Hayden raises money, awareness for election

DAVE HILL/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Tom Hayden
speaks with friends at a fund-raiser event held on his behalf at
the Napa Valley Grill in Westwood Monday night.

By Dexter Gauntlett
Daily Bruin Reporter

Fifth District Council candidate Tom Hayden held a fund-raiser
in Westwood on Monday, two weeks before the June 5 general election
between himself and former Assistant District Attorney Jack
Weiss.

Uniting UCLA and Westwood residents for community service,
ending traffic woes and alleviating police burdens were the issues
of the evening.

“Westwood is the intersection of the greatest traffic jam
in North America, with hundreds of thousands of car trips per
day,” Hayden said.

He also scrutinized UCLA’s $45 million project to build a
parking structure under the intramural field.

“The proposed structure has the potential to make gridlock
worse,” Hayden said.

If elected, Hayden plans to square off with the MTA, an
organization he considers to be mounting “an assault on the
Village” and stopping their proposal of making a lane down
Wilshire Corridor where 52 buses would eliminate two existing
lanes, according to Hayden.

Both candidates consider traffic and law enforcement the top
priorities for the next councilman.

“I saw how to do law enforcement the right way when I was
a D.A. This is something Los Angeles has failed at for
decades,” Weiss said at a recent meeting with Bruin
Democrats.

Weiss supports a civilian police commission that serves as an
overseeing unit to the LAPD. He also believes that a sort of
monetary award should be given to those officers who are doing a
good job

Weiss served as assistant U.S. attorney, specializing in
corruption, fraud, civil rights and violent crimes cases as a
federal prosecutor. He obtained his law degree from UCLA.
Hayden’s 33.52 percent topped Weiss’ vote total by
nearly 10 percentage points in the first general election in
March.

Also important to those that have been pulled over by policemen
for jaywalking and other miscellaneous violations, Hayden plans to
alleviate the 45-ticket requirement that the department is required
to give out a day.

“That’s one ticket every 10 minutes, we
shouldn’t put them in that position,” Hayden said.

As skyrocketing energy bills and rumors of $3 per gallon gas
prices loom overhead for summer, energy issues were raised by those
in attendance. Hayden said the “big answer” to
renewable energy and rapidly escalating utility rates will come
from the Department of Water and Power.

“We need to keep the DWP under public control,”
Hayden said.

Hayden was introduced as “the great unifier” for
Westwood and places much of the responsibility in the UCLA
community to take an interactive approach to Westwood.

Although his opponent graduated from the UCLA law school, Hayden
said, “I want to be the councilperson from UCLA.”

Hayden wants to utilize 7,000 students and professors involved
with the public health department to address the environmental and
health concern of chromium 6 in the drinking water.

“UCLA and the rest of the UC have the potential to make
this a great city,” he said.

Approximately 100 Westwood business owners, friends and
supporters attended the event.

CEO of Accountants Overload Richard Lewis cited the impact of
the university in the city.

“Westwood is so powerful with UCLA, we can make it (a
place) where other people want to come here, which would raise more
money for the university and The Village,” Lewis said.

The $500 per person fund-raiser at Napa Valley Grill showed
strong Hayden support among prominent business owners. But the
90024 zip code, despite large financial support, had a dismal voter
turnout of 14 percent during the first general election.

Eleven UCLA professors recently circulated a letter among the
faculty to support Hayden with “their vote and their
voice.”