Dear Editor,
I wouild like to take up the topic of the City Attorney’s advice that Vice Mayor Puza and Former Mayor McMorrin should not vote on the Fox Hills Specific Plan because they are Fox Hills residents.
Thousands of people live in Fox Hills, and Puza and McMorrin are the first two Fox Hills residents to serve on the Council. Fox Hills lacked representation for decades and now its elected officials are being silenced.
Note that Fox Hills has more renters and more people of color than other parts of our city and that Fox Hills residents were excluded from the Culver schools when it was first annexed. These are not coincidences.
Note also that Mr. Vera has never been prevented from voting on items affecting the Police even though his daughter is a cop, nor has he been barred from diluting regulations and taxes that affect his numerous inherited properties and businesses.
At the height of the COVID pandemic, on April 10, 2021, he was allowed to vote against hero pay for grocery workers despite having inherited Sorrento Market.
At the July 10, 2023 Council meeting, he attempted to shut down the City’s Housing Registry while having not registered any of his inherited rental properties and was only stopped because Stephen Jones and I spoke out.
The City Attorney did not recognize a conflict of interest in these situations.
Mr. O’Brien has never hesitated to vote on matters affecting Michael Hackman’s properties such as the Culver Studios and Culver Steps, even though Hackman personally spent over $600,000 to elect him.
The City Attorney has also been mute on this. Her office has consistently applied impossible standards to progressives while covering for conservatives.
I do not believe this is a mustache-twirling conspiracy, just people doing what they think is normal, which is the definition of implicit bias.
That’s also the definition of ideology: the worldview of the dominant class is invisible because it passes for “common sense,” like water to fish.
We deserve better from our elected officials and City staff.
Jeff Schwartz