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Telling the BONC What to Do |
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Empowerment Report
By Greg Nelson
The two city charter reform commissions had completed about 98% of their work before they gave any thought to creating a commission to go along with the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.
 I mention this not to demean the commission, but to help explain why
it’s role in the neighborhood empowerment system has been less than
crystal clear, and why it has been struggling to find something to do
short of running the department.
Previous commissions went way beyond anyone’s expectations by certifying new neighborhood councils at breakneck speed as applications were received. When the adrenaline rush was over, the newly-appointed commissioners found themselves in search of projects.
Here are some suggestions for them:
Recommend changes to the rules for certification.
This one is easy to ignore because it seems that there won’t be many more applicants asking to be certified. Not so.
Three neighborhood councils have been decertified and we are awaiting new applications. There are at least five large identified neighborhoods that are without councils. And at least one neighborhood council has been trying for years to split into smaller parts to become more effective. (Note to DONE: the map on your website that displays this information is nearly two years old and out of date.)
City Charter Section 901 (a) requires that all parts of the city be covered by a neighborhood council. Creating them is the department’s primary responsibility, and that job is unfinished.
The proposed city budget includes $387,500 for the asking to fund new neighborhood councils. That would pay for seven neighborhood councils if they were all to begin receiving money on July 1, which isn’t going to happen, or 15 if they were to start up by January 1, 2009.
The process through which applications are approved needs improvement. The City Council could make changes on its own, but the commission should discuss and recommend a new process through which neighborhood councils can “subdivide” themselves into more manageable, neighborhood-like areas, something that was anticipated from the moment that BONC certified the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council and its 85,000 residents.
Size matters!
Change the posting requirements.
As part of the certification requirement, BONC determined that neighborhood councils must post board and committee agendas in at least five physical locations. There are three problems with this: 1) it raises the bar far beyond what’s required of BONC and the City Council that only have to post in one physical location, 2) realizing that some neighborhood councils have 20 or 30 standing committees, the effort needed to post all these agendas is drain on the time of the volunteer participants, and 3) almost no one finds out about neighborhood council or City Council meetings by wandering to physical posting locations. This requirement can only be changed by BONC.
Dedicate some time to help the neighborhood council system.
At an upcoming meeting, each commissioner should explain how he or she will use their contacts, influence, or time to help improve the neighborhood council system. Maybe it’s making contact with public schools, the teachers’ union, nonprofits, youth organizations, immigrant communities, or unions to find ways to connect them with neighborhood councils. Maybe it’s finding instructors or sources of funding for the educational classes. Serving as a commissioner should mean more than just showing up to meetings twice a month and telling other people what to do.
Adopt a conflict of interest policy.
As does the Information Technology Commission, at the beginning of each meeting the commissioners are asked, one at a time, if they feel they have any conflicts of interest regarding any of the items on the agenda, and if they have had any private communications with any of the applicants when certain approvals are being sought. Aside from being a constant reminder about conflicts of interest, this would help assure that each commissioner would have the same information when making important decisions.
(Greg Nelson participated in the birth and development of the LA Neighborhood Council system and most recently served as the General Manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. Nelson now provides news and issues analysis to CityWatch.) You can reach Greg Nelson at
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CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 36
Pub: May 2, 2008
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