I have long mocked the idea that all the campaign money and favors bestowed on politicians brought special interests what has been euphemistically called “access.”
Developers, contractors, anyone wanting to profit from government get to meet privately (i.e. secretly) with elected officials, their staffs and the bureaucracy and gather information not publicly available and to set the terms of the discussion by conveying what is in their self-interest before anyone else has a say.
This is usually done for these special interests by lobbyists, lawyers, public relations experts, consultants and political strategists who have long relationships with the government officials, relationships that are both personal and professional, and enriched by the flow of political money and advice, both free and paid for.
Most of these contacts and the business transactions they involve never even bubble to the surface, never even become public knowledge. And when they do, it is far down the road. At the point ordinary citizens become aware of what’s going on, the game is up. With limited knowledge of the fine details, relatively inexperienced at such games, the public is easily dismissed as NIMBYs, easily beaten
I knew this was a great injustice. But until I got down on the ground as a community activist myself in the last two months I didn’t know just how great an injustice it is.
In hearing first-hand the frustration of community groups who just want a legitimate voice in the political process, a seat at the table of power, I got angry, angry enough to decide something dramatic had to be done to change the situation.
That’s why I called for the Saving L.A. Protest at noon on July 14 at City Hall, to take the first step in creating a citywide coalition of concerned citizens who would be able to mobilize to change the rules of engagement at City Hall, to change the way the process works, to make government accountable to the people.
It’s a tall order I know. But the system has grown so arrogant and abusive that we need what my friend Teddy says is a Boston Tea Party to ignite the public’s emotions and get something going.
Just look at how Steve Sugerman, a onetime deputy mayor, and Richard Alatorre, a longtime elected official — admitted felons who were convicted for crimes involving public corruption — are getting rich operating deep inside City Hall \. They have total access to the mayor and everyone else while the public comes with hat hand to be ignored
during their two-minutes before the City Council or double-talked when they try to get information.
Former Fleishman-Hillard p.r. executive Sugerman pleaded guilty to a federal wire fraud charge, saying he thought his boss Doug Dowie wanted him to overbill the Department of Water and Power yet he’s the point man earning a fortune peddling his influence for the massive Playa Vista development, the Southwest Museum and other clients with city busiiness.
He’s registered as a lobbyist but claims most of his income doesn’t come from actually peddling influence directly to the pols; it comes from helping clients manipulate the political process so you, the people, aren’t entitled to know that.
And Jack Weiss — the wannabe top city law enforcement officer as City Attorney — thinks nothing of having Sugerman host a recent fund-raiser for him. We’ll never really know how much was raised at the event because the biannual reports don’t show anything but the date the check was written, not who attended the event and when the deal was cut.
Then, there’s Alatorre, the toughest and most brilliant politicial
strategist in town who not only peddles his skill and access but is
part of the elite cadre of Antonio Villaraigosa insiders.
Alatorre was one of Speaker Willie Brown’s boys in Sacramento for years before coming to the City Council. When he fell from grace over
cocaine abuse and graft charges a decade ago, he pleaded guilty to
income tax evasion. Like Sugerman and others blessed with the right
politicial connections, he didn’t go to prison. No, he went to work
back inside the City Hall game..
Although not even registered
as a lobbyist under the city’s pathetically weak ethics laws until recently, Alatorre
has lobbied council members on such contentious issues as annexation
and approval of the massive Las Lomas housing development outside the
city limits in Sylmar and the controversial Home Depot store in
Sunland-Tujunga.
How in the world is the public going to combat someone like Alatorre when they don’t even know what he’s up to.
“Having that information about who’s
lobbying . . . tells you what kind of uphill mountain you
may have,” Sylmar activist Bart Reed of the Transit Coalition said last year.
Look
at the Home Depot controversy. One of America’s greatest companies
hires a slew of people to work City Hall for it and in the blink of an
eye they get a permit approved to convert a closed K-Mart into a Home
Depot store without and questions being asked about the impact of the
change on a semi-rural community or what the community specific plan
calls for or what the community thinks.
And when the community
gets so well organized that City Hall blinks and blocks the project,
the company hires expensive lawyers who sue and the city immediately
goes to bat to try to get the deal approved through mediation.
Then,
the company uses its well-connected consultants to get the LAUSD to
give it a permit for an open house at a school in apparent violation of
state law and district policy. And when that becomes a public issue,
the district literally crosses out its policy on schools being
available only for non-profits on its website and puts in a new policy.
So
what are we to do? I say meet me at City Hall on the 14th of July at
noon and we’ll talk about it, we’ll talk about how we come together
across the whole city and support each other and make this a government
of the people, by the people and for the people.
Wasn’t Weiss the first councilman to join the Fleishman Hillard lynching party?
I’m surprised at you on an omission the size of a meteor on this one, Ron — you say that Sugarman’s claim was that he was working at the behest of “his boss,” but don’t mention that the boss is THE VERY DOUG COWIE YOU HAVE BLOGGING FOR YOU, AS A CO- ORGANIZER OF YOUR PEOPLE’S REBELLION/ TEA PARTY! (From what he’s written, it seems he claims that he was given poor advice by accounting people, and he was involved in a major error, which was followed as company procedure == he’s fighting the case still — if so, as the boss, he’s the one responsible, yet, you employ his as “the voice of the people” but selectively attack Sugarman just because he’s moved on.)
Sounds here like you’re letting the tail wag the dog, not acting like a journalist or responsible blogger, even, by deliberately withholding this crucial piece of info. Getting your gratuitous shots in at someone shouldn’t be more important than full disclosure from a man who’s been an editor and reporter his whole life. Disappointing.
“THE VERY DOUG DOWIE YOU HAVE BLOGGING FOR YOU, AS A CO- ORGANIZER OF YOUR PEOPLE’S REBELLION/ TEA PARTY!”
Yeah, seriously Ron!!!! You just lost what little credibility you had. Some community activist dedicated to changing the way the City does business you turned out to be.
The culpability of Doug Dowie for his case is one thing and worthy of criticism. Yet, the big picture for City Hall remains tainted by all the well-paid consultant/lobbyist/advisor roaming as freely as cockroaches in a slumlord’s tenement.
The tilt put on the complaint because of the pendency of the appeal should not deter action against what is clearly the stacked deck favoring insiders and in ways we have yet to discover. That needs to be changed, and if one person’s perceived taint derails the mission, then maybe we were not deserving of better representation and procedures at City Hall, maybe it’s enough to call off everything and just complain to the 15 pairs of deaf ears.
And that approach has not served us well so far.
Not to argue with other commenters, but Dowie’s guest blogging is neither omitted nor concealed by Kaye. It’s right out there and so noted in Dowie’s blog. It’s not a secret: It’s explained, prefaced and made clear. And it’s an interesting alignment of interests, at that. Los Angeles politics is blowing gaskets all over town (and it’s about time). The Dowie Affair was blown out of proportion from the start, politicized and unjust, and it would serve everyone right if he wins on appeal. The political theatrics alone, stemming from a successful appeal, make it worth hoping for. It would be a great show. With the economy and the Lakers down, we could use a successful appeal just for fun.
I am missing something. How does Ron’s point become less valid because a public figure’s comments are a guest blog? Can we just grown the f..k up and stop the gotcha when it has no meaning?
11:06 = reading challenged. Try again, from the beginning. Yes, you’re “missing something.” You’re dense as a board and rude, too.
While I’d like to focus on trying to make change for the better, sometimes it is hard to believe it is possible. (I do think that those of us involved should focus on this and not on cannibilizing one another.) As one who has attended many (too many) City Council and City Committee and Commission meetings, I know as do others who have “been there, done that” that the system stinks. Representatives of homeowner associations, civic groups, etc. have little chance of being heard–whether speaking for ourselves or thousands of our members.
We wait patiently often for hours for a one or two minute chance to speak… often to an arrangement of empty chairs. (Of course, we must wait and speak even if only to one member of a committee (where has everyone gone?), in order to preserve our standing to appeal City decisions.) On days of City Council consideration of issues, we must stand behind the rope, anxiously attempting to pass a note to our councilmember while the lobbyists on a given issue can be seen walking past the guards and rope, conferring with City staff. I can tell you this: We aren’t even second class citizens if one looks at how we are treated. We are treated as third class riff-raff who are taking up valuable time better spent on the pomp and circumstance that often preceeds Council meetings for hours (and that we must endure to get to the business portion of the meeting).
When development projects are presented before PLUM and in other City venues, developers often have the paid staff of contractors, friends, people who have never seen the project plans attend and testify on their behalf. Those people get the same minute or two that those of us who represent thousands of neighbors get… It is quite a game being played. Bus in the friends, pay people/have people paid to attend… and create an impression of community support while the community, the neighbors (most who are busy at work and can’t blow a whole day sitting at City Hall waiting) have a speaker or two given a minute or two. Ever seen one of the very busy planning “consultants” hand out testimony/comments at the door to people bussed in to attend a hearing and speak on behalf of a development? The only comic relief we had one day at a project’s hearing was the fact that one individual testifying could not pronouce one of the words scripted for her… and stumbled in her delivery. Some could say it was a comic moment; others find it more tragic.
And, my oh my how the task of reperesenting public opinion has evolved (devolved would be a better word). Have you gotten that “knock knock” at the door from a paid petitioner who is “sharing” important information with you about a great new development proposed for YOUR neighborhood… one, that while adding hundreds of thousands of new square feet of development, will, it is said, REDUCE traffic in the community? Just sign on the dotted line to reduce traffic and, ooops, you will be added to the list of project supporters that the developer will use in their efforts to obtain city approval of their project. Never mind that the education process is one of mis-information. Never mind that little information is imparted. Never mind that the intention of the visit was to get a signature on the dotted line for uses that may be contrary to the signer’s interests and intentions. The City’s DEIR/EIR approval process has become a sham… a matter of tasks with deadlines attached and rarely the analysis such exercises were meant to be. Just read the responses submitted in an EIR to answer questions raised from a DEIR. A high school teacher would flunk the student who avoided answering questions so arrogantly. (Don’t get me started on the EIR process and how the City still allows developers to write most of the documents, hire their own consultants, etc. It has been years since we suggested changes to that process to create some distance between the experts hired and the company proposing the project.)
So, we wonder why people get cynical, don’t vote, don’t get involved. I can tell you that the view from here –from one who has taken the time, has made the effort— is that the view stinks. Whether campaign finance reform is the answer, whether money can be removed from the process to help level the playing field, I don’t know. I do know that we have to try this because those around me who have dedicated countless days, weeks, months and years to making this city a better place are fed up. It doesn’t work for us. We now feel that the only way to be heard by the city is to take legal action and SUE the city following a lousy decision. We don’t want to sue our City. We don’t want to get involved with spending our time raising money for suits, in meetings with attorneys. We don’t want to be adversarials with our own city government. We want to work together to make this place a better place for residents, businesses, etc. Instead, we are called NIMBY’s.
While Neighborhood Councils are meant to result in better communication between communities and the city government, each is still a work in progress and, some areas still don’t have NC’s. They haven’t solved our ills; some have ills of their own. For some they have created a whole new level of work… in schedules that were already maxed out. There are accomplishments and potential and hats off to those working on the bigger picture issues with peers from other NC’s. There may be new ways to address old (and new) problems from the NC perspective, but the fact remains that the City government culture is a slow beast to change and the NC’s won’t be able to change it on their own. No one group can do that. (Yes, I know it takes time.)
So, will the Bastille Day event be a guidepost that can bring folks together from across the city who have had enough of the injustices? Tired of being treated like a third class irritant? Problems abound. Solutions are too often ignored. Remember the phrase, “where there is a will, there is a way.” Our challenge is to create that will… that will to change the way business is done, the will to plan for the long range, rather than for short term benefits, the will to develop and stand by good public policy without selling out short. No doubt we could all come up with a long list of problems. The challenge is to come up with the resolve to make our city government a better beast than it has been.
Rodney Dangerfield had it right, “I aint got no respect” was right on. Those of us in the trenches who deal with mundane city service issues, who help to keep the city running, who serve as a bridge between government and its citizens “aint got no respect” from the City. We may have good working relationships with our City Council offices (and that changes from election to election), we may find a great (and often overworked) staff person who tries hard but either hasn’t the time or the ability to take things to the next level to solve a problem, rather than address a festering symptom of something greater. But, all in all we aren’t making a fundamental difference and we know this. We are treading water while those better connected and playing the lobby game are driving speedboats around us in circles (and creating a wake to swamp us).
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