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IN THIS SITE
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Some links on these archived pages are not operative.
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This NONCOMMERCIAL site is a harmless hobby of George Garrigues, who has lived in the Westside Village district of Palms for 12 years. These pages have no connection with any organization.
Send him e-mail with corrections and comments.
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DONE audit planned
The city Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) will be audited during Laura Chick's current term as city controller, she told the L.A. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists Tuesday, July 12.
The department is responsible for oversight of the neighborhood council movement begun by the City Charter revision of 1999.
Chick, right, said her department would not get down to the level of the individual councils but would concentrate on the way Neighborhood Empowerment spends its money.
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Rosendahl is quoted as saying that 'stakeholder' definition in neighborhood councils is 'ridiculous'
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 Incoming City Council Member Bill Rosendahl (right), who represents Southwest Palms as of July 1, thinks the definition of "stakeholder" in neighborhood councils is "ridiculous." And he balks at sharing power with the councils.
That is the word from L.A. Weekly writer Robert Greene in the June 24-30 issue of the newspaper.
Greene wrote:
Incoming City Councilman Bill Rosendahl . . . said the power vested in him by the voters of his 11th District should not be shared by neighborhood councils until the city gets more control over who puts the leadership of those councils in place.
“A neighborhood council should be an expression of people who live in a community,” Rosendahl said. “I was elected by registered voters, and I consider that a sacred trust. A neighborhood council will remain advisory to me, and not yet have any of my power, until they represent those people.”
In other words, he says, he answers to voters, not the umbrella of interests that make up neighborhood councils.
 Rosendahl’s district has seen several controversies over neighborhood council “stakeholders,” who can be anyone who lives, works, worships, owns property in or otherwise has an interest in the neighborhood. The Westchester neighborhood group’s makeup was determined by a vote that included construction workers at the Playa Vista development — and that council later voted to support new development there. The Venice council has had a host of problems, and Rosendahl cited an episode in which a dog supposedly voted. He said a West L.A. council election was controlled by people bused in by a church.
Opening neighborhood councils to people other than residents was a key part of the agreement that resulted in councils being put in the city charter in 1999. But there continue to be controversies over the roll of nonresident stakeholders.
“I think the definition of ‘stakeholder’ is ridiculous,” Rosendahl said. He added that he might favor limiting neighborhood council membership to registered voters.
“I am open to a healthy discussion with the new mayor and the City Council on the subject,” he said.
[Editor's note: Rosendahl made similar statements during his campaign. See his opinion piece, below, reposted from the Westmar Sun of March 1-15, 2005).
The change of leadership in the city — to become official next week with the inauguration of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as well as Rosendahl — has made some neighborhood leaders anxious about their future.
Villaraigosa has said he intends to support neighborhood councils, but there have been, so far, few specifics.
“He’s going to be very involved in seeing them become more effective,” said Villaraigosa spokesman Joe Ramallo. “He believes they should have more training resources. He does not want to see them function as an extension of City Hall, which is how some view them. He supports their autonomy and their role in advocacy.”
But it’s unclear yet whether Villaraigosa will keep Greg Nelson, the general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (which was set up to form, certify and serve neighborhood councils) . . . .
That underscores fears by some that Villaraigosa would not be as big a backer of councils as departing Mayor James Hahn was. Hahn’s sister, Councilwoman Janice Hahn, noted that the new mayor did not include councils in a plan for remaking L.A. that he distributed in early June.
“A lot of neighborhood councils are feeling a little nervous,” [Janice] Hahn said.
Villaraigosa spokesman Ramallo said there was no need for concern.
“Neighborhood councils are still in many regards in their formative stages,” Ramallo said. “We want to take this movement to the next level.”
Meanwhile, some elected officials said Wednesday that their strict financial reporting requirements ought to be enforced against the neighborhood groups.
Each neighborhood council gets $50,000 to spend each year, but Councilwoman Jan Perry said it’s not always clear how the money is spent. One of the councils in her district, she said, got permission to spend hundreds of dollars on paint — but it was never clear if that’s how the money really was spent, or what was painted. City Council members could never get away with that, Perry said.
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This Opinion piece is reposted from the March 1-15, 2005, issue of The Westmar Sun
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NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS IN L.A. HAVE A MIXED RECORD SO FAR
By Bill Rosendahl
Candidate for City Council
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Neighborhood Councils in Los Angeles are a mixed bag. Some have worked remarkably well, giving a voice to communities on important issues. Others have fallen victim to infighting, chaos, and manipulation from outside forces.
Neighborhood Councils have great potential. Born of frustration with a too-distant City government, they offer the promise of a new level of government, closer to the people and the neighborhoods. So far, I think the city government itself has failed to deliver on its obligation to make that promise a reality.
First of all, the City Council and the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment need be more thorough and consistent in the advice, direction and support given to neighborhood councils or to groups seeking to become certified neighborhood councils.
The definition of “stakeholder” is far too loose and led to abuse: construction workers and other non-residents being bused in to take over a neighborhood council.
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Secondly, neighborhood councils are generally not representative enough of their communities. For instance, in the 11th District, renters make up a large majorityof the population, but they are woefully under-represented on neighborhood councils. We need to do much more to involve renters, who historically are much less likely to get involved in community organizations
Thirdly, election procedures are lax and inconsistent, allowing people to fight with each other about the legitimacy of elected boards.
This is no way to create a grass-roots level of government.
As long as the neighborhood councils are threatened by these problems, it will be impossible for them to reach out and bring more and more people into the process.
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And until these problems are solved and the groups are truly representative of the community, the councils will never move from an advisory role to having actual decision-making authority.
When I am elected, I will ask my colleagues to revisit the issues plaguing neighborhood councils. In particular, I would support a stricter definition of “stakeholder.” I do not support the current definition of anyone who “lives, works or owns property” in the community.
I feel only people who actually live in the community should be allowed to vote in neighborhood council elections.
In our City Council election, only actual residents of the 11th District can vote – not people who only work here or own property here.
If we really want the neighborhood councils to have actual power – and I do – then the councils should be elected by residents
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CLIFF CHENG
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L.A.'s neighborhood councils face a variety of citywide issues
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Cliff Cheng is a former member of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission who has been an active voice in the Palms Neighborhood Council and Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch. This article is taken from an e-mail he sent to Palms Representative Assembly members. It has been edited.
The Alliance of Neighborhood Councils is a nonprofit independent group that meets every other month at Los Angeles City College. The Citywide Issues Group is an outgrowth of the Alliance.
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Here is a report on the Alliance of Neighborhood Councils and its Citywide Issues Group meetings held on Saturday, July 16.
What struck me was that most of the people there were white and older — in their 50s-70s. As one angry South Central person pointed out, the neighborhood councils from South L.A. and East L.A. were underrepresented.
One major issue was a proposed 20% Department of Water and Power rate increase over the next five years. The Alliance of Neighborhood Councils has held this back, but we are not safe. As you might recall, before the Palms council was certified, our stakeholders were against this increase. We were unable to send a delegate to a DWP Oversight Committee formed by other neighborhoods, for we were not yet certified.
We must do so NOW because there is a rate-increase meeting on Aug. 13, 2005.
The Alliance and the Citywide Issues Group are greatly concerned about appointments to the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners and to the Planning Commission. The Citywide Group has requested all neighborhoods to set an agenda item by August to write a letter to encourage Mayor Villaraigosa to place someone from neighborhood councils on each city commission and to seek neighborhoods' advice on all commissioners and the general managers for the Neighborhood Empowerment and Planning departments.
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Newly elected City Councilman Bill Rosendahl spoke. Here are some of the highlights of his talk:
• He is forming a 100-person Empowerment Council, which will have neighborhood council representation.
• He is more influenced by a local group that has done outreach than one which is not.
• He is adamantly opposed to the Playa del Rey situation in which Steve Soboroff (one of the partners in the Playa Vista development project and an unsuccessful mayoral candidate in 2001) and 91 of his construction workers voted to hand-pick a neighborhood council board favorable to the Playa Vista development.
He brought up the most controversial issues of the meeting.
He thinks the definition of "stakeholder" is too broad, citing Soboroff's manipulation of the Westchester-Playa del Rey Neighborhood Council election. He thinks stakeholders should be defined as registered voters who live within the neighborhood boundaries.
(But a representative from the Pico-Union neighborhood said that only 4% of the people in his area are registered voters. Some, then, feel a wide definition for "stakeholder" is more democratic.)
If neighborhood councils want to be more than advisory and have a decision in development, and so on, we need to reform the City Charter and make the councils as a layer of government, Rosendahl said.
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