MY TURN-A few weeks ago I wrote a CityWatch article asking if the City Council was trying to sabotage the Neighborhood Council System by withholding the proper number of staff to keep the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment functioning smoothly.
In spite of the fact that no one argues the positions aren’t warranted, nothing has happened. Supposedly, there will be a meeting sometime this month where the relevant City department heads and the NC Budget Advocates will all meet and come to some kind of satisfactory solution.
Something occurred last month that lends even more credence to my sabotage theory. Former Councilman Richard Alarcon (Council District 7) transferred money from his final budget to allow EmpowerLA to hire a project assistant to help the Neighborhood Councils in his District, the Northeast Valley. They include: Sunland Tujunga; Mission Hills; Pacoima; North Hills East; Sylmar; Sun Valley Area; and Foothills Trail District.
Council file 13-0336 was presented to the City Council in March 2013 by Councilman Alarcon, seconded by Councilman Barnard Parks and approved by the Mayor and City Council.
It said:
The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment is in need of additional funding to assist with community engagement, community services and neighborhood council support in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. This effort is of special benefit for the residents of the City and for CD-7 and deserves financial assistance from the City.
Sufficient funds are available in the CD-7 portion of the Council District AB 1290 Fund for this purpose.
I THEREFORE MOVE that $100,000 in the AB1290 Fund No. 53P, Account No. 281207 (CD 7 Redevelopment Projects - Services) be transferred I appropriated to a new Account No. 471221 in the Neighborhood Empowerment Fund No. 44B-47> to fund a staff position for one year, to assist with community engagement, community services and neighborhood council support in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.
Apparently there had to be an additional motion to describe the position and that ended up at the Budget and Finance Committee in July 2013. It had first gone to the Animal Services and Personnel Committee. How those two particular areas were lumped together provides some amusing conjecture.
The Budget and Finance Committee… as it is want to do with files they don’t consider important or controversial … postponed a hearing. The deadline for the bill to be considered is July 29, 2015.
I questioned Grayce Liu, Department Manager for EmpowerLA, as to why nothing had happened in over a year.
She explained why the Department didn't use the $100k: “We didn't have approval of the Project Assistant position authority that accompanied the original motion and we’re waiting for a different position approval instead.”
Here is the position authority motion:
Lo and behold ...the successor councilman for District 7, Felipe Fuentes (photo), presented an addendum to this Council file which came before the City Council December 16, 2014, rescinding the $100,000 from EmpowerLA and putting it in his own redevelopment fund.
This was seconded by Councilman Bonin, which surprised me because Bonin is known to be very fair, environmentally astute and a great support to the NC’s in his district. Interesting to note that both of the second signatures- Parks with Alarcon on the original motion and Bonin with Fuentes, were absent for the vote December 16, rescinding the funds.
It is well known there is no love lost between the two Hispanic political groups in the San Fernando Valley and Alarcon and Fuentes are on different sides. This particular subject reads like a political novel and is the subject of a future article.
I searched the LAcity.org web site to see who voted for this sleight of hand transaction and even though Controller Galperin tells us we can find out how many fish heads the City buys for the Zoo, I couldn’t find any discussion on this latest proposal. I did notice that all of the Council members present voted in favor.
It was lumped in with bills that had received no public hearings. There was only one speaker card and I could not find any discussion of the bill. In checking with the NC’s in the Northeast Valley, none of them received any notice. They are a very vocal group and if notice had been given I’m sure everyone in the City would have known.
Empower LA received a phone call from Fuentes office in December asking if they still had the funds. Fuentes office was told that Ms. Liu was away on vacation and they should not do anything until she returned.
In gathering all this information my first thought and probably yours was this has to be illegal and unethical. I was wrong on both counts! I was told by one of my most reputable sources that, a Councilman can do these things, at least in Los Angeles, where Council members have significant individual authority. Alarcon could designate "his" money to EmpowerLA and his successor (apparently with approval of the Council) can undo that decision.
According to The League of Women Voters, “The Los Angeles City Council ranks as one of the most powerful councils among big cities that have Mayor/Council systems. While the latest charter from 2000 reduces some of the councils day- to- day authority over the daily operations of government, it remains a potent body. It has considerable sway over city policies especially in their individual districts.” It is worth noting that LA has fifteen Council Districts … NYC has fifty-one and Chicago fifty.
The plot thickened this month when the Mission Hills Neighborhood Council was holding its January 5 Board meeting.
That afternoon, Fuentes called the President of the Mission Hills NC, Jesse Martinez, and asked him to take one of the items off of the agenda. The item in question was a discussion about asking the Councilman to give them a new field agent. Fuentes didn’t think it was appropriate and to quote Martinez, “He said he didn’t want anyone telling him how to run his office.”
We can assume that the Councilman had not read the City Charter where it states that one of the mandates for an NC, is to advise the local government about stakeholders opinions.
I was told that when asked why he made a motion to rescind the funds … he replied that EmpowerLA didn’t need the funding. I did put in a request to Fuentes office asking for an explanation regarding this issue but so far have received no response. At this same meeting the Councilman asked the stakeholders video taping the meeting, to turn off their videos (they didn’t).
Here is a video of that meeting. If you don’t want to see the entire meeting the points in question are located at:
4:30 Martinez discusses Fuentes afternoon call
20:11 stakeholder addresses some issues
33:45 Fuentes asks stake holder to turn off video camera
I also discovered a Council member can ask an agenda item be removed from a Neighborhood Council meeting if s/he thinks it exceeds their authority— and they can refuse to do so if they think it exceeds his/her authority. S/he can ask someone not to video a public meeting and they can refuse to do so. Mission Hills refused on both accounts.
Councilman Fuentes did respond to my question as to why he took the funds:
"AB 1290 funds must be used in redevelopment project areas where the funds were generated. The funds are discretionary and may be used for a number of services with the goals of eliminating blight and creating economic opportunities.
"The funds were transferred to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) to pay for a position under ‘former Councilmember Richard Alarcon’. However, before he left office, a position of authority was never created at DONE, so the funds could not be expended for the intended purpose. The funds were just sitting in an account at DONE unable to be utilized.
“I introduced a motion reversing the funding back to its original account in order to pay for services like overtime police, additional sanitation including lots and alley clean-ups, bulky-item pick up, and graffiti removal.
“I will continue to use these funds, and other discretionary dollars, to enhance our communities and our quality of life.”
Whether any of these (alleged) actions is wise, effective or appropriate behavior by a Councilmember is up to voters to decide. But authorities say that nothing done was illegal.
I find that discouraging! A good friend noted that LA politics is endlessly fascinating in the way novels are fascinating. But the substance is too often lost in the drama.
I plan to bring you more substance.
As always comments are welcome.
(Denyse Selesnick is a featured CityWatch columnist. She is a former Publisher/journalist/international event organizer. Denyse can be reached at: [email protected])
-cw
