CommentsCITYWATCH TODAY—All due respect … as our electeds like to say … CityWatch writer Ken Alpern was flat out wrong when he said in a recent column that former Mayor Richard Riordan “came up with the concept of neighborhood councils.” I know. I was there.
Riordan not only didn’t come up with the idea, he wasn’t a big supporter of the idea … until he figured out that it could help him get more control of the city’s reins. Riordan wanted more control in the Mayor’s hands and went to the Charter to make that happen. Neighborhood councils and more power for the mayor were the big issues in the proposed 1999 Charter. Riordan decided that it would be easier to sell voters on neighborhood councils than the power grab. That’s when he decided to support NCs.
As for who brought the neighborhood council idea to LA, as we’ve discussed often in CityWatch, Joel Wachs … with the inspiration of his Chief of Staff, Greg Nelson … came up with the NC idea and Joel made it a part of his campaign in 1992 when he ran for Mayor. In 1996, it was Joel’s motion to form neighborhood councils that got the process started. In all due respect. Credit where credit is due.
What has all of this got to do with Today’s CityWatch? Denyse Selesnick writes about Dave De Pinto’s Shadow Hills Home Owner’s Association taking a stand in the High Speed Rail debate. A hundred or so of the SHHOA folks were out protesting and making their case. Denyse mentions that this is what LA’s neighborhood council creators had in mind when they introduced the NC idea … back in ’92 and ’96. Joel and Greg imagined neighborhood councils as the missing voice at City Hall for communities all over the city. Not only taking stands on the dreams and wishes of their neighborhoods but actually writing legislation and making their presence felt at council and committee meetings.
Today, only a few of LA’s neighborhood councils grasp the concept. Most think they’re job is to dispense the funding provided them by the city. And, to constantly rework their bylaws.
Ten years or so ago, Los Angeles neighborhood councils … led by Jim Alger … came together and forced the nation’s largest and most powerful publically owned utility (DWP) to sit down and negotiate an agreement with them.
They argued that the Charter gives neighborhood councils not just a right but a responsibility to speak up on behalf of their neighborhoods on things like utility rate increases. In order to do that, they argued, the DWP has to agree to let them know about possible rate increases far enough in advance for them to find out what their neighborhoods want … and then, to let the DWP know before the rate increases are considered or approved by City Council and its committees.
DWP sat and negotiated with representatives from 50-plus neighborhood councils for nine months and hammered out an agreement. It was first and most important step toward credibility for LA’s NCs. But then, that was yesterday … when LA’s neighborhood councils used to say, ‘We’re going to change the way the city does business.’
The candle is flickering in Venice. The Venice NC is having a discussion on whether Venice should succeed from the City … because they feel their neighborhood is giving City Hall more than they’re getting back. Maybe all hope for our neighborhood council idea shouldn’t be abandoned. In the meantime, Angelenos will look to Dave De Pinto and the Shadow Hills folks … and other groups like theirs … to take on City Hall and to be a voice for the people. And, maybe even change the way the city does business.
Check out Denyse Selesnick’s column. In Today’s CityWatch. Let us know what you think.
Ken Draper-Editor, CityWatch
