If you planned to attend a debate, forum or even a townhall meeting to hear the three candidates running for L.A. City Council District 11, you may have to spread it over three nights and listen to monologues.
The Pacific Palisades Residents Association (PPRA) is hosting a Community Forum for the candidates at 7 p.m. on February 16 at University Synagogue in Brentwood. The candidates—Mark Ryavec, Robin Rudisill and incumbent Mike Bonin—were invited. Ryavec and Rudisill will be there, Bonin will not.
The event will be moderated by Debra Hockemeyer, VP and treasurer of the Brentwood Hills Homeowners Association. Each candidate will receive the questions beforehand and more than 100 people have signed up for the event.
If you want to listen to Bonin, he will speak at the Santa Monica Canyon Residents Association meeting at 7 p.m. on February 21 at the Rustic Canyon Recreation Center.
A third event is set for 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 at Windward School, hosted by the Westside Regional Alliance of Councils (WRAC). Currently, only Bonin is set to speak. Ryavac and Rudisill say that this date was not offered in the initial planning stage, and if it had been, they would have told organizer Maryam Zar that they were unavailable.
Zar, who is president of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, and vice president of WRAC, was asked to organize a forum for CD 11 (which includes the Brentwood Community Council, the PPCC, and the Venice, West L.A., Westchester/Playa del Rey and Mar Vista Neighborhood Councils).
Her January 24 email to the candidates stated: “WRAC is sponsoring a candidates forum for all 3 CD11 candidates. I am work- ing on securing a forum and a date when all three candidates can make it. Please send me any evenings (between 6 and 9 p.m.) that you wouldn’t be able to be at a candi- dates forum between the dates of Feb 7th and 22nd. We will arrange the forum one evening between those dates.”
Ryavac responded that he was good on all dates between February 7-22. Rudisill said she was unavailable on February 11 (daughter’s wedding) and February 21 was the Venice Neighborhood Council Board meeting, which she’d prefer not to miss.
Then it was announced that the event would be Feb. 27, which meant neither Rudisill nor Ryavec had been asked about that date. Both are unavailable. Bonin confirmed that date.
The News asked Zar if a candidate forum could be held on Feb. 21 at the Santa Monica Canyon meeting, since Bonin was already scheduled to speak, Ryavec had said that date was open and Rudisill could make it.
After Zar tried Bonin, she wrote the News on February 10: “Bonin has flat out rejected my appeal for another forum here. Each candidate will appear wherever they think they should, and it’s not my place to school them. I did what I was asked to do in creating a fair forum for all.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.