A STAND AGAINST SILLINESS: O’DONNELL ONLY DISSENTER IN CITY COUNCIL VOTE FOR ‘LB HEALTHY FOOD POLICY’
By Greater Long Beach
Fourth District representative Patrick O’Donnell cast the only vote against a “Long Beach healthy food policy”—an item on Tuesday night’s Long Beach City Council agenda that was spotlighted by LBReport.com in the first installment of its new series on City Council silliness.
Proposed by Councilmembers Steve Neal, Robert Garcia, Dee Andrews and Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal, the “Long Beach healthy food policy” was approved by an 8-1 vote. In addition to the just-named agendizers, the item received “yes” votes from Gary DeLong, Gerrie Schipske, James Johnson and Rae Gabelich.
The item directs the City Manager (management/staff resources) to work with the City Attorney (more taxpayer resources) to create a “Long Beach healthy food policy that promotes good nutrition and health environments within City facilities and at city sponsored meetings/events (special events excluded).”
LBReport.com had focused on the item as an example of actions “that go far beyond what this City Council should be doing,” assuming they “will bring favorable attention or at least no negative attention because they sound nice or are benign.”
LBReport.com promised to “bring them the negative attention we believe they deserve for agendizing items that we believe should be an embarrassment to elected officials in L.A. County’s second largest city. We will report the votes by name because Councilmembers who vote with them, thinking it will be costless, deserve criticism for enabling their colleagues’ behavior.”
Or in the case of O’Donnell, praise for displaying the courage to vote against these self-serving issues—possibily at some future political cost to himself.
9 Comments
On the one hand, I am in full agreement that our Council should not devote public funds and public staff time on specious agenda items such as these, particularly when there are so many other far more pressing matters in our city that they could be more assertively and constructively addressing.
On the other hand, a small voice in my head also suggests that perhaps while our Council is occupying themselves with unnecessary items like these, it is a little less likely to be stirring up difficulties on other matters that have greater significance to the rest of us.
Idle hands and all that…
So, for those scoring at home, I propose a modified FIFA international soccer-type scoring. Those voting for these items get three points for the win, those voting against the items get a zero for the loss, while those abstaining get one point for the tie. Those absent get one point, on general principle, unless they have a note from home saying they had a tummy ache cuz “those mean people don’t like me, Mom!” Winner at the end of the season goes into the playoffs (election) where they get to defend their frivolity to voters in an easy-to-understand point-based system. (Vegas has Lowenthal as the odds-on favorite, however Garcia is poised to surprise a lot of people who haven’t really looked at his stats.)
Agenda items could be graded beforehand for their levels of frivolity and given point values (so that a vote to approve “Everyone Should Be Happy Day” might have a higher frivolity score than a healthy eating initiative or a high-tech parking meter photo-op). Each politico’s voting score is then multiplied by the Frivolity Weight to produce a score that rewards their weighted contribution to distracting citizens from seeing what they’re doing that day with the public trust. The ladies could wear big hats to particularly pointless meetings, like they do at the Kentucky Derby. Insiders can make their bets through campaign contributions, as usual.
“Long Beach healthy food policy that promotes good nutrition and health environments within City facilities and at city sponsored meetings/events (special events excluded).”
what? no healthy food policy at the grand prix? i cant imagine why not.
This, so very aptly named, “silliness” is just a symptom of a much larger challenge. We should be less annoyed about the symptom and more annoyed about the disease. Until we start to focus our attention on the governmental bigger picture, smaller picture symptoms like these will just continue to surface.
Long Beach City Council feels it is their right to intrude into my food selection, yet this same Council is OK with continued expansion of the Port despite its pollution causing 5,000 premature deaths annually in communities surrounding Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors.
http://www.presstelegram.com/port100/ci_17462906
What a bunch of hypocrites.
wouldnt it be better to do a study of which foods sell the best and sell THOSE at the one or two locations this ridiculous item effects? you know, try to make money at our city facilities rather than some ill thought out nanny state boondoggle. i want beer and hotdogs not carrot sticks and water.
general silliness, i agree and it is true that pollution causes unnecessary deaths every year due to pollution
The sooner blob foster splits the better off we will be. Maybe he can take sue-ja, dewrong, and a couple more with hIm, PLEASE.