[img]1436|left|Bernard Parks||no_popup[/img]Let Herb Wesson, the once-congenial state legislator, now the storm-engulfed President of the Los Angeles City Council, wonder no longer how one of his most annoyed colleagues feels about his latest inflammatory outburst in front of a group of ministers.
“It was kind of dumbfounding he would say such things,” Bernard Parks – no Wesson pal – told the newspaper this afternoon after digesting a nearly-buried story this morning in the Los Angeles Times where Mr. Wesson, a fellow black, said the Council is divided by race rather than politics.
“He said things before those ministers that are beyond logic,” Mr. Parks said. “He said he was being somewhat forced by other members to do things. He said there were factions. I don’t know if anyone would agree there are.”
Mr. Wesson has been warring with Mr. Parks and Jan Perry, the other two black members of the Council, since before he was elected President last winter. Relations tumbled farther into the deep freeze during redistricting, where they felt Mr. Wesson played kingpin by grabbing choice territories for himself. Mr. Parks and Ms. Perry believe Mr. Wesson teamed with others to racially inflate his own black district, picking off choice sections of their adjacent districts for his enrichment and to their noted detriment.
One lawsuit has been filed and another is anticipated, seeking to overturn the redistricting plan that only seems to have been disputable in the Perry and Parks districts.
Curiously, none of the 14 other Council members has risen to defend Mr. Wesson new remarks.
What Quiescent Mood?
On a Council notable for its yawning, nearly silent approach to most subjects, Mr. Wesson, long a Westside favorite, has been battered for a string of moves and remarks that have especially aroused black residents in addition to Ms. Perry and Mr. Parks.
In either a gesture of healing or a demand for an explanation, Mr. Wesson last month was invited to address a group of highly vexed – there is that reaction again – black Baptist ministers strongly offended by the way Mr. Wesson treated them personally and the three heavily black Council districts throughout the recent once-a-decade redistricting process.
A video of Mr. Wesson’s incendiary remarks – including that the Council was divided in four factions, white, black, Latino and the San Fernando Valley in the redistricting process – was posted online by the ministers’ organization.
What Does He Say?
“Since he claimed there was a black faction,” said Mr. Parks, “it would be interesting to know why he didn’t vote with the other two black elected officials (on districting). That is what makes it so strange. If there are these factions, these are the same people who voted him to be President. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Mr. Parks criticized Mr. Wesson for pretending to have viewed redistricting from Olympus.
“He gave this information to the pastors as if he did not have a role, which is disingenuous at best.”
This is the perceived lofty Wesson crack to which Mr. Parks referred:
“Brothers and sisters, it was me against 12 other members of the Council. I had no backup. I had no faction. And I did the very best I could with what I had.
“I was able to protect the most important asset that we as black people have, and that’s to make sure that a minimum of the Council people will be black for the next 30 years.”
Snapped back Mr. Parks of his apparent hero mode:
“The problem is, the pastors knew before he got there that wasn’t the case. They were the ones who attended the (pivotal Council) meeting (on redistricting), and he didn’t allow them to speak. They saw his commissioner dismantle these districts.”
(To be continued)
