Analyzing Mayor Dan Griset’s Defeat at League of Cities

Two recent actions involving state elected officials present frightening examples of partisan interference in the orderly administration of local government.

I refer to the involvement in the runoff election for the 13th District council seat in Los Angeles involving Democratic Party officials, and the ouster of a local official from two governmental boards in Orange County, partially engineered by officials of the Republican Party, including at least one Republican state senator.

It is not as if our state elected officials do not have enough to do to explain their own somewhat less than rational behavior. But the direct intervention in local elections as we have just observed it is at best unethical, and at worst another example of the arrogance and irresponsibility of some state legislators in dealing with city council members and county boards of supervisors.

The characters involved in these recent incidents are not important, and I’m sure that a capable job will be done by the winners, provided they judiciously avoid the dictates of party officials. As a city councilman in Huntington Beach from 1966 to 1974, I often found party officials attempting to influence local issues. The pressures are always there.

There are many ways to corrupt our local system of government. The intervention of political parties is the most dangerous. Although most citizens seem unconcerned with the erosion of local governing authority in recent years, they will be the losers in the long run.

If city councils are governed by a party, citizens can expect little objectivity when asking to be heard on local issues. And they can be sure that those issues will be settled based on the party’s statewide fortunes and philosophies, not in the best interests of the community. You need only to look at some of the cities in the East and Midwest to see what happens when local officials are elected by party.

Members of both major political entities should demand of their elected and appointed party officials that they get out and stay out of local government affairs.

JACK GREEN

Huntington Beach