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One of only two Web pages in the entire universe that give a hoot about Westside Village.
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WESTSIDE VILLAGE LINKS
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FEATURES
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SCHOOLS
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MAPS
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ORGANIZATIONS
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Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch
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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 a dozen years or so. These pages have no connection with any organization.
Send him e-mail with corrections and comments
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Stakeholder's contention is denied
City department finds 'no evidence' that bikes were purchased with taxpayers' money
Mar Vista Council will 'have to answer' for its expenditures — but only to its own stakeholders
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 General Manager Greg Nelson of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment says his staff could find no wrongdoing when the Mar Vista Community Council — on June 29, 2004, more than a year ago — put $1,000 toward a neighborhood celebration in Westside Village.
In a letter and e-mail filed in October 2004, George Garrigues of Westside Villatge said it was his understanding that $500 of Mar Vista Council funds had been allocated to buy 20 bicycles to give away to neighborhood children at the annual Palms Bike Rodeo and that $500 was allocated to the Westside Village homeowners' association. (See the text of the claim, below.)
General Manager Nelson has explained the delay in answering the claim by saying that it "fell through the cracks."
The text of Nelson's joint e-mail message to Garrigues and Tom Ponton, chair of the Mar Vista Community Council, follows:
This is in response to the complaint filed by George Garrigues on October 20, 2004 against the Mar Vista Community Council.
The complaint charged that $1,000 was used inappropriately by the Community Council as a gift of public funds through $500 used to purchase bicycles that were given away, and $500 used as a gift to a "restricted-access homeowners association."
My staff investigated. They found no evidence to support the allegations. The Neighborhood Council followed proper procedures.
The $1,000 was in the Community Council's budget, which was approved in a public meeting. The treasurer and second signatory signed the payment request. The money was used to purchase a booth at a public event. All documentation was provided. The vendor provided an invoice. We found no evidence of the purchase of bicycles.
The Neighborhood Council Funding Program does not provide us with standards to measure the quality of such an outreach event. We are not able to deny the use of money in situations like this because the amount of the outreach did not reach a certain level. Absent such standards, it would not be appropriate for use to impose arbitrary standards after the fact.
In the end, it will be the governing body of the Community Council that will have to answer to its stakeholders regarding the quality and the value of its outreach efforts. |
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Text of October 2004 complaint against
the Mar Vista Community Council
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COMPLAINT AGAINST A NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
(Illegal Gift of Public Funds)
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From:
George Garrigues
[Address omitted]
[Telephone omitted]
loudbark99@yahoo.com
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Concerning:
Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC)
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I am a stakeholder of this council.
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I am claiming that the Board of the MVCC has authorized an illegal gift of public funds based upon the following facts:
On June 29, 2004, the Board of the MVCC approved a $1,000 appropriation for an item called "Zone 1 Outreach/Safety & Security Project."
The campaign was to be directed toward residents of an area of northwest Palms known as Westside Village, which was attached to the Mar Vista council when it was formed in 2002.
No other part of the MVCC area has been the object of such a public-relations effort. I believe it is a reaction to a significant movement undertaken by some stakeholders to take Westside Village out of the MVCC and join it in a proposed Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Council.
The appropriation was to be divided as follows:
No. 1. >>>
$500 was to go for a booth at the October Westside Village Festival (Oct. 2), the purposes as outlined in the appropriation of the MVCC Board being:
* "Honoring Neighborhood Watch and block captains.
* "Bringing neighbors together within the Westside Village Civic Assn. and Westside Village.
* "Outreach of MVCC for Westside Village."
No. 2. >>>
$500 was to go for a booth at a kids' bike rodeo, usually held at Palms Middle School or in Mar Vista Park but this year held on a church parking lot in Westside Village (preceding the festival). The purposes as outlined in the appropriation of the MVCC Board were:
* "Promoting a more positive role of LAPD to all citizens of Westside Village, including both homeowners and apartment dwellers.
* "Promoting Neighborhood Watch to all citizens of Westside Village.
* "Outreach of MVCC for Westside Village (Zone 1)."
As to No. 1 (Village Festival):
(a) There was no outreach to the existing Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch, the official LAPD Watch for that area, and nobody from that organization was honored.
(b) Paid-up members of the Westside Village Civic Assn. (WVCA), a homeowners' organization, were provided with free tickets for the event, but non-members (except for police and firemen) were required to pay a $10 fee. Membership in the civic assn. is limited to residents of single-family homes in the area.
(c) Publicity for the event was done primarily through the newsletter of the WVCA, which is NOT circulated to the thousands of apartment dwellers and businesspeople in the area.
(d) The outreach consisted of four card tables manned by two Directors of the MVCC.
(1). Two of the tables were replete with pamphlets and folders on safety and security issues (only a few dealing directly with the MVCC), but there was no publicity for the long-existing Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch. These tables were manned by an MVCC Director (Rob Kadota) who had no connection with the WVCA nor with the Neighborhood Watch.
(2) The other two tables were manned by an MVCC Director (Ken Alpern) who is also a Director of the WVCA. They held these pamphlets:
## From the Mar Vista Community Council
The fall 2004 MVCC newsletter (taxpayer paid).
Agenda for fall quarterly Stakeholders' meeting (taxpayer paid),
Map and two-page leaflet publicizing the MVCC (taxpayer paid),
## From the WVCA homeowners' association
Brochure entitled "Welcome new neighbor to the friendliest neighborhood on the Westside."
Flier headlined "WESTSIDE VILLAGE CIVIC ASSOCIATION AND THE MAR VISTA COMMUNITY COUNCIL."
A door hangar to use after an earthquake..
## From Friends of the Palms-Rancho Park Library
Book sale announcement.
As to No. 2 (Bike rodeo):
It is unknown what kind of outreach for MVCC was done at the rodeo. I suspect that the $500 grant from MVCC is simply to be mingled with WVCA funds to pay the costs of the rodeo. I do know that 20 bicycles (at $100 each) were given away to neighborhood children, but I am not sure what kind of outreach was done to apartment dwellers and business owners on behalf of the Rodeo.
I am claiming that "honoring Neighborhood Watch and block captains," "bringing neighbors together within the Westside Village Civic Assn. and Westside Village," "promoting a more positive role of LAPD to all citizens of Westside Village, including both homeowners and apartment dwellers" and "promoting Neighborhood Watch to all citizens of Westside Village" are not proper uses of MVCC outreach funds and the use of those funds for such purposes would be illegal.
I also claim that any city money transferred to the WVCA would simply be mingled with all other moneys in its treasury and would not be spent on valid purposes.
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The incident occurred on June 29, 2004, when the Board approved the $1,000 authorization, and on Oct. 2, 2004, when the two events as described above were held. Additional incidents may occur in the future when the MVCC treasurer attempts to transfer the money from MVCC to WVCA.
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The remedy or solution I seek is that the MVCC Board rescind its approval of the $1,000 grant and/or that the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment refuse to authorize it.
Yours sincerely
GEORGE GARRIGUES
Friday, Oct. 8, 2004
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Update on this story
Jeanne Parker, who has been working on the Bike Rodeo for the past 10 years, told The Sun on July 19, 2005, that the Westside Village Civic Assn. paid the premium for Bike Rodeo insurance coverage at St. John's Presbyterian Church, where the Rodeo was held in October 2004.
She repeated her statement (posted in The Sun in February 2005, here) that the reason the Rodeo was held at Clover Ave. School was that no other Palms schools were available.
Editorial comment: Nobody from the Westside Village homeowners' group has ever bothered to contact The Sun to explain where the rest of the money went, and nobody on the Board of the Mar Vista Community Council seems willing to ask.
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LEIB HONORED FOR WORK
WITH PALMS NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
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Richard Leib, right, of Westside Village was one of the members of the Organizing Committee of the Palms Neighbborhood Council honored on June 21 with a city certificate signed by Council Members Cindy Miscikowski and Jack Weiss. With Leib is Mark Edwards of Miscikowski's office.
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ALPERN AT ROSENDAHL INAUGURATION
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Ken Alpern of Westside Village was one of the hundreds who gathered at Venice Beach for the inauguration of City Council Member Bill Rosendahl on Saturday, July 2. He is on the boards of the Mar Vista Community Council and the Westside Village Civic Assn.
The photo is by Marta Evry of Venice, who has posted it with others from the Bill Rosendahl Beach Bash on her personal Web site, here.
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EDITORIAL
Two more maps show communities as they really are
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Official state maps show Westside Village as a part of Palms. Left is the 53rd Assembly District recently served by the late Mike Gordon, and right is the 47th District of our Karen Bass (east of Sawtelle), (Light color in both cases.) |
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Despite all the historical and contemporary evidence to the contrary, as well as the testimony of our own eyes and common sense, the city of Los Angeles has placed Westside Village within the boundaries of the MAR VISTA Community Council, which, as everybody knows, is on the other side of the 405 San Diego Freeway.
A move is afoot to remedy this situation, and last March voters from both Mar Vista and Westside Village decided in favor of joining our Village with PALMS in a joint neighborhood council (story here).
The newly formed Palms Representative Assembly will be asked to take the lead in rectifying this boundary situation so that everybody east of the 405 will be playing on the same team. |
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