The newly certified Palms Neighborhood Council is moving forward to our neighborhood's first community election.
It will be held Sunday, May 22, at Palms Elementary School between noon and 5 p.m., but it will be preceded by a vote-by-mail period in which absentee ballots will be accepted.
 Organizers of the Palms council have emphasized the vote-by-mail aspect of the campaign because of the large number of apartment dwellers in the district and the perceived difficulty in getting people to the polls.
Thirteen members of a Representative Assembly will be elected — eight by districts and five at large.
Five districts will be for residents — Palms West, Overland, Motor, Studio and Exposition. Each will have about 6,000 people in it.
Business representatives will be elected from three Historic Business Areas based on geography:
• The Pacific Electric Historic Area along Venice and Washington Blvds. (including the Venice Crossroads Mall).
• The Charnock Ranch Area to include Overland Ave. and any business on it.
•The Palms Depot Area for Motor Avenue and the rest of Palms.
Voters must choose whether to cast ballots in a business district or a residential district. They can't vote in both.
|
Any stakeholder can vote for the at-large seats —president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and non-profit representative.
In Palms, the definition of a stakeholder is very broad. It includes not only residents, property owners, business people and employees but also members of organizations that serve this neighborhood.
The latter category includes active members and participants in the Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch and school-serving organizations at Palms Middle and Charnock Elementary schools, which are shared with the Mar Vista Community Council.
Other stakeholders might come from the Culver-Palms YMCA, the Friends of the Palms-Rancho Park Library and similar "trans-border" organizations.
A Nominations and Elections Committee has been working on the election process and will soon be seeking nominees. Members have included Terry Robinson, chair; Mario Bruhwiler, George Garrigues, Richard Leib, Len Nguyen and Eloy (Rod) Rodriguez.
The League of Women Voters of Los Angeles will actually have charge of the election process. In the event of an election dispute, the Los Angeles City Department of Human Relations will make a final decision.
Until the election, the affairs of the Palms Neighborhood Council are being guided by an Interim Governing Body composed of Nguyen, president; Robinson, secretary; Sura Kadetz, treasurer; Willie Bell, Mario Bruhwiler, Lori Donahoo, Garrigues, Leib, Ingeborg Prochazka, Rodriguez, Billie Silvey, Bea Steelman, Alejandro Soschin and Josan Wright.
|
