NEIGHBORHOODS LA-For as long as I have been involved with Neighborhood Councils, the biggest complaint is that the NC’s are supposed to advise local government about all activities pertaining to LA City BUT many times they have no influence. I think that the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates co-Chairs, Jay Handel (West Los Angeles NC) and Marcello Robinson (Westwood NC) set the example of how to make an impact.
The Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates (NCBA), have not just had a seat at the table but have been allowed to partake of the buffet. They have been at this since 2006 and each year has become increasingly more sophisticated in both research and presentation. This was a stellar year.
In April, “ANGELENOS’ RECIPE FOR SUCCESS” was not only presented to the Education/ Neighborhoods Committee chaired by Councilman Bernard Parks, but also the following day to the entire City Council. It even became a Council File (#13-0355), which have been known to wither on the vine from inaction.
The main reason for the success is the recommendations to the City budget were based on exhaustive research of all the expenditures, policies, procedures and productivity of each City department. They were supported by facts….not emotions.
Nine of the twenty-two proposals in the March were accepted and incorporated into the City budget. In looking at the proposals, each was written by two budget advocates and alternates. The first time that so many had been accepted. Perhaps the LA 20/20 Committee chaired by Mickey Cantor whose “grand plan” was supposed to be announced in July….should just adopt the NCBA White Paper.
Saturday October 26 at 8:00 a.m. (why do these meetings have to start so early on a weekend? )is the preliminary meeting of the NCBA for the fiscal year 2014-15. Each NC was able to select two budget advocates who will meet at the Board of Public Works Room at City Hall, 200 N. Spring St (12th floor). The number expected is 192. Not every NC has two people who are willing to put in that much time and effort so they rely on the other NC’s in their planning region. Among the speakers will be Mayor Eric Garcetti; EmpowerLA General Manager, Grayce Liu; Council President, Herb Wesson; City Administrator Officer, Miguel Santana; and City Controller, Ron Galperin.
After the general session, groups will break into the twelve regions and elect two budget advocates and two alternates from each of the regions. Those selected as advocates will continue to the afternoon and elect the two overall co-chairs. I asked this year’s Co-Chair, Jay Handel, whether the budget advocates were all CPA’s or financial guru’s. He explained that they had varied backgrounds including lawyers (of course), therapists (probably needed after each meeting) as well as people with other than financial backgrounds.
In the 2013 NCBA White paper, NCBA Co-Chair, Marcello Robinson, wrote:
“The Los Angeles City budget process is a $7.3 billion, complex structure mired down in ‘we always have done it that way’ concepts and practices. We have focused our views and formed our recommendations to rejuvenate basic concepts, increase transparency and find more effective measures and effect efficiencies which will produce better practices and large dollar changes. The “low hanging fruit” (the easy, obvious and one-time solutions) has all been picked. The total potential savings and additional generation of revenues from these recommendations is at least net $1.06 billion. We have hard evidence backing up most of the specific amounts and in addition, the multiple unknown items were estimated at a minimal amount of at least $1 million, each.”
The Budget Advocates, also conducted a Mayor’s Budget City-wide survey for both NC’s and their stakeholders, called The Los Angeles Budget Challenge. It was a chance for the City to weigh in on the items they felt were most important The survey received over 5,000 visits and 2,100 comments this year. The collection period was from February 1 until March 4, 2013. For eight weeks the NCBAs worked very closely with the Mayor’s office and EmpowerLA to finalize the budget survey questions.
The Budget Advocates worked round-the-clock to help “spread the word”; our outreach efforts included attending meetings and reaching out to: Neighborhood Councils, the regional alliances of NC’s, local organizations, City departments, and City Councilmember offices
The Regional Budget Regional Budget Day was held on Saturday, March 16,2013 and was attended by over 145 stakeholders, up 20 stakeholders from the year prior. Instead of hosting regional budget day at City Hall, the NC Budget Advocates went out into the community and hosted Regional Budget Day in four different locations throughout the city covering all seven regions. South Los Angeles had the largest turnout with 60 stakeholders attending. The biggest surprises coming out of the budget day was how the priorities for City services varied per region and/or district.
For example, Police and Fire account for more than approximately 72% of the City budget but only two out of the seven regions ranked police as their number one priority. South Los Angeles and East Los Angeles would like a more livable neighborhood. When we say livable we’re not talking only about infrastructure but good paying jobs, South and East LA stakeholders specifically asked for better jobs like a Traders Joes or Target and NOT another liquor store, check cashing franchise or fast food joint.
The Harbor, North and South Valley stakeholders ranked Police and Fire as their top two budget priorities with improved infrastructure coming in a close third place. Central ranked Improved Infrastructure and Livable Neighborhoods as their top two priorities and the West Region ranked Improved Infrastructure and Police Services as their top two budget priorities.
Citywide the budget priorities that ranked the highest were police and fire services and improved infrastructure. Over 50% of respondents favored reforming employee health care and employee compensation, continued reduction of workers compensation costs, and the implementation of a new economic development model. Increased funding for Animal Services was supported by 39% while cuts were favored by 29%. Half of the respondents want to maintain the funding levels for the City Attorney’s office but 63% want reduced funding for constituent services and legislative analysis. For transportation, streets, and infrastructure, 41% want to maintain funding while 40% prefer an increase in spending.”
With ninety-five NC’s we also find that the priorities vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. Even in the same Council district there can be big differences.
This is kind of effort is impressive. There were some interesting proposals that weren’t adopted, like Jay Handel’s proposal to restore NC funding to $50,000 and increase the staff, which went from an initial 65 to 15. I’m sure it will be in next year’s budget recommendations. I suggest you look at the complete white paper from 2013. It certainly gives us a great direction for the future of LA.
You don’t have to be a budget advocate to attend the Saturday Budget Day, but you should register on line at https:www.surveymonkey.com/sNCBudgetDay2013. I will also make the ultimate sacrifice and drive from Tarzana to City Hall and attend. If you see me wearing dark glasses it will be that I hadn’t had my coffee yet.
Please send your comments-It’s nice to know that someone other than my family is reading these missives. They have to or its “out of the will!”
(Denyse Selesnick is Co-Chair of the Outreach Committee of the Tarzana Neighborhood Council and a contributor to City Watch covering Neighborhood Councils. You can reach her at [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 86
Pub: Oct 25, 2013
