Circling the News has received several notes from readers regarding the recall petition drive against Councilman Mike Bonin and other actions taken or not taken by the Councilman:
RECALL IS A SHAM:
One reader wrote: “I would love to know who’s behind the Bonin Recall. Some weeks ago, I stopped at their signature table outside the Post Office. I simply asked: Why? After a wide-eyed, rabbit-in-the-road initial response, I heard empty speech. He’s not empathetic enough. He claimed credit for housing people when that was done by others. I feel just like the Newsom Recall, to me this reeks of political opportunism.”
BONIN NOT ASKING FOR CAMPING ENFORCEMENT:
After an encampment fire next to a wall adjoining residences and Mar Vista Park, homeless were moved closer to the baseball diamonds, but have not been cleared from public parks.
Several readers alerted me to the following TV report: https://www.foxla.com/news/los-angeles-to-enforce-new-anti-camping-law-at-54-locations-but-none-in-bonin-ramans-districts. A similar article appeared in the October 21 Daily News (“City Enforces New Anti-Camping Law”).
The City Council voted on September 3 to enact a new law that would prohibit sleeping, sitting, camping, and obstructing the public right of way within 500 feet of “sensitive” facilities including schools, daycare facilities, parks and libraries.
But, it couldn’t be enforced until the council passed a resolution to designate a specific area for enforcement, post signage and give notice of the date that the ordinance will be enforced for the area.
Each council member was responsible for bringing these areas to the attention of the City Council. On September 14, the council approved a street engagement strategy to provide outreach teams that deploy to areas chosen for enforcement, once a resolution was introduced.
On October 21, four resolutions were passed enforcing the law in 26 locations in the districts represented by Bob Blumenfield, Joe Buscaino and Paul Krekorian’s.
Councilman Mike Bonin said he would not vote for any enforcement of the law until the city has a “fully resourced and robust street engagement strategy.”
BALLONA WETLANDS: PASSING THE BUCK
The RVs are parked in a “no camping,” “no parking” area, but the City has not insisted they move adjacent to an enviromentally sensitive area in the Ballona Wetlands.
Regarding the degradation of the Ballona Wetlands caused by homeless encampments along Jefferson Boulevard, several readers wrote:
“Councilman Bonin is proposing a motion to give an area along the Freshwater Marsh (on the west side of Lincoln, south of Jefferson) & Freshwater Marsh/Ballona Wetlands (southside of Jefferson, west of Lincoln) to the State. It’s another one of his ‘feasibility’ studies. (See motion below).
“This means the State, not the City, would have jurisdiction & be responsible for clearing the homeless along those areas. The State does not have police that work for them in that area. The State has NO staff to enforce any anti-camping laws the homeless violate.
“This is Bonin’s way of passing the buck & allowing the homeless to stay in the Marsh/Wetlands. He can just blame the State for lack of enforcement.
“The City Council will vote to approve this motion at 10 a.m. Wednesday, October 27. We need people to speak during public comment to oppose this.”
Public comment is one minute. See item 7 on agenda link: https://lacity.primegov.com/Portal/Meeting?compiledMeetingDocumentFileId=14011
TAKEN OFF NEXTDOOR:
A Palisades resident who has been working on the recall wrote, “It seems like hecklers have finally convinced the Nextdoor leads to censor me. It is unfortunate and unjust, but wonder if you could post the following:
“Recall volunteers are making packages and dropping them off at people’s homes as a service to families that already support the recall. These are for families who maybe have only one person go to the market or make their Post Office run. With the package at their door, the whole family can sign the petition.
“Recall Bonin 2021 has reached the required number of signatures, but we need to get more in order to balance duplicates, wrong addresses and people out of Council District 11. With three weeks to go, it is crunch time and we need everyone’s signature who is interested in participating.
“We need to pay our professional signature gatherers. We are extremely grateful to all who have contributed to the cause and those who will do it now or again.”
Thank you Sue! More exceptional reporting as always. I look forward to getting CTN!
I am so so sorry to send you a message but I am trying to find out who to contact to make certain that all of our signatures are counted in the effort to unseat Mr. Bonin. I have googled and perhaps I am a dinosaur but cannot find the actual person to contact.
If you go to this site, you should be able to get some information . . . .https://www.recallbonin2021.com/
Regardless of anyone’s thoughts about Bonin (or Gascón, Newsom, etc.) I’m still confused about recalls. Isn’t this what elections are for? Unless something egregiously illegal happened, it just seems like a big whiny waste of money. I’d rather see positive ideas for improvement than pure negativity.
Given the amount of time and space you devote to attempting to recall our councilmember, you should register as a political committee, or at least make sure the Recall Committee discloses your in-kind contribution.