WORDS FROM THE WAYIST-For the first time in nearly a decade, the Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners is about to change. Significantly.
Commission President Barry Sanders and 2 other commissioners are out. The new nominee for commission president is Kafi D. Blumenfield, recently of the Liberty Hill Foundation. And yes, she is the wife of current City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield (CD 3).
Read Ms. Blumenfield's bio here.
Wednesday is President Sanders' last commission meeting, as well as Commissioners Jerome Stanley and Jill Werner. Blumenfield's confirmation hearing at City Council should be soon. If history is any indication, she'll be confirmed easily. Her husband will certainly vote for her.
Love him or hate him, the man with the bowtie (Sanders) did provide significant political mojo in keeping the Dept. of Recreation and Parks roughly in one piece while City Hall was raiding it to the tune of $155 million since 2007.
With her current credentials, can Blumenfield successfully fight for the department at this top political level? If so, will she? Or will her tenure be simply about using the platform to push the focus of her recent work ("social change"). Since she's married to a current City Councilmember, I think we likely know the answer.
Looks like City Council stealing from our City parks just got a whole lot easier.
(Kristin Sabo is an LA parks advocate, an occasional CityWatch contributor, and blogs at griffithparkwayist.blogspot.com) [
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 2
Pub: Jan 7, 2014