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ACCORDING TO LIZ - In corporations, universities, and city governments around the country, the desire to “do the right thing” and expand inclusivity has backfired, reducing previously civil opponents into bickering factions.
D.E.I. efforts have thoroughly failed, instead fostering a culture of grievance and the anti-wokism movement that served Trump supporters so well. Overall, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, interaction between people of different races, religions, and political persuasions has plummeted.
Campus conflicts around identity and speech have escalated, hindering freedom of speech. Students and teachers are afraid of expressing any opinion without risking attack by the self-anointed wokeness police.
Everyday complaints and academic disagreements, minor issues that used to be worked out amicably between the parties concerned, now deteriorate dramatically into crises of inclusion and harm, each side demanding administrative intervention.
Just as on the state and federal stages, what started out to benefit the truly disenfranchised has now devolved into divisive partisan battles, with court decisions striking down affirmative action driving a plunge in minority enrollment.
And minority students who manage to make it past the portcullis guarding institutional purity express feelings of being undervalued, excluded, and lacking the supportive environment in which to succeed personally and professionally.
Today too many of those elected to Los Angeles’ Neighborhood Councils feel compelled to simply rubber stamp any policies emanating from City offices and officials instead of protecting the best interests of their community.
In recent years some NCs have been co-opted by cliques with axes to grind. Instead of being motivated by a desire to serve their community, a number of people running for office now do so having been strong-armed by others to run as part of single-purpose slates. NCs’ operating ability have staggered from impact of business-group driven agendas to the influx of DSA and BLM folks.
Too often now their focus is on achieving specific goals of the faction in power, not those of the entire neighborhood.
How far the Neighborhood Council system has fallen in just over a decade!
From 2013 when City Attorney Carmen Trutanich wrote to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council President Herb Wesson recommending the City vastly expand Neighborhood Council’s influence in response to collectively action by NCs:
“… a Resolution that is being considered by Neighborhood Councils throughout the City and is designed to provide their representatives with an effective “seat at the table” within City governance. In essence, the Resolution requests that a Neighborhood Council representative be placed as a non-voting member on all City commissions and committees. In doing so, Neighborhood Councils will not only be afforded “real time” notification of proposed actions on important City issues, but, more importantly, will allow their meaningful participation in the discussion, review and development of such matters.
“Specifically, the Resolution, which alleges purported failures in current City practices, provides in pertinent part:
Whereas the City Council continues to ignore the Neighborhood Councils in decision making.
Whereas the City Council has not devised a credible system to inform the Neighborhood Council System on items of concern in a timely manner.
Whereas the City Council continues to deride Neighborhood Councils for not weighing in on an issue.
Therefore, the Los Angeles Neighborhood Coalition demands that the City Council and the Mayor immediately open a non-voting seat for a neighborhood Council member on all City Council (Regular and Ad Hoc) Committees and Commissions to be elected by the Neighborhood Councils.
“Notwithstanding the criticisms of City government contained therein, I believe that the essential spirit of inclusion and enhanced participation by Neighborhood Councils proposed by the Resolution should be embraced and supported.
“In order to fulfill the goals of the Resolution, the Mayor could issue an Executive Directive immediately authorizing and directing the presence of non-voting representatives of Neighborhood Councils on all committees and commissions as proposed. Any more formal role, however, even if non-voting, would require amendment to the City Charter and numerous ordinances.
“The proposed Executive Directive could specify, among other things, that: 1) Each Committee or Commission work with the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition to identify at least one Neighborhood Council board member to serve as the Neighborhood Council liaison to the Committee/Commission; 2) Each Committee or Commission shall deliver the meeting agenda and Committee member/commissioner packet (not just the agenda itself) to its Neighborhood Council liaison at the same time as the material is provided to the committee members/commissioners; and 3) Each Neighborhood Council liaison shall be permitted to speak and ask questions at the Committee/Commission meetings following the comment and question period for committee members/commissioners, rather than during public comment.”
Of course, this would have significantly increased the real work required by multiple NC Board members across the City without payment.
But back then most boards weren’t lumbered by the host of obligations, designated reps appointed to x, y, and z committees, taking up time in discussions but circumventing any constructive input.
The exception being the Budget Advocates, copied on the Trutanich missive, who were already a rising force and have continued to be a thorn in the side of the City.
It appears that the City’s response to the Trutanich recommendation under the directive of the Garcetti and then the Bass administrations was to emasculate the NC system by channeling their efforts into the make-work of talk rather than granting them the ability to constructively influence the direction of city government decisions.
And now by limiting free discussion on all levels with a myriad of regulations and petty authoritarian punishments to keep them in line.
Just like colleges and universities were supposed to be open bastions of learning with free discussion for all. Now not only are both students and professors afraid to speak up, their acceptance into programs and their tenures are now susceptible to being politically correct – whatever that means at the moment.
Speaking from afar, from the snow-dusted forest of my new home in Vermont, the NC system was great while it lasted outside the control of City Hall.
The role of NCs was to foster free discussion, communicate community opinions to the City Council with the expectation that these would be seriously considered, and to hold the City government accountable to all Angelenos.
Not to rubber stamp Councilmembers' pet projects.
Not to be paper tigers while the City is melting down.
So sad.
(Liz Amsden resides in Vermont and is a regular contributor to CityWatch on issues that she is passionate about. She can be reached at [email protected].)
