Last week, Councilman Tim McOsker concluded his remarks at his State of the District address at Phoenix Hall at the Watts Labor Community Action Center last week by saying, “We need to uplift each other and in doing so we lift ourselves. And I will always always, always, always believe and fight for the proposition that we are stronger together.”
I have to admit that after a year in office, he has aimed his leadership to be as unifying as his rhetoric. I recognize that just because we aim in a direction, it does not mean we hit the mark every time. During his campaign, I noted in one of my editorials that it appeared he had been doing the work by staying in constant communication and in dialogue with civic leaders throughout the 15th District about their community needs and desires, particularly in Watts.
Near the beginning of his address, McOsker honored WLCAC leader Tim Watkins with a plaque. But it was Watkins’words that put the moment in perspective.
In his brief remarks, Watkins said:
It doesn’t just rub off. Somehow, being a great Tim takes a lot of hard work, and I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about our councilman Tim McOsker… He really did the work. I don’t know if you realize how much work he did because he was showing up here for everything a year before he ran, he was showing up and he was paying homage, he was showing up to give his condolences. He was expressing support [for] students. He’s been here every step of the way from the past few years now and I’ve never witnessed or experienced that before. I always see the politician that comes with the few weeks before the election and you know glad-handing, but this has been real and so I’m glad to see him here, see, all of you here and look forward to more. Thank you.
Traffic
McOsker noted that before he came into office, the LA Department of Transportation was in the process of implementing a number of changes on Anaheim Street in Wilmington, including a road diet, with the goal of improving traffic, safety and connectivity goals. These changes included removing one travel Lane in each direction, curb extensions with paint and plastic bollards removing parking on some stretches of the street, and a new protected bike lane and more.
The councilman obliquely made note of the unpopularity of the road diet saying he has heard over the past year the concern about the traffic congestion impacts why he, on his first day at City Council he introduced a motion to have the department of transportation to report on the effects of these measures on Anaheim, whether positive or negative.
“The department has been rolling out individual Street modifications in sequence over the past year. So we won’t be able to see fully yet the effects,” he said. “But your concerns are important to me.”
Pollution
The South Coast Air Quality Management District AQMD, is [00:44:58] considering a proposed indirect source rule called the ISR, that could limit the import and export of goods from the Port of Los Angeles limiting or diverting cargo would have a direct negative impact on jobs and economic [00:45:13] activity throughout the region certainly throughout the 15 and let me repeat clean air and good jobs are not mutually exclusive and to prove that point, I’m To working with the mayor, my council colleagues and the AQMD [00:45:28] to ensure that we protect both the environment and our local economy. And the entire built environment of the 15, not just the port for the entire built environment must be designed and maintained to consider the quality of [00:45:43] life for all of us.
Food deserts in Harbor Gateway and Watts
The councilman addressed food deserts in the 15th District, with too many areas overan with fast food restaurants and liquor stores on every corner, but few full service grocery stores in a five mile radius. McOsker proposed community gardens as one way to mitigate these food deserts, and in the process solving a few problems in one.
He noted that the gardens offer physical, mental health and environmental benefits by providing opportunities to eat healthy fresh, fruits and vegetables engage in physical activity. It’s why he directed the Los Angeles City’s Recreation and Parks Department to identify space and report back with recommendations necessary to establish a community garden in Harbor City. He noted that such gardens could create green spaces, reduce food miles that are required to transport food.;
He said he’s working the Healthy Neighborhood Market Network to ensure access for all Angelenos to get fresh produce and make it available within a half mile of their residence.
He noted that it’s possible to empower small business owners to bring healthy food into our communities by increasing food access and supporting community and economic development via the Healthy Neighborhood Market Network.
“We can do this by providing store owners with training and guidance as well as capital to upgrade their stores to transform these local markets, these corner stores in to reliable sources of healthy and affordable food,” the councilman said.
JEDI Zones
McOsker highlighted the recently rolled out the Jobs and Economic Development Incentive zones, or JEDI zones which establishes an opportunity for the city to invest in the business community, by putting grants and resources to work to improve selected business corridors.
In Wilmington, it’s the Avalon Boulevard corridor. In Watts, it’s Wilmington Avenue. In San Pedro, it’s Pacific Avenue. McOsker noted that the 15th District is the only one in the city with three JEDI zones.
Housing Assistance
McOsker touched upon the work the city is doing in regards to homelessness, noting that the acted in his position on the budget committee by increasing tenant rental assistance, and to provide direct assistance to mom and pop landlords.
McOsker noted that the key to protecting renters from the vagaries of too high rent by supporting mom and pop landlords.
“We need to keep people in the homes by keeping local landlords in the rental business,” he says. “As the Covid 19 local emergency sunsets, I was proud to vote for Just Cause eviction protection. Providing tenants living in the over 1 million rental units in the city of Los Angeles with significant expansion to renter protections.”
Policing
On policing, the councilman has continued to walk the tightrope of pushing for accountability for police officers while increasing the police ranks as the LAPD struggles to keep up with the staffing levels as more police officers retire or move on to other departments.
McOsker noted that today, we currently have fewer LAPD officers on the force than at any time in the last 20 years, finding our ranks harms our Public Safety response.
First, in his role on the budget committee, he said he has crafted an aggressive responsible funding plan that would allow for 13 hiring classes of 60 recruits to join the LAPD this year.
He said it’s really tough to hire police officers and that the city is competing with agencies across the country for applicants and not everyone should be a police officer.
He said he was able to help negotiate an agreement in the executive employee Relations Committee that will allow the city to turn the corner on hiring. That committee is made up of four council members including himself and the mayor to improve recruitment and retention by increasing starting salaries, and incentivizing newer officers to stay on the job through their veteran years.
McOsker also noted that police officers are too often called upon to attend to crises that are better handled by other trained professionals. That’s why the city of Los Angeles has developed several pilot programs related to unarmed crisis response.
“This city council has shown a concerted effort and seeing unarmed crisis response, formalized– a permanent fixture and an alternative to traditional policing,” McOsker said. “That’s why I introduced a motion to analyze these various methods of unarmed crisis response and provide recommendations on building out and funding these programs under a coordinated office, a coordinated response instead of multiple pilot programs operating in silos.
The councilman also discussed aa motion he introduced. It was a motion that served as a call for reform of the LAPD’s discipline system and increase the accountability for police misconduct.
“To do this, we will need to reform and repeal the all civilian Board of Rights,” McOsker said. He noted that more than 75% of disciplinary hearings result in less punishment than was recommended by the chief of police.
He said the primary objectives of Measure C, the ballot initiative which allowed officers the option to choose and all civilian disciplinary board of rights in an effort to increase officer accountability, fell short of its goal.
“We need to adopt a menu of options which I’ve laid out in my motion to pave, the way in how we comprehensively fix a broken system,” he said. “Reform is necessary and we want to use every tool to get this right.”
McOsker also said that another option to increase accountability would be to give authority to the LAPD police chief to immediately fire officers in the most egregious cases.
“Good police reform, and good police officers all agree, in egregious cases, the chief should be able to fire.”
McOsker said that this fix will require Charter amendments, an endeavor he looks forward to placing on a future ballot.
During the days around his inauguration, Councilman McOsker asked me to pay attention to his work. I agreed, thinking that I’ll pay as close attention as I did to his predecessor. After nearly a year in office, he gets high marks thus far in my book. I’m looking forward to seeing how the minting the district’s moniker, One-Five to elicit a sense of unity that never existed before, plays out in the coming years.