March 8 2011 city council election in Lakewood, CA

Update: Please see our Transparency Pledge for Candidates and our Candidate Review

Mayor Joseph Esquivel is bowing out of politics, but incumbent Vice Mayor Larry Van Nostran is running for re-election, further extending one of the longest city council tenures in the history of California. Of course Lakewood made sure that the small time period within which to file the documents to run for city council was only known to the fewest number of people possible, and so few people "got in" under the wire. Two are currently on city Commissions (typical) one is a former city councilman and the last is an unknown but with some government tie in. What is rather disheartening is that all are basically paid by the government in one form or another already. But this is what we are left with in Lakewood. Other local cities appear to have a more robust lineup of "non government", "non insider", "non establishment" candidates.

Here is the march 8th slate: Joy Janes, a community consultant with Assemblyman Warren Furutani and chair of Lakewood's planning and environment commission; Jeff Wood, deputy regional administrator with the California Emergency Management Agency and a member of Lakewood's recreation and community services commission; Marc Titel, former Lakewood city councilman and instructor at Fremont College and Marisa Perez, policy advisor to a member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District governing board.

LAAG hopes to find out more about these candidates in the coming weeks leading up to the election on March 8, 2011. The only good thing about the election is that we will be replacing a sitting councilperson for sure. This election is at least starting out much better than the dismal one that was never held in March 2009 which was more akin to the way things work in North Korea. At least this election we have real candidates and some choice! But don't get your hopes too high. After all this IS Lakewood. The more things change the more they stay the same.


Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™ click here to receive LAAG posts by email