In one of the more humorous stories about Los Angeles’s CD 14 race, the Los Angeles Times came out with this piece today about Councilman Jose Huizar building lists of friends, foes, and even buildings for priority and being worthy of his political influence within his district. So in using CLARTS funds that are supposed to be used for local amenities to instead augment staff salaries, we get a glimpse of what Council member Huizar’s staff spent time doing: building an elaborate political score card.
In my view, these lists aren’t terribly damning because all elected and appointed officials keep score of those who they can call in for a favor, etc. However, having staff work on these lists and creating an elaborate documentation scheme probably isn’t a good idea. First of all, it makes the councilman appear very insecure and paranoid, and secondly, why would anyone want to maintain a list that could potentially create all kinds of political enemies? Especially if someone who is respected, like Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries, only receives a 2 out of 5 on decision making influence according to the political calculation of Jose Huizar and company.
From today’s piece in the Times:
‘Laura Gutierrez, former president of the Glassell Park Improvement Assn., said Huizar’s office staff should have spent more energy delivering services and less time on assessing civic leaders. Gutierrez, whose group serves part of Huizar’s district, described the lists as “hilarious” and said she wasn’t surprised to receive a minus 2 on her degree of support for the councilman.
“If you question Jose Huizar or ask why he’s doing something, you fall out of favor,” she said.
Three council members whose districts border Huizar’s — Eric Garcetti, Jan Perry and Ed Reyes — said they have never used a written ranking system for leaders in their districts. Perry burst out laughing when she was shown a copy of one list. “Wow, this is complicated,” she said.
The Times asked Huizar for copies of his “power analysis” lists on Dec. 20 and was told by his spokesman, Rick Coca, that the state public records law did not require that they be made available. “The public interest served by protecting the council member’s decision-making process clearly outweighs the public interest served by the record’s disclosure,” he wrote.
That response did not surprise Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles nonprofit group that examines the voting patterns and campaign fundraising practices of local elected officials. Stern said releasing the lists would be “embarrassing” both for Huizar and for the people who received disappointing scores.
“Politicians keep lists like this in their heads,” he said. “I don’t think they usually write them down.”‘
What are your thoughts on this? I think that voters should certainly keep a scorecard on electeds according to their needs, but I’m not so sure if staffers receiving a tax payer funded salary should spend so much time with this kind of list building. If it is a list with constituents who are logging a complaint or who have an issue, that’s completely understandable, but “decision making influence” and “political clout” lists are a bit excessive.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Tweets that mention Making a List and Checking it Twice! -- Topsy.com // Jan 17, 2011 at 5:07 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Steve Ferguson. Steve Ferguson said: RT @VoteRudy: Ron Kaye and The Latino Politics Blog weighs in on the Huizar List. http://tinyurl.com/4ncdxgs & http://tinyurl.com/4gmk62q [...]
2 Títere Watch // Jan 18, 2011 at 6:24 am
And this guy went to Princeton? I guess we need to give credence to what Walter Moore put out, Huizar went to Princeton Grad School, not the much more exclusive under-grad school where it is much tougher to get in.
Martinez just needs the man power to get this info out. Southern Boyle Heights is for the taking now that Huizar managed to give Fr. Morretta only a 1 in political clout. That must sting for the Arcdiocesan vanguard on the pro-life agenda.
I wonder what grading Oscar’s Bar got. What would mommy’s favorite watering hole get these days?
Martinez has got Huizar backstepping and is dictating the whole message in this campaign. I guess Parke is losing his touch. The handling of this has been very amateurish.
3 Council member Huizar Responds to “Listgate” // Jan 18, 2011 at 6:53 pm
[...] Archives Select Month January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 ← Making a List and Checking it Twice! [...]
4 An Interesting Juxtaposition of LA Council member Jose Huizar // Jan 24, 2011 at 8:49 pm
[...] the incumbent Jose Huizar. In the first clip, council member Huizar addresses the infamous “lists” that his staff compiled scoring community members dismissing them because Father Boyle [...]
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