LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL: THE 1991...

On the Sunday afternoon that I launched my campaign for the Los Angeles City Council, I was given a handwritten note by an area resident. Mr. Marshall didn’t come to make a fuss, nor was he particularly interested in the festivities at my campaign headquarters. He was not, after all, a “political” person. Retired after 34 years as a city employee, he has lived in the 9th District for 45 years and was tired and frustrated by what he saw around him.

His message was simple: Our streets are dirty, sidewalks broken, curbs unrepaired and alleys so filled with trash that passage is nearly impossible. There was more, but Mr. Marshall’s point was made--the system was failing him and his neighbors in its most basic function.

Since that Sunday, Mr. Marshall has joined the campaign as a volunteer worker. He puts up posters, makes calls to registered voters, works in the office--not for me personally, but for his belief that the system can work if somebody will pay attention.

Other letters arrive at my headquarters periodically. They, too, contain very simple requests: A 70-year-old Social Security recipient keeps getting robbed and needs help in securing a safer place to live; a disabled person asks for help in finding a job. Each is willing to do his part, but they need help in bridging the gap between their limited resources and what it takes to achieve a modest level of security and self-sufficiency.

Whether it’s downtown or in the residential neighborhoods of the district, what I am hearing is a call for responsibility, for action rather than reaction to the problems that face us. There is a demand for responsiveness, for taking the lead in identifying areas of need and initiating the appropriate response.

While some undeniably approach municipal government as a matter of personal privilege, I believe that there is a far greater group of residents, like Mr. Marshall, as well as members of the business community, who are willing to be public citizens, and share the cost of creating a better community.

All they are asking is that their efforts be supported and strengthened by city government, that elected officials spend less time on the politics of elective office and more time on the ensuring that their constituents receive their fair share of municipal services. As Thomas Jefferson so aptly defined the role, “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”

Notwithstanding the very complex and profound issues that face urban centers like Los Angeles, and events such as the most recent case of police brutality--which exceeded the bounds of any standard of urban living--I believe that we must begin anew in the 9th District with the very basics of public representation and service. We must make the care of human life a priority and embrace the basic requirement for dignity and security in our surroundings. We must redefine the relationship between City Hall and the people of the 9th District to restore a foundation of responsibility to serve, and to restore the trust and confidence of those who elect us to serve.

Residents of the 9th District are not asking for miracles, just someone to live up to what was promised on Election Day. We public servants must acknowledge that we have a contract, a partnership, with individuals like Mr. Marshall, and that we have an obligation to restore dignity and a sense of community to these neglected areas of our city.

While acknowledging that there are big problems requiring big and difficult solutions, we elected officials can start with the basics: by making streets a place where children can play and cars can be parked; by making sure we deliver the services that are taken for granted in other communities.

Our contract with people like Mr. Marshall means that we must provide police protection so that they can feel safe in their neighborhoods and that we rescue our youth from the dead-end of gangs and drugs. It means that we must create an environment for business to thrive, creating jobs and economic opportunity.

With the understanding that these basics are essential to anything else we seek to accomplish, elective leadership must be defined as public service.

LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 9 AT A GLANCE Population 1990: 246,631 Racial / ethnic mix White (non-Latino): 3% Latino: 61% Asian: 2% Black: 36% Annual income Median household: $12,219 Household distribution Less than $15,000: 60.2% $15,000 - $24,999: 20.6% $25,000 - $34,999: 10.2% $35,000 - $49,999: 5.9% $50,000 - $74,999: 2.3% $75,000 - $99,999: 0.3% $100,000 +: 0.3% SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau, City of Los Angeles Community Development Department and Times statistical analysis by Maureen Lyons.