‘Trashcan’ Program Trumping ‘Pothole’ Campaign? Politics by Jacqueline Fox Funny thing about trash bins: they get old. What they don’t get much of, however, is press. Last week was a different story. In case you missed it, John Jay, a Hollywood Independence Committee board member, filed a complaint with the city’s ethics commission against City Council President Alex Padilla. Jay, a Burbank-based freelance writer and former Hollywood resident, has accused Padilla of using city resources for his anti-secession campaign. Padilla, alongside City Councilwoman Wendy Gruel, was up in Sylmar July 15 to launch a new public works program designed to “systematically” replace all 2.1 million of the city’s aging trash, garden and recycling containers. The rollout of the new receptacles begins in the East San Fernando Valley and will spread in the same distribution pattern as the old ones were first delivered a decade ago. It will take 10 years to complete and cost the city $8.4 million per year. Padilla sent out a press release July 12 announcing the event, so there was plenty of buildup, if you get the drift. On the day of the event itself, Padilla, Gruel, a TV news crew and other city officials showed up at the home of Rosa Flores, lucky winner of the first black, blue and green containers. She gave a speech in Spanish, thanking city officials for delivering them. What’s got Jay in an uproar is what he heard Padilla had to say while the bins were being unloaded and the old ones, one apparently cracked and bandaged with red tape, were being hauled away. “I wasn’t there,” said Jay explaining what happened and why. “Initially, I heard it on (the radio) and I came in to the office (of Hollywood VOTE) and told them what I’d heard. They said, ‘Write a letter.”‘ What Padilla said, according to Jay, was the following: “I believe the (city’s provision) of these trash cans should be taken into consideration when we are deciding whether or not to vote for secession.” As if new trashcans, promised 10 years ago when they were first given to residents, are enough to make secession supporters suddenly feel warm and fuzzy about their civic leaders, says Jay. But, that’s not his point. “These are trash cans that were already due for replacement and Van Nuys residents have been complaining for a long time about them,” he said. “I think it was a deliberate attempt to use city time and resources to campaign against secession and an obvious attempt to manipulate voters. It was clearly a setup.” Accusations of wrongdoing, speeches in Spanish, TV news crews, a “setup.” Who says the Northeast Valley is neglected? Pan to Padilla’s camp where the scuttle is that Jay is simply talking trash and that his actions and comments represent just one more slice of evidence the secession movement here in the Valley and in Hollywood is withering on the vine. “If it bugs the Hollywood secessionists so much that Councilman Padillia is announcing the rollout of new trash receptacles in Sylmar, maybe they should provide us with a list of communities that don’t want city services and we will take that under advisement in the future,” said Padilla spokesman David Gershwin. “This is certainly a new wrinkle in their campaign strategy and it seems disingenuous for secessionists to be criticizing the city for providing the very services they have been begging for.” And Larry Levine, co-founder of One Los Angeles, calls what secessionists are up to a “pothole campaign”? Clearly things are heating up. Gershwin offered to pull his car over to expound further, via cell phone, on the importance of the new trashcans and the fallout from the great receptacle spectacle. He was, in fact, downright emotional about it. “We’re improving the quality of life in the city of L.A., and we’ll be the first to admit that it’s not a glamorous service, but (the new trash cans) ultimately have a huge impact on the day-to-day quality of life for residents.” I’d have gladly let Gershwin go on but, frankly, I felt I was just getting a recycled version of the rhetoric we’ve been hearing for months now every time Mayor James Hahn plants a tree, dons a hard hat or rides shotgun in a new van being donated to some outreach program. Jay may be making a mountain out of a molehill but at least he’s making some noise. And he and fellow secessionists in the Valley and citywide would be wise to keep making it. In fact, they should gather en mass and head straight for the steps of City Hall with one collective voice and beg the city to “bring it on.” They should call upon their council representatives now, while there’s still time, to trim every droopy palm tree from Moorpark to Mulholland Drive; fill every pothole in sight before the rains come and spawn more; draft an expansion plan for the Van Nuys Airport so residents and aviators can once again be friendly to one another, and, above all, even out the pavement on the 101 so we can all get to work on time. Do We Have Any Nays? Meanwhile, Sally Grammer, secession committee chair for the Tarzana Chamber of Commerce apparently couldn’t pay the chamber’s members to come down and voice an opinion for or against Valley secession. “Well, I guess no one is against secession since only two people attended our second meeting on July 12,” Grammer said in a letter she sent to members expressing her concern about the low turnout. Grammer could not be reached for comment at press time. But in the letter she said that she and fellow committee member Hal Smith would meet July 19 to draft their recommendations to support secession. “If you don’t agree, may I suggest you attend this meeting?” Grammer added. Jacqueline Fox is the Business Journal politics reporter. She can be reached at [email protected].