For more than two decades, Cindy Miscikowski served as a planning aide and chief of staff to Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude. This week, Miscikowski will take over her former boss’ seat on the council.
Miscikowski, 48, beat out opponent Georgia Mercer, a former aide to Mayor Richard Riordan, earlier this month to represent the council’s 11th district. The district straddles the Santa Monica Mountains and encompasses parts of Van Nuys, Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills and West L.A., as well as all of Pacific Palisades and Brentwood, where Miscikowski lives.
Miscikowski was the only new council member to be elected this year. She met with editors and reporters at the Business Journal last week:
Question: What do you see as your mandate from the voters?
Answer: The mandate that I really see is one of accessibility and finding a way to connect to government finding a way to make government work and make government seem to be important and of value in people’s lives. There’s such alienation and such frustration, yet people really have problems.
Q: What do you think local government’s agenda should be? What are the big issues that city government must tackle?
A: There’s a lot of them, and a lot of them are very, very serious. The undercurrent of problems in this city is racial harmony. We’ve seen it erupt in the past, and we see incredible tension on the council right now between the Hispanic and the African American leaders.
So I think (my role) will really be just listening. It’s amazing to say that communication is going to be one of the most important tools you can bring to the council.
Q: But to what end? What are you looking to accomplish in office?
A: Right now, the No. 1 thing? Fix the streets. I know it sounds totally basic and stupid. But I can’t tell you how deteriorated our city infrastructure is, walking this district and these sidewalks that look more like skateboard jump ramps than sidewalks. And there’s a pride in the city and a sense of the city coming back and restoring itself. You’ve got sidewalks that are just a mess.
Q: Where would you get the money?
A: We seem to have the money to pay the lawsuits the slip-and-fall lawsuits. We’re getting hit with millions of dollars from people who slipped on the sidewalks.
I would love to sit on the (council’s) public works committee and really start looking at some comparisons in terms of what money we’re paying out in liability and what would it take to start a real serious job. Instead of telling somebody that their street will be re-paved in a 20-year, 30-year cycle, what can we do to improve that?
Q: Anything else, aside from fixing the streets?
A: I am clearly a believer in neighborhood councils. And I do think that the most important neighborhood in this city is downtown. So I’m a very strong proponent of downtown as a place, downtown as a destination. There isn’t a great city that doesn’t have a great city core, and I think L.A. deserves one (and) can have one. There’s a lot there already to build on.
The library is just sensational. And there’s a lot of good, interesting things happening downtown. You go downtown on a Sunday afternoon, you go to the museums and the library, and it sparkles. And people don’t know that about the city enough.
Q: How do you see yourself working with Mayor Richard Riordan, especially given the growing tension between many council members and the mayor.
A: There is (tension), and I hope I can help turn down the temperature quite a bit in that relationship and just around the council itself. I’m not a person quick to anger. When I do get angry, it’s vented and gone. I don’t even hold vengeful thoughts when I should, when someone deserves it. So I think that kind of just posture and attitude is going to help a lot.
And communication there are so many different games and so many different agendas on the council. I can’t tell you the number of people who have said to me, “Oh Cindy, you know, you can really go places.” I don’t want to go places. I really, really like the city and I like the city council, and I think local government is really the best of all.
Q: Over the next few weeks, what do you have to do?
A: I have to hire people. I’ve got a great relationship with most of the members of the council. It’s just going to be a difference for them and for me coming in as an equal as opposed to coming as a sort of a trusted staff adviser. I think it’s going to be interesting.
Q: The 11th District is split between the Westside and the San Fernando Valley. Is there a problem in juggling your Valley half vs. your Westside half?
A: I guess I’ll find out, but I don’t think so. I went to a meeting last night in Mountaingate and that was right between the two areas. And in that community, there were folks from Woodland Hills there, from Tarzana, from Brentwood, from Pacific Palisades all folks who found some common issues in the Santa Monica Mountains and the conservancy and how we purchase land and what’s going to go on with development. And it really was bringing them together.
Q: Do you see the Valley secession issue gaining momentum, or fading away?
A: Well, I would hope that it will fade away, but I think it fades away by passing the bill (taking away the council’s vote to override secession). Right now it’s a ground swell of action and activity because it can’t happen because the council can veto it.
Take away the council veto, and let it be out there as some force that somebody might want to pick up and run with, and I don’t think we will. I mean, it will be talked about from time to time, but I don’t believe there would be a massive movement to fund or really seriously get involved in setting up a petition drive to do this. And maybe it’s a big issue right now because they can’t do it.
