Interview: Jerrol LeBaron of InkTip, Part One

THE BACKSTORY

From all appearances, Jerrol LeBaron’s life is both a classic American and Hollywood success story. Having started out in the construction industry in and around Los Angeles, Mr. LeBaron became restless and purchased a small jewelry business, which he owned and ran for seven years. In 2000, after dabbling in screenwriting and discovering just how difficult it was to market scripts in Hollywood, Mr. LeBaron sold his jewelry business and started the online Writers’ Script Network, now known today as Inktip.com.

Today, InkTip is the most successful venture of its kind in Hollywood, matching spec screenplays with prospective studios, producers, and other film industry insiders looking for new material. An average of twenty films a year are made from scripts discovered on InkTip. Mr. LeBaron’s bi-monthly magazine, containing the loglines of hundreds of screenplays in the InkTip database, is distributed industry-wide. Having optioned a script off of InkTip myself, I can personally testify to its success.

Like all of us, I’m sure Mr. LeBaron would much rather be splashing around in the Hollywood pool than jumping into the shark-infested waters of politics. Yet that is exactly what Mr. LeBaron has done by launching his Honor In Office website and campaign to reform the way California legislators do the People’s business, and regardless of political affiliation. It is the corruption of the legislative process which Mr. LeBaron sees as the real problem, not only in Sacramento but across the US.

One prominently displayed video link on the Honor In Office website catches Texas lawmakers casting electronic votes on a bill for up to five absent members. That musical chairs of voting would be funny if it weren’t so tragic. It is, in fact, a shocking wake-up call as to just how far our lawmakers are abdicating the public trust We The People have bestowed upon them.  Should any one of us cast illegal votes for five other people on a ballot referendum, we’d be looking at jail time and rightfully so.

Is voting on key legislation that affects us all in so many profound ways any less crucial? Or should I say, not voting? Or jamming telephone directory-sized bills down our throats that no lawmaker has even read? Sound familiar? The first goal of Mr. LeBaron’s campaign is to place the Honor In Office Act on the California ballot. If passed, the Honor In Office Act would compel California state reps to legally affirm that they have read a bill in full before voting to pass it, just as every attorney in America closing any kind of legal contract is paid to do. Know the paperwork inside out before signing off.

In short, full accountability in all lawmaking by those who represent the People of California in the state legislature. Mr. LeBaron has chosen for himself perhaps the dirtiest job since Hercules was assigned the cleaning of the Augean Stables. Yet it is a public duty Mr. LeBaron feels compelled to perform. He has already done so in numerous media interviews, promoting his Honor In Office campaign out of pocket, even venturing into the lions’ den of Sacramento politics to make his case.

I’m sure Mr. LeBaron would much rather be chasing the Hollywood Dream than wresting in the political mud, as do we all. Yet here he is. The rest I will leave for Mr. LeBaron to explain.

THE INTERVIEW

Q: What was it, specifically, that compelled you to start Honor In Office?

JERROL: Our nation isn’t the great country it once was, and as goes California, so goes the nation. California is the seventh-largest economy in the world. We have phenomenal natural resources, no military to support, yet have one of the highest tax rates in the nation and are virtually bankrupt. That doesn’t make any sense. Then I was reading about the Patriot Act. In four years (Oct 2001-Dec 2005) with the help of the Patriot Act, federal agents have executed self-written search warrants called National Security Letters on over 120,000 unsuspecting Americans.

The Fourth Amendment clearly states that only a judge can authorize a search warrant. If search warrants are needed and they are just, there is no reason why a judge wouldn’t sign off on it. A law like this gets passed when our legislators don’t feel they have a moral obligation to read and understand what they are passing. In the case of the Patriot Act, a 315-page bill was presented to the House and passed in about 30 minutes without debate, and without even having been read. The Senate then passed it with token debate. This is what first got me all fired up.

The key issue here is that our legislators, both at the state and federal level, have almost complete autonomy. In actual practice, other than bribery and perhaps a few other rules, there are no laws they have to follow which help protect us from them. What that means is that the legislatures set their own rules, and a lot of the time even they don’t follow them. You can see a perfect example of Texas legislators doing just that in the “musical votes” video I linked at Honor In Office.

The main problem is that our legislators are not reading, understanding or doing their own personal due diligence with bills passed into law. This results in laws which are impractical, gross wastes of taxpayer dollars, downright silly, or even in direct violation of the Constitution itself. In addition, without the bills being read, special interests are then able to very easily slip in their own self-serving laws and amendments. How does that serve us? It doesn’t. And that’s the main point here.

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In Parts Two and Three of this interview, Mr. LeBaron will go into far greater detail into the maladies that ail the California State legislature, and how We The People may begin to cure them. You are free to investigate further at Mr. LeBaron’s Honor In Office website.

To be continued tomorrow with Part II of the interview with Jerrol LeBaron…