Montebello E-News 

August 2, 2007  

 A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955,

German-born theoretical physicist, best known for his theory of relativity 

(Einstein’s quote is close in meaning to the one by Shakespeare

in last week’s E-News.  Do you see why?) 

1.     Why Not to Go to a City-Council Meeting

2.     To Laugh, to Lament, Perchance to Dream, Part 4

3.     Announcements

4.      Fun Fact:  “Have You Called Jenny Yet?”

5.     The Flashback Quarterback on Recall Elections

6.     About Montebello E-News and “My Montebello”

Why Not to Go to a City-Council Meeting

           You are waiting for me to dive into the pool of partisan politics?  Uh uh.  If you have been reading the community lessons and essays, you have sensed, perhaps concluded, that something might be fundamentally wrong with our democracy, regardless of which bloc of elected officials is in the majority. 

          Which leads to the lesson of this week:  why avoid city-council meetings?  Last week we were talking about the lights of Montebello.  I opined that, to solve the problem of driver-unfriendly and environmentally-unfriendly traffic signals, I would not go to a meeting of our city council. 

          Pourquoi?  Our city council is too busy to do the job.  That simple.  It does not matter what a city councilor promised, it does not matter that your favorite city councilor has his or her heart in the right place.  There are only so many hours in a day and none of us is superhuman.  You recall the rave entitled “Reality Check for High Schoolers”, July 5, 2007?  Parallel situation:  Scarcity of time.  Parallel physiology:  all too human. 

          Does that mean that needed services do not get performed?  That, in fact, is the situation and, again, it does not matter which bloc of city councilors is in the majority. 

          What can we do?  We can pay our city councilors to become full-time councilors.  (They practically are full-time now, with all that demands their attention.  The difference is that we do not pay them to be full-time;  there is a huge difference between their pay and that of a state legislator or member of Congress, who is considered full-time.) 

          You do not want to pay them more?  You fear that your elected friends would not be in the majority on the city council, the opponents on the council would have more time for mischief, and you would have to suffer through four years of baffle and bewilderment?  Well, then, let us enlarge the city council, that is, increase the number of council seats.  Los Angeles has fifteen councilors, Pasadena seven.  What prevents us from enlarging our city council? 

          Nothing.  Nothing at all.  And if, like the whining little boy in a short story by William Saroyan, we still were not satisfied?  There are other solutions once we begin to think outside the box.  Stay tuned. 

If you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2007 by a local nonprofit organization. 

1.   Why not go to our city council to have our traffic signals fixed?

(a)  Our city councilors have no authority to fix traffic signals.

(b)  They are too busy to fix traffic signals quickly. 

2.   What options do we have?

(a) Pay our city council to be full-time.

(b) Find Montebelloans with superhuman strength and support them as candidates for city council.

(c) Enlarge the number of council seats, so that more people be elected and the workload be divided among them. 

We are all here for a spell, get all the good laughs you can.

Will Rogers, 1879 - 1935,

American humorist, social commentator, and actor 

In part three, we left off with a disquieting question:  “Do we need this tension, this ‘tug of war’, between and among extremes in order to keep a balance in society?”  “If so, does such never-ending tension lead to unhealthful stress, never mind the tragedies which arise, or does such tension, with its unavoidable detriments, give us the best possible life, meaning that, try as we might, we could not create a better life?” 

An astute person would look at the last question and ask, “Does that mean that we would never, could never, create paradise on Earth?”  In many theologies, the answer would be “No, we would never, could never, create paradise on Earth”.  Many would subscribe to that. 

But many others would not.  So we ask a different question:  which group should have its way, those looking for a better life in the afterlife or those wanting to end Earthly strife in order to have a better life? 

Instead of answering that question, let us think outside the box and ask ourselves, “Can the two different world views co-exist without the debilitating, dreamlike dilemma in which we find ourselves presently?”  Of course.  If we thought outside the box, we could find a solution.  (But be careful, as too much thinking outside the box can lead to a head cold.) 

How can the two world views co-exist?  Well, we almost do it through federalism, which is expressed in the Tenth Amendment of the Bill of Rights: 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. 

We let each state create its own laws.  However, there are two big handicaps to American federalism:  (a) the Federal constitution limits what our state may do and (b) our state’s population is so large that we cannot achieve, sociologically, a unity which would enable us Californians to share a world view.  In light of these handicaps, what can we do, if anything?

FOR EVERYONE.  Meeting.  The next regular meeting of the Montebello city council will be at city hall on Wednesday, August 8, 2007, at 7:30 p.m.  If you wish to speak during orals, come before 7:30 p.m. and sign up.  If you have more to say than there is time allotted, prepare a one pager, make copies, and hand out before you speak.  

FOR EVERYONE.  Meeting.  A public meeting of the Montebello City planning commission will take place at city hall on Monday, August 6, 2007, at 7 p.m.

FOR EVERYONE.  Battle of the bands, round two.  Friday, August 10, 4 p.m., Montebello City Park band shell.  Free admission.  For more information, 323.887.4540. 

A person weighing one hundred fifty pounds on Earth would weigh two tons on the sun. 

 From http://www.fun-facts.com/item/71549 . 

In the essay, “To Laugh, To Lament, Perchance to Dream, Part 2” we have seen that our idealism leads to extremes.  That, combined with the increasing complexity and possible errors of laws, as mentioned in “Is Everyone ‘LOCO’?, Part 1”, leads to unhappy surprises. 

In 2002, I worked with an attorney who was contracted to the City of South Gate at a time when a recall was being attempted there.  I learned enough about the procedure for a recall that I drafted a letter which the attorney then finalized and sent to then California Secretary of State Bill Jones, suggesting that the California Elections Code be reviewed.  Why?  A recall group in South Gate had seen its notice of intention for recall rejected because of a technical error.  Eventually, in January, 2003, a recall election was held. 

In 2003, the California Secretary of State came out with a revised guide to assist those pursuing a recall.  With that guide available, the question arises, “Why have recall proponents had such a hard time in Montebello this year?”  To blame the majority on our city council would be facile if the recall proponents failed to comply with state law and if recall-petition signatures were rejected by the Los Angeles County Registrar.  Perhaps a different question has to be asked, “Why are the requirements for a recall what they are?”  If the answer is to promote fairness, integrity, and accuracy, then do the requirements in fact promote fairness, integrity, and accuracy, tempered by the sensible need to avoid dysfunctional, extreme idealism?  Could these goals not be fulfilled through a less complex, less cumbersome means? 

To learn about this newsletter, Montebello E-News, and the accompanying, growing Web site, “My Montebello”, visit www.mymontebello.com.  Also, you will find instructions and contact information for submitting announcements for publication in this newsletter.