PPPC Elections—Have You Voted Yet?

By MARYAM ZAR | Special to the Palisadian-Post

Tonight at the Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting in the Palisades Branch Library in the Village, we will hold a candidates’ forum to introduce all the candidates to the community, and offer an opportunity to ask them questions and find out what they will do for you.

In my own area, campaigning is robust, and I know in other Palisadian areas the electioneering in contested areas is vibrant with printed flyers, lawn signs and social media buzz.

Online voting has engaged many and promises to deliver our greatest percentage of voter participation, ever. Palisadians can vote using mobile devices such as laptops, iPads or smartphones, in addition to home computers. They can also use computers in the library and get assistance if they need it. We encourage voters to try online voting as we transition away from paper ballots.

We are on track to record the greatest engagement ever in PPCC elections, surpassing most other neighborhood councils and community councils in Council District 11.

I’ve had meaningful exchanges with longtime Palisadians who haven’t been involved in the PPCC but are taking a look at our work now and beginning to chime in with ideas and concerns, hoping they’ve found that community forum where matters that are important to local residents can be considered and discussed.

There seems to be a sense that the PPCC is a closed group of people who recycle from position to position, and as I talk to people, I am able to convince them that it is not.

The PPCC board is comprised of a constantly changing group of wide-ranging individuals. With each election cycle, we usher in dozens of new people onto our board, many of them for the first time. In this election, there are at least four candidates who are just beginning their involvement with the PPCC, and at least two candidates who have long been community activists on certain matters and have now decided to join the council.

The board of the PPCC is made up of nine elected reps with two alternates each, and nine organizational reps (appointed members), each with one alternate. Along with our executive committee and our advisers, we are composed of a wide cross-section of people with differing points of view and broad perspectives that bring great insight to each discussion. Through it all, we remain collegiate and respectful. That is the cornerstone of our quorum. Any inappropriate finger pointing or charged oratory is frowned upon, and our by laws allow for a process for censure.

As we near the end of our voting period on Sept. 1, PPCC will hold in-person voting at the Pacific Palisades Farmers Market for one day on Aug. 28. A limited number of provisional ballots will be made available to all who assert that they didn’t receive the printed ballots made available to the community by both papers, and are not able to access or operate online voting.

We will be at the farmers market (in its new location at Palisades Charter High School) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to help those residents vote. These provisional ballots will be made available for real-time voting and will be collected by our table monitors. We hope, in this way, to enable all who are eligible and interested in taking part in our elections, to be able to vote.

We encourage everyone to become involved in the PPCC through voting, but also by becoming informed about our work, understanding our unique role in the community, and realizing our influence in city, county and state agencies, where our credibility helps protect and preserve Palisadian interests. We have no place for vitriol, but we have plenty of room for disparate voices and the collaboration of viewpoints.

Here’s to our mini-democracy and a strong future for the Palisades we all wish to preserve.