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| Wednesday July 28, 2010 The Editor, WatchOurCity.com Nestor Valencia, Heart & Soul of Bell |
| California Attorney General Jerry Brown reaching out for Nestor Valencia's 12-Point plan for Clean Governance for the city of Bell. (Image Courtesy of LIFE Magazine) |
| Bell, CA - Monday's protest at Bell city hall was organized chaos. Hundreds of city residents came out to vent their outrage and anger at the egregious criminal fiduciary fail of elected officials and top city administrators. The anger was not only palpable, but more importantly, city hall served, perhaps for the first time in decades, as a place of civic engagement and participation for its residents, the majority of whom are Latino immigrants not used to such public displays of open political discontent. It is most certainly a sea change taking place right before our very eyes. Thanks to Bell resident Nestor Valencia and his coalition building skills. WatchOurCity.com profiled Nestor Valencia during his campaign for city council back in March 4, 2009 (see report here). Valencia went up against the well-oiled political machinery of the most powerful southeast cities politician in the style of Tammany Hall, George Cole, city of Bell's mayor for 23 years. Nestor has lost two elections in Bell, once in 2007 and again in 2009, thanks to Cole and Rizzo's absentee ballot fraud. WatchOurCity.com reported that absentee ballots made the difference in reelecting Teresa Jacobo and Luis Artiga, Cole's candidates whom Nestor was challenging. Nestor really didn't stand a chance against such stacked odds; a valiant effort he made nonetheless. We now know for certain the election was rigged with fraudulent absentee ballots. The same exact voter fraud occurred in Huntington Park, and carried the current mayor, John Noguez, to serve two fraudulently elected terms in city council. George Cole also controls senior housing projects in Huntington Park, thanks to the many contracts John Noguez directs to Cole's Oldtimer's Foundation, starting with a $600,000 senior housing management contract back in 2004. It is Valencia that has brought about this new level of civic participation unseen in decades. Nestor single handedly transformed the small town civic dynamics which for 23 years was in firm control of George Cole, the Don of the southeast cities, and head of the political machinery that baptizes candidates not only in Bell, but Maywood (Felipe Aguirre, Ana Rizo), Huntington Park (John Noguez), and nods candidates for the State Assembly (John Perez and Senate's office Ron Calderon; WatchOurCity.com discovered in May 30, 2006, that when Ron Calderon was running for the area's state senate seat vacated by termed-out Martha Escutia, his campaign donated $3,500 to George Cole's Oldtimers Foundation, which was the entry fee charged by Cole allowing Calderon entre into southeast cities). Nestor invited Cristina Garcia, a resident from neighboring Bell Gardens, to help him organize. Cristina is a part-time professor of mathematical statistics at USC. Nestor a graduate from San Jose State University, managed millions of dollars a month as Business Manager of a health services company. While Cristina is the arms and legs of Bell's rejuvenated civic engagement movement, Nestor is the heart, mind and soul. Nestor and Cristina work together well, and make a perfect team, it seems. Lately, though, Cristina has gone rogue. At Monday's Bell city council meeting, while Cristina was talking to a reporter outside, off in the sidelines one print reporter asks a TV reporter, "she doesn't smile and sounds too professorial, a bit cold, like she's giving a lecture". The other reporter responds, "that's because she IS a professor". Over on the other side of the park where dozens of residents were lining up to enter the community center hastily converted into council chambers to accommodate an overflow crowd, was Nestor Valencia in suit and tie, beaming with a great smile. Earlier that day, he and Mario Rivas drove to MSNB's studio in downtown L.A. for a live national broadcast at 9:00 am. Then gets back to Bell in time for a 9:45 press conference which Nestor called via a press release, to be held in front of city hall announcing an unprecedented 12-point plan for Clean Governance to deal with concerns of lack of confidence in the city's current administration, which in the face of all seemingly egregious crimes, whether sanctioned by law or not, lends zero credibility to any administrative decisions taken by elected and appointed officials from this point forward. At noon time, back in Downtown, Nestor attends a press conference at the Ronald Reagan State office building given by California Attorney General Jerry Brown. AG Brown announced that subpoenas had been issued to officials in the city of Bell. Nestor meets personally with AG Brown to hand him the 12-point plan. Cristina's plan only has two points, both conciliatory to current council members. Members of the media, English and Spanish, commented on Nestor's 12-point Clean Governance Plan: they like it; it resonated with all the concerns the media circus is all about. Back at the line forming in city hall that evening, residents greeted Nestor, some were auto mechanics, still wearing literally blue-collar shirts with sewn oval name tags above the shirt pocket and grease marks, others were clerks, an urban planner, retirees, immigrant couples and an Anglo senior citizen couple. One older Latino couple, yelled, "Nestor, Nestor, please forgive us". Nestor stops them and asks "for what?", to which they responded, "we were told by Teresa Jacobo not to vote for you because you were a 'ratero', a crook, now we know who the real crooks are. I feel so ashamed that my family and I believed this woman Jacobo; we feel ashamed that we did not vote for you; please forgive us". It was almost standing room only outside next to city hall. John and Ken from KFI radio commandeered and camped out in a park picnic table broadcasting live, attracting a lively audience with cheers of "FUERA! FUERA! (Out!, Out!). There must have been 30 media vans lining the street with their uniform satellite antenna's beaming to the world. One of the vans had a live feed from T.V. Azteca's Mexico City broadcast studio; the Mexican news anchor said "there, we are no longer isolated in our corruption, we are now in very good company" (loosely translated). People streamed from all around, including surrounding cities of Huntington Park, Cudahy, Maywood, Bell Gardens (non of Vernon's 40 or so residents were in attendance as far as was evident). This evening, the festive yet indignant air at Bell's civic center must have reminded many a resident of their once a year trek to their Mexican hometowns, where the highlight is attending the fiesta in honor of the patron saint. The atmosphere was many things at once, a political rally, a fiesta of raw indignation and anger at the betrayal of the public trust and looting of the city treasury. If you squinted just right in this cool summer evening you could almost for a moment feel transported back to your Mexican hometown, strolling the town's plaza, walking around the kiosko, where the entire populace gathers to see old friends. Missing were the religious processions, incense burning, if not the pyrotechnics, because they were here aplenty. Cristina's work did not go unnoticed. A Huntington Park resident was talking to a Lynwood resident both right next to a Commerce resident who brought his brother from Monterey Park. They said they came because this was history in the making: "esto es historia viva". Then both of these groups realized that this was no fiesta, but a real palpable controlled expression of civic engagement seldom seen nor exercised anywhere near here. When residents from these disparate cities realized they were there to experience this common sense of unity in frustration, one said, "Invito a esta Senorita y a Nestor que vengan a Huntington Park, alli tambien arde la cosa" (I invite this young lady [Cristina] and Nestor to come to Huntington Park, there it is just as hot). It wasn't clear if they intended to invite her because she is single or because of her academic credentials. A legal law clerk approached Cristina warning her unofficially that BASTA, Inc, the firm's client, is highly concerned with Cristina's use of the name. BASTA vs. BASTA. Cristina's response: "Does BASTA, Inc. have a trademark on the name?" Nestor is in coalition with BASTA, and expressed concern that BASTA is getting too big for its britches. But Nestor created the problem to begin with by inviting her in a moment when he was overwhelmed. Her calling card is that she brings out the community to protest. In reality, the community was primed and prepped by Nestor already. City council meeting got underway at 6:00 pm to a standing-room only crowd. It was like a two-ring circus, with chanting outside, and booing inside. City council members took action to reduce their salaries to a legal limit of $8,000 per year, with Mayor Oscar Hernandez throwing down an offer the people couldn't refuse: he will not take a salary at all. As curious onlookers and mothers with crying babies began leaving the cool outdoor plaza, heated comments continued inside. The loudest booing occurred right when council members refused to resign. That's when Cristina leaves the chamber, at about 10:30 pm, looking smug, as if she had just cut the deal of the year. Maybe she did, perhaps without Nestor's knowledge. She got what she bargained for. Her non-negotiable demands for tonight's council action was to reduce council pay to a legal limit, and to keep the police force intact. Both were granted. Cristina's handlers would be proud. Her terms were almost conciliatory to city council members. The bit about Bell's PD being dismantled at midnight was just a poker strategy, but just in case, L.A. County Sheriff's were stationed at nearby Loma Vista Elementary School, and part of mutual PD aid agreements, South Gate PD, Bell PD and Sheriff's deputies were inside council chamber just in case. Thing is, Cristina didn't so much bring the angry residents out, they were already angry and needed to vent pent up frustrations that had built up over many years. Bell Gardens badly needs a Cristina; so could Huntington Park, but it seems that she's honing her strategy on the backs of Bell residents' anger. Public comment continued almost till midnight. Then comes Nestor Valencia's turn, the last speaker for the night. He gets lots of applause with cheers of "Nestor!, Nestor!". He doesn't deliver a tirade as other speakers have done to great dramatic effect. Already close to 5 hours of public comment have passed, everyone's tired, the plaza is emptied, cold and windy; all but a few hardy media vans are still parked. Then Nestor gets more applause from the audience. He speaks slow, deliberate and respectful of the office, if not the office holders. Starts out by announcing a breaking news item: Bloomberg News reports that Bell city taxes are higher than Beverly Hills. Jaws drop, oohs and ah's are heard. Mayor Hernandez tries cutting Nestor off from talking , the entire room boos city council, Nestor asks for more time, and residents chant "Give him more time, Give him more time! After raucous response, the mayor concedes Nestor 30 seconds more. So ended a historic day in municipal history, civic participation, a case study in the making for future research by universities, think tanks, and government associations to study and learn from. _______________________________________________________________ |