Can Barry Groveman be an effective assemblyman? Consider his character. Groveman has repeatedly told me that Westlake Village isn’t a real city, just an overgrown HOA, and that Agoura Hills has no planning. In contrast, he created a new zone for double-pole signs in a designated scenic corridor and he proposed that the Malibu Valley Inn be built on the Soka University site owned by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.
Groveman prefers to make backroom deals, excluding citizen participation. He had his lawyers send letters threatening lawsuits against citizens who wanted to discuss his past voting record on tenants’ issues. Behind the slogan of “waste reduction,” Groveman gutted the Calabasas Education Fund, the Calabasas Education Commission, the Calabasas Tree Board and the Calabasas Emergency Response Program. But he didn’t let out a peep when Calabasas spent $250,000 just to paint two houses it owned.
At council meetings, when Groveman isn’t grandstanding or browbeating, he’s often buried in his computer or talking on his cell phone, while the rest of the council conducts the business of the city. As a councilmember, I sat next to Groveman on the dais as he chatted with friends online and spoke to his family on the phone.
Contrary to his campaign claims, Groveman didn’t bring a new CFO to Calabasas, didn’t raise a penny for the schools, didn’t stand up to Big Tobacco. But he did give personal injury attorneys the right to sue business and property owners for punitive damages and attorneys’ fees if someone is smoking outside the parking lot.
Can someone who seems so arrogant, so undemocratic, so self-serving and so disingenuous be an effective assembly member?
Michael Harrison, former mayor
City of Calabasas