Venice Neighborhood Council Candidate: Jed Pauker

Editor’s note: This is one of several articles in a series of profiles on Venice candidates.

What would you prioritize if you were voted in? 

My priority as Communications Officer will be the same as my priority since working with the Land Use and Planning Committee: Promote informed dialogue.  Whether gathering the facts or broadcasting them, discussing our beliefs, hopes and differences creates new pathways to understanding and informs actions that improve the daily lives of our neighbors and our community. 

This core principle guided my LUPC project work. It guided my mediation of the fences and hedges controversy and the food truck issues; and it will guide my work developing VNC's communications network to reach more stakeholders, both online and through traditional methods.  

Who are your primary supporters? 

My first and most generous supporters are my own neighbors, who welcomed me to Venice in 1997 and whose continuing good will and good works to protect our neighborhood fuel both my gratitude and my efforts to serve the community at large. I hope that my ongoing efforts to clarify complex community issues and to consider contrasting perspectives have earned support from so many Venice residents and business owners who lack the time to attend meetings or read every email. I seek the support of stakeholders who are creatively engaged by Venice's unique diversity and passionate spirit, Venetians who want to find ways to preserve what brought us here and to face what needs fixing, and from Venetians who just plain love living here.  

What issue do you feel most strongly about and what’s your position?  

Representation. Our Neighborhood Council system began as a response to inadequate voter representation in our nation's second-largest city. Even with its perceived and unintended "poison pills," the NC system is beginning to blossom, with first-generation activists who are already influencing decisions made in City Hall.  Venice contributes a great deal of value to Los Angeles. My experiences on LUPC and, later, on the Board proved to me that our Neighborhood Council makes a difference here and downtown. Further, our ongoing work with the community to protect public art housed in the recently-sold Venice Post Office is reaching outside Los Angeles boundaries on an issue of national importance. Obviously, my position is "More and better representation!" I will continue to work toward greater transparency to strengthen the trust necessary for ongoing dialogue and positive action.  

What's one thing most constituents don't know about you?  

I was Caption Editor of my high school yearbook - whose motto was "We're All in This Together!"

Why did you decide to run? 

While working with the departing Communications Officer on VNC's digital resource management, I was able to identify processes that need attention, as well as the potential to develop robust communications, schedule notification and feedback tools. Completion of the long-awaited website upgrade dovetails with these tasks and with my intent to improve both our ability to reach stakeholders and to engage in positive and unifying dialogue.  

Looking at it from the outside, I see a fair amount of work to do, and I'm eager to tackle it.  For more info, feel free to visit my campaign web page:  http://veniceworks.net/voteforJed/  - and please vote on Sunday!  

Jed Pauker is running for Communications Officer on the Venice Neighborhood Council, a two-year term. To read more candidate profiles, click here.  

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