NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS

SKID ROW-There is talk throughout Skid Row about the anticipated creation of a neighborhood council in an area commonly known as “the homeless capitol of America.” As the Skid Row NC- Formation Committee continues to reach out to fellow stakeholders and field questions, there is a growing concern about whether the City of LA’s NC certification process will actually support this much-needed governing body. 

Presently, Skid Row is part of the Downtown Los Angeles NC and has been since DLANC’s inception in 2002. Unfortunately, while the rest of Downtown has benefited greatly from a frenzied revitalization effort (Including Downtown City Council rep Jose Huizar’s “Bringing Back Broadway”) which is also embraced by the DLANC, Skid Row has suffered greatly as homelessness has expanded across the city during the 14-year existence of the DLANC. 

Because Skid Row is already part of an existing NC, a “subdivision” vote including all DLANC stakeholders, will determine whether Skid Row is “allowed” to separate and form its own NC. 

What happens if Skid Row’s NC efforts are voted down? 

Is a lawsuit the next step? Where’s Skid Row’s evidence to present in court? 

A governing document for Neighborhood Councils, “Plan for a Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils,” is used by DONE, the city’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (also known as EmpowerLA) to oversee each of the current 96 NCs. Under Goals and Objectives, it states in #4: “Ensure equal opportunity to form NC’s and participate in the governmental decision making and problem solving processes.” In #5 it is stated, “Create an environment in which all people can organize and propose their own Certified NC so they develop from the grassroots of the community.” 

Further, in Article II, under Desired Characteristics of NC, it says in #2, “Certified NC’s…may not discriminate in any of their policies, recommendations or actions against any group on the basis of race, religion, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, age, disability, marital status, income or political affiliation.” 

Now, if all the above “evidence” is truly the case, why should Skid Row be subjected to a subdivision vote where they are at the mercy of all DLANC stakeholders, the majority of whom have never stepped foot in Skid Row? How can they be well-versed enough to partake in such a significant vote that will have such a huge effect on the lives of Skid Row’s residents and stakeholders? 

This week, at the DLANC Planning Committee meeting, a strong turnout of residents who mostly live in South Park and the Historic Core are expected to attend to oppose two different proposed brand-new construction projects creating low-income residential housing buildings in Skid Row that are needed to alleviate the overwhelming lack of homeless housing. Yet, in the same breath, these very same folks want the City of LA to put an end to all the homeless tents and encampments. It can’t be both. 

Obviously, the best way to get rid of tents and encampments is to create more housing, which is exactly what these new housing projects intend to do. But it’s this continuous back and forth confusion that has created a perplexing stagnation making it virtually impossible to put a significant dent in the massive homeless numbers, let alone “end homelessness” altogether. It’s well-documented that the DLANC only listens to their most affluent constituents regarding new housing construction in DTLA. The City of Los Angeles must intervene before homelessness thwarts LA’s own 2024 Summer Olympics hopes. 

Knowing what we know about DLANC and the selfish desires of a handful of “Downtown’s inner circle” who want to control all of DTLA forever -- even to the point where homelessness has expanded into more populated areas across the city -- should Skid Row be subjected to a subdivision vote led by these insensitive “down-lookers”? 

Shouldn’t the City of Los Angeles create an “alternative process option” which would ensure the Skid Row community will have an “equal opportunity” to create its own NC? 

And YES, there’s much more evidence to present in a court of law. 

For the City of LA not to adhere to the “Plan for a Citywide System of NC’s” document is to violate the Los Angeles City Charter and Administrative Code, specifically Article IX-Department of Neighborhood Empowerment-Sections 900-914. 

This “Plan” document was first approved and adopted into the City Charter in May, 2001 and has been amended nine times, the latest being in December, 2013. In addition, Section 1, Division 22, Chapter 28, Subsections 22.800-22.814 of the Administrative Code should be examined. That’s all that can be said publicly at this time. 

Skid Row community leaders are indeed prepared to file a lawsuit. Fourteen years under DLANC’s control and not one Community Impact Statement (CIS) concerning Skid Row has been officially filed by the DLANC stating its collective position on matters related to Skid Row and homelessness. Is this because they don’t want to be exposed? 

The City Council passed the City’s “Comprehensive Homeless Strategic Plan” in January of this year and the DLANC was silent. Also, a “State of Emergency” declaration regarding homelessness was publicly discussed on separate occasions by both Mayor Garcetti and the LA City Council. Again, DLANC remained silent. Surely, a Skid Row NC would have submitted a CIS form because the previously mentioned topics speak directly to what is hands-down Skid Row’s priority issue – homelessness. Most importantly, the solutions that come out of Skid Row from its own NC could also be examples of what should be done across the whole City. 

But can Skid Row afford to wait another fourteen years for the DLANC to finally act? Or should the City of LA work to bypass a DLANC stakeholder subdivision vote and willingly accommodate a Skid Row NC request to certify? 

This is a life or death situation for the Skid Row community – one that requires immediate action on behalf of the City of Los Angeles. 

Skid Row ‘bout ta get lawyered up ya’ll!

(General Jeff is a homelessness activist and leader in Downtown Los Angeles. Jeff’s views are his own.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

MY TURN--One of the most successful parts of the Neighborhood Council System is the work done by its "Budget Advocates." Briefly, each of the 96 Neighborhood Councils is supposed to appoint a Budget Representative. They in turn elect three representatives from each region and these thirty-six brave souls spend the better part of the year working on recommendations for the Mayor's Budget. In the last five years, the Budget Advocates have recommended more than 150 suggestions of which more than a third have been adopted; a third are still up for discussion; and the final third has disappeared to the “black hole.” 

Last Saturday, more than 160 of these representatives spent most of the Budget Advocate

Day at City Hall listening to LA City Controller Ron Galperin and CAO Miguel Santana discuss the City budget – what monies are coming in…and what’s going out for fiscal year 2017-2018. 

This subject (a weighty one for a Saturday morning), was covered in an intensive program that also included the State of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) address delivered by General Manager Grayce Liu. The keynote address was given by City Council President Herb Wesson and there were presentations of the pros and cons concerning two of the City bond issues appearing on the November 8 ballot. City Council Budget and Finance Chair Paul Krekorian also spoke to the group. 

The audience was treated to a jocular Herb Wesson who told them how valuable they were to both the City and to him personally. He had changed the jurisdiction over Neighborhood Councils away from the previously inactive Education committee and placed it with his Rules Committee. He talked about the progress he had made with the NCs, including giving them more time to address the Council and increasing their funding. 

He also said that, starting in January 2017, the finances and funding for the NCs would move to the City Clerk's office. Handling the finances for ninety-six individual NCs has caused a real bottleneck; sometimes people are so concerned about failing that they don't try anything new, said Wesson. He thinks that the NC is a great system but must receive constantly updating. (See my July 21, 2016 article in CityWatch.)  

Getting the funding increased to where it was in 2009 is another item on Wesson’s list, although he did manage to get an additional $5000 added to each NC’s budget last year. (This is the subject for a future article.) NCs should develop a template for how to spend their funding given that many of them finished last year with funds left over. Currently there is no rollover, so what isn't spent goes back to the City’s General Fund. 

Many of this year’s budget representatives are new to the city budget process. I have now been to five of these Budget Advocate days and I’m at least aware of what all of it means. Some of the newbies have a real education in front of them. 

Miguel Santana broke down the $8,776,961,274 budget, making it a little easier to understand. 

As an example, let's use one dollar and see how it is divided: 

43.2     Community Safety

29.1     Home &Community Environment

11.1     Transportation

6.7      Cultural, Educational and Recreational Services

2.4       Human Resources, Economic Assistance and Development

7.5      General Administration and Support 

If you are interested in seeing how these categories break down you can find them on the CAO website. 

CAO Santana has been in that position for seven years. He talked about the budget being a "declaration of principles and values." Priorities are restoring funds to the Fire Department and getting new equipment. The City is hiring more than 200 additional firefighters. Getting civilians to man the administrative departments for the Police will allow more uniformed police to be on the streets and become more engaged in the various communities. Public safety spending is the largest allocation from the budget. 

Los Angeles has a huge homeless problem and the cost just to maintain that particular group never ends. Santana said that running the government is an ongoing process that never stops.   

One of the really neat things that Controller Ron Galperin has accomplished is his "LA Portal" website. Go to www.lacontroller.org and you can explore your neighborhood and streets with interactive maps of City properties, crime stats, street paving and more. You can also see every check written by the City and how it is allocated -- along with why we spend ten million dollars for gloves. 

Ron Galperin started his political life as an NC Budget Advocate and the rest is history. LA has won awards for its transparent financial disclosures. Galperin sets the transparency bar high; the majority of our "electeds" are not even close. Not only that, but he is always accessible and really enjoys the interaction with his constituents. He also listens...an unusual attribute for a politician. 

I really miss our former Deputy Mayor in charge of Budget and Innovation, Rick Cole. The City of Santa Monica is most fortunate to have him as its General Manager. He used to attend Budget Advocate Days, actually staying on to visit during the regional breakout sessions. I saw no one from the Mayor's office there on Saturday. 

Each year, the Budget Advocates put together a "White Paper" to present to the Mayor, the City Council and to the Budget and Finance Committee. They only had one meeting with the Mayor this year. 

Councilmember Krekorian also lauded the BA group for their participation and invaluable help. He reminded them that in 2010, there was a billion dollar budget deficit that caused 15% cuts almost across the Board; this was because the City Charter calls for a balanced budget. Today, LA has the largest reserve in its history. A former once LA Mayor predicted that LA would be broke in three years. Instead, its credit rating has gone up in the last four years, as has economic activity. In the last three years, LA has spent $30 million for sidewalk repairs and has generated 15,000 youth summer jobs. 

According to outgoing BA Chair, Terrence Gomes, President of the Los Angeles Alliance of Neighborhood Councils (LAANC,) the Budget Advocates interview each City Department Manager, talk to their stakeholders, have regular meetings and take into consideration the needs of their neighborhoods. Los Angeles is vast in geography, diversity and economics. The BAs make an effort to include all points of view since, for example, the Harbor area has different challenges than, say, the Northern San Fernando Valley. 

Representative Pauletta Tonilas from LA Metro gave a nuts and bolts presentation as to why it was very important to pass a half-cent tax for LA Metro expansion. Budget Advocate and CityWatch columnist Jack Humphreville gave equally compelling reasons why it should be defeated. 

Councilman Jose Huizar's Policy Director, Martin Schlageter, discussed the benefits the Homeless Bond would provide. Jay Handal, well known community activist and incoming Co-Chair of the Budget Advocates for 2017/2018, talked about a more effective way to finance and resolve LA's homelessness crisis. 

We will be examining all the pros and cons in CityWatch over the next couple of months of both of these Bond issues and other items on the ballot. 

BA Co-chairs Terrence Gomes and Liz Amsted organized and executed an information-packed day.   Ms. Amsden was re-elected co-chair of the Budget Advocates for next year, along with Jay Handal who held the position previously. One has to remember that these BAs, even though elected by their peers and neighborhoods, do not get paid and are lucky if they can even park for free at City Hall for meetings. 

I visited several of the regional breakout rooms and saw that it was a very good example of democracy in action. After the last two weeks of our Presidential campaign, I felt a sense of comfort that, at least here -- where the tire hits the pavement – we’re doing a good job. 

As always comments welcome.

(Denyse Selesnick is a CityWatch columnist. She is a former publisher/journalist/international event organizer. Denyse can be reached at: [email protected]) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.)

GELFAND’S WORLD--A recent CityWatch article by James Preston Allen has generated considerable controversy and no little excitement. Allen's article is presented as an open letter to LA City Council President Herb Wesson, and deals with the relationship between LA government and its neighborhood council system. In particular, Mr Allen is critical of the way that neighborhood council governing board members were elected down here in the harbor area a few weeks ago. 

Well, I have to agree with James that the voting process was a mess. We might remember that the original concept of the neighborhood council was a gathering of neighbors to discuss their mutual concerns. The original definition for eligibility was to live, work, or own property within your neighborhood council district. It was an attempt to bring in everyone who has a true stake in the community, and to prevent organized groups of outsiders from taking over. 

Unfortunately, the city has changed the rules with frightening regularity, expanding the definition of eligible voter (aka stakeholder) one year, then pulling back a couple of years later. This year, the city decided that anyone claiming to be a member of a Facebook organization would be eligible to vote in neighborhood council elections. The idea seems absurd on its face, but there it is. 

There was some kind of theoretical limitation. Supposedly, the Facebook groups had to operate within the neighborhood council's district. But in practice, this was meaningless. All you had to do was pick up an identification card from one of the participating groups, and you were free to go. The result in my neighborhood council was that we had opposing groups setting up shop right down the block from the polling place. They were handing out membership cards to everyone who asked. 

Then the insta-voters were allowed to cast ballots in our election. Yes, I can see why James Allen wants a review of the system. 

Where I differ with James is in his proposed remedies. I suspect our differences stem from our differing perspectives. I therefore would like to consider the James Allen proposals according to my own experience.

To begin with a point of clarification, let me explain that DONE is the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, which oversees the neighborhood council system in Los Angeles. the DONE election manual that James mentions (below) refers to the set of rules created by DONE for carrying out neighborhood council elections. 

Here are the three main proposals in Allen's article, as addressed to the President of the Los Angeles City Council: 

What I ask of you, President Wesson, are these: 

1. To empanel a commission of 15 former neighborhood council presidents based upon their seniority and experience, chosen by you and not the local council office, to review and reform the DONE election manual.

2. To empanel a commission formed at the next Congress of Neighborhood Empowerment to draft a Citizen’s Bill of Rights for the City of Los Angeles.

3. To provide enough resources so that each city council district has its own DONE lawyer who will actually attend meetings so as to provide timely legal advice and represent them as their client rather than protecting the department and the city first.

Let's consider the first proposal, because to my mind, it's the crux of the matter. The suggestion is to review and rewrite the election rules, not in and of itself a bad thing. The problem is that Allen's proposed process uses a procedure which is entirely top-down.

It starts with the City Council President at the top, and he decides who gets to decide. That's three-quarters of the game right there. You can be sure that controversial people and deep thinkers will be left off any such committee. The select committee would have another defect. It's created out of a select few -- former neighborhood council presidents -- who are given the power to go off by themselves and make decisions for the rest of us.

That this should be an unwelcome approach is immediately obvious to the thousands of us who have never been neighborhood council presidents. We would be disenfranchised.

You might also ask, why should we expect that neighborhood council presidents are the ones who should be given the authority to write the rule book for our elections? How does this fit with the concept of choosing those with the most knowledge and ability to carry out a task?

I would like to offer a couple of real-life examples of how to create a useful review committee and how not to do it.

First, let's consider a process that actually worked. Several years ago, neighborhood councils were faced with a proposal that came out of the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. The BONC is the appointed commission that is supposed to set overall policy within the entire system. The proposal -- somewhat vague at the start, but for that very reason threatening to many of our hard-won gains -- was that DONE and the BONC would come up with a single set of bylaws that would be imposed upon all neighborhood councils. Since we are so different from each other in so many ways, this created a quiet firestorm of disapproval. What could we do? What did we do?

As private individuals and through the citywide neighborhood council alliance, we created a taskforce to deal with the bylaws issue. Instead of asking one of the top elected officials to appoint a select committee, we simply announced that everyone was welcome to attend and participate. It was "come one, come all," and they did. We had people from all over the city, as well as members of the BONC and representatives from DONE. We came up with a proposal that was satisfying to the neighborhood councils and to city officials, and which did a minimum of harm. The city got what it wanted, which turned out to be that each neighborhood council had bylaws arranged in the same order (it was amazing to us how little the officials actually wanted). Neighborhood councils didn't have to restructure themselves.

The reason I bring up this example is to point out that we created the taskforce because the top-down system had failed us. You could say that we created our process in direct opposition to the top-down system.

Our bottom-up process brought fresh blood into the discussion, got us a lot of ideas to toss around, and ultimately allowed us to agree on a plan that was effectively without opposition. Had the process been top-down and behind closed doors, I doubt that the outcome would have been accepted so easily.

The wide-open system had another virtue: It seemed to provide comfort to people who heard about the process and couldn't make the meetings. Everyone, even those who did not attend, understood that anybody could attend and anybody could object to any element of our plan. They understood that their own concerns would be raised by someone at some point.

Compare that to Allen's proposal number 1, which calls for the second-most powerful politician in the city (maybe the most powerful) to choose from a select list -- that of former presidents. There are several thousand people who have participated in the neighborhood council system over the years, and most of us have never been neighborhood council presidents.

Now I would like to offer an example of how a top-down system worked poorly. The 1999 city Charter amendment that created the neighborhood council system called for a review within 7 years. Thus in the mid-2000s we had the Neighborhood Council Review Commission (NCRC). Its members were appointed by the city council representatives and by the mayor. It was just the sort of select committee that James Allen proposes. The NCRC managed to meet for almost a year, spent a huge amount of money, and then took a modest problem -- the definition of who is eligible to vote and participate in neighborhood councils -- and made it into the chronic disaster it is today. Out of the NCRC debacle, we saw the extension of voting rights through the creation of a new definition, the "Factual Basis Stakeholder." This effectively made every neighborhood council election open to any and every person. The FB stakeholder definition has more recently been modified and given another name but it's still the extension of the franchise to the whole world.

I agree that our elections are a mess. I just don't agree with the proposed method to create the review process. I don't think it would even get to the right questions, much less the right answers.

By the way, the easiest and most philosophically defensible approach to fixing our election problems is to limit neighborhood council stakeholder status to those who live within the neighborhood council's district. That would solve a lot of problems. The next most logical approach is to go back to the original definition of "lives, works, or owns property within the district." Simple. I sympathize with the idea that we should fix our electoral problems for once and for all. But the way to fix the system is not through the old smoke filled room.

A couple of other comments on a different subject

Allen begins the development of his argument with a good point. The city of Los Angeles is too populous to be well served by a City Council of only 15 members. Each council member represents more than a quarter of a million inhabitants. Allen suggests that neighborhood councils might take up some of the slack:

"The time is fast approaching that the neighborhood council structure should evolve into a kind of bicameral governance system. This is not an uncommon solution in democracies that attain significant size and budget."

I imagine that James is suggesting that the mass of neighborhood councils could function as an equivalent to a second house in a state legislature, but at the municipal level.

This is not so much a radical idea as it is an unlikely idea. It's the sort of structural specification that comes up in a constitutional convention prior to the establishment of a state or a county. I've lived in a lot of places in several states, and I've never seen a city or county with a two-house legislative body. 

There is, however, an idea that has been floating around for decades. The suggestion is that Los Angeles be divided into boroughs, something akin to the system that New York uses. It would have the virtue that districts are not left to the mercies of single individuals, as our current city council district system does. The borough proposal is also unlikely to be fulfilled, but it has the virtue of having been considered carefully by experts in local governance and shown to work in practice.

And finally proposals 2 and 3, one dealing with a Citizens' Bill of Rights, and the other calling for the city to provide City Attorneys for our neighborhood council meetings

I'd like to know what the Citizens' Bill of Rights is about. It might be a good idea. It might not. I suspect that James already has something in mind, but I don't know what it is. The best way to discuss such things in City Watch or at the annual Congress of Neighborhood Councils is to be provided the specifics. Once again, I'm not all that impressed with a process that starts with the appointment of a select panel by the elected officials or, as an alternative, by a one-day meeting that isn't structured to function as an appointive body.

As to proposal 3, the provision of City Attorneys, it seems like a reasonable idea, but we are talking a lot of expense here, and I'm not sure what the upside is. Since neighborhood councils do not pass laws, the intricate sort of legal work that is done by the City Attorney's office is unnecessary. It would be useful to have somebody with knowledge of the law and Roberts Rules in attendance at neighborhood council meetings, but I doubt that we require the presence of a licensed attorney.

(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected]) 

-cw