If you like Burke, you’ll love Parks.
As the old saw goes, “Show me your friends, and I’ll know what you are doing.”
Here’s what Yvonne Burke, who wants Bernard Parks to take her seat on the County Board of Supervisors, did on Oct. 28.
Burke managed to muzzle the other Supervisors so that with the silence of these lambs, she won unanimous approval from the Board (except from Don Knabe who is out of the country) for an oil drilling ordinance that offers minimal protection for our health, safety, properties and quality of life.
If you recall two years ago, residents of Culver Crest and other parts of the city, were forced to bear the costs of evacuation and health challenges when PXP’s drilling operations accidentally fumigated/gassed us.
Our protests forced the County to set a moratorium on new drilling to study the problem. The Environmental Impact Report used to create the new regulations is a seriously flawed study.
The Back of Her Hand
Thus the solution is a slap in the face to the community, to Culver City, and most of all to our school children, who, along with the elderly, are most prone to the subtle effects of what the drilling releases into the air we breathe. The new Community Standards District ordinance allows for up to 53 more wells a year. Its health and safety provisions are a joke, especially since they do not have to be implemented till long after the drilling begins. Yet isn’t that what caused this whole problem in the first place?
At yesterday’s final hearing, when I requested the Supervisors to amend the regulations to have the air monitors, the earthquake accelerometer, the emergency response procedures, community alert, evacuation and shelter in place plans drawn up, tested and approved as the first step in issuing the oil drilling permits, Burke turned a deaf ear.
Is This Patriotism?
When others testified to the numerous irregularities, instead of hearing her people, Supervisor Burke turned and apologized to the oil company. She seems to consider it bad manners to demand accountability and to demand that public health and safety be the priority over corporate profits .
I wonder if she considers her mockery of democracy as patriotism, and her endorsement of Bernard Parks as a way of continuing her reign.
I wonder why Mr. Parks was not there to use his influence and power as Los Angeles Councilman to demand that Burke take the time to do this thing right and avoid lawsuits from his constituents?
Why was Parks not there insistently demanding that the Supervisors make the health and safety concerns of his constituents take precedence over corporate profits?
Why the rush with so much at stake? Why his absence?
Is this the type of democracy you want to live under? Your vote will tell your truth.
Dr. De Benedittis may be contacted at debenedittis@sbcglobal.net
