DONE’s Greg Nelson Speaks
From: Greg Nelson, General Manager, Dept.
of Neighborhood Empowerment
In previous
communications, we warned about the problems that would likely be created if the
Neighborhood Council were to proceed with its June 27th election. We
offered alternatives and solutions, but were ignored. At the time, and
again now, we offer our assistance and advice to assure that the Venice
community will once again have a Neighborhood Council to call its
own.
We have received a number of questions
following the release of the final arbiter’s decision to void the June 27,
2004 Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council election of candidates for
office.
As mentioned in that message a
few days ago, we are not able to answer all of the “what next?”
questions at this time. This matter, as you might have guessed, once again
has us confronting new issues. We want to deal with the issues in a
thoughtful way because they are likely to lead to the creation of new policies
and procedures for other Neighborhood Councils that will find themselves in the
same situation.
The decisions of a final
arbiter are final. There is no administrative appeal
process.
The decision of the final
arbiter has left the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council without the ability
to assemble a quorum and conduct
business.
Therefore, it is our
fiduciary responsibility to suspend the ability of the Grass Roots Venice
Neighborhood Council to access the funds it has been provided through the
Neighborhood Council Funding Program. It would be unfair to vendors and
others to deny payments to them for expenditures that were made properly.
We are in the process of examining the financial records of the Neighborhood
Council.
The ratification of proposed
bylaw amendments by the voters on June 27, 2004 was not addressed by the final
arbiter. Therefore, those proposed bylaw amendments, and the ones approved
earlier by the stakeholders are in the hands of the Department of Neighborhood
Empowerment. Any amendments to bylaws require the approval of our
department or the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. This presents us
with a new and complex situation, and we have not yet decided the best way to
proceed. Because there is not a governing board that can conduct business,
there isn’t an immediate need to resolve this
problem.
If there will be a community meeting
on Monday, November 22, 2004 for the purpose of discussing this election matter,
my staff and I will be
present.
If it necessary to do
so, we will arrange additional meetings to help the Venice community through
this difficult time.
Among
the questions and comments we have received
are:
Q. Can the Grass Roots
Venice Neighborhood Council be directed to not hold any
meetings?
A. No. We
don’t have the legal ability to direct any Neighborhood Council to do
anything, except as it relates the Neighborhood Council Funding
Program. And in this case, there is no governing board to which to issue an
order even if we had the power. We’re not going to seek injunctions,
bar the doors to meeting rooms, or bust up community gatherings even if they
choose to call themselves the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council. The
fact is that, presently, no group of people can conduct business as the Grass
Roots Venice Neighborhood Council. We are notifying all City
agencies.
Q. What happens to all
of the Neighborhood Council’s
records?
A. We’re
addressing that. Again, there is no clear legal authority that we have to
direct individual board members to do
anything.
Q. I will not
attend or participate in any meetings of the Grass Roots Venice
Neighborhood.
A. Our goal, as
described in the City Charter, is to encourage public participation in
government. Participating through a Neighborhood Council is but one way to
do that. The Neighborhood Council will be back, and we hope that you
won’t be idle in the meantime. We encourage you to continue your
support and involvement in the wide range of organizations and activities that
occur in Venice and citywide.
Q.
The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment should have notified the challenged
board members before they notified the
others.
A. As we have done before
in the case of the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council and other
Neighborhood Councils, we notify all of the interested parties at the same time,
including the City Council, the Mayor, the media, our commissioners, and those
who submitted the
challenges.
Q. How can
concerned Venice residents help you help us recreate a working, representative
local Venice Neighborhood Council Board as soon as
possible?
A. We will provide you
with all of the help that we can. That’s our job and our
passion. As good place to start is to find at least one leader whose focus
is all of Venice, and who is dedicated to finding a way that diverse people and
organizations that make up Venice can get together and agree on a way that they
can share seats and voices “at the table.” As we mentioned
before, when the efforts are limited to determining which group wins and which
group loses, the chances of succeeding as a Neighborhood Council are
remote. Neighborhood Councils were always about bringing together the
diverse elements of the community and discovering how to find areas of
agreement, and how to! honorably disagree.
Posted: Wed - December
1, 2004 at 12:50 PM