Save our Southwest Museum - Urgent Action Item
I received the below email this morning. Draft letter to follow momentarily.
URGENT REQUEST FOR YOUR ACTION TODAY TO END THE AUTRY MUSEUM
PLAN TO MOVE THE SOUTHWEST MUSEUM INTO GRIFFITH PARK
Your Coalition Steering Committee is writing to report to you a series of actions of the General Manager of the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department and the Autry Museum that once again imperil the Southwest Museum.
Last Friday, the Board of Recreation and Parks Commission, after extremely limited notice to the public, quietly took up a secret Autry proposal to expand its exhibition space in Griffith Park to enable Autry replace and destroy the Southwest Museum institution.
There is a way to obtain public review and proper consideration of this item of business. Councilmembers Jose Huizar and Ed Reyes, in whose districts the Southwest Museum’s assets are located, must immediately work with Council President Eric Garcetti to put on the City Council’s meeting agenda an item to consider “assuming
jurisdiction” over the Recreation and Park Commission’s decision. Unless the Council assumes jurisdiction within five council meeting days after the Recreation and Parks Commission action, it will become final. If jurisdiction is assumed, then the Council has 21 days to consider the item and veto (or not veto) it.
It is absolutely critical that as many voters as possible contact Councilmembers Huizar and Reyes immediately. And that is where you, the supporters of the Southwest Museum, have in the past changed the outcome and you can do it again.
The most powerful thing you can do is call their offices tomorrow. Tonight and tomorrow, you can send an email expressing outrage over Autry’s attempt to sneak a scaled down version of its expansion project through the Commission without ever disclosing the existence of a revived project to any community group or the public. Then open your address book and send this Action Alert on to your friends asking
them to do the same.
Our communities across Los Angeles must object firmly and with justified outrage at this time or the Autry truly will have succeeded in walking off with $5 million of endowment, a priceless collection, and a 13-acre National Register Historic site with the museum and Casa de Adobe. Officials at City Hall told us that the Southwest Museum letters, faxes and phone calls in June 2009 was the biggest response to any issue in recent memory – including Billy the Elephant at the Zoo! As soon as you receive this alert, at a minimum, send it to your address book, post it on Facebook, Twitter your outrage at the “sleazy backroom politics of City Hall” that seeks to destroy our City’s historic sites like the Southwest.
It is time to take off the gloves and punch with all your might at the corrupt practices of the Autry and the Recreation and Parks Commission. We can do it.
HERE IS THE EMAIL LIST:
Jose.Huizar@lacity.org, Ed.Reyes@lacity.org, Ana.Cubas@lacity.org,
Paul.Habib@lacity.org, Zenay.Loera@lacity.org, Jose.Gardea@lacity.org,
Sonia.G.Jimenez@lacity.org, Eric.Garcetti@lacity.org,
katherine.hennigan@lacity.org
HERE ARE THE THREE PHONE NUMBERS TO CALL and FAX your letter:
Councilmember Huizar: (213) 473-7014 phone; (213) 847-0680 fax
Councilmember Reyes: (213) 473-7002 phone; (213) 485-8907 fax
Councilmember Garcetti: (213) 473-7013 phone; (213) 613 0819 fax
URGENT REQUEST FOR YOUR ACTION TODAY TO END THE AUTRY MUSEUM
PLAN TO MOVE THE SOUTHWEST MUSEUM INTO GRIFFITH PARK
Your Coalition Steering Committee is writing to report to you a series of actions of the General Manager of the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department and the Autry Museum that once again imperil the Southwest Museum.
Last Friday, the Board of Recreation and Parks Commission, after extremely limited notice to the public, quietly took up a secret Autry proposal to expand its exhibition space in Griffith Park to enable Autry replace and destroy the Southwest Museum institution.
There is a way to obtain public review and proper consideration of this item of business. Councilmembers Jose Huizar and Ed Reyes, in whose districts the Southwest Museum’s assets are located, must immediately work with Council President Eric Garcetti to put on the City Council’s meeting agenda an item to consider “assuming
jurisdiction” over the Recreation and Park Commission’s decision. Unless the Council assumes jurisdiction within five council meeting days after the Recreation and Parks Commission action, it will become final. If jurisdiction is assumed, then the Council has 21 days to consider the item and veto (or not veto) it.
It is absolutely critical that as many voters as possible contact Councilmembers Huizar and Reyes immediately. And that is where you, the supporters of the Southwest Museum, have in the past changed the outcome and you can do it again.
The most powerful thing you can do is call their offices tomorrow. Tonight and tomorrow, you can send an email expressing outrage over Autry’s attempt to sneak a scaled down version of its expansion project through the Commission without ever disclosing the existence of a revived project to any community group or the public. Then open your address book and send this Action Alert on to your friends asking
them to do the same.
Our communities across Los Angeles must object firmly and with justified outrage at this time or the Autry truly will have succeeded in walking off with $5 million of endowment, a priceless collection, and a 13-acre National Register Historic site with the museum and Casa de Adobe. Officials at City Hall told us that the Southwest Museum letters, faxes and phone calls in June 2009 was the biggest response to any issue in recent memory – including Billy the Elephant at the Zoo! As soon as you receive this alert, at a minimum, send it to your address book, post it on Facebook, Twitter your outrage at the “sleazy backroom politics of City Hall” that seeks to destroy our City’s historic sites like the Southwest.
It is time to take off the gloves and punch with all your might at the corrupt practices of the Autry and the Recreation and Parks Commission. We can do it.
HERE IS THE EMAIL LIST:
Jose.Huizar@lacity.org, Ed.Reyes@lacity.org, Ana.Cubas@lacity.org,
Paul.Habib@lacity.org, Zenay.Loera@lacity.org, Jose.Gardea@lacity.org,
Sonia.G.Jimenez@lacity.org, Eric.Garcetti@lacity.org,
katherine.hennigan@lacity.org
HERE ARE THE THREE PHONE NUMBERS TO CALL and FAX your letter:
Councilmember Huizar: (213) 473-7014 phone; (213) 847-0680 fax
Councilmember Reyes: (213) 473-7002 phone; (213) 485-8907 fax
Councilmember Garcetti: (213) 473-7013 phone; (213) 613 0819 fax
posted by 66 Productions at 10:04 AM
1 Comments:
DRAFT LETTER
May 24, 2011
Hon. Jose Huizar
Los Angeles City Councilmember
200 N. Spring Street, Rm. 465
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hon. Ed Reyes
Los Angeles City Councilmember
200 N. Spring Street, Rm. 410
Los Angeles, CA 90012
RE: Demand That You Put On City Council Agenda An Item to Assume
Jurisdiction Over The May 20, 2011 Action Of The Board of Recreation
and Parks Commission To Authorize Replacement Of Exhibition Spaces Of
The Southwest Museum In Griffith Park (Commission Item No. 11-129)
Dear Councilmembers Huizar and Reyes:
Please enter into the record my strenuous objection to the May 20,
2011 action of the Board of Recreation and Parks Commission to allow
the Autry National Center to expand its exhibition space and outdoor
park spaces in Griffith Park in its ongoing effort to destroy the
institution of the Southwest Museum and take for itself the priceless
collections of the Southwest Museum and Casa de Adobe. As
Councilmember Reyes has publicly declared: this is nothing but
cultural piracy. I agree.
I am demanding that you work with Council President Eric Garcetti to
take immediate action under the City Charter to place on the City
Council’s agenda an item to assume jurisdiction over the Recreation
and Parks Commission’s decision.
The Recreation and Parks Commission’s attempt to defeat the protection
of the City’s first and most historic museum asset as set forth in the
Northeast Community Plan by simply ignoring the law is highly
offensive to people throughout Los Angeles. It is certainly offensive
in this voting household.
The circumstances under which Recreation and Parks Department staff
evaded proper environmental review, the use of an unlawful special
meeting notice when there was ample time for a 72-hour meeting notice,
and the apparent failure of the Department to send email notification
of its meeting to persons who specifically are on the Recreation and
Parks email list for agendas demonstrates that these actions were
taken with a malicious intent to evade public knowledge and any
reasonable opportunity to object to the Recreation and Parks
Department’s unlawful actions.
It is even more disturbing to me that all of these actions were taken
under the supervision of Recreation and Parks Commission President
Barry Sanders who is a former partner in the law firm of Latham &
Watkins, the Autry’s legal counsel on its expansion ambitions. The
City Attorney determined in 2009 that Mr. Sanders, and therefore the
entire Recreation and Parks Commission was disqualified under
Government Code section 1090 from participating in any action of or
concerning Autry’s request for permits from the Commission. How it is
that Mr. Sanders, barred by state law from participating in this
decision, now oversaw its placement on a sneaky special meeting notice
and the failure of his Commission staff to send email notice of the
agenda to persons on the email list? These actions illustrate the
precise dirty gamesmanship of City Hall partisans that leave voters so
disgusted with our City’s government.
I am informed that the Commission’s actions are null and void under
environmental laws and the open meeting laws of the State. It is the
duty of the City Council to represent the interests of the people by
asserting immediate jurisdiction and forcing the Autry Museum, the
Recreation and Parks administration, and Mr. Sanders to consider this
set of changes to our Griffith Park in an open, transparent, and
lawful process where those who have ongoing concerns about the Autry’s
stewardship may express themselves.
Please add my name and address to the list of persons to be notified
of action on this incredibly important issue.
cc: Councilmember Garcetti
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