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When is a Law not a Law? When DONE Says So |
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CityWatch Opinion
Editorial
Only because I read about it in CityWatch did I know that the day, time, and place have been selected for the first ever Regional Congress of Neighborhoods involving the South Los Angeles neighborhood councils. There isn’t even a hint about it on DONE’s website.
It’s great that the event is happening, and it would be even greater if
this were to be replicated in the other parts of the city. But why the
secrecy?
The date of the event, May 17, is about the time that the next citywide Congress of Neighborhoods would normally occur. The laws of the neighborhood council system require that there be two of these citywide events each year.
The reasoning was that it is important for neighborhood council leaders from across the city to get together twice a year to discuss the things that divide them and those that will bring them together.
My fear is that somehow, without any public or private discussions with all the neighborhood councils, a decision has been made to just simply skip one of those valuable events and replace it with a regional one.
Although there may be strong arguments for wanting a change, the fact that the requirement is clearly part of the law means that the law should first be changed following a public discussion.
This is important because the neighborhood councils were told that it was up to them to plan the Congresses. And, there were some serious glitches in the execution of that idea last October when councils were ostensibly in charge.
Many of the NC planners will remember that at the last minute DONE changed the program. Despite the fact that the neighborhood councils insisted that the only politician to speak would be the mayor, it didn’t go unnoticed that the stage was crammed with city officials who strong-armed their way into speaking. There is concern that the neighborhood councils have lost control of their Congress of Neighborhoods.
And, perhaps most important, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment should be the last city agency to retreat from the fundamental concepts of participatory democracy and collaboration with the neighborhood councils. Or, to finesse the law and make up their own rules.
--Greg Nelson
CityWatch
-CW-
CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 32
Published: April 18, 2008
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