Role of Lobbying in Redondo Council Race

From the start of the District 2 campaign, the message to voters was clear. Indicators predicting the future were plainly evident. City Council members (on live broadcast television) reported that City Council candidate Greg Hill had phoned them to lobby for contracts of the Southern California Gas Co. in which Mr. Hill is an employee. His lobbying, while a candidate, was stated to be improper (to lobby is to solicit votes of members of a governing body). We voters should be grateful that Hill’s lobbying for his employer’s contracts was promptly reported to the voting community of District 2.

This lobbying must prompt us to remember that (1) enormous profits come to the Southern California Gas Co. from fees paid by other gas companies which use Southern California Gas Co.’s pipelines to transport gas to the Edison power plant on our beach; (2) the Edison company needs the gas, Southern California Gas Co. needs the enormous profits to it from Edison use of gas, and (3) these two arrogant giant utility companies are, in this situation, as co-dependent as Siamese twins. Therefore, is it not logical to conclude that, if elected, Mr. Hill may speak, act, lobby and vote for increased operating privileges for profit of both mutually dependent utility corporations?

Since Mr. Hill is an employee of the gas company which is so firmly linked to Edison, is it not prudent to anticipate Mr. Hill will be subjected to continuous intensive lobbying by his gas company supervisors and by his business peers in both companies? We voters have all experienced the strong insidious effect of both peer and supervisor pressure in our working lives. Only one wrong City Council future vote on any utility companies zoning, land-use, permits, contract awards, variances, leases can harm the entire community by creating increased danger, more costly lawsuits, more air pollution, more visual blight, more soot emissions, more noise.

If for years and years we all have known and resented the never-ending artful gouging of consumers by the utility corporations (electric, gas, water, telephone), why then should we even consider giving more power to any of them? Were it not for the statewide consumer protection organization T.U.R.N. (Toward Utility Rate Normalization) the rate increases would have been far worse. District 2 can do much better. . . .

Remember, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it is a duck!!!

TOM O’LEARY

Redondo Beach