Northridge Community Council 10-15-01 Update |
We are sending you this E-mail as you have requested to be notified concerning Northridge Community Council events and projects affecting it.
We have adopted a Town Hall form where every stakeholder (property owner, resident and employed, including business owners, in the area) in the community will be able to vote on every issue. All votes count equally and there is no miniature city council telling you what is the " best" for Northridge.
At this meeting we will be nominating the directors whose sole function is to organize and communicate between the Northridge stakeholders, the City of Los Angeles, and other agencies affecting the community. The nomination process is simple; you nominate yourself and have one person second it.
We will place your message concerning your candidacy on our web site without limiting the size if you provide it in electronic form.
Our October 17th meeting will also be discussing water quality and quantity, with a presentation by DWP along with L.A. City planning issues.
We're soliciting the community to bring forward items of concern for future meeting agendas.
Our agenda
http://www.northridgecouncil.org/notices/011017ag.htm
has been posted on our web site since 10-7, and the minutes for our 9-19 meeting were posted for approval on 10-1.
http://www.northridgecouncil.org/notices/010919min.htm
We intend to be as public and open as other are closed and secret.
Come to our meeting to become a director. By participating, you will show DONE and L.A. City that the people care enough to be involved in the decisions concerning their community.
And while the law applies to all public officials, some like to ignore it like Sandor Winger, president of the [LA City] North Valley Area Planning Commission, and a staff member of the Local Agency Formation Commission that oversees secession.
According to District Attorney Steve Cooley, Winger decided to broach the most controversial topic facing the Planning Commission developer Ted Stein's plans for a residential development in Chatsworth at a meeting where it was not on the public agenda.
That's a pretty clear violation of the Brown Act. Just in case Winger didn't know, the panel's legal adviser reminded him. But Winger carried on with the discussion anyway. Now Cooley has given him a stiff warning and put Mayor James Hahn in the position of having to act decisively or appear to condone City Hall's continued arrogance.
Hahn has had two months to act on this matter, but it's not too late for him to send a clear message that his commissioners and his administration must respect the public and the rule of law. How could he do anything less?
VAN NUYS - A city panel Thursday night declined to block a McDonald's restaurant planned for a busy Northridge corner despite emotional opposition from residents who claim the fast-food site will bring increased traffic, litter, and noise. The North Valley Area Planning Commission voted unanimously [headed by the above mentioned Winger who also heads Bernson's Community Council planning committee] to deny the residents' appeal of the McDonald's permit, but promised to review the site in one year and determine whether traffic and other issues were being sufficiently mitigated. Three of the commissioners did not attend ...
Newport Beach leaders approve a change to their meetings that will allow them to respond to public speakers.
By Paul Clinton,
NEWPORT BEACH -- To respond or not to respond. Now it's no longer an open question.
The City Council revamped its public comment period on Tuesday to allow officials and staff members to provide information and correct the misstatements of speakers.
After a lively debate winding through some of the nuances of the Brown Act, the state law governing public meetings, the council approved the changes on a slim 4-3 vote. The Brown Act allows council members or staff to "briefly respond" to public comments but not debate individual speakers.
[As the Northridge Council has adopted the Brown Act] it can briefly answer question raised by the public apparently Newport had adopted an local not allowing response even though the Brown Act allowed it but did not require it.]
Mayor Gary Adams proposed the change at the Aug. 14 meeting. Councilmen Steve Bromberg, Gary Proctor and Dennis O'Neil joined Adams in supporting a rewrite of the council's Policy A-10, which governs the comment session.
Speakers are given three minutes to comment on any item of city business that doesn't appear on the agenda. They may also address specific items. In addition to adding the response time, the council also said it would permit a brief response from the individual to the council's comment.
The changes have been lauded by Greenlight author Allan Beek, a frequent speaker, as a way to create a town hall-meeting flavor at the meetings. "There is a difference between a debate and a problem-solving session," Beek said Tuesday evening.
However, a town hall meeting is not what everyone had in mind for City Hall.
"The people of Newport Beach can come up here and say anything they want
and answer to no one but their own conscience," said Councilwoman Norma
Glover, who voted against the change with Councilmen John Heffernan and Tod
Ridgeway. "There is a certain amount of dignity in silence."
[and it allows them to keep their opinions and information
from the community]
Adams had initially proposed a five-minute response time for the city officials but has since backed off that stance. First Amendment watchdogs had expressed concern that a five-minute response would not be considered brief. The council is set to revisit the issue in another three to four months to evaluate its success.
Despite the potential for abuse of time by council members, Bromberg said he was confident the members would be respectful of the public's right to be heard. "I think we've got to give ourselves a little credit," Bromberg said. "If we blow this thing, we blow it. I don't think we will."
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