By Raphael J. Sonenshein

When the city’s voters created the system of Neighborhood Councils in 1999, they were taking a leap into a form of participatory democracy that had rarely been tried in a city of this great size.  Those cities that have created such systems have tended to be smaller, and more homogenous.  So what happens with the Los Angeles “experiment” in neighborhood democracy is going to be important for all those who want to expand the nature of popular participation in city government. 

Buried in Article IX of the new Charter was section 912, mandating the creation of a city commission to examine and make recommendations regarding the system of Neighborhood Councils seven years after the new Charter took effect. And so, in 2006, the city council created the Neighborhood Council Review Commission, known to many folks as the “912 Commission”, to carry out that critically important task.

The 29 members of the NCRC are people like you who are reading this: active, thoughtful, engaged volunteers who are going to meetings instead of going to a ballgame, hanging out with friends, or spending the extra hours at the office.  Woody Allen once said that 90% of life is showing up; the daily life of participatory democracy is what showing up is about.  I was honored to be chosen by this commission to be its executive director several months ago, and I have been working hard to collect research, and to help the commissioners organize their process of deliberation.  

For me, this is a tremendous opportunity to complete a mission that began a decade ago, when I served as executive director of the appointed Charter Reform Commission.  I was then an avid reader of the forerunner of City Watch, a newsletter called Charter Watch inspirationally produced by Mark Siegel.   I would like to tell you that we knew all the answers back then, but the reality is that we took a chance on something that we hoped would helped close some of the distance between neighborhoods and city hall.  Now I have a chance to play a role in finding out whether that has happened and what can be done to help the system realize its potential.  And Mark Siegel is one of our 912 commissioners!

The issues are daunting, but the commissioners are clearly up to the task.  The commissioners must decide what to recommend about some of these matters:

• What should be the legal form of Neighborhood Councils?  Should they be city agencies, or some other form?
• What powers should Neighborhood Councils have?
• What expectations should there be about outreach and diversity in Neighborhood Councils?
• How should elections be organized for Neighborhood Councils?  Should additional selection methods be explored?
• What should be the governance structure of the system of Neighborhood Councils?  What should be the roles of DONE, BONC and other city departments and officials?
• What can the city do to facilitate the success of Neighborhood Councils?

The commissioners believed that before making these decisions, some thought should be given to what we are trying to achieve with a system of Neighborhood Councils.  They spent several meetings considering what an ideal system would look like.  Very recently, at their December 19th meeting, the commissioners debated and adopted the following set of criteria for their decisions:

Adopted Criteria for Evaluation and Design of the Neighborhood Council System

1. The extent to which the systems of representation and participation are complementary.

2. The extent to which the Neighborhood Council system recruits and retains people who have the qualities that make participatory democracy successful.
    
3. The extent to which the selection and/or election systems contributes to the recruitment and retention of people who have the qualities to make participatory democracy successful.

4. The extent to which participation in the Neighborhood Council system is broad and inclusive.

5. The extent to which Neighborhood Councils work together for common purposes and with other community groups.

6. The extent to which Neighborhood Councils reflect the needs, views, and opinions of the communities they represent, and empower all voices to be heard.

7. The extent to which Neighborhood Councils have influence within the city government.

8. The extent to which the governance and day-to-day operation of the system contribute to effective community work, rather than bureaucracy, while maintaining accountability.

9. The extent to which the system develops and retains a long-term vision and purpose.

I hope you will keep in touch with the work of the NCRC.  We have a full schedule of public hearings and deliberations, all conducted in public.  We have our own website, www.ncrcLA.org and we encourage you to check it out.  Our meetings appear on Channel 35.  If you go on our website, you can send emailed comments directly to our commissioners.  We want all stakeholders, even those who are not active in the neighborhood council system, to let us know what you think.

If you are a current or former board member of a Neighborhood Council, you will soon be receiving an invitation to complete a detailed survey about boards and the neighborhood council system.  I know, one more survey, just what you need…  But this one is different.  Your ideas will flow directly into a commission that is going to help shape the entire future of the Neighborhood Council system.  This is not a moment to be missed.  So when you get the chance, please fill it out. If you have any questions about the NCRC, please let me know at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Help us shape the future of neighborhood democracy in Los Angeles.
(Raphael Sonenshein is the Executive Director of the Neighborhood Council Review Commission and a political scientist at Cal State Fullerton.) _