Northridge Community Council 8-20-02 Update |
We are sending you this E-mail as you have requested to be notified concerning Northridge Community Council events and projects affecting it.
Meeting reminder | Council News | Tax dollars as a weapon in the battle of secession
This is to remind you to come to the Northridge council meeting Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Northridge Hospital., 18300 Roscoe Blvd. (map)
http://www.northridgecouncil.org/images/Northhospital.gif
Parking to be in the parking structure on Etiwanda, south of Roscoe. The penthouse on the fifth floor of the building north of the parking structure (toward Roscoe).
Here as a link to the agenda and the minutes of our last meeting.
http://www.northridgecouncil.org/notices/020821ag.htm
http://www.northridgecouncil.org/notices/020717min.htm
Please read the minutes, as you will be asked to vote on their acceptance.
The major presentation will be by CSUN concerning the vacation of city streets and traffic issues in the community. It seems the community would like CSUN to work closer with the community and the council on issues since it’s actions have a major affect our community.
Jane Lowenthall will present a report on the community's loss in allowing a major change in the Porter Ranch specific plan for drive-through restaurants. Even after this carefully negotiated plan between the residents and the developers, which was approved by the L.A. city government, the developer’s changes continue taking away the community’s gains with the full support of the L.A. City power structure.
The Northridge pool will be on the next agenda because of the immediate interest in the CSUN traffic will all not allow adequate time for this issue.
We invited the local city attorney to discuss the problem on Aqueduct Street and received no response.
We are still in an "on hold" as a certified council because DONE and the city attorneys still disapprove the rights of any stakeholders to determine anything within the community. L.A. Councilperson Wendy Gruel has introduced a change to specifically allow town hall format as neighborhood councils. It is unlikely we will be certified before the secession election in November.
As a final note, at the DONE congress of neighborhood councils, in a panel on providing information to stakeholders: the advice of the panel was to just give general information to stakeholders. You, the elected board, should make all the decisions for the community. Their position was "Don't confuse the stakeholders with too much information".
As your director in charge of information technology side of the council, I believe in giving you all the information possible on our web site. Then letting you, the stakeholder-voters, make a decision based on information. Instead of a miniature city council telling you what you get.
Democracy is messy but it sure beats a dictatorship or the L.A. City Council.
Please come to the meeting and voice your opinion and vote to be empowered to present the community's recommendations.
Charles Brink
A Los Angeles City Council committee is giving San Fernando Valley residents 120 million more reasons to think seriously about secession.
Last week, the council's Finance and Budget Committee toyed with the idea of reducing or deferring some $120 million in city spending, pending a Valley secession vote that is likely to take place on Nov. 5.
The proposed cuts and deferrals would include $58.6 million for ongoing programs and $60 million in construction projects such as libraries, parks, asbestos removal from city buildings and completion of work on the Van Nuys Civic Center. Even equipment purchases for city firefighters and police officers could be deferred.
The stated purpose of the proposal is "to give the city some reserves in preparation for secession" -- a prudent, noble-sounding claim.
And a completely dishonest one at that.
Whether the Valley should secede from Los Angeles remains an open question that can't be answered fairly until the Local Agency Formation Commission spells out the terms for a breakup. But if there's one thing we do know about secession, it's this:
The city of Los Angeles would in no way suffer financially as a result of Valley independence.
State law guarantees that in the event of secession, L.A. will be kept financially whole. That's why LAFCO has conducted extensive studies on the fiscal impact of a breakup on the remaining city. And that's why an independent Valley could expect to pay $5 million in annual alimony payments to the remaining L.A.
So if City Hall's budget makers have nothing to fear from secession, why are they frantically sounding the alarms and making threats about slashing programs?
The answer is a cheap, dirty-but-often-successful form of politics that city leaders have long practiced: Scare tactics.
For secession to succeed, it needs to win not only the approval of Valley residents but also a majority of votes throughout the city, including the Valley. L.A. leaders, no doubt, realize that grim forecasts of economic woe -- even if unfounded -- might be sufficient to scare a fair number of Angelenos living outside the Valley into voting no.
The doom-and-gloom might also intimidate some Vals, too.
It's a safe bet that any city funding for the Valley that's deferred until Nov. 5 would be canceled outright if secession were to pass. What the Finance and Budget Committee is proposing is a repugnant form of political hostage-taking -- vote down secession or you'll never see your tax money again.
To his credit, Mayor James Hahn has said through a spokesman that he won't support making any spending contingent on a secession vote. But elsewhere in City Hall, the idea seems to have currency, and as L.A. leaders struggle to make the city budget look balanced, ripping off the Valley might seem a tempting answer.
It wouldn't be the first time. That's the sort of bullying that drove Valley residents to seek secession in the first place.
** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C., section 107, some material is provided without permission from the copyright owner, only for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of federal copyright laws. These materials may not be distributed further, except for "fair use," without permission of the copyright owner. **If you friends want to be added to our E-mail list to be notified by E-mail about meetings and issues please send an E-mail with Northridge Council as the subject. We share our e-mail list with no one. Charles Brink, Webmaster. If you want to have your name removed from the list just reply with remove as subject.Update Index
|
