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 [ ARCHIVE ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=16)

#  LA’s Neighborhood Councils: Death by a Thousand Cuts

September 03 2015

Written by Tony Butka.

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![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Sept-2015/072b.png)NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS-I haven’t been paying much attention to DONE (Department of Neighborhood Empowerment) and the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners lately, figuring that they are mostly an empty shell. Then I noticed that both [Bob Gelfand](https://www.citywatchla.com/archive/9521-mayor-garcetti-mystifies-and-irritates-1700-unpaid-volunteers) and [Denyse Selesnick](https://www.citywatchla.com/4box-right/9557-the-summer-of-my-discontent-la-version) actually agreed that something rotten is going on, so it’s time to pay attention.

DONE was already on my mind last week when my Neighborhood Council (and presumably all the other neighborhood councils) had our “approved” Bylaws sent to us by “*Mother, May I?”* DONE. It had been so long since we sent them to DONE I had forgotten the whole matter. After all, responding to a **May** 1,2015 submission deadline at the end of **August** is not exactly a timely review.

I knew there was a rat when I saw the text of DONE’s announcement as they graciously provided **their** decision about **our** Bylaws:

*“Attached, please find your current, approved Neighborhood Council bylaws.

*In addition to incorporating approved bylaw amendments that your board may have requested, and stipulations your board submitted in its Administrative and Elections Procedures Stipulations Worksheet, the attached bylaws have been updated to reflect policies adopted by the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. These updates include:*

*1. Reference to the citywide Neighborhood Council policy on posting meeting notices*

*2. Reference to the citywide Neighborhood Council policy on board member adherence to the Code of Conduct*

*3. Reference to the citywide Neighborhood Council policy requiring board members to take training in ethics and funding prior to voting and making motions on funding issues*

*4. Reference to the citywide grievance review process.*

*If your board did not submit its Administrative and Elections Procedures Stipulations Worksheet, we have included the default provisions in your bylaws. We also may have made minor formatting changes to the overall body of the bylaws and to Attachment B.”*

Lucky us. I particularly liked the Code of Civility. Okay, BONC/DONE, here’s how you absolutely kill any semblance of initiative or responsibility under the Charter. First, you put together meaningless agendas for the BONC Commissioners, designed to have endless meetings about nothing, and you turn them into *Walking Dead* zombies. Then, you impose rules on the Neighborhood Councils so that if they fight back against this tyranny, you will sanction them for violation of your “Code of Civility”.

Code of civility? The Charter and the Neighborhood Council Plan are about holding our officials feet to the fire when they get out of line. That’s not always going to be “civil”, and there is nothing in the Charter that turns the Neighborhood Council volunteers into a bunch of drones.

Oh yes, there was another zinger. Just in case these actions don’t kill any initiative, you then impose a new grievance review process, designed to throw out any grievances that DONE doesn’t happen to like -- that is, anything embarrassing to DONE and BONC.

Sheesh!

Anyhow…back to the original theme of this story, what’s up with the BONC? Bob and Denyse alluded to bad things happening. Hasn’t BONC been attentive enough to their Lord and Master, the Mayor? Goodness.

Why anyone would want to be a member of the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners in the first place eludes me. It doesn’t pay anything, it basically does nothing but suppress the actual Neighborhood Councils, and their meetings are so long and bureaucratically turgid that they would turn a saint to stone. And oh yes, they now have their meetings during the day so that DONE staff won’t get any overtime, and ordinary citizens with jobs won’t be able to attend.

Let’s face it -- the Commissioners have no real power -- they serve at the pleasure of the Mayor, literally, and we know how the Mayorlikes his power. I guess some folks will do anything for a business card. Speaking of which, back to the recent power play over Mayoral appointments.

With virtually no notice or fanfare, the Commissioner from the Harbor area mysteriously resigned. With equally no notice or fanfare, DONE proudly announced the appointment of Josh LaFarga to BONC. Josh *who*? This is what prompted all of the articles by insiders.

Josh, who is probably a very nice person, evidently knows squat about the Neighborhood Council System. But…he does know the Mayor. And there you have it.

I wonder who he’s going to listen to -- the Mayor, or the “old hands” of the Neighborhood Council System who actually know what they’re doing.

Oh yes, and just to cap off this article with some gossip -- Denyse suggests that there was a bit of a power struggle over who was going to be BONC President and Vice-President. Being low of mind and curious, I took a look at the Draft Minutes for the August meeting. Turns out that the first vote was for either Leonard Shaffer or Lydia Grant for President. After some parliamentary maneuvering, the vote was: 3 yes, 2 no, 1 abstention, and 1 absent. The City Attorney then weighed in and said that the motion failed. Really?

Second time around, Leonard Shaffer was elected President and Joy Atkinson was elected Vice-President. Does this imply that they are now both recipients of a “We Owe the Mayor Award?” Wow.

*(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to* CityWatch*.)*

*-cw*

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 72

Pub: Sep 4, 2015

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