Neighborhood Council back in business as election challenges are rejected by City



Raku pulls Boner. Doggone it! Venice not going to dogs. Kitty cadre content.

By Carol Fondiller

There. I think I've gotten those headlines out of my system.

On Sept. 24, 2003, I went to Westminster School Auditorium to hear the results of the findings of the Dept. of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) and League of Women Voters in regard to the contested Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council elections.

At long last, I thought, this would be settled. My patience was at the snapping point because of the recall election. Come on, lets get it over with!

Though the auditorium was set up to accommodate 150 people, about 75 showed up. Notably absent were most of the “Team Venice” slate, the challengers to the election results.

We were handed packets filled with the results, methods, conclusions, and recommendations of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE), and the League of Women Voters Los Angeles (LWVLA). For a city document, it makes pretty zippy reading.

I knew the “Progressives” worked hard campaigning. So did the other side. The ”Progressives” came out with a leaflet containing their goals and beliefs.

The “Team Venice” slate lost no time in character assassination by implication. I was happily ignorant of most of the goings-on, because Team Venice carried out their campaign of innuendo by e-mail.

However, I did see leaflets made up like wanted posters with slogans like “Would you trust your child with this man?” and one alleging a homeless advocate/candidate supported the rights of homeless people to urinate and defecate and otherwise vandalize property and endanger the health of the community.
Do I really have to say that the candidate never supported anything like that?

I was told that there were to be no absentee ballots. Then, surprise, the Elections and Rules Committee which never held a public meeting decided that there would be absentee ballots and that these were mailed out by some Team Venice members. This was solved and in spite of a late start, the Progressive slate distributed absentee ballots to those who wanted them.

To my surprise, not only did all of the Progressive slate win, they won big time. (See results in other sections of this paper.).

The election was over, but the game was still afoot. Challenges to the election were made. There were challenges about the status of some stakeholders. GRNVC stakeholders (eligible voters who are people not dogs) live, work, play, belong to civic, religious, political advocacy groups, social service groups, and are recipients of social services.

Other challenges involved charges that the elections were used by the Progressive slate to build a political party.

But the piece de resistance is this: Marta Evry, candidate for the Board on the Team Venice slate registered her dog under the name of Raku Bowman with her (Marta Evry) address and phone number.

Then she challenged the election process on the grounds of voter fraud. Ms. Evry created a mini media blitz, sending indignant letters to various local papers on the voter fraud that she initiated.

She and others on the Team Venice slate caused the elections to stall for three months.

So the results were waited for impatiently.

Here are some excerpts from the findings of DONE and LWVLA; “...It seems bizarre that someone would commit voter fraud and then suggest that the election should be invalidated because voter fraud occurred.
The way leaders are selected in democracies is not flawless by any means and whenever absentee voting is permitted, the opportunity for fraud increases..” “The absentee voter system relies on trust. There is absolutely no need for people to register their dogs in order to show that any absentee voter system is flawed....Those who willfully violate that trust, disrespect and demean their neighborhood council and its stakeholders and put at risk the system of grass roots and participatory democracy....Finally the only evidence of voter fraud that we know about occurred when one stakeholder filled out an absentee ballot application under penalty of perjury for her dog and mailed in the ballot....”

Excerpts from DONE’s General Manager Greg Nelson in his letter to all interested parties regarding the challenges to the June 28 elections of candidates for Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council Board. DONE found all challenges invalid and were dismissed.

The League of Women Voters who were in charge of voting procedures and oversaw the election process and monitored the counting to the ballots weighed in with their recommendations: “...A candidate’s workshop should be held informing all candidates of the campaigning guidelines and restrictions...”

LWVLA listed how they counted the ballots and processed them. As to the challenges to the election, I will highlight Marta and her doggy. The following excerpts are from the findings of LWVLA. “...Absentee ballots are signed under penalty of perjury which in government elections can result in a prison term. The league does not believe such steps need to be taken in this election.“

“....Clearly some redress is necessary to discourage other voters from attempting to ‘test the theory.’ Therefore, the League strongly recommends that the candidate who willfully attempted to commit this fraud should be barred from holding any position on the GRNVC. “...At a minimum the candidate should apologize to the neighborhood council and stakeholders upon whom she committed this fraud...”

And The League found, much the same as DONE, that there were no irregularities in voting or campaigning by the Progressive slate. The Reps from DONE and LWVLA explained that they looked over all the challenges and investigated them thoroughly. Thus the delay of two months.

But, as they say in those late night TV infomercials, “Wait, there’s more!”

GRVNC president, Tish Bedrosian resigned. Her reason from what I can fathom was that the EVIL Progressives influenced DONE and LWVLA to such an extent that they were putty in the progressive’s hands.

E-mails were flying as fast Santa’s reindeer.

I don’t do e-mail. I have friends who do. But this particular sour grape special is hard to ignore. I generally ignore most innuendo riddled screeds (unless I write them). But this one is a classic. It is delicious in its venom. And laughable in its historical inaccuracy.

The writer blames Ruth Galanter for everything, including the weather. After rambling on about his hash pipe, “Peace and Freedom jag-offs,” he goes on about tie dye clothes and how Ruth Galanter built a library on a R.R. right of way. The Library project was started by the previous councilwoman Pat Russell.

In fact, many of the leftover hippies, commie whatevers, and gasp, low-income parents and folks who liked the cozy library on California Avenue tried to get the city of Los Angeles (Yes most of us tie-dyed hippies and beats are aware that Venice is part of Los Angeles) to buy the property in back of the library then the Elks Lodge, now the Electric Lodge Theater. Either the Elks didn’t want to sell or the price was too high, but the deal did not go down.

Galanter did not pick the spot, nor did Pat Russell think it was the best place for the library. It was the ONLY place. The parcels of land that Galanter “sold off” were small lots and most were not contiguous.
Mr. Dawg says this was a sinister plot to block a freeway. Damn straight, the residents opposed a freeway dividing Venice! The residents opposed many freeways going through Venice, including one proposed shortly after the Watts riots to separate Oakwood from the beach in order to keep the “Blacks from rioting on the beach.”

Mr. Dawg states that Galanter obstructed the O.F.W. renovation. Far from it. She instituted community workshops. They averaged 200 people in attendance. I was present at most of the Venice Boardwalk renovation meetings from the time they were run by Peter Brand from the Coastal Conservancy. The Disney-like quaint and faux funk as proposed by a segment of the community was nixed because of the cost. Also, cobblestones are hard on wheelchairs and rollerskates. It took a long time for people to get together and come up with a consensus. I remember getting up at one meeting when we were nearly through and then were mired in a decision of what sort of paving should be used to surface the Ocean Front Walk, and saying, “Pave it with something, but get the damn thing done!” or words to that effect. I received a rare moment of practically unanimous applause.

Galanter has always worked for consensus.

I remember laughing at Jerry Rubin’s premise that the Ocean Front Walk would be too nice for poor people and would intimidate them.

Again, the email went on to quote bylaws that GRVNC stakeholders would be identified by participation in “...community organizations, non-profit social organizations, etc.” in Venice. From the bylaws that Mr. Dawg quotes, it seems that the homeless of Venice, some of whom have been here for years, are eligible to vote in the election of GRVNC.

The Rose Avenue Working Group, while admirable in its goals of rehabbing and beautification, falls short when it comes to social service agencies, some of which like the Venice Family Health Clinic, have been on Rose Ave. for decades and are supported by some very respected citizens (i.e. RICH).

As to the resignation of the three GRVNC Board members, one observer said, “It’s as if Al Gore picked up and moved to France.” Maddawg! Baddawg! Meeow!

The DONE documents can be obtained by emailing <done@mailbox.lacity.org>, or by calling 866-LAHELPS.

Posted: Wed - October 1, 2003 at 07:23 PM          

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