person who thoughtlessly accuses Ben of not caring enough to gather the signatures. The truth is, in the reality of modern politics, one hires a firm to gather the signatures so the candidate has time to raise the huge amount of money it costs to run these races.
10:04am ... You're an idiot ... You might hire someone to do the job, but then you also pay for the voter database to check the signatures personally every night to be sure your getting to your goal. You also go collect a few yourself. Austin is an idiot and deserves to sit on the sidelines.
I thought this was a poltical blog... all of these firms do petitions in LA, pull out your Calpeek directory and read
Progessive campaigns
EDH Campaign
Lee Albright
Capitola Petition
Arno Petitions
National petition Management
All star Petition Consultants
Austin abandons his bid for L.A. school board
Political consultant denies his claim that she had collected signatures for him and had erred in doing so.
By David Zahniser
December 13, 2008
Parent advocate Ben Austin abandoned his effort Friday to get onto the ballot in the Los Angeles school board election March 3, even as a political consultant said she had been wrongly blamed for his failure to gather enough signatures.
Austin had been trying to determine if he could challenge the city's finding that he still needs 107 voter signatures to qualify for the ballot. Earlier this week, he said political consultant Sue Burnside had collected the signatures in the wrong school board district.
While Austin sent e-mails to supporters about the end of his campaign, Burnside issued her own e-mail telling clients she had not been hired by Austin. The veteran consultant said an independent contractor had "misrepresented himself" to Austin as one of her firm's workers.
"The fact is Ben Austin is not my client. Burnside & Associates is not and has never been under contract to him or his campaign. I have never met Mr. Austin," she wrote. "I did not circulate or supervise Ben Austin's petition drive; I was on my honeymoon in South America."
Austin brushed off the e-mail, saying later that Burnside had apologized to him for the campaign problems.
In an e-mail, he said he had been billed by Burnside's firm, which may have had "renegade staff within her office taking on side projects without her knowledge."
Friday's dueling e-mails left two teachers as the only candidates running for the seat being vacated by school board member Marlene Canter, who represents a district stretching from Westchester north to Encino and east to Hollywood.
Pacific Palisades resident Mike Stryer, who teaches at Fairfax High School, will face off against Hollywood resident Steve Zimmer, who teaches at Marshall High School.
Austin, 39, works in the office of City Atty. Rocky Delgadlilo and has a part-time job as executive director of the Los Angeles Parents Union, the organizing arm of Green Dot Charter Schools. The Coldwater Canyon resident had billed himself as a reform candidate, boasting that he had the support of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Green Dot founder Steve Barr, former Mayor Richard Riordan and billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad.
In an e-mail, Austin said he was sorry about the need to end his campaign. "It has been an honor to run for LAUSD school board," he wrote.
Zahniser is a Times staff writer.
Ben Austin knows about boutching petitions. It turns out that he persoanlly tanked the charter petition for LOCKE High School.
At the end of the day, the most fundamental job of the general campaign consultant is to ensure that their client qualifies to appear on the ballot. The candidate and his/her consultant hire a sub contractor to do the work, but always, ALWAYS verifies signatures and turns them in early enough to allow time for any deficiencies. The cardinal rule of politics was broken here my friends and the candidate along with the Mayor's team of consultants who were running Austen's campaign--Ace Smith and Mike Trujillo--are the ones responsible. Sue Burnside is the fallguy. The general contractor should get the blame.
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