Neighborhood Councils: Herb Wesson to the Rescue

MY TURN-Sometimes the “unexpected” gives one hope.  In February 24 CityWatch I wrote rather a blistering article  “Are our City Council Members Overpaid and Underworked”, about the LA City Council  Members who were on the Education/Neighborhoods Committee and what I considered was their dereliction of duty. 

Under the Chairmanship of Council Member Bernard Parks,  they were supposed to meet monthly.  They hadn’t met since March 2014, and then had a two hour February meeting mostly spent discussing a name change in Park’s District.  They then cancelled the March meeting. 

Therefore, I was shocked to hear Council President Herb Wesson tell the audience at the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition (LANCC) meeting last Saturday that HE was taking over the chairmanship of the committee and along with Council Member Paul Krekorian (Chair of Budget and Finance) they are going to take the next four months and see if they could find a way to finally solve some of the issues the Neighborhood Councils have been complaining about for years! 

He told CityWatch, “We want the Neighborhood Councils to function more efficiently.  Increasing their budget and allowing rollover of unspent funds would be a good place to start. To achieve this we need a more involved and functioning Education & Neighborhoods Committee which I intend to re-energize with the goal of building a stronger relationship. The CityWatch focus on these issues has been helpful, and I hope it continues." 

CityWatch can’t take all the credit for this new found interest.  Quite frankly, LANCC Chair, Terry Gomes, and Jay Handel, both co-chairs of the Neighborhood Budget Advocates had been lobbying for some of the changes for a long time.   LANCC Treasurer, Glen Bailey (Northridge West NC) had been keeping track in painstaking detail, of what was… and was not happening. 

The City Charter empowers the Neighborhood Council members to basically keep track and both question and give advice to the public officials . These three gentlemen have done a great job of raising issues. 

He asked the audience to dispense with the formality and address him as “Herb”. He prefaced his comments by saying that he truly believed in the NC system.  He said that the NC’s in District 10 had been of huge value to him and his staff  and he knew those efforts were duplicated in Districts throughout the City. 

Until recently he was unaware of the Committee’s inaction and some of the issues keeping the NC’s from being more effective. 

He outlined four areas right off the bat, that he was going to explore: 

● Giving NC representatives five minutes to speak before the City Council instead of being restricted to three like every other stake holder.  This was an action item passed by the Neighborhood Congress at least three years ago. 

● Working with the Finance Department to simplify the accounting that NC’s must endure so they don’t spend their money on accountants. 

● Recommending that the $37,500 budget the NC’s receive annually be upped an additional $5000.  Before the financial crisis NC’s received $50,000 annually.  He said that the cost savings to the City were not sufficient to make a difference to the City Budget; but since the NCs were all volunteers they could make better use of the increased budget. 

● The policy of NC’s having to spend their entire budget before the June 30 City fiscal year end deadline makes for some foolish uses of the money.  He would like to see NC’s be able to roll over a a certain amount to the next fiscal year if they hadn’t spent it.  It would also make it easier for those NC’s having summer events.  Perhaps the additional $5000 would be eligible for the rollover.

He then opened up for questions and answers.  This group is not shy.  Wesson also answered everything and this audience, made up of community leaders from throughout the City, rose to the occasion. 

He explained that the real action on City matters occurred in the various Committee meetings and that the NC members should be attending, sending individual NC positions by email and keeping track of what goes on. 

When the new Board of Neighborhood Commissioner (BONC) were appointed in 2014, CityWatch suggested that each BONC Commissioner be assigned one or two of the City Council Committees and be able to report back to the Commission at the twice monthly meetings.  It wasn’t even discussed. 

Wesson is going to attend the BONC meeting this Thursday and the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils (VANC) Thursday night.  It will be interesting to see his conversation with BONC. 

One of the complaints brought up at the Saturday meeting was the time lag involving the City Attorney in giving NC’s answers.  Wesson said that sometimes the City Attorney’s office errs on the side of caution.  I have noticed at the few BONC meetings I have attended, the City Attorney will spend more time on legalese or why “it can’t be done under the Brown Act.” than they do giving suggestions on how to do something. 

Perhaps because the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment is the smallest City Department it doesn’t receive the same sense of urgency that others do.  In fact most of the complaints at this meeting addressed the City Attorney’s attitude. 

I hope “Herb” gives BONC a list of what he expects from them.  I was cautiously optimistic when BONC  began with five new members in 2014, and even attended their retreat.  Some of the Commissioners are really great and are out in their District NC’s attending meetings and being a good support system.  Others have attended very few NC meetings in their district except for their own NC.  

They are far more interested in a discussion about language and protocol than they are about deeds.  

There seems to be a clash between the senior members and the more recent appointees. 

The fact is Grayce Liu, Department Manager for the Department of Empowerment (EmpowerLA) is way understaffed.  After waiting a year, she was told that the Department would be given five exempt positions.  It was approved by the Budget Committee and now goes to Personnel.  Let’s see how long it takes Personnel.  They also seem to move with glacial speed! 

Having the exempt positions means that it doesn’t have to be a civil service employee.  These positions need a certain kind of temperament and Liu needs the flexibility to hire the right people for the job.  

Unfortunately a few of her current staff were inherited and do not display much enthusiasm or creativity in their job performance.   Several had their union file suit against the Department because the Counsel for Councils( C4C), a peer mentoring volunteer group, were helping many of the NC’s with their problems.   These individuals felt that C4C was taking their jobs. The Staff couldn’t handle the work load but they complained about having the extra help.  That case was settled recently and C4C is back in business. 

Wesson was genuinely surprised at some of the problems NC’s face.  He liked the suggestion of a Town Hall in each of the City areas where NC’s could come and talk about their frustrations as well as suggestions.  He promised that he would spend the next four months working with and for the Neighborhood Councils. 

Herb Wesson is indeed a consummate politician.  He is always affable…in fact charming.  His District loves him.  He won in the recent Primary and doesn’t have to face another election.  He also keeps a firm hand on the Council.  When it was noted that some Council members are not in favor of NC’s and don’t even have a link to them on their individual web sites, he acknowledged the fact.  Perhaps he can convince those COUNCIL MEMBERS that it is to their benefit to support the NC system. 

I asked Budget Advocate Co-Chair Jay Handel if he was optimistic.  He replied, “I have known and worked with Herb for decades and can tell you he really believes in the NC system. 

“He has promised to hear us all and to remedy issues during his interim stint as Chair of  the Education and Neighborhoods Committee. Herb is a man of his word, so I expect great leaps forward for the NC system over the next 4 months.” 

I will be reporting the anticipated progress! 

As always comments welcome.

 

(Denyse Selesnick is a featured CityWatch columnist.  She is a former Publisher/journalist/international event organizer. Denyse can be reached at: [email protected])

-cw

 

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 29

Pub: Apr 7, 2015