The Quiet Man is the Best Man... Vote for Mark Seigel Saturday August 4th!

As a writer I depend on inspiration; I let words fill all that clean white space on a page with lines of thought, insight and information. That said, I am inspired to write to you of someone I feel I just met even ‘though I’ve known him for years: The Quiet Man aka Mark Seigel. I will definitely vote for him on Saturday, August 4th at North Valley City Hall, 7747 Foothill Blvd. Tujunga from 2:30pm to 8:30pm. PLEASE VOTE FOR MARK SEIGEL on that day!

A few days ago I interviewed Mark Seigel who is running for the Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council’s all important office of President. Once you get him talking, Mark is the most engaging candidate on the roster. But he works in such an unassuming way that he is sometimes thought of as The Invisible Man…

How will he fare as a candidate? Well in a community rife with controversy, angst, and turmoil, Mark Seigel is the Voice of Reason; a quiet voice, like your conscience. It is a relief to talk to him about issues and have no gossip or vitriol clog up the conversation. Yet he could go unnoticed for that praiseworthy reason.

I’ll tell you his platform, his views, his assurances, plans, and campaign promises in a bit; before I do I want you to know the person I interviewed on a stakeholders level: Mark is a fascinating man possessed of untapped potential this community must consider!

There are a lot of things Mark Seigel is not: he is not angry, loud, or dramatic. Mark has no hidden agenda. He is straightforward and responsive to the stakeholders. Mark is no grandstander: requires no blog or Facebook page to publicize his views, and simply shows up to every meeting on time and prepared to do the job he is elected to do. What more can a voter ask?

In a moment of passion at the Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council “Meet the Candidates” on Wednesday July 11, Mark Seigel declared to the audience “YOU are the Neighborhood Council, we are just the tools you need to use, to make it happen.”

Later I interviewed Mark and asked what made him decide to run for the office of President, Mark replied “the catalyst was when Tomi Lyn Bowling pulled out after Doc’s article.” The Foothills Paper publisher Doc DeMulle ran a controversial article concerning Bowling the week before. She reportedly felt her “presence was detrimental to the Board based on the content of the article” and withdrew her candidacy. Later she allowed herself to be persuaded by community members to change her mind and run. This is not the first time Bowling has resigned, called for a vote of confidence and reinstated herself in the council. She can’t make up her mind.

For this election Bowling retrieved the candidacy she had cast aside. She reinstated her intent to run… how does that affect Mark? “Well I’m not pulling out; I’ve developed more relationships with service organizations in the community than Tomi has. I have more exposure to the American Legion, the Elks, Scouting, Masons, Chamber of Commerce, and others. I have experience others don’t realize.”

“I also know how to resolve conflict. I understand interpersonal dynamics; I was an ombudsman for years. I seek positive change and I reason with all sides. I emphasize solutions not problems and want both sides to feel their differences are resolved in a win/win manner.” (This is in sharp contrast to Tomi Lyn Bowling who rejects members from her community Facebook page if they disagree with her.)

When asked what is the first thing he would do if elected Mark firmly stated “I would educate the [new] Board on the parameters for being able to execute their jobs and I would empower them so they don’t sit idle; they can get out there and DO something; they can do it now: they can engage the community! The Board can be a help to the community, not a target for the community!”

That impassioned statement is a far cry from the light statement made by Tomi Lyn Bowling during Meet the Candidates: she said about her current Vice-Presidency and Chairmanship of the Board, “We have a good time, don’t we? Don’t we?!” And Tomi concluded with “I want to see more of what we need on Foothill Boulevard and less of what we don’t need on Foothill Boulevard!”

Mark however, is “divided” on the Food Trucks Issue and wants “to hear a lot more from both sides at STNC meetings not on Facebook pages”. He refers back to his earlier statement that he knows how to resolve conflict with a win/win solution and looks forward to input from the whole community on this issue.

On the subject of “Development” Mark Seigel is strong minded. “Any development must be community oriented. Development can help or harm our community and we have to get past the buzzwords developers use to take advantage of the community. We can’t have too much, too fast. This isn’t Beverly Hills. Sunland Tujunga is an old-fashioned homey community with 90% residential, 9% business, and 1% commercial properties. There are 56 different ethnicities in Sunland Tujunga. There are a lot of different ideas we need to hear”

Finally when asked what is the most important thing he can do if elected, Mark Seigel reiterated a favorite topic by stating two things he considers vital to leadership which he feels fully capable of: “A leader needs to recognize another’s strengths and LET them use them. And, a leader must guide and empower the Board to reach its full potential as a community resource.”

The best candidate for the position of President of the Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council is Mark Seigel. PLEASE be sure to vote on Saturday, August 4th, from 2:30pm to 8:30pm. AND get all your friends and neighbors to vote as well… it is a great first time experience for young people who must be 16 to vote. See you at the polls!

http://markseigel2012.blogspot.com/2012/07/

The Samoa Project Ad Hoc Committee 'Rolls Up Their Sleeves'

Reporting briefly on the most recent meeting of the Samoa Ad Hoc Committee...

You may remember the genuine and valid concerns committee members have regarding SB 1818:  the Density Bonus ordinance. We must not hesitate to go right for the throat of this ordinance as it threatens our community with its exceptions to the rules; rules which govern our Foothill Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan (FBCSP) and have been legally dismissed by exceptions built into the Samoa High Density Affordable Housing Project by SB 1818.

At issue is an overly large apartment complex slated to be built on a narrow street in Tujunga with pre-existing problems with traffic, parking, housing density, crime, and proximity to our own historical treasure: Bolton Hall, and schools and churches in the immediate area.

Several people with expertise in different avenues of research volunteered or were asked to concentrate their efforts on subjects we may use to stop the project entirely or at least modify it. (Of note are a few expressions from the committee that “affordable housing” in manageable amounts would be acceptable.)

Lydia Grant was a welcome addition to the group and immediately set about addressing the issues concerning the project and nearby school crosswalks and school age pedestrian concerns, traffic and construction during school days and hours. Lydia is Sunland Tujunga’s School Rep on the Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council (STNC) and an expert in her field.

Nina Royal will approach those residents, church and neighboring property owners located in proximity to the construction site to discuss their perceptions of the project which will impact them the most. This group may be the key to halting the project by law as these stakeholders are entitled to file an appeal to the Planning Directors decision regarding the Samoa High Density SB 1818 Project.

Although Royal attempted to rally a group to appear with her and representatives on Friday at the site, the community that would likely hold banners was discouraged from attending this working committee meeting so was not present to respond to her appeal. If you would like to show support at this or future rallies please contact Royal at 818-563-1962

Kathleen Travers and Elaine Brown will continue to research the impact the project will have on Bolton Hall and potential for suit to halt the project based on a clause in SB 1818 that addresses nearby historical sites. The call went out to the community of Sunland Tujunga for a volunteer structural engineer to give the group an impact report of structural integrity and potential for damage by construction activity and increased traffic.

If you or someone you know can help the group with this or other areas of expertise please contact committee chair Bill Skiles at the new blogsite which has been created by the STNC for ready access to the information and documents concerning the project; you can access that site here:

http://samoaavetujungasb1818project.blogspot.com/

Terre Ashmore has determined Census Tract numbers for the site and surrounding neighborhoods and will compile economic data, income, population density or vacancy, veteran’s population, family size etc. The recent decennial census is only partially useful in this research as the data sets for income were discontinued in the decennial following the census of 2000. The American Community Survey is a Federal agency that continued that research which may be invaluable to this committee.

The prospect of hiring an attorney also was addressed and the costs associated with it. If a Sunland Tujunga stakeholder with legal expertise in this area of law can give a few hours of their time to the committee that also would be very welcome. Note this is a working committee deeply entrenched in the process of finding a solution to a community problem, The public is welcome to observe and those with expertise are especially needed as volunteers.

It isn’t so much that the “affordable housing” is at fault as that the condition (and accompanying Senate Bill 1818) is used to circumvent the normal and reasonable guidelines that make for a well planned community. A four story apartment complex is planned in a two story neighborhood. This will tower above existing design and alter the visual impact of the surrounding neighborhood… until the presence of one four story apartment complex invites another.

 http://brockbajer.blogspot.com/2011/08/sb1818-monolith-on-millimeter.html

http://brockbajer.blogspot.com/2011/08/sb-1818-vs-fbcsp.html

The Foothills Paper 'Goes Silently Into That Goodnight'

[EDIT: There has been a recent (tremendous) surge of new interest in this: the first article on Brock Ba'jer which launched the site. Please note the edits to the article now added: four months later...]

[On August 10, 2012 Terre Ashmore formally entered the debate as an opponent to the continued publication of The Foothills Paper and exercised her right to boycott the continued publication of The Foothills Paper.]



Where is The Foothills Paper?!

The Foothills Paper is no more...

The Foothills Paper claimed a readership of 4000 local residents (out of 65,000) in the twin cities of Sunland and Tujunga, two communities with a rural backdrop and residents boasting generations of residency in the outskirts of Los Angeles, California.

But in a dramatic gesture ‘Doc’ David DeMulle, editor of The Foothills Paper ceased publication of his rather famous (some would say infamous) newspaper July 22, 2011. [The Foothills Paper was not printed for four weeks then resumed following publication of this article on Brock Ba'jer. The Foothills Paper does not generate enough to pay for itself.] In a special staff meeting on July 25, Doc informed staff he could no longer afford to pay for the production of The Foothills Paper out of his own pocket, adding it cost him about $1000 per issue to produce.

In an email sent that evening to staff and columnists who missed the meeting, Doc made an appeal, “The Paper is the last bastion of information to rally the citizens” he wrote. “We're dead in the water. What this means to you, is this.  We are going to have to cut back on paid columns and ask every writer to come help us put out The Paper every other week.  If you can't or won't help, we will drop your column to save printing costs.  We need to fall back and re-form or we die.”

But few replied and only two showed up to work on Wednesday. Doc was packing to move. His advertising department (the lifeblood of a newspaper) had already departed weeks before. Efforts to send out billing by those unfamiliar with the task fell short and advertising customers simply failed to pay their bills. Monies that might have saved the publication went uncollected.

To aggravate a tense situation, The Paper’s phones and internet went down the entire week as well and all efforts and repairmen hired to reinstate the service met with escalating electrical and technical problems. Jokes about “the ghost in the machine” became prophetic as the bastion of communication became unreachable.

More than the aggravation of phone problems and the mismanagement of advertising dollars however, Doc cited the overwhelming numbers of news stories waiting to be researched and written by too few staff writers as his greatest concern: "The corruption we've uncovered is more than we can handle by ourselves. We have no salespeople. People in S-T are too poor to advertise and the surrounding communities look down on us as being crass, stupid and poor." 

In a lengthy list of the stories of local corruption and waste he had planned to publish, he gave priority to the proposal to amend Sunland Tujunga’s Specific Plan.

“The Foothill Blvd. Corridor Specific Plan will destroy the residents up to 4 blocks above and below Foothill Blvd.; The Ralph's Center is 90% vacant. The Commerce Center is 95% vacant. Commerce is 65% vacant... We're being set up for redevelopement!" Doc declared to staff. Doc himself is a stakeholder in the community who adamantly opposes the proposal. [The street of 'Historic Commerce' is a ghost town. Doc previously published a scathing expose' about the group called COBRA which collected monies to restore this original main street of Tujunga. Doc claimed COBRA drove business owners away with anonymous Building and Safety complaints and harassment. The improvements have all been allowed to decline; expensive planters are filled with dead plants, street trees are butchered by unskilled pruners, graffiti is left unchallenged, and the elaborate sign was stolen and never replaced.]

Interestingly, the most suspect of events expected to shut down The Foothills Paper, did not. Three months ago a group of local activists, enraged at Doc for the “slanderous lies” they were the subject of in The Foothills Paper, organized a boycott against the advertisers of The Paper to force them to drop their ads and cause The Paper to fold. Led by Joe Barrett and Robin Meares, the boycott had the opposite effect, polarizing the community and causing advertisers to dig their heels in. [In a surprise move the writer of this blog Terre Ashmore later supported efforts to shut down The Foothills Paper after previously defending it.]

The Foothills Paper has recently had a surge in readership after covering the opposing view to the hotly debated proposal made by The Sunland Tujunga Alliance, The Chamber of Commerce and partial board membership of the Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council (STNC).

Their proposal to amend The Foothill Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan (FBCSP) is countered by members of the STNC Board who did not agree to the proposal. The opposing side is led by David Cain, 2^nd Vice President of the STNC who wrote a counter letter to Councilman Krekorian which was published in the Foothills Paper. [Councilman Krekorian never publicly acknowledged or replied to David Cain's letter.] [Cain later resigned and disappeared into obscurity.]

The debate was played out on The Foothills Forum: a community forum where thousands of views and hundreds of posts kept moderators busy. Any inquiry related to either view became anathema and many secret meetings have been conducted by both sides in an effort to win the Councilman over. [ 'Secret meetings' was the original text now hi-lighted. This article alerted the public early to this but no one caught it.]

With so much happening in the community it seems tragic somehow that any voice is silenced, even one so controversial. Recently, Doc made several comments eliciting an outraged response from the subjects he targeted on the Street Hassle blog. He used the penname Devils Advocate. How apropos as he is certainly the "person who often argues the 'wrong' side, perversely or for arguments sake". Whatever your take on his style and character, Doc is a writer who is read and reread.

What more can a wordsmith ask?

[Doc continues to publish The Foothills Paper at his own expense...]