The mayoral blogathon begins at Civil Action Press
For those mayoral candidates who wish to opine their virtues and for those named and unnamed pundits who are so inclined to expouse the virtues of their chosen candidate(s), http://civilactionpress.blogspot.com is for you. Please blog away...
posted by The Gadfly at 7:13 PM
5 Comments:
We choose to be victimized
When your community suffers from a consistent pattern and practice of inattention to public needs and concerns on the part of community representatives, take a broader look. We, in surrounding communities, also suffer the same ailment.
The mayoral machine in Los Angeles supports, condones, and gives merit to projects, individuals, and special interests, that are tangent to long-term civil and community wants and needs. As a result of self-interest, mismanagement, and alleged corruption, each of our L.A. communities suffer from lack of concern, ineffectiveness, and diverted resources.
Your City Council Member’s ineffectiveness and inability to address community concerns are a result of this mayoral administration. Just as a strong hand is unable to tend to its own wounds, Council Members are unable to resolve community issues under this administration.
“The quality of any leader is shaped by the quality of their actions and the integrity of their intent.” We in communities outside Hahn’s big-labor, big-money, “pay-to-play,” special-interest machine are neglected. Hahn’s big promises for all of Los Angeles are severely constrained by deliberate self-and-constituent-serving actions over his entire term – San Pedro revitalization, LAX/Harbor expansion, and real estate development. The funding raids on DWP, Airports, and Harbor departments, as well as crony appointments, preferential treatment, and pay-to-play politics have led to scandalous City mismanagement and an indelible mark on this administration’s intent and integrity.
The Hahn political machine has become a liability. The noxious exhaust from Hahn’s machine has polluted our government. Council members working within this closed administration behave as if they have been asphyxiated at the wheel.
For that reason I recommend we take action and VOTE!
It does not matter how much money is raised by individual candidates. You won’t see any of it. It does not matter what the pundits say. It’s their opinion, not yours. It doesn’t matter that the unions have endorsed Hahn. Unions as a rule are not employers. Businesses are employers, and if you have not noticed, they are leaving Los Angeles. What it boils down to is the choice you make on your ballot. Choose what is best for “you” and it will be the best for the City of Los Angeles. Make a difference where it counts – on your ballot. Register now and VOTE!
This time, choose not to be victimized. Collectively send a clear, personal, and decisive message right to the top – to the Mayor, his constituents, and to the media. We don’t like this noxious self-serving political machine and we are marking our ballots accordingly.
Turn out en masse and choose a brand new leader that is not a party to self-centered special interests, affiliated with the status quo, or spewing pie-in-the-sky rhetoric.
Consider Walter Moore. Moore is leader who has articulated a clean, forward-looking, realistic plan for Los Angeles. Our collective votes for Walter Moore will definitely result in a political course correction for Los Angeles.
Make a statement. Walter Moore will make a significant improvement for the rest Los Angeles by ending the practices of a dysfunctional administration which patronizes a few at the expense of many.
Sincerely,
An unusually verbose member of the silent majority
Bob Hertzberg is an attorney, businessman, community leader and former elected official with the breadth of experience necessary to make City Hall work again.
Hertzberg represented residents of the San Fernando Valley in the California State Assembly from 1996 to 2002, and was unanimously elected by both Democrats and Republicans to serve as Speaker of the Assembly from 2000 to 2002.
During his time in the Assembly, Hertzberg's energetic and bipartisan approach to problem solving earned him widespread recognition and success in addressing some of California's toughest problems, including the economy, education, traffic and crime.
Shortly after Hertzberg arrived in the state Assembly, he formed what later became known as the "Mod Squad," a coalition of moderate Democrats who opened up a dialogue between party legislators and business leaders.
As Speaker, Hertzberg presided over $1.5 billion in tax relief, including reduction of the Vehicle License Fee.
Hertzberg has also served on the boards of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., where he served as chair.
A longtime advocate for public education, Hertzberg spearheaded the nation's largest campaign to build new classrooms and repair older schools. Hertzberg also increased investment in the state's community colleges, and authored legislation that has provided $475 million in new textbooks and school supplies to date.
After leaving office, Hertzberg co-chaired an effort to give every four-year-old access to pre-school, an initiative which will provide new opportunities to over 100,000 children in Los Angeles County.
Understanding first hand that traffic congestion is one of the most pressing challenges facing the San Fernando Valley, Hertzberg delivered $145 million for the Orange Line and secured $10 million to improve the 101/405 interchange - the worst bottleneck in the nation. Hertzberg also brought home $16 million to synchronize traffic lights along Ventura, Victory and Sepulveda boulevards.
To support local law enforcement in the battle against increasing gang crime, Hertzberg overcame years of bureaucratic bickering to deliver funding for a regional crime lab which will give Los Angeles police and sheriffs the state-of-the-art tools needed to convict violent offenders.
Hertzberg also sponsored the legislation creating CLEAR, an effective anti-gang program. More than 90% of the CLEAR-related jury trials have resulted in convictions. District Attorney Steve Cooley called CLEAR "the most successful gang prevention program in California history."
For these efforts and others, Hertzberg was honored by the California Journal as a legislator representing "a pattern of conduct, an outlook and demeanor that exemplifies the best kind of public service."
After leaving the state Assembly, Hertzberg returned to the private sector, joining the law firm of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. He also co-founded Solar Integrated Technologies, a startup firm located in South Los Angeles, developing the next generation of roofing materials to convert sunlight into environment-friendly power.
And when Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor in an historic recall election, Hertzberg served as a key member of the governor-elect's transition team.
Hertzberg was born in Los Angeles and attended public elementary school in the City. Hertzberg received his J.D. from University of California's Hastings College of the Law in 1979 and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Redlands in 1976. He lives in Sherman Oaks with his wife, Dr. Cynthia Telles, a faculty member at the UCLA School of Medicine. Together they have three children.
Add to that Bob Hertzberg has the most inclusive website of any of the mayoral candidates! The guy is going places! Lets go with him!
Count on Hertzberg
If elected, here a just a few of the things Bob Hertzberg will do within the first 100 days of his being elected:
First, Bob Hertzberg will enlist a volunteer corps of the best and brightest engineers, architects, designers, landscapers and urban planners to develop an “extreme makeover” plan for Los Angeles to address the decay of our major streets and neighborhoods.
Bob Hertzberg pledges to make a cleaner, greener and brighter Los Angeles. We need beautiful, pedestrian and family-friendly boulevards with cafes, bookstores and boutiques. Project RENEW LA will ensure that young people have job opportunities through projects like the LA Conservation Corps to work on beautification and clean-up projects in their own neighborhoods.
Second, Bob Hertzberg will sit down with each council member and their community’s neighborhood council representatives, community leaders, school officials, and local business owners to discuss ways to dramatically shift power, budgetary authority, and decision-making to local neighborhoods leading to structural reforms that will ensure that neighborhood decisions are left to the neighborhoods—and not dictated from City Hall.
Third, Hertzberg will initiate sweeping changes in ethics laws to restore confidence and integrity in our system. We will take the “For Sale” sign down from City Hall and put to rest the notion that this city awards contracts to the powerful few who donate to political campaigns.
And finally, since the most extraordinary long-term challenge we face is competition for jobs in the new global economy, Hertzberg will unveil a detailed strategy to focus all departments of the city on economic competitiveness so that we are not left in the dust while the rest of the world passes us by. Job creation will be a central theme in the campaign as well as plans to make Los Angeles an economic superpower and world leader in economic innovation.
As Mayor, Hertzberg will be bold and take on tough tasks in concert with residents, businesses, neighborhood advocates and city leaders. There are too many challenges facing us to do it any other way.
More specific proposals to transform Los Angeles will unfold in the coming months. Consider his ideas and contribute your own at www.changela.com. Join Bob Hertzberg in making L.A. great.
Perhaps my memory is failing, but seems like Hertzberg helped lead California into bankrupcy, including failed policy creating energy deregulation, failed policy to remedy holes in power deregulation, and blaming others for failed California energy deregulation policy. (How much in campagn contributions from power producers??)
(Remember the KFWB energy deregulation meeting, including S. David Freeman of DWP?? Hertzberg blamed Bush and crooks in Texas for California power problems. Seems like Hertzberg took no personal reaposibilty. I was at that meeting. A President Bush bashing fest, if ever there was one. California legislature, and Governor screws up, then blames Bush.)
And what about immigration policy, Mr. Hertzberg? Driver licenses for illegals? LAPD special order 40? How much must California pay to educate, house, and otherwise subsidize illegals?
Seems like Hertsberg enjoys pontificating publicly about how to improve things, as if he had no part in his failed liberal agenda.
LA democrat candidates seem to be either left of left or lefty lefty.
The future of Los Angeles seems hopeless. Guess have to vote for the candidate who stinks the least, or just stay home. May the best deododrant win.
Posted by Green Apple
Green Apple,
Thank you for your insightful and timely post. Being an eye witness gives you substantial credibility.
I too, see the problem of assigning blame and demonizing others as a problem in politics. The nature of politics seems to reward those that engage in the behavior. Edwards Deming, an American systems guru responsible for a very successful Japanese business culture transformation, taught that management (our leadership, elected officials, and appointments) is responsible for system problems.
Conflicts of interests and a dysfunctional resolution process are effective in stifling prudent responsible resource management by dragging issues into a suffocating mire of minutia.
Deregulation is consistent with free market competition and the rigors of capitalism. Powerful persons in positions of influence were ill-prepared, negligent, going along with, or promoting conflicts of interest -- they thwarted the process of deregulation from the start.
Deregulation in the marketplace is like gravity on our planet or entropy in the universe. It is the predominant market direction and it takes considerable resources to fight it. The initial messiness of the process gave our leadership opportunity to sign the State into debt to postpone it at considerable society cost. As you can see by the relative ease with which the energy companies have rebounded when compared to the State’s long arduous recovery process, citizens were duped.
With regards to immigration policy, it too seems contradictory. I personally don’t think we can function as a society without immigrants. Consequently, they are part of the ingredients that go the products and services we produce for the world – clearly marked, “Made in the U.S.A.” Hopefully you would agree that it takes quality inputs to make quality outputs. If you agree, then it stands to reason it is in our best interest to maximize the utility and quality of inputs, i.e. providing access to health, welfare, and education for our citizens and workforce. Alas, this is where the political mire takes hold. Logically, you can not allocate for that which you will not count. The result of leadership’s failure to account for the undocumented is that we short those that have been counted (citizens) to pay for those that are not. Or in a soundbite, "We rob from the poor to pay for the poorer." On the macro level we thin the broth that fuels understanding, innovation, creativity, and the stuff that constitues a better society.
Leaders should maintain balance in a society that professes to be fair and just. It is one thing when companies benefit from the exploitation of labor. It is another thing altogether when government permits that exploitation to degrade the goods and services a government provides to its citizens.
No doubt, things could be much better. Your efforts in sharing your knowledge and exchanging ideas goes a long way in that endeavor. Every once in a while, we have a right to make our feelings known to our politicians and pundits. I hope you will exercise your right to vote and let them know this time, we will not be satisfied with more deodorant.
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