For many who do not keep up with local city (Los Angeles) politics, there a change happening in City Hall Council Chambers. This change is the stir made by one person who is not afraid to call city officials on the carpet for what errors of judgment, fairness or ethics that he finds. What the council says is the effect or purpose of a proposed ordinance or motion very often is found to be something that is not quite that, and often, the consequences of council actions serve to benefit special interests more than anyone else. These are commonplace scenarios that are brought about by a certain individual, very much the activist to reveal the waste, fraud and abuse in L.A. politics.
This is Zuma Dogg. He will be one featured part on the ABC television network news show, "Nightline" scheduled for Wednesday, January 14th, at 11a;35 p.m., carried on KABC-TV 7 locally.
Whether this program will give us a good sample of his activities in city hall politics or whether it's going to be just a glimpse, I don't know. but there's always something going on that works to annoy our politicians, but they need to be watched. In any event, if you are not familiar with ZD, check it out Wednesday night.
O.K., you say so what, this has been going on for years, what's changed now? For one thing, we have the L.A. CITY election that includes the offices of the Mayor, City Attorney and City Controller, as well as the odd-numbered council district, such as CD-1, Lincoln Heights area included where Ed Reyes is running against Jesus "Jesse" Rosas.
Zuma Dogg qualified to be placed on the ballot as a candidated for Mayor, one of many challengers to Mayor Tony's effort to extend his personal empire to a second term. You will find Zuma Dogg's name right next to Tony's on the ballot. ZD collected nearly all the petition signatures himself, an effort that provided him with the opportunity to share views with the public in an immediate fashion, something that commercial services or even volunteers cannot provide to those whose signatures are sought.
The presence of Zuma Dogg at City Hall has had the effect of getting people interested in what is going on inside City Hall, and you can follow the manipulations of council and the mayor with ZD's often extreme and passionate presentations that get the point across to even the most casual observer. The view that City Hall was some mystical place that was rarely visited has been completely converted by Zuma Dogg's theatrics and confrontational presentations to bring a level of communication that engages the regular person in terms that no longer are esoteric code and legal-double-talk, but instead, plain English.
The ideas and effects of what is going on there has been continually translated and put into common sense, everday terms for the general public to follow and instead of changes in the law being buried in oddly-crafted phrases, the workings and consequences have been brought out to see the light of day, much to the displeasure of the incumbent councilmembers. And who has been doing this? Zuma Dogg.
ZD has brought to many in the public a sense of accessibility to the local government that did not exist before. You are finding more and more people showing up at City Hall and others organizing in order to be heard. The power of organizing, formerly a trademark of the 60's activists, is showing a resurgence. Many of these "take-back-the-city" groups are from so-called grass roots origins. Previously, access to the local political forces was only available to the special interest folks that brought noticeable campaign contributions with them. They still are in the game, but they are not the only ones now.
That was the face of traditional politics that has a chance to change now. Most of the incumbents hold their office because they are aligned with a political force, be it a party or group of particular politicians to make holding an office about the same as a family passing along property by a will when leaving this Earth. Except that the difference here is that these politicians leave office due to term limits and keep that seat warm while choosing who will be the next occupant of that office, all while they work on moving to the next political office themselves. It's their own style of "Musical Chairs" and when the music stops, we usually wind up worse off than before in terms of the quality political representation.
That's not good for the general public, and you will see that kind of thing happening now. If you are not able to afford a lobbyist or make a contribution to the campaign war chest, you remain a stranger to them. Your vote is a long sought commodity but their interest in you takes that dramatic dive once the elections are over. This is not the best way to run a government for the benefit of the people and more will be brought up here on that thought.
There are the haters in this area- many of them working overtime at it. You can read the Mayor Sam blog (listed also in the sidebar) for bloggers who have the ritual of berating, ridiculing and just being nasty when it comes to comments about ZD or anyone supporting him. You can also read Zuma Dogg's own blog, http://ladailyblog.blogspot.com/ for the latest news on the local level, brought to you in a certain down to earth style.
For all the hopelessness claimed by the haters that Zuma's campaign involves, you do not see these guys let up. It's at all part of the effort to try to shake people from following ZD to the polls on March 3 as the Candidate of Choice. (Many of the posters undoubtedly have jobs in the City. Keeping that job depends on on their guy (Tony) remaining in office- he's got over 90 people working directly for him as it is and others indirectly are connected- so who would really leave their continued employment up to chance?)
If you read the Tony Villaraigosa 11%-All About Me story in the L.A. Weekly, http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-11/news/the-all-about-me-mayor/ you might see why the Mayor might be a little more than concerned, even with his millions collected to sway voters in the coming weeks- there are a lot of people dissatisfied with Tony's actions in his first term.
Check Nightline for Zuma Dogg on Wednesday night (barring being pre-empted) or just check the City Council meetings online or on CH. 35 (for the time being) at 10 am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, replays on 35 later, OR, online at anytime by selecting the video for the date you want to see and jump by subjects right to Public Comment. http://www.lacity.org/cdvideo.htm
More, much more, later.
Posts
