South Bay Echo for Oct. 20
Redondo rejects outsider campaign, fiasco in LA, Rick Caruso, and Hawthorne pay raises
Welcome to the 41st edition of South Bay Echo, your source of local hometown news with a real estate angle.
This Substack is brought to you by Rosetree Real Estate, a full service real estate brokerage dealing in residential and commercial properties to both own and lease. For more information visit RosetreeRealEstate.com. DRE# 02145024
Redondo voters reject outsider campaign
In what must feel like a massive blow to his fragile ego, Elliot Lewis has suffered overwhelming defeat in Redondo Beach for his Measure E initiative to legalize cannabis dispensaries as well as his brazen recall attempt of Councilman Zein Obagi. Both contests failed miserably in initial results put out Wednesday night, despite the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by Lewis and company.
Voters solidly rejected attempts by the chest thumping cannabis magnate to control Redondo Beach politics and take out anyone who stood in his way. Well, it seems that will not be the case. The only person Lewis wanted to serve was himself and his pot empire. The measure gained just 25% approval among Redondo voters as of Wednesday.
The recall attempt of Councilman Obagi appeared to fail on a near equal basis with 26% of voters in favor, based on initial results. The campaign against Obagi was so baseless and dumb, and I’m glad voters agreed.
LA City Council implosion
Kevin De Leon’s interview Wednesday on CBSLA wins pure gold in the category of desperate politicians. In his first interview since being caught on tape dismissing racist comments by former LA City Council President Nury Martinez, De Leon said that he is refusing to step down.
He was sorry, he said with a sincere face, a really sincere face. He acknowledged he failed. He has a lot of hard work to do, which he understands. But he’s not resigning because the people of his district deserve representation. In other words, absolute bull shit.
That look on Kevin’s face says I can’t get another job. For a political junkie, it doesn’t get much better for political theater. This is two thumbs up and a twist.
Now, we all know Kevin De Leon is not God’s gift to the 14th district. They can certainly find another representative. But for now, Kevin defies his council colleagues. He defies the parade of protesters and those camped outside his house. He even defies President Biden who suggested he find other employment. But no, poor Kevin has to be a Councilman in Los Angeles.
What’s being lost in all this drama is the subject of the meeting itself, which was about redistricting. Here they were, in the fabled back room, dividing up districts to split the black vote, just as everyone has suspected for so many years. And they were caught on tape. So why not throw around a monkey joke?
Vote for Rick Caruso
This all brings me to my next point. It is with no small consideration that I support Rick Caruso for Mayor of Los Angeles.
It is beyond clear to anyone with two eyes and at least some neural activity behind them that Los Angeles is a broken city. It’s disgusting and it’s dangerous. Los Angeles is one of the world’s greatest cities. We are going to hold the Olympics later this decade. But these days it’s an absolute embarrassment. And it’s been led entirely by the same type of thinkers, mostly career politicians and crooks.
Caruso has a plan to clean up the city. He wants to add 30,000 shelter beds in the first year, build more affordable homes at a faster pace, expand mental health services and add 500 sanitation workers…. sanitation workers to clean up all the shit and piss on the disgusting LA streets. Why is this not a priority now?
Best of all about Caruso is that he doesn’t need the job. So he’s spent $62 million. I think it shows he really cares, LOL… After all we’ve been through in LA with these self-serving, egotistical politicians, sadly I am much more inclined to trust a billionaire at this point. Karen Bass in my view represents more of the same.
Hawthorne to vote on increased council pay
If you haven’t noticed there is a theme developing to this week’s Substack. I can’t help it, the hits keep coming. Hawthorne voters in November are set to decide whether their councilmembers should be paid $75,700 per year. That’s a 951% increase, up from $7,200 currently, and would put them far out of line compared to most other cities.
It doesn’t get any more self-serving than wanting a full-time salary for a part-time job. Give me a break. Hawthorne, you might remember, has finally recovered from a financial scandal that nearly bankrupted the city a few short years ago.
Not surprisingly, the measure was spearheaded by Councilmembers David Patterson and Angie Reyes English, according to the Daily Breeze.
I am surprised Mayor Alex Vargas went along with putting this on the ballot. I thought he was better than that. He has been trying to say that the real purpose of the measure was so that Hawthorne could become a charter city and have a “fighting chance” against the state. The salary increase was “placed in there as an adjustment,” Vargas said.
You can pretty well guess what I think of that. The video above is queued up to his comments on August 9.
Let me lay this out in plain terms as a summary to this entire column. Politics is supposed to be a way to give back, not to take. There are two types of politicians. Those who want to give back and those who want to take. It’s usually pretty easy to tell the difference. As a reporter there was one tell that always gave the self-serving ones away real easy: not returning my calls.
If you are not a reporter, there are other ways to know if a politician is self-serving. Campaigning for pay raises is a big one. Another is when they won’t stop running for an office they lost. If the voters reject you, go away. There are so many ways to serve your community. Do something else.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Sure felt good on my end to get that out, haha.
Thanks for posting the Hawthorne city council' votes on their salaries to $72,500. True public servants Valentine and Monteiro voted for $24,000---which even may be a little high. I agree about Vargas. I thought he was a stand up guy but his greed got the better of him.. I wonder if this would include pension and health benefits. Next step bankruptcy.
The story on Redondo was good. The voters spoke in no uncertain terms running off the carpetbagger Lewis and the horse he was backing McKenzie in this race. I don't know how three as opposed to the already approved two cannabis business would be a benefit to the city and its residents.
As Lord Acton said, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'". Redondo Beach voters put a choke hold on the power grab, I just hope Hawthorne does as well.
Your getting this info out is a public service as these shenanigans go on when people are trying to keep body and soul together and don't have time to follow the intrigues of the politicians.