Bylaws of the Palms Neighborhood Council were approved by the city's Board of Neighborhood Commissioners on Dec. 14, 2004, after many revisions requested by the city Department of Neighborhood Empowerment and accepted by the neighborhood's Organizing Committee.
The bylaws were drafted by a committee of Palms stakeholders, and most of their proposals made it through OK.
But some were rejected by the city.
As an example, the bylaws committee wanted the chair of the Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch to be elected directly by the stakeholders, but city officials said that couldn't be done inasmuch as, they claimed, the Watch is a "separate" organization from the Council.
The elected Representative Assemmbly will have to decide how to handle the relationship between the Palms-WV Watch and the Palms Council. To all intents and purposes, the two groups have been acting as one organization for many months. The Council grew out of the regular monthly meetings of the Watch, which was founded about a decade ago.
The practice had been for police and Watch matters to be handled at the beginning of the monthly meetings, between 6:30 and 7 on the third Tuesday of the month, and for Neighborhood Council activities to follow. Recently, though, Council business has been transacted at meetings of the Interim Governing Body on the first Thursday of each month.
Here are some bylaws provisions that are unique — or at least unusual — to Palms:
The 13-person governing board will be called the Representative Assembly.
Five members will be elected by residential districts (approximately equal in population), and three will be elected by business districts. Five officers will be elected at large.
All the residential areas have descriptive names:
A: PALMS WEST, west of Westwood Ave. (population about 5,364.
B: OVERLAND, between Westwood and Motor Ave., south of Palms Blvd. (5,823).
C: MOTOR, north of Tabor St. (5,264).
D: STUDIO, south of Tabor between Motor and Dunn Drive (5,171).
E: EXPOSITION, east of Dunn Drive (5,364).
The three business districts are known as "Historic Business Areas":
1: PACIFIC ELECTRIC HBA: Both sides of Venice Blvd. and south to Culver City (including the Venice Crossroads Mall).
2: CHARNOCK RANCH HBA: East of Keystone.
3: PALMS DEPOT HBA: Between Keystone and Durango, north of Venice.
There is a Bill of Rights:
1. Everybody has a right to speak at meetings.
2. No pledge or oath will be required, suggested or implied.
3. Public not required to sign names or identify selves.
4. Information given may become public record — people must be notified of that fact.
There are many ways to take part in neighborhood activities:
You don't have to live, work or own property in Palms. If you take part in Palms community activities, you are automatically a stakeholder and can vote and run for office.
Teens aged 16 and above can vote and serve on committees:
But they have to be 18 to be elected to the Representative Assembly.
The Neighborhood Council is permanent and inviolable:
It cannot be dissolved except by a unanimous vote of the Representative Assembly.
