LACP.org
.........
Los Angeles Citywide Alliance
of Neighborhood Councils

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Forum - Saturday, January 25, 2003

  Los Angeles stakeholders gathered from all corners of the City for the most recent forum of the Alliance of Neighborhood Councils.

website address:
http://www.allncs.org

Representatives from DONE, BONC and a variety of City Departments met with Neighborhood Council stakeholders on Saturday, January 25, in the Faculty Center at Los Angeles City College on Vermont.

These forums, held every few months, have become an important part of the process of sharing current information about the emerging Neighborhood Councils and their relationships with the City.

Stakeholders from Certified Neighborhood Councils, some with elected Boards, mingle easily with those who represent groups still in the process of being formed at these forums, which are quickly becoming not-to-be-missed events.

The Alliance is a work in progress, as are the Neighborhood Councils it is intended to facilitate and support. The group has grown out of a partnership bringing the work of Richard MacMinn and Mark Seigel together with the long standing efforts of Noah Modisett and Bill Christopher, who serves as the President of the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (BONC).

The purpose of the Alliance is to:

open lines of communication between Neighborhood Councils all across to the City to share information and experiences;
to make available information regarding the legal framework, responsibilities, and possibilities to each and every Neighborhood Council, either in formation or Certified;
and to interface with the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment on common issues which impact the Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils.

The agenda looked like this:


ALLIANCE OF NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS
Jan. 25, 2003 - 9:30am to 1:30pm
Los Angeles City College, Faculty Center

Welcome & Introductions

Morning Session - Open Microphone

Presentation
by Greg Nelson, DONE General Manager

How can we help each other?
Where's the money?
Teamwork LA
Early Notification System
Reaching the unreachable
Meeting techniques

Followed by a dialogue with the audience

Workshop Breakout - Mentoring
Experienced Neighborhood Council leaders helping emerging NC organizers

Keynote Speaker
Councilperson Jan Perry, 9th District

Her perspective on the importance of Neighborhood Councils

Followed by a dialogue with the audience

Lunch Session

City Departments and Neighborhood Councils
Wayne Tanda, General Manager - LA Dept. of Transportation (LADOT)

A discussion of the future relationship between Neighborhood Councils and the existing City bureaucracy

Followed by a dialogue with the audience
 
. 

Here are notes about what was discussed by each of the event's three main speakers. As you'll see there's a lot of dialogue at these meetings, as the participants freely ask the speakers any number of questions:

Greg Nelson
General Manager, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE )
DONE@mailbox.lacity.org

Money now available
Paperwork available on website - Bank of America Need an elected Board

Treasurer Training - suggests sending elected Treasurer and second signer on account

Constituent Services Center
8475 Vermont Ave.
Thursday, Jan 30th - 7pm to 9pm

Money can only be released to Governing Board elected or selected by stakeholders

Public Info question is at LA City Attorney

DONE will help NCs get grants
Hope to identify a staffer or a nonprofit organization to do this for the NCs
It's too much to ask of each NC

Money rolls over quarter to quarter

Election Procedures are being compiled as per what's been learned along the way

NC Budgets can be "best guess" estimates and stated in a general way - items need not be specific - NCs will not be held to very high standards

Prior to elections Certified NCs can get help from DONE - if you have a need in your NC go to your Project Coordinator - all legitimate needs will be met

$50,000 per year can be relied upon in future - "You'll not be punished for NCs' success."

Interim Funds - those to be used for Elections, etc - go to Project Coordinator and DONE will find a way to fulfill

ADA question (Disabled Access) - all Federal, State and City laws do apply (US Constitution trumps all else)

Robert's Rules are not required to be followed strictly - NCs are encouraged to modify them in a way that works and will encourage participation by the larger group - follow the "spirit" of rules, not the letter - example: City Council does not follow Robert's Rules

Issues / Advocacy Group - would like to establish this, perhaps could be created in coordination with the Alliance of NCs itself

Current DONE Stats:

NCs Certified now (Jan 25, 2003)
NCs that have held elections
Estimated stakeholder population now served
NCs anticipated by June of 2004
60
30
2 million
100

Felipe Fuentes (sic / spelling?) - Deputy Mayor - oversees NCs (and DONE)

Neighborhood Council "Action Plans" training will come up - decide which projects are most important to your NC and work with DONE to plan, arrange order, schedule projects, accomplish them

$50,000 - meant to be used for NC operating budgets and / or neighborhood improvement projects

Always give some thought as to how to communicate as a priority

Always try to indicate HOW a decision was made when communicating with DONE - decisions should not be made just one person but by the Board - suggested wording: "This decision was decided by (BOARD or GROUP name) on such-and-such a date."

"The size of your teeth depends upon you. We're here to teach you and support you in doing this." (gave recent LAPD Burglar Alarm Policy change as an example)

Jan Perry
LA City Councilperson, 9th District
Perry@council.lacity.org

Could not stay too long - had to get to a funeral
"Make local government work for you. You make our job "easier" because you keep us on point."

Homeless in downtown area - there are two new redevelopment plans - a lot could be resolved if the County would drop its law suit with the City - some priorities are to build housing for homeless, mentally ill, victims of domestic violence and families with kids

A public forum is being planned which will include three "involuntary recovery" stories

Asked a question about insufficient homeless outreach - Jan says there are only two people for the whole County that do direct outreach with the homeless

Thus far there's no coordinating mechanism to bring together all the existing groups

Asked a question about lists of hearings that will be going on - Jan recommends contacting the City Clerk who handles all the agendas

Asked a question about the Brown Act - Jan says we need to seek ways to streamline the process - agrees that the process takes too long and is too complicated

Asked a question about will there ever be a specific NC rep within each of the City Council Offices - Jan says no, that what DONE is for - they already do this

Wayne Tanda
General Manager - LA Dept. of Transportation (LADOT)
WTanda@dot.lacity.org

Talked about his Department's plans for development - they have a law enforcement arm (parking enforcement officers) - talked a bit about DASH and Express programs

There are two ways to get access to DOT services:

1)
.

2)
the "normal" system - a more bureaucratic approach
(offered list of Frequently Called Phone Numbers <-- click here)

the new "Ambassador Program" - custom designed for each of the NCs
(offered Ambasador Program and District Office Phone List <-- click here)

The Ambassador Program came to be as a part of the Mayor's TeamWork LA plan - the DOT has about 1700 full-time and 500 part-time employees - requests were made for individuals to come forward to take the lead and about 28 mid-level and senior-level management people responded - 10 teams were formed (so about 3 member for each team) and one was chosen from each group to take the lead - These leaders are principal Ambassadors by region as good communicators, the object is to provide the very best service with the most accurate information available to the NC members

Asked a question about why there's no skid row DASH line - Wayne said there are about 25 lines running around the City and that how / where / when they run is scrutinized and reviewed each year - he said a DASH in the skid row area could happen

Wayne suggested many there could talk directly to his assistant (who had attended with him) or that stakeholders could send Wayne email directly

Asked about checking of broken parking meters - said that they do this already

Asked about patrolling of parking lots - directly supervise only about 115 of the lots in the City

Asked why his employees could not assist the police as extra security officers, at a minimum calling in things they see - Wayne responded that as a part of TeamWork LA they do use the parking enforcement officers to augment the police in the seven City Planning Regions - there are some 800 traffic (parking enforcement officers at DOT and there are thousands of other City employees from other departments (like Public Works) that as a part of TeamWork LA are all being brought into and trained to assist police

Asked a question about traffic on the West side - Wayne said they are taking a hard look at this and that he will be at a meeting on the West side to discuss these matters in February - their partners in this will include the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and the Planning Department of the City of LA - among other things they'll be looking at airport "fly-away" programs where cars can be parked farther away from the airport and transit service available to take people into the facility

Asked a question about new light rail lines - Wayne says this is a long term process, often taking 10 years to accomplish a line - they're having a fight right now to keep the funding in place for the light rail line plans already in the process at this time

Asked a question about why there was not better planning when planning and construction of new commercial and government buildings was underway - Wayne said the DOT was involved in planning through development stages for all but residential construction - they're now looking at how to develop new ways of getting people out of their cars and into public transit - want to stop the "single car / single driver" syndrome - example: there's a plan to have a Dodger Stadium shuttle service from Union Station to the ballpark that may be available in time for Opening Day Asked a question about how to get traffic control devices (stop signs and signals) - there's a review process that's followed because a balance needs to be struck - stop signs are not just a liability issue but also an issue of right of way

Asked a question about response time for dealing with abandoned vehicles - a stakeholder said it was 24 hours for the car to be tagged and 3 days to be picked up

Asked if it was possible to get paint they use on streets from the department - they don't use paint - the material is called "Therma Plastic" but paint could be made to match

Asked a question about events at places like the Coliseum where people who attend take all the parking for a residential area making it impossible for local residents to have access - Wayne suggested looking into making the neighborhood a "Residential Parking Permit" area which exist in many parts of the City - but he warned that this has its own drawbacks and can make things difficult for legitimate residents, their visitors and service companies who may not have a permit on a vehicle - they'll all get ticketed, too

A comment was made that many perceived the DOT less as a public service and more as a Mafia style organization (meter / parking enforcement) - Wayne said he understood this but thought his officers were handling it well - it's a big job - he noted that they issue about 3.2 million parking violations a year

Asked if there could be an adjudication system for DOT violations that would not require a trip all the way downtown (for example one in Harbor area) - Wayne said they'd like to see this happen

A comment was made about there being insufficient parking provided for DOT system, near major bus stops and light rail lines - this was a big drawback to getting people to use them

Asked a question about the synchronization of traffic signals - also could there not be reversible lane system utilized on major wide thoroughfares - Wayne said about 3/4 of the City's traffic system is computerized and that would be growing as equipment upgrades continue - but there are other factors that need to be considered such as cross traffic flows - reversible lane systems such as the ones that existed on Olympic and on Highland were shown to be unpopular, especially with merchants who needed ongoing continuous access for deliveries and customer parking

Wayne said the LADOT must always try for a balance of issues - they always want to provide mobility but in an efficient, safe way - common sense is the right thing to do and the NCs will help the department determine this

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

visit the website at:

http://www.allncs.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~