Chris Essel Hates Neighborhood Councils; Lies Once Again
In the past Essel said her only beef was with the format of the disclosure document itself. Though at a candidates' forum in Sherman Oaks Monday evening Essel said the disclosures would weed out NC members who are "too cozy" with developers.
However in January of 2008 Essel bragged to members of the downtown development lobby group The Central City Association "As a result of our efforts...neighborhood councils will now be required to submit economic disclosure statements before creating a council file." Obviously this was good news to the developers who see the voluntary panels who often wield great influence over development decisions as a roadblock.
So which is it Essel? Does disclosure stymie development or does it put up roadblocks for pesky NIMBYs? Your voters are waiting for an answer. Maybe next time you can get your story straight.
Labels: cd2 special election, Chris Essel, financial disclosure, neighborhood councils
Posted by Michael Higby @ 9/14/2009 11:14:00 PM
25 Comments:
All the candidates came out against the need to file. Sheftel went as far as to say he would submit the file for the NCs to avoid them having to go through personal disclosures. Benson, Sanchez and McCue are all NC board members and are against the filing forms.
Bold moves by Essel; first calling Kevin James a racist, and now demonizing the Neighborhood Councils. It a make or break strategy to try to make Essel stand apart from the other 2 contenders and is a gamble that could pay off if she's got the money to mail, call and otherwise mislead the uniformed voters who generally decide elections.
The brains behind Essel's campaign, John Shallman, has an uncanny knack for getting it right and while he's previously had better material to work with, he's probably done it again.
With Trutanich, Shallman's strategy was to attack Jack Weiss for corruption, lax ethics and remoteness from his constituents. Fortunately for Shallman, Weiss was the perfect target as the glove fit perfectl, and a perfect candidate in Trutanich, who had a long and accomplished career as a crime fighter and environmental lawyer.
But in challenging the integrity of an increasingly popular talk show radio host, and the motives of dedicated unpaid volunteers who make up the Neighborhood Councils, Shallman's strategy is hard to fathom.
None of the Big Three have anything like the credentials of Trutanich; they all have baggage, and neither Kevin James, nor the Neighborhood Councils are in any way comparable to Jack Weiss.
Shallman's taken an interesting approach to raising Essel's stock with these antics, an the LA TImes endorsement will improve her chances of securing a place in the run off.
Now in the run off, Shallman can have some fun trashing either Krackorian or Galatzan, as they really do have skeletons in their cupboards, and they will be eaten alive. Essel, much as I hate to say it, is looking viable in CD2. But only because money talks.
I believe in self afirmation of non-Conflict of Interest by NC members before voting on any NC issue, with stiff penalties for lying. I believe that any other type of disclosure will only serve to discourage most volunteers from participating in the NC system.
Councilmembers must support Neighborhood Councils.
What an idiot, you go in front of forum full of NC people and say something that stupid.
Dead women walking.
Look who is calling the kettle black - Chris Essel, "Miss Conflict of Interest" herself. Talk about being cozy, she is the total Developer's candidate. She would gladly sacrifice small Mom and Pop small businesses using the power of government to displace them in favor of a private mega-project for a wealthy developer friend.
She is also the ultimate double talker.
8 days left - Angelenos, Council District 2, need to get out and VOTE on Tuesday, September 22.
If you don't vote, you don't count, period!
Vote for a TRUE REFORMER "David (Zuma Dogg) Saltsburg"
Essel looked pretty bad tonight, the weakest of the three.
I think she see's the handwriting on the wall. Back to the Hollywood Hills on September 23rd.
11:52 = totally delusional; take everything she says and believe the opposite and you'll get it all right. No one believes your ludicrous spin anymore, except the hordes and relatives Mooch promised payback favors to, give it up. You are right that Shallman's got a more difficult job with Essel: she doesn't lie as well as him, he'd done it for a living for years.
What's next? Will Essel grab the mic from Taylor Swift?
Tamar FTW!
11:52
You assume that Shallman has spent five minutes thinking about this race.
Your assumption is wrong.
What an empty suit.
Essel makes Janice Hahn look like Margaret Thatcher.
114 that's the comment of the night!
Remember Dick Riordan says "You can't go wrong with Chris! She is our girl. We own her."
1:11
Your wrong about Shallman, he has spent much time thinking about this race.
Except it is been about how to make the most money from her campaign.
Michael Higby will have to file a contribution "in kind" report with the ethics commission if he gushes any more abut Paul and attacks Tamar and Chris again.
Is the prospect of an all distaff side runoff too horrible to contemplate, Michael?
What is it about a well filled out skirt that you cannot stand?
Girls can think too, Michael, and they are not taxers and spenders like your little pet poodles Paul and David.
11:52 is right except for the demonizing of the NC's.
I don't think that's what she's doing. The fact is I'd much rather have a candidate that isn't afraid to take unpopular positions and stand on principle--rather than those who will say whatever is popular at the time to get elected.
In this case I agree with her.
How can you say you are for ethics and transparency and then oppose disclosure? I don't care who you are, whether you are the Mayor, Kelly Candaele, or Jill Barad, if you make decisions that spend taxpayer money ($1 or $1 million) you need to file disclosure forms. Period.
The NC's want more money and authority? How can they expect to get that without disclosing whether the money and the authority will be used appropriately and without personal conflict?
Big deal by the way. Every candidate running for CD2 had to do it and they aren't yet in a position to spend money. To be fair, even candidates for NC should disclose before voting occurs.
It's true, many good people don't run for political office because they don't want to disclose personal information or be the subject of a news story or investigation. But, that's democracy. That's open government. You either want transparency or you don't. You can't be for it with some people and against it with others. Doesn't work that way.
Essel got it right.
ZUMA DOGG DID NOT PREDICT THIS.
BUT YOU CAN BE SURE HE'LL TRY TO SAY SO TODAY:
"DWP outmaneuvered on Kern County land purchase
A business venture led by a friend and advisor to L.A.'s mayor beat the DWP to Onyx Ranch, a 68,000-acre parcel east of Bakersfield that the utility wanted for a wind farm."
IT LOOKS AS THOUGH EVEN HALL MONITOR JOE B. FAILED TO POST THIS STORY, SO I'LL DO IT.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wind15-2009sep15,0,839175.story
I am not so sure some limited form might not be a good thing for NC members, like are they a stooge for a certain councilmember. However Ms. Essel should then be required to determine where she lives, who she if elected will be reporting to (da mayor?) and will she really be representing the district or her own consistancy (once again da mayor?).
6:29 is right on this one. As soon as an NC is caught doing something, anything inappropriate, their opposition to disclosure will come back and haunt them.
Do we really want to give the Council an "ethics" reason to unwind the NC system? We should be above the fray and beyond reproach.
The Big Three, - Three bad cards to fold in a poker Hand. Two and a half carpetbagers and two of them are quitters.
Tamar and Krekorian - What a pair to draw to.
Here's a snippet from her Official Bio posted on LAUSD.
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/board/secretary/BoardMembers/galatzan/galatzanBio8-07.pdf
"..She decided to run for the School Board based on her conviction that the education system is failing many of our children. As evidence, she points to a high drop-out rate; mediocre test scores; a bureaucracy pre-occupied with its own narrow
interests and failure to guarantee the safety of every student in the San Fernando Valley.
A proven problem-solver and avowed foe of bureaucratic inertia,Tamar Galatzan is an ideal school board member. She combines passion, boundless energy, and eternal optimism in her quest to provide all LAUSD students with a world-class education..."
What more can I say? What changed Tamar? No inertia here .She didn't stick around long enough to warm the seat.
We're seeing the incubation of a career politician here.
How will the kids deal with your absence Tamar? Two million to get her elected and she splits before the term ended. Hypocrisy. How can we trust this person? Tsk Tsk.
6:53am,
This is from the LA Times article you refer to:
Swiller and the mayor have long-standing ties. Both were employed by supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle at the start of the decade, after Villaraigosa lost his first run for mayor.
Two city pension boards have agreed to invest up to $115 million in CIM funds on behalf of city retirees.
A few weeks before Swiller met with the Rudnicks in Century City, CIM Group had persuaded the California Public Employees Retirement System to invest up to $200 million in a new infrastructure fund managed by the firm.
Guess I never spoke of Ron Burkle, and Ari and when you hear, "CalPERS pension money invested by mayor's pals in their own projects," I think I've said a thing or two about that.
So it's nice to see this L.A. Times article exposing some of the shenanigans.
So I didn't predict this specific scenario (it's not exactly day to day city council business), but I think I covered the issue of pension money being used to fund Villar's crony projects.
Thanks for posting this follow up!
6:29 is indeed correct - disclosure is necessary if NCs want real power. That's open government. Good for Essel.
Zuma,
That's just the tip of the icberg that evryone knew was out there with Antonio. He got into the mayor's seat by running a backstabbing, no holds barred campaign on unfounded allegations against Jame Hahn. The typical Parke Skelton "What me get dirty?" campaign.
To his credit, Hahn held off on some campaign issues that were a lot more damaging than that crack pipe ad. Hahn could have muddied up Antonio - with real sound facts- but he knew it would divide the city and his heart was never really into politics after his divorce. From a campaign perspective, Antonio won on a default because Hahn never unleashed Kim.
But we all knew Antonio was dirty, he has played in dirt throughout his political career - as he needed to be be so successful. Vignali, Mueruelo, Alatorre( Vernon is in this story, interesting), the list goes on and on. To his credit, Parke has done miracles shielding Antonio.
But the truth always comes out and Parke knew this so his job was to position Antonio to survive the inevitable hits when they came. But the plan was to have Antonio as Governor next year, as well positioned as you can get. Then Antonio dropped out and proved he wsa vulnerable - there's a whole lot more than Swiller that is just aching to drip out of the woodwork.
But credit to Zuma, Antonio's downfall will eventually be the pension funds.
You all miss the point regarding the financial disclosure forms. That was City Council's way of preventing neighborhood councils from being able to create a Council file by requiring they submit personal financial information just as our PAID elected officials must. The difference, of course, is that the Neighborhood Councils have no real authority but are advisory to City Council. This was another way of stifling the NCs.
Remember, that was Greig Smith and Mitch Englander who led the fight against NC's initiating CFI numbers.
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