Self- Serving Council

Self-serving council Longer terms, yes; better roads, no
LA Daily News

IF there's an upside to the Los Angeles City Council's recent slide into unabashed arrogance, it's that we now know what really motivates our city leaders.

Late last week, City Councilmen Tony Cardenas and Greig Smith yanked plans to put a $1.5 billion street-paving bond on the November ballot. The reason, they said, was voter fatigue and confusion. On a ballot crammed with state propositions, city measures, tax hikes and bonds of every kind, voters' burnout would doom the chances for street repairs.
Nor did it help matters that when Cardenas and Smith took their idea to the council at large, response was lukewarm at best. The two figured they had little chance of getting the council to sign on, and even less of winning over the public.

And in a sense, they're probably right. When politicians ask the public for too much, the public tends to say no to everything. No one knows this better than the politicians themselves, which is why they're starting to worry whether maybe they've overdone it by putting 10 different tax and bond measures on the November ballot.

What's telling about this is that the council wouldn't put street repairs that affect everyone on the ballot, but did put $1 billion for "affordable" housing on the ballot that affects a narrow class. And it leaped at the chance to ask L.A. voters to water down council members' term limits, something that affects only themselves.
Priorities. Priorities. Priorities.

Far from the frosty reaction that Cardenas and Smith got over their streets plan, the council unanimously backed the bogus "ethics reform" package that's chiefly about giving themselves an extra four years in office. Members crammed that one through even though the city attorney said it's unconstitutional and the Ethics Commission and neighborhood councils never got to look at it. And they did it with next to no public comment or debate.

Los Angeles' roads are crumbling, thanks to a city government that's ignored them for decades while pumping endless cash into unions, developers and other special interests. But for this council, politics isn't about public service, but self-service. Members have made that much abundantly clear.