Vitriol and Vengeance Inflames Village Election

By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief

In an unsettling echo of presidential campaigning hostilities, the local election to find the next Pacific Palisades Community Council representative for the Village neighborhood has turned shockingly aggressive and deeply personal.

The temperature has been turned up online at the hyperlocal website Nextdoor where old battles, especially about the Caruso development, have returned to haunt the candidates.

Whilst the rivals, incumbent Sue Kohl and challenger Sandra Eddy, have striven to remain above the fray, familiar Caruso skeptics have returned to stir the pot—and, according to observers, settle grudges dating back years.

There are around 800 household votes to play for, and as at the last election two years ago—when Kohl ousted long-term incumbent and anti-Caruso protestor Jack Allen from the Alphabet Streets by a handful of votes—every voter is being wooed.

The election began quietly enough last Wednesday, Aug. 16, when for the first time the PPCC opened its website for online voting.

It’s a determined strategy to increase its perceived legitimacy by driving voter participation up from as little as 10 percent of residents in some of its eight areas.

Hours later, Jack Allen took to Nextdoor to endorse “Sandy” Eddy, praising her for 16 years working with local organizations, without mentioning his former rival, Sue Kohl.

The tone shifted when Rena Repetti, Allen’s long-term ally in the Save our Village campaign, took to the site to accuse Kohl of “defaming” grassroots activists by posting “blatantly false messages” about a Save Our Village flyer issued during the Caruso development debate.

This prompted a furious “flaming” war on the website and elsewhere, including personal emails attacks between champions and critics of Kohl’s support for the Caruso development.

One resident argued, “It is time that this community faces the fact it was totally hijacked (in) a pro-development coup. Those who stifled free public debate will learn to live (with) the consequences of their action.”

In contrast another resident recalled seeing the “obstructionist” flyer and praised Sue Kohl and the rest of the PPCC by protecting the Alphabet Streets from a “lunatic fringe” that did not represent the mainstream that backed the Caruso development.

A third commentator summarized the danger of such flame wars to the candidates: “This is a very offensive post. You just made up my mind to vote for Sue Kohl.”

It grew nastier, with critics accusing Kohl of being pro-development because her husband, Bob Benton, had a sports good retail business on the Caruso development site. It has closed but will become the first business to reopen in two years’ time.

Benton himself has said he was in two minds whether he wanted to return, but this did not influence his wife’s stance, which reflected the majority of voters in Area Five.

At one point it became so tense that Lou Kramer, who is standing for the PPCC as an “at-large” or non-area specific representative against Quentin Fleming, offered to host a mediation conference call to allow voters to understand the background and policies on offer.

Kramer said he was disappointed that the “vitriol and division that permeated the Caruso debate is being replayed—unfortunately this only leads to splitting, entrenchment and anger voting which is unproductive in choosing a candidate to represent us.”

On Tuesday, Kohl said she not wish to become involved in the Nextdoor debate, but will debate her policy beliefs at the PPCC forum with other candidates on Aug. 25.

But she was provoked into denying one charge.

She said that the Caruso development was not approved blindly but thoroughly analyzed by the PPCC which helped shape a plan that will benefit the community for decades to come.

Eddy, who is campaigning from a wheelchair having injured two legs and an arm in a sidewalk tumble three weeks ago, said she understood the “passion” rather than the tone of the Nextdoor debate but she was looking forward to holding Caruso to the “best working practices” over the next two years—such as not making noise before 7 a.m.

Both share many attitudes about protecting the Palisades, but there is one distinct policy difference over parking issues.

Eddy is not yet supporting Kohl’s drive to convert more areas of the Alphabet Streets into resident permit parking zones.

Both have urged voters to be aware there is only one vote for area representative per household—any enthusiastic “over-voting” by supporters and under PPCC rules all the votes from that household are cancelled. But those with businesses or other residences can vote additionally for the “at-large” representatives.

There are 11 candidates standing for eight seats at a crucial time for planning and other issues in the Palisades. Their statements are on line at pacpalice.org, as well as an invocation to vote by Maryam Zar, the new PPCC chair.

Voting closes for the two-year terms at midnight on Sept. 1.