THE CITY - It’s hard to go a single day without reading a news item that makes me want to jump on a soapbox. Neighborhood Councils could increase their relevance by speaking up more often.
Action: Whatever happened to leadership and voting your conscience? That’s what elected officials are expected to do. Nobody is keeping track of how many winning sides each council member has been on. And no one would give a hoot if there were such a list. Alarcon’s predecessor, Ernani Bernardi, went to his grave as a man of monumental integrity by, in part, not being afraid to be on the losing end of a vote.
Neighborhood Councils could provide national leadership by creating a list of which kinds of legislative actions are unacceptable, and keep track of and publicize them.
News Item: The City Council wants to give a $67.3 tax break to the builder of a hotel near Staples Center.
Action: Neighborhood councils should insist, and never stop insisting, that the city first develop a policy to guide how assistance is given to developers. That would provide a badly-needed level of certainty for potential developers, as opposed to just giving help to the ones who are the best politically connected.
There should be a discussion about why a project that is bad for the private sector is somehow good for the taxpayers. The reality is that LA has about 2,000 hotel rooms nearby Staples Center and the Convention Center. Even doubling that number wouldn’t be enough to attract more “stay over” visitors. LA would still be hopelessly behind just its California competitors, Anaheim, San Diego, and San Francisco by 3,000, 4,200, and 8,000 rooms respectively.
News Item: Michael Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the greatest threat to national security is cyber attacks. He said that although presidents Bush and Obama have been heavily invested in the issue, it has been a challenge to get other leaders to understand the problem and act on it.
Action: Long-term thinking is a hallmark of good leaders. What hasn’t been happening in the city is for the mayor to sit down with general managers, ask them about all the potential crises that could occur in their departments, and then act to prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Instead, city hall seems satisfied to simply react to crises as they occur.
If the mayor won’t have these discussions with general managers, Neighborhood Councils could. The City Charter mandates them to monitor city services. I would think that there is an implicit requirement for city directors to cooperate with the councils.
News Item: Building a football stadium next to Staples Center would create 7,500 permanent jobs.
Action: The number inflates every time the subject comes up. Anything near this number is absurd on its face. The new Yankee Stadium has 27 permanent employees. At a public meeting in Mar Vista, the CEO of the development firm said that the stadium and new team would generate about 300 new permanent jobs. I guess the assumption was that a relocated team would fire its existing employees.
Neighborhood Councils could find some volunteers to form “truth squads” around their favorite issues. The public would come to view Neighborhood Councils as a place where facts reside.
(Greg Nelson is a former general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, was instrumental in the creation of the LA Neighborhood Council System, served as chief of staff for former LA City Councilman Joel Wachs … and occasionally writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected]) –cw
Tags: Greg Nelson, City Council, Staples Center, Richard Alarcon, Ernani Bernardi, City Charter, Neighborhood Councils
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 51
Pub: June 26, 2012
