EDITOR’S NOTE; This article, recently published in Nina Royal’s North Valley Reporter community paper, outlines what’s at stake in City Council District 2 election, a brutally gerrymandered district that includes Sunland-Tujuniga and most of the Northeast Valley, a sliver along the Burbank border and then stretches from Studio to Sherman Oaks and takes in parts of other neighborhoods. Candidate filing opened Monday with Paul Krekorian, Chris Essel and Frank Sheftel the first to declare their candidacies to succeed Wendy Greuel in Council District 2. Five other candidates — Pete Sanchez; Mary Benson, Jozef “Joe” Thomas Essavi; Laurette Healey and Michael
McCue — filed later in the day.
By Ron Kaye.
It ought to be clear by now that the City Hall political machine has no intention of giving an inch to the people who live and work in Los Angeles.
Community activists, with help from business and labor, defeated Measure B but that hasn’t stopped the Department of Water and Power’s David Nahai and the IBEW boss Brian D’Arcy from going right ahead and doing whatever they want with a wink and nod from the mayor and City Council.
Then Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich, with the same citizen-labor-business coalition behind him, knocked of the machine’s puppet Jack Weiss so the machine put its greasy arms around the City Attorney-elect in hopes of bringing him to heel and taking the bite out of his teeth.
Along the way we were entertained with the idea that catastrophic budget deficit would actually be solved through a policy of “shared sacrifice,” only to learn the sacrifices will entirely be borne by the public while city employees get a sweetheart deal with enhanced retirement at age 55 and bonus pay raises over a five-year period.
So the battleground for some semblance of fiscal and political responsibility now shifts to Council District 2 race where voters in the heavily gerrymandered district curving from Sherman Oaks to Sunland-Tujunga get to choose a successor to Controller-elect Wendy Greuel.
The machine at first thought it could foist on CD2 the double-dipping former Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez, who’s living high beyond her wildest dreams on sinecures from the state and the DWP.
But further analysis showed Montanez was a loser so the political manipulators anointed not one but two candidates to confuse and divide the electorate.
Their picks are Chris Essel, a Westside elitist who has served the machine without blinking on the Community Redevelopment Agency and the Airport Commission, and Democratic Assemblyman Paul Krekorian of Glendale, who’s done such a fine job of pushing the state toward bankruptcy that he’s fully qualified to help the city along in that direction.
How the mayor, public employee unions, developers, contractors and lobbyists divide themselves in support of both Essel and Krekorian is still being worked out but you can be sure they will both be heavily endowed with oodles of campaign cash.
They will need as much money as they can get their hands on since both are carpetbaggers with phony addresses in CD2 but polls show voters – in their ignorance, apathy and defeatism — are less concerned about such matters than whether they recognize the candidate’s name from mailers sent by fictitious groups that appeal to the prejudices.
Far less clear is where that leaves Tamar Galatzan, the school board member who was elected to her position with the mayor’s millions as part of his failed takeover of LAUSD.
Unfortunately for Galatzan, they had a falling out when she opposed giving unaffordable health benefits to 3-hour a day cafeteria workers and other issues that did nothing to improve the quality of education.
Galatzan actually lives is the district and has a lot of knowledge about the issues on the ground from being the City Attorney’s neighborhood prosecutor in Van Nuys. Questions remain about her ability to raise the money needed to overcome the machine candidates and whether she can convince grassroots activists she’s tough enough to stand up to the pressures in City Hall to back every sweetheart deal and giveaway of public money.
Then there’s the people’s candidates, the ordinary citizens who step forward despite the long odds and carry with them old-fashioned ideas of public service.
At one point, it seemed like everyone who lived in CD2 would run but now it appears the citizen candidates are Frank Sheftel, a candy-maker and medicinal marijuana cooperative operator, Mary Benson, a long-time activist with extensive knowledge planning issues and Michael McCue, a Studio City Neighborhood Council leader with a passion for community empowerment as the antidote to machine control of the city.
I confess I like them all but have to admit it’s an uphill struggle for any of them to make it into the top two vote-getters in the Sept. 22 primary and make it to the December runoff where anything could happen.
It’s going to take a groundswell of community support for any of them to break through and stop the machine.
But I’m an optimist and believe the time is ripe for change. And I take heart from the fact that the real campaign for CD2 will start just six months after this election is over since the real election will take place in spring 2011 for a full four-year term.
By then voters will have a pretty good idea about who the citizen candidates are and whether the winner is December actually is serving them.
That’s why it’s so important for activists to get involved now and go to work in hopes of thwarting the special interests’ power play now or, at the least, giving a Council member who serves them in 2011.
************CD2 ACTIVISTS ALERT*************
Did anyone in Sunland/Tujunga notice two new, HUGE BILLBOARDS went up recently IN TUJUNGA, on Foothill and very close to Commerce (near Joselito’s). HOW DID THAT HAPPEN??? WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THOSE MONSTROSITIES????
Did you notice the recent announcement for Green Commerce Avenue, a sidewalk replacement scheduled to start this week, July 6th.
Did the WORTHLESS SUNLAND/TUJUNA NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL CUT A DEAL WITH CLEAR CHANNEL BILLBOARDS????
WHAT A SELLOUT!!!! THOSE BRAINLESS SUNLAND/TUJUNGA NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL MEMBERS **** WILL SEE OUT THEIR MOTHER ************
WE DON’T WANT MORE UGLY BILLBOARDS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD, YOU SELLOUT STNC. I NOTICE THAT YOU DIDN’T PUT THE BILLBOARDS IN SUNLAND!!!!
It is predicted that this race will be decided by voters who vote by mail. Between 7 to 9,000 voters will vote (so much for majority rule!).
Also, an incumbent is almost impossible to unseat in LA. So, I think the focus of this race has to be find a viable candidate that can make it into the top two – that means that person has to raise at hundreds of thousands of dollars in a very short time (like by the September 22nd primary!). Oh, yeah, being responsive to the community kinda helps too.
And, I suspect we are going to hear just how the big names are “just one of us.” Yeah, right!
Make no mistake about it, there will be plenty of mud thrown around too with lots of it aimed at Tamar. And, I can tell you one thing for certain about Tamar. As our Neighborhood Prosecutor, she has attended about 7 years worth of Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association’s monthly meetings. She has heard about CD2 and the city’s failed land use/planning and transportation systems. At least when she talks, it all won’t be coming from campaign consultants and advisors.
When Tamar talks, nobody listens. What an empty skirt, who as a LAUSD member complains but does nothing. SHE SHOULD QUIT.
CD2 doesn’t need a Villaraigosa mole in our midst.
Ummm Tamar is married to Brendan Huffman aka Mr. Home Depot
Louis Pugliese is going to run also. He got enough CD2 votes in the last school board race to take this or at least make a runoff- if he can do it again.
There is no way that people will support a shill for Home Depot/Latham & Watkins. We have to punish the Mayor and Latham whenever there ass-kissing shills show up for some awful project or proposal.
Essel grew up in the Valley, has never lived on the Westside, and she was involved with the CRA long before the Villar era.
At least she’s not another elected hack running for office while also drawing a taxpayer-funded paycheck like Paul and Tamar. I’m willing to wait and see what Essel is about.
11:45, Essen is selling/ just sold her house in the western Hollywood Hills-Doheny Estates area, so if that’s not the westside, what do you call it? It definitely is.
BUT that’s neither here nor there — it’s stupid to claim that only those who grew up in and stayed in one DISTRICT never mind the city their whole lives, should run and be elected. That was the argument for Vahedi over Koretz, but you people would have said ANYTHING in Vahedi’s favor over Koretz because he was the HOA’s candidate. On the other hand, Trutanich is a carpetbagger to L A from Long Beach/ Naples Canals area where he’s lived for 25 years also working outside the city, though his extended clan is in San Pedro where he moved back to. San Pedro is as far from the westside/ SOHA- Sherman Oaks as can be but you people claimed he represents the valley just because he showed up regularly to campaign. A bunch of hooey but you chose to believe it when it suited you.
This is a big B S issue in Essel’s case. Essel being from the Hollywood hills is “just over the hill” from the Valley, and as in CD5 hillside people of both sides of Mulholland have similar issues re: hillside development, streets broken and no money to pave them, etc. NOT saying I support Essel, never met her, but it’s SO stupid hearing this “carpetbagging” issue.
but it’s SO stupid hearing this “carpetbagging” issue.
No, it’s definitely not. It’s a credible issue in it’s place. For example, westside issues are sufficiently different than eastside valley issues to understand that a different perspective and loyalty are probable.
I wouldn’t believe a bit what these “carpetbaggers” tell us. Look to what they did, not what they say.
The only viable candidates in CD2 are Paul, Essel and Tamar. Of those three Tamar seems to be the only one with actual district experience (Not to mention a REAL CD2 address). It will be intresting to see how Tamar gets painted in this race…
That’s easy: faker, con artist, scammer, ineffectual, whiner, shill, two-faced, Villaraigosa Shill, Villaraigosa Shill, uber liberal, tax hikes, tax hikes, fee hikes, fee hikes, pro HOME DEPOT, pro HOME DEPOT
Shall I go on…
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/bottleneck/2008/08/links-alarcon-a.html
Los Angeles Times | Blogs
Bottleneck Blog
Navigating Southern California Traffic, Transit, and Trends
Los Angeles City Council; Ramping up, August 7
…
Galatzan, who received more than $2 million in campaign help from a Villaraigosa-controlled committee, toppled school board incumbent Jon Lauritzen last year to win a seat on the school board. Shortly after she won election, I phoned her and asked if the rumors were true that she was going to run for Greuel’s seat in 2009 if Greuel ran and won city controller?
No, said Galatzan.
I called her again Wednesday and asked the same question. But I got a different answer this time:
“I’m flattered that my name has come up and people have been talking to me about it and it’s something I’m considering,” said Galatzan, who is now 13 months into her four-year term as a school board member.
I reminded her of our conversation last year. “I don’t remember what it was I told you,” she said.
She also elaborated on the reasons that she might run:
“The person who is going to take over after Wendy Greuel leaves in [Council District 2] is probably going to serve in that seat for 14 years,” Galatzan said. “It’s three terms [as the law allows] plus the one-and-a-half extra years [left] on [Greuel's] term. It’s important to me as someone who lives in the district and raises my kids in the district that my community is really represented by someone who is strong and capable and independent, and that’s why I’m thinking about it.”
…
You decide. That’s why we have a comment board.
–Steve Hymon
From top, Alarcon photo: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times
Fuentes photo: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press
Montanez photo: John Lok / Los Angeles Times
Greuel photo: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
Galatzan photo: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times
Tamar Galatzan is a Jack Weiss in sheep’s clothing
Well 4:12 if that were true, it would be a good thing you wackos notwithstanding. Someone who knows their way around City Hall and can get things done but is independent enough of the Mayor do do what they think is right.
Tamar voted against the Mayor’s board majority on approving full health benefits to cafeteria workers who work as little as 3 hours/ day, while Julie Korenstein NOT one of “his” people voted for it. She didn’t believe the $40 million/ year extra was affordable and said so.
She voted against Monica Garcia and the majority when it came to approving the building bonds which were eventually put on the ballot, and approved. She argued that spending billions on buildings isn’t what’s needed now but spending on the nuts and bolts of eduction, said that there’s no proof that more buildings for smaller schools would deliver better results because results depend on quality of teaching, principals and so on — look at successful charters. She pointed out LAUSD just finished or is building huge complexes like Belmont, Broad Performing Arts, the Ambassador site, numerous others, and all of a sudden Garcia was arguing they’re outdated already and we need lots of small schools? She agrees charters are desirable in general and wants more of them, but by converting under-utilized facilities first — in other words she’s fiscally responsible. As a moderate, business-friendly Democrat who’s lived in the area and raised her kids there she’s the best qualified, you knee-jerk haters aside.
Whats worse about Tamar is she has turned into an unreliable person when it comes to school reform.
She agrees with UTLA that NO teacher should ever be fired. She voted against Marlene Canters bill; marlene was trying to devise a process where molesters werent still in the classroom.
Gazatlan sided with AJ Duffy to screw the kids.
She is a disaster!
Anyone notice that Tamar’s email on her ethics filing leads straight to Stephan Kaufman’s law firm?
This guy is the “cosigliere” for the Mayor and most of city hall. She may already have his endorsement.
…I mean the mayor’s endorsement.
Where did I get the idea that the Mayor put out big bucks to get Tamar on the School Board? She is part of that machine, as far as I am concerned. No Thanks Tamar.
Hey Ron,
Kevin Acebo who is a deputy Mayor under Villaraigosa is running Tamar Galatzan’s campaign.
Also gasp — she has been an extremely reliable vote for reform per the Mayor’s vision.
So you sir, will need to support a nobody and prove that SLAP has real power. It doesn’t thank god.
I am either acquainted with or have met most of the candidates. My desire is to elect a Neighborhood Council activist. However, I also want to do everything possible to assure that neither Essel nor Krekorian get elected. The wild card in this race is Tamar. Is she independent enough to break with the rest of the City Council on key votes? I’d like your opinion. Go to my blog at phinvv.wordpress.com/ and enter your comments about any of the candidates on the CD 2 Election page.
Paul Hatfield, CPA
Treasurer, NC Valley Village
You appear to be a professional. Pleasant blog and wonderful writing abilities.