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Jacque Lamishaw made a Difference |
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Passages
By Ken Draper
Neighborhood council activist and innovator Jacque Lamishaw died on Friday from complications from a long and painful battle with Crohn’s disease. Jacque was my friend and a major and long-time supporter of CityWatch.
Jacque created or participated in or supported myriad major and
important programs and projects that are now taken for granted by
neighborhood council activists in LA.
In 2004 and 2005 neighborhood councils negotiated an historic agreement
with the DWP, the City’s largest and richest proprietary agency.
Neighborhood councils and their stakeholders benefit from this
precedent-setting Memorandum of Understanding today totally unaware of
its importance. Or, the year-long effort by dedicated and committed
neighborhood council representatives that made it happen. Jacque was
one of the committed.
After the document was signed, neighborhood council reps faced the daunting task of getting the City’s NCs to understand the document, agendize its approval and sign on individually to the agreement. A Herculean assignment. It became Jacque’s assignment and she managed it with gusto and skill.
Even before neighborhood councils, Jacque was involved in change she believed in. She … and her husband, Robert (it’s hard to think of one without the other because they worked so many of these grassroots efforts together) … were deeply involved in the Valley secession movement.
Jacque and Robert worked together on the formation of the Winnetka Neighborhood Council. The council was certified in 2003 and Jacque served as Chair for a period of time.
Planning was her passion. Jacque believed the Planning Department was the most important at City Hall and believed that neighborhood councils needed a relationship with Planning that would make them a part of the process and would insure NCs a place at the planning table. So she created an organizing committee and headed straight for Planning Director Gail Goldberg’s office to make it happen.
Numerous meetings and dinners and lectures and much massaging later, Gail Goldberg agreed to a 12-point Pilot Program. It’s the Pilot Program agreement that now requires that all builders and developers provide neighborhood council Land Use Committees with the same application information … at the same time … the City receives it.
Jacque was the driving force behind the spring and fall comprehensive, intensive and successful Planning Training classes. Which continue to sell out.
Driving force is an appropriate description of Jacque Lamishaw. She had the ability and drive to make things happen.
She was also a person of opinions and was never reticent about expressing them. There were no secret thoughts for Jacque. No one ever wondered where Jacque stood. That kind of openness and straight talk made some folks uncomfortable.
She was also impatient with incompetence, inefficiency and with unkept commitments. That also made some folks uncomfortable.
She had her own rules. Didn’t like phone calls. Too inefficient. Hardly ever handed out her phone number. “Email me,” Jacque would direct, “it’s more efficient.”
She knew her limitations. And refused to commit to work she knew she would be unable to do. But once committed Jacque was unstoppable. A master at getting things moving. She had the special knack for getting bank accounts opened and non-profits registered in weeks … when for most of us it takes months.
But it was the giving and the loyalty that I will remember most.
Need someone to oversee the outreach for your project? Jacque was first in line.
She voluntarily opened accounts and established non-profit status for causes … like the opposition to the extended term limits ballot measure Prop R. She was also the first to put her own money in the account and to support these important grassroots efforts.
She opened her home for NC celebrations, meetings and dinners. My first face-to-face with Planning’s Goldberg was a dinner in Jacque’s dinning room.
She was the one who voluntarily brought the coffee, cookies and donuts to meetings. Small point, but no one else in those meetings ever volunteered to do it. Or, to pay for it.
Jacque was important to CityWatch. She was always a loyal believer, supporter and promoter. She was the first major CityWatch advertiser and her JPL Zoning ad runs to this day in this publication.
When CityWatch was transitioning from non-profit status to a commercial advertiser-supported business, Jacque and Robert were major investor contributors … matching their loyalty and support with dollars. And, in the years that followed there was never an attempt by Jacque to influence the content, direction or profile of this publication.
Lots of us talk the talk. Jacque walked the walk.
And, she accomplished what most of us only hope for. Jacque Lamishaw made a difference. (Ken Draper is the editor of CityWatch. He can be reached at
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CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 101
Pub: Dec 16, 2008
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