ALPERN AT LARGE-Funny how when one transposes a "2" for a "S" that a Los Angeles 2020 City Commission, rather than a play on the term 20/20 (as in "vision") becomes "So-So", and unfortunately it won't be hard to agree with the Times' opinionthat this Commission's long-awaited recommendations were "modest". I'd call them "So-So", if not sophomoric, at best.
Everyone's got an opinion, but I sincerely DO want this City to succeed, so my own questions and recommendations for the Mayor and City Council to reform Los Angeles are as follows:
1) Where the heck were the Neighborhood Council (NC) representatives on this Commission? Charter Reform is in order, and inclusion of Neighborhood Council representatives was in order for this 2020 (or is it So-So?) Commission, as with all major City Hall policy making.
More than lip service needs to be paid to the NC's, and the admission must be confronted by too many City Councilmembers that for too long they have treated NC's with disdain. You know, those volunteer-but-ALSO-Los-Angeles-elected-and-appointed-City-Government-members-who-are-a vital-part-of-our-City-leadership-but-get-disrespected-by-City-Hall-until-election-time-when-the-City-Council-and-Mayor-candidates-ask-for-their-endorsement kind of people?
WHY weren't THEY represented on this commission, which was (so typical of LA) too top-down?
Why aren't elected or appointed NC representatives on this commission? Why aren't they included in all appropriate City contract negotiations to ensure budget sustainability and appropriate budget appropriations to ensure roads, public works and city services are funded BEFORE City worker benefits and pensions are addressed?
Perhaps a gander at the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates' recent white paper would come up with the tough-but-necessary initiatives to lead a gritty march away from the red ink, and with shared sacrifice to bring the City and its residents together.
And please remember: the Neighborhood Councils are comprised of volunteers--not sure about City Hall, but the NC's work because they love the City of LA. The aforementioned white paper recommended City employee limit-setting with raises, in order to catch up from the runaway raises that have prevented a balanced budget in everything from pay to pensions. It also recommended volunteerism to be used by the City, which would allow public works and related projects to be built with decreased budgets and sweat equity.
2) Why are so many vital City decisions and hearings during the daytime, when most Angelenos cannot attend without sacrificing their work, school and/or families?
Charter Reform is in order, and this is part of the answer. If nighttime meetings--even those that stretch well past midnight--occur in Culver City and Santa Monica and other cities, then it's good enough for the City of Los Angeles, who all too often allows daytime meetings to hideously stack the cards in favor of full-time lobbyists and bussed-in workers to promote policies that affect but exclude Angelenos in their decision-making.
It's not hard to even consider this to be a civil rights violation akin to the poll tax that used to occur in some Southern states to prevent poor and minority Americans from voting. A daytime meeting pretty much states that the overwhelming majority of Angelenos are NOT invited to this meeting, regardless of how much it's publicized, and virtually guts the concept of "majority rule" from Los Angeles City Government.
3) Are the Commission members part of the solution, or part of the problem?
Charter Reform is in order, and the Commission's members call into question why that reform is in order. There were some members, like former U.S. Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor and former mayoral contender Austin Beutner, who are sincere problem-solvers.
There were some members, like union leaders, who mean well but may have ideas that may hurt employment as well as ideas that may enhance employment; the same can be said for business leaders.
And there were some, like Brian D'Arcy, who arguably belong in jail and are a huge part of WHY the City has such a crisis of leadership, economic hardship and budgetary sustainability...and do NOT belong on a Commission to help our City.
We need better paying jobs, and raising the minimum wage is indicated on a variety of positions--but if their employers' taxes and other fiscal obligations and regulations don't go down, accordingly, that some elevation of the minimum wage can and most likely will significantly hurt employment.
Hence the input of both labor and business are vital to this process--but Los Angeles does have a problem with both credibility at the top of both business and government...and the overdevelopment we've seen (that entirely goes into the realm of law-breaking) calls into question the veracity of labor and whether they always help Angelenos.
We do NOT need to break the law to create a lot of overdue jobs.
4) Start from the ground up--and stop trying to cheat the law-abiding and taxpaying residents of Los Angeles.
Charter Reform is in order, and in large part the budgetary process must be completely reconfigured to ensure good governmental spending in the City of the Angels.
Whether it was the last failed half-cent sales tax, or the upcoming (and equally likely to fail) half-cent sales tax, the arguments of preserving our police and firefighting forces, or of fixing our roads, have fallen flat on voters of all political stripes who recognize bad accounting and practices at City Hall when they see it.
The reasonable questions of why we didn't budget basic fire and police and roads BEFORE we dealt with public sector union demands and perks have been around for years, and now there's no skating around it.
Voters DO want to preserve and enhance our vital City services and public works, but they won't pay more taxes for budgetary priorities that they've already paid for.
We do NOT necessarily need the Commission's recommended Independent Office of Transparency and Accountability if we have Neighborhood Council members as part of the union contracting process--the issue of trusting City Hall to properly limit set with the public sector unions who they rely on to achieve election and re-election cannot be ignored.
But unless we are willing to go down the path of Wisconsin and ban public sector unions (I doubt it, and am ambivalent if we need it), the need to have Neighborhood Council representatives to publicize the input and negotiation process is imperative. That's tough medicine for a liberal town like ours, but this IS public money we're talking about, and the voters are NOT being represented by a City Hall with an inherent conflict of interest.
And rather than talk about paying big bucks for the roads and sidewalks that already should have been paid for, let's raise taxes ONLY for a 6-12 month update process of all the Community Plans that are decades overdue in their being brought to speed. Pay for that, pay for a modern and fair set of rules for urban planning, and THEN we can talk about roads and development and public works.
As with the conflict of interest on public sector union negotiations, we do not need to break the laws of legal Urban Planning, and hurt the image of new Transportation endeavours, by creating a conflict of interest with our construction unions, developer lobbyists and chambers of commerce. With good will and good laws, we can properly fund our City services and public works.
5) Credibility, Credibility, Credibility--it's gut-check time.
Charter Reform is in order, but certain individuals have more "cred" than others. I'm sorry, Council President Wesson, but your credibility (along with outgoing Mayor Villaraigosa's cred) was smashed in the failed half-cent sales tax that was unnecessary and sent a terrible message to the citizens of L.A. This Commission you created won't help you much, I'm afraid.
Unless someone gives you that "come to Jesus" talk, and you apologize to the voters (who are, by and large, forgiving) for being hamhanded with the budgetary process and acting too imperious for someone who should work for, and not rule, the voters, the City Council will be alienated from the very voters and volunteers it needs more than ever.
To some degree, the Mayor is also in the same boat. Former Council President Garcetti has his hands all over some of the awful past labor agreements that are now eliminating our ability to balance our budget despite increased tax revenues, but with his election he's due a makeover.
Forget about this November's proposed half-cent sales tax and start LISTENING and implementing the necessary tough medicine recommended by the NC's.
But if the Mayor needs to emphasize that his learning curve has gone up. He needs to realize that the legal and other implications of the imperiled Hollywood Community Plan means that he and his staff DID make errors in that portion of Los Angeles...errors that cannot be repeated throughout the City.
The Mayor and the Council can restore the credibility needed to regain the trust of the voters--but it'll be up to them to achieve the credibility that already DOES exist in Los Angeles with new City Controller Ron Galperin. Any Office of Transparency and Accountability, if it's created, might just mean an expansion of the budget and powers of the Controller.
It means that City Hall will have to have the courage to revisit Charter Reform and Community Plans and allow some citizens who they've kept at arm's length to enter some negotiations that have been too closed in the past.
But this is all about courage...and about whether the Mayor, City Council President Wesson and the City Council will display 20/20 Vision--or carry on with the So-So recommendations we've now just heard from the long-awaited and somewhat-disappointing LA 2020 Commission.
(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected] This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . He also does regular commentary on the Mark Isler Radio Show on AM 870, co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us . The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 30
Pub: Apr 11, 2014
