CommentsEASTSIDER-As the brain trust of DONE feeds top-down trash to BONC in the insanity of their “Proposed Resolution by the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners Approving the Digital Communication Policy for the Neighborhood Councils,” their illness must be spreading to some of the Neighborhood Councils.
For example, at their recent meeting, the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council Executive Committee decided to rewrite their Meeting Agenda by taking off matters they didn’t want to deal with.
The event was partly triggered by DONE’s intrepid staff member, Jackie Kim, sending them on November 30, what she referred to as:
“Please see attached for an updated version of your bylaws. The description of the Community Based Organization Representative was reverted to what it was initially in the bylaws from October 2020 and the bylaws on your website from May 2019.”
A number of Board members responded with pushback on this authoritarian piece of trash with a number of proposed motions of their own, such as:
“Motion to Resolve that the LHNC will refuse to vote on so-called Administratively Adjusted Bylaws manufactured by empowerLA until they are corrected to conform with our community. The Bylaws drafted by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to not reflect our community nor our values. The wording of these administrative changes do not reflect our history in voting nor our election process, and so we resolve to not take a vote to approve these adjustments until the community can weigh the proposed changes and after review vote as a body by a supermajority to approve any changes, whatsoever, to our Bylaws.
And Speaking of Bylaws
Since the City Attorney is the one who has given DONE all this power, where the hell are his attorneys as the DONE staff members run around unilaterally changing Bylaws at will? The latest iteration from Jackie Kim is a shining example, and if it was cleared by an attorney, they should be up for malpractice.
Here’s the substance of the questions asked by the NC, as a Board member called for a motion to block voting on DONE imposed Bylaws:
“These Bylaws contain numerous conflicts and mistakes since our NEA claimed "Administrative Adjustment" to our Bylaws two years ago. They were never corrected and still stand in the Bylaws you just sent. Any sixth grader would observe the vague and confusing language, especially where elections are called for. Someone with knowledge of legal descriptions and the writing of Bylaws should look at this document more closely.
We cannot approve this document, nor vote on it, until these mistakes and conflicts are resolved properly.”
Well, surprise, surprise. Just before the monthly meeting, we have this from DONE:
“Hi Richard,
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Which specific sections did you have concerns about? I'd be happy to work with the Board to make sure the language in the bylaws are not in conflict with each other so that it can be submitted once the bylaws amendment period opens up.
Best,
Jackie”
So there you have it -- game, set, match. Even as DONE doesn’t want Neighborhood Councils to perform their Bylaws duties under the Charter, they are hot to have a bunch of DONE employees play havoc, as long as they meet the minimum qualifications for the job!
Think there’s any City Attorney who will sign off as having vetted any of these bylaws changes? I’d do a public records request, but it would go nowhere without a straight answer.
Why the System Doesn’t Work in a Pandemic
There are a couple of reasons that the LHNC can’t function well during the twin curses of a Pandemic and DONE/BONC’s inability to have any flexibility other than Zoom meetings and more and more mandates on the few willing to become a Board member. Class.
First, there are 26 Board members on the LHNC Board -- right in the Bylaws! Currently, there are only 16 actual functioning Board members, and under the Bylaws that makes a quorum 14 Board members. Good luck having meetings. Do the math.
The second reason this doesn’t work is that the biggest chunk of disenfranchised people living in Lincoln Heights are at or below the poverty level, without regular work, and/or homeless. And there’s no chance that the crooked City Council can ram through enough gentrification fast enough to get rid of them before the virus is under some sort of control.
As a practical matter, these folks -- one of the reasons the NC Charter amendments were passed in the first place -- cannot participate in the Neighborhood Council under these circumstances. And instead of working on ways to outreach to these stakeholders, BONC and DONE are busy paralyzing the NCs with top-down authoritarian orders which were simply not a part of the Charter.
Agenda Meltdown
In the 20 some years previous to Raquel Beltran becoming General Manager, the way agendas worked was that stakeholders would come to the NC and ask to have something put on the agenda. The Chair would take note, and the item would appear on the next meeting agenda. Same for items brought up by Board members or Committees.
Currently at the LHNC Executive Committee, such is no longer the case. For example, at the latest Executive Committee meeting, a motion to have a Community Impact Statement on Mansionization was ignored, and a number of other Motions from the Planning and Land Use Committee did not appear.
While I sympathize with the Officers who are frustrated and burned out dealing with the DONE staff (who seem to really run their meetings) and their own Committees (who want to get a vote on their recommendations), it is after all their job. And while it’s not on the record, I wonder how much DONE staff members are interfering in the Agenda setting process of the LHNC.
But Wait, There’s Hope!
Frustrated with the illegal authoritarian direction of BONC’s proposed version of “Digital Media Policy” (all 11 incoherent pages of it), some of the NC folks have evidently had it. They recently struck back in two ways.
First, recognizing that “Planning” is front and center for the Congress of Neighborhoods, the spunky gang wished to include on their agenda a Draft set of Bylaws for DONE’s annual Congress of Neighborhoods! For some reason, it appears that the LHNC Executive Committee was uninterested in putting the matter on their agenda.
Second, and probably scarier to the BONC’d DONE gang, a number of our Northeast Neighborhood Councils just announced ... The Los Angeles Planning Alliance! That’s right, since they have ample evidence that the Planning Department and the LA City Planning Commission would literally approve anything a big developer sticks under their noses, they have decided to push back.
Here’s their roll out message:
Today we started the Los Angeles Planning Alliance.
Echo Park, Boyle Heights, LA-32, Cypress Park, Glassell Park, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Hermon, Atwater Village, and Lincoln Heights. The Alliance consists mostly of Chairs of Eastside neighborhood councils' planning committees, and others as consultants. (You're invited of course).
Our purpose is to host a calendar for all the development info by neighborhood, links to the respective meetings, cross-reference where developers are working in multiple neighborhoods, and join forces where we have mutual interests.
We will be working on Zone and Specific Plans, review SCAG numbers and how DCP "adjusts" them, and question how transportation, infrastructure, projections on employment and households line up per NC (hello Metro, CalTrans, LADOT, LA-DWP, etc). Specifically we are forming to expedite how our voices can effect change, attract guest speakers, and give out info on how to participate.
We need some help with setting up a website, a storytelling page, a common Planning Calendar, and a community list where people can find out what is in the mill with developments, their CDO, and other ways they can get involved with changes to their community.
Instead of "every man for himself", we will calendar every time we see a project request, and distribute info on which one is of interest. We will have lists of projects, so that people don't have to search Entitlement reports or ZIMAS to find when and where a NC planning committee holds a meeting on these developments, and find all the related documents.
I think it’s a wonderful idea, particularly since a crooked City Council and Mayor are hell bent on gentrifying Northeast LA and simply rolling over the people who live there. If you doubt me, take a look at the 187-page (that’s right 187 pages) Indictment against Raymond Chan. I think there’s more to come.
Anyhow, to end on a cheery note, I urge anyone who’s interested to contact Richard Larsen (Lincoln Heights Planning Committee). He can be reached at [email protected].
PS -- I have it on good authority that my CityWatch colleague Dick Platkin, is also a founding member.
This could be exciting!
(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
