Will the "Huizar Way" neuter the Historic Downtown Business Improvement District (BID)?

Adherence to the "Huizar Way" is paramount if one wants to taste the spoils of government (or get basic constituent services).

There are numerous ways of getting notice that you or your organization, are not operating within the parameters of the "Huizar Way" in CD 14. No turkey vouchers for your community group, Chief of Staff Ana Cubas shows up at your community group meeting to recite false information, withdrawal of commission nomination, eviction from office space, withdrawn ABC Special Permit support and the dreaded no "Huevos with Huizzy" are some that come to mind (and have happen). 

But one would think that the First Amendment right to freedom of expression and dissent would be protected, after all, elections are exercises in disagreements and debate of policy issues, that result most time in the betterment of the community. Yet in the current incarnation of CD 14, the mere act of speaking against the sitting office holder is grounds for retribution, as witness with the saga of Roberto Saldana, former Counsel to Broadway property owner Joseph Hellen.

Roberto Saldana via Gary Leonard. Link here for brief DN report on tomorrow's meeting. 

During the recently completed CD 14 campaign proceedings, Saldana made these comments about Councilman Jose Huizar to the LA Weekly regarding the councilman's work on Broadway.

"In the years José Huizar has been in office, there have been no improvements along Broadway," Saldaña says. "He has done nothing. Just because he says he's 'bringing back Broadway' doesn't mean he's accomplishing it.""You could get hurt walking or lose a transmission in some of the potholes," Saldaña says. Large sections of sidewalk between Fifth and Sixth streets have been patched with 4-by-8-foot pieces of plywood so the mostly Latino shoppers don't fall 20 feet to a subterranean parking lot. Saldaña says Mideb was forced to do that because the city permitting process got gummed up, and Huizar has been no help.

Those comments must of hit a nerve with the councilman via his recent actions against the efforts by the Historic Downtown BID to install Saldana as its Executive Director in place of noted Councilman Huizar supporter Russell Brown, feigning that the BID may have violated the Brown Act in the course of selecting Saldana.. 

Saldana past comments were denounced by Councilman Huizar's CLARTS Funded "Bringin Back Broadway" Executive Director Jessica Wethington McLean, who read them aloud in a meeting that was more of a verbal melee than dialog. Further, the pressure from CD 14 staff caused the BID Board of Directors to rescind Saldana's appointment pending the results of the hiring committee of the BID.

Tomorrow morning at 10 A.M. the Historic Downtown BID will meet at the tenth floor conference room in the State Theater Building to announce the three final candidates for the Executive Director position and guess who's name will not be on the list? Roberto Saldana. Thus, in the words of Downtown Developer Tom Gilmore.

"If all of the legal mumbo jumbo here to set this up for the next meeting is just duck and cover to create a new vote to undo what you did, you have lost your soul," Gilmore said. "The politics here are [expletive], I assure you.... No one will support a board that can't make a real decision. I certainly won't."

The consequences of selling you soul (and right to dissent) to the "Huizar Way".

Your thoughts..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14.