Northridge Community Council 8-14-01 Update
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Reminder. Please come to our meeting tomorrow night ; Wednesday, August 15 at 7:30 PM
at Northridge Hospital (map) Penthouse (18300 Roscoe Blvd). Parking to be in the parking structure on
Etiwanda, south of Roscoe. The penthouse is in the building north of the parking
structure (toward Roscoe). The location change from Andasol School is because
LAUSD made it impossible to obtain permission for a use of the School in time to notify all
stakeholders. ;
The agenda is posted here. and has been
sent to everyone on our E-mail list. It is also posted at the Northridge
Library, Porter Ranch Library and Northridge Park
Proposed Minutes from the 7-18-01 meeting
are now on line. For those of you that attended that meeting please read them and
make proposed correction by E-mail. We are trying to speed up the Council
meeting by not reading the minutes.
Proposed Bylaws for the Northridge Community Council.
These Bylaws will replace the interim bylaws. They will discussed and voted on
at the 8-15-01 meeting.
Membership Application
You can print
it, fill it out and bring it to the meeting
We Thought you would find this letter 8-13-01 Citywatch interesting. Click
here for the full original
A Proposal for Enhancing the Status of Neighborhood Councils
By Jim Hahn ; [Note this was written before he was
elected Mayor]
Dear Councilmembers:
As you may be aware, I am concerned that the current Department of
Neighborhood Empowerment ("DONE") plan does not provide the
neighborhood councils with the necessary tools to impact the delivery of city
services and to have their voice heard in any meaningful way. It will be my goal
in future budgets to include funding to provide direct financial resources to
neighborhood councils. In the meantime, them are a number of steps that can be
taken to enhance the impact of the councils once they are certified later this
year. I am urging the Council to consider and to take steps to implement these
recommendations so we can improve the proposed neighborhood council system and
provide our neighborhoods with a strong voice at City Hall. My recommendations
are the following:
Designate Neighborhood Commissioners to Have Regional as well as
Citywide Oversight of Neighborhood Council Policy
To supplement DONE staff and provide leadership to neighborhood councils,
each member of the Commission on Neighborhoods should have oversight of the
neighborhood councils within specified geographic areas. In this way,
neighborhood councils would have an advocate dedicated to their specific
concerns. Additionally, each Neighborhood Commissioner would be able to
develop a regional perspective on the variety of issues affecting
neighborhood councils.
Require Community Impact Statements for City Council Actions Affecting
Neighborhoods
The current neighborhood council plan establishes a mechanism ~- known as
the Early Notification System -- by which neighborhood councils will receive
information about pending City issues and have the ability to provide input.
However, the City Council and Mayor remain free to disregard this input.
One way to assure that neighborhood councils' concerns are taken into
account is to require that Council agendas and city reports upon which the
City Council and the Mayor rely in their decision making, indicate the
position taken by the neighborhood councils impacted by the decision at
issue.
Currently, every item in the City Council Agenda with a financial component
includes a "Financial Impact Statement" which sets forth the cost
of the item. The City should also include a "Community Impact
Statement" which indicates the Neighborhood Council's position and
briefly describes the basis for this decision. Only then can a neighborhood
council have confidence that its viewpoint achieves the visibility it
deserves. Moreover, while the Councilmember of the Council District in which
the neighborhood council is located may be aware of its position, this
procedure would present a community's concerns to the City Council as a
whole.
Create Neighborhood Action Plans to Assure Two-Way Communication
Between Neighborhood Councils and the City
The flow of information under the current plan's Early Notification System
is from the City to neighborhood councils and back. However, equally
important is for neighborhood councils to provide elected officials with
early notification of a community's own emerging issues.
One way to make sure that communities have direct input to elected officials
is to establish a system by which neighborhood councils, with the assistance
of staff from various City departments, would have the option to submit to
the Mayor and City Council, Neighborhood Action Plans in which the
neighborhood council sets forth a community's key goals and concerns. The
City Council would in turn be required to review and adopt each action plan.
As a result, elected officials could not later disavow knowledge of a
community Problem when it eventually surfaces. This approach is followed in
such cities as Seattle and Vancouver where community members and city staff
work together to develop the steps to accomplish their goals. Communities
then report on their progress on a monthly basis to make sure that their
goals become a reality.
Los Angeles should go one step further and create a process in which
neighborhood councils inform the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment when
the council is alerted to a new community issue. It should then be the
responsibility of the Department to disseminate this information to the
appropriate City agencies.
Take, for example, the situation in which a neighborhood council informs the
Department of new graffiti proliferation. The Department would in turn share
this information with the Police Department to address the criminal aspect
of this issue, the Board of Public Works to address clean-up, as well as the
Council office. In this way, communities will get the integrated problem
solving envisioned in the City Charter.
Mandate that Neighborhood Councils Have Input in the City Budget and
Service Delivery Priorities
Neighborhood councils must have a voice in the most important areas
impacting communities - the City's Budget and service delivery.
With respect to the Budget, neighborhood councils must play a role in each
step of the budget process -- City Departments' preparation of their Budget
Proposals for consideration by the Mayor, the Mayor's preparation of the
Mayor's annual proposed Budget, and the City Council's review and adoption
of the Budget subject to the Mayor's veto.
Before submitting their budgets to the Mayor, City Departments must receive
input from neighborhood councils on community priorities and develop a
budget proposal, which reflects this input. The Mayor must in turn present
the annual City Budget to neighborhood councils for their review and
comment. Neighborhood Councils must also be able to submit motions for the
City Council's consideration prior to the City Council's approval of the
Budget.
It is also essential that neighborhood councils have a voice in the
allocation of City services to a given community - whether its which trees
get trimmed or which street gets paved. Accordingly, City departments must
receive input neighborhood councils and develop annual work plans which
reflect this.
Neighborhood Councils must therefore have the ability to pass resolutions
expressing positions on Citywide issues. These Resolutions must in turn be
placed on the Council Agenda for adoption. In this way, neighborhood
councils will have a direct voice in City government and government will
serve as an Early Notification System to government of citywide issues
impacting communities.
AOL Solutions
AOL version 6.0 now
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will make all your HTML mail work so you can see the formatting and highlights
and use the jumps to see referenced documents.
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