Gerald
Silver Newsletter Index SF Home owner's home page#13 Neighborhood Council Debate
September 20, 2003 Los Angeles Daily News Councils hope to be certified
2 new Northridge panels are replacing older group By James Nash Staff Writer NORTHRIDGE
A group that promised to do battle with Los Angeles City Hall as the city-certified Northridge Neighborhood Council has been replaced by two smaller, less-militant groups.
The Los Angeles City Council voted in June against certifying the Northridge Neighborhood Council, which would have allowed the group to join dozens of advisory groups advising city officials on neighborhood concerns. City leaders said the Northridge group failed to reach out to the 60,000 people it was supposed to represent and fought with officials and other residents.
The leaders of the Northridge group, however, said they were punished for their outspokenness on controversial issues in Northridge, notably the long-shuttered city swimming pool at Northridge Recreation Center. Elbowing aside the leaders of the established group, two new neighborhood councils now are forming, with the dividing line at Reseda Boulevard. Leaders of the
two groups say they will attempt to be recognized as official neighborhood councils next year.
"We're just trying to get started again after all the chaos," said Dorothy Boberg, an organizer of the proposed Northridge East Neighborhood Council.
"It was too bad that there was a clash of personalities. We really needed to start over again with new leadership."
Leaders of the old neighborhood council fumed that they were being pushed aside by people who they say would rather kiss up to city leaders than advocate for Northridge.
"Essentially what it is, is a bunch of self-appointed wannabe people trying to speak for the community when they haven't been elected," said Charles Brink, vice president of the old neighborhood council. "Until the court adjudicates who's the neighborhood council, it's not decided."
Brink and other leaders of the old group have said they plan to file a lawsuit to overturn decisions by the Los Angeles City Council and Board of Neighborhood Commissioners denying their application for city certification.
But no lawsuit had been filed as of Friday, they said.
Even though city officials don't recognize the Northridge Neighborhood Council as a true neighborhood council, members of the panel have continued to meet and discuss local issues as well as their own battle for certification.
Meanwhile, the two new groups say it's time to pick up the pieces of the failed effort and form neighborhood councils that are less confrontational.
"You have two individuals who are trying to hold up Northridge over their own ego battles," said Jim Alger, an organizer of the Northridge West Neighborhood Council, referring to Brink and Jane Lowenthal, president of the Northridge Neighborhood Council.
Lowenthal denied the accusation, saying she has attempted only to advocate vigorously on behalf of Northridge residents, workers and property owners.
The two new groups seeking to represent Northridge will be able to go through the city-mandated certification process just as the former one attempted to do, said Greg Nelson, general manager of the city's Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.
The old group has no official status, he said. "They came, they applied and they were denied," Nelson said. "They're not a neighborhood council."
Copyright © 2003 Los Angeles Daily News
September 24, 2003 Los Angeles Daily News City is stifling its voice By James Nash Staff Writer VALLEY GLEN
Members of an advisory panel to speak for Valley Glen at Los Angeles City Hall say the panel is being undermined by the city department that is supposed to help it establish and have an election.
Officials at the city Department of Neighborhood Empowerment have knotted the Valley Glen Community Council in a web of confusing and seemingly arbitrary rules governing its election, according to some community council members.
Among other things, DONE officials are forcing the community council to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote, forbidding it from requiring photographs of candidates in the election, and restricting whom the council may choose to oversee its election.
Members of the Valley Glen group complain that the city is tightening the reins to ensure that the group is subservient to the city rather than independent. Their complaints echo comments from several of the approximately 100 official neighborhood councils in Los Angeles, which were set up under a 1999 charter reform measure intended to bring more representation to neighborhoods.
"I can't help but feel we're being punished for wanting to clarify things,"
said Diana Lipari, co-chairwoman of the Valley Glen Community Council's elections committee.
"They're trying to turn us into someone who is regulated by the city. That to me is a conflict (of interest)." DONE officials acknowledge that they're holding Valley Glen to higher standards than many other neighborhood councils.
The Valley Glen Community Council triumphed over a rival group calling itself the College Center Neighborhood Council to win official recognition by the city last year.
But in agreeing to recognize the Valley Glen Community Council as the official advisory panel for the area, city officials insisted that the group reach out to all workers, college students, residents and property owners in the council's boundaries, said DONE General Manager Greg Nelson.
That has meant additional frustrations for the organizers of the Valley Glen group, Nelson acknowledged, but he said city officials aren't trying to control or thwart the panel.
Copyright © 2003 Los Angeles Daily News
September 26, 2003 Los Angeles Daily News Sharing Power The manipulation of the Valley Glen Community Council illustrates how Los Angeles city officials don't really want the neighborhood councils to have an independent voice.
To keep the group in line, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment has tied the council members in knots with a bunch of confusing rules as it seeks to hold elections. Other neighborhood councils have complained that department officials have thrown up roadblocks when they felt the councils weren't following the city's script closely enough.
When Los Angeles voters adopted charter reform in 1999, they endorsed the idea of the neighborhood councils as a way to give power back to the people. But City Hall doesn't like to relinquish power if it can help it. And the actions of DONE, a city department overseen buy the mayor's office, show that the neighborhood councils' path toward independence is riddled with pitfalls.
Copyright © 2003 Los Angeles Daily News
Monday, September 29, 2003 9:45 AM RESIGNATIONS President and Two Board Members of Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council (GRNVC) Resign President Tisha Bedrosian Government Relations Officer John Caldwell Oakwood Representative Naomi Nightingale See All Three Statements Below Tisha Bedrosian, President:
It is with sadness that I submit my resignation as President of the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council effective today, Monday, September 29th.
I have concluded, due to the questionable outcome of the recent election, the new majority of the GRVNC board of directors no longer represents the needs and aspirations of the entire community. Therefore, it cannot be an effective and reasoned voice for Venice. As the founder of this organization, and although I was not up for re-election, I am also very disappointed in the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment's (DONE) blatant selective examination of the challenges to this election.
The founding members of Grass Roots Venice succeeded in being inclusive and in building community in Venice and throughout the City. By the simple act of getting to know each other, we have made connections that will profoundly effect Los Angeles for many years to come in ways that we cannot even conceive of at this time. And for all the wonderful people in Venice and in Los Angeles whose paths have crossed mine for the past five years, I am so very grateful. Please know that I am still available should you need resources and I thank you for the opportunity to serve but I know that my time and efforts will be far more effective by working with neighborhood groups and other community organizations.
John Caldwell, Government Relations Officer:
It saddens me that after several years of personal involvement to build a Neighborhood Council (NC) that many consider to be exemplary within the NC system, that the Department Of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) has subverted not only the spirit of the NC system, but also the letter.
DONE has failed in enforcement of GRVNC Election Rules by allowing absentee ballots to be sent not only after the election polls had closed, but also to individuals whose stakeholder status had not been verified prior to the sending of said absentee ballots. A clear violation of GRVNC Election Rules.
Additionally, DONE allowed for 3rd party absentee ballot requests, which is in clear violation of California State Election Laws, as well as voting by absentee ballot after the official GRVNC election polls had closed. DONE also did not investigate or address the complaint of the use of a political party in an effort to take over the NC.
DONE has stated in print, to more than one individual and on more than one occasion, that California State Election Rules do not apply to Neighborhood Councils, yet then threatens a former GRVNC candidate, Marta Evry, who exposed voter fraud in the recent GRVNC elections with legal action under California Election laws. This blatantly shows selective application of State law by DONE, in addition to obvious retaliatory actions on the part of DONE to the individual who exposed said voter fraud.
DONE has obviously failed in in its investigation of allegations of voter fraud in the GRVNC elections in not verifying that absentee ballots were actually requested by several individuals. DONE has also failed in verifying stakeholder status of absentee voters in its investigation. Greg Nelson of DONE made disparaging comments regarding a former GRVNC candidate in a public meeting.
It is obvious to me and should be to others, that DONE and the 2003 GRVNC Elections is a farce, a joke, and a total waste of taxpayer money. It is obvious to me and should be to others that Mr. Greg Nelson rules DONE and the NC system as his own personal fiefdom, and that he is not a part of the NC system, but that the NC system is a part of him.
In the days immediately following DONE's appointment of new board members, which is in itself questionable, new board members are openly subverting the current GRVNC President by rescheduling an already scheduled Executive Board meeting. As an Executive Board member, I was not informed of any discussion that would change the already posted General Board meeting of October 8,
2003 to September 29, 2003.
It is for these reasons and more that I respectfully resign my position as Government Relations Officer of GRVNC effective Monday, September 29, 2003.
I further request that any personal information, including contact information, be purged from the GRVNC records.
Naomi Nightingale, Oakwood Representative:
I am submitting my resignation effective Monday, September 29, 2003 for two reasons: My absence from the Oakwood community due my work and travel schedule and secondly I wanted to wait until the election results. Although I had considered resignation for a period of time I wanted to see the election process through and then submit my resignation at the October board meeting.
With the newly elected board, I have chosen to hand in my resignation with other founders of the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council. I want to thank the Oakwood and the Venice community for their trust in my leadership and their support and I would like them to know I am still available to assist in whatever ways I can.
Homeowners of Encino (HOME) serves as a watchdog over community issues. It monitors the work of elected officials, Neighborhood/Community Councils, Van Nuys Airport, etc. HOME is NOT another form of Neighborhood Council, that by law must represent Chambers of Commerce, business interests, developers, apartment associations, high-rise building owners, homeless, and "anyone who lives, works or owns property" in a community. HOME's mission on the other hand is to preserve the single-family habitability of our community.
As such, it actively addresses issues of traffic, congestion, aircraft noise, over-development, sign blight and air pollution. While Neighborhood Councils seek to be all things to all people, HOME targets issues that specifically affect the residential quality of life, and is NOT under the control of the City of Los Angeles Department of Neighborhoods (DONE).
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