The Los Angeles City Council continues a pattern of taking away voters rights by going around the democratic process and voting in laws for themselves as opposed to letting voters decide.
The Council began with a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products in retail stores. As the economy is reopening, and businesses are attempting to return to a sense of normalcy, a major source of small businesses income will be gone at the top of 2023. Voters will still go to the ballot on the issue in November but little can be done to change the course of action in Los Angeles short of another vote.
The council believes the “black market” won’t be a factor but they can look to their neighbors south of them and find Compton is in the midst of its own battle of sorts around marijuana.
California voters overwhelmingly approved the recreational sale of cannabis, while the Compton elders blocked the approval in its city limits. As a direct result, not only is the City littered with illegal dispensaries, innocent children are being killed inside of them. The City has no plan of action to address the uptick in the illegal activity and elder residents will not tolerate discussion of legalizing the sales given the violent history of drugs in their community.
The council also bypassed voters when they adopting a wage increase for healthcare workers before it could reach November’s ballot.
“The Los Angeles City Council’s hasty adoption of this inequitable measure is unfair for workers, costly for patients and risky for Los Angeles. The vast majority of health care workers in the city will be excluded by this discriminatory measure, as the wage standard only applies to workers at private hospitals and dialysis clinics, but completely excludes workers who do the exact same job at our city’s public hospitals, community clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), nursing homes, urgent care centers, and many other facilities. In fact, the measure excludes workers at 90% of health care facilities in the city. In addition to being inequitable and unfair, the ordinance will jeopardize access to care at local health care providers – especially community clinics and those providers that care for underserved populations. The City Council should have put this measure to the November ballot to give the voters of Los Angeles the choice to vote on this inequitable policy.”
No on the Los Angeles Unequal Pay Measure Coalition
Finally, the council bypassed voters when they approved mandated daily cleanings of hotel rooms despite declaring harsh penalties for residents who water their lawn.
“Mandatory daily room cleaning would increase the use of water, as well as electricity and gas in perpetuity.”
Heather Rozman, executive director of the Hotel Assn. of Los Angeles
These three actions show a disturbing pattern that the members of the council are far too eager to suppress the will of the voter. The same voter who is inundated with literature to vote for them when it’s election time.
Related: How the baby boomers broke America
Voters are on track to remove two long standing members of the city council with members more aligned with the community. They are fastracking votes, and bypassing voters, at lighting speed which isn’t a democracy, it’s a thinly veiled dictatorship.
More articles continue to come out against the “stronghold” baby boomers have on elections by creating more problems as opposed to effectively addressing them.
The time has come to shakeup local government and start electing candidates who align more with ensuring voters have a right to choose their own destiny which starts at the ballot box.
