Published in medium.com on August 11, 2019
Candidates forum sponsored by the West Hills Neighborhood Council
First, an update to a previous story. The controversy about a donation to a group providing Independent Expenditures for mailings has been resolved. The County Democratic Party returned a donation made by Sempra Energy…and that was not money going to a candidate. Here’s a link to my article that explains what an IE is: https://medium.com/@pattyglueck/who-is-sending-out-those-campaign-mailers-ac1b6fdc7fb7
I wrote about the July 20th forum that was held in Granada Hills, co-sponsored by a group of neighborhood councils. That was a general forum which covered a variety of topics. https://knock-la.com/cd-12-candidates-square-off-at-town-hall-26d7bafca44d
Since then, there has been four more forums for Dr. Loraine Lundquist and John Lee, but each of those were about a single topic (homelessness), related to a specific group (Armenians), or targeted to a specific community (West Hills and Chatsworth).
One thing to know is that the CD-12 covers the communities of Porter Ranch, Chatsworth, Northridge, Sherwood Forest, West Hills, and parts of North Hills and Reseda. The total population of the district is more than 270,000. The reasons for this special election was that council member Mitchell Englander left office with about two years remaining on his second term.
Rather than giving a blow by blow accounting of each of these forums, at which many topics were covered with the same basic questions and responses, I will try to delve into the some of the unique or otherwise top priority questions as best I can.
I enjoyed the approach of the Armenian forum. It was held on July 25th by the ANCA North SFV chapter in Granada Hills, featuring questions of interest to this community. At this forum, the candidates were asked about how they would work with the sister city of Yerevan.
Lee said he recognizes the Armenian genocide while Lundquist said she wanted to nurture the rich culture of the Armenian community within CD-12.
When vandalizing of local Armenian schools was brought up, both candidates called such actions “hate crimes” and said they are unacceptable. They both said they want to protect and support the community.
As for what they each would do, Lee said it’s important to reach out to schools to work out issues that the students have.
Lundquist said she would like to hold regular dinners for residents to talk out ethnic tensions.
As a community vastly affected by the Santa Susana Field Laboratory disaster, the cleanup of the chemical and radioactive contamination found on the lab’s property thirty years ago is an important topic to residents in West Hills. At the forums hosted by the West Hills Neighborhood Council on July 29th, and by the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council on August 7th, the candidates were asked about this still unresolved issue.
“It’s unconscionable in 2019 that the cleanup hasn’t begun. It should have begun, and finished by 2017,” said Lundquist.
She feels that our elected officers, especially the former council member of CD-12, should have pushed for the cleanup. “As a scientist, I can read the reports, speak the language,” she added. She is in favor of a full clean up, with a targeted method. She pointed out that during the Woolsey fire, that started on the deserted SSFL site, the DTSC (the California Dept. of Toxic Substances Control) had been negligent by not taking air samples.
On the other hand, Lee hasn’t decided on the level of cleanup he supports. Rather than trucking the soil out through Chatsworth streets, he wants to look at alternative ways to get rid of the contaminated soil.
Candidates forum sponsored by the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council
Unique to the Chatsworth forum was a discussion of horse infrastructure.
Lundquist explained, “I’m an environmentalist committed to preserving open space, mostly because our council has been sold out to developers.” She felt it was critical to preserve open spaces for those who enjoy riding their horses.
Lee noted that he helped raised money for the city to purchase land that was due to be developed.
One topic on the mind of the West Hills community is emergency preparedness.
Lee suggested the way to prepare is to pinpoint where the doctors and others needed for disasters are. He also recommended residents be prepared by having emergency supplies.
Lundquist pointed out that the Northridge East Neighborhood Council, which she has served on a board officer, held an emergency preparedness town hall on the 25th anniversary of the Northridge earthquake. “We brought in experts to tell residents and businesses how to be prepared.” She also explained the Cool Blocks program, which her street uses at which everyone on the block gets to know each other. Additionally, she mentioned that most of the losses during an earthquakes are usually from fires because of ruptured gas lines. That was the case with the recent quakes in the Ridgecrest area and on Balboa Blvd. following the 1994 Northridge quake.
The Aliso Canyon disaster was brought up at the Armenian forum.
Regarding the 2015 gas blowout, Loraine said she has been fighting with other residents in favor of closing it down from the beginning. She was part of residents’ contingents that went to Sacramento on behalf of the affected area. Even before the blowout, she helped organize a fight to stop local fracking. She says that one of her first motions she will introduce as a council person would be a resolution to get the state to shut down the facility. She brought up that keeping the storage site open costs the ratepayers $40 million a year.
Lee said that this district has taken action, but agreed that Aliso needs to be shut down.
Ethical situations such as campaign financing were brought up at the Armenian and Chatsworth forums. During several forums, including the July 20th forum, Lee kept bringing up contributions to independent groups that were funding mailers on behalf of Lundquist. The moderator at the Chatsworth forum held up several mailers produced by IEs, pointing out these were not financed by donations to the candidates. At the Armenian forum, Lundquist pointed out that she had never asked for money from someone in New York. But she did point out Lee’s two year stint as a lobbyist prior to this campaign and that he receives direct donations from developers.
The 2028 Olympics was brought up at the Armenian forum.
Lundquist said she’s excited about the Olympics coming to Los Angeles because there are opportunities to get more money for programs we need such as modernizing and improving transit systems. She also pointed out the money for youth sports. She said she will fight for our share of the funding for valley sports programs, but especially programs for women and girls as they haven’t always received the same funding that men’s sports have.
Lee said that the funding mentioned by Lundquist was money the council had been fighting for.
At the Chatsworth forum, the candidates were asked about bringing jobs to the community. Lee said there’s a need to protect manufacturing zones. Lundquist said there’s a need to provide more economic development of small and family businesses. She pointed out that there’s jobs that are created when instituting a green energy economy.
A topic that has provided a bit of contention at most of the forums has been a planned bus rapid transit route to serve of the northern San Fernando Valley. The Metro Board of Directors, which started to consider the line back in June 2016, are proposing the line run along Nordhoff.
Whenever this topic came up, Lee has contended that Lundquist is in favor of utilizing Nordhoff for this route, while he opposes it. She continues to say she wants more “robust community input” about which route should be selected. She said that the feedback she’s received while door knocking during the campaign was that the Nordhoff route will not be a popular choice. So she will like other routes to be studied and considered. She felt that a route down Roscoe might be preferable as it will serve Northridge Middle School, Northridge Hospital, and a large number of business centers.
Lee agreed that the Roscoe route would be a better route, but he pointed out that this project is at the “almost acceptance route.” He continued to contend at each forum that “my opponent said publicly stated she was in support” of the Nordhoff route.
“This Nordhoff route was being about to be jammed shoved down our throats without the community involvement.” He also said he was no longer working for the council district at the time of that decision.
Lundquist retorted that she’s amazed that Lee said the Roscoe route was never been considered before. She pointed out that there had been 208 comments at five community meetings, with some more meetings upcoming that need to be publicized.
(note: the planning for the bus line started back in June 2016, a year before Lee left his position as chief-of-staff)
Candidates forum on homelessness sponsored by Everyone in LA
At each forum during the run-off period, the homelessness issue was discussed. That was the entire topic at the August 1 forum hosted by Everyone in LA. At that forum, both Lee and Lundquist said they would support the building of supportive housing. All along, Lundquist has mentioned that the council district hasn’t utilized the money allocated to CD-12 through Measure H to build housing for those who have become homeless. She would like to get the process going by using those allocated funds. While Lee remains focused on those with drug problems and mental illnesses who are on the streets, Lundquist considers additional reasons, such as domestic abuse victims, seniors, and those who have lost jobs or otherwise not make enough income, for many of those who have lost their homes and apartments.
She said “It’s been a crisis in the making for 20 to 30 years as we have not been building the right kind of housing.” She has pledged not to accept any campaign funds from developers. She said she would like to make her office a hub for providing services such as job placement, drug
rehabilitation, and mental health aid for the homeless. She pointed out that it’s easily to get help getting off drugs or staying on one’s medication while indoors. She also stated that it is cheaper to house people than not. She would also like to see “safe parking,” utilizing some state-owned or closed LAUSD facilities and providing services to help those people. She would also like to have police officers return to fighting crime, instead of being forced to act as social workers.
Lee felt that there needs to be incentives such as lower fees and taxes for builders to incentivize building affordable housing. He says that those working at the city are afraid to go after drug companies. As for those with drug problems, he would like to see them put into “forced drug rehabilitation.” He felt that “we need to be compassionate to the homeless, but also need to be compassionate to home owners”.
DISCLAIMER: I have donated money and time to the Loraine for LA campaign and to Food and Water Action/Ground-Game LA’s campaign to get this intelligent scientist on the LA City Council