I am sorry to inform you there will not be a town hall with Councilman Bonin focused on public safety in Venice. In spite of your over 1,800 signatures, the Councilman decided it will be a CD11 wide town hall.
It is hard to see this as anything but minimizing the voice of Venice constituents.
Venice's crime rate is not the same as the Palisades'.
The Boardwalk is not Brentwood.
Mar Vista got a town hall on public safety with the Councilman last year. Venice deserves the same.
If a CD11 wide town hall (not specific to Venice and not run by the VNC) is not what you asked for now is the time to speak up.
Take 60 seconds right now, call CD11213-444-3508 and ask to speak with Arianne Garcia, she is organizing this event. Blake will pick up the phone and take a message for her (he seems nice, so be nice). I'm sure Arianne is also nice but a CD11 wide town hall is not what we asked for. The petition is 2 sentences long and says "Venice" twice along with "Venice" being in the title. Hard to miss. A little repetitive to be honest.
Then take another 60 seconds and email Arianne.Garcia@lacity.org and Nisa.Kove@lacity.org and Mike.Bonin@lacity.org and politely tell them that we asked for a Venice town hall. The Palisades is more than welcome to have their own event if they'd like. Want to have CD11 wide town halls? Great, go for it! But not while denying one to Venice when 1,800 constituents are asking for a little bit of your time for a zoom meeting. A zoom meeting. It's not that hard.
There is something else I would like to point out...
Last night CD11 was not honest with the VNC.
CD11 officials, Arianne Garcia, and Nisa Kove, attended the VNC Outreach committee zoom meeting. Over and over Arianne and Nisa said nothing had been decided, everything was still being discussed and nothing would be decided until a date was set. Over and over VNC members emphatically requested this be a Venice specific event which is what this petition specifically asked for. In direct response to the VNC outreach chair urging them keep this Venice specific, Arianne said: “I am listening. I am taking note of everyone’s feedback and suggestion."
Then this morning the Councilman sends out a press release saying he is planning a CD11 wide town hall on public safety and a series of other CD11 wide town halls on other subjects. In that very long meeting VNC meeting, neither Arianne or Nisa mentioned that the Councilman had already made his decision.
Arianne and Nisa were not honest with the VNC. Once they left the zoom meeting, VNC outreach members spent even more time and effort (on our behalf) writing motions to keep this a Venice town hall, thinking this was still up for discussion.
Let me say this again:
If a CD11 wide town hall run entirely by CD11 is not what you asked for, call CD11 official Arianne.Garcia@lacity.org and politely tell her that. It's 213-444-3508 (again Blake seems cool, give him a break).
The emails are Arianne.Garcia@lacity.org Nisa.Kove@lacity.org and Mike.Bonin@lacity.org
If you would like to tell the city how you wanted this town hall to go please fill out this survey I created to make sure you had a say in this thing. Because, you know, democracy: https://bit.ly/382r2Sf
I think it's still important to show what we wanted. I don't think we were asking for anything but an open public forum that the Councilman clearly was able to do in Mar Vista.
Please keep sharing this petition so that we can show how many constituents wanted a VENICE town hall.
Thank you,
Alex