Making a run for it.. the 51st
Some of you know that I’ve been a member of our local neighborhood council for a number of years. I originally ran for the District 10 seat when the elections were first held back in 2000 and later ran for a second term winning that as well. At the end of this term I’ve decided that nine years on the neighborhood council is enough and others from District 10 should go on to participate and contribute.
Neighborhood councils were created as a way for residents to have influence in the development and events of their communities because L.A.’s downtown-centric government was failing to address the needs of L.A.’s suburbs.
As a resident and a parent of a couple of toddlers, I wanted to participate in that discussion. I wanted better schools, a better Westchester business district, more parks and more soccer fields.
Our neighborhood council’s collective weight helped spotlight and stall LAWA’s plans to expand the airport by moving the northernmost runway 340′ further into the community. It provided a forum for residents to speak with Pacific Division captains on a spate of burglaries that occurred in Kentwood and Playa del Rey a few years back. The NC was also instrumental getting most of our local public schools (including Westchester High School) out of the LAUSD’s local district and into the iDivision. It challenged the LADWP General Manager when he came out sell an electricity rate increase but instead ran into a buzz-saw when asked how they can declare hundreds of millions of dollars as “surplus” and give it to the city while holding out their hand to voters for a rate increase citing insufficient funds to upgrade the underground electrical infrastructure.
Even with its successes (and there have been many), the unfortunate reality is that the real power is still held by elected officials in higher office and neighborhood councils are for the most part.. advisory.
Yes, neighborhood councils can make things -very- awkward for members of the city council, the mayor, city departments and city unions when their goals aren’t in alignment with ours. Because of the system of neighborhood councils growing power, city interests are finding it more difficult to steamroll through taxes, bonds and pet projects. Neighborhood councils are putting a lot of eyes on city activities.
Eight years of being on the neighborhood council has given me an insight into big city and state politics that I could not get have received had I not been a part of it. But it also made me acutely aware that our communities fate is intrinsically tied to policies coming out of City government and more significantly, the California legislature.
We can complain all we want about dropouts but it won’t change locally. The change has to occur at the top. High school kids are not getting diplomas because they are less smart than students two, three, and four decades ago but because of the new education curriculum decided at the state level to raise the bar to getting a diploma. At the same time the State it eliminated vocational education as a path to receive one. It was a one size fits all solution that fits only a few.
Emphasizing that that point, Jose Huizar then a LAUSD board member (and later an L.A. City Councilman) said ”Yes, there will be dropouts. But I’m looking at the glass half full” when he introduced an even higher bar that made Algebra II the new requirement to receive a diploma beginning in 2016.
That glass half full so far is a million high school students who between 1997 and 2007 dropped out of LAUSD schools.
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I enjoyed my time on the neighborhood council immensely. I’ve learned a lot about city county and state government but I also realized that changes in education, housing, water resources can only be done legislatively in our capitol and I’m frankly tired of the people we keep sending there because those legislators are not improving our children’s education, they are ruining it. They are not bettering the quality of life for Californians, they are degrading it. They are not improving the wealth of the lower and middle class, they are bankrupting it.
Because of this I have decided to run for the 51st Assembly Seat that was recently vacated. The election will be held September 1st.
While my odds may not be all that good running against an entrenched Democratic machine; unlike theirs, my message crosses ideological boundaries. I offer solutions, not recycled campaign slogans. Solutions for better schools, for diplomas, for a sustainable planning policy and a scalable tax system that will pay for essential government services.
I hope that you will support me.
City officials seem to be getting their way in casting blame on residents for using too much water.
(What’s missing in the Los Angeles Magazine cover however is a lineup of the city council members that should be behind him. Los Angeles’s hard landing in the fiscal gutter was a team effort. ) 
A few weeks ago I met with Rosendahl and told him that they (LADWP) would skip Phase II entirely and go on to Phase III or Phase IV. This was something I predicted here last Fall though I didn’t think they would do it until June or July. The City Council approved of the stricter ordinance today.
By definition, any family with three to six members who stays under the current 28 HCF is already conserving since they are using up to 70% less per person than another household with only two people.
Westchester High School may have won its 5th State Division I title, but the basketball program continues to be nothing more than a private club team headed by Ed Azzam. A club that has no place for W/PdR students.
The unfortunate result of reducing the basic (Tier I) allotment is that it hurts the pocketbook of households with three or more members, particularly those with kids. Single member households and couples will easily stay under the 24 HFC tier level.