L.A Watchdog — Although the mayoral primary for the City of Los Angeles is over 400 days away, two credible candidates have surfaced to challenge Mayor Eric Garcetti in the March 7, 2017, election. While their chances of ousting an incumbent who has hauled in over $2.2 million in campaign contributions through last June 30, are remote, they will certainly raise questions about Garcetti’s record of kicking the can down the road over the last 31 months.
The first to announce his intention to run was Mitchell Schwartz, a Democratic fundraiser and a committed environmentalist who is concerned that the city is not dealing effectively with the homeless epidemic, increased crime, our failing streets and deteriorating infrastructure, and out of control real estate development.
Steve Barr, the founder of Green Dot Charter Schools, is also considering a bid as he is frustrated by Mr. Garcetti’s unwillingness to address the mess at LAUSD out of fear of offending the politically powerful, campaign funding teachers unions.
Even though the election is more than a year away, it is not too early to start holding Mr. Garcetti accountable for his lack of progress in solving many of the pressing issues facing our city.
In August, the Los Angeles Times gave Mr. Garcetti a Gentleman’s C, saying that he “remains as appealing and articulate as ever, but his inclination to avoid tough or controversial decisions is undermining his ability to address the very serious problems facing the city.”
In July, columnist Steve Lopez of the Times also went after the “smooth at the podium” Mr. Garcetti for “waffling” on a number of key issues facing our City, including our streets and sidewalks, real estate developers, mansionization, and, of course, our Department of Water and Power.
Mr. Garcetti will also have to address the financial issues facing the city, including how the budget deficit over the next four years ballooned to over $400 million as a result of the new labor contract with the civilian unions.
The mayor has also failed to develop a financial and operational plan to efficiently repair and maintain our lunar cratered streets and broken sidewalks despite his “Back to Basic” promises.
Equally disturbing is Eric’s failure to endorse the recommendations of the L.A. 2020 Commission which called for an “Office of Transparency and Accountability” to oversee our cash strapped city’s finances and a “Commission on Retirement Security” to review our city‘s retirement obligations in order to develop “concrete recommendations on how to achieve equilibrium on retirement costs by 2020.”
There are a number of ballot measure facing our waffling mayor, including the reform of our Dept. of Water and Power which will require voter approval of the $220 million Transfer Tax, the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative that is opposed by campaign funding real estate speculators and developers, the County’s proposed half cent increase in our sales tax to fund even more transportation projects, and a possible $100 million bump in our real estate taxes to finance the city’s homelessness plan, an amount that approximates the increase associated with the new labor contract with the city’s civilian unions.
Mr. Garcetti will have to tell the voters if he is willing to serve as mayor until 2022 if he is reelected or whether he will be out on the election trail if he runs for governor or senator in 2018.
Hopefully Mitchell Schwartz, Steve Barr, and other qualified candidates as well as the press will ask the tough questions and demand concrete answers over the next 400 days.
Let the debate begin.
Mr. Humphreville writes L.A. Watchdog for CityWatch. He is the President of the DWP Advocacy Committee and a member of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council. Mr. Humphreville is the publisher of the Recycler Classifieds — www.recycler.com. He may be reached at lajack@gmail.com
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