Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "CITIZENS ALERT!!! City of Los Angeles Under Attack...": I get the impression that you do not think of Greig Smith as one of the worst, yet he and his staff and his financial backers are consistently and stealthily working to disenfranchise the L.A. voters.
There is an article in today's Daily News about how the Los Angeles Ethics Commission is going to consider revising the city's lobbying laws, allegedly to crack down on people who influence city leaders yet do not register as lobbyists.
This is after it made news that Richard Alatorre had been working as a paid lobbyist for 3 years without ever registering. While the requirements for registration are currently being evaluated, the response from Harvey Englander (Berghoff Englander, former employer of Marcus Allen (close relative of Mitch Englander, Smith's Chief of Staff)) was that everyone who tries to influence a city council vote, should be required to register, including homeowner's groups and nonprofits, regardless of whether they earn compensation doing so.
The fee to register is $495.00. This is one more attempt by those in power (city council and their rich backers, developers, P.R. firms for Developers, and other special interests)to keep the voting public out of the equation.
At a minimum such a rule would make it more confusing and difficult for the small, and poor citizen groups to participate in the political process in L.A. In another instance, earlier this year, there was a motion made by Councilman Greig Smith to limit Neighborhood Councils to making 3 motions before city council each year (never mind that they actually have no power to get their issue on the council agenda unless it is picked up by a councilmember and put on the agenda), and there was also a requirement that those officers on the Neighborhood Council, before making such a motion before city council, disclose all of their financial information and interests, and those of their spouse.
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