NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS - When I worked for the City Council I used to challenge my staff to come up with a motion a day that would attempt to change city laws or improve the fundamental way city government functions.
It wasn’t hard. The daily news provided constant fodder for ideas.
By advertising for volunteer public policy works, neighborhood councils could rush themselves to the forefront in the battle against the status quo.
News Item: The North Hollywood-Toluca Lake Patch published an impressive list of the accomplishments of the Valley Village Neighborhood Council in 2011.
Action: Neighborhood councils could demand that the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment return to the practice of posting on its website the achievements and best practices of the councils so that each can learn from the others. The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners has been asking councils to come to its meetings and report their accomplishments. Yet nothing is included in the board’s minutes or posted on the website. A skeptic might think that city hall doesn’t care.
News Item: Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez wrote on January 15th about the traffic problems that were created around my alma mater, Millikan Middle School, when parents came to collect their kids and ran into a street resurfacing project about which nobody was aware.
Action: City hall has always sucked at communicating with the public. It should be easy these days with the Internet, Twitter, and all. Neighborhood councils should ask the mayor to designate the general manager of the Information Technology Agency to also be the city’s Chief Information Officer, and to generate a list of cost-free ways the city can communicate and interact with the public. It simply can’t be that difficult to tell parents that the local streets will be resurfaced.
News Item: The County Board of Supervisors is considering a proposal that would further restrict the public’s ability to address the board.
Action: Neighborhood councils should be all over this one like ants on a picnic basket. They could begin by insisting that before the board discusses the matter again, discussions be held with neighborhood council representatives. The board members only meet once a week, so spending time listening to, and hopefully interacting with the public shouldn’t be an unreasonable request. The City Council, Board of Education, and Board of Supervisors should use the Internet to permit people to make suggestions, ask questions, and get answers without having to march downtown during a workday.
News Item: Gallup reported that only 11% of American’s approve of the way the U.S. Congress is handling itself … its lowest rating since 1974. A New York Times/CBS poll put the number at 9%. To put that in further perspective, Richard Nixon had a 24% approval rating during the Watergate scandal, and a Rasmussen survey reported that 11% of Americans favor communism. And yet voters continue to re-elect incumbents.
Action: Neighborhood councils could create a national model for American politics by adopting its demands after thorough public discussions, pressing candidates to support them, ensuring that those who get elected are constantly reminded of the demands and their own promises, and create accountability by regularly publishing report cards.
News Item: Yet another elected official is caught doing something illegal, immoral, or fattening.
Action: Neighborhood councils could find volunteers to bring them into the world of ethics reformers. A meeting could be scheduled with the general manager of the over-burdened and under-staffed City Ethics Commission, and create a corps of ethics watchdogs, like police reservists, who are trained and given access to records.
(Greg Nelson participated in the birth and development of the LA Neighborhood Council system and served as the General Manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. He also served as Chief of Staff for former City Councilman Joel Wachs. Nelson now provides news and issues analysis to CityWatch. He can be reached at: [email protected] .) -cw
Tags: Greg Nelson, Los Angeles, Neighborhood Councils, LA’s Neighborhood Councils, NCs, Congress, Neighborhood Council Congress, leaders, leadership, Neighborhood Council leadership, County Board of Supervisors, City Ethics Commission, Millikan Middle School, LA Times, Steve Lopez
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 6
Pub: Jan 19, 2012