Northridge Community Council 5-30-03 Update |
We are sending you this E-mail as you have requested to be notified concerning Northridge Community Council events and projects affecting it.
Come join us on Saturday which is the day for community non-profits. Sunday is the day for a health fair, health related programs and organizations. Friday night is for rides and "family entertainment."
We are asking the Council Stakeholders for help staffing the booth. We will be there from 10am-6pm on Saturday. We need your help to donate an hour or so, to make it easier on all of us. This is an especially good opportunity for those who were unable to help staff our booth at the Northridge Oasis Fair. We will be able to hand our flyer to an expected 80,000+ visitors! Shade, Seating, and Water will be provided. Please call Jane Lowenthal, 818-366-5009 or Charles Brink 818-886-5223.
No extra cops for L.A. | Ultimate betrayal | Arleta election flaws charged
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~1421161,00.html
5-28-03 By Harrison Sheppard
Staff Writer
The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected Mayor James Hahn's plan to hire more police officers, setting the stage for a showdown over the cornerstone of his $5.1 billion budget. While at the same time approving a 65% increase in sanitation fees ( read taxes) which go to the council to spend as they see fit
Hahn immediately escalated what has become the toughest fight of his administration by accusing the council of jeopardizing the public's safety. "Today's council vote was about one thing: how committed are we as a city to improving public safety. I think the council's vote, unfortunately, said not committed enough," Hahn said. "Unfortunately, the council put the funding for police hiring aside for a rainy day. I'm here to tell you that rainy day is already here. To communities that are plagued by gang violence, it's been raining a long time."
The council's 11-3 vote sets the stage for its first veto showdown with Hahn. While he has vetoed three items since taking office two years ago, the council has never mustered the votes to override him. Whether it has those 10 votes this time remains tantalizingly uncertain.
Hahn, who has five working days to act after receiving the budget, said he planned to veto the portions of the council action that changed his public safety plans but was still considering whether he would veto any other elements of the council action.
The council's approved action was to set aside -- not cut -- $69 million in spending from Hahn's plan, and decide in about six months whether the money should be spent as the mayor envisioned. The council's concern was the uncertainty in Sacramento and the possibility that the mayor's budget could lead to deficits up to $300 million in 2004-05.
"The issue is: Is the city solvent enough to go higher?" said Councilman Jack Weiss. "It's not about whether you hire more officers this year. It's about whether you make financially unwise decisions and are forced to fire officers next year."
The public safety deferrals amounted to about $27 million and included Hahn's plan to boost the Police Department by 320 officers and launch new initiatives to fight gangs and terrorism. The council did restore Hahn's plan to add a 10th member to the Fire Department's task forces, a plan it had earlier considered deferring as well.
The council needs 10 votes to override a mayoral veto. While the 11-3 margin appears lopsided enough to be veto-proof, that may not hold because six members indicated support for Hahn's proposed compromise to keep his public safety plan while making 3 percent spending cuts elsewhere throughout city government.
The council sent that compromise to committee, essentially defeating it, by an 8-6 vote. Several of those six said they were waiting to see what form the mayor's veto takes before deciding whether they would take his side in an override vote.
Councilwoman Ruth Galanter was absent for the vote, but in the past had sided with the majority against Hahn on the budget issue.
Following the vote, Police Chief William Bratton, who wants to hire more officers and reorganize the LAPD, issued a written statement that was far calmer and more conciliatory than earlier statements in which he irritated council members with his harsh criticism, only to apologize later. "I am disappointed that today's council action will delay that reorganization and some of the crime reduction strategies that have significant potential to greatly improve public safety in the city of Los Angeles," Bratton said.
Councilman Dennis Zine, one of the potential swing votes, said he wanted to see increases in public safety but had not decided if he would vote to override a Hahn veto because the mayor had yet to act.
Last week, when the council cast a preliminary 11-4 vote against Hahn's budget, Zine was in the minority supporting Hahn, but Wednesday he changed his vote to oppose him. Still, he remained one of the six who voted in favor of Hahn's compromise.
"The fact of the matter is public safety is paramount," said Zine, a retired LAPD sergeant. "I don't want to prejudge what I'm going to do. I want to see what the mayor does. Based on what he does, then we'll figure out what we do."
Symbolizing the tensions that have risen during the budget deliberations, members Nate Holden and Janice Hahn, the mayor's sister, engaged in a testy exchange during Wednesday's debate.
Holden used to work for the Hahns' father, the late Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, and frequently invokes his name during council debates. Wednesday, Holden said he thought the senior Hahn would not like his son's plan to make 3 percent cuts to libraries and parks because of how much work the elder Hahn did to boost the county's park system.
Referring to the county park in South Los Angeles named after the late supervisor, Holden said, "What if those cuts were implemented across the board there, as they're being proposed here? His legacy should live on based on what he's done, the example he's shown for the people of this county and this city."
"This motion should go down where it belongs, down the tubes," Holden added. "We should not vote for it. It's an insult and an affront to the people of this city to even have them believe we can balance the budget this way."
Janice Hahn took offense at the statement, saying her father championed the county paramedic program, one that was later copied by governments across the state.
"Don't you use my father's name," she scolded Holden, her voice rising. "Don't use my father's name to back up your reason for not voting for public safety. If there was any legacy Kenny Hahn had, it was about public safety.
"I know more than you what he believed in and what he cared about."
The mayor has line-item veto authority over the budget, but can only put the items back as he originally proposed, not make new cuts or expenses. He also has the authority, without the council, to implement the 3 percent cut proposal that was part of his compromise plan by ordering general managers to reduce their spending. He cannot, however, transfer those saved funds for any other purpose without subsequent council approval.
Copyright © 2003 Los Angeles Daily News Los Angeles Newspaper Group
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20951~1416519,00.html
The revived Belmont Learning Center is the curse of the LAUSD
With their decision to complete the Belmont Learning Center, the flip-flopping Los Angeles school board and Superintendent Roy Romer have committed the ultimate betrayal of parents, students, teachers and taxpayers.
This betrayal began years ago, when the board decided to deprive teachers and students of classroom funds, using the money to buy the land that now houses the infamous school atop an earthquake fault and oil field spewing dangerous gases.
Now the board has compounded that betrayal by signing off on a new Belmont plan that would put a 2,100-seat high school and 500-seat academy on the site, as well as a library/auditorium, parent center and 10- to 12-acre park. The park will be run by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, for which it will pay a symbolic $1 a year -- symbolic of what little regard the LAUSD has for taxpayer money that's supposed to educate children.
The original, unfinished Belmont Learning Center already has cost taxpayers at least $166 million and probably quite a bit more if a true accounting were made. At that price, it's the nation's costliest school ever built or, in this case, not built.
Completing the project is expected to cost (at least) $111 million more, which brings the total price to nearly $300 million -- or an astonishing $100,000 per seat. Romer and the board now plan to spend Measure K funds to help pay the bill, despite repeated promises that none of the bond money would be used for the star-crossed project.
Chalk it up as just another betrayal.
But the even greater betrayal is the LAUSD's violation of the public trust.
The board had previously decided -- twice -- to abandon Belmont due to the health and environmental risks.
That was then. Now, expedience rules the day.
Without thorough study of the risks at hand, the board has pushed forward, rushing to complete a school that will be a target for lawsuits every time somebody gets a headache. And that's the best-case scenario.
What if there's an earthquake and the LAUSD's disregard of the danger leads to deaths and injuries? What if the explosive and toxic gases seeping up from below kill or sicken children of staff members? Given the flagrant disregard of safety and common sense, the liability will be enormous.
The real victims are the students and parents in the Belmont area who have waited for years for a new school, and very likely will wait a lot longer if someone sues to block construction for one of 100 reasons.
For a man of his age, Romer has proved himself to be quite an acrobat on Belmont, turning somersaults and handstands to please various special interests.
He didn't start this monument to the failure of the LAUSD, but he clearly intends to finish it. Maybe it should be called the Roy Romer Learning Center. That way, long after Romer has returned to his ranch in Colorado, everyone will know whom to thank -- or blame
Copyright © 2003 Los Angeles Daily News Los Angeles Newspaper Group
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~1409787,00.html
Challenge targets local council poll
By James Nash Staff Writer
ARLETA -- A Panorama City man on Thursday filed a formal challenge to last weekend's election of the Arleta Neighborhood Council, alleging a series of technical violations by city officials that tainted the vote.
Ron Woods, who served on the formation committee for the Arleta Neighborhood Council, forwarded his 11 challenges of the advisory panel's election to the Los Angeles chapter of the League of Women Voters, which was designated as the administrator of Saturday's election.
Among other things, Woods alleges that the Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment failed to print election materials in Tagalog for Filipinos in the area, that it failed to post election results in one of five agreed-upon places and that it changed some of the election rules without consulting people in the community.
"It doesn't matter whether you're playing football, hockey or baseball; there's rules and once you throw out those rules there's anarchy," said Woods, who did not run in the election.
Greg Nelson, the DONE general manager, said he could not comment on the specific charges because the Arleta Neighborhood Council's formation committee agreed that the League of Women Voters would forward the challenge to his staff for a ruling. But Nelson said the DONE staff could not arbitrarily change the election rules by itself; it could only recommend changes to the formation committee.
In his challenge letters, Woods wrote that the various violations of election procedure add up to a flawed election that needs to be held again. Woods said two other members of the formation committee agreed with him.
Copyright © 2003 Los Angeles Daily News Los Angeles Newspaper Group
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