{"id":256385,"date":"2022-07-11T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T07:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/?p=256385"},"modified":"2022-07-15T14:41:31","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T21:41:31","slug":"la-politicians-fiddle-around-as-the-city-smolders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/_ko\/commentary\/2022\/07\/la-politicians-fiddle-around-as-the-city-smolders\/","title":{"rendered":"LA politicians fiddle around as the city smolders"},"content":{"rendered":"

If one relishes pure power politics, devoid of any civic importance, the California Legislature offers many examples of self-interested infighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Los Angeles City Council is in a class by itself, with 15 members \u2013 all but one Democrats \u2013 clawing and scratching for dominance while the city they govern continues its socioeconomic deterioration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council\u2019s current preoccupation is who, if anyone, will fill a seat that\u2019s semi-vacant because its occupant, Mark Ridley-Thomas, has been indicted<\/a> on federal corruption charges for things he did as a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ridley-Thomas, who has held one office or another for more than three decades, including a stint in the Legislature, is charged with using his position to get his son, also a former legislator, admitted to the University of Southern California School of Social Work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ridley-Thomas allegedly promised to steer county contracts to the school if it gave his son a scholarship and a teaching position. A college official also was indicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ridley-Thomas offered to suspend his city council duties until his criminal case was settled but the council\u2019s president, Nury Martinez, led an effort within the council to make his suspension official<\/a> and appoint a former councilman, Herb Wesson, as an interim member with voting privileges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ridley-Thomas, of course, opposed his ouster and his supporters, led by the influential Southern Christian Leadership Conference, sued to block the maneuver, contending that Wesson was ineligible to join the council because he had already reached his maximum number of service years under the city\u2019s term limit law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wesson is a long-time ally of Martinez in the council\u2019s internal power struggles and having him take the seat would bolster her position vis-\u00e0-vis her rivals \u2013 and that\u2019s one reason why the Ridley-Thomas faction prefers that his position remain vacant while his criminal case proceeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, the Ridley-Thomas group persuaded Superior Court Judge Mary Strobel to block Wesson from taking the seat, saying the suit would likely succeed, then reversed herself two weeks earlier and tossed the issue to Attorney General Rob Bonta. Under California law, anyone who challenges the validity of an officeholder, known as a \u201cquo warranto action,\u201d must get the attorney general’s permission to proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Bonta\u2019s office weighed the issue, Martinez and her allies voted to sit Wesson as a voting member of the council \u2013 so empowered, they believe, because Judge Strobel had lifted her order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month, Bonta finally acted, issuing an eight-page decision saying that Ridley-Thomas\u2019 supporters should be allowed to contest Wesson\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe conclude that substantial questions of law exist as to whether Wesson\u2019s appointment to the Los Angeles City Council was lawful,\u201d Bonta said in his decision. \u201cFurther, the public interest will be served by allowing the proposed quo warranto action to proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonta\u2019s decision, in effect, tosses the issue back to Judge Strobel, who will be pressed by Ridley-Thomas and his supporters to once again block Wesson from acting as a city councilman while their suit proceeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone involved insists, of course, that they are merely doing the right thing for residents of the poverty-ridden district in South Los Angeles that Ridley-Thomas had represented for just a year before being indicted. But they are merely pawns in the political power game, as are the city\u2019s other residents whose interests take a back seat in the council\u2019s perpetual infighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the city\u2019s streets have become choked with squalid encampments of the homeless, crime has spiked upward and its lame duck mayor, Eric Garcetti, is AWOL, fighting an uphill battle for Senate confirmation as U.S. ambassador to India.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Los Angeles continues to deteriorate, the city’s politicians are preoccupied with an internal power struggle over who will fill the seat of a city councilman under indictment for corruption.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":256409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-07-11T07:01:07Z","apple_news_api_id":"272f61a8-d167-49c2-b7e3-2634ebe08c58","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-07-15T21:41:29Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AJy9hqNFnScK34yY06-CMWA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_spanish_translation_id":0,"_is_translation":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,63],"tags":[],"legislator":[],"bill":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[4174],"class_list":["post-256385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-dan-walters","entry"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nLA politicians fiddle around as the city smolders - 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