PLAN/LA

Specifics May Be Hard To Come By

Nov 21, 2000

by Bill Christopher

The draft plan released last week by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) for a Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils marks the beginning of a profound restructuring of city government.

Historically, the perception of power in Los Angeles has been concentrated in a small group of people physically located Downtown, isolated from the far flung masses. This Plan for recognized, certified, and functioning neighborhood bodies citywide (if only legally "advisory") represents a major step toward de-centralizing authority. Empowering active local councils will be a sea change, radiating power, and responsibility, back to the communities that make up the fabric of the city as a whole.

The mechanics detailing how this is going to work will benefit from flexibility rather than having a uniform set of strict rules and requirements. The unique circumstances in each neighborhood will generate a range of organizations with widely varying interests. One size will definitely not fit all.

As outlined by DONE, Neighborhood Councils will be subject to three basic criteria. First, each council must encompass a minimum of 25,000 residents. The delicate balance lies in insuring that we don't wind up with too many councils, relegating the participants to background noise, and at the same time guarantee that neighborhood issues are not lost along the way. The answer for groups which may represent large, dense population segments (Echo Park) or broad geographic areas (Northridge) will be to operate at a sub-committee level and then come together in the interest of the community as a whole.

DONE wisely foresees that councils may overlap, but wrongly permits councils to establish a veto power over sharing territory. Given the volunteer nature of these organizations, and the ebb and flow associated with the life span of community organizations, it should be left to DONE to decide if a group is viable and whether it's boundaries make sense. Along with that must come some formal means of communication and interaction between neighboring and overlapping councils.

Second, each Council must be open all stakeholders
in the community. The DONE criteria for certification are specifically designed to encourage participation by all community members, and to prevent one interest group from pre-empting all others.

The real difficulty will come in areas of the
City historically lacking participation. Outreach
to those communities must be an essential component of the plan. At the same time, DONE cannot hope to enforce rigorous, expensive and onerous reporting requirements for certification, lest they scare away the very groups necessary to make the system successful. Nurturing groups in traditionally under served communities will be complicated and it will consume significant resources.

Lastly, each group must be self motivated. If it works, this will be a spectacular lesson in grass roots democracy. Differing groups will come together for varying purposes. One community will focus on land use, another will highlight police services and yet another will feature recreation and parks. Groups will come and go with time. The official map of Neighborhood Councils will be a fluid one. Yet as power ultimately flows to the councils by the virtue of the fact that they exist and are recognized as legitimate voices of the community, they will take on a life of their own.

Like everything else in City government, it comes down to money. This revolution isn't going to come cheap. Implicit in the Charter vote was a recognition that Neighborhood Councils would cost money. Quite a bit of money. The Times asked in an editorial (after ignoring the release of the Plan in all but its Valley edition) whether the city should be spending money on Neighborhood Councils in light of the costs associated with Rampart. The answer is an emphatic YES! All of our neighborhoods deserve to fully participate in City government. In that manner, we can all work to ensure that other Ramparts don't happen.

Every mayoral and council candidate must commit to funding DONE so that the Neighborhood Councils have the necessary resources to fulfill the vision of the new Charter. Excuses, such as Rampart, cannot be allowed to derail this train as it leaves it's first station. The last thing this City needs is for the hopes and dreams embodied in Neighborhood Councils to be left UN-DONE, for the want of adequate funding.