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For today's Public Forum, the Daily News asked readers whether they were inspired by the recent political conventions, whether the convention changed their minds and whether they learned anything from watching or reading about the conventions.
As one who volunteered to work at the Democratic convention, I was assigned to work for the Office of the Secretary of the Democratic National Convention Committee. Office staffers (most of whom were from the Washington, D.C., area) showed complete disdain for volunteers, treating many of us like we were not worthy to be in the same room as them.
My last assignment was to be downtown before 8 a.m., yet the supervisor did not appear until after 10 a.m. I waited around 65 minutes to drive a staffer three blocks in a DNC car that used city of Los Angeles facilities to fill its gas tank.
I came away from this experience seeing that the "party of the people" is really the "party of the Eastern elite who have never held a real job." I cannot vote for any Democrat in this election.
Greg Badovinac North Hollywood
To whom are we indebted for the great "honor" of hosting the DNC? Who do we thank for allowing us the wonderful privilege of giving away $4 million of our tax dollars? The mayor? The City Council? Maybe those same generous folks could dip into that same deep pocket and reimburse the people who lost income and salaries for the week their businesses were closed. What an appalling waste of money and time both conventions were. With both nominees pre-decided, they became merely an excuse to party while we foot the bill. The best part of the whole thing was watching the Los Angeles Police Department control those rioters and vandals in the guise of protesters. Kudos to the police!
It's been 40 years since the last (L.A.) convention; let's hope it's at least 40 years before the next one.
Margot Trasatti Sherman Oaks
The convention served a purpose, and it also was a waste of much-needed tax dollars. The $4 million the city gave to the Democrats could have bought a lot of school supplies or repaired a lot of sidewalks and potholes. Instead it helped to pay for a lot of fancy signs.
I learned that Democrats are for universal health care, clean water and clean air. They also said they are more compassionate then Republicans. Evidently that is why they want to ban the execution of mass murderers and other killers and believe that terminating a fetus or killing a near-birth child is OK.
I also learned that I am wealthy and chances are they consider you wealthy also. However, even though I am wealthy, I was promised free prescriptions. They did not say if a prescription deduction similar to the Medicare deduction would be taken out of our Social Security checks.
Bill Zelenka Granada Hills
According to the Daily News on Aug. 19, Republican Mayor Richard Riordan stated: "We can handle an event like this and accommodate everyone."
Oh, really, Mr. Mayor? As a resident and homeowner in Los Angeles for more than 40 years, I would like for the mayor to tell us what the four days of happy times for the out-of-towners cost Angelenos. Earlier, the mayor told us that the event would generate $135 million in benefits to the Los Angeles city economy.
Did we make a profit? Since we all have contributed to this "great cash cow bonanza," I would like to see an itemized list of expenses and income. According to The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 19), the convention hasn't done much of anything for Los Angeles business. The Journal tells us that tourists and business travelers shunned the city to avoid the convention crunch.
It looks to me like the only real winner is Mayor Riordan, perhaps in personal political perks generated while he hobnobbed with the leaders of the Democratic Party and the Hollywood crowd. We showed the world how democracy works by hosting the DNC, but does the world really care?
Shirley A. Minser Los Angeles
Well, the Democrats' convention is over, thank God.
Al Gore has pledged all our (meaning working folks) earnings for the next few weeks to a cornucopia of new government programs (can anyone say "the era of big government is over?") aimed at any special-interest group that can define itself as such, with the obvious exception of the National Rifle Association. By golly, De Tocqueville had it right a couple hundred years ago when he observed that the American republic was doomed when the electorate realized they had the power to "vote to themselves the largesse of the treasury." If Gore's acceptance speech isn't the epitomization of that kind of largesse, I don't know what is!
Further, as to the "economic regional benefits" that Los Angeles was supposed to reap due to the convention:
According to the first analyses available, the economic input to the region is about $4 million in Beverly Hills as the big winner, just enough to offset the last-minute cash pledge from the Los Angeles City Council (kudos to the city of Beverly Hills for not buying into the hype and just reaping the bennies).
Sounds like a deficit situation overall, I'm sure glad I don't live within the boundaries of the city of L.A. I'd hate to think that my tax dollars went to that orgiastic self-aggrandizing mess downtown.
Brian Baker Saugus
I know whom I was going to vote for. It was a real waste of time and money. Giving the DNC an open checkbook starting out with $7 million [In kind services not cash, but still paid for by the taxpayers] , the nerve of the DNC, who came back asking for $4 million more. Where is the $26 million that was raised in Washington, D.C.?
The people in Los Angeles have been told to go without a lot of city services we pay for because there is no money in the budget. We get the same story when we call city services or try and get our overpaid councilman to do something. As always, the constituents pay for it in the end; our councilmen have a deaf ear when it comes to us. It would be nice to have our sidewalks fixed, to have city trees trimmed so the overgrown limbs don't fall on our homes or in the street, or not to wake up to flooded streets as old water mains are breaking. The city repair list is really endless.
Who really cared to hear all that baloney being peddled out at Staples Center by these know-it-all delegate speakers, unless you like baloney and ate it up? I didn't have the stomach for all the baloney being passed out.
Now you're asking what did I learn from all this? I learned we ended up with a bunch of first-class morons that God ever put on this earth who are on the City Council. With the waste of tax money that went on by having this convention, the city went about chasing its tail by removing trees, and now having to replant them, reinstall mail boxes that were removed, installing and then removing the fence around the center. I hope that a lesson was learned here by our City Council. We should put an end to the City Council being able to waste money like they have been doing.
Political conventions are purposely made sensational. Millions are spent mostly to stimulate passions. It discounts the drudgery demanded of each to care for the serious business that lies ahead. Integrity and the carrying out of commitments is what brings about sensations, not the other way around.
Conventions haven't . . . (and never) will change my mind about the right to life, the right of all rights. It's surprising to know many politicians are hoodwinked over the right to choose, a cliche that tells you you have the right to choose evil. What an absurdity. We grievously error by treating the Bible as last of the least, when in fact this holy writ takes precedence over the Constitution.
We must consider civilization, too, has its three separate and equal powers functioning: religion, families and government.
John Curti Tarzana
By Jerry Schwartz
Let's see now: Gray Davis, Richard Riordan and a bunch of other politicians sought and won the Democratic National Convention for Los Angeles. When explaining their actions and eagerness, they all mentioned something about the event being profitable for business in Los Angeles. This was also City Council's excuse for giving away $4 million of our tax dollars to a private and exclusive party -- to which none of us were invited.
Now we see that not only were we not invited, we won't be able to go anywhere near it, what with all the barriers and fences being built to keep everybody away. Streets and freeway ramps were blocked off a week in advance. The St. Vincent Jewelry Mart, along with most of the entire Jewelry District, will be closed the entire week. These have got to be some of the most prominent retail businesses in the area, but what will they gain from the convention? Closed to prevent possible riot damage.
So the businesses not only don't gain anything, they lose a week's worth of business. Will they be paying their employees while they're closed? You know, the salespeople, the jewelry makers, the janitors, etc., that may have no vacation time coming or perhaps already went on vacation. What will they do?
Can all the lower-paid workers afford a week with no pay? What about the other small businesses in the area? You know, the small restaurants, clothing stores, bars, what have you? How many conventioneers will be patronizing them? Or will they also have to shut down in the face of possible uncivil unrest?
What about the rest of the city having inadequate police coverage because of the inordinate amount of overtime our thin blue line will be forced to put in around Staples Center? If they ever do get out to the rest of us, they'll be too tired to do anything to help us.
So, the businesses that will profit from this are a few ritzy hotels charging premium rates, a few fancy (already expensive) restaurants probably raising their prices, and the owners of Staples. Some cabbies will probably make some money, (do we have cab service in L.A.?), some pickpockets and hotel burglars, the security company for Staples, the fence-renting company (put up by Caltrans, no less), and the catering company for Staples.
For all this, the taxpayers are out $4 million in cash and an additional $11 million (wasn't that the figure we heard?) for city-paid services. Good for business? Apparently, only some, like ones who can prosper just as well on their own.
Jerry Schwartz lives in Granada Hills.
By Alexa Haussler, Staff Writer
A federal judge Friday denied a civil rights attorney’s request to temporarily prohibit the city of Los Angeles from making the second half of a $4 million payout to the Democratic National Convention. U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder declined Attorney Stephen Yagman’s request for a temporary restraining order and, while voicing doubts about the merits of the case, set a hearing date for three days before the convention to rule on the lawsuit Yagman brought against the city this week.
The Venice-based attorney, known for filing police misconduct lawsuits against the city, filed a class-action suit Wednesday on behalf of city taxpayers claiming that the City Council illegally agreed to provide $4 million for the DNC host committee to make up for fund-raising shortfalls. His suit asked the judge to require the city to recover the first $2 million -- which was already paid out -- and prevent the city from paying out the last half, which is expected to be done after the convention.
Snyder said the matter does not warrant an emergency restraining order because the payment won’t be made for at least a month, and she added that she has doubts about the merits of the lawsuit. "I do think the plaintiff has not shown a high probability of success," she said.
Yagman said he intended to appeal the judge’s decision to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In a response filed Friday in court, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office denied Yagman’s claims that the council violated state law prohibiting public bodies from giving gifts of public funds.
"The moneys being transferred are viewed and were discussed by the City Council as being an investment for the city of Los Angeles, not a gift," the response stated.
By Alexa Haussler, Staff Writer
An attorney known for filing police misconduct lawsuits against Los Angeles filed a class-action suit against the mayor and City Council this week demanding the return of a $2 million bailout to the Democratic National Convention host committee and seeking a court order to block the final $2 million payout.
Attorney Steven Yagman, who has brought dozens of police misconduct lawsuits against the city and the Police Department, filed the suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court on behalf of city taxpayers including plaintiff Richard Abcarian of Venice. "It was the early promise of the City Council that no tax money would be spent on this convention," said Abcarian, a retired English professor. "It's essentially very simple: A promise is a promise."
The suit asks that the city recoup $2 million paid to the host committee and refrain from paying an additional $2 million the city has said it is prepared to pay after the convention, to be held Aug. 14-17 at Staples Center. If the city is unable to retrieve the money paid, the suit seeks to force Mayor Richard Riordan and 14 of the 15 members of the City Council to repay the money from their personal funds.
The suit names as defendants each council member except Jackie Goldberg, who rescinded her support for the bailout after her colleagues abandoned their support for her demand that Pershing Square be designated as a gathering place for protesters.
The suit claims that city leaders violated state law prohibiting public bodies from using public dollars for gifts. The payment "was made in violation of the public trust," according to the lawsuit. "This gift of public funds was made in violation of defendants' promise to Los Angeles taxpayers that no public funds would be given to the convention or its promoters."
Ben Austin, a spokesman for the DNC host committee, called the lawsuit "ridiculous." "I think in terms of whether or not this is constitutional, he might want to look at the precedent of Chicago, New York and other cities who have invested far more money than Los Angeles has in the convention planning process."
Austin also said taxpayers will benefit from the predicted $135 million to be pumped into the local economy as a result of the convention and "a priceless opportunity to step into the national spotlight and shine."
Riordan -- who aggressively lobbied the council to approve the funding and even contributed $1 million of his own funds to the host committee -- had not seen the lawsuit and had no comment, a spokesman said.
Councilwoman Laura Chick said she consistently voted against the $4 million payout but declined to comment further, saying she had not seen the suit and would await advice from the City Attorney's Office.
The lawsuit describes the plaintiffs, led by Abcarian, as "Los Angeles taxpayers whose tax payments have been used to make an illegal gift, and who have been sold out by their elected representatives and who again will be sold out by them."
A hearing is scheduled for today in U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder's courtroom. Lawyers in the City Attorney's Office were preparing for the hearing but declined comment.