An Open Letter to Councilmember/Mayor Jim Delshad,
From the Beverly Hills North Homeowners Association
February 5, 2008
In December ‘07 and
January ‘08, during recent open, publicly recorded City Council meetings,
Beverly Hills residents and the Chairman of the Municipal League, Thomas White,
on behalf of its Board of Governors, have respectfully requested that you
respond directly to the following two questions:
1)
Have you or any members of your family ever flown on a corporate jet or private
jet connected in any way to the Beverly Hilton Hotel, to its individual or
corporate owners, or to any Hilton related company?
2) Have you or
any family member ever received any benefit from any Hilton Hotel or Waldorf
Astoria Towers enterprise for which you did not pay fair market value
including but not limited to discounts, upgrades, free room usage, banquet,
party, or any other services?
Each time these
questions were asked, you refused to answer! Compounding your refusal,
you have engaged in an odious practice of turning off the microphone
located at the public podium and gaveling down residents who ask these
questions and who express differing opinions from you about matters of
significant public concern.
In our judgment,
your conduct is grotesquely inconsistent with the Beverly Hills residents'
firmly held and respected belief that the public forum at City Hall must
always be open, free, democratic, stimulated and tolerant.
Be assured that we
will not sit by idly and witness or permit the slow undoing of that article of
faith to be diminished by you or any offending public official.
Access to public
information in the conduct of the people’s business is a fundamental and
necessary right of every person in our city. You are required by state law to
file public documentation with respect to any benefit you have received that
is directly related to the questions you have been asked and refused to answer.
We hold our elected
officials to the highest standards of professional conduct. We regard public
service on our City Council as an honor and a privilege. We expect our officials
to enhance the dignity of the public offices they hold.
We are
disappointed at your stonewalling recalcitrance and dismissive conduct.
Please understand, as we have previously advised you, offending officials who
violate their oath of office by denigrating the integrity of the body politic,
have no place in our city government.
Accordingly, the
Beverly Hills North Homeowners Association asks you one last time:
1) Have you or
any family member ever flown on a corporate or private jet connected in any way
to the Beverly Hilton Hotel, to its individual or corporate owners or to any
Hilton related company?
2) Have you or
any family member ever received any benefit from any Hilton Hotel or Waldorf
Astoria Towers enterprise for which you did not pay fair market value
including but not limited to discounts, upgrades, free room usage, banquet,
party or any other services?
We cannot over
emphasize the importance of your answering these questions truthfully. Indeed,
we legitimately expect our city officials to respond to resident inquiries
in a professional, straightforward, forthright, caring and timely manner.
The massive
nature of the proposed Hilton Hotel expansion, with its oppressive unseemly
three 150 ft. towers, substantial parking deficits, 5 to 7
years of construction, serious adverse environmental impacts and
concomitant destination gridlock traffic, is vigorously opposed by
most residents. Approval for this outrageous project will be before you
shortly. Any conflict of interest you may possess that would require
you to recuse yourself from the decision making process obligates you to
inform the residents now.
Notwithstanding
current City Hall hubris, you should understand that the ultimate power
to redress grievances and maintain our quality of life rests not with three
City Hall politicos, but with the people, the residents of our city.
Lastly, offending
officials burdened by conflicts of interest who stubbornly refuse to respond
truthfully to questions tendered by the people about matters of significant
public concern, ultimately find themselves in a debased netherworld inhabited by
the morally muddled, ethically vacuous, and sanctioned by recall.
The people of Beverly Hills expect and deserve much, much more from City Hall.
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