CAPITOL OFFENSES Brendan Huffman While many of Los Angeles’s city officials are seemingly ignoring our fiscal decline into Chapter 11, one Valley city councilmember thinks he has the answer — people power! In his monthly column published in the June edition of the Sherman Oaks News, Councilman Paul Koretz writes, “Even though Los Angeles faces many tough challenges, I have great hope for the future of our city. The reason is simple — I’ll call it people power!” He continues: “Every day, people in action make a difference for the sake of their community. To me, this is absolutely inspiring.” Koretz, who is completing his first year on the city council, cites examples of “people power” in a town hall meeting he hosted to provide information on code enforcement, another town hall meeting with presentations from various city departments, and the public’s response to a hit and run incident. (If these events are “absolutely inspiring”, the Clippers should offer Mr. Koretz courtside seats). As I read this column with both fascination and utter horror, I was reminded of the one beauty pageant I ever watched for more than five minutes, where Ms. Someplace or Other spoke insipidly about world peace and saving the polar bears as her top objectives in life. I think she was runner-up. You see, our city is facing perhaps its most dire fiscal crisis ever. While a former mayor has recently opined in the Wall Street Journal that the city should plan for bankruptcy, most of our city officials are more interested in our semi-boycott of Arizona than the city’s $485 million budget deficit and an unfunded $1 billion pension hole. In the midst of serious problems that will impact our city for decades to come, reading Koretz’s column about people power inspired me to lower my expectations of our city officeholders and consider holding a tea party. (Politically, I’m probably more of an herbal tea party type). The column does not give the impression that Paul Koretz is aware of, or concerned about, the problems over which he should be losing sleep every night. Having known and admired Mr. Koretz since he served ably on the West Hollywood City Council during the 1990s, I guess I expected more from him. I’ve been impressed with his quotes in the press questioning cuts to some of the city’s most sacred budget cows. That is the kind of leadership we need to get the city out of this mess, not some babble about people power. (Since kids cannot vote, I can’t even figure out who he is pandering to). So, I guess I am surprised that he would dedicate his column to what one would expect from an essay written by an idealistic sixth grader. Even the Sherman Oaks News’ 13-year old columnist Jon Epstein seemed more thoughtful talking about looking forward to summer break. Los Angeles has serious problems. Fiscal mismanagement and lack of oversight on our pension funds are resulting in hundreds of middle class people losing their jobs. Cutbacks to city services are hurting the quality of life in Los Angeles and our future vitality. Instead of critical issues of importance to Angelenos, too many city officeholders appear to be more focused on what Arizona is doing and who gets to go to the Laker victory parade. In contrast, whenever I’m half a billion dollars in debt and my stock portfolio is losing money fast, I tackle those items first — then I’ll turn on a Dodger game to unwind. Paul Koretz owes his constituents a lot better than a column dedicated to “people power,” and next month I hope his staff submits a column about something substantive to reassure us that he and his colleagues are up to the tasks of balancing our budget and solving complicated problems. Knowing Paul Koretz as long as I have, I suspect he agrees with me. For folks on the public payroll earning $178,789 per year with a city car and large staff, I would hope that city councilmembers would at least appear to be obsessing over how to solve the dire fiscal conditions of L.A. This kind of people power drivel might have worked as a slogan for someone running for sixth grade class president in the 1970s, but it is far beneath the level of understanding that the highest paid city councilmembers in the country should display. We deserve better. Brendan Huffman is a Valley-based public policy consultant and the co-host of “Off The Presses,” a public affairs program streamed live on LATalkRadio.com every Wednesday at 11 a.m.