This is in conjunction with numerous reviews and motions of the WVCA Board [Westside Village Civic Assn., which is an organization for homeowners and renters of single-family homes] for the Village to both maintain Westside Village's inclusion within the MVCC boundaries, but to also encourage Westside Villagers to participate in either the MVCC or Palms NC (or both).

The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment [DONE] has moved to keep the boundaries of the MVCC and Palms N.C. as they are, and this issue to my understanding is resolved.
 
Throughout the City, there are neighborhoods that reside on the border of both Neighborhood Council and even City Council districts that are torn as to which side of that border it belongs. 

Westside Village is one of those neighborhoods — some within the neighborhood view themselves as part of Palms, others more aligned with Mar Vista, and many who prefer an individual identity unconnected to either Palms or Mar Vista.
 
A similar situation occurs in the Walgrove neighborhood at the western end of the MVCC, where some individuals align themselves with Venice, others with Mar Vista, and still others prefer an association with the independent-minded Ven-Mar Neighborhood Association that is aligned with neither.
 
Boundaries have to be drawn somewhere, though, and hence Westside Villagers should be grateful for the ease of inclusion in both the MVCC and Palms N.C. — the former by inclusion within MVCC boundaries and the latter by association with any school or library or neighborhood watch or other public entity that serves the Palms region. 
 
Westside Villagers, both apartment renters and homeowners, enjoy access and participation to both neighborhood councils — and in the interest of supporting individual choice and civic activism of any kind, the WVCA and MVCC Boards have supported the status quo. 
 
In the interest of maintaining friendly ties, between cooperative and friendly neighbors, I encourage the Palms N.C. to do the same.  To date, the Boards of both neighborhood councils and the WVCA have been friendly, diplomatic and courteous to each other as good neighbors should be.
 
Regrettably, this friendly and cooperative relationship has been strained by a continuous, counterproductive and pejorative barrage of inappropriate and untrue statements on the part of the editor of The Westmar Sun, who, despite his laudable efforts in promoting the new Palms N.C., reveals a regrettable lack of civility towards

his neighbors who are as giving of their volunteer time as he has been.  Please refer to the link below for merely the latest in this inappropriate and never-ending barrage:
 
http://www.palmsvillagesun.info/WV.current.html

I advise the Palms N.C. that the Human Relations Commission has NOT been called in to resolve the neighborhood council boundary issue, which has been resolved by DONE (no resolution will please all parties involved, I'm afraid). 
 
My conversations with CD11 deputy Len Nguyen and Human Relations Commissioner Patricia Villasenor has revealed that Human Relations has been called in to remove the pejorative and inflammatory communications that have been raised over this issue — most of which, I maintain, has come from the editor of The Sun.
 
The pejorative language, smearing of volunteers and their efforts, and the "rewriting of history" that the editor of The Sun has engaged in has not prevented the WVCA, Palms N.C. and MVCC Boards from maintaining a diplomatic and cooperative posture towards each other, but it has had the effect of limiting civic involvement of volunteers towards all three entities.

This is what Human Relations is interested in preventing, and I urge all parties involved to take note and to do whatever it takes to encourage community volunteerism of any sort.
 
I will be unable to attend the Palms N.C. meeting this Wednesday, because I will be busy in political outreach for regional mass transit.  I imagine the WVCA Board might be too busy preparing for the Palms Blvd. tree-planting this Saturday to attend, either.  I also imagine that the MVCC Board will be too busy preparing for its next quarterly stakeholder meeting a week from this Tuesday to attend, either. 
 
The Palms N.C. is also busy, trying to establish itself and address community concerns.  Please vote no on agenda item #11, and please encourage volunteerism and civic activism of all sorts in all venues in as positive and friendly a fashion as possible.
 
Thank you for your time in reading this lengthy e-mail, and I wish you all the best as a new and promising neighborhood council.
 
KEN ALPERN

(Despite my association with the MVCC and WVCA Boards, I can only claim in this e-mail to be speaking for myself.)
 
In a message dated 12/4/2005 6:19:19 PM Pacific Standard Time, palmssecretary@pacbell.net writes:

11. Resolution on (1) discussing Westside Village merging with Palms in a joint neighborhood council, (2) setting forth a basis for settlement, (3) agreeing to cooperate with the Human Relations Commission and (4) welcoming Westside Village to Palms and agreeing to take the steps that might be necessary. (Garrigues).

MVCC Motion Maintaining Its Boundaries

Whereas, the MVCC is composed of an allied and cooperative collections of neighborhoods and the associations and individuals within them, and
 
Whereas, the MVCC supports all appropriate and respectful dialogue on issues relating to boundary changes and other issues affecting adjacent neighborhood councils, and
 
Whereas, the City of Los Angeles established and has maintained the current MVCC boundaries
 
Be it resolved that the MVCC Board: 
 
1) Does not support any boundary change at this time and urges all of its Zones to work with each other and with its neighbors in adjacent neighborhood councils on all pertinent regional and local issues.
 
2) Supports and encourages the development of newly-established, adjacent neighborhood councils, and looks forward to cooperative and friendly relations with all of its neighbors.

3) Will not consider a border change until the matter has been appropriately and thoroughly discussed and a true consensus is reached by the stakeholders of any affected individual Zone.

At long last an official body of the city government — the Human Relations Commission — has promised to mediate the dispute over the boundary between the Mar Vista and Palms neighborhood councils.

What should we ask for in an eventual settlement?

Here is the minimum:

1. We seek an outreach and information campaign, sponsored and paid for by the Human Relations Commission, which will reach into every house, office and apartment in Westside Village.

This, of course, would involve a direct-mail endeavor that would leap over those apartment gates which are seldom breached in any other way.

2. We expect the HRC to identify the key people who could speak and craft the arguments for and against changing the status of Westside Village.

3. We expect the HRC, along with the people on each side, to cooperatively schedule and hold community information outreach at such places as:

• Charnock, Clover and Palms Middle PTSA meetings.
• A student assembly at Palms Middle School (nothing builds democracy better than instilling it in our young people).
• A debate in government classes at Hamilton High School.
• Our churches and synagogue on National Blvd.
• The annual meeting of the Westside Village Civic Assn.
• Board or annual meetings of the cooperative apartment assns. on Sepulveda Blvd.
• Representative assns. of UCLA family housing, also on Sepulveda Blvd.

4. We expect the HRC to work with the Palms Neighborhood Council to craft the necessary amendments to the Palms bylaws allowing the forming of a new Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Council, including the number of Assembly representatives and where district boundary lines might be drawn.

5. The controversy should be resolved by a vote of the stakeholders of Westside Village. It might be held in conjunction with the election of the Mar Vista Community Council in March 2006, but it must be held in Westside Village and not in Mar Vista.

These are just a few ideas, and if you have more to advance the cause of a free and fair democratic decision-making process, please send them to the Human Relations Commission.