(In order to keep this chronology impersonal, all stakeholder names have been omitted. If you want to learn more, just click on the underlined links.)

1999
Los Angeles voters adopt a new City Charter that, among many other reforms and changes, authorizes a system of neighborhood councils "To promote more citizen participation in government and make government more responsive to local needs."

2001
Homeowners in Mar Vista, Westdale and North Westdale form an organizing committee to craft a neighborhood council for that area, west of the 405 Freeway. They are later joined by some homeowners from Westside Village, which lies east of the 405.

Jan. 8, 2002
The Mar Vista Organizing Committee has 175 signatures of the 200 needed for a certification application with the City of Los Angeles. Two members of the Westside Village homeowners assn. are participating with the Mar Vista committee.

Feb. 20, 2002
The annual meeting of the Westside Village homeowners assn. approves the Village's joining the proposed Mar Vista Community Council. No tenants or businesspeople are consulted.

March 12, 2002
A 237-signature petition bearing the names of only 13 Villagers (at 12 addresses), is filed with the city Department of Neighborhood Empowerment seeking certification of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) in an area stretching from Walgrove Ave. on the east to Overland Ave. on the west (map below, with the signature locations noted). One of the dots is on the north side of National Blvd., outside the proposed Mar Vista council.

The "liaisons" between the Organizing Committee and the city are three Mar Vistans and one person from Venice — Westside Villagers are not part of this group.

The application states that "neighborhood watch" groups are "participating" in the proposed Mar Vista council, but the Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch is never actually told about it.

The application states that "Westside Village areas were added based on the requests and input of the stakeholders attending our meetings."

July 23, 2002
The MVCC Organizing Committee meeting minutes state that there is a "question as to whether the Palms area was to be orphaned or accepted by MVCC." A motion ia approved "to accept Palms if the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners asked us [Mar Vista] to accept them."

A representative of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment points out "that it was not likely that BONC [the commissioners] would ask us at the upcoming hearing to accept Palms, as there was an effort underway for Palms to form their own NC."

Jan.-August, 2002
The Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch holds eight regular monthly meetings without being notified by the Mar Vista Organizing Committee that it is considering taking Westside Village into its borders.

Aug. 2, 2002
A city report states that "Up to this point, the MVCC has done minimal outreach with Palms stakeholders."

Aug. 13, 2002
The city Board of Neighborhood Commissioners certifies the Mar Vista Community Council with boundaries extending into Palms as far east as Overland Ave.

Sept. 17, 2002
The Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch at Clover Ave. Elementary School in Westside Village hears from an organizer of the Palms Neighborhood Council. The Watch agrees to be active in organizing the entire Palms-Westside Village community as part of the Palms Neighborhood Council.

March 27, 2003
The first election is held for the Mar Vista Community Council. No notice of this election is posted anywhere in the Village, and publicity in the area is made only through the Westside Village homeowners assn.

May 21, 2003
First meeting of the Mar Vista Community Council Board of Directors.

June 2003
The Mar Vista Urban Affairs Committee lobbies for a "concept plan" that envisions putting Mar Vista Community Council boundary signs as far east as Overland Ave. It includes such things as a bike or hiking trail and trash cans at the tops of steps in residential districts.

Jan. 29, 2004
A lengthy petition is submitted to the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners seeking decertification of the northwest Palms area from the jurisdiction of the Mar Vista Community Council. Click here to see the petition and the accompanying documents.

March 9, 2004
The Mar Vista board decides that any stakeholder who attends an MVCC committee meeting is to be considered to be a part of that committee.

March 16, 2004
In an election at Mar Vista Elementary School, the president of the Westside Village homeowners assn. is chosen as the Village's first "zone" representative on the MVCC Board. She has no opponents and is elected by 23 votes.

April 13, 2004
The Westside Village homeowners board rejects a request by a block captain to switch its support from Mar Vista to Palms.

June 2004
The Westside Village director resigns from the MVCC Board. The post went for months without being filled.

June 21-25, 2004
A petition drive begins to free Westside Village (Northwest Palms) from Mar Vista and merge it with the forming Palms Neighborhood Council. Organizers take the name S-U-P-E-R, which stands for
Strong and United to Preserve Everyone's Rights.

Petitions are circulated person to person and are also left in or near the entrances of homes and apartments for return by mail.

June 22, 2004
Approximately 32 petitions are handed in to the city's Board of Neighborhood Commissioners at a meeting in Hollywood.

June 29, 2004
The MVCC Board authorizes giving $1,000 to the Board of the Westside Village homeowners assn.

July 20, 2004
At a public meeting in the IMAN Center, Palms stakeholders present (including those from Westside Village) agree to apply for certification as a neighborhood council.

Aug. 3, 2004
An additional 33 S-U-P-E-R petitions are submitted to the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners at a meeting in the City Hall.

Aug. 10, 2004
At a meeting in Mar Vista Park, copies of the 65 petitions are given to the board of the Mar Vista Community Council, which takes no action.

Aug. 11, 2004
Organizers of the drive for separation from Mar Vista are labeled by an opponent as "an army of two."

Sept. 9, 2004
Westside Village people attend a meeting of the Mar Vista Urban Planning Committee at Clover Ave. School to protest the inclusion of the Village within the MVCC's "concept plan," but a motion to that effect is ruled out of order by the chair.

September 2004
The Mar Vista president appoints the manager of the Palms branch of Wells Fargo Bank as the replacement director for Westside Village on the MVCC board.

Sept. 28, 2004
Richard Leib and George Garrigues of Westside Village and Bea Steelman and Willie Bell of Southwest Palms go to the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners to argue in favor of Westside Village joining the rest of Palms in a joint council. An additional 73 signatures are submitted. Total to that point: 138.

October 2004
In direct contradiction to the City Charter and a municipal ordinance, the Mar Vista Community Council admits in a brochure that "Westside Village is not within the traditional boundaries of Mar Vista, but is an adjacent neighborhood with many residential and geographic similarities to Mar Vista."

Dec. 7, 2004
Sixty-two additional signatures are submitted to the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners at a meeting in Mar Vista.
Total: 200.

Dec. 13 and 14, 2004
In apparent violation of the Brown Act (the state's open-meetings law), an e-mail is sent by one MVCC director to all the other directors urging them to appear at a meeting of the city's Board of Neighborhood Commissioners on Dec. 14 to protest the "inflammatory flyers given out to Westside Village residents" which were " illegally placed, and if they prove to be slanderous to the actions and intentions of the MVCC and their efforts then action might need to be taken."

The head of the Mar Vista Council sends an e-mail to all the MVCC directors urging them to attend the meeting. Six of them do so (immediately below). 

December 14, 2004
The city Board of Neighborhood Commissioners certifies the Palms Neighborhood Council.

At a meeting in the IMAN Center, the commissioners' vote is preceded by five speakers from Westside Village speaking in favor of linking up with Palms and two Villagers speaking against. Once more, the commission declines to take a stand on the issue.

This Palms certification map shows 19-23 signers in favor of Palms within Westside Village.

Feb. 22, 2005
Two Mar Vistans present their "concept plan" at the annual meeting of the Westside Village homeowners assn. but tell the members they've dropped the idea of putting up Mar Vista signs on Overland Ave.

In response to a question by a Westside Village resident, City Council member Jack Weiss says he will ask the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners "to come up with a good dispute-resolution formula" to help settle the border controversy. He does not keep his promise.

March 15, 2005
By 124 to 115, Mar Vista stakeholders vote Yes in response to the question "Should Westside Village (Zone 1) be part of Palms Neighborhood Council instead of Mar Vista Community Council?"

April 12, 2005
Still fighting against sentiment in the Village (and the result of the March 15 vote), the Mar Vista board adopts a resolution that it "Does not support any boundary change at this time" and "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."

But it takes no further action to make that discussion or reach that consensus.

Aug. 2, 2005
An e-mail forwarded to The Sun reveals the fact that more than 42% of eligible single-family residents are NOT members of the Westside Village Civic Assn., the homeowners' group for the area. It was this group more than any other that was responsible for taking the Village into Mar Vista.

Sept. 6, 2005
After another appearance by S-U-P-E-R before the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, the acting chair requests the general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) to make a report on the Westside Village situation.

Sept. 20, 2005
General manager Greg Nelson of DONE reports that the Board has no legal authority to make a boundary change, that it would be up to the two neighborhood councils involved. He makes no reference to the possibility of changing the law.

October 2005
A S-U-P-E-R representative confers with an official in the city's Human Relations Commission. She promises that a new staffer will be assigned to help resolve the continuing dispute between the residents (and business owners and employees) of Westside Village and the people who control the Mar Vista Community Council.

City Council Member Bill Rosendahl's office calls for an informational meeting between S-U-P-E-R and the Westside Village Civic Assn. The call is accepted by S-U-P-E-R but not by the homeowners' group and the meeting has still not been held.

February 2006
S-U-P-E-R's petition drive begins again. The total number of signatures now totals more than 250. Petitions are taken to Mayor Villaraigosa and placed before the City Council seeking "whatever steps are necessary" to bring about formation of a Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Council.

On Feb. 28, a WV homeowner from S-U-P-E-R (after two years of trying) is allowed to make a five-minute presentation to the annual meeting of the WV homeowners assn.

April 2006
The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment sends a policy document to the Palms Neighborhood Council stating that any council can petition for a change in its boundaries at any time. It does not need the consent of a neighboring council to do so.