(REPUBLISHED FROM OURLA.ORG)
Paul Krekorian got a lesson Friday in how City Hall works when his colleagues on the City Council rejected his committee report for the City Clerk to come back on Tuesday with options on how the newly-formed Westwood Neighborhood Council could hold an election by July.
As chairman of the Education and Neighborhoods Committee, Krekorian proposed a series of steps for the City Clerk to take in response to widespread criticism of the process for holding NC elections between March and July, including giving each council the power to decide on term limits and use volunteer poll workers.
The only controversy was over Krekorian's recommendation the the City Clerk "report on the feasibility of including the newly-certified Westwood Neighborhood Council in the City Clerk's upcoming 2010 Neighborhood Election cycle, and on a process by which new certified neighborhood councils will be included in the City Clerk's neighborhood election process."
Krekorian offered a reasoned case on why several options should be considered because of cost and expediency to allow for Westwood to be able to elect its board in the coming months rather than wait two years for the next NC election cycle.
Westside Councilman Paul Koretz would have none of it, insisting the City Clerk would just come back next week with reasons for "why it can't be done."
He was backed with vehemence by Richard Alarcon, whose right to hold office has been questioned by District Attorney investigators who served search warrants based on a tip that the councilman doesn't actually live in the Valley district he represents.
So the issue was whether the City Clerk's office had to be ordered to do its job or whether it could be trusted to provide reasonable alternatives for Council consideration, a small point to be sure.
The vote was 10-1 against Krekorian -- a rare lack of unanimity that was in a sign that the Council's political agenda now includes pleasing the NC movement and a lesson for Krekorian that he will find himself isolated and without support if he tries to buck the sytem when larger issues come up.
Ron Kaye
Go Paul K, Go!
Agreed. Go Paul, go!. I like that it was 10-1. Someone is actually willing to stand up for what they feel is right regardless of the other clowncil members. Could it be that he is representing his constituents?
Paul has the support citywide of neighborhood councils and others. This is why the morons on council will buck him. They are insecure council members who can't get anything done and here comes Paul showing him on it CAN be done. You said it best Ron, ""Krekorian offered a reasoned case on why several options should be considered""
These clowns on council don't know what a reasonable solution is to anything. And to think 5 of them have the unrealistic idea they should be Mayor. Everyone should send Krekorian an email supporting his efforts and thanking him.
Paul has the support citywide of neighborhood councils and others. This is why the morons on council will buck him. They are insecure council members who can't get anything done and here comes Paul showing him on it CAN be done. You said it best Ron, ""Krekorian offered a reasoned case on why several options should be considered""
These clowns on council don't know what a reasonable solution is to anything. And to think 5 of them have the unrealistic idea they should be Mayor. Everyone should send Krekorian an email supporting his efforts and thanking him.
Paul Krekorian: A man among children. He is every thing he ever promised.
Go, Paul, go! is right.
If he is cowed and buckles under his first slap-down by the entrenched, then there's no hope of anyone ever standing up for the people who elect them and doing the right thing.
One councilman who bucks the system can be the beginning of change when other council members see that it's having an effect and reaction by the reactionary's constituency.
Go, Paul, go! is right.
If he is cowed and buckles under his first slap-down by the entrenched, then there's no hope of anyone ever standing up for the people who elect them and doing the right thing.
One councilman who bucks the system can be the beginning of change when other council members see that it's having an effect and reaction by the reactionary's constituency.
Hacopian must be stopped.
Paul Krekorian, in one of your first moves as a councilman, you showed us that you are not part of the 'business as usual" brigade and that you will stand up for the people of LA and take the heat for trying to do the right thing, the honorable thing. The rest of the Council are cowards and cretins, who plot and plan how to make their next dirty deal, while making empty speeches and grandiose gestures.
Your fellow most recent ex-Sacramento exile, Paul Koretz, slithered straight into the 'business as usual' club, and prompted many who did not know you to worry that you would be the same as him - a duplicitous double-dealing dope. You are not anything like Koretz.
Be strong Paul Krekorian, Los Angeles need you to show the rest of that bunch of self-serving leeches that doing the right thing has its reward. With all the even-numbered council seats coming up for re-election in 2011, I hope you will encourage a new breed of elected official to take the City back from these phony baloney shysters. It's a pity that Koretz won't be up for re-election until 2013, unless the recall Koretz movement gets its act together soon enough to throw him on the unemployed line where he belongs.
While you lick your wounds from daring to stand up to the 'business as usual' brigade, take a moment to give Nuch Trutanich a call. You and he have a lot more in common it seems. You are both men of conscience and principle; that separates you from the rest of that unholy alliance in the Horseshoe.
9:36
Hate to break it to you but Carmen endorsed AV's candidate Chris Essel.
He was apparently conned by John Shallman into endorsing her.
Any way you look at it, glad we have Paul Krekorian in the city council.
Wish he was my councilman.
What a load of hypocritical BS this "article" is. It's clear that having endorsed Krekorian, Ron and OurLA are going to hold his views sacrosanct and anyone who dares oppose him on anything as evil.
I supported Krekorian over Essel but this is just another case where the biases of this blog make it downright silly.
Of course Koretz had not only the right but the obligation to do the right thing for HIS district, instead of as Krekorian wanted, handing DONE an opportunity to come up with excuses why id could NOT be done.
You're all for Krekorian (and previously Greuel) going all out for Sunland-Tujunga over the Home Depot and Verdugo Hills issues, but think the district councilman should concede to newcomer from another district? Not that I think it's right IF Krekorian puts S-T over other communities in CD2, and real guts will be to make sure he puts the needs of the city above the parochialism of his own constituents when it comes to that. (Something few on council do, hence a good part of our problems.) But in this case Koretz did something you should support. If you were remotely driven by consistent principles and facts, not sheer biases.
The issue we are not raising our voice about 5.6 million misplaced WHAT.
Lot of nerve to even say something like that
Mr.KIm and the assistant Gm need to go Jail
DONE has Stolen Money and it looks like their going to get away because the neighborhood councils are not focused.
Mr. Kim is Lying He took DONE around 2/06 because Carol baker Thorpe was dying from cancer and out on leave she never came back
Why Lie unless he is hiding something.
12:37 I don't understand why you think Westwood's election issue has anything to do with Sunland-Tujunga other than an opportunity slap Krekorian for doing what community members in all of District Two elected him to do, which is to represent all of us. We knew when we elected him that he would Chair the E & E Committee and believe he will do a good job. Thank you Paul,stick to your integrity don't let anyone side track you.
It's not surprising that Koretz is once again siding with the crowd. He's been an insider all his political life, sliding and sliming his way around the political merry-go-round. He screwed up when he was in Sacramento writing the horribly confusing and misleading marijuana law, and now that he's in LA he's trying to avoid taking responsibility for the mess he caused here. Koretz gives new meaning to the phrase "two faced" as one moment he's complaining about the law he wrote, the next, he's blaming Trutanich and Cooley for enforcing it. His recent statements on CBS News were so outrageous that many in CD5 now realize what a mistake they made to hold their noses and vote for him. If you haven't seen what Koretz said, take a look at http://tiny.cc/KoretzCh9News
12:37pm is a sissy and crybaby. Most likley a council staffer. Krekorian is the only council member who is showing he's FOR THE PEOPLE." He has the balls to go against the majority of losers on council who have ruined our city. Have you all noticed how high school and juvenile it was for Bitter Bernie to move his seat next to Perry? They are not in grade school anymore but behave as such. Krekorian has come out strong and swinging and THE PEOPLE in the city love it. As long as Paul knows he has our support and the council members are the ones who are looking like low class, immature crybabies. They have been an embarrassement to our city and to the entire Nation.
This was little more than political Kabuki. The principles all know each other well enough from State Legislator days--and of course Paul Kore very happily attended Paul Krek's victory party.
The real question is, why did Krekorian's report call for any performance milestone from the City Clerk's office regarding Westwood NC or any particular NC in the first place? It was indeed out of place--you can't specify one particular case as the lab rat that will serve as the experiement implement an Ordinance that is supposed to work in every case in perpetuity.
I'm sure Paul Krek scored some points in Westwood with the request; it also kills time seating Westwood, which makes Paul Kore happy; but really, the inclusion of Recommendation 4a was nothing more than a gratuitous shout-out to Westwood, and a little stall in Council, that shouldn't have been included in the report at all. Paul Krek may know more about how City Council works than it seems.
Joe Mailander, you're generally very clear but not sure what you're saying here. Why would you say that Krekorian's motion "kills time seating Westwood, which makes Paul Kore happy" when it was Paul Kore who objected to Paul Krek's motion because it would delay seating Westwood by allowing for excuses fron DONE NOT do to so, while imposing extra restrictions on it as Krek wanted? You seem to have it backwards here. As for those hailing Krek as some sort of people's savior over his stance here - that's just par for the course.
Hacopian must be stopped.
someone needs to remind Paul Krekorian that there is more to CD2 than Sunland-Tujunga.