Scott Svonkin's Solar Adventure

Guest

Wow. All of you anti-Svonkinites are making a huge assumption here: that anything this "reporter" prints is accurate or true. Miki Jackson has a vendetta against the LACCD and wants to see it destroyed. Mars Melnicoff is a discredited, poor excuse for a journalist who is known to publish stories without any validation or verification and who has never, in her short career, published a fair and balanced article telling both sides of a story. All you have to do is read any of her stories to see the obvious agenda. Maybe Scott isn't perfect or saintly, but if you are getting your information from Mars Melnicoff on the LA Weekly Blog, there is a better than average chance that it is not only slanted, but outright false and libelous.

polo big pony shirts

Everything is very open and very clear explanation of issues. was truly information. Your website is very useful. Thanks for sharing.

Ronnie

Well, I just got my first Svonkin slick mailer in today's post. It says that Scott is going to DEMAND independent audits of the Community College bond program.

Well, Scott, had you been paying attention at the meetings of the San Gabriel Unified School District you would know that state law already requires independent financial and performance audits of bond construction programs. Essentially, Scott, you were telling me that you don't even know or understand that such independent audits are the status quo. I guess you support the status quo as part of your big plan.

If that's all that Svonkin can come up with to "clean up the LACCD mess", he might want to do some more homework.

Now where is my mail in ballot so I can vote for Lydia Gutierrez?

San Gabriel Citizen

We already sent in our mail in ballots with our votes AGAINST Svonkin. We have received two deceptive mailings from him this week. What a waste of money. I almost choked when I read on one that the teachers support Svonkin..not in San Gabriel..and neither do the residents. He is quickly becoming a laughing stock.

ObserverELACo

Nice try, Svonkin-ites.

Your candidate leaves a wake of betrayal and destruction wherever he goes -- San Fernando Valley, West Hollywood, San Gabriel -- and you throw up a smokescreen to try to cover the fact that not even those from his own party can stand him.

Whatever Gutierrez's shortcomings might be -- and you've provided precious little evidence to back up your claims about them -- they pale in comparison to Svonkin's well documented bullying, shilling and know-nothing financial policy stances.

We're electing someone who will be responsible for billions of dollars and for the education of tens of thousands of people. Gutierrez appears to have the needed background and commitment to fiscal responsibility and to access to strong educational resources.

Svonkin? As his former endorsee and current board colleague Colleen Doan said: "If we had all voted like Scott, we'd be bankrupt." San Gabriel voters, taxpayers and students already got burned by Scott Svonkin-- don't let the damage spread to the LA Community College District.

Josh

So let me get this right. Svonkin is a moron and Gutierrez is a homo-bigot. Great!

Why can't we find someone like Gutierrez (with all her bilingual experience and charity work in Colombia -- who isn't against gays!?

I seriously don't know what to do on this one.

How much power does a superintendent have in terms of their ability to effect negative policy on gay students? I guess the answer to that question will make my decision for me.

Sandra

wow, the people who voted for Svonkin are regreting it now. We are hearing from those who know him better. It doesn't get any worse than this when it comes to warnings against bringing this guy over to the community college board!

Guest

Lydia Gutierrez (R) has a long and ugly anti-gay record. She campaigned for Prop 8 (she opposes marriage equality), called it "outrageous" that her union oposed Prop 8, and said that honoring Harvey Milk would be "offensive to the families of her students.". This is her third bid for public office -- she previously ran for state superintendent of public instruction and state senator. School board member Scott Svonkin (D) may not be my favorite person in the world, but he opposed Prop 8, is pro-equality, and is extremely well-informed about community college issues. He's a much better choice than Gutierrez.

It's too bad the LA Weekly has become such a knee-jerk anti-union anti-Democratic rag. An excellent example of dishonest reporting is your claim that a certain percentage of San Gabriel voters voted "against" Svonkin -- I.e., they voted for one of the many other candidates in the first round of this election. Yet you do not include how many San Gabriel voters voted "against" Gutierrez. Naming one and not the other shows clear bias. You are campaigning, not reporting.

Incidentally, Gutierrez claims on her website that she has been "endorsed" by the LA Weekly. Is that true? I thought the Weekly stopped endorsing candidates long ago. Though with this kind of biased, reactionary "reporting," you can hardly tell.

Gilda

As a gay woman, I have no concern about Gutierrez being elected to the LACCD Board. On social issues such as gay marriage, traditional families, and all of that other clap trap, I rest assured that the other knee jerk liberals on the LACCD Board would kill any effort of Gutierrez to change social policy.

What I suspect, however, is that Gutierrez would be a key voice for fiscal responsibility -- something the existing Board members would not know if they tripped over it. They have gone along with the Administration for years and look where it took them -- total financial ruin and fiasco.

Get the word out to your email address book: vote for Lydia Gutierrez and not for the Svonkin MONSTER. We have just three weeks to use the Internet to overwhelm the Svonkin mailers that are sure to arrive in the mail!

A Voter for Equality

I wrote Gutierrez asking if and why she was against Prop 8/gay marriage, as I am researching both candidates for my mail-in ballot. Her answer was: "This is a quote from a voter on the issue which sums it up: [and she emailed me Gilda's response from above]". Here is my response to her:

Sorry, that in no way sums up why you discriminate against a group of people, and I must commend you for being such a great politician and not answering my question. I'm sorry this supposed "gay women" (i.e. you could have posted that yourself) is blinded. Your bio says you were raised with "Dignity". Obviously not if you discriminate against people, you have no dignity. I'm assuming you're either latino or married to a latino - latino's are frequently discriminated against in this country. So why would you discriminate against others?

I haven't researched Svonkin enough to be either really for or against him, but just so you know, this voter will not vote for anyone who looks to suppress the rights of others, which is what you do when you support prop 8. You seriously need to do some soul searching and ask yourself why am I discriminating against a group of people, is it simply to follow party politics and vote the party line, or do I truly believe this group of people are bad and therefore do not deserve the same rights as you do. If the latter, you should just retire from politics, and life and just become a hermit, as you are a terrible person.

I hope you lose. I think your smear campaign against Svonkin is disgraceful, instead of just arguing on the issues - you can't because you know you'll lose because you're on the wrong side of at least one big issue. How can anyone in charge of any type of school be against a group of students and their rights?

You disgust me!

Best,

A Voter for Equality

Guest

Rather strange for an alleged gay woman to attack her own equality as "knee jerk liberal"...unless you are a Republican who cares more about your party than your rights.

The Republican deception campaign is in high gear, aided by the Jill Stewart Weekly's hatred of anything to do with unions. The GOP knows the LACCD election is one of the few they can win, because party ID will not be on the ballot. So their gameplan is to slime Svonkin, not explain their own candidate, and hope people are fooled into electing a Bush-Palin supporter to the board. No, thanks!

Guest

There have been a handful of names in the Jill Stewart Weekly's articles -- but it seems they were cherry-picked because of their views. There's a long list of Svonkin supporters, including local San Gabriel officials, on his website as supporters. Were any of them interviewed? Certainly they are not quoted. That's because the Jill Stewart Weekly is not interested in enabling readers to make up their own minds. They are only interested in pushing readers by providing only one side of a story, which leads to distorted impressions such as "too many people are saying he is not fit." No, they aren't -- except in Republicans' fantasies.

RolandEckst

It bears repeating, regardless of party affiliation, Svonkin's colleagues on the San Gabriel School Board, the persons in the best position to know, are publicly advising voters to NOT vote for Svonkin. Additionally, San Gabriel residents who have seen Scott Svonkin in action are also overwhelmingly counseling to not cast a vote for Svonkin.

This is not about Republicans "stealing" a LACCD Board Seat. It's about making sure the boorish and idiot policy making suggestions of Svokin be shut out by voters at the ballot box. Too many people are saying he is not fit for public office, so that leaves Gutierrez in the run off election.

Guest

That's Tea Party propaganda -- state and city budgets were devastated by the global depression, not by the salaries and benefits of public employees. Many attacks on public employees are based on misleading impressions formed by using data from the bottom of the economic downturn. Things have changed since then. For instance, state and local government pension systems were back up to $2.93 trillion at the end of 2010, a 35 percent increase over the lowest quarterly report in March 2009. Plan redesigns and strong 2010 returns of 13.1% are responsible. Anti-government extremists who like to beat up on public employees need to find another hobbyhorse to ride.

The choice is clear. If you are a Tea Bagger who thinks public employees -- such as teachers, nurses, and firefighters -- are creeps and scumbags, and if you agree with Lydia Gutierrez that gays and lesbians should have inferior, unequal rights, then you should vote for your Republican candidate, Lydia Gutierrez. Those of us who do not share those views should vote for Scott Svonkin, the Democratic candidate, who is well-qualified by background, experience, and his views on the issues.

The only way Gutierrez can win is if voters are unaware of who she really is. Please do activate your e-mail lists and talk to your friends: don't let anti-gay Republicans steala college board seat by hiding the party and views of their candidate.

Harry Masters

Even if Gutierrez is conservative on social issues, Gilda is right: that issue, should it come up at all in a matter before the LACCD Board, the other Democratic Board members would support gay marriage and gay/lesbian rights. So who cares if Gutierrez has some social positions that are unpopular and will be outvoted by the rest of the Board?

It is much more significant that Svonkin's own Board colleagues in San Gabriel School District have gone on the record and publicly warned voters about Svonkin's utter stupidity at general educational policy making. That ought to be a much bigger concern among the voters. If we put another scumbag public union creep on the LACCD Board, we can just watch the unions drain the public treasury to enrich themselves at the expense of young adult educational needs. Look what the public unions have done to the budgets of the State and City of LA!

Please get out the word that Svonkin is unacceptable and Gutierrez, while a social conservative, is prepared to ask the hard questions that need to be asked to straighten out the fiscal disaster at LACCD.

Guest

Actually, I didn't say Republicans were conspiring with Jill Stewart, though it would hardly surprise me. I said Republicans are attempting to put a Bush-Palin supporter (Gutierrez) on the LACCD board, without voters even knowing she is a Republican, and an anti-gay one at that. Unfortunately, that effort is aided by the Jill Stewart Weekly's relentless anti-union, anti-Democratic spin.

Gutierrez's website still says she is endorsed by the LA Weekly. Is she? If not, why is it still on the website?

Beatrice

Lord. What a diabolical plan of the Republicans: conspire with Jill Stewart to run a stroy about Svonkin that informs the voters about what piss-poor choice the Democratic Central Committee made in running and supporting Svonkin!

It's hard to find a Svonkin supporter among those who have attend San Gabriel School District Board meetings.... that alone speaks volumes about what a mistake it would be to elect this jerk just because he is a Democrat on social issues. Social issue play little or no relevance to making community college board decisions.

Let's find someone who can stand up to the administrators and ask some hard questions... Lydia Gutierrez.

Bean

I realize that the author here has something against this guy, but what is the beef with solar power? CA just got a HUGE loan guarantee from the Feds to build a solar plant that is going to put tons of people to work in this state.

San Gabriel Citizen

Once again Svonkin reveals his utter contempt for the citizens of San Gabriel, a community that he was elected to serve. The oversight committee, for example, is made up of community volunteers who receive no compensation or benefits for their service. and yet Svonkin feels it is his right to treat them with disdain. Disgusting!

Get Real

God help the community college systerm if Svonkin is elected. He is a total jerk and has alienated the entire city of San Gabriel. Only good thing on the horizon is if he wins the county election he will be forced to leave SGUSD and possibly feel the need to MOVE AWAY.I'm tempted to vote for him just to get rid of his obnoxious self.

Concerned at Valley College

Just got my mail in ballot for the runoff election between Scott Svonkin and Lydia Gutierrez. Needless to say, even though I am a registered Democrat and a union member, there is no way I am going to vote for this total a** hole. Anyone who has has current San Gabriel Board colleagues going on record warning voters, is suspect as a serious candidate for the Los Angeles Community Colleges Board. We've already got "good Democrat" Board members on the LACCD and they have been asleep at the switch for years while the Administrators played them for fools.

Even if Lydia Gutierrez is more conservative than Svonkin, she doesn't have a mass of people from her community warning votersup in arms over the thought of her serving on the Community College Board. In this election, that may be all we need to shake things up by voting in an unconventional voice.