Dear 2UrbanGirls,
I am a long-time resident of Inglewood’s District 2 since 1961. I’ve lived here long enough to remember when North Park was a reservoir similar to the one they had up in Baldwin Hills that flooded the area. Inglewood got scared and removed the above ground tanks and put them under it, and then came the park,
Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about a letter I received in the mail from the Inglewood Police Officers Association. I support the police but are curious about this letter.
I used to rent DVD’s of the city council meetings from the Inglewood Library and recall how Mayor Butts muscled his way onto the council. It’s also hard to get a word in when we still came to the meetings.
This letter is asking for donations up to $10,000 to meet with the members of the union board. Why would a resident want to do that? Butts and the council allowed the department to become severely understaffed causing more work for them. I also read they are giving large amounts of money to Butts and our council member Alex Padilla.
Isn’t one of the board members under a federal indictment?
Can you please look into what kind of dinner are they offering in exchange for $10,000?
District 2 voter
**update**
A member of IPD reached out to state the officer pictured in the photo had already stepped down from his role before this mailer went out.
2 Comments
Sadly the Inglewood Police Association seems to have forgotten that their stated mission is to “represent their members” AND “create a lasting bond with members of the community” .
Most revealing is the $10,000.00 opportunity to meet with the union board. What the freaking blazes is that? We are their employers they are our employees. They should be thrilled with the privilege of appearing at or hosting monthly meetings with residents! As in days of old, when meetings were to discover resident concerns to interact, not attempt to intimidate or encourage us to vote for their favored candidate.
That they have chosen to use donated dollars to provide campaign dollars to support that group of incumbents who routinely (every meeting) insult the community members is simply not creating a lasting bond.
If the Association wanted a positive bond they would have shared how the donated funds would be transferred to the campaign funds of the Incumbent who is hoping to be re-elected. The retired (with significant pension) Santa Monica Officer who maintains another paid police position in addition to the council salary he receives from Inglewood Residents, is one of the silent four who refuses to debate or discuss agenda items in public and who has endorsed each of the James Butts decisions including; changing meeting times, lying that residents voted for the stadium, hiring not because of qualifications but rather those indebted to him, rezoning away areas where single family homes stand, eliminating local business by eminent domain……etc etc etc.
John Abel Baca was the President of this group – there seems to have been an election since his arrest.
Sorry to say this adds just another reason to believe the Inglewood Police Officers fail in their understanding of the concepts of respecting those they swore “they would protect and serve”.
On the other hand …..could it be that one of the factors for awarding a new labor contract included that there would be a campaign contribution and campaign endorsements in exchange?
So far they have only endorsed Padilla.