PLAN/LA

Creating Neighborhood Councils...

Sep 08, 2000

September 8, 2000

Excerpts from

Creating Neighborhood Councils:
A Report on Emerging Issues
Neighborhood Participation Project
June 2000

University of Southern California
School of Policy, Planning, and Development

We strongly encourage neighborhoods to make known their preferences for a neighborhood council system by submitting their own plan for design and implementation of the system to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, attending public hearings, addressing the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, and lobbying the Mayor and City Council.
. . .
We recommend that:
the neighborhood council plan allow maximum design flexibility that supports a bottom-up, grassroots approach to organizing neighborhood councils and permits ongoing negotiations between neighborhoods and the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.

the plan include provisions for a continuous process of review, insuring that the plan will be amended to reflect changing circumstances.
. . .
We therefore call upon the Mayor and City Council to recognize neighborhoods' broad needs for training and technical assistance in the areas of capacity building and outreach, and provide adequate resources to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to support these processes.
. . .
Once the plan goes into effect, the charter and ordinance outline an ongoing role to DONE in overseeing the plan's implementation (see Article IX, Sec.901; and Chapter 29,Sec.22.801 of the Los Angeles Administrative Code). Among other duties, DONE must:

assist neighborhoods in organizing themselves into councils and preparing a petition for certification by DONE

help neighborhood councils with the
election or selection of their officers and
arrange training for council officers and staff

arrange community empowerment education for top-level city officials

create and maintain an internal and external information and communication network, and

facilitate citywide meetings if requested to do so by recognized neighborhood councils.
. . .
DEFINING "NEIGHBORHOOD"

Opinion was divided over what should comprise the organizing principle of neighborhood councils, and how the term "neighborhood" should be defined.
. . .
In general, participants wanted the greatest flexibility possible in defining their neighborhoods. Conferees stressed that neighborhoods and neighborhood councils must be self-defining, and expressed concerns about the imposition of planning or council district boundaries on the neighborhood council formation process. Participants felt that these boundaries were in many cases arbitrary and disruptive of neighborhoods, particularly in areas divided among two or more council districts. Participants also noted that some organizations consider themselves to be part of multiple neighborhoods, and argued that the boundaries of neighborhood councils should be allowed to overlap to accommodate these areas.

Neighborhood councils will be as varied as the neighborhoods that create them, and hold the promise of providing a structure for a wide range of activities. The early stage of the council development process is the time to think boldly and broadly about what neighborhood councils might accomplish.
. . .
DONE should not establish rigid criteria for defining "neighborhood" or determining neighborhood council boundaries. Neighborhood stakeholders should be allowed to self-designate neighborhoods, provided that they can justify the criteria they used in specifying boundaries.

DONE should not establish a minimum size for neighborhood councils above 2,000 people, the low figure of the range specified in The Rebirth of Urban Democracy as optimal for promoting meaningful citizen participation.

Neighborhoods need to be educated in multiple methods for assessing their boundaries. These methods must seek to illuminate both the basis of the neighborhood's shared sense of identity and community, where these exist, and the issues of shared concern to neighbors.
. . .
BUILDING LEADERSHIP AND
MOTIVATING PARTICIPATION

We recommend that the neighborhood councils plan include provisions intended to assist groups to gain the skills and access the resources necessary to build capacity, reach out to under-represented stakeholders, and fully explore the possibilities for neighborhood councils.

The Mayor and City Council must recognize neighborhoods' pressing and widespread need for technical assistance and must act to approve a budget that enables DONE to provide this support to neighborhoods. In addition, these resources must be available to neighborhoods before and after the process of neighborhood certification is initiated.
. . .
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

Two alternative organizational models emerged from conference discussions: a council of neighborhoods model and an action committee structure. Each of these models has both advantages and disadvantages. The choice of appropriate structure would depend on the size of the individual neighborhood (big or small) and the specific goals of the organization (e.g., lobbying the city versus community-building activities).

The federated council of neighborhoods model might involve a council that is made up of individual representative of particular neighborhoods, or of representatives of smaller, constituent councils. Figure 1 illustrates one way of structuring such a council, in which the board is made up of members drawn from each neighborhood within the larger area. Table 2 summarizes some potential advantages of a council for neighborhoods approach, along with some issues of concern.

The action committee model would organize councils around committees designed to address specific issues or activities within a neighborhood. Figure 2 illustrates an action committee model, in which action committees report recommendations to an elected council board. Table 3 summarizes some potential advantages of an action committee approach, along with some issues of concern.
. . .

The DONE plan should not specify, prohibit, or endorse any particular organization form, but should allow for a variety of organization structures, provided that they insure representatives of all stakeholders.

There is a need to provide technical assistance and/or resources, such as information, web links, training, and sample by-laws, so that organizers better understand the advantages and disadvantages of the various organizational structures available. This might involve a facilitated negotiated design process.
. . .
GOVERNANCE: BUILDING A
PARTICIPATORY INFRASTRUCTURE
FOR LOS ANGELES

DONE should take immediate steps to encourage and support grassroots outreach and coalition-building, and should assist neighborhood organizers in reaching out to economically disadvantaged and limited-English-speaking communities.

Instead of establishing detailed criteria, the neighborhood council plan should include a clearly specified certification process that permits, and indeed insures resources for, negotiated planning to clarify neighborhood identification, reach out to stakeholders, reconcile overlapping boundaries, and promote inclusion of economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.
. . .
Finally, if neighborhood councils are to be truly effective, it is imperative that both neighborhoods and the City look upon the creation of implementation of the neighborhood council system as a long-term, self-correcting process of continuous change and evolution.