The United States Supreme Court is preparing to issue a ruling on women’s reproductive rights by removing federal intervention and returning the rights back to the state to decide. The leaked opinion says we live in a democracy and the people have a right to cast votes in support of candidates who share the same values as them. The problem with a democracy is when money dictates the outcome of our elections.
The Inglewood mayor came into office under cloudy suspicions he demonstrated during the nomination process. His residency came into question and when the city clerk asked him to sign an affidavit to corroborate the date he said he moved into the City, he declined.
That was the first indication he wasn’t striving to become mayor for pure reasons. He lied to voters from the beginning but because residents were eager to “restore integrity” to the mayor’s office, they elected a former cop over true Inglewoodians.
Since being elected he continues to tarnish the office with his deception surrounding the city’s finances, reckless spending on extraordinary legal fees for multiple lawsuits tied to his personal behavior, and his failure to pass a key tax ballot measure shows the mayor is at his weakest point in his 12-year tenure, and concerned about running for a fourth term.
The data shows the mayor is driving more people to the polls, against him, and thus he heavily relies on developers and billionaires to fund his campaigns.
In 2014, the mayor’s bid for a second term, resulted in his receiving 83% of the vote.
Total votes cast for the mayor was 13,193 and his three challengers recorded 2,638.
Between his 2nd and third terms, he became the bell of the ball with developers continuing to pour money into the mayor, who then poured money into the campaigns for seats in District 1 and 2 in order to remove the thorns in his side.
Months after securing his second term, all hell broke loose. The City announced a petition would be circulating to put an NFL stadium on the ballot. The second lie the mayor told us.
Related: Stadium developer has donated $100,000 to Inglewood officials’ campaigns
The LA Times have run multiple stories on how developers dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Inglewood candidates in order to “fast track” their project. Mission accomplished.
What followed?
The announcement of Steve Ballmer’s plans to move the NBA Clippers across the street from the world’s most expensive football stadium.
Voters were still hypnotized by the swell in equity in their homes as the housing market took off. Simultaneously, Metro extended the rail along the very train tracks residents had shut down due to complaints about noise and traffic delays.
Related: Madison Square Garden Co., LA Clippers owner wage expensive fight over Inglewood mayor’s race
By the time voters went to the polls in November 2018 the mayor drew more votes against him.
He tallied 19,817 to capture 61% of the vote, however, the numbers against him swelled. Four challengers drew 12,186 votes.
Over 9,500 people turned out from the previous year to vote against him, while the mayor only added 6,600 votes.
“We taught MSG a lesson that they cannot buy this city with money,” said the mayor after being elected to his third term.
But the mayor wasn’t done.
The stadium opens, a global pandemic hits, and for the first time we see that the current administration has not improved the City’s financial position.
The mayor was elected shortly after the City declared a fiscal emergency in 2009-2010 and a decade later, they did it again.
The 2021 fiscal emergency triggered a special election to increase certain taxes in the City. One of which relied heavily on the voter’s trust in what the administration was telling us.
Do we listen to their words or pay attention to what they’re doing?
Measure H was presented to increase transient occupancy taxes from 14% to 15.5% which voters overwhelmingly supported since it wasn’t coming out of their pocket.
But Measure I, the real estate transfer tax, designed to “gift” the City additional money as a sort of “thank you” for getting my property value this high was narrowly defeated.
The final vote count was 4.736 for and 5,232 against. Now do you understand why the City is back throwing parties? They have to get out there and gauge what the voter is thinking.
The Inglewood Police Officers Association got the bright idea to publicly endorse the District 2 councilman and the nomination period hasn’t officially opened so what is the endorsement for? And why was it only announced for District 2, when the District 1 and mayor’s seat will be on the same ballot?
The mayor is rightfully concerned that he can’t win in November.
His credibility is in the toilet with his attacks on the City’s treasurer who has nothing to gain from telling the truth about the City’s finances. She isn’t too far off if the City declared a fiscal emergency and presented a mid-year budget showing a $22 million deficit.
The District 1 and 2 councilmen are just as shaky as the mayor because they have co-signed on all of what is transpiring with lawsuits, outstanding legal fees, their silence on matters negatively impacting taxpayers, and basically removing the residents from participating in the democratic process.
We can no longer voice our concerns considering the council has commandeered all of the City’s commissions, cancelling meetings for years, and denying us entry into council chambers to attend council meetings.
Add in the chaos of the citywide permit parking program, that carefully carved out the District 2 councilman’s area, compounded with threats to have tenants withhold rent if the property owner doesn’t pay registration fees to the City creates a hodgepodge of reasons for the voter to send all three incumbents from the dais.
Will more finance cash pour in related to the construction of the Inglewood Transit Connector to fend off voters who want to restore integrity to the mayor’s office?
Last week was the 50th Anniversary of the Watergate scandal. OJ Simpson provided commentary that “although Nixon was a better president, Jimmy Carter helped restore integrity to the White House”.
When will democracy and integrity be restored in Inglewood?
If the Supreme Court actually believes the voters control elections then their opinions aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.
5 Comments
Please everyone re read the Daily Breeze article .
You may want to take notice the “independent campaign committee” which poured major money into the Inglewood election to back a man who has not protected Inglewood residents against greedy billionaires.
And for the additional insult, your currently elected approved the moving of the campaign committees to rent offices in CITY HALL!
That’s right your elected gave their campaign consultants the opportunity to have their donors stop on a floor beneath the ninth either before or after their appointment and drop of their contribution without having to change parking spaces!!
IMMORAL, UNETHICAL, yeah well that should not be a surprise, what was that Ballmer quote ?
Inglewood is going through text book gentrification. As a life long resident and home owner I welcome the change. Did any of you grow up in Inglewood during the 80s? It was Mad Max meets Boys in the hood. Why would anyone want to go back to that.
I personally witnessed a student from morning side get shot outside my home at the age of 10.
Drive Bys
Heavy Gang Influence
CRACK HOUSES
Sir or madam. You are not the only person to either live in the city of Inglewood or suffer a loss due to gang violence. This isn’t about what is being done but HOW it is being done. You should contact either the mayor or the councilman in District 2 and sign up to assist on their campaign this Fall.
Indeed many of us have been in Inglewood in the eighties, even in the seventies and yes there was a time when gangs did kill, (side note: what about the rental in District 2 just a few months age) when rappers made Inglewood known and the radio world re people killin’ and cappin’ , BUT that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of democracy being denied the residents of Inglewood by their elected!
Wasn’t it the Mayor himself who said he could not do anything to keep black men from killing black men?
If you think gentrification (aka outpricing minorities from housing) is a good thing ….there is that pesky reality that you too (unless you are part of the “team’s” family) yes, even you may be looking at eminent domain zoning you out of the community sooner or later. It is interesting that for some strange reason you either returned to or remained rather then left permanently, so perhaps it was not as horrible as you want some to believe.
Getting back to the topic presented:
a man who continuously lies is not a man anyone should trust with their future.
No, not even if he promises the moon ……consider how his assistant has been unreasonably rewarded for her skills and then suddenly been publicly called incompetent and removed from position for “falsification” .
If his reaction to her saying “no more” isn’t the best example we can find of : “DO as I SAY” rather than leading by positive example…please do share.
Absolutely the best of of titles !!
And timely as well ! This is Juneteenth weekend after all.
Perhaps we should begin to celebrate the freedoms our constitution granted each and every one of us. As well as the serious responsibility of citizens over 18 – not just to register to vote but wisely selecting from a multitude of candidates who will best REPRESENT US rather than their own interest or the interest of those who finance their election campaigns.
Sometimes we have to wonder, will this be the year our community come to grips with the concept of being free from shackles of “image politics” and begin to vote for ourselves rather than for someone who has been selected by others as our representative simply by virtue of his or her complexion ?
Those who choose not to consider us- as worthy of expressing our opinion, worthy of having our words in print, worthy of being listened to, or worthy of being treated as if we matter -should not be those who we elect to represent us.
We, who pay their significant salaries AND for every decision they make SHOULD NOT be silenced by being kept out of the buildings (which our money built) or be kept from participation in meetings where decisions about our future is being voted on, either physically or by “technical difficulties” when we attempt to call-in !!
Let’s NOT vote for the carpetbagger and “his team” who tells us if we don’t agree with him we should move out – he didn’t choose to live among us until he was selected by billionaires then lied about living with his in-laws.
Let us not forget early on our 18 million tax dollars were given to help a billionaire renovate the Forum. We have lost services so that billionaires need not use their money for acquisitions, renovations, or transportation service.
So to answer that “when will democracy and integrity return to Inglewood” query, it depends when residents send the current “team of disrespectful elected” into a new reality where these “selected” are no longer “the elected” to any public office.
When your neighbors ask about parking restrictions, rental unit registration, traffic foolishness, pollution, gentrification, why they can’t get public records, go into city hall, or have their comments taken seriously before the city council votes to impact our lives….please don’t shrug, take the time to do the research and remind them who is responsible… here is a clue it is those who vote aye,aye,aye,aye and aye on the ninth floor of Inglewood city hall every Tuesday.