Be An R.P.V. Council Member For One Day

That's right folks! Have you ever dreamed of sitting behind the arching desks inside the Chambers at Hesse Park and making determinations as to the future of our city?

Well now you can, courtesy of Marymount College and it supporters.

Just think, you can make law that benefits just one private entity that is not only a religious organization, but also exempt from paying most taxes that go into the funds that protect you, serve you, and provide all with reasonable infrastructure.

With Marymount's most recent mailer, you also have the chance to determine something that the current City Council has already approved or will approve by May 20!

Gee, just dream of listening to all the misstatements about how a 36-month construction will be accomplished. But you will do this knowing that it will take up to eight years or longer to see the project to completion.

Consider that you will get to vote on something that Marymount claims will be built at no expense to taxpayers other than those taxpayer funds required to have the measure voted on in the first place, funding mandated to provide a new set of traffic signals, street signage with striping, and the redesign and rebuilding of a heavily traveled intersection overlooking the blue Pacific.

Marymount wants you to play at being a Council Member for just about everything they want that has already been approved of by the current City Council!

Are you anxious with desire to do something that has already been done? Marymount hopes you are.

The mailer delivered today to my house (yes again, two mailers for one dwelling. Can you spell "wasteful spending"?) was all about the improvement sought for the athletic facilities at Marymount.

Oh, how nice. These improvements are really such a good idea that our City Council has already made initial approvals for the indoor athletic facilities, pool, and tennis courts.

It is going to take until probably May 20 or so for the Council to approve the placement of the soccer field on the west side of the campus, just like Marymount wants. But rest assured, they may require some additional mitigation, but the soccer field will eventually be approved where Marymount wants it while you are still encouraged to vote on something that will have been decided for several months.

Did you notice what was missing from the mailer? Sure you did. But now, with your new chance to vote on a package that will have found approval for all but one piece, you can be redundant and doesn't that make you feel special? I knew it would.

How many times must it take to remind everyone that The Marymount Plan is all and only really about residence halls on campus?

This is now a proven fact because the City Council has already approved almost everything in The Marymount Plan except residence halls.

And you truly know that Marymount's representatives were the ones who removed on-campus student housing from consideration by the Planning Commission. Since the Planning Commission wasn't allowed by Marymount to vote on whether residence halls would be built at Marymount, our City Council Members chose to go along with the certifications and recommendations of the Planning Commission almost to the letter.

But you now have the chance to be a repetitive as I have to be. I like joiners. You will most likely have the opportunity to repeat what the City Council has already done and your tax dollars will fund the redundancy. Now are you happy?

So, according to Marymount's wishes, on the first Tuesday in November you get to be an R.P.V. City Council member for that single day and you won't have any of the responsibilities voters gave Council Members to worry about.

You won't have to deal with the whole truth and a great number of facts that Marymount doesn't want you to know.

You will be able to remain anonymous as you cast a vote that could mean tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars collected from residents living in Rancho Palos Verdes going to benefit a single private organization.

But wait! There's more! You can also consider yourself fortunate in that, again according to Marymount folks, you will be able to take in all the public activities The Marymount Plan advertises.

Naturally, college officials offered those exact same public benefits during the real Council's deliberations and the Council still went ahead and approved those, too!

Now be honest. How many of you out there have attended events and other things at Marymount since it first opened or first reopened after it failed?

I think you are getting the picture about what it will be like to be a Council Member for a day. I hope you will all be able to sleep nights when we are closer to November.

This is so exciting, isn't it? You get the chance to do something that will already be done months before you vote.

If presented the chance to be a Council Member for a day in early November, I will take that assignment seriously. I don't feel I need to vote 'yes' or 'aye' on something that has already been decided by folks our residents chose to represent me and others in Rancho Palos Verdes. So I will vote 'No' or "Nay" but that is still a vote from a Council Member for a day!