MAILANDER MUSINGS - Surely you know the old joke that a camel is a horse drawn by committee. In that spirit, then, let me opine that the new LA Council committee assignments are mostly sensible, often political, and occasionally frightening.
Here, then, are quick hits on new city of Los Angeles committee assignments. Assignments as listed at The City Maven.
Arts, Parks, Health and Aging
One of the tightest. Alarcon has the best demographic mind on Council, which is essential to health and aging matters, and LaBonge is, like it or not, the top parks stakeholder. Reyes is also very concerned about public health and is a great fit.
Audits and Government Efficiency
The man who wants to be Controller, Dennis Zine, gets a boost on his 2013 aspirations by taking the chair that feeds into the Controller's Office. I wouldn't call Rosendahl and LaBonge especially talented in this field, however.
Budget and Finance
This has got to please Paul Krekorian immensely, to chair this, the city's most important committee, the one Zev owned way back when. Englander fancies himself a budget guy--thus far, we've seen nothing indicating as much other than bluster, but it will be good for him with regards to rounding out career aspirations. Cardenas, Koretz, and Rosendahl get to hang out.
Education and Neighborhoods
Better than nothing, but Parks deserved a better chair than this limited committee. Perry's the vice chair, and she's undistinguished in these two fields. Zine? Really?
Energy and Environment
Jose Huizar has had a few bumps on the road towards being the most environmental guy on Council. He wasn't able to develop a Clean Tech campus downtown and let's not talk about the CLAARTS fund. Zine is not a logical fit, but the two Paul Ks are.
Housing, Community and Economic Development
This is the city's top slush funding committee, home of the 1818 projects and affordable housing boondoggles, so Cardenas gets the chair. Reyes might keep it honest--and maybe Alarcon too--even if Perry and Wesson aren't inclined to.
Information Tech and General Services
Jan Perry gets to chair the city's most dismal committee, of course. Buscaino has to go somewhere, so he goes here, and Cardenas rounds out this highly unspecialized committee.
Jobs and Business Development
Garcetti? Frightening. He wants it, I'm sure, to be able to say during the Mayor's race that he was doing this, but I don't see him as a quality job creator, only as a retail jobs and SEIU jobs creator. You might as well give it to Madeline Janis. Parks and LaBonge are fiscally conservative but neither is particularly imaginative, so it looks like you're on your own, Eric.
Personnel and Animal Welfare
I'd like to see what Daniel Guss et al. think of this one. Koretz had one bright shining moment in animal activism as the anti-declawing guy. Zine is a natural for personnel matters; I can see that. Alarcon? He also had a top animal welfare moment when he was saddled with the new animal center in his district, and tried to block it.
Planning and Land Use Management
Ed Reyes is the natural for this. Mitch Englander's view of land use is irregular and untested--he appears to be for enterprise zones, for instance. He loves big development in general in other parts of town. Huizar has an urban planning degree, but hasn't delivered much on it.
Public Safety
Unrepentantly Republican, Mitch Englander lives and breathes for it and even is traumatized by it. At least he understands most issues. Perry is not especially distinguished in this area. Neither is Krekorian, but certainly Dennis Zine is, and newbie Buscaino gets to roll along.
Public Works
I'm most surprised at this. Things could go really wrong here, and I expected one of the two Paul K's, sober hands, to chair. Buscaino gets it, somehow--this is a big committee with a lot of responsibility and a lot of things can go wrong. Babysitting Buscaino, maybe grooming him, will be Garcetti and Krekorian.
Rules and Elections
Wesson, LaBonge, and Huizar. No comment, other than it could be like the end of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. For voters too.
Trade, Commerce and Tourism
Nobody knows where LaBonge really is at any time, so I suppose this figures. Rosendahl, Garcetti, Wesson and Buscaino round it out. Garcetti, who killed tourist-and commerce-fetching Sunset Junction, is not a logical choice, but Buscaino is. I would have made him vice chair of this one, and not let him chair Public Works right away.
Transportation
So Rosendahl can get as mean as he wants to be on Wilshire Boulevard transpo. Interesting. Koretz too, and Parks, LaBonge and Huizar, two of three who like failed trolleys, shuttle buses, &c., round it out. This will be one of the most ambitious committees.
You can do the ad hocs.
(Joseph Mailander is a writer, an LA observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He is also the author of The Plasma of Terror. Mailander blogs at street-hassle.blogspot.com where this article first appeared.) –cw
Tags: Joseph Mailander, Council Committees, LA City Council
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 9
Pub: Jan 31, 2012