EDITORIAL DOOMED BY CITY HALL NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL SYSTEM NEEDS MAJOR REFORMS.CITY Controller Laura Chick's latest audit has officially confirmed what community activists and concerned Angelenos have known all along: Los Angeles' Department of Neighborhood Empowerment is in utter disarray dis·ar·ray n. 1. A state of disorder; confusion. 2. Disorderly dress. tr.v. dis·ar·rayed, dis·ar·ray·ing, dis·ar·rays 1. To throw into confusion; upset. 2. To undress. . And, of course, Chick's findings are just the beginning. So far, the controller has only demonstrated that the city agency that's supposed to oversee some 86 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. is disorganized dis·or·gan·ize tr.v. dis·or·gan·ized, dis·or·gan·iz·ing, dis·or·gan·iz·es To destroy the organization, systematic arrangement, or unity of. and ineffective. What follows from there is left unstated -- that the councils themselves are faring little better. Seven years into Los Angeles' experiment with grass-roots democracy, the experiment is on the verge On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) is a play written by Eric Overmyer. It makes extensive use of esoteric language and pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to 1955. of utter failure. And that's no accident. The city's insiders-only political culture has resisted every effort to create democratic institutions. It scuttled the charter-reform movement, creating powerless neighborhood councils, and then made sure they remained ineffective. The last thing the city's political and civic leaders wanted was to see empowered local communities and a vigorous and actively engaged public. So they gave them little money, no power, zero mandate, and a directionless bureaucracy to oversee them. Despite that, a handful of neighborhood councils have actually overcome the obstacles to give their communities a voice. Chick's audit offers hope that with proper oversight, real elections, adequate funds and genuine authority, the system could still be salvaged. Or maybe what the city needs is a borough system -- an idea that was briefly considered during the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. secession secession, in art secession, in art, any of several associations of progressive artists, especially those in Munich, Berlin, and Vienna, who withdrew from the established academic societies or exhibitions. campaign, then promptly dropped afterward af·ter·ward also af·ter·wards adv. At a later time; subsequently. Adv. 1. afterward - happening at a time subsequent to a reference time; "he apologized subsequently"; "he's going to the store but he'll be back here . Either way, we need to go back to the drawing board. The current system isn't working. Neighborhood councils, through no fault of their own, are simply unable to offer communities a real say in how decisions are made and money is spent in their neighborhoods. Chick chick abbreviation for chicken (1). proposes that the City Council draw up an amendment to the city charter to resolve the many problems she's documented. She's right. The question is whether the council will take her advice. Earlier this year, council members wasted no time putting Measure R -- the proposition that allows them to stay in office for an extra term -- on the ballot. If they take the needs of the city's neighborhoods as seriously as they take their own political ambitions, they'll move just as quickly to put a real system of local governance before the L.A. voters. |
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