At the height of the Red Scare 60 years ago, Sen. Joseph McCarthy was fond of waving sheets of paper claiming he had a list of Commies in government, sometimes 205 of them, sometimes only 57, depending on his sobriety at the time.
The lists were fictitious but Councilman Jose Huizar’s lists aren’t. They aren’t Commies but lists of friends and enemies, those who matter and those who don’t.
David Zahniser pops the story in the LA Times today with lists of 178 civic leaders in the 14th District ranked on a zero-to-five scale for “influence” and on a plus-three to minus-three scale for “support” of the Councilman.
Four different lists were provided to Zahniser by Eagle Rock businessman Rudy Martinez who has put together a well-funded campaign to challenge Huizar in the March 8 election.
Martinez, a one-time Huizar supporter who became disenchanted, got the highest marks for support on two of the lists.
You can just imagine Huizar aides whispering in his ear on his occasional forays among the people in his district, “Father Boyle, 2 for clout.” Or Glassell Park community leader Laura Gutierrez “minus 2 for support.” Or LA Clean Sweep leader Heinrich Keifer “1 for clout.”
You know how hard it is to keep these things straight in your mind when you meet so many people and only care about those who support you and have influence — not to mention money.
What an embarrassment!
It seems Huizar started having his staff, which included Martinez’s mother until July when she got booted because her son was talking about running, develop the lists after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa moved him over from his low-paying school board seat to one of the 15 prized positions on the nation’s highest paid City Council.
Huizar denied and dissembled until confronted with copies of the lists.
“Huizar gave varying answers about the lists when asked about them,” Zahniser reports. “He
initially said he believed the practice had been dropped in 2006. After
The Times told Huizar that it had copies of office e-mails sent and
received by his staff in 2009 making reference to such lists, he said
the ranking system ended as recently as two years ago.
“When Huizar
was shown a copy of a list for the northeast section of his district,
he described it as ‘familiar.’ When he was shown one dealing with El
Sereno, he said: ‘I’ve never seen this.’ “
He refused to turn over all lists he has, saying through a spokesman: “The public interest served by protecting the council member’s
decision-making process clearly outweighs the public interest served by
the record’s disclosure.”
Say what? “Public interest,” “decision-making process” — could Huizar be deciding what he does based as a public servant sworn to serve the public interest based on who has influence and who supports him? Heaven forbid!
It’s hard to believe anyone else is so insecure as to keep such lists but their exposure does shine a light on the pervasive attitude of City Hall that ordinary folks working to improve their neighborhoods don’t count for much unless they suck up to the politicians and can deliver votes in exchange for the favors they get.
Critics of Huizar have long complained that he often behaves exactly that way, doesn’t work hard enough to serve his constituents and is ineffective in meeting their needs — except during election campaigns.
The contest between Martinez, endorsed Sunday by LA Clean Sweep, and Huizar is shaping up as the costliest and nastiest in this election season so you can be sure a lot more will be coming out in the weeks ahead.
The Huizar lists is already pissing off people. IT goes to show Huizar is clueless as to the people in CD 14 and what they do. “If you got a low score good for you” is what community members are saying. Interesting point is some of the people and organizations who we all know are big supporters of Huizar got some of the lowest scores. I don’t think they will be voting for Huizar this time round.
What does CBO stand for?
Who does Huizar think he is? A Mexican mafia Richard Nixon?
Oh man, if I were Huizar, I’d be hiding in a cave right now. I don’t know whether to laugh or feel reeeeeally embarrassed for him.
Do you think he had a similar list when dating?
I wonder what folks on the list will say? After the election, we ought to cross check those names with donors. I’ll bet the majority will donate to Martinez.
Do other council members or the mayor have such lists?
CBO stand for community based organization.
I suppose we all keep mental lists of our friends, false friends, user-puppy friends, people we never want to be in the same room with, perceived enemies and real foes … some of whom are in our own families.
But the real question is how many in our local government have such lists?
The even bigger question is what political favors have the friends received and what retaliatory actions have been taken against any of these real or imaginary enemies?
David Z has held back a couple of the lists from Boyle Heights and El Sereno. Hopefully he’s holding them for another story maybe the CLARTS FUND abuse. Huizar transferred over $1.5 million of that fund into the General Fund and has yet to explain what it was used for although many say his staffer salaries. Wendy Greuesome better stop playing media whore and find out where that money went. So many are not happy with Wendy’s performance or lack of not doing her job. She’s hosting another event instead of doing the job she was elected to do.
I would really like to see ALL of the lists.
I wonder what would happen if a list of all the business and trade organizations saw where they ranked on the lists.
If so, Martinez would probably win in a heartbeat.
RANKS” them by Influence, Power, and so Many are deemed Insignificant constitutents.
It’s a shame when a person who is truely in need can’t get the time of day.
Wendy Gruel has always been close to Jose Huiza and she will not provide the same level of “mediawhoreness” and will not report any findings and this is, A Conflict of Interest.
I suggest that you can’t run for another office while in Office and or if you do, and lose you forgo your current position.
For example, Janice Hahn RAN while she was a Council Member for Lieutenant Governor of the STATE against Galvin Newsome. She lost.
If a member of the elected Council decides somewhere in the middle, she would prefer to run for Office they should forgo his or her elected SEAT. That would give Citizens full attention to the needs of all constituents unless they all keep such sheets.
Now, I am so happy AS AN INDIVIDUAL my name is not on that list. It would be embarrassing to call A COUNCIL MEMBERS OFFICE and be RANKED or JUDGED in such a criminal way.
If Huizar is teaching his staff to make these judgements, it would be GREAT if he lost because he has forgotten he has a duty to SERVE.
http://youtu.be/WkRdj9L3wyE
How pathetic many community members on the list are volunteers not paid staffers. I think we should all rate Huizar’s job performance in the same categories he’s rated others. Business owners along the main street corridors in Boyle Heights are saying they were told to put a Huizar sign in the store fronts or else it would be hard to do business. The Failure of a Mayor did the same thing to business owners when he ran. Poor Latino business owners have no choice.
What do you expect from a former LAUSD Board Member, the list is a value added assessment of his constituents’ characters and support. How many of the City employees listed live in L.A.?
I am on the list and I rank fairly high. I am less offended that there is a list and more disgusted that the list was put on paper, reviewed frequently and took up valuable staff time to update it. My relatives in El Sereno told me time and time again from the moment he was first elected that they never saw him in their district and that they couldn’t get a response to any of their concerns from his field office. I spent countless family occasions defending Jose Huizar because I saw him often and I just could not believe it. I could never quite figure out why our experiences were so different. Pretty pathetic that it all comes down to a ranking. And to think I thought we were doing the good works of the district together. I’m guessing my ranking just went down.
It has been commented several times on this site that the Mafia led by Antonio and his friends, the City Council, have taken over the city. A city managed by threats and intimidation of the public.
“I am not a crook”
this make me wonder. Is Martinez that scared of losing this race that he has to resort to high school ways of digging up CRAP on his opponet. When is martinez going to tell the community of what he has planned. As of right now I have not seen him at any community meetings and there have been many. His lack of concern for the community make me question his concern for the people and how the see things. He need to grow up and quit playing kids games!!!!
It seems the wall on the Pacific bell building on Meridian st and Ave 56 has been tagged until you can really not see the Mural. For 5 years or more we’ve begged no way Jose to fix it. Well guess what this Sat Jan 29 2011 he’s kickin off party to repair it. Is this because it’s an election year? Makes ya wonder?