Citizen About Town

By Nancy C Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

Email: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

Why do some politicians keep reminding us that we are not equal under their laws that divide our United States of America?

One case in point is my hometown of Monterey Park that passed a new law that the voters must vote for our Councilmembers by district.

Kevin Shankman, a Malibu attorney, threatened to sue our city on behalf of his client, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project located in Texas.

The Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, founded in 1974, is the largest and oldest non-partisan Latino voter participation organization in the United States.

They claim that Monterey Park is violating “The California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA) prohibits the use of an at-large election in a political subdivision if it would impair the ability of a protected class, as defined, to elect candidates of its choice or otherwise influence the outcome of an election. The CVRA provides that a violation of the act is established upon a showing of racially polarized voting, as defined.”

Mr. Shankman violated the voting rights all of our registered voters based on the 2010 Census.  The census listed that 28% of our population stated they are of Hispanic heritage, 5% of our population stated they are of European heritage, less than 1%of our population stated they are of African heritage and 66% of our population stated they are of Asian heritage.

The California Voting Rights Act of 2001 is protecting people of certain heritages. In this case it is the residents of the Hispanic race in California.

“It’s official as of June 30, 2015: Hispanics are now the largest ethnic group in California. About 15 million Hispanics lived in California on July 1, 2014, compared to roughly 14.9 million non-Hispanic whites, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates”.

The Hispanics are not a minority population in California base on the US Census Department in 2015.

Why do some candidates who don’t win an elected office say the voters diluted their vote because they are Hispanic?

If a candidate looses an election I believe they did not sell themselves to the voters.

They play the race card and run to an attorney to sue the voters because they lost an election.

Kevin Shankman has threatened to sue or has sued cities and school boards using this law to extract money from government entities over the past several years.

Did Kevin Shankman know that since 1916 Monterey Park has elected Hispanics Councilmembers: Monty Martinez, David Almada, Rudy Peralta Fred Balderrama, Rita Valenzuela, Francisco Alonso, Sharon Martinez and Teresa Real Sebastian to our City Council?

Monterey Park residents have spend thousand of our hard earned tax dollars to pay for a consultant to help us carve up our city into five districts, the cost of the printed copies of the numerous maps, the additional cost of attorney fees, the additional cost of overtime hours paid to our staff, the cost of educating the voters in the districts on who can vote for Councilmembers in this election and cost of this election we share with Los Angeles County.

Don’t forget the lies told about Mayor Hans Liang and Councilmember Peter Chan by supporters of Mayor Pro Tem Mitch Ing and Councilmember Teresa Real Sebastian.

They tried and failed to have Hans Liang and Peter Chan recalled.

Their reasons were our Monterey Park had three seats up for the Council election in March 2020 and we had to open seats in the new Districts Two, Three and Four.

Hans Liang is termed out in 2022 and Mitch Ing’s seat is up for reelection in 2020. They both live in District One.

Peter Chan is termed out in 2022 and Teresa Real Sebastian’s seat is up for reelection in 2020. They both live in District Five.

Currently Councilmember Stephen Lam’s seat is up for reelection in 2020. He is not running for reelection due to his health issues.

Hans Liang, Peter Chan and Stephen Lam voted to have the 2020 elections held in Districts Two, Three and Four based on our city attorney’s legal advise to protect our hometown from Kevin Shakman’s lawsuits.

This is the first time in our city’s 103 year history that all Monterey Park registered voters cannot vote of our Councilmembers.

So I believe that some of our elected officials in Sacramento do not live in our real world.

They seem to think that America citizens are not responsible people to make their own decisions.

Is California is being held hostage by elected officials who seem to believe that our taxpayers should support people that are not here legally?

Are California’s elected officials pitting our race, our religious beliefs, our sex, our political party and our education against each other?

California’s population encumbers people from all over the world.

We should not allow local, state or federal governments to divide us up to suit their needs for their political power.

We should be very careful of those politicians that want to destroy our United States of America and our American Dreams.

You can see and hear the hate from the liberal media as they rant and rave against the conservative population in our country.

The left wing members of our government serving on Capitol Hill seem to have forgotten us the American taxpayers who pay their wages.

We should demand that they do the jobs they were elected to do for the American voters and taxpayers.

We should also demand that they refund their salaries for all the time they wasted on their witch-hunts on Capitol Hill.

It is time to remind then that they work for us the America voters and taxpayers.

We can fire them at the ballot box in March and November.

I attended the Meet the Candidates Forum on February 10th at City Hall. This time all eight candidates participated.

The League of Women Voters held the forum and set the rules for the candidates and the audience.

I listened to their introductions and their plans for our city.

Some of the candidates want to bring in more Brand Name stores, repair our roads, repair our water and our sewer lines, synchronize the traffic lights, cut back on the number of hotels, reduce the heavy traffic, sue the FAA and make Monterey Park a safe city.

I realized that some of these candidates have not been paying attention to the recent progress made by our city staff, current and former Councilmembers.

The current and former Councilmembers and city staff have been successful in bring in Brand Name stores to our city.  The earlier problem was Monterey Park was the First Suburban Chinatown so many businesses would not locate into town unless the could make their bottom line.

Our city staff has been busy repairing our roads as funds permit and replacing or repairing our water and our sewer lines as funds permit.

Our city staff has been working with other cities that border Monterey Park to synchronize the traffic lights and with Cal Trans at the 60 Freeway. One of the reasons that we have heavy traffic is that the 710 Freeway ends in Monterey Park.

Another reason is our Market Place that is doing a booming business and providing much needed sales and property taxes.

Our city staff has been working with the new hotel owners and the owners of the hotels in the pipeline. The hotels will provide a 12% bed tax for each room occupied and more property tax needed by the city to pay for our city services and much needed repairs to our infrastructure.  The owners of the hotels require that they be located in certain neighborhoods to be financial successful.

The new Councilmembers will be required to help secure additional sales and property taxes to support the financial future of our hometown.

Yes, our traffic is heavy but then again more cars driving through town may mean more people to entice to visit Monterey Park for their shopping and dining pleasures.

Please watch the Meet the Candidates Forum on Monterey Park’s cable channel.

Please vote for the best candidates based on their experience to govern our hometown, our county, our state and our country.

Please vote for best candidates based on their experience for School Boards and Judges.

Please consider the ballot measures and determine if they will support your future before you vote on them.

The future of United States of America will be determined by your vote on March 3rd.