California Faultline

The controversy plagued Glassell Park Neighborhood Council’s next stakeholder meeting will be held next Tuesday at 7pm, and according to the agenda I just received, this item could prove from some drama:

Status report on grievances filed with/against the GPNC – Mark Quiroz
Mo Oxford grievance requesting removal of a Board Member (Bradley)

For the uninitiated, over the past year Mo Oxford had been video taping GPNC meetings on a regular basis. For some reason, then GPNC Chair “Bradley” (just one name, like Cher) began telling her she couldn’t tape the public meetings, and insisted she needed to not only obtain prior permission from all board members, but needed to provide copies for them to review.

His logic was boggling, not only because there is no law forbidding taping it, but California’s Brown Act specifically makes such taping by the public totally legal… and it should be assumed that Neighborhood Council members (let alone Chairs) be somewhat familiar with the Brown Act. (you can read my summary of these events on LA Metblogs)

Regardless, this was only one of a number of Bradley’s antics, recorded on camera, that may be up for discussion on Tuesday night. But even if the issue is “tabled” for one reason or another, it seems some other drama could unfold.

At February’s stakeholder meeting, GPNC Vice-Chair Mark Quiroz and Secretary Maggie Darett-Quiroz called for the removal of boardmember Paula Bagasao for making racially divisive statements. Per Darett-Quiroz, “Paula said that she was tired of the Hispanics and the whites in the community and she needed to put the Filipinos on the map.” [Video]

Since the Glassel Park Neighborhood Council hasn’t posted the minutes from its stakeholder or executive committee meetings online since last October, its difficult to find out how this all played out. However, a cursory glance at the GPNC website still lists Bagasao as a board member, and, interestingly, shows that Bradley is no longer the GPNC Chair, remaining only as an area representative (a move that apparently occured sometime in February or earlier).

So on Tuesday bring popcorn, maybe a video camera, and a copy of the GPNC’s bylaws for easy reference to the Glassell Park Community Senior Center at 3750 Verdugo Road. And please save me a seat.

Two more items on Bradley after the jump…

• After discovering that a “Diversity Forum” he’d scheduled for was on the second day of Yom Kippur and thus would likely need to be changed, Bradley said he was “furious” and that moving the date was “a major insult to those of us that are not Jewish.” [Curbed LA]
• At a GPNC meeting last June, during public comment Bradley paced the room as a stakeholder, and Bradley critic, Alicia Smith spoke, at one point stopping to stand and linger a foot away from Alicia. A woman wedged herself between the two, and said that Bradley was harrassing Alicia, to which he announced, “I can stand anywhere I want.” [Video clip on YouTube]

…a round up of Bradley incidents at Curbed LA…