Sales Tax and the NCs

Thursday, January 13, 2005, at 05:32AM

By Eric Richardson

I missed yesterday that the Daily News had printed a piece on how the proposed city sales tax to pay for cops has been presented to neighborhood councils. We just addressed this issue at the DLANC board meeting on Tuesday. A representative from LAPD was there (I can't remember his name... I'm bad at those) and presented, and he was introduced by a girl from the Mayor's office.

We had a good long discussion on the different sales tax options on Tuesday. As mentioned in the piece, the survey being handed out does just include four tax options -- there is no option to say "I don't support a tax." After going back and forth for a while, and having a motion against salex tax options defeated, we ended up passing a motion saying something to the effect of "We support more money for public safety, and appreciate City Council's interest in our opinion, but next time give us enough time to adequately make an informed decision." Having one meeting to debate proposals that really aren't even proposals yet just isn't the way to facilitate useful ideas. That aspect does make it feel like we're just getting looked to for a rubber stamp.

You have to love Brady's mention:

Not all neighborhood council leaders are complaining. Brady Westwater, the normally outspoken leader of the Downtown Neighborhood Council, said he's happy that city officials chose to include members of the local panels in their deliberations on a possible tax measure.

"Since this is the first time they've done this, I'm not going to hold them to that high of a standard," Westwater said.

"Normally outspoken" is a good way to put it.