NEIGHBORHOODS LA - A CityWatch column on August 26th reported that the Westlake North Neighborhood Council board election town hall this Saturday (9/17) would be held at the Rampart Police Community Room on 6th Street, just west of downtown Los Angeles.
The WNNC election committee has made a last minute change to move the 2 pm election meeting to a nearby senior citizens residence building at 455 South Union Avenue. Instead of having a venue at Rampart where there is plenty of parking available, the new location has almost no street parking on the heavily populated Union Avenue, a block north of 6th Street.
The last minute change reinforced criticism of interim WNNC board members that they have tried to hold down turnout for this election.
The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) printed hundreds of full color flyers announcing the date, time and location of the election at Rampart, but reports from the community show that almost none were posted by the election committee.
DONE has called the election process a "selection," in order to exempt it from the established neighborhood council rules and regulations governing NC board elections. But by referring to the event as a "selection meeting," the process falls under the Brown Act section 54953(c), which prohibits secret balloting, the announced procedure for Saturday.
The Westlake South Neighborhood Council also has "outreach" problems. The WSNC election committee, despite several weeks of recruiting, has been able to find only ten local residents, business people and "factual basis" candidates to run for the 15-member board. Its election will also be held this Saturday.
As I said last time, if the “1% solution were adopted, most of LA’s NCs wouldn’t get a dime.
(Jennifer Solis has lived her entire 25 years in Westlake and is working toward her PhD in clinical psychology. She takes comments at [email protected] ) –cw
Tags: Westlake Neighborhood Councils, neighborhood council elections, WNNC, WSNC, DONE, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, Brown Act, Rampart Police Community Room, Rampart
CityWatch
Vol 9 Issue 74
Pub: Sept 16, 2011