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THIS IS THE WESTSIDE VILLAGE PAGE
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One of only two Web pages in the entire universe that give a woof 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 12 years. These pages have no connection with any organization.
Send him e-mail with corrections and comments
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WE NEED MORE REPRESENTATION SO WE CAN AT LEAST TALK ABOUT GETTING OUT OF MAR VISTA
Will Toopwrut-sot deliver?
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By George Garrigues, editor and owner, The Palms-Village Sun,
resident of Westside Village for 11 years.
On Nov. 17 I drove over to a darkened Mar Vista block, rang the bell of a very nice house and found myself in the company of four Mar Vistans and one Westdaler — The People Who Run the Show Over There — hereafter referred to as TPWRTSOT, or Toopwrut-sot, which is the way you pronounce it.
 And that sounds like some kind of Indian tribal council, doesn't it (see illustration)?
But they are actually the Executive Committee of the Mar Vista Community Council (the MVCC), and they were meeting not in a tepee but in the home of the big chief — well, chairman — Tom Ponton.
I didn't go just because I enjoy Tom's company (although he is a very nice guy with a good sense of humor), nor that of Bill Scheding, Amy Lawrence, Rob Kadota or Ken Marsh (the Westdaler among them) but because I had two proposals to lay before this august body.
If adopted, both proposals would benefit us in Westside Village.
The first would require that MVCC board members appointed to fill vacancies must face an election the next time one is scheduled.
As you may recall, WV homeowners' President Bobby Holiday, our elected representative on the MVCC Board, resigned in June 2004 after serving only two months, and Ponton appointed bank manager Robert Mednick to serve out her remaining term in August 2004.
The proposal for which I drove to the other side of the San Diego Freeway and found my way in the dark to Ponton's house would require an ELECTION to be held for such a vacated seat at the next regularly scheduled time (that would have been last March in Mednick's case).
All of us Villagers could have had a voice in choosing our representative at that time.
We haven't had an elected representative in almost a year and a half.
The second proposal would set up a system whereby Westside Village would get TWO seats on the MVCC Board (as would the other five "zones" in the Mar Vista Community Council).
At present six of the 13 board seats are elected "at large," which means that people from the other side of the freeway control that bloc of votes. My proposal would result in a Board of 12 district and one "at-large" representative.
Last time the MVCC had a "zone" election (March 2004), only 23 of 12,000 Westside Villagers managed to find their way to Mar Vista Elementary School to cast their ballots for an unopposed Bobby Holliday, compared with 97 from Mar Vista and the Westdales combined (they have about 38,000 residents and were voting for their own "zone" representatives).
Twenty-three of us, and 97 of them.
So there you have it: Two proposals that would advance democracy in the Mar Vista Community Council, even for Mar Vistans. Maybe even increase voter interest.
Will Toopwrut-sot adopt these proposals? (It takes a two-thirds vote of their Board.)
Maybe. These changes are fair and democratic, and perhaps the vast bulk of unrepresented Mar Vistans will rise up and demand them from Toopwrut-sot.
At any rate, these are serious proposals for revisions in the Mar Vista Community Council bylaws, and they are reproduced below. If you like them, tell Robert Mednick to vote for them. He prefers to talk face to face or by telephone rather than by e-mail, and you can find him at the Palms branch of the Wells Fargo Bank.
Maybe then we could have a chance of persuading Mar Vista to let us leave and join up with the rest of Palms. Or at least TALK about the prospect of doing so.
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(The effect of the following resolution is to require an election to be held for a vacated position as quickly as possible.)
RESOLUTION ON THE FILLING OF VACANCIES ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The last sentence of Bylaws Article IV, Section J, is amended to read as follows:
In the case of a vacancy, the Chair may appoint a stakeholder to fill that vacancy subject to approval by a two thirds (2/3) vote of the Board. The person appointed shall fill the position until the next election, when a person will be elected to fill out the remainder of the unexpired term, if any.
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(The effect of the following resolution is to establish a Board of Directors that has virtually all representation by individual zones,
with only one director being elected "at-large.")
RESOLUTION ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF SEATS BETWEEN 'AT LARGE' AND 'ZONE' DIRECTORS
Bylaws Article IV, Section B, is amended to read as follows:
B. Number of Directors. The Board shall have thirteen (13) Directors, including the five officers described below in Article V. Of the thirteen (13) Directors, one (1) shall be elected "At-large" and twelve (12) shall be "Zone" Directors, with two of the latter being elected by and representing the stakeholders in each of the six (6) geographic areas listed below. This section will be effective with the election of spring 2007. The terms of the Directors elected in spring 2005 will not be affected by this section.
Bylaws Article IV, Section G, is amended to read as follows:
G. Election schedule of the Board of Directors. Effective with the election of spring 2006, one stakeholder will be elected yearly from each of the geographic areas described below to serve a two-year term. Effective with the election of spring 2007, one stakeholder will also be elected in every odd-numbered year as an "at large" director to serve a two-year term.
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| Beautification on Palms Blvd. |
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The kids are all right!
These children were among the Palms Blvd. tree-planters on Saturday, Oct. 29.
Volunteers worked on the history-making project between Sepulveda Blvd. and Overland Ave.
The festivities included refreshments and much good cheer.
Footnote: The kids ran into a hidden water pipe, so the tree could not be planted. Now there is a rectangular hole waiting for the next planting day on Dec. 10.
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| By Lisa Cahill
WE DID IT!!! The first tree planting on Palms Blvd. was just finished a few hours ago, and WHAT A HUGE SUCCESS!!!
The WVCA [Westside Village Civic Assn.] and its board of directors and its chairman of the Neighborhood Improvements Committee, Arnie Lifset, did an incredible job!! We are all very fortunate to have such a great group working on behalf of our homeowners' association.
And a huge thanks goes to everyone who did anything for this planting. People who went door to door, people who planted trees, people who called managers to get signatures, people who picked up coffee and bagels, people who hung up signs. Ever job was important, everyone's input was invaluable!
I just want to personally thank each of you, because this neighborhood event absolutely had to have community support, and WE GOT IT!!
Finally, mark your calendars for planting day No. 2: Saturday, Dec. 10. There'll be more info about that later, but for right now, we can all go down Palms Blvd. and look at those trees and know that we helped make that happen!
Thank you again to everyone who helped make this a huge success!
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MEDIATION MEETING
DATE IS UNCERTAIN
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Len Nguyen, a field deputy for City Council Member Bill Rosendahl, called a meeting for 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, with Westside Village civic leaders "to discuss issues within the community."
But the meeting has been delayed to meet the objection of Tracy Marsh, president of the Westside Village homeowners' assn., who said she could not attend on that night.
A rescheduled meeting will probably be in Rosendahl's office in the West Los Angeles Civic Center.
 The meeting was called at the request of the city's Human Relations Commission, which has been asked by George Garrigues, WV resident and the editor and owner of The Sun, to facilitate the resolution of a dispute over the boundary between the Mar Vista Community Council and the Palms Neighborhood Council. [Go here for more on the controversy.]
"This meeting is not meant as a large public outreach meeting," Nguyen wrote in an e-mail. "The purpose of the meeting is for Human Relations Commission staff to talk to WV community leaders about what the commission can do to help mediate, identify, and facilitate the resolution any contentious issues within the community.
"The council office will not take sides, and our participation will be limited to working constructively with community groups and city departments to resolve any issues."
The e-mail was sent to Ken Alpern, a board member of both the Mar Vista Community Council and the Westside Village homeowners' assn.; Marsh, president of the homeowners' group (Westside Village Civic Assn.); Richard Leib, a community leader who has been active in a petition drive to set up a joint Palms-WV Neighborhood Council; and Garrigues.
Copies went to Todd Robinson, president of the Palms Neighborhood Council; Tom Ponton, president of the Mar Vista Community Council; Paul Backstrom, field deputy for Council Member Jack Weiss and Patricia Villasenor of the Human Relations Commission staff.
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RESPONSE BY TRACY MARSH, PH.D., PRESIDENT OF THE WESTSIDE VILLAGE HOMEOWNERS' ASSN.
in an e-mail sent to Len Nguyen and 21 others
on Oct, 27, 2005
I am just now getting this e-mail and I concur with my colleagues; I am unclear as to the purpose of this meeting and discouraged by the lack of solicitation of acceptable meeting times (I am not available at the time you propose) prior to setting the date of the meeting.
I assume this meeting has to do with the continued, yet unsucessful, efforts by George Garrigues to force WVCA to terminate our affiliation with Mar Vista Neighborhood Council and re-align with Palms Neighborhood Council. However, I would not consider attending such a meeting without more information (proposed agenda, purpose of the meeting, statement as to why the issue is being raised yet again despite all previous decisions in this matter), and then bringing the issue before the WVCA Board for consideration. In addition, I would like to see representation from all parties involved (e.g., Jack Weiss' office).
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ABOUT OUR CITY’S HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION
Founded in the wake of the Watts Riots of 1965, the Human Relations Commission confronts and surmounts the causes of group conflict in the City of Los Angeles. The Commission’s work is proactive and ongoing. Our Field Team monitors the status of inter-group relations in the City’s Departments and Neighborhoods, and the Commission advises the Mayor and the City Council on all items that may or may not adversely affect the ability of people to live and work together in harmony in the City.
When tensions rise in the City of Los Angeles, the Commission brings together peoples of diverse racial, religious, ethnic, and national backgrounds, regardless of their age, sexual orientation, language, and disability status so they may learn to live together without fear or rancor. By means of teach-ins, workshops and retreats, Field Team members teach leadership, facilitation, and conflict management skills to Angelenos of all ages and histories.
We also function as a resource center for City departments and community-based organizations when they are faced with human relations-related issues, disputes and/or problems.
We are motivated by a mandate of cooperative sharing, which has us engaged in research, acting as community advocates, building communities, and sponsoring programs. The common thread linking all of our work is the desire to enhance understanding and respect among all of the people who reside in this great City of ours.
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