Letter to the Editor: How to Bring on the Voters

Dear Editor:

The corruption in Bell is “American as apple pie.” It is typical in low socio-economic communities in Southeast Los Angeles County and in cities such as Manhattan Beach with wealthy, highly educated populations.

The commonality is lack of citizen oversight, as emphasized in a recent Daily Breeze editorial (“Bell corruption closer than we want to know”), “You’ll never know unless you pay attention to what your electeds are up to.” (March 26).

Why the lack of “attention”? In Manhattan Beach, as across the nation, elected officials, by limiting public engagement, fail to see their role as servants not masters thereby generating public apathy and disengagement.  

For example, Manhattan Beach residents can only sadly claim, “We’re no worse than Los Angeles,” because, recently, in both cities, only 21 percent of registered voters turned out on Election Day. Indeed, the turnout in our seven municipal elections during 2001-2013 has been 19.1, 21.5, 29.5, 22.5, 24.03, 21.41, and 21.84 percent.

Voter apathy is a clear indicator that prior Manhattan Beach City Councils have consistently discouraged public engagement, thereby failing to gain the attention and commitment of our residents to care about public policymaking. The current Manhattan Beach City Council needs to acknowledge these past failures and demonstrate by action, not only words, that it will “walk the talk” to gain that attention, commitment and caring.

Further, “We the People” (U.S. Constitution) must insist that in delegating authority to our elected officials, we do not give up our right to decide what is good for the people.

Sincerely,
Edward C. Caprielian, Ph.D.
Manhattan Beach resident