Re “A Critique of Parks’ No-Show at Last Saturday’s South L.A. Debate,” May 9
To rebut the reported “no show” by Councilmember Bernard C. Parks, I would like to point out the following:
Though our campaign staff was contacted about the debate in question, we never confirmed the Councilmember’s attendance.
We had suspicions that the debate was a “set up,” as it was put on by known supporters of Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas.
This suspicion was justified when members of our campaign staff discovered, days before the event, that an invitation flyer had been sent out with a picture of Sen. Ridley-Thomas and a horribly-distorted (image) of Councilmember Parks.
Upon that discovery, I called one of the organizers of the event, Mr. James Harris. He confirmed to me that although our campaign office never confirmed the Councilmember’s attendance, they still produced the flyer.
I explained to him that it was unfair to raise the expectations of the community, when the organizers knew that Councilmember Parks would not be there.
At first, he didn’t seem moved by that argument… and even said that he would still set up a chair with the Councilmember’s name on it at the event, even though I reiterated to him that the Councilmember would not be there because of another engagement.
Then, he called be back to tell me that, out of fairness, he would alert the audience at the event that the Councilmember never confirmed that he would attend.
I’m guessing now that he didn't keep his word.
Mr. Parks is a candidate in the June 3 election for the sea on the County Board of Supervisors that Yvonne Brathwaite Burke has held for the past 16 years.
