[Updated to include the four motions]
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| Neighborhood council members opine during an October town hall |
LOS ANGELES – In his continued bid to support and improve the neighborhood council system throughout Los Angeles, Councilmember Paul Krekorian presented four motions today aimed at increasing accountability and effectiveness, establishing a path to greater self-governance and improving grassroots participation.
The motions come as a result of a year-and-a-half’s worth of research, town halls, public survey responses and Education and Neighborhood Committee meetings in which hundreds of stakeholders, board members and others contributed to a robust dialogue on how best to develop the best path forward for the neighborhood council system.
“After ten years of development, the neighborhood council movement is at a crossroads,” said Councilmember Paul Krekorian, chairman of the Education and Neighborhoods Committee. “Initially, the focus of neighborhood councils was simply to create a system that empowered communities. What followed was an astonishing and inspiring movement in which 93 neighborhood councils sprouted in nearly every corner of Los Angeles, built by dedicated residents who simply wanted a voice in City Hall and wanted more for their neighborhoods.
"I introduced this package of reforms to help chart the course, but not drive the bus. These reforms are by no means limited to my personal vision but are rather the product of tremendous collaboration and will be a starting point in our ongoing conversation to help shape local democracy.”
The four motions deal with (I) improved training for neighborhood council board members, (II) reforms in the neighborhood council funding program, (III) a restructuring of managerial responsibilities from the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to regional collaborations of neighborhood councils, and (IV) a streamlined process to handle grievances of neighborhood councils and its members to maintain the integrity of the system.
Included in the reform package the council introduced Wednesday was a report on two town hall events Councilmember Krekorian held in fall 2010 and the results of a survey he developed after, which helped inform his motions.
Read the motions:
Krekorian Introduces Neighborhood Council Reform Package
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Reform package Further Comment
ReplyDeleteReferring to Reform Package No. 4
That says "Adopt a policy that enpowers the GM and BONC to freeze fund if an NC does not compy with council policy anddepartmental mandates, if any of the following circumstances exist...(d) theNC is not in compliance with the training requirement, or (e) the NC board is deemed dysfunctional.
Referring to Reform Package No. 6
Direct the Department with assistance from CAO, CLA,City Att.,Controller, and BONC to come back with a report with a mechanism for NC to request roll over funds and on project by projecdt basis...that deemed appropriate by BONC representative of the CLA and DONE...that a) Defines the types of projects that will qualify for the roll over funds b) Details the application and approval process and c) establish deadline.
I think the cluster concept of government/ CBO/ Commercial partnership will be the answer, and use of GM as prime mover because is the head will only repeat the past failures as set forth earlier in here.
There are many saying that is of American proverbial usage but come from Chinese origin, for graphical presentation of an argument. Two examples can be applied to the above situation of what we generally describe as "No win" situation. One say is, "You can squeeze blood out of stone." The other is."You cannot drive a square peg into a round hole." One cannot make something out of what it is basically not possible.
First, you must let someone new to run the reform, not to put good new wine into old bottle (Chinese proverb) for people can tell the old label to be of no good.
I have posted a couple comments in a separate email to Hon. Krekorian and others today and a couple days ago. This site has word limit. I failed to post in here.
ReplyDeleteI posted the same long message regarding the reform package in my other website www.groups.yahoo.com/
group/neighborhoodcouncilsla
This message is not going to be too long and will fit in here. Notice that Obama, when he first took office, he authorized tens of billions of dollars for stimulus program. I was surprised that he did not use new people (Plenty of them in nonprofits, CBO, retired executives and think tanks who have written articles and performed research on job loss and job training from political, economic and military points of view.). He gave it all to the national network of WIB.For a long time, the WIB cannot absorb them for lack of imagination about what and how to "Stimulate". The moneys either sit there unused or, if used, all went into road construction and house construction jobs, as if the dubious Keynesian "Pump priming" idea will work. keynes thought putting money into "Circulation" will increase the income level of society. It is too straight forward to be true. It did not "stimulate" nor "Circulate". The money did not pass from hand to hand because most of the "hands" are nor "working hands" but "receiving and hording" hands.
ReplyDeleteNow, after a couple years, there is a second way that Obama thought of. He knows that if money is going to work and create result, he has to retire his chief economic advisor and put a new person who is has specific knowledge about "Job creation". The lesson we can learn is that "To have new program. You must have new person(s)".
For that reason, Hon.Krekorian's reform need to have a separate team composed of volunteers and experts to do the reform, and just leave Bong Kim and his staff where they are which means do nothing and worry about overworked. In other words, give new people the chance while make the "original" people keep they job and pay but do not expect anything out of them. Or better yet, do as Obama has just done, which is to get the former head of the economic advisors council out of the way, by retiring him back to the academia.