RUSS REPORT-Incidences of bullying, name-calling and in-house fighting have plagued the North Hills West Neighborhood Council (NHWNC) for years often spilling out into public meetings and discouraging residents from actively participating.
This latest round of bickering led to the resignation of 5 women Board Members and 2 Committee members on September 19, 2013 amidst allegations of discrimination, bullying, sexism and harassment from male members of the Board.
On October 1, 2013, Los Angeles Council woman, Nury Martinez (CD-6) filed a motion (CF#11-1017), seconded by Councilman Bernard Parks, seeking an investigation into the allegations that caused the resignations. It called for specific training to better equip NC’s with “tools to professionally lead a community organization.”
Recent media accounts have reported the women alleged “sexual harassment” when the allegation specific in their complaints was “sexism.” Sexism is a behavior and attitude based on a prejudice and/or discrimination against a person because of their gender.
On Oct 15, 2013, the Education and Neighborhoods Committee of the L.A. City Council passed Martinez Motion unanimously. The Motion directed Grayce Liu, General Manager of DONE, to report back by November 19 on the status of the investigation into the charges against the NHWNC and their progress on the implementation of a training program.
On October 10, 2013 the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils (VANC) unanimously passed a motion in support of Martinez’ Motion. VANC represents over 30 of the San Fernando Valley neighborhood councils.
The problems within the NHWNC began unraveling near the end of May 2013 when the Board’s Parliamentarian allegedly hurled insults and threats towards Robin Tyler, both at public meetings and in emails.
Robin Tyler, a gay activist, took over the board as Interim President when the board’s President resigned, citing personal reasons.
Tyler said, “Many people are mistaken to think that the only kind of harassment that is serious is sexual harassment. In fact, a young 12 year-old girl committed suicide last week because she was harassed and bullied by two other girls. In my community (LGBT) we deal with a lot of suicides due to harassment and bullying. Verbal abuse is like emotional rape. It still leaves a victim.”
One email from yet another Board member to Tyler began with the condescending words, Oink, oink.”
The President of the NHWNC declined to comment on emails he sent to some of the women on the Board saying that he was waiting for the (DA) to finish their investigation.
In one email obtained, he wrote, “Dear GOD; please send me 250 young conservative open minded students from Monroe High School that have not been contaminated by the Liberals that have destroyed our great city and our Nation. A few misogynists (woman haters) and misogamists (marriage haters) are OK if you really want to stir the pot.” (Sept. 17, 2013) In another, he addressed women on a Committee as his “harem.”
Martinez Motion specifically said, “While DONE has already stated that they were working to mediate a solution prior to the resignations, we as a city can not ignore these allegations and must endeavor to ensure that our neighborhood councils are not hostile environments for community members.”
But there were never any attempts to “mediate” anything.
Mediation usually requires all aggrieved parties to come together with a professional mediator who possesses skills to identify problems, air grievances and find solutions that benefit all parties.
Tape recordings of public meetings that illustrate bad behavior against the women have disappeared. The Secretary of the Board gave them to the President under the guise of his turning them over to the “District Attorney.”
Grayce Liu, General Manager of DONE offered them back to the women who requested them for a “copying charge” of $20.00 per tape. Eventually Liu admitted to having only one tape. Those tapes should be public information and obtainable by the Freedom of Information Act. (FOIA) Not presenting them is a violation of FOIA.
The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (Part 2.8 commencing with Section 12900 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code) and the Regulations of the Fair Employment and Housing Commission (California Code of Regulations, Title 2, Division 4,Sections 7285.0 through 8504)prohibits [employment] discrimination based on race or color; religion; national origin or ancestry, physical disability; mental disability or medical condition; marital status; sex or sexual orientation; age, with respect to persons over the age of 40; and pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
Regardless of the fact that people are volunteers in a Neighborhood Council (NC) they are elected officials of such. NC’s are a part of the Government structure pursuant of the LA Charter and the same laws should apply to NC’s as well.
Vivienne Swanigan, assistant City attorney, associated these kinds of behavior with “workplace violence” in 2010 when NHWNC initially began having problems.
Anita Goldbaum, one of the Board members who resigned, wrote in her letter to Bernard Parks (Chair of the Education and Neighborhood Committee), “At the present time the NHWNC is not abiding by or complying with By Laws, Rules of Civility, Ethics, respect or common courtesy. This Board has shown patterns of discrimination, bullying and taunting. The Executive has not heeded the advice and instructions from DONE or the Office of the City Attorney.”
Goldbaum affirmed in her letter that she took an Oath of honesty and to operate with transparency and integrity. The entire Board must abide by the By-Laws established by the NHWNC and have the best interest of all at heart.
Peggy Burgess, one of the board members who resigned, said the women had given DONE a binder of evidence and emails to substantiate their charges and has a hard time understanding why an “investigation” should take months when DONE has everything to substantiate all allegations in writing and on tape.
In the past, as now, DONE hasn’t done much to find solutions to any of these upheavals. In 2010, the infighting was so bad that 250 stakeholders signed a petition alleging “rude and unprofessional conduct, harassment, intimidation, slander, libel, threats against stakeholders and other board members, and violations of both the Brown Act and by-laws.” In 2011 new threats against stakeholders came with the NHWNC position in opposition to Sober Living Facilities and an owner of such a facility who became a ranking board member of the NHWNC. Stakeholders complained of chronic violations of by-laws, threats of expulsion, voter intimidation and threats of lawsuits against them to shut them up.
Martinez’ Motion directed Liu to report back on November 19 with the status of the investigation but Liu has already passed the buck.
Liu emailed the women, “We are to report back on the status of the investigation, but since the Personnel Department is conducting the investigation, it is likely that they will do the reporting if there is something to report at that time.”
Her statement leaves those aggrieved to wonder if Liu will brush these allegations under the rug again as DONE has done many times in the past.
(Katharine Russ is an investigative reporter. She is a regular contributor to CityWatch and works with the United States Justice Foundation in defense of Veterans. Katharine Russ can be reached at: [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 85
Pub: Oct 22, 2013
