CITYWATCH
By Ken Draper

Rita Robinson told it like it is: “The City’s financial crisis is dire … worse than you’re being told … and the LA City Council is in denial.”

The LA Department of Transportation’s general manager was addressing a group of neighborhood council leaders. She had come to tell them that the NC/DOT MOU process was being put on hold, “until I know what my department is going to look like and until I know I can do what I promise in the Memorandum of Understanding.” She laid out the reasons for the delay in 20-minutes of straight-talk and blunt assessments and criticism uncommon for the City’s Mayor-appointed management.

“The City has a house it can’t sustain,” she said, “ and nobody knows what this city is going to look like in the next few months and years.”

Whole departments will be eliminated. Departments will be merged. Services will be cut. Thousands will be laid off and eventually it will affect the Police and Fire Departments. Dire words indeed, from the Transpo Chief … but appreciated by NC reps in attendance. She was to be later congratulated for her candor.

She urged neighborhood councils to take her warning seriously. To give the City’s financial crisis high priority and to act now.

“You need to engage the City,” Robinson told the Councils. “Become involved immediately in what you want your City to look like. Make your impact felt on the process.”

“The City Council suffers from RDD,” said the outspoken general manager. “That’s Reality Deficit Disorder, she explained.”

City Hall is populated by a number of people who spent their political lives in Sacramento in state government, she said, “and we all know how dysfunctional the state is.” Councilman Parks, she said, is the only one who gets it.

Long-time member of the City’s bureaucracy, Robinson said that the City’s employees are in mass remorse. Long-time friends and experts are leaving. It will never be the same city. The mood is very dour. LADOT has lost 160 people and “that’s just the beginning.”

As dismal as the message was, it was refreshing to hear a city official addressing the people … whose government it is after all … bluntly and honestly … and compassionately.

“It’s hard to speak the truth to power,” Robinson told the group.

Some would suggest that it’s also hard for power to speak the truth to the people.

Crisis is often an opportunity for reconstruction and renewal. Neighborhood councils need to embrace this opportunity and make their presence felt at City Hall.

What do you want your City to look like?

• Rita Robinson

(Ken Draper is the editor of CityWatch. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it )