CITY HALL-For all the good work that neighborhood councils have done, they are still letting city hall trample over their legal rights on an almost daily basis. Here are some changes to the city council’s rules and procedures that neighborhood councils could pursue in order to close the widening gap between city hall and the public.
Last week, my column described two items that were rushed through the city council system in order to help powerful interests. You can read that column by clicking here.
Each example showed that the city council can act quickly when it wants to. Sadly, speed is used too often to discourage public scrutiny, a problem that neighborhood councils were designed to try and remedy.
I made a mistake in that column.
In describing a meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee, I wrote that the members unanimously approved a motion that called for the council to waive a law for a wealthy restaurant owner, who also contributes generously to candidates for offices, that requires anyone tearing up a street within one year after the city has resurfaced it, to repave the entire street, and not just patch up the work.
An engineer from the Bureau of Street Services explained that patching will always result in a weak spot that could and allow leaks and other damage to occur.
It was clear that the motion caught the committee members by surprise. There were no explanatory reports, and no one was present to answer most of the council member’s questions.
Councilman Mitchell Englander, the self-appointed protector of the city’s streets, had the most questions. He wanted the committee to delay making a recommendation until someone could tell him whether or not it was even legal for the city council to grant a waiver.
But the committee was on a mission, and voted 3-1 (not unanimously as I had written) to send the matter to the full city council as quickly as possible, and hope that city staff would produce answers to their questions by that time. Englander was the dissenting vote.
As I wrote on Tuesday, the council’s Chief Legislative Analyst circulated a report to the city council explaining that the city council did not have a legal authority to grant a waiver.
I’d like to see a neighborhood council try and get away with that.
If neighborhood councils want to develop a legislative program that would benefit them and the public, I’d be happy to write the first drafts of motions:
1. Enforce the City Charter’s Early Warning System
The City Charter guarantees that neighborhood councils be given "a reasonable opportunity to provide input before decisions are made."
Neighborhood councils should gather up attorneys who support openness and transparency in government, and who want to create substance in support of this provision, and build upon the suggestions that have already be made.
The end result could be specific rules and laws that the councils wish to see enacted, and strategies for possible legal actions.
2. Design a city council outreach plan
Neighborhood councils could propose a plan to the city council that it should use to outreach to and communicate with neighborhood councils and the public. If having a public outreach plan is something that neighborhood councils should have, then it’s something that the city council should have.
3. Print city council agendas in Spanish
If it would take too much time and money for the city clerk’s office to translate the paper agendas that are available in the back of Council Chamber, use Google Translate.
4. Improve the city council’s public testimony rules
Limiting testimony on each item to a cumulative amount of time for all speakers might work if it was assumed that all the speakers would have nothing of value to say. But that's playing to the lowest common denominator. Along with making those who wish to provide general public comments wait until the end of the meeting, this rule discourages public participation.
5. Use technology to allow more people to participate
Neighborhood councils could ask to be part of the city task force that would recommend 21st century ways that would allow people to more effectively participate in government without having to take time off work, be away from their families, travel to City Hall, wait hours to speak for two minutes if they’re lucky, and be ignored.
6. Amend or abolish Council Rule 7
The rule states that the city council doesn't have to permit public testimony if comments were permitted during a committee meeting.
During the committee’s discussion of the street resurfacing waiver, no one from the public asked to speak. Remember that the meeting was held at 2 p.m. in City Hall with little public notice.
When the matter came to the full city council, one person wanted to speak, but was quickly denied by the city council president and the committee chair using this rule.
Even if someone speaks during a committee meeting, the other members of the city council have no idea what was said. Minutes are not taken in committee meetings.
7. Record city council attendance
There are really only two expectations of a city council member – pass a balanced city budget each year, and show up to work on time.
City council presidents, going back in time forever, have struggled with the problem of getting meetings started on time due to late-arriving members, and losing quorums when members leave early without a pre-approved excuse.
Neighborhood councils could recommend that city council members who arrive late or leave early be required to publicly explain their reasons.
And the time at which each member comes and goes from the Council Chamber should be recorded. As it is now, a member who is present for any part of a meeting is recorded as having been present for the entire meeting. Try that at your work.
8. Turn on the cameras
If the Information Technology Agency, which operates Channel 35, were to turn on the cameras in the Council Chamber at 10 a.m., the public would be able to see who is on time.
9. Change the way items are waived by a committee
In the example of the street resurfacing waiver motion, the first committee that was assigned to discuss it “waived consideration,” and sent it to the second committee. What that means is that the chairman of the committee alone made the decision not to discuss it.
That’s too much power for a committee chair. A majority of the committee members should be required to waive consideration of an item.
10. Stating the reason for urgencies
There are legitimate reasons for ignoring the regular processes to approve a motion or enact a law, so council rules 16, 23, 39, and 64 provide shortcuts. But far too often these procedures are used to help friends and/or sneak an item through the process.
Many of the shortcuts simply require 10 city council members to vote to declare that the matter is so urgent that it can’t meet, and couldn’t have met the normal 72 hour posting requirement.
One solution is to require the city council to also adopt an explanation as to exactly why that matter is so urgent. Maybe it’s non-controversial and routine. Maybe it’s to help a friend. Just be honest.
Such a statement should also be required when “placeholder” items appear on the City Council agenda. This happens when the need to act quickly is so intense that the item is printed on the city council’s agenda even before the committee has acted.
11. Explain “forthwith” actions
Council Rule 51 allows the city council to send a matter immediately to the mayor for signature or veto without allowing time for the City Council to reconsider its action at its next meeting, and without giving the public time to offer opinions to the mayor.
I described how this was used in Tuesday’s column about the council’s action to approve automatic pay raises for city general managers.
All forthwith actions should include an explanation of the urgency.
12. Explaining closed city council sessions
If the city council holds a closed session to discuss anticipated litigation, the recordings shall be made public after two years if no litigation is filed, when the statute of limitations passes, or when the controversy is concluded.
After closed door sessions, the City Council should publicly announce which items were discussed that weren’t confidential.
If the city attorney’s representative in a closed session of the city council walks out after issuing warnings that a potential violation of the Brown Act has occurred, or is about to occur, the city attorney shall notify the public and media ASAP.
Every member’s vote on a final action should be disclosed at the end of a closed session.
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Disclose city council settlements
Before the city council agrees to a settlement, the deal shall be made public at least 10 calendar days before the meeting, or 15 days if it’s a collective bargaining agreement so the public will have time to weigh in.
14. Make it easier for the public to communicate with city council members
The city council should tell the Information Technology Agency to modify the city’s website so that people can have the ability to send the same message to all members of the city council with one action.
Having to send 15 separate messages does nothing to encourage public participation.
15. Fight for the independence of neighborhood councils
The Plan for a Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils explains that neighborhood councils “shall be as independent, self-governing, and self-directed as possible." And the City Charter prohibits city hall from interfering with the way neighborhood councils choose their members.
Neighborhood councils should begin online and face-to-face discussions about the ways to stand up against the erosion of their legal rights.
16. Return to printing community impact statements (CIS) on agendas
When the program was first adopted by the city council, the first CIS received was printed on the agenda, and the city clerk testified that it would not create an undue additional burden on his office.
Later that was revoked using the argument that city council members can be counted upon to always read these statements that are included in their council meeting briefing packages assembled by their staffs.
As my Tuesday column explained, all the council members don’t even read the reports given to them by city departments.
(Greg Nelson is a former general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, was instrumental in the creation of the LA Neighborhood Council System, served as chief of staff for former LA City Councilman Joel Wachs … and occasionally writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])
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CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 32
Pub: Apr 18, 2014