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912 Ready to Etch Report in Stone |
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Final Report
By Ken Draper
The 912 Panel (NC Review Commission) is ready to etch its final report in stone. They will meet next Tuesday to dot the ‘I’s” and give a final OK to the result of their year and three month effort. This NCRC Final Report will be submitted to the City Council on the 25th.
The question is: where will it go from there?
Using history as an indicator, we have a pretty good idea of how the day in council will go. The Commission will make its presentation. Some will praise and thank them for their commitment and for the comprehensiveness and breadth of their report. Some will take time … even early on … to question some of the findings and to offer up their own views (read: conclusions) on some of the subject matter. Then, off it will go to various committees for further scrutiny and possible action. Or, not.
From this point, no one seems ready to hazard a guess on whether the NCRC’s report will actually be given much priority. Will actually generate any action. Will actually change anything.
But, stranger things have happened at City Hall … and, to neighborhood councils at City Hall. (Most will recall the impassioned attack on the veracity of NCs by Jack Weiss when the Council File Number issue found its way to the council agenda. Or the attempt by Tony Cardenas to 245 the NC/DWP agreement. After weeks of NC committee work, a proposal to improve the Early Notification System died in Alex Padilla’s Rules Committee for lack of interest. Or agreement.)
But these are different times. Half of the 912 Commission was appointed by the City Council. One reason the commission is so large is because City Council members wanted to be able to make those appointments. A number of NC issues that have come to Council committees have been shuffled off to the 912 folks to work out. And, there are those who believe that City Council support for neighborhood councils has grown. In some cases, out of necessity.
The next few weeks will tell us if that support can translate into a will to make sure that the committed work of the 912 Commission gets acted on in a timely fashion and produces the important course corrections for LA’s neighborhood council system that the Charter intended. _
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