CommentsADVICE TO NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS-In my previous article last week, I promised to begin providing some specific examples of how neighborhood councils can become the most powerful political force in the city.
Let’s begin with report cards.
Legally, neighborhood councils cannot donate money to political candidates unlike unions, lobbyists, and special interest groups. But that should be no impediment to the ability of the councils to flex their considerable muscles.
Politicians love money because they convert it into attempts to convince the voters to love them at election time.
They print lawn signs, buy media ads, and crank out mailers. These methods are effective primarily because voters don’t have any other meaningful source of information about the candidates, so they pick the one whose name is familiar.
The end result is too often the election of the same old politicians who do the “dance of the lemons” as they move from one layer of government to another on the strength of their names.
Certainly, candidates present their ideas during the few candidates’ forums that are held, but messages are easily lost in the cacophony of noise that is generated at campaign time. And tactful incumbents avoid these forums because of their built-in advantages.
Neighborhood councils can change that dynamic. They can provide voters with information that sorts out the candidates in a meaningful way and holds the winners accountable to their promises.
One former city councilman told me about the advice he got from the mayor at the time when he was a first-time political candidate. The mayor told him to make whichever promises he needed to make to ensure his election, and then after getting sworn in, do whatever he wanted because the public would forget the promises.
The report card process could begin with each neighborhood council agreeing upon a list of goals that they expect their councilmember to at least try to achieve for the betterment of their community.
For now, forget about anything that is contentious. A councilmember can easily ignore a goal that was adopted by an 8-7 vote. Pick only those items that send the message that the entire neighborhood council is behind them.
Form a small working group to draft an initial list, so the full board or committee has something to build upon. This is the same thing that city staff would do for a city council committee.
During the development of the list, meet with the councilmember, and look for support. Remember, the goal isn’t to develop a “gotcha” list that is whipped out during a campaign. The goal is to get things done. Get their commitment on as many items as possible. If you disagree on some, that’s fine.
Once a list, which could be just one item, has been adopted, it’s time to get to work. Using money the city gives each neighborhood council, in part to communicate regularly with all of its stakeholders, publish a report card. Be as specific as possible.
The report card shouldn’t just appear at election time, but rather it should be in continuous circulation. Post it on the council’s website. Mail newsletters to stakeholders. Use the council’s email list. Bring it up at every community meeting where the councilmember is present. Be a force.
If this is done responsibly, and the neighborhood council board truly represents the diversity of its area, it might even be possible to get local newspapers to print the report card on a regular basis.
At election time, challenge the candidates to support the council’s goals, but most importantly, grade the job that the incumbent has done in meeting the council’s stated goals.
As I mentioned, neighborhood councils can’t endorse candidates or donate money to them, but there should be no reason why they can’t report to their stakeholders on how well an incumbent has responded to the demands of the neighborhood council.
By having a neighborhood council member present at every community meeting, the city councilmember would be constantly reminded about what they still need to do, and they can be thanked for the good work they’ve done. Spreading sugar when it’s deserved is a powerful tool.
Politicians are used to being constantly criticized for everything under the sun. But if they do something good, and 100 people thank them, the keys to the kingdom will be yours.
Now, the hard part.
Report cards can and should also be used to pressure the mayor and councilmembers into enacting citywide reforms.
Using the power of electronic communication, leaders who are willing to put their personal agendas behind them, need to begin developing lists of citywide changes that all of the city’s neighborhood councils can all agree on.
Proactively affecting citywide decision-making is where neighborhood councils have dropped the ball.
Whether the top priority of your neighborhood council is land-use, racial injustice, taxation, public safety, or parking, etc., why not attempt to change the citywide system by addressing all these issues as a force of 100 neighborhood councils instead of fighting each one alone in your community?
Once a draft list of demands has been developed -- and it might just be one item -- each council should formally discuss and adopt it. Watch the list grow.
Tracking the responses of the elected officials to the citywide goals would be included on the same report card.
The Plan for a Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils, adopted after the neighborhood council system was approved by the voters in 1999, still calls for two Congress of Neighborhood meetings every year.
One meeting could continue to be shaped like a backslapping shareholders’ convention, but the other could be icing on the cake by having those in attendance speak about the adopted demands and wrap it up with a vote. The adoption of citywide action plans was a vision of the system’s drafters.
In this way, elected officials who always want to speak at these events to tell the attendees how great they are, can be forewarned that they will also be asked to commit their support for the list of demands. Now, the neighborhood councils would have either found a way to keep away the parade of politicians who just suck the air out of the room, or the councils gain support for their efforts.
Without getting into detail, some parts of this proposal may raise legal questions. As long as the city attorney remains a possible candidate for mayor, he will be sensitive to the needs of the neighborhood councils if he perceives them as a possible influential political force.
A small group of tactful and rehearsed neighborhood council members should meet with the Office of the City Attorney to see which concerns the office may have with their action plans. It would be wise to include in this group some attorneys, and maybe even former employees of the office.
However, it’s important to remember that city attorneys are, by nature, risk adverse. And the easiest way to avoid risk is to do nothing.
For this reason, neighborhood councils should NEVER ask the city’s attorneys if they can do a desired thing. Instead, they need to explain what they want to accomplish, and ask for advice on how to do it. The city attorney’s job is to give advice. If they feel there is some element of risk, engage them in a discussion of balancing the risks and benefits.
Once the bumpy parts have been ironed out in the background, a public meeting with the city attorney and all neighborhood council presidents could be held. Neighborhood councils would present their concerns and plans, and if everything goes right, the city attorney would give his or her blessing, and everyone wins.
(Greg Nelson is a former general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, was instrumental in the creation of the LA Neighborhood Council System, served as chief of staff for former LA City Councilman Joel Wachs … and occasionally writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected].) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
