Sunlight, Bravery and Boldness

A Call for Refreshment in Our Next Town Election

By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief

Beyond our readership, an educated, socially engaged lot, there is not much excited chatter about the Pacific Palisades Community Council.

Some have never heard of it. Others dismiss it, harshly, as a talking shop.

Only a tiny minority of Palisadians vote in its biennial elections, which have, in the past, been decided by one vote.

Yet, if town democracy is not to be an arcane hobby for the permanently angry, something must evolve.

And there are indications that change is a-coming at the volunteer organization that represents critical Palisadian interests, from how you remodel your home to where you can get a martini, at City Hall and Sacramento. Where it has, at least, nudge power.

For the next 137 days, it’s election season.

Firstly, there will be a vote by 23 board members for the next four-person executive on June 14, with the new “gang of four” taking up the reins on July 1.

Then, in late summer, Palisadians will vote for local people willing to represent eight areas the Palisades (and an “at-large” rep) to the board. Runners-up become backups.

From Oct. 1, area reps will sit on a board alongside representatives from a rotating array of local organizations such as the Friends of Palisades Library.

Will the new board look any different?

It could, but enough to challenge systemic issues?

Critics argue that, since 1974, the council has developed some bad habits. A self-replicating hierarchy of closed-door cronyism being at the heart of it.

But let’s start with transparency.

At the last PPCC meeting, on May 17, former chair Chris Spitz complained when she learned that the PPCC’s nominating committee had put her up as secretary.

She didn’t know it was coming. So, from being inside the magic circle, she might have felt the pain of generations of outsiders who have been locked out by a ruling group.

No, the volunteer group is not covered by the Brown Act, which mandates openness at every level of governance.

But future members could pledge themselves to its basic morality.

Decision-making behind closed doors invites leaks, or imaginative and unwelcome speculations, a lesson unheeded by local (or national) leaders.

Spitz also boldly stated that she had told the nominating committee she would only serve with three other people she felt were suitably qualified for the posts. A slate.

There followed a flurry of low-key but barbed exchanges about the virtues of experience verses the risk of electing new voices.

Lou Kamer and Rick Mills, not on the slate, were characterized as if they had just stumbled wide-eyed out of the Temescal Canyon bushes.

Then the sniping got mean.

It made some wonder: Why bother with public service? They don’t get paid for this.

Also reinstating the same faces, no matter how skilled, may not satisfy residents feeling betrayed by the council over recent months.

As Bob Flick and Mark Jackson, Highlanders frustrated at the council’s legally constrained policy during the eldercare center debate, roared: “This body does not represent me.” As we have recently learned, the disenfranchised can be dangerous.

The Highlanders are not alone in feeling spurned. Castellammare and Riviera residents feel let down too.

This is despite massive efforts promoting engagement and compromise by departing Chair Maryam Zar.

Councilmembers like Zar and Spitz are impressively hard-working, committed and thoughtful members of the community.

But the pool of volunteers willing to put in the hours is very shallow.

The PPCC should blow the reserves on a ballot box day barbecue party to attract people out to vote.

Bring on the clowns, recruit Tom Hanks to perform on a box as Falstaff, get Caruso to sponsor it, whatever it takes to make it fun to take part in a town election.

Counting the public vote should also be a carnival, maybe an exercise in democracy at Palisades Charter High School. Not, as in past years, in a board member’s house.

Zar once boldly talked about creating a local internet, for residents.

It could stream the regular meetings: Once you identify the characters, those who miss “The West Wing” might find it addictive.

Raising the turnout with such shameless stunts would also give the council more clout with the city—maybe enough to temper developer donations.

The traditional answer is independence, to reserve the right to sue the city over some future threat—although, with $38,000 in the kitty, that is not on the horizon.

Critics feel it is more about Palisadian pride—healthy in small measures, dangerous when swallowed wholesale—and convenience.

Nor does it have to set term limits, a vital process for refreshing the body politic.

To its credit, the nominating committee looked more to Lincoln’s Cabinet of Rivals rather than past PPCC slates—some of which ended in disappointment and bitterness.

The nominating committee rejected the four-strong Spitz slate—one could fancifully imagine a scenario where they felt bullied—instead opting, as they saw it, for individuals of talent.

That included Spitz and Cohen as well as less predictable voices in Mills and Kamer. And there is still a lot of affection and respect for George Wolfberg and Peter Culhane, nominated by their fellow board members David Card and Bruce Schwartz.

The nominating committee proposed a compromise, yes, maybe even a proscription for creative tension and uncertainty. But, also, evolution.

The even more vulnerable Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce, facing commercial pressure from Caruso, is currently reinventing itself for tomorrow.

If the council does not get out of its comfort zone and accept, that, yes, open and vigorous elections are popularity contests, where both ideas and personalities must be tested, then the old genteel model of slates and secrets risks being bypassed by history.

After all, there is nothing stopping other Palisadians applying to the city to set up the town’s first neighborhood council.

Pledging a clearer vision, a balance between slow and necessary growth, following Coastal Commission rules, getting industrial zones rezoned before the developers arrive. Getting ahead of the curve. Being clear about what this town is, in 2018.

And, for fun, as Zar once suggested, maybe hosting an arts festival.

In conjunction with such a weekend our joint mayors, Billy and Janice Crystal, could program a film series at Cinépolis or in the park.

It’s all about getting Palisadians excited about that vision thing of being Palisadian.