ValleyVote Update for 01-22-01 |
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By Beth Barrett Staff Writer
VAN NUYS -- City Attorney James Hahn on Friday blasted plans to set up advisory neighborhood councils throughout Los Angeles as inadequate and announced his own 10-point proposal. Surrounded by backers of his mayoral campaign, Hahn said an effective network of councils being set up under the revised City Charter must be built on more financial independence than the plan submitted to the City Council by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment last month.
"To be effective, neighborhood councils need money," Hahn said, speaking from the steps of the Van Nuys City Hall. "Neighborhood councils need to get enough funding to have some control of their destiny." His plan does not include specific budget amounts, however, nor a detailed mechanism outlining how neighborhood councils would handle funds.
Hahn said the existing plan, which has been submitted to the City Council for up to a six-month review, focuses too much on a neighborhood department helping the panels after they are formed, rather than on stimulating the new councils." It needs to be more proactive," Hahn said.
Hahn submitted his plan for the City Council's consideration in adopting a final plan. He said he's also urged Mayor Richard Riordan to adequately support the neighborhood department in the coming budget. Other comparable cities with neighborhood councils spend up to $10 million a year on the effort, he said.
Bobbi Fiedler, a former U.S. congresswoman and San Fernando Valley activist, joined Hahn supporters in praising the plan as a workable structure that allows each community to come up with its own operating method. "This is the first proposal I've seen that's worthy of serious consideration," Fiedler said.
Bill Weinberger, president of the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, said the department's plan is a dynamic document for neighborhood council development, particularly in underorganized areas that lack economic resources. "The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment is very committed to proactively assist in the organization of neighborhood councils," Weinberger said. "If the city attorney is saying there isn't that commitment, there absolutely is."
The department's proposed plan makes funding of the councils largely the discretion of department staff members, so areas that require the most financial support will get it, he said. "The department needs to be able to focus its resources where they are most needed," Weinberger said. "Otherwise, the dollars would have to go to all of them" under a more equal division.
Among his other proposals, Hahn proposed a new Office of the Neighborhood Advocate within the Mayor's Office, creation of additional neighborhood plans and other documents detailing community concerns, and greater input by the councils into the city's budget.
"The government belongs to the people," Hahn said. "Not City Hall."
It's swell to see Mayor Richard Riordan talking up the City of Hope, but we can't see that far from here. Riordan's fictional city on a hill has advisory councils that "empower" people and neighborhoods, and have the political muscle to force downtown to listen to the little guys.
When City Hall starts fixing our sidewalks and building our libraries and fire stations and police stations that were promised in the last century, we'll believe it. In truth, Riordan's idealized vision for neighborhood councils has little hope of coming true.
Only advisory in nature, the neighborhood councils offer only a small gain to people in dire need of direct community representation and empowerment. As designed by a weak Charter Commission and emasculated by the City Council, the councils are likely to be nothing more than a hodgepodge of ideas where anything goes and that further fracture community involvement.
It would be great if we're wrong. But there's every indication that City Hall has created a confusing system that resembles Florida's voting process. Our bet is that the city won't last long enough to see neighborhood councils mature in 25 years.
If only the city had enlightened leadership to prove us wrong. We're still hoping.
By Rick Orlov and Dominic Berbeo Staff Writers
San Fernando Valley civic leaders balked at the plan laid out Thursday by Mayor Richard Riordan to form advisory neighborhood councils around Los Angeles. At a ceremony at Olvera Street, the city's birthplace, Riordan insisted the councils will empower residents.
"This is government by the people and of the people," Riordan said. "It will be up to the neighborhoods to find the ways to improve their quality of life. And, while they are advisory in nature, they will serve as a political force to require the city to listen to their demands."
But critics said the panels won't be effective in bringing direct community representation in City Hall because they have no power. "People have been able to advise since the First Amendment was passed 200 years ago," said David Fleming, chairman of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and, along with Riordan, a founder of the movement that led to voter-approved rewriting of the City Charter in 1999. But Fleming wanted more power for neighborhood councils. "Had they been structured in the charter with some real legislative power, it may have lessened the need for Valley secession," he said, "but now they're neither fish nor fowl."
Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association representing 2,800 families, said the new panels are less likely to unite Los Angeles than to enhance the drive for a separate Valley city. "These appointed panels will be packed with yes people in order not to contradict the council member in any given district and create a compromising situation," Close said. "The bottom line is, you can't get local control over government through advisory panels."
The structure of the neighborhood councils would be left up to individual communities under the plan, which will undergo scrutiny by the City Council before taking effect. "We didn't want to have a cookie-cutter approach where each council was told by City Hall . . . (how to) operate," said Bill Weinberger, president of the commission overseeing the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, which developed the plan.
"The success of our new neighborhood councils will depend on the participation and commitment of residents, businesses and other stakeholders in communities throughout the city." Riordan also pledged to provide the funding -- whatever amount is required -- to ensure that neighborhood councils are a success.
With the possibility of more than 100 neighborhood councils, there has been no estimate of their potential expenses. A panel may be formed in any large neighborhood with at least 20,000 residents. Under Riordan's plan, each neighborhood will determine how its panel is organized, how often it meets and what issues it deals with.
A system is being developed to give each neighborhood council early warning of proposals within its boundaries for zoning changes, applications for land-use permits and other issues. Also, each of the new area planning commissions will set aside time in its process so that all projects can be reviewed by neighborhood councils before commissioners make decisions.
To create a neighborhood council, residents, business representatives and others in the neighborhood will develop an organizational plan to be submitted to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment for certification. Department officials say the neighborhood should have common interest through history and census tracts, but need not be limited by political boundaries.
Each neighborhood council will elect its own officers and develop its own by-laws. An annual congress of neighborhood councils will be held for the members to assess their progress and deal with citywide issues.
The concept of neighborhood councils was included in the rewriting of the City Charter that voters approved nearly 2-to-1 in June 1999. Riordan had hoped charter reform would head off movements in the Valley and elsewhere to secede from Los Angeles. "We want the Valley to recognize what we are doing here," Riordan said. "The Valley is important to the city, and we've recognized that. We have three times more commissioners from the Valley than before I was mayor, and we think the Valley is getting its fair share of services from what it spends in taxes.
"What we are telling the Valley is this is a way they can get their message heard without leaving Los Angeles."
But Close said he believes the neighborhood councils will be ineffective and thus further frustrate Valley residents who feel left out of the decision-making process. "Had the panels been set up as elected and with legislative powers, it may have been different," he said.
Riordan and Weinberger said the new councils are not intended to replace homeowner associations or any other organizations. "We see them as working together," Weinberger said. "There will be a lot of areas of common interest, and we think they will be representing the same viewpoint."
A homeowner association, if it disagreed with recommendations from a neighborhood council, could still directly contact city officials, Riordan said. "There is nothing to prevent that," he said. "But we think we've created a new special-interest group: a special-interest group of the community."
By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer
Frustration with the pace of work by the fledgling Department of Neighborhood Empowerment began to surface Monday, with a city panel directing the department to convene an advisory panel of community organizers to help create neighborhood councils.
Members of the City Council's Government Efficiency Committee voiced displeasure with how the new agency has been conducting hearings and getting input in creating the neighborhood councils. "The unreadiness of the department concerns me," Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said. "Even for those who opposed the new charter, the one bright spot was the notion of neighborhood councils . . . and this department is not taking advantage of existing models."
Ridley-Thomas said he was prepared for the committee to hold its own set of hearings if it is dissatisfied with the final plan submitted to it in December. "We reserve the right to hold and fashion public hearings as we think are needed," Ridley-Thomas said. "We ought to make this real, we ought to make it authentic and we are probably best positioned to do that. We have an obligation to make sure what comes forth is a recommendation that resonates in the city of Los Angeles."
Neighborhood councils, even though they are advisory in nature, are seen by city officials as a way to both stem the outcry for secession in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere, and also a way to even out spending throughout the city.
As part of that, the Planning Commission has included a procedure to include the neighborhood councils in decision making.
Councilwoman Laura Chick, who chairs the Government Efficiency Committee, said she was concerned about complaints she has heard about obstacles to attending the initial rounds of meetings and the inability of the public to voice comments.
Roslyn Stewart, executive director of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, said she was aware of the frustration but was attempting something new in developing the neighborhood councils. "Often, when government goes out to the public, they already have a plan in mind," Stewart said. "We were attempting to try something bold in finding out what people wanted."
Ridley-Thomas and Chick also were concerned the agency had failed to formally convene an advisory panel of community organizers. Stewart said she had been contacting members of those groups on an individual basis to provide information for the agency.
By James K. Hahn
As we begin a new phase in the debate over Valley secession, city leaders must begin to look not only at specific ways to provide better city services to the Valley and every other neighborhood in the city, but also at ways to foster and encourage a greater sense of community, so Los Angeles becomes more of a coherent whole instead of a jumble of disparate parts.
In areas of this city that are now considering whether to secede, improving services and bolstering our collective sense of "neighborhood" may be the only real way to convince residents to stay. The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment and the system of Neighborhood Councils and Area Planning Commissions that have been created as part of the new City Charter are important steps.
Both Neighborhood Councils and Area Planning Commissions will provide real opportunities for residents to actively participate in the decisions that affect their communities and will provide many additional opportunities for residents to interact with each other. While important steps, we can do more to assure that the Valley's interests are addressed.
The 2000 Census provides that opportunity. The 2000 Census -- the process of counting the nation's residents that takes place every 10 years -- is now under way. Based on the census count, federal, state and local funds are allocated and population figures are updated at every level of government. It is also following each census that political boundaries are redrawn for Congress, the state Legislature and for our local City Council.
Next year, when the boundaries are redrawn, the city should correct a historical wrong which has dissipated the political influence of the San Fernando Valley among seven City Council districts. In 1987, bowing to pressure of a Voting Rights Act challenge, brought by the Justice Department and the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, the Valley actually "lost" District 1, represented by the late Howard Finn, to downtown Los Angeles.
To correct that loss of power, the council district should be redrawn, while following the mandates of the Voting Rights Act, to create five "Valley-only districts" and one district with at least 50 percent of its population in the Valley.
How can reducing the number of seats that represent parts of the Valley from seven to five increase the Valley's voice in city government? Let me explain. Right now, council district boundaries break up communities among various council districts. For example, at least five different members of the City Council claim they represent Van Nuys.
Residents in North Hollywood, downtown and Koreatown, among other neighborhoods, are similarly spread among more than one council district. Being represented by two instead of one council district should be a good thing. But, in terms of political influence, it's just the opposite.
If a community is divided across more than one council district, that community represents, proportionally, a smaller part of each respective district. Population numbers represent political influence and if a neighborhood is chopped up among two or three council districts it will likely have less influence with each council member than if all of the residents were represented by one council member.
The same holds true for the San Fernando Valley. Today, despite the fact that the Valley represents nearly 40 percent of the city's population, only four council districts exclusively represent Valley residents the 2nd (Joel Wachs), 3rd (Laura Chick), 7th (Alex Padilla) and 12th (Hal Bernson).
The problem is that the remainder of Valley residents are dispersed among three other council districts in which the Valley residents represent a minority of the district. And since population often correlates to political influence, Valley residents in districts in which a majority of constituents reside outside the Valley are at a disadvantage.
Moreover, oftentimes the boundaries of issues are not as neatly defined as the boundaries in City Council districts and we should create districts that facilitate the cooperation of residents and the council members who represent them across district lines.
The Valley's geography -- separated from other parts of Los Angeles by a mountain range -- has always been central to its identity. In recent years, the San Fernando Valley's geographic distinction has led, in part, to a political coalescence, as political and civic groups have become defined not by a neighborhood but by the overall region of the Valley itself.
The Valley has the Valley Economic Development Corp., the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, the United Chambers of Commerce (an umbrella group of Valley-based chambers), the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley and even an award -- the Fernando Award -- that recognizes outstanding community service of Valley residents. One can think of no comparable non-Valley regional community organizations south of Mulholland.
In effect, the Valley as a whole has become a "neighborhood" unto itself with its unique transportation, planning, land-use and business issues. Because the political overlay of the Valley has become more regional in scope, so too must its political representation. Council representatives from throughout the city should work cooperatively when constituencies overlap.
As a city, we have become aware of the importance of neighborhoods in building a cohesive city. This is clearly proven by voters approving, in the new city charter, the creation of a whole new department to help give neighborhoods a greater voice in city government, and the establishment of Area Planning Commissions, which will give local communities increased influence over land-use decisions in their communities.
Nevertheless, because of its size and scope, the Valley needs more than these structures to meet its needs, and thus we should create Valley-specific council districts.
Under this proposal, five of the six Council members representing the Valley would be solely accountable to Valley residents and thus to Valley interests, and the sixth Valley district's residents would represent at least 50 percent of the district, also giving them significant political voice.
By doing this, a cooperative approach among Valley Council members dealing with Valley issues would be greatly facilitated. The recent passage of Assembly Bill 186, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, now allows charter cities such as Los Angeles to give consideration when redrawing districts to "topography, geography, cohesiveness, contiguity, compactness of territory and community of interests of the district." Empowering the City Council to take these issues into consideration will only facilitate this process.
The San Fernando Valley is an integral part of Los Angeles, its history and future. Its tremendous growth and economic vitality are clear signs that a strong sense of community can yield tangible results. As political boundaries are redrawn, this achievement must be recognized and built upon to assure that the Valley continues to thrive in years to come.
James K. Hahn is city attorney and a candidate for mayor of Los Angeles.
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