Ron Kaye, former Daily News editor and now blogger on http://www.ronkayela.com/ , continues to cut through the smoke and mirrors in City Hall and this current posting, "On Billboards, Busted Budgets and Bad Leadership," By Ron Kaye on May 27, 2009, http://ronkayela.com/2009/05/why-we-fight-city-hall-1.html continues the search for the elusive truths of issues before the Council.
There is a lot there in the blog post today to bring you up to date on the general state of what is happening in City Council chambers, and you can see past entries for views on other aspects of city "leadership" coming from elected officials. What they turn out to be "leading" is a continued and arguably literal looting of whatever funding sources they can find. And wherever they find funds, the end result hits home, ultimately reaching your own pocketbooks for a extraction of cash or a severe cut in services that are really priorities for a sustaining a productive society.
You can see and hear some of these examples on the video clips supplied on this website, RonKayesLA. If you really are ambitious, or happen to be a doubter, you can see the original cast in live performances, brought to you by assorted current technology: The city council meets again today at 10 a.m. on Ch. 35 for city cable viewers, replayed a couple of times each day, and available live and on-demand for older council meetings on the city website video and audio page, http://lacity.org/lacity/YourGovernment/CityCouncil/CouncilMeetings/LIVEandON-DEMANDVideo/index.htm All of the video are searchable and there is a built in "jump to" so you can zero in on specific agenda items. Agendas area also retrievable, usually in the video screen or by PDF files.
What you see in these Council meetings is usually is a lot of talkng in "code" so that you don't really know what is done that leads to the quick votes that are taken, usually coming at the early part of meetings (unless you read AND STUDY the accompanying "Agenda"). The Agenda is a document also written in the unhelpful "code" instead of any informative plain English. The meetings often include lots of rhetoric, the predictable preaching and self-serving statements by the Council Members who each can comment on any agenda matter- 15 potential sets of comments possible if all are there at one time, not the usual case.
"Public Comment," on the other hand, limits each speaker to 2 minutes apiece at the most to speak on non-agenda items of all sorts. Those comments can be a bit detached from the agenda matters and some handle the moment well and others run out of time in mid-topic. As for the Council side of speaking, any statements by the CMs tend largely to be purely fiction, without any opportunity for a meaningful challenge their exaggerations and misstatements uttered during their long time alottments to speak. And the CMs know that. The favorite phrase thrown around is "... the great leadership shown by ...." See what I mean about fictions?
That's politics and that's why you cannot rely on the Council (and Mayor, as well) to be allowed to run on "automatic pilot." Instead, watching them closely, as you would do with small children is the best choice, but unlike small children, they can make decisions that have profound effects on the city's well-being, and these moves are not taken innocently as you see with small children. Innocence is not any sort of a word to mix in with conversations about City Council actions.
Job Number One for them is usually pivoting around the notion of self-interest and looking out for Number One, above all else.
Posts
