Big Election Win for Progressives
By Jim
Smith
Venice Progressives won a
startling victory over rivals and multiple obstacles in the annual Grass Roots
Venice Neighborhood Council (GRVNC) election, June 27. Three of the most caustic
critics of the Progressives garnered only a handful of votes.
Elected were Suzanne Thompson, president;
Alice Stek, vice president; DeDe McCrary, 2nd VP; John Davis, secretary;
Francisco Letelier, at-large; Deborah Krall, Penmar North; Bonnie Cheeseman,
North Beach/Rose Ave.; Bridget Graham, Oakwood; Dennis Hathaway, Penmar South;
Emily Winters, Milwood/Central Venice; Michael McGuffin, Presidents’
Row/Triangles; and Zoe Garaway,
Canals/Peninsula.
Thompson, Stek, Cheeseman,
Hathaway and Garaway have been serving on the Board. The only incumbent to be
defeated for reelection was Milwood/Central Venice Rep. Kelley
Willis.
Along with the election of new
Board members, a vote was held on six bylaws amendments that had been approved
by the Board on April 7. All of them passed by margins of 72 to 95 percent,
thereby superseding opposite amendments that had passed by lesser margins on May
6 (see page four for details).
A total
of 509 voters - one every 42 seconds - made their way into the polling place at
Westminster school, in spite of a complete lack of parking and confusion about
whether the election would actually be
held.
The opposition was so vociferous
about not proceeding with the annual event that one would think there was a
community-wide “fear of an election” epidemic. In the end, it turned
out to be only a handful of highly vocal contrarians who couldn’t come to
grips with such an elemental democratic practice. In fact, Venetians seemed to
have taken a dose of voteagra, such was their zeal in supporting the progressive
direction of their local governmental
body.
Viewing the cheerful crowd that
swarmed through the school auditorium all day, no one would suspect that just
two short days before the holding of the election was still in doubt. Crank
calls came to the elementary school and to the downtown offices of the school
district warning of trouble if the election was held on the premises.
One caller, claiming to be one of the
Venice Progressive slate candidates, told the vice-principal that 10 busloads of
protesters would be descending on the school. They were unsuccessful in stopping
the election, but they did accomplish a more dastardly result. Not only was the
school’s parking lot sealed tight on election day, but the district also
ruled that Westminister school could no longer use it to provide beach parking
whose proceeds had been going to classroom instruction
needs.
The calls to the school were
just the culmination of a month-long campaign against the election which
included convincing the city’s Dept. of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE}
that Venice was split down the middle over the issue and the election should be
postponed.
The Board deliberated over
DONE’s advice to postpone the election and concluded that the future of
the neighborhood council was in danger if the election was not held as
scheduled, since a majority of Board members would no longer be in office after
June 30. In that case, the Board would no longer be able to conduct business
without a quorum. A majority of the GRVNC Board rejected DONE’s advice and
voted to proceed with the election, whether or not it was sanctioned by the
city.
Board member Paul Ryan, who works
for the Center for Governmental Studies and specializes in campaign finance
reform, was appointed to chair the election committee. Ryan drafted new rules
for the election which included no absentee voting, but they were not approved
by DONE. He resigned three days before the election after checking with
Westminster School and learning that the site and/or parking might not be
available after all.
Two days before
the election, the Board appointed Attorney Sabrina Venskus, an at-large member,
as the new (third) election chair, and Casey Peters as the Independent Election
Administrator. Peters had recently administered the elections for a station
board at radio station KPFK.
Venskus
hastily created ballots, instruction sheets and other election material, drafted
a crew of poll workers and open the doors of the polling place on time at 10 am,
Sunday morning. Promptly at 4 pm, Peters announced the polls closed and began
counting the ballots.
While the
turnout was somewhat off from previous elections, it was not as much of a fall
off as some have alleged. Two years ago, 621 votes were counted in the
GRVNC’s first election. Last year, in a highly-contested election, the
on-site tally was 678 (another 570 votes came from absentee voters). Neither of
these elections had the problem of not having any parking or the uncertainty of
whether the election would even be held. In these circumstances, having only a
25 percent smaller turnout at the polls is
amazing.
Now that Venetians have
spoken, the ball in is the city of Los Angeles’ court. Will our overlord
permit genuine grass roots democracy or will we become Iraq-west?
Posted: Thu - July 1, 2004 at 07:49 PM