CHANGE AHEAD AT CITY'S DONE AGENCY TO SEE PERSONNEL SHIFT.Byline: EUGENE TONG tong 1 tr.v. tonged, tong·ing, tongs To seize, hold, or manipulate with tongs. [Back-formation from tongs. Staff Writer A Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. city official gave further indication Saturday that a management change is under way at the embattled em·bat·tled adj. 1. Prepared or fortified for battle or engaged in battle: embattled troops; an embattled city. 2. agency charged with overseeing the city's grass-roots neighborhood council system. Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Larry Frank told council leaders that a personnel shift within the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment could occur in the coming weeks. ``There will be new leadership,'' he said during a Senate meeting of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Congress. Without stating specifics, Frank said ``the pendulum'' will be swinging back to focus on mutual cooperation between the agency and the councils it oversees. Frank declined to say what role DONE interim General Manager Lisa Sarno will play in the leadership shift. DONE, formed seven years ago as part of the neighborhood council system, is under attack from local representatives and activists who perceive it as a roadblock and fault its role as fiduciary fiduciary (fĭd  `shēĕ'rē), in law, a person who is obliged to discharge faithfully a responsibility of trust toward another. monitor for
the city's 88 councils.
``Neighborhood councils Neighborhood councils are governmental or non-governmental bodies composed of local people who handle neighborhood problems. They can be found in many cities throughout the world. can't function properly when we have the organization there to assist us as the biggest roadblock,'' said Roger Kulpa, chairman of the Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council. Among complaints from council leaders in recent weeks: a memo from Sarno designating half of each council's annual $50,000 allocation from the city be spent on community ``outreach'' and ``improvement.'' DONE also has invalidated in·val·i·date tr.v. in·val·i·dat·ed, in·val·i·dat·ing, in·val·i·dates To make invalid; nullify. in·val some council elections, citing rule violations, and a financial audit found some councils have failed to commit their budgets to build civic participation. Frank said part of the problem may rest in the two often conflicting roles DONE is supposed to play. ``Its primary role is to assist neighborhood councils,'' he said. ``There is a separate role, a kind of a police role. ... Maybe this role should go to another office and not go to DONE.'' In a November audit of DONE, City Controller Laura Chick chick abbreviation for chicken (1). said the agency has primarily focused on implementing and certifying councils, but its role as monitor has not been well-defined. eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com (818) 546-3304 |
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