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L.A. Mayoral Debate 2 - Blogged Live from Broadcast*****
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Villaraigosa - Time in Sacto helps - and hurts |
UPDATED: Audio now available (RealPlayer)
Transcript below.
Reax by blogs & newspapers and
2005 debate schedule at bottom, wherein Walter Moore apparently gets to debate.
With 90 minutes of talk, more than a dozen questions and a bruising 60-30-15-second format, tonight's debate gave the five best-funded men in the mayor's race ample opportunity to pepper each other with policy statements, talking points and more than a few sly insults.
I won't declare a winner because, honestly, we never saw one tonight:
We saw Jim Hahn nailed for missing 95 MTA meetings and taking credit for projects he never or only weakly supported; Bob Hertzberg and Antonio Villaraigosa got dinged by Hahn for failing to support L.A. during their Sacramento years. And the three of them agree with Richard Alarcon and Bernard Parks that, tsk-tsk, it really is a shame all those poor kids living near the ports and the airport are suffering asthma but we can definitely cure them with truly impossible, preposterous feats - like forcing foreign shipping lines to use cleaner fuel, converting diesel cargo trains to electric and shoving the Alameda Freight Corridor all the way to San Berdoo ...
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---- earlier ----
Okay - after a 4-hour delay, LA36 finally aired (at 10 p.m.) the mayoral debate hosted at LACMA by the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters. You can find a streaming .wmv of it at LA36.org. Time now to clean up my hellaciously ugly typing, and render this mess into some form of legibility.
I'll be blogging this as best I can I blogged this as best I could in real time, and will returnED to clean up the typos when it ended 's all over. In some cases I've paraphrased what was said by noting it in parentheses. In others, I've added the notation (?) when I'm pretty sure I transcribed a remark correctly, but it lacks context or just doesn't sound right. I welcome the candidates' campaign staffers to contact me if those annotated sections can be clarified.
(Here's my transcript of the Dec. 2 debate.)
Note - these men are trained politicians, and talk much more quickly than - honestly - about three times as fast as the average Angeleno. While I may not be able to keep this strictly verbatim, I'll try to keep up ...
(Moderator Marc Brown introduces the questioners - LALCV members Andie Liebenbaum, Leslie Mintz and Ericka Smith. He says candidates will begin with 1-minute opening remarks. Candidates have 60 seconds to answer questions, the others can give responses of no more than 30 seconds and then the first candidate may offer a 15-second rebuttal.)
Hertzberg: The environemtnal challenges that we face today are nothing less than extraordinary. Few issues affect our environment more than traffic ... Cars and trucks stuck in traffic, cause 20 times the amount of air pollution. Over the last few years, more than 40,000 chiledren have been hospitalized with ashtma because of smog. This is a public health crisis. Our failure to address these issues has cost Southern California more than $4 billion in lost federal funding. When I'm mayor of the city of Los Angeles, I'll take trucks off the freeways in the mornings and evenings, and provide telecommuting tax credits for individuals and businesses.
(Moderator Marc Brown introduces timekeepers, saying they'll be extremely strict tonight)
Alarcon: Ladies and gentlemen, Los Wngeles needs change, and to change Los Angeles, we need to change the dynamic at City Hall. The powerful moneyed interests are influencing the quality of life in our communities. The influence of contractors on City Hall are weighing far too heavily on us. It's time we change the laws at City Hall to ensure we maintain the quality of life in our comunities. The fact is, cars are idling on our freeways, planes are idling at the airports, the boats are idling in Los Angeles Harbor and City Hall is just plain idling. I filed a ballot measure yesterday to change tha law about developers contributions. People can be empowered only if we take away power from the moneyed special interests.
Villaraigosa: I'm proud to say that I know the record of this organization (LALCV) in Los Angeles, and around the state over past 30 years. I'm proud that, working with you, we passed landmark legislation to curb diesel fuel emissions . We passed Proposition 12, the largest investment in parks and open space across the nation. I'm a doer, not a talker, I can work with all of you to build the consensus we need to make Los Angeles the cleanest city in the world . If you want a status quo mayor, then reelect the current mayor. If you want a change, elect me. Together we'll make LA the greenest, cleanest city in America.
Parks - Sounding a bit more studied and even-tempered than last time |
Parks: (He thanks the League for sponsoring the debate) When I look at the environmental issues in Los Angeles, I see these things: One - we need an Environmental Affairs Deparment that doesn't get cut in the budget, but evaluates all city departments as they relate to environmental issues. We need to go out and stop the LAX expansion plan. We need to make sure our ports go forth to follow a guideline on generating electricity for those ships in the harbor. When he served on the MTA, Mayor Hahn missed 95 votes and votes on 30 ballot measures. ... We need to follow the Solid Waste Task Force recommendations, and we need to make sure every one of those lawsuits are settled, and we're not spending time fighting in court.
Hahn: I'm proud of what we've done to clean up the environment in Los Angeles, to improve our quality of life. Violent crime is down, housing production has doubled, we're building new housing near transportation lines and jobs to help keep pollution out of the air we breathe ... When we plug a ship into electric power at the Port of Los Angeles, it takes 2000 pounds of polutants out of the air. We've stopped the development of a dirty new coal plant ... It would have been better if the Sacramento politicians hadn't taken the money away from us that would have helped us fix our traffic problems.
Andie Liebenbaum: (The City of LA takes a disjointed approach toward addressing pollution. There is an uncoordinated approach from one department to another - If you're elected mayor, how will you ensure that the departments work together?)
Hertzberg: I'll maintain the Department of environmental affairs, not as the mayor did - which was to propose to eliminate it. I'll propose a fair and aggressive approach to make this city a green and sustainable fcity. Third, the Department of environmental affairs in the city of Los Angeles has done a miserable job in getting grants from the state and federal government. I'm going to amp up that department so they're able to bring more resources (in from outside sources). Lastly I'm going to coordinate these departments with these groups so that all departments are working together in a proactive way.
Parks: I do agree we should never have been in a position to have to eliminate the Department of Environmental Affairs. It is the gatekeeper for the tentire city. But we also need to coordinate those issues you're talking about. We need the coordination of Solid Waste, Transportation, LAX and the Port.
Hahn: Deputy Mayor Brian Wiliams has gotten the Port of Los Angeles to work with DWP to develop this alternative marine power - we got a second firm to do that, to plug ships at the port into electric power. I want to strengthen our envionmental departments, not weaken them.
Alarcon: Every city development project in the city of Los Angeles needs to have a sustainability proposal incorporated into it. When I was a City Council member, I worked with Bill Clinton to develop a project to require a partnership with Housing to eliminate energy costs. I want to foster a culture in City Hall that believes in sustainability.
Villlaraigosa: When Jim Hahn on Earth Day announced the elimination of the Environmental Affairs Department, i stood up and denounced it. I'm gonna work to draw down those Carl Moyer clean air funds to clean up our diesel fumes. The 25% asthma rate in South Los Angeles has to do with those diesel pollution rates.
Hertzberg: When I came to Los Angeles, I opened a factory in South Los Angeles to bring jobs of the future, solar and alternative energy to the City of Los Angeles. There was nobody in your government that did anything to bring those jobs of the future to Los Angeles, to bring solar and alternative energy sources to Los Angeles.
Leslie Mintz: The Port of Los Angeles is a major source of pollution in city of LA. Diesel pollution is a listed carcinogen and a prime cause of asthma. It's slated to expand threefold in the future. How as mayor will you handle this in the future?
Alarcon: (Recounts some action he took in the Legislature to cover coke piles that were causing pollution at a harbor in the Bay area, despite objections from big business). I stood up against them again when we tried to get truckers coming through the Port (of Los Angeles) who were idling because the shipping lines were making them wait for hours, sometimes never getting a load, and spewing out negative emissions in the air. We have to have the courage to stand up against these special interests. When I am mayor, I will not have to get sued to (take action to mitigate pollution, as Mayor Hahn did).
Hahn: I'm the mayor who proposed no net increase in pollution in the air at the Port. In addition to having the ships plugged in .. just this week, $54 million was authorized to retrofit diesel trucks to cut down on air pollution, to getting ships to slow down as they enter the port to reduce the pollution. I live in San Pedro and I want to improve this (situation).
Hertz: The port is criticial to Los angeles, but the impact on the communities in and around the ports, is unconscionable. You had 94 ships anchored off the coast waiting to enter the harbor just last week. If you convert them to hydrogen (?) you convert them to hydrogen, aggressively convert each and every one of those diesel ltrucks, 156,000 of them a week, there's no reason they can't be burning clean-burning fuel.
Parks: Mayor Hahn proposed no increase in an area that's already a cesspool of pllution. He should make it mandatory that every ship at some point in the near future has that capability (to plug in to external electricity) and then create leadership so that we can get all the major ports in US to buy into that practice.
Villaraitosa: Contrary to what you hear from Jim Hahn, the Port is the single biggest polluter in the region. It's the reason we have such a high asthma rate among the young people who live nearby. His record is shameful. He only takes action when he's sued. As mayor of the city of Los Angeles, I'll join you in suing hte polluters, not fighting against them.
Alarcon: The coal-ironing project (?) referred to by Mr. Hahn was the result of a suit by the Natural Resources Defense Council. I don't need o be sued by them to take action, they will be my partners.
Ericka Smith: Councilman Villaraigosa, the airport authority operates 4 airports in Southern California. Often, people drive to LAX, past using airports like burbank, John Wayne or Ontario, tying up traffic and polluting the air. How can you bring airport transportation services nearer to the people using LAX?
Viilaraigosa; I opposed the $11-billion boondoggle at LAX. When you go into Washington DC, you go into one of three airports, When you go to New York City, you go into one of three airports - Why should we put all our capacity into one airport? We need a mayor that understands that the key to being a great cty is building our infrastructure, but building it in a way that addresses the needs of our neighborhoods, in a way that builds capacity, not just our airport (facilities). Four years ago, Mayor Hahn and I made a promise to the people of Westchester (and other LAX neighborhoods) that we would not increase pollution or congestion in their neighborhoods by approving an expansion of LAX. I'm proud to say, I kept that promise.
Hahn: I kept that promise too, Antonio. You and I agree there shouldn't be any increase in pollution as a result of this plan - and indee there won't be any increase in pollution if we connect the Green Line to the airport with a people mover, if we arrange for clean-air buses to bring people in and out. Yes, Ontario's a great airport, but it's not being used. We need to force the airlines to use it. And I'd like to tell the people of Orange county that El Toro would be a great international airport, and we shouldn't throw that opportunity away.
Parks: We have no control over how many passengers come into LAX. We need to treat all four airports as one system, to connect them with ground transport, and then make the authority take care of all six county airports - then we'll have a true transportation network. I'm the only candidate to advocate this ...
(BREAK IN TRANSMISSION FROM CHANNEL 36 AT 10:22 P.M. - AWAITING RESTORATION OF SIGNAL)
(TRANSMISSION RESUMES APPROX 10:25 P.M.)
(unidentified questioner) What will you do to make sure Proposition O bond funds are actually used to improve the water quality in our beaches, lakes and rivers?
Parks: Now that we have Proposition O, it's absolutely essential that the highest level of city government - the mayor - sits down and has weekly meetings if necessary to make sure this is implemented. We have to make sure that not only the letter, but the spirit of Proposition O is followed. Proposition O is really the baseline, it's not the ceiling. We need to come back at a later time, and look at environmentally safe water for our rivers, our oceans ... People have to be educated, we need to make sure our daily minimums are kept.
Hertzberg - If polish were credibility, and sound bites were votes ... |
Hertzberg: I'm so excited that the people of Los Angeles voted so overwhelmingly for this measure. If I'm elected mayor of the city of Los Angeles, first I'd mke it completely transparent. I'd have all the discussions about it on the Web like I'm doing in my campaign. Two, I'd make people part of the larger strategic process. Lastly, I want to coordinate with nonprofit corporations bring you in, to make sure everyone who cares, ideally, is engaged in this process.
Hahn: We need to recognize that Proposition O, as councilman Parks said, is the baseline .. We ought to say that I want to put together a group of all the cities and counties in Los Angeles so we can clean up *all* the stormwater that goes into Santa Monica Bay (and I will work with Heal the Bay and other organizations to see that this happens).
Villaraigosa: Mr. Parks knows full well the difference between Proposition O and the Baykeeper lawsuit. I insured, working with many of you, that we put amendments in Measure O to ensure ... there's a timetable, I worked on at-source pollution, I worked with the Water Quality Board to clean up the beaches.
Alarcon: Water is the essential element of life. People. define their quality of life by how they use the water. I took measures to improve our L.A. River parkway. We need to use these opportunities ... I'm suing the city of Los Angeles because they overcharge people for the water they use, and if they didn't overcharge them, they could have $2.1 billion they could have used to (upgrade) the water system.
Parks; The mayor has the answer to evertything, but he solution to nothing. [Prolonged applause from the audience, which thus far has clapped for a few lines from some of the candidates] He's shown over and over again his unwillingness to tackle the problem. The issue is, as an environmentalist, I'm concerned about both of them, whether there's a Baykeeper or a Proposition O.
Marc Brown - (askss audience to keep applause down, reminds candidates to stick to time limits and says that he'll enforce this more strictly from now on.)
Leslie Mintz: The L.A. Department of Water and Power is the biggest municipally-owned utility in the country. Despite the demonstrated ovedrwhelming suppport of voters for environmental protection, the DWP has consistently lagged behind the others. It has not worked on clean, renewable energy sources like wind and solar powr. As mayor, how can you direct them to meet or exceed the state's guidelines for clean and renewable energy?
Hahn: I've directed DWP to have 20% tof energy they generate from renewable sources, including wind and solar. Weve invested in solar to have it for not only small businesses and homes, but also for low-income homes. We've alwo worked with the DWP and the Port of Los Angeles. We've changed the direction in the Department of Water and Power. I told them, they can't build that new coal plant in Utah, because that's not the direction we need to go in. We need to have clean water and power ...
Parks: I think it's important to realize, the mayor says the DWP is a department that works for him, when he said they wanted to add renewable energy resources to existing resources - the spirit of that legislation was to add 20% of new sources, not 20% of what's in place now. Of the 95 of the MTA votes he missed, or the ones where he had to recuse himself, 25 hd to do with the environment.
Hertzberg: When I left the government, I formed an alternative energy company. I'm telling you, there's an opportunity for this great city to be on the cutting edge, not just to follow the state of California, when we set the renewable portfolio standard. I think we can do this by 2010 ...
Marc Brown: (cutting him off) Mister Hertzberg ...
Alarcon. I stood up to Mayuor Riordan when he wanted to privatize the DWP and sell it to Enron. (applause from the audience) I stood up to the DWP when they illegally wanted to charge higther wtater rates. We have to be able to stand up to these powerful interests or we will not change city Hall.
Villaraigosa; Once again, Jim Hahn takes credit for what the Los Angeles LA City Council has done. It was the council that directed the DWP to the 20% renewable goal. It was Jim Hahn who completely eviscerated it ... I'll leverage Water and Power to create industries t wa sthe ocunsil that direted DWP to 20$ renewable goal. It ws jJIm han who completely eviscerated ... If I'm elected mayor, I'll leverage Water and Power to create industries that are alternate-energy industries, to create jobs and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
Hahn: I think those contracts *were* being abused, and that includes the Green Power contract. You voted against the LAX master plan that included $100 million in environmental benefits.
Ericka Smith: LA is one of the most park-poor cities in the country. The lower a family's income, the more your need to have park facilities, yet the less likely you are to have a park at your disposal ... (what would you do as mayor to increase the amount of park space for Los Angeles residents?)
Hertberg; As speaker of the Assembly, I authored a parks bond that was $2.6 billion, that's paying for a lot of the new facilities that we're seeing built today. I added a bond to co-locate parks and schools to have a vision and philosophy of what our parks are like. ... One of the reasons I want to break up the L.A. Unified School District is because four years ago, when others were trying to take apart 1,500 acres of playgrounds for park space, they ran into the buzzsaw of the LAUSD bureaucracy.
Alarcon: I'm the only one who voted for Prop K to expand parks and recreation services, to expand the Hansen Dam recreation area so that people can enjoy the green facilities there. We have to move forward with an agenda that aggressively provides green for our families, especially our children.
Hahn: I 've opened 80 new park facilities since I've become mayor ... We can do more.
Villaraigosa: I'm proud to have co-authored Proposition 12, the largest expansion of urban space and parks in California. We bought Hansen Dam, (improved) Gus Hawkins Park, (improved) Ballona Wetlands Park and expanded the Baldwin Hills recreation area. I was the person who helped (establish another park) that begins and ends an emerald necklace of parks around the L.A. River ...
Parks; One of the areas we've ignored is development. We need to make sure devevelopment pays attention to greenspace as we devevelop commercial and residential developments. We need to look at the issues of our small parks and turn them into community gardens so that people have better access to parks.
Hertz; As i 've traveled around the city, I've run into so many people who want to do great things for the city, including putting up abandoned parcels of land and turning them into pocket parks.
Liebenbaum: Despite dramatic reductions in water pollution, we (face issues such as) water pollution, drought, contamination of our water supplies and a reduction in supply for remote sources such as the Colo river ... endangering our supply . (How would you adress these problems?)
Alarcon: I introduced a bill requiring water dispensers at stores to be to kept up to the strongest standards in nation. Whether wer'e going to move forward with the development of desalination plants - I believe this year, when the city transferred $229 million to the Department of Water and Power, that money could have been invested to improve DWP infrastructure, to ensure that the water that comes out of the tap is as clean and fresh as possible ...
Hertzberg: In the last 6 months I was in office, I spent almost every day, sometimes around the clock, I spent much time negotiating legislation regarding the Colorado River ... I didn't need the fanfare, I didn't need the headlines in the Los Angeles Times. This is a serious, long-term challenge, making sure we have quality water, and I fought for it.
Hahn: Since September 11, I recognize there is a danger to our water supply from terrorists. We've increased testing of L.A.'s water sources by 250%. I'm proud that the city of Los Angeles actually uses the same amount of water we did 20 years ago (???). As far as the Colorado River, I worked with you (LALCV) to oppose the Ward Valley nuclear dump that would have threatened our water supply.
Parks: We have to find way to eduate people on irrigation, lawn watering, we have to look at how the water that's purified at the tillman plant goes down the L.a. River and out to the ocean instead of being used for drinking water ...
Villaraigosa: As speaker of the Assembly, I spearheaded Proposition 13, the largest investment in clean wwater in the nation's history. I made Measure O a stronger measure. As mayor of Los Angeles, I'll make sure the oversight committee is not putting pork in people's areas (?), but investing in cleaning up the water at the source.
Alarcon: We have to stop developers from not using the water and conservation methods that are available today.
Leslie Mintz; Councilmember Villaraigosa: As mayor, how wil you reduce the disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation on communties of low income and communities of color?
Villaraigosa: Los Angeles is a great city where we realize that all of us are in it together. We have to speak to the fact that in South Los Angeles, in the areas of Wilmington and the Port, we have to speak out that children are getting asthma at an alarming rate, to the fact that prisons are planned for these areas, and they're dumping grounds, prisons and facilities like this are put in areas where poor people live ...
Hahn: As mayor I took this issue very seriously. We're proud to have completed the sewer projct called Esis (?), in Wimington we've changed the attitude of the Port. The community benefits package for the neighbors of the airport - there's over $500 million for mitigation for neighborhoods where the kids can't go to school because they can't hear because of the airport. We're working to fix that.
Alarcon: I chaired the Environmental Justice Committee for the state Senate ... and I worked to renovate the General Motors plant, which is now a thriving, beautifully planned factory instead of the blight it was before. (Further, I helped create the L.A. River recreation area, which serves some of the poorer neighborhoods it passes through.
Parks: The way we move forward on this issue is stop the insane argument that jobs are more important than human beings and the health of human beings. We need to use zoning tools, we need to ensujre that when we talk about the Community Benefits packatge, that we're clear it's a group of people who have been used ...
Hertz: I have talked about ending the gross receipts tax as we know it, about adding more police officers to the Los Angeles Police Department without a tax increase. But there's a responsibility in the benefit, and everybody should take their fair share in society. All of us have to recycle more, contribute more to society - to bear our fair share.
Villaraigosa: (Regarding the) Community benfits package - I stood up on the floor of the legislature for it when it was only $5 million, and increased it to $25 million this year. Mayor Hahn, if you'd done your homework mayork you'd know that.
Ericka: Councilmember Parks, commute time in Los Angeles keeps getting longer, making air quality worse, and making everybody mad. What is your plan for getting everybody out of their cars?
Parks: We need a mayor that will go to the MTA and create regional planning for transportation, not one that fails to show up to important meetings, not one that votes against Valley Rapid Transit and then takes credit for it when it passes. We need to have regional planning with other agencies, with SCAG, and coordination along our transportation corridors so that we can move forward on a regional baiss. You cannot have a press conference, saying, "I fixed 100 intersections" when there's over 400,000 of them in this city. (?)
Math is my friend, no, my enemy ... |
Hahn: Those 25 worst intersections I fix every year affect 1 million drivers every day. (Those projects) will save l5 million hours of commuter time. We could have done better in the city of Los Angeles if the Sacramento politicians hadn't kept the city of Los Angeles from getting $l.3 billion in traffic congestion relief funds. We're getting back pennies on the dollar.
Hertzberg; Mayor Hahn, i guess you didn't want $250 million for the Expo line, and I guess you didn't want $1.4 billion for the Orange line. You signed off on this deal.
You signed off on this deal.
Hahn: We had to stop you somehow, Bob, you and all the Sacramento politicians.
Marc Brown: Gentlemen, gentlemen, we have a format ...
(Hertzberg and Hahn trade a few more half-finished barbs before Brown restores order)
Alarcon: Ladies and gentlemen, the fact is, Mayor Hahn negotiates with Governor Schwarzenegger the deal we just criticized, and that's why we lost the $1.3 billion, and because of the vote of the Legislature that allowed the money to be alone (?) the city of Los Angeles will get that money back in 4 years.
Villaraigosa: Once again, Jim Hahn is making excuses., We need to get traffic moving again. We need to get the Red Line down Santa Monica Boulevard to the ocean, we need to get the Green Line from LAX to connect to the Expo Line, if you elect me as mayor, that's what I'll do.
Parks: I've done the math, and it would take (Hahn) 400 years to fix all these intersections and as we know on term limits, he's only got a few more months. The mayor's blaming everyone but himself. He's been in office for four years, and there's been no results.
Q: (Mr. Hertzberg, how would you add how would you address pollution and congestion in the neighborhoods around LAX?)
Hertz: Clearly we need systems of rails and rapid buses to move people from one airport to the next, so that we can really have an airport system and move the traffic outside the system.
Hahn: My plan would encourage people to use the Green Line, we're going to have more fly-away centers, and spend $100M on environmental remediation.
Parks: In my judgment, we have to do one thing at LAX: stop Plan D and stop the consensus plan. The only way you're going to get environmentally safe measures is to stop that. There's no way we should be moving forward on an $11-billion plan that's going to make people sicker and make our communities sicker.
Alarcon: (The solution) is really not just building, not just creating a regional system. we have to have the courage to stand up to the airline who are controlling our destiny by refusing to let us develop Palmdale Airport. That's the only way to mitigate congestion, and stop the pollution over the harbor and airport areas.
Villa: The only way to address the environmental impacts of LAX is to end (the expansion plan). That 's why I voted against it. We need to put money into expanding Ontario and Palmdale. It doesn't just end there. We can use March and Norton Air Force Bases also for traffic in this region. We need to have a regional approach.
Hertz: I was just flabbergasted at $11 billion for the airport expansion project, particularly with regards to the traffic plan for the main terminal - you have one building, one ingress, one egress, and if you were going to try to address the terrorist threat and congestion, this was about the dumbest thing anyone could have done. [Marked laughter from the audience]
Leslie Mintz: Mayor Hahn ... [there ensues some confusion over who's being asked the question - it eventually resolves to Hahn] Mayor Hahn, home and condominium prices keep escalating, driving people farther from their jobs or into unhealthy living conditions, and longer commutes degrade the quality of life as well as the environment. What's your plan (for addressing this)?
Hahn: We need to build housing closer to transportation systems like the Gold Line and the Red Line. There's far more demand for housing than there is supply. The year I was elected there were less than 5,000 housing units being built. Now there are more than 12,000, thanks to the $100-million Housing Trust Fund .... I was against the Ahmanson Ranch project, and I was pleased to be honored by Heal the Bay for my work in opposing it. We need to build housing closer to transportation centers, and closer to where people work.
Villaraigosa: (Mayor Hahn,) we don't have that amount in that fund. We need to put have more developments where we put retail on the bottom and housing on the top, we need to create transit stations around housing, we need a better job/housing balance.
Alarcon: As chairman of the state Senate housing committee, I ... created the CalHome program which is a homeownership program. City of LA is as low as 31% of families living in homes they own ... We need to empower the Neighborhood Councils to say what goes in their communities. I'm the only candidate that says the Neighborhood Councils need to have planning authority.
Hertzberg: We can take the leaf of what the Cal State University system says, (mandating a proportion of affordable homes) ..(Ed: sorry, this quote was too garbled in my transcription to report here)
Parks: We've been a failure as it relates to dealing with housing. 12,000 units a year? We're still losing 1,000 units a year. We're not paying attention to things like rent stabilization running landlords out of the city. Home ownership is our number one agenda item in the city of Los Angeles.
Hahn: Part of that $l00-million trust fund is leveraged. We're building 12,000 housing units in Los Angeles this year. 30% of those are affordable, and we're doing this without a mandatory inclusionary zoning ordinance.
Ericka Smith: Sen Alarcon, the Alameda Corridor was created to expedite the movement of freight out of the Port, and ease congestion on trucks exiting the Port. It's not operating at capacity, and certainly not providing relief on the freeways, and concentrates pollution on the neighborhoods it runs through. (As mayor, how would you address these issues?)
Alarcon: The Alameda Corridor is a project of national interest. This city has failed to build a consensus: we do not have enough tax dollars in the city of Los Angeles to get the kind of investment to build the infrastructure we need. The biggest benefit of the Alameda Corridor is not the people of Los Angeles, the biggest benefit of the Alameda Corridor is the fact that the people in the midwest who receive goods from the Alameda corridor receive them more quicly. Why aren't we working with them to ensure that it's built as it was supposed to be built in the first place? I believe that by building consensus, we can build the infrastructure in Los Angeles.
Hertzberg: The Alameda Corridor goes from the Port to downtown, where they move the cargo to trains, and it costs so much to load cargo on the back of piggyback trucks and then unload them and load them onto trains. We need to complete the Alameda Corridor out to the Inland Empire, to make sure it goes through, and also we need to electrify those trains so they're not putting diesel (pollution) into the communities they pass through.
Villaraigosa: We should have on-dock rail so that goods come off the ships and go directly onto rail cars. The Alameda Corridor East is the key to goods moving to places where we're growing the fastest.
Parks: We have to do some very simplistic things. We need to use the Alameda Corridor over a 24-hour clock so that it's more efficient. We also need to put as much emphasis on the Port operations as we can, to give the ex-general manager of the Port a windfall upon his retirement. (???)
Hahn: I support the extension of the Alameda Corridor east ot San Bernardino, but the financial incentive isn't there. We have to tax the truckers who aren't using it, and are trying to use the Long Beach Freeway. Before we electrify those trains - which is a good goal, Bob - we need to mandate that they use clean diesel as well.
Alarcon: Legal costs at MTA are skyrocketing ... That's not building consensus. Five out of five L.A County supervisors voted against supporting the LAX expansion project. That's not building consensus.
Andie Liebenbaum: The liquified natural gas terminal project planned for the Port of Long Beach was originally planned for the city of Los Angeles, but it was rejected. It was to be the largest liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in the nation. What's your view of putting the LNG terminal in Long Beach, for the city of Los Angeles?
Villaraigosa. I'm sorry to say there wasn't the leadership in this city to make sure the city of Los Angeles was leading the way. I'm sorry to say we haven't made inroads to make sure that alternative fuels are used in this city. We have the leading alternative-fuel bus system in the nation. As mayor of the city of Los Angeles, I'll work with the City Council and the agencies of the region to make sure we're doing everything possible to move towards more use of alternative fuels.
Hertzberg: Los Angeles is a number-one terrorist target in the United States and in the world, and we don't want to have another terrorist target in the LNG terminal. But more important, I don't want to see this city built on fossil fuels, it's time we moved away from fossil fuels ...
Parks: We have to continue moving forward on alternative fuels. We must make it clear we cannot continue to have jobs override the health of our communities. The fact that we have this audit conducted by Laura Chick into the workings of the Harbor Department that said ... [Ed.: gap in transcription]
Hahn: I hate to disagree with council-members Parks and Villaraigosa, but I don't think of that as a missed opportunity. I'm proud that our Harbor Department said that we don't need a LNG facility close to where people live. And yes, we can have LNG power for our trash trucks, but we don't need to have it near where people live.
Alarcon: As a city council member and chair of the Public Works Committee, I pushed for the alternative fuels program at the Sanitation Department. When I was at the MTA, I fought for natural-gas fuels for buses. We have to have a diversified portfolio - we cannot invest heavily in one alternative fuel and miss out on several other opportunities.
Leslie Mintz; Los Angeles generates almost one million tons of trash each year. The city's landfills are reaching capacity and the ones that are located near neighborhoods are generating intense local oppposotion. Now the city has no additional plans to expand recycling programs in office buildings and multi-family residential dwellings. What is your view on what the city should be doing to facilitate recycling and conservation for apartments and commercial offices?
Parks: That's where we failed miserably in trying to educate them how to recycle. We have to stop playing politics with the Sunshine Canyon landfill and telling people we can't close it when we can. We need to realize that 400,000 tons of trash go there daily. It may cost as much as $180 million to move trash to another location which the city can't afford, but we need an 8- to 10-year plan to deal with it. Another task force was created by the mayor to look at this problem, and that task force had a first meeting and the mayor showed up but the mayor's failed to show up since then.
Villaraigosa: I"m going to make Los Angeles a landfill-free city, but the only way to do that is to stop sending garbage, and the only way to do that is to move towards a 100% recycling goal. We've got to be more proactive in expanding our recycling programs to apartments and commercial buildings.
Hertzberg: Apartments produce 2 million tons of trash annually. We have to implement recycling for apartments and commercial buildings. There's no way we can be a modern city and have landfills in our city. We can reuse 75% to 80% of the trash that goes outside of our city to landfills.
Alarcon: I worked to shut down the Lopez Canyon Landfill, and I believe we should shut down Sunshine Canyon Landfill as well. I do agree that we must bring the commercial entities online with trash collection in a public way to ensure that they have recycling programs.
Hahn: I agree with Richard Alarcon's decision to close Lopez Canyon. And Bob, when you were in the Legislature, you supported Sunshine Canyon Landfill. We have actually started a program to have multifamily dwellings and businesses recycle. My goal is to get 70%, 80% of the trash (coming out of those buildlings) recycled. We can do that. But Bob, it'd have been nice if you'd been up there to help us close Sunshine.
Parks: It is barbaric that we still bury our trash. We need a plan of action over time that is not cost-prohibitive, that will take into account new technologies, that can expand on the ways we conserve, to ensure that we get the full spectrum of people's involvement.
Ericka Smith: Mayor Hahn, the Bush administration has attempted to roll back basic environmental protections in the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill that would have limited pollution from San Pedro and the Port of Los Angeles. (How will you work with the state and federal government to see that Los Angeles' air and water are protected?)
Hahn: Well, thank goodness we have stronger environmental laws in Southern California than the federal government would want us to have. I'm glad that we're able to work with (agencies like) the South Coast Air Quality Management District. I'm committed that no matter how big the Port of Los Angeles grows, we're going to do what we can to (mitigate pollution there). We're going to push for the switch to low-sulfur diesel fuel, now. We're going to plug in more ships to external electricity, now. We're going to retrofit diesel trucks, now. I live in San Pedro, next to the Port of Los Angeles, that's where my kids live, and I want that to be as safe a community as we should have it.
Hertzberg: Los Angeles does not get its fair share from the state and the federal government (for remediation). [Ed: brief transcription gap here] ... and from Mayor Hahn, radio silence. There's so many opportunities to fight for the dollars, to stay on it, to make sure that Los Angeles gets its fair share.
Alarcon : We need to grow our Environmental Affairs Department to be a model for the nation. We can stand up to President Bush and his environmental policies. We can stand up to Sacramento to ensure that laws are passed that are fair. But I believe the citizens of Los Angeles want us to have a stronger advocate in the mayor of Los Angeles.
Villaraigosa: We need a mayor who can go up to Sacramento and fight for us, but who can also need a mayor to work with the Legislature, to go to Congress, to create the dialogue that's important to protect our air and the water. I've been to Sacramento, I know how to work with the Legislature and the federal government, and (if I'm elected that's what I'm going to do).
Parks; It comes down to these things: a lack of leadership, and a lack of respect for those other entities. The mayor says, "now, when we do get those ships on electricity, now when we do move to low-sulfur diesel fuel ..." His now is a hollow now.
Hahn: I'm glad, Bob, that you admit the city was not getting its fair share from Sacramento when you were in the Legislature. As I said ... I don't know what's worse, when Antonio Villaraigosa said he wouldn't pay me or when you created a huge deficit and said you couldn't pay me.
[Laughter from the audience]
Marc Brown: (Time now for one-minute closing comments from the candidates)
Parks: I want to thank everyone for being here, particularly my family and my supporters. I have five issues we need to address: We need to ensure that the Department of Environmental Affairs is increased and strengthened to be sure they become a watchdog for the environment; We need to stop Plan D and the consensus plan. We need to be given a date when we can electrify those piers at the Port of Los Angeles. We need to make sure we have a mayor that can go to the MTA and deal with our transportation issues, our solid waste issues, our pollution issues. We need to fulfill the task force recommendations and not just use it for political gain. And we need to end the corruption (at City Hall). The way we'll change this is to have a new mayor.
Hertzberg: I want us to be thinking ahead and planning for what the new Los Angeles will look like in the year 2030? I want to ask, what do I hvae to do beyond the Los Angeles politicians talking to actually make it happen? My vision of the new Los Angeles is one where our schools are the center of our neighborhoods, where our neighborhoods are more walkable, where the city doesn't rely on the volatility of fossil fuels. But there's broader issues, of putting more police on the streets without raising taxes, of breaking up the L.A. Unified School District, because 53% of these kids are not graduating from high school, and that's wrong.
Hahn: Thank you again to for the opportunity to talk about what we've done to make this a cleaner, healthier city. The choice is clear: We can choose to move forward (with the work we're doing to improve the environment in Los Angeles) or we can choose the path of a screeching halt, of a failed leadership at the Los Angeles Police Department. We've started a move to have the ships plug into electricity at the Port, we stopped the Department of Water and Power from building a dirty new coal plant. We've built housing downtown near jobs, and we've brought crime down in this city.
Villaraigosa: Once again, let me thank you for allow ing me to participate in this debate. [Thanks his wife, son, family members present] I tried to answer the questions today to the best of my ability. I hope I did that. One thing's for sure, look at the record. The best way to now where someone's going is to know where they've been. As speaker of the Assembly, I worked with you to clean up the air, I worked with Proposition 12 and Proposition 13, I worked with you to make Measure O a tough clean-water measure. Many of you in this room ... I'll work with you to make this the cleanest, greenest city in the United States.
Alarcon: Me too. [He pauses for applause from the audience] You're my partners. > Me too. (aplaus) You're my partners. You were my partners when I stood up to close the Lopez Canyon Landfill, to close Bly Street (?). I stood with you to fight against the corporations to protect us not only at the harbor but at the airport as well. But the fundamental question is whether we're going to change anything in L.A. We need to change things at City Hall. I want to ask people to support my ballot measure to change the power structure to (reduce the influence of special interests). A vote for me is a vote to change Los Angeles.
Hertzberg: That's my web site!
Brown [Thanks candidates, panelists, timekeepers, et al]
[END TRANSCRIPTION]
Here's the rebroadcast schedule for the Dec. 21 debate:
*Tuesday, 12/21/04 @ 10:00 pm – 11:30 pm
*Wednesday, 12/22/04 @ 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
*Wednesday, 12/22/04 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
*Thursday, 12/23/04 @ 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
*Sunday, 12/26/04 @ 9:30 pm – 11:00 pm Future debates:
Jan. 5: Left-out Republican candidate Walter Moore is announcing that he's going to be allowed to debate Alarcon, Parks and Hertzberg for the first time. Please plan to attend the first REAL mayoral debate of the new year, which will take place on Wednesday, January 5, 2005, in Monarch Hall at the Los Angeles Valley College, located at 5800 Fulton Avenue, Valley Glen. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the debate starts at 7:00 p.m. Alarcon, Parks, Hertberg and I will go head-to-head. (Hahn and Villaraigosa apparently chickened out.) The debate is sponsored by Associated Student Union of Los Angeles Valley College in affiliation with the Universal City North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and Greater Valley Glen Council. No indication on whether the revolution will be broadcast, but I'm guessing not ...
Feb. 7: The Alliance of Neighborhood Councils convenes NC members at CBS Television City in the Fairfax district to question the candidates. Moderators will ask follow-ups.
Broadcast: KCAL 9, 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Reservations: Neighborhood Council chairs are handling requests by NC members to join the audience.
Feb. 28: The Alliance hosts a second debate, same place, same audience/panel, different time and broadcast arrangements.
Broadcast: KCBS 2, 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Reservations: Same.
If the race goes to a runoff, there will be at least one more debate.
Reactions by blogs, newspapers, etc.:
Schadelmann.com: L.A. Mayoral Debate #2 or 60 Seconds Until Impact.....
Mayor Sam's Sister City: What if They Gave a Debate and No One Watched?
L.A. Times: Rivals Fire at Hahn's Record
Daily News: Mayoral Hopefuls Take Shots at Hahn
Daily Breeze: L.A. Mayoral Debate Centers on Negative
Associated Press: Hahn, Rivals Debate Environmental Issues
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