By Greg Nelson

Shortly, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment will have a new general manager, and hopefully a new attitude.

A system that is controlled by City Hall cannot succeed as an example of participatory democracy.  You can’t order people to participate in government.  Therefore, I am offering these 10 totally unsolicited suggestions to the new general manager.

1. IMPROVE MORALE IN THE DEPARTMENT before you do anything else.  Meet with staff individually so that they may speak freely.  Abolish the rules that treat them like children.  Not only accept their ideas, and their critiques of your ideas, but actually encourage them.  Make it fun to come to work again.  Keep the door to your office open as often as possible.

2. RETURN TO THE FUNDAMENTALS by ensuring that the department’s primary function is assisting the Neighborhood Councils and not controlling them.  
Show them how to reach the traditionally disenfranchised populations, how to deal with disruptive people, and how to develop credibility.  One of the golden rules of community organizing is to never do for a group what they can do for themselves.   It’s the old “teach them how to fish” thing.

3. KEEP THE BUREAUCRACY TO A MINIMUM.  The most valuable commodity that the Neighborhood Council members have is their time.  Between work, family, and other volunteer activities, their time is limited.  The system was designed without excessive rules and a bureaucracy to enforce them.  The plan was to empower the Neighborhood Councils, respect their creativity, and re-evaluate the plan through the Neighborhood Council Review Commission.  To over-regulate now based upon inadequate information would be a mistake, and it would disrespect the commission’s mandate.

4. COMMUNICATE WITH THE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS.  The department has an online newsletter list of many thousands, but it’s pretty much used just to notify people about upcoming meetings.  Substantive announcements are limited to the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, and the one or two persons who are around late enough to hear them.  

5. BE THE NATION’S CHEERLEADER FOR NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS AND PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY.  The media can be your friends.  Be honest with them and they’ll be fair to you.  The DONE website includes newspaper articles about Neighborhood Councils so that anyone who wants to be impressed by their accomplishments, or to just be more knowledgeable about them can find what they need.  

6. MAKE THE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS YOUR PARTNERS.  It’s difficult to convince people to be more involved with government if government ignores them.  Return to the practice of developing rules, policies, and laws, and solving problems through working groups within which Neighborhood Council volunteers and city staff work together and share ownership of the work product.  Do things with Neighborhood Councils and not just to them.

7. GIVE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO SUCCEED.  This pretty much means providing them with the education and training that they want, including the best practices of other Neighborhood Councils, and giving them a chance to utilize these tools before imposing new regulations.  But remember the strain that mandatory training places on volunteers with limited time, and consider how much higher you want to see the bar raised above what’s required of the decision-makers that the Neighborhood Councils advise.

8. ENHANCE TRANSPARENCY AND EARLY NOTIFICATION.  Many feel that the Early Warning section was the most important part of the new City Charter.  More people would get involved in government if they knew what DONE and BONC were doing, why it is important, and how they can share their thoughts.

9. MAKE THE CONGRESS OF NEIGHBORHOODS about Neighborhood Councils – the way it was intended.  

10. ENJOY YOURSELF.  It isn’t like you’re in charge of the 9-1-1 Center.  It ain’t about world peace!

(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.) _