.
NEIGHBORHOOD
COUNCIL
ACTION
SUMMIT
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Sat. - Oct 3rd |
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Neighborhood Councils Action Summit
Saturday, October 3rd
EDITOR'S NOTE: We're pleased to report the Neighborhood Councils Action Summit, a prelude (and an alternative, for some) to the upcoming Mayor's Budget Day, will be held Saturday, October 3rd.
LA Community Policing has long supported such grassroots neighborhood Council efforts, and our founder, Bill Murray, has been an active participant in planning / developing community groups designed to get stakeholders from across the City to consider issues that are regional and city-wide in scope. This is the latest attempt ..
Please attend this important event. Every voice matters .. |
FROM: Greg Nelson, former DONE Manager
Dear Friends:
On October 3, 2009, starting at 8:00 a.m., neighborhood council leaders and stakeholders from around the city will meet at Los Angeles City College for the first Neighborhood Councils Action Summit, a bold grass-roots attempt to find out if there is a way to organize the Congress of Neighborhoods that gives a stronger and more meaningful voice to the councils.
Do not confuse this event with the October 10th traditional Congress of Neighborhoods that is organized by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, and which has now been blended with the initial meeting of the Mayor’s Community Budget Day process at City Hall.
The October 10 event will be structured the same way it was last year. The mayor, his staff, and city budget experts will talk about the budget for the first two hours, probably skipping over the parts that are too politically controversial. During the rest of the day, you will have to choose one of several concurrent workshops.
The dozens of community leaders who have been planning the Neighborhood Councils Action Summit want to try something entirely different as a demonstration for you and City Hall.
They hope it will provide a model for the hoped for evolution of the Congress of Neighborhoods. They promise less talk and more action.
One difference is that everyone will be able to attend the Summit. There will be no requirement to pre-register.
It will be organized with no public funds as opposed to the $20,000 to $37,000 budget for the DONE event.
Rather than listing and going home, everybody who attends on October 3rd will be able to vote on a variety of subjects including:
1. Addressing concerns within the Department of Water and Power by creating an independent ratepayers’ advocate within the DWP.
2. Asking the mayor and City Council to act in a more fiscally responsible way by adopting balanced budgets into future years as many other cities do. They should spend our money as if it were their own.
3. Qualifying a Charter Amendment for the ballot that would cut the salaries of city elected officials in half.
4. Giving the City Council the responses it has requested from neighborhood councils on a variety of options for cutting into the 83-year backlog of sidewalk repairs. We will be joined by the popular Director of the Bureau of Street Services, Bill Robertson.
5. Medical marijuana shops.
6. And several other issues, complex and simple, that have yet to be determined. Some will be simple "polling" questions. Your suggestions are most welcomed between now and the event. |
The event isn't intended to try and represent how the people of city feel, or even how neighborhood councils feel. It is what it is -- the voice of those who chose to participate.
Unlike the Congress of Neighborhoods, notes will be taken during every discussion and posted on the Internet. And there will be an opportunity afterwards for those who could not attend to cast votes online.
Participatory democracy should mean more than being talked at, or speaking for two minutes and being ignored.
To prepared participants, information about each of the issues is being compiled on a wiki at www.NCActionSummit.wetpaint.com and a website will be launched soon. Hopefully, you will find the time to review the issues before attending the event or before voting online.
The wiki is also a place where people can suggest future topics, or leave comments and ask questions in order to be prepared before arriving at the Summit.
The 1996 City Council motion that first put into writing the concept of a citywide system of neighborhood councils is entitled “A Fundamental Reform of Government.”
The Neighborhood Councils Action Summit hopes to take steps toward that goal.
You don’t have to choose between the two events. Attend both. But it is the Action Summit that promises you the best opportunity to make that fundamental change in government by discussing the tough issues, having your voice heard at least through a vote, and leaving with an action plan for those positions that interest you.
Shortly, the program will be available online.
~ Greg Nelson
gregn213@cox.net
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