This is the fourth and final set of questions submitted to the incumbent and the candidates by Venice Update. Tomorrow is the election and it is important.

Hopefully, these questions submitted by a group of Venetians and answered by those seeking the CD11 Council seat will help you, the voter, be better informed.

Venice Update wants to thank the incumbent and the candidates for their cooperation, their candid answers.  All Venetians, residents of CD11, know how busy these three have been with their campaigning and budgeted in with their normal jobs.

Hats off to YOU — the incumbent, the two candidates. You have helped inform a public with your answers.

Mike Bonin

1. If elected/re-elected, what are your priorities for the next 5 -1/2 years. List the five to 10 things you think are the most important, and in order of importance, and give a brief description why.

If re-elected my top priorities citywide would be:

1. Ending homelessness – Getting people off the streets, into homes and out of encampments in our neighborhoods by implementing the City and County Comprehensive Homelessness Strategy, providing housing and services, and utilizing a broad menu of programs and approaches, including permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, shared housing, and family reunification.

2. Reducing Traffic – We can reduce traffic by: a) building mass transit, including all of the voter-approved projects in Measure M; b) creating alternatives to single occupancy vehicle, including trains, buses, neighborhood shuttles, car share, cycling and walking; c) implementing a state law that will allow the city to use green house gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled as a metric in evaluating developments and traffic mitigations.

3. Delivering Core Services for Our Neighborhoods – During my first four years in office, we have increased money for street resurfacing, tree trimming, parks, libraries, traffic control officers and firefighters. I want to continue to build on that progress, providing more vital services to our neighborhoods.

4. Enhancing Public Safety – I want to implement my “Back to Basic Car” plan to get more uniformed LAPD officers back on patrol in our neighborhoods, enhancing public safety and increasing quality of life.

5. Protecting the Environment – As representative of the coast, the wetlands, and parts of the Santa Monica Mountains, protecting the environment is a special and sacred responsibility. I want to steer Los Angeles to 100% clean energy, require the city to recycle more water, continue to clean up Santa Monica Bay through Proposition O projects, and protect wildlife by preserving open space.

6. Reforming a Broken Planning process – I want to see the City update its General Plan and its 35 Community Plans, and do so regularly, sticking with the zoning of those plans and ending the culture of speculation that comes with spot zoning. As part of that process, we need to encourage each community plan to answer how that area will help solve the city’s housing shortage.

7. Clean Money – I want to see a full “Clean Money” campaign finance reform, like the ones used in Arizona and Maine.

8. Pedestrian Safety – I want to fully implement “Vision Zero,” which has a goal of eliminating all traffic fatalities in Los Angeles by 2025.

Specifically in Venice, my priorities would be to:

1. Provide more affordable housing, including housing for people who are currently homeless in Venice.

2. Enact a tougher version of the City’s Mello Act ordinance, making it much harder to eliminate affordable housing.

3. Work with the California Coastal Commission and neighborhood stakeholders to approve a Local Coastal Plan.

4. Create an Enhanced Infrastructure Facilities District, so that a portion of revenue generated from Venice stays in Venice for such things as neighborhood beautification, infrastructure, and affordable housing.

5, Work with stakeholders to create and promote a Venice Arts District to celebrate and preserve the community’s rich and eclectic artistic heritage, and promote the next generation of artists.

6. Add more police officers to neighborhood patrols.

7. Build and promote stronger bonds between Venice tech companies and neighborhood organizations to address community needs.

8. Create a Venice Mobility Plan that addresses ways to promote both public access to the beach, and the ability to local residents to get around the neighborhood without having to resort to using a car.

2. What would you want your legacy to be if elected/re-elected?

I want to continue to focus on moving Los Angeles forward, doing good, and getting things done for our neighborhoods. I want to focus on the work, not how I’ll be remembered.

Robin Rudisill

1. If elected/re-elected, what are your priorities for the next 5 -1/2 years. List the 5 to 10 things you think are the most important, and in order of importance, and give a brief description why.

My priority will be to put our City and our District on a foundation of accountability that people can trust. As a former CFO responsible for billions of dollars, my sense of responsibility for the trust placed in me is ingrained into my bones. Our ability to deal with challenging problems as a community is undermined by our inability to trust that our elected officials are really working for us and will follow through on promises. That is the first thing that has to change to put us on a truly progressive path. Being able to trust our elected must be non-negotiable. If we’re going to come together to tackle the crises facing us, such as homelessness, affordable housing, sea level rise, traffic gridlock, ailing infrastructure and a budget deficit, everything must follow from the core principles of fairness and transparency.

I will also use my experience to build systems of accountability and compliance for my own office and for the city bureaucracies. Being from the corporate world, it’s shocking to see how little accountability is built into our city systems. The laxity shows up in everything from undated documents to the avoidable use of deadly force. We suffer the results every day.

2. What would you want your legacy to be if elected/re-elected?

I want my legacy to be not only that I helped lead our City government to meet the daunting challenges it faced when I came into office, but that I brought a discipline and a sustainable culture of accountability that continued to make our City and our District a model of responsiveness to citizens’ needs–more open, fair and accountable for our actions, as well as more competent to solve problems for years to come.

Mark Ryavec

If elected/re-elected, what are your priorities for the next 5 -1/2 years. List the five to 10 things you think are the most important, and in order of importance, and give a brief description why.

1. Re-house those living on the streets in the district and/or re-unite them with safe family members while establishing a buffer zone between encampments and residences.

2. Complete new community zoning plans for all districts in CD 11 with full participation of residents, directing new development to where it can be supported by the street capacity and limiting it where it cannot.

3. Make as many quick-fixes to the transportation system as possible to relieve congestion, such as converting parking lanes on Lincoln to traffic lanes during rush hour.

4. Improve public safety. Change LAPD deployment protocols to deploy more officers to CD 11. Work with Mayor and City Council to increase the number of officers by 2,500.

5. Fight off any effort by the Trump Administration to re-introduce oil drilling in federal waters along our coastline.

6. Further restrict “mansionization” if the recent decrease from 50% of lot size to 45% of lot size under the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance is not adequate to protect those living in single family homes.

7. Deliver city services quicker: sidewalk and pothole repair, tree trimming, more city trash bins, etc.

8. Experiment with “separated” bike lanes between parked cars and sidewalks to encourage more residents to bike.

What would you want your legacy to be if elected/re-elected?

The priority of any city is the safety of its citizens. So, my priority is to significantly improve police presence and public safety to the point that residences of the district actually report that they feel safer at the end of my term.