Comments@THE GUSS REPORT-As the Tuesday morning celebration for City Council’s new president Nury Martinez died-down, she walked up the steps to the raised podium where the most influential lawmaker in the City of LA sits during meetings.
Her speech which had ended a few moments earlier, as predicted, included lots of promises to help women, children and the downtrodden.
At that very moment, I publicly raised the subject of my new column in which I address domestic violence allegations against a current City of LA appointee of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made by the alleged abuser’s then-pregnant wife and showed Martinez the hand-written accusations the accuser laid-out on a restraining order form.
That halted Nury in her tracks and she did what most City Councilmembers do in the face of public controversy; immediately engage in a side conversation so they can pretend they don’t hear it.
Upon ending my comment, Nury suddenly disengaged from that side-chat with Councilmember Curren Price and the meeting went on its way. Of all the lawmakers in City Hall, it is usually Price who rushes over to colleagues as a distraction for moments like these.
Amazing that one could so easily influence the attention and steps of the powerful lawmaker on her big day.
A short while later, massive balloon creations floated above the packed City Hall courtyard for a free catered lunch with espresso machines, music and a dance floor surrounded by white leather couches. All the luminaries were there. Okay, just local political luminaries. (Click-thru for photos.)
Some of the cookies offered for dessert read: “Families First” and “Courage to Lead,” which appear to be Nury’s first broken promises, given her silence on the alleged domestic violence of a pregnant woman who had been connected to Mayor Garcetti and something else that took place only within my field of vision.
Off to the side of the City Hall courtyard where the soirée rolled-on, fresh catering trays were prepared in a staging area as empty ones were carried out by a slew of workers and servers. As they went about their work, the LAPD forced several homeless (and presumably hungry) people away from the party and its abundant taxpayer-funded food.
There were plenty of homeless people sleeping, living and virtually dying on the grounds of City Hall on Tuesday before, during and after the first Martinez-led Council meeting. And it appears that the promises made on the cookies were simply icing on Nury’s figurative cake, not a hallmark of action on her first day. Apparently, the food was only for those with homes. Nury’s staffers would not say whether the leftovers were given to those homeless people and none were seen eating any of it by the time I left.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, and has contributed to CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion, Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers. Follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
