|
THIS IS THE URBAN ISSUES PAGE
|
 |
|
IN THIS SITE
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some links on these archived pages are not operative.
|
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.
|
|
WHAT WILL HAPPEN
TO NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS?
A political interpretation by KERRY CAVANAUGH, Los Angeles Daily News staff writer
|
With new leadership coming to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, tensions are rising between neighborhood council insiders and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa over control of the city's system of grass-roots democracy.
The mayor has tried to reassure neighborhood councils that they will have a role in his administration, but some members fear that Villaraigosa may be working behind the scenes to diminish the growing power of organized neighborhood councils.
And there is speculation that the mayor's next appointee could be less of a neighborhood-councils advocate than [was] Greg Nelson, longtime head of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment . . . .
"The perception is that the replacement would be more concerned with the mayor's agenda than the neighborhood councils' agenda," said Ken Draper, who writes CityWatch, a newsletter about neighborhood councils and City Hall politics. "There's an opportunity for the mayor to demonstrate now that that perception is wrong."
Villaraigosa spokesman Darryl Ryan said the mayor wants a partnership with neighborhood councils, with the local panels acting as a bridge between residents and policy makers. However, the mayor is not planning to consult neighborhood councils in the selection of the new DONE chief, as he did about the choice of a new Planning Department director.
"It's important that the mayor, as chief executive of the city, make these independent decisions," Ryan said.
"In this particular instance, it's basically the mayor looking to act independently in the best interest of the city but keep neighborhood councils as a high priority as the decision is being made."
A new director is not the only issue facing the neighborhood council system, which is at a crossroads five years after L.A.'s first neighborhood council was created in San Pedro.
The mayor and City Council are putting together a commission to review the whole neighborhood council system.
The City Charter requires the evaluation of the effectiveness of the councils, their funding, their accountability and the department that oversees them. Councilman Alex Padilla helped craft a proposal for the commission last week that would allow neighborhood councils to select seven of the 29 members of the commission.
That, he said, would guarantee a strong, independent neighborhood council voice in the review that could reshape the system.
"The commission needs to look at the last five years and ask what's working and what's not |
working" Padilla said, "and make specific recommendations on how neighborhood councils can work better."
Many community leaders hope the commission can address longstanding issues that scare off some potential neighborhood council participants — bureaucracy, infighting and, depending on who is commenting, too few or too many rules. . . .Neighborhood councils for Los Angeles were a brainchild of Nelson when he was mountain biking back in 1992. The idea later became the centerpiece of a bid for mayor by Joel Wachs, then a L.A. city councilman and Nelson's boss.
When Wachs lost to Richard Riordan, Nelson and Wachs took the idea to the city's Charter Reform Commission, which ultimately made a neighborhood councils system a major element of the rewritten City Charter and cleared the way for communities to organize their own local councils.
The neighborhood council system had two main goals: promote greater public participation in government and hold government decision makers accountable on a daily basis.
Nelson took over the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment in 2001 after Mayor James Hahn was elected.
Nelson became a champion of neighborhood councils as what he calls "public lobbyists," which, if organized and educated, could become as influential as the most highly paid lobbyists for private interests.
But while many councils have managed community cleanups and flexed their new political muscle over issues including land use and burglar alarms, others have had problems organizing themselves and have been torn apart by infighting.
And . . . Nelson became a lightning rod for a department often criticized for bureaucracy and poor communication.
"The infighting was totally expected. The whole idea was to bring together people of diverse neighborhoods, where there may be longstanding feuds. They weren't just going to hold hands and say now we get along," said Nelson, 59, who last month announced his retirement to travel the world while still relatively young.
As general manager, Nelson has had a mantra: "Democracy is messy." He said he has tried to let councils settle differences and develop an organization that works for each community.
"We don't want a system where government steps in and says you're acting silly; now you need to do A, B, C."
He denies the system ever became mired in bureaucracy: "I pledged to ensure that even the perception of bureaucracy doesn't exist," said Nelson. Most neighborhood council members have never worked in city government and have no idea what "real bureaucracy" is, he said. . . .
In recent months, the mayor appointed one of his former City Council office staffers, Lisa Sarno, as the second in command at the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. . . . |
 Mayor tries to quell tensions on neighborhood councils
Opinion by Rick Orlov, columnist, Los Angeles Daily News
April 10, 2006
There's a rebellion brewing across the city targeting Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the City Council and the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. . . .
And a number of the original neighborhood councils that were considered models of the system are being torn apart in internal battles.
All this is coming even before the scheduled April 21 retirement of DONE General Manager Greg Nelson and the uncertainty over how his successor will be selected.
Villaraigosa is trying to quell the tensions with assurances of his support for neighborhood councils - which still remain wary of how much support they have from the mayor.
"The mayor does support neighborhood councils and he believes a lot of the concerns neighborhood councils have will be answered soon," spokesman Darryl Ryan said.
Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who has been one of the biggest boosters of the councils, said she also has been urging them to remain calm.
"I know they are concerned because Greg Nelson is leaving and there's some uncertainty," Hahn said. "I think once we have a new general manager in place, that will remove a lot of the angst."
Also upsetting some of the groups is an increase in sparring among some of the neighborhood councils - from Encino to Valley Glen - over who can serve on the various boards.
DONE officials worry the internal disputes are keeping residents from getting involved and hampering the development of broader issues. |
|
