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Westwood NC Formation Effort Turns Ugly |
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CityWatch
By Ken Draper
 The Westwood Neighborhood Council formation effort has turned ugly. Let me rephrase that: turned uglier.
Westwood land use and other community issues have been controlled for years by monied and powerful homeowner associations. Groups that have, since the inception of neighborhood councils, been openly hostile toward NCs and made keeping Westwood neighborhood council-free one of their highest priorities.
Now, push is coming to shove and it ain’t pretty.
The WNC formation group claims “almost 500” petitions signed by representative stakeholders and has filed the application for certification. The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners … which certifies councils … has scheduled a Westwood meeting for January 19 next year. The battle has come to a boil. (See CityWatch-“The Fight to Save Westwood”)
Now comes a memo from Terry Tegnazian … Westwood Hills Property Owners Assn … claiming … but not explaining … that his group has voted to oppose the new neighborhood council “because of the negative impact it will likely have on our ability to control our own destiny.”
Even though residential associations and neighborhood councils interact and collaborate … even share members … all over the city, not going to happen in Westwood. At least not if the powerful property owners in Westwood Hills have anything to say about it.
Tegnazian also claims the 5th District Councilman Paul Koretz spoke to his group “about the deceptions and other issues with this NC serious enough that he has spoken out against approval” of their application.
If true, it’s an interesting … and somewhat risky … stand to take against at least 500 Westwood stakeholders. Read: voters.
If true, such a public stand also speaks to the influence … and the campaign dollars … at play and Koretz’ ability to stand up to those kinds of special interests. He did, after all, at one point say he would remain neutral.
Which leads to yet another question. When did neighborhood representation become an ‘either or’ issue between neighborhood councils and other community groups? The City’s Charter says that the Plan for NCs will “ensure that every part of the City is within the boundaries of a neighborhood council.” It does not say: within the boundaries of either a neighborhood council or a homeowners group.
Jay Handal, Chair of the West LA Neighborhood Council, fired off a letter to Koretz asking for an immediate clarification from the Councilman on whether he made the biased statements attributed to him by Tegnazian. As of this writing … no response from Koretz’ office.
Neighborhood councils and community groups … influential in their own right … share members, share projects, share issues, throughout Los Angeles today. Would appear this is more about feared loss of power than about the negative impact on the Westwood community. Always tough for the rich and spoiled to wake up one morning and find another player on their political playground.
Makes one also wonder: if neighborhood councils are so unimportant and irrelevant, what possible difference could it make if Westwood had one?
(Ken Draper is the editor of CityWatch. He can be reached at
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CityWatch
Vol 7 Issue 93
Pub: Nov 13, 2009
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