MAILANDER’S LA-At the end of this month, one of LA's newest commissioners, Marilyn Grunwald, will turn 60 years old.
If you think I'm disclosing improper information about a woman's age, I'm not: I'm reporting the core concern of the blog Grunwald started last year, "Granny Grunwald."
This is from one of the commissioners who will be deciding the fate of rideshare services like Lyft in the city.
"Although I hope it will look seem-less [sic], I will be checking in with myself in six areas: Emotional; Spiritual; Health; Professional Development; Organization; Sharing my talents/needs with the world," Grunwald wrote at her blog on April 27, about her journey along life's way to 60 and beyond.
Grunwald's talents do not include reading the law. In fact, to suit her own purposes, she has made up her own copyright law at her blog. "With the exception of forwarding the column as written to friends and family, nothing here may be reproduced in whole or in part for any reason without express written permission of the writer," Grunwald writes on her blog.
Alas, the nation's Copyright Act is rather insistent on the fact that "fair use...for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."
As Grunwald is now a public figure, already sworn in as a Garcetti commissioner, the laws guaranteeing the public's right to note and critique whatever she has to say are all the more applicable.
But there is good reason for Grunwald not wanting anyone to cite her blog: a lot of it is garbled.
"I will have a full and complete BLOG in 17 days!" she exclaims at her blog on November 16 of last year, already blogging away. Later, there is a very long essay on "Forgiveness," including copious quotes from many other sites.
If the blog postings sound more to you like the scribblings of a struggling adolescent than the measured prose of a mature, commerce-savvy woman who will sit in judgment of some of LA's thorniest New Economy transit issues--on the City's Taxicab Commission--you may be among the growing chorus of doubters who are wondering what the hell Mayor Eric Garcetti is doing to our City by appointing people like Grunwald and odd jobber Lydia Grant to its commissions and rookie cop Becca Doten to head a bureau of the City's Department of Homeland Security.
The obvious answer is that Garcetti has to court loyalty above expertise. It's not a new concept in politics but partisanship is something voters expected Garcetti to rise above about City Hall rather than to drench himself in it. While Doten is a key young Democratic operative and also a newbie cop, Grunwald as it happens is another operative whose key credential is linkage to a Democratic base, in her case San Fernando Valley Democrats.
The tandem, Doten and Grunwald, could not be more different; one is young, attractive, a Merit scholar, and frosty; the other is fretting about turning 60, wheelchair-bound, disabled by MS, and occasionally splenetic. But they both are known to snarl nastily at all things non-Democratic, which is the thing that matters when it comes to a Mayor with such a small mandate to do business. Garcetti has to go digging in unlikely areas for loyalty.
Grunwald's lifelong strident partisanship came up at her confirmation hearing before Council. Councilmember Bob Blumenfield even flaunted her partisanship, in fact--he was quick to provide testimony on behalf of Grunwald, saying how they "worked together in Democratic club issues, and she's been a key voice on Democratic values."
But Republican-lite Councilman Mitch Englander didn't want to let Grunwald escape without a partisan-questioning dust-up.
"So many of my colleagues have told me that you've given them a very hard time for supporting me," Englander told Grunwald. He said that he would like to hear some assurance from Grunwald "that this is not a partisan body." "I'd like to hear your input on that," Englander requested.
Grunwald did not answer Englander at all; instead she took the opportunity of his question to read from a prepared statement. "Thank you very much for both of your comments," Grunwald began.
"They are equally valid and appreciated." Then she began to read. She missed a few words. "I'm honored to have been asked to serve the City of Los Angeles by way of the board of Taxicab Commissions. Transportation in a metropolitan such as this ..."
What? A "metropolitan such as this"? She didn't read her own prepared statement right. That was a shame.
"...requires many different approaches and choices ..." That was about it. The rest of the statement, short, was very weak, indicating next to nothing other than that there should be a lot of different kinds of transit options, which we were all just dying to know.
Nobody further pressed Grunwald for not answering Englander's question or giving him any assurance about the non-partisan character of public service. Highly partisan Councilmember Cedillo was first to jump up and support her nomination. Highly partisan Councilmember Koretz said he had no fear that Grunwald would work with both Democrats and Republicans, even though Grunwald herself made no such assurance in the wake of Englander's question.
Koretz also indicated he's nervous about 70's clunker "cars with moustaches on them." He thought the cars presented a liability issue. This salvo across the bow of on-demand rideshare services was a warning to cars with moustaches and the people who depend on them.
Grunwald also noted that she and LaBonge were going to celebrate birthdays this month. And that was it from the woman who will help decide the fate of Lyft in the city.
Democratic operatives Doten and Grunwald also share another odd quality: after their anointing, they soon went gloating about their new positions. Doten, in fact, posted a photo of the door of the Homeland Security office onto her Facebook page even before her position was announced, causing some consternation (not much) in the Garcetti office.
And though Grunwald may not have inspired confidence at her blog, she's far from a luddite. After being sworn in she tweeted a photo of herself taking the Commissioner's oath. And I got an email from a gloating Grunwald late Wednesday:
"Publicly chastised by Englander during my confirmation hearing for giving Dems a hard time for supporting him," Grunwald said. "Bizarre. Vote 13 to 1 in favor. Yeah."
(Joseph Mailander is a writer, an LA observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He is also the author of Days Change at Night: LA's Decade of Decline, 2003-2013. Mailander blogs here.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 80
Pub: Oct 4, 2013