0001 DEPARTMENT OF NEIGHBORHOOD EMPOWERMENT

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

Reporter Melinda Bates

Job Number: DNE8979 0002 01 CITY OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 02 March 1, 2005, 7:03 p.m. 03 Department of Neighborhood Empowerment 04 05 PRESIDENT STONE: This is the meeting of the 06 Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, it is March 1st, 07 2005. We are at Daniel Webster Middle School. I am 08 joined by Commissioner Tony Lucente, Commissioner Jimmie 09 Woods Gray, Commissioner Bill Christopher and I'm 10 Commissioner Ron Stone. Welcome Tonight. 11 We are now going to proceed to Agenda Item 12 Number 2 on our agenda, which is Public Forum. Comments 13 from the public on non-agenda items. I have a few 14 speaker cards, so what I'm going to do is call three 15 speakers, and if you can be ready to come up to the 16 podium, if you're the next speaker called, that will be 17 appreciated. So Javuer Nunez, Jim McQuisten, Robert 18 Gelfand. 19 JAVUER NUNEZ: Good evening, Mr. President, 20 Commissioners. My name is Javuer Nunez. President of 21 the Arleta Neighborhood Council. Can you hear me? 22 AUDIENCE: No. 23 JAVUER NUNEZ: Okay. You can hear me, okay. I 24 am here this evening, frustrated, frustrated because I 25 haven't heard from Mr. Greg Nelson; I haven't heard from 0003 01 Parker Anderson. I met with you the last time in 02 November, waited for you to have a quorum on my quorum 03 issue in Arleta. You are sitting on our money. We can't 04 get anything done there. You asked me to go out and do 05 an outreach; I did. 06 You pleaded with me to get together with all the 07 board members; I did. A couple of them didn't show up. 08 I couldn't get no business done, okay. I keep calling 09 back. Mr. Derago is frustrated. I have Board members 10 that are frustrated; they call me. We have a problem, 11 but I don't think the problem is in Arleta. I think the 12 problem is here. 13 We have to take some action. It's not on the 14 agenda tonight. Nobody's called me. You know, with all 15 due respect, something has to happen here and happen 16 soon. I am to the point, okay, where I have 15 people 17 that want to fill those vacancies. I can't fill them, 18 because I don't have a quorum. I don't hear from 19 anybody. I'm still waiting. I'm still waiting. 20 With all due respect, Commissioners, we need to 21 get going, and we need to do something. I looked on the 22 website, it says "tentative meeting." That has to stop. 23 We need to know when the next meeting is, and with all 24 due respect, if we're too busy, then let's give the 25 opportunity to someone else that can make the meetings. 0004 01 Sorry, Lord. So that we can go ahead and take care of 02 business, and we can go forward with what we need to go 03 forward with. Thank you. 04 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Jim McQuiston. 05 JIM MCQUISTON: Jim McQuiston, East Hollywood 06 Community Association. Today at the Education and 07 Neighborhoods Committee, Question Number 1 to most of the 08 speakers was, "How many things have you sent in to the 09 City Council?" 10 AUDIENCE: Louder. 11 JIM MCQUISTON: Yes. This doesn't seem to work. 12 PRESIDENT STONE: Ladies and gentlemen, we're 13 having microphone problems. The Board is able to hear 14 the speakers, so if you can, please, bear with us, and 15 we'll have it fixed as soon as possible. Thank you. 16 JIM MCQUISTON: The Education and Neighborhoods 17 Committee is very upset with Neighborhood Councils, 18 because they figure that everytime you meet, you're going 19 to send them at least one statement, and so far they can 20 count the number of statements on one hand, since 21 neighborhood councils were organized, "And that has to 22 stop," they say, and I agree. 23 We have to start talking about issues and less 24 talk about bureaucracy. That's the general comment of 25 the City Council right now, and they want to find some 0005 01 statements. I must say, you don't have to be certified 02 to send in statements. You can exercise your First 03 Amendment even if you're in this throws of an election, 04 but get to statements in. The city council wants to know 05 whether Neighborhood Councils really mean something to 06 the city, and if you don't send the statements in, the 07 answer is they don't mean anything. 08 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, 09 Mr. McQuiston. Robert Gelfand, followed by Tom Ponton. 10 ROBERT GELFAND: Good evening. Am I heard? 11 Thank you. My name is Bob Gelfand, I'm from the Coastal 12 San Pedro Neighborhood Council. At least some of you 13 know we were in that first batch, Wilmington and Coastal. 14 We are the original Neighborhood Councils in the City of 15 Los Angeles. We were working and organizing and drafting 16 and taking our fledgling steps at developing bylaws 17 before this Board was in existence, I believe, before 18 DONE had any staff, and we have been sort of growing up 19 together. And I want to point out that at every step of 20 the way, we have done our very very best to be correct in 21 terms of the Charter, the plan, the enabling legislation 22 and the rules. 23 Today DONE threatened our council's very 24 existence, and they did this by threatening the validity 25 of our upcoming election scheduled for May 14, 2005, and 0006 01 they do this for pettiest and most illegitimate of 02 reasons, and I provided, I hope most of you, with a copy 03 of the correspondence from DONE's representative and our 04 Election Chair, Ms. Madeline Drake, who I must say has 05 done a really yeoman job of running an Election Committee 06 and getting our rules through, and I will simply 07 summarize: 08 Our Election Committee has met several times. 09 They drafted election rules. The rules were duly passed 10 in January. Remember you were still talking about those 11 new election rules what? November? December? We 12 understood, all of a sudden that with the new timetable 13 that you were drafting that there was a time problem, and 14 so -- well, I'm going to ask for time, because I think 15 this is an important issue -- and so our group met, and 16 they've had the -- the governing board passed the first 17 set of rules in January, and there were some corrections 18 and discussion. 19 I would say just as simply as an aside that one 20 of the issues that I raised at previous meeting, and I 21 think it was at this very location was the question of, 22 for example, the ambiguity of the identification 23 requirements and that actually did come up and although 24 we drafted rules that were absolutely consistent with the 25 rules that you've drafted. 0007 01 Nevertheless, Jamiko Bell decided that she 02 wanted to have them a little broader, and when our 03 Election Chair called her, Jamiko finally came up with, 04 "Well, why don't you add medical bills." So we 05 idiotically enough have medical bills as an 06 identification. I'd like to see that get picked up by 07 talk radio. Okay. So let's now get to the meat of the 08 issue. 09 At our last Election Committee meeting, which I 10 attended, and which your DONE representative was at, they 11 discussed the addendum to our already passed rules, which 12 served to fulfill all the requirements that had been 13 delivered to us in writing from Jamiko Bell, and we 14 passed that, and your representative was there, and I 15 point out that he made no objections to the addendum as 16 to forum substance or detail, and those rules were then 17 duly passed in the February meeting of our governing 18 Board. 19 Today, Mr. Cantu sends an e-mail to Madeline 20 Drake that basically says, "Those aren't good enough. We 21 have to change them once again." And what do we have to 22 do? Well the first set of rules, which I'll call "A" and 23 the second, which I call the addendum, which might as 24 well call "B," now we had to merge them and combine them 25 and make a great document, which we -- 0008 01 PRESIDENT STONE: Mr. Gelfand, I'm going to have 02 to ask you to please wrap up. 03 ROBERT GELFAND: Okay. I'll wrap up. I just 04 hope the people in this room understand how stupid this 05 is that we're now being told that our Governing Board has 06 to have an emergency meeting, which means that our 07 Election Committee has to call an emergency meeting, take 08 "A" and "B" and combine them into one document, which I 09 will call "A-B." Well, I tell you something, Mr. 10 President, they will not do so. We draw a line tonight, 11 right here. They will not do so, and you have a choice. 12 PRESIDENT STONE: Mr. Gelfand, I need you to 13 wrap up. 14 ROBERT GELFAND: All right. I'm wrapping up, 15 because it has to do with -- 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Mr. Gelfand, thank you very 17 much. I need to call the next speaker. 18 ROBERT GELFAND: Okay. May I finish? 19 PRESIDENT STONE: You can respond to a question 20 from Commissioner Woods Gray. 21 ROBERT GELFAND: If you don't want to hear what 22 I have to say I can go down to the Los Angeles Times and 23 say it there, because I want to make this clear. We're 24 not doing this -- 25 PRESIDENT STONE: Mr. Gelfand, Mr. Gelfand. 0009 01 Thank you. 02 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: May I ask a question. 03 Are you saying that you have written two sets of election 04 rules? 05 ROBERT GELFAND: No. we've written one set of 06 election rules, a set of rules, and an addendum to that 07 rule, and they were both passed under the tutelage of 08 DONE. 09 PRESIDENT STONE: Mr. Gelfand, now is not the 10 time. This is not an agenda item. We do have the 11 opportunity to discuss matters with the general manager, 12 during the general manager's report. 13 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I understand. 14 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much Mr. 15 Gelfand. 16 ROBERT GELFAND: I suggest that you -- 17 PRESIDENT STONE: Mr. Gelfand, thank you very 18 much. Tom Ponton. 19 TOM PONTON: Thank Mr. President, Commissioners. 20 My name is Tom Ponton. I am the Chair of the Mar Vista 21 Community Council. We have a meeting at 7:30 tonight, 22 which I will be chairing, so I'll be brief and get out of 23 here. I just wanted to make a statement with regard to 24 some problems that seem to be happening more and more 25 city-wide with regard to Neighborhood Councils. 0010 01 We -- I got involved with neighborhood councils 02 way back in the beginning, when the Charter Commission 03 was first talking about Neighborhood Councils, and I did 04 it because I felt strongly about Grass Roots Government, 05 and people getting involved, and the people having 06 something to say, and I fought for that ever sense 07 through the Organizing Committee and every other facet of 08 this Neighborhood Council System, but I'm seeing more and 09 more and more bureaucracy thrown at Neighborhood 10 Councils, and it really disturbs me. 11 We have fought. We have gone door to door, and 12 we had doors slammed in our faces and so have so many 13 people throughout the city who have worked for 14 Neighborhood Councils. I don't really think that DONE 15 and BONC really understand the really in-the-streets 16 outreach that's really going on out there. It really 17 really is, and these are people who are getting 18 frustrated. We've had so many volunteers leave us; so 19 many people that got involved and then got frustrated, 20 got tired and left it, and I'm seeing -- we just recently 21 passed a bylaw change, which we are going do be in second 22 reading on it tonight, to extend the term of our 23 directors should our election be unavoidably delayed. 24 We are doing that because of all the problems we 25 are seeing with other Neighborhood Councils like Venice, 0011 01 where suddenly they're in a state of limbo. They don't 02 have a quorum. DONE has made this decision or BONC has 03 made that decision, and all of a sudden all these 04 hard-working people are told, "You don't exist anymore. 05 You don't have any importance." 06 You know, it just isn't right, because these 07 people are working so hard as we did, that the people in 08 Venice helped us get 1200 people out to a forum at Venice 09 High School to hear about Plan Vista. They passed out 10 thousand of fliers. They went door to door, and yet 11 they're not -- they're virtually not certified here, 12 okay. They also helped us get 350 people to Venice High 13 School just a few weeks ago for another forum. I implore 14 you to give us a break out there. Don't throw so much 15 bureaucracy at us that we all get upset and quit. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, 17 Mr. Ponton. We do not have any other speakers cards on 18 Agenda Item Number 2. Is there anyone else who wants to 19 speak on that item, which is something not on our agenda 20 today? If not, we will close Agenda Item Number 2 and 21 proceed to Agenda Item Number 3, which is Discussion of a 22 written staff report and possible Board action regarding 23 the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council and the ongoing 24 status of their election. 25 Before I ask staff to make its presentation, I 0012 01 have a number of speaker cards. That's an 02 understatement. There was also, just last week, a 03 two-hour, at least, hearing only this matter. Pursuant 04 to our Board rules, the Board has the authority to 05 provide an opportunity for public comment, and also to 06 limit that amount of public comment. 07 What I am going to propose that we do, and that 08 my fellow commissioners agree with tonight, would be to 09 allow each of the Interim Co-chairs of the Greater 10 Wilshire Neighborhood Council three minutes each to make 11 a presentation, and then have 30 minutes of public 12 comment, which will be an additional rehearing from our 13 carryover from last time. We will ask people to have a 14 maximum of two minutes per speaker, certainly if you can 15 keep it to less than that more people will be able to 16 speak. 17 I will call you based on the order that I 18 received your cards, and that will be how I propose we 19 get out of here at a decent hour tonight. Is there any 20 objection from Commission? If not that will be the 21 order. So we will then, once again, have staff make a 22 presentation, each Interim Co-chair will be 3 minutes, 23 and then there will be 30 minutes of public comment, 24 maximum of two minutes per speaker, less than that will 25 be greatly appreciated, and that will allow your fellow 0013 01 stakeholders to have more opportunity to speak. So with 02 that, I will turn it over to DONE staff. 03 JAMIKO BELL: Good evening, ladies and 04 gentlemen, Jamiko Bell. One of the previous speakers 05 left their glasses at the front. They've been given to 06 the Commission Executive Assistant. 07 On the issue of Greater Wilshire, again because 08 we did have a quite extensive hearing last week, Staff 09 went back and based on the Commission discussion, we've 10 modified the staff report and the procedures to reflect 11 some of that staff want -- some of that commission 12 discussion just a brief summary for Mr. Christopher. We 13 went through a series of community meetings, there were 14 four, where we discussed a variety of issues, which were 15 all contained in the staff report, and what we have 16 attached is a set of procedures that are very close to 17 being able to be approved. 18 There are a few minor changes we will need to 19 make post, hopefully, your approval of the procedures, 20 and they're just dotted "i"s and crossed "t"s and we hope 21 you will grant us the authority to make those 22 administrative changes to the procedures without altering 23 the substance. We're actually, at this point, proposing 24 an Election Timeline for May 24th, 2005. The original 25 election date was May 14th, and the Community chose two 0014 01 dates. May 14th was the most popular date. The back-up 02 date was May 24th. 03 The reason Staff was requesting this change is 04 because Outreach material for a May 14th election would 05 have to go out at at end of this week in order to meet 06 the associated timelines and that's just a little tight 07 for us to be able to do. So requesting the second date 08 gives us time to finalize the procedures, make sure that 09 they're in order and then conduct an election with the 10 proper Outreach. 11 We're asking that you approve the League of 12 Woman Voters of Los Angeles as the Independent Election 13 Administrator. This was voted overwhelming by the 14 Community. Approve the Human Relations Commission of the 15 City of Los Angeles as the Final Decision Maker, again 16 this was selected by the Community. 17 Per your discussion last week approve and 18 age-minimum requirement of 18 years old in order to vote, 19 if that is in fact your desire. Approve a Prepared 20 Ballot Election without a Vote-by-Mail or absentee ballot 21 component, or a write-in candidate option, and again this 22 was chosen by the Community. Approve an Identification 23 Type of Stakeholder Verification -- excuse me, a 24 Candidate Verification. 25 Actually contained in the procedures and in the 0015 01 Staff report, there is an extensive list, which was 02 modified based on last week's discussion about -- with 03 regards to the types of information documentation that 04 can be presented to vote to verify yourself as a 05 candidate. Given that, we talked last week about, staff 06 recommends an Identification Type of Stakeholder 07 Verification, utilizing the exact same criteria as has 08 been outlined for candidate verification. 09 Now, normally we would recommend that we use 10 self affirmation, because it is the most open and 11 conclusive election verification process; however, given 12 the broadness of these particular set of bylaws and given 13 the very lengthy list of things that people can show, we 14 don't think that it will have an affect on discouraging 15 legitimate stakeholders in participating in this 16 election, and we also feel that it will give the 17 Community some level of comfort that their election is 18 actually being held appropriately. 19 We're asking for a pre-registration process for 20 voting, and there were a few e-mails going back and 21 forth, so I just want to address it to staff. The reason 22 why we're requesting that is because the Community asked 23 for a 7:00 a.m. election start. They're actually 24 proposing a split election, which is 7:00 to 11:00 in the 25 morning and then having an evening hours, and in talking 0016 01 with the League of Women Voters, we really -- a 02 pre-registration would would help us with those folks who 03 want to come in at 7:00 a.m. We would still allow people 04 to register that day and vote as well, but it would help 05 us get folks in and out of the door in the morning. 06 We'd like you to instruct the Department -- 07 instruct the Department to make revisions to the election 08 procedures in accordance with whatever actions are taken 09 by the Commission this evening and then approve the 10 procedures. 11 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, Jamiko. 12 Do we have questions for Staff at this time? 13 Commissioner Christopher. 14 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Jamiko, I think you 15 mentioned in your opening comments that there were some 16 changes to the procedures that had not been made coming 17 out of the last round. Can you summarize for me what 18 those changes yet to be made are? 19 JAMIKO BELL: There are very -- they're very 20 minimal. We actually have a stakeholder, Mr. Welborne, 21 who has been assisting us with small things. We have a 22 "v" inserted where it shouldn't be. We have two "ah"s 23 when there shouldn't be, and so it's very small 24 administrative changes to the document, grammatical, 25 those types of changes. 0017 01 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Well, I think Mr. 02 Welborne is entitled to at least one comma. 03 PRESIDENT STONE: Small but important. 04 JAMIKO BELL: Yes, insignificant changes, but -- 05 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: There was a 06 communication from the -- alleging Mr. Welborne that 07 there were substantial in nature yet to be made; is that 08 true or not, or have the two of you worked that out? 09 JAMIKO BELL: We have worked it out. The 10 changes are not substantial. 11 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: That's fine. That's 12 all I needed to know. 13 JAMIKO BELL: They're process issues. 14 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Okay. 15 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional questions at this 16 time? Commissioner Woods Gray. 17 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Just, could you 18 elaborate on the process, issues that you talked about? 19 JAMIKO BELL: Well, there -- we actually have in 20 this set of procedures of proposed process for how we are 21 going to verify stakeholders. How we are going to serial 22 code the ballots and/or the envelopes for those ballots. 23 It's all process, and how we are going to then execute 24 the actual election, and staff has an idea, and I know 25 Mr. Welborne submitted comments to us, which have 0018 01 actually been quite valuable, and so we do want to take a 02 look at those, and see if he doesn't have an idea of how 03 to do it a little bit better in a streamline process that 04 goes faster, but it doesn't substantially change. We 05 will be serial coding the ballots. We will be 06 registering voters. There will be identification. None 07 of those major elements will be affected by those 08 changes. 09 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: So these are not 10 issues that will interfere with the election proceedings? 11 JAMIKO BELL: No, ma'am. 12 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Okay. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional questions at this 14 time? If not, thank you very much, Jamiko. And pursuant 15 to our early order on time, I'm going do then call up, 16 one at a time, each of the Interim Co-chairs. We'll go 17 alphabetically so John Gresham, for three minutes, 18 please. 19 JOHN GRESHAM: Thank you, Commissioners, and 20 thank you staff. I won't take three minutes of your 21 time, thank you very much. I really do appreciate DONE 22 Staff and your attention to this matter of our delayed 23 elections. I support the staff's recommendations as 24 revised. I question the addition of the 25 pre-registration, but I don't see what harm it would have 0019 01 on the election procedures. 02 I would ask that the verification items, which 03 were the result of really a brain-storming session with 04 hundreds of people that are just spitting out ideas be 05 refined, and perhaps that can be done between the 06 Independent Election Advisor and the Staff, perhaps with 07 the help of the Elections Committee, thank you. 08 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, 09 Mr. Gresham. Mr. Rosenberg. Ladies and gentlemen, I 10 would appreciate it, and I know there's a lot of emotion 11 here, if you could please keep your applause to a 12 minimum. It will help us move things along, thank you. 13 Mr. Rosenberg. 14 MR. ROSENBERG: Good evening Commissioners, 15 thank you for opportunity to speak this evening. I also 16 will try to be brief. Just for record, I wanted to just 17 indicate that we place the challenge with regards to Mr. 18 Christopher's ability to act in this matter here tonight, 19 and I want the record to reflect that. 20 I'm sad to tell you that after working for about 21 four years with regards to this Neighborhood Council, 22 countless hours that I have filed a lawsuit in court 23 today regarding this matter. The Deputy City Attorney 24 Darren Martinez has a copy of that. He's reviewing that 25 as we speak. 0020 01 It's particularly troubling to me to discover 02 that someone has changed our bylaws without authority and 03 that this course of action is continuing. I need to 04 explain that in December of 2003, when we were certified 05 to have submitted our proofs of bylaws. For some reason 06 the documents that's been circulated by the Department is 07 different. The difference is that the proofs of bylaws 08 is 41 future Board Members. The current document has 31. 09 Someone has taken out ten board members from the bylaws, 10 and we want to know why. Why is that on this document 11 that you have? I would like to have an investigation in 12 regards to that matter, and that is part of the lawsuit 13 we have here this evening. 14 Also, last week, I gave you copies of an e-mail 15 from Jane Usher, which some of you members have it. I 16 will be happy to provide it to President Stone. 17 Unfortunately Miss Usher, her and her special-interest 18 friends against the Jews and the Masons in the community. 19 PRESIDENT STONE: Ladies and gentlemen, ladies 20 and gentlemen, I'd ask for either you to keep your 21 applause to a minimum. That would apply to all comments. 22 Please respect the speakers, and everybody else will 23 respect you. Thank you. Mr. Rosenberg. 24 MR. ROSENBERG: Mr. President, thank you. Over 25 the weekend someone initiated a fire at the Masonic 0021 01 Temple. This has been issue, now in investigation. I'd 02 like to see you condemn this action, and I blame those in 03 our community fueling the flames of intolerance. I would 04 like to make sure that this Commission take control of 05 our Council and legitimize exactly what we're supposed to 06 be doing here. We have a set of bylaws that's been 07 modified. We want to put it back how it was. We don't 08 want additional changes. 09 I also urge your Commission to investigate this 10 matter of the 41 board members, downsized to 31. That 11 was not agreed upon. I have the record of the hearing of 12 December 3rd, and Mr. Martinez has a copy of the exhibits 13 which indicate exactly what changes have been made. I 14 appreciate very much your attention and thank you so 15 much. Good night. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Because 17 of the brevity of those two presenters, I'm inclined to 18 increase the total amount of public comment time from 30 19 minutes to 40 minutes, so without objection, let's do 20 that. We certainly want to allow for some additional 21 hearing. So what I'm going do is call up, the same as we 22 did in public comment before, the names of the first few 23 speakers, please come up to the -- be ready to come up to 24 the podium if your next in line, and be as brief as 25 possible, and we have more chance to hear from more 0022 01 people. 02 So the time limit is 40 minutes, per speaker is 03 two minutes, Jim McQuiston, Victoria Martin and John 04 Welborne. 05 JIM MC QUISTON: Jim McQuiston, East Hollywood 06 Community Association. As you know we have -- the City 07 Council has approved the election procedure, so we have 08 to follow it. It's the law. One of the things that it 09 says is the election must be held in such a way to allow 10 the greatest stakeholder participation, and I went back 11 through the certification hearing, and it turns out there 12 is about 38 percent of the stakeholders that would be 13 left out by restricting the stakeholder participation. 14 This 18-year-old limit is not really what we can 15 count, because the bylaws don't prevent that. One of the 16 other problems that I see, I would say that the 31 is 17 proper that was changed at the reading, according to my 18 notes. There's about 80,000 stakeholders in this group. 19 The average attendance is .05 percent of the 20 stakeholders. So we do have a problem of participation 21 in this and with only 49, 41, 27, 39, 35 voting for these 22 various things, out of the 80,000. 23 We do have a a possibility to train-wreck. At 24 least ten of the spots, probably, will not be filled or 25 will be vacant after the elections, which means they will 0023 01 be in limbo again, and so we think that this is a pretty 02 dangerous proposition. 03 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Victoria 04 Martin, John Welborne, Peter Funsten. 05 JOHN WELBORNE: Mrs. Martin deferred to me. I 06 think, maybe, I can speed things up. 07 John Welborne, 434 South Plymouth Boulevard. I 08 sent a letter supporting Item Number 3, to your staff and 09 some comments. The technical clarifications I'm sure you 10 can all take care of. Some people have sought election 11 delay. Some people have done everything possible to 12 prevent elections. I just want to thank you and your 13 staff for moving this along. There's 65, 75, 85 people 14 here who have come to support this, actually the Staff, 15 who may not need to speak. If you're dying to have 16 people speak, they can, but much of what you will hear 17 was said the rainy night last week. 18 We're sensitive to your time. We're sensitive 19 to the time that people want to speak on Items -- Agenda 20 Items 4, 5, and 6. So I just want to try something. I'd 21 like to ask those people who came west from the Greater 22 Wilshire Neighborhood Council to support your staffs, who 23 come to get us fair elections -- to get us fair elections 24 soon, to just stand up and say that's what you're here 25 for, to support your staff, and if they still want to 0024 01 speak, they can. 02 (MAJORITY OF AUDIENCE APPLAUDED) 03 If anybody else has anything to add, because 04 your staff's done a great job. I can't say anything that 05 your staff hasn't said. Thank you. 06 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, 07 Mr. Welborne. And for the record I do estimate that 08 there were probably 200 or so people, or say between 100 09 and 150 people applauding at that time. 10 Before we go to the next speaker, I had been 11 handed a note to announce that the person with the green 12 Silverado can move their car. That would be appreciated. 13 I don't know why but let's assume it's important. Okay. 14 We have Peter Funsten, Neil Martin, James Wolf. If I 15 call your name, and you don't feel like you don't need to 16 speak, please let us know, and we'll go right along. 17 PETER FUNSTEN: I'll defer, Peter Funston. 18 PRESIDENT STONE: Okay. Peter Funsten is 19 passing to Neil Martin, followed by James Wolf and Tom 20 Gibbons. 21 NEIL MARTIN: Mr. President, my name is Neil 22 Martin. I live at 336 South Irving Boulevard. I lived 23 at that address for over 20 years. I've been in the 24 neighborhood for over 25 years. I do wish to speak very 25 briefly to support your staff's recommendation on the 0025 01 minimum voting age of 18 years of age and older. 02 Many of the -- several of the commissioners that 03 were here last week heard the extreme views of voting 04 from the cradle on up, which frankly from our position. 05 Since it's my understanding and the role of the Board to 06 make these elections work and to make the Council, the 07 Neighborhood Councils work. 08 It's exceedingly important that it not be turned 09 into a general laughingstock and become irrelevant, which 10 as you know, the Greater Wilshire area is a primarily 11 residential area, and that's -- and I'll be the first to 12 tell you that I did not pay attention to this program 13 over the last 12 years. I'm paying attention to it now, 14 because I'm deeply disappointed in some aspects of the 15 development of the Board -- the development of these 16 bylaws, and especially the service of having small 17 children be asked to vote, especially when you're 18 essentially saying that the League of Women Voters will 19 be to determine it, and so I do support the Staff's 20 recommendation. I urge you to support it as well. Thank 21 you. 22 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. James 23 Wolf, Tom Gibbons, Robert Clark. 24 JAMES WOLF: Good evening, Commissioners, my 25 name is James Wolf. I reside at 526 South Rampart 0026 01 Boulevard. I'm an Interim Board Member of the Greater 02 Wilshire Neighborhood Council. I'm also a Mason. My 03 lodge used to be in a Scottish Rite Masonic Temple before 04 we were severely eliminated, but on the issue regarding 05 the Neighborhood Council, I endorsed, and would like to 06 thank all the Commissioners, as well as the extensive 07 effort by the Staff to put together fair and reasonable 08 criteria leading to hopefully a successful election of 09 the permanent Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council 10 Board. 11 I would like to reinforce though that the voting 12 age needs to be governed by your guidance. The intention 13 I believe was for voting age of 18. The burden placed 14 upon the administrator, at the time of the elections, 15 whether it be from 7:00 in the morning, as is quite 16 earlier to the period is going to be burdensome enough. 17 As they look at the possibility of provisional ballots, 18 what we'de all like to see is the system where there is 19 the greatest clarity and the least amount of possible 20 challengeable process. It may -- it may negatively 21 impact the ability for us to have the seated Neighborhood 22 Council Board. Thank you very much. 23 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Tom 24 Gibbons, Robert Clark and William Patton. 25 TOM GIBBONS: I sent him a letter about a week 0027 01 ago. I'm not sure if every one of you read it. So just 02 to be sure, I'm going do reiterate this and make it fast. 03 We have been involved with the liaison formation of the 04 Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council for the past five 05 years. Personally, as the job calls for, I want 06 everybody heard and participating, which is, in reality, 07 is impossible. We all do our best to be completely 08 inclusive of all our neighbors. 09 Fortunately we have continuously been able to 10 attract members actively involved and concerned. 11 Unfortunately when the bylaws were drawn, a number of 12 times to satisfy both DONE and BONC. The Committee under 13 much pressure did not qualify a number of extremely 14 important provisions. This just recently came to light 15 after many neighborhood meetings. These stipulations 16 were left in the bylaws and adhere to would most 17 definitely leave our election open to the possibility of 18 many stipulated, manipulation and fraud -- two minutes, a 19 minute -- we have seen so much of this happening in -- 20 PRESIDENT STONE: Let's close. 21 TOM GIBBONS: I'm closing out. We request your 22 review and implement the following changes to be sure 23 that the situation does not occur. Board Identification, 24 Candidate Identification, no vote -- no voting for minors 25 under the age of 18, and again thank you for your 0028 01 individual dedication. I hope we give all the people a 02 fair and honest voice in it's growth of success. We have 03 been residents of this council for 45 years. Thank you. 04 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Robert 05 Clark, William Patton and Priscilla Wright. Is there a 06 Mr. Clark. Thank you very much, Mr. Patton. 07 WILLIAM PATTON: Good evening. William Patton, 08 215 South Norton Avenue. I fully support the election, 09 except I ask you to strike two clearly unconstitutional 10 provisions. The first is on Page 15 of the Election 11 Procedures. Under Candidate Campaign Tactics. It reads, 12 "candidate should not engage in any type of character 13 defamation -- parentheses -- in other words mudslinging 14 -- unparentheses -- the mudslinging is clearly not the 15 equivalent of defamation. It is constitutionally vague, 16 overbroad, chill-free speech; and therefor, should be 17 stricken. You can have defamation, which you can limit, 18 but you can't limit, under the First Amendment, 19 mudslinging. 20 I also would like you to look at the provision 21 on Page 11 of the Miscellaneous Questions, Issues and 22 Responses. There's a vote by this group that says that a 23 non-statement is not qualified as a candidate under the 24 Religious Organizations against (a) in the First 25 Amendment, the Establishment Clause. That's clearly 0029 01 unconstitutional. I'll give you two citations, one is 02 Wallace vs. Jaffry 472 U.S. 38, 52 to 55, in which the 03 court says, "this Government preference of religion as 04 opposed to your religion is forbidden by the First 05 Amendment." 06 I'd also like to quote the Allentown Case at 118 07 Supreme Court, 8-18-1999 Case, in which they define the 08 distinction between Atheist and Agnostic. Agnostics 09 merely doubt, whereas Atheist have non-belief and 10 disbelief. I'd also, as the founding director of the 11 Whittier Law School Center for Children's Rights, like to 12 strongly urge you to have votes of 18. Manipulation of 13 young children as property items is something we try to 14 do away with. Children should be treated with respect 15 and they should not be manipulated by adults. Thank you. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Priscilla Wright, followed by 17 Roy Forbes and Frank Barnes. 18 PRISCILLA WRIGHT: Commissioners, my name is 19 Priscilla Wright. I live at 330 South Irving Boulevard, 20 Windsor Square. I agree with the recommended action per 21 Mr. Welborne. Thank you for your support. Thank you. 22 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Roy 23 Forbes, Frank Barnes and George Stanbury. 24 ROY FORBES: Good evening, Commissioners my name 25 is Roy Forbes. My wife, daughter and I reside at 937 0030 01 South Mullen Avenue in Los Angeles, and all are 02 stakeholders in the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood 03 Council. I want to say we support Positive 04 Identification, for both candidates and voters, support 05 18 years old as the minimum voting age. 06 Of course, children under 18 are important members 07 of our community and will be impacted by the Greater 08 Wilshire Neighborhood Council's actions, right along with 09 other stakeholders in the area; however, the same 10 children are also impacted by the actions of the City 11 Council Board of Supervisors, Local and other Local State 12 and Federal elected officials, yet they are not allowed 13 to vote for candidates or any of these offices until 14 they're 18, because that's the conventional age set date 15 before one can give informed consent and inform educated, 16 informed opinions. 17 The Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council is a 18 public body with a significant budget, allocated from 19 public funds. A seat on the Greater Wilshire 20 Neighborhood Council is a public office subject to the 21 Brown Act, just like other public offices, where the 22 minimum voting age is 18. Correspondingly, voting for 23 the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council Members should 24 be no different. 25 The language is being recommended to you by the 0031 01 Staff, regarding and Independent Election Administrator. 02 We support that for age 18. There will be many 03 appropriate and meaningful opportunities and avenues for 04 children to become involved in the Greater Wilmington 05 Neighborhood Council process. This is not one of them. 06 One stakeholder, one vote. 07 As it stands now, someone who is a resident in one 08 of the 15 Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Councils known, 09 who owns a business in the area, is a member of a 10 religious group and who attends a job, whose child 11 attends a school within one of the 15 zones is eligible 12 to vote four times. Once in each category. Each use a 13 stakeholder. That person's spouse and potentially their 14 child would also be allowed to vote multiple times as 15 well. 16 This gives a person in this situation significantly 17 disproportionate weight and influence on the electoral 18 process, and subsequent policy may be forwarded to 19 council. If I own a business in one congressional 20 district and then I live in another, I don't get to vote 21 for each potential candidate in each district. I only 22 vote for the one whose district I live. That's common 23 sense. 24 All stakeholders are supposed to be equal, and when 25 the voting system being recommended to you, there will 0032 01 clearly be some stakeholders who are more equal than 02 others. A person qualifies as a stakeholder in more than 03 one voting category, each should be made to choose a 04 single category, which he counts as a vote; it's only 05 fair. 06 And I would like to say I'm glad a previous speaker 07 raised an issue regarding their feeling that there was 08 some religious issues going on and prejudice and bias, 09 because it's not true, and it's terrible that they will 10 raise that issue and try and make this something that 11 it's not. This has to do with plain and simple fairness. 12 The rules that are presented to you are not completely 13 fair, and I would like to urge you to consider. If 14 you're not going to make this fair, then I am for 15 postponing the vote, because I want to get it right the 16 first time. Thank you. 17 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Frank Barnes, 18 George Stanbury and Jane Usher. 19 FRANK BARNES: Mr. President, I submitted a 20 letter which I want to enter into the record, otherwise I 21 defer to Mr. Welborne. 22 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, but we're 23 not deferring to other people. So if you want to speak, 24 you can speak, if not thank you. 25 FRANK BARNES: Oh, I know. I have my time. 0033 01 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Mr. Stanbury, 02 followed by Jane Usher and Jolene Snett. 03 GEORGE STANBURY: I just came to give my support 04 to the Board recommendation. 05 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Jane 06 Usher, Jolene Snett and Marguerite Byrne. 07 JANE USHER: Thank you, Commissioners. Jane 08 Usher, 218 South Windsor Boulevard, Los Angeles, 90004. 09 So I have three people to thank. I have Staff 10 to thank, and I think I was belligerent and difficult and 11 impossible for them, and I'm just so glad to still be 12 standing here before you, having some new friends at 13 DONE, and they did not toss me out on my ear. I have you 14 to thank, because you voided through a tremendous amount, 15 but I really want to thank my neighbors who are here 16 tonight. Thank you 17 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, Jolene 18 Snett, Marguerite Byrne and Rudolf Gintel. 19 JOLENE SNETT: Hi, I'm Jolene Snett, I live at 20 429 North Las Falles East Park, and I want to thank all 21 the commissioners for all your patience, especially last 22 week's meeting of over two hours. I would like you to 23 encourage you to consider the motion that was on the 24 table last week. I was hopeful that again it would pass 25 this week, especially in regard to the 18, or 18-minimum 0034 01 voting age, and the voter I.D. and candidate I.D. 02 I would also like the qualifications cleared up 03 and John Gresham spoke up to that, and I hope that 04 happens between possibly this meeting and the next. So 05 we have those documents defined, better than just a 06 free-for-all, when people were throwing out ideas and 07 some of them I don't think were that appropriate, and 08 some of them were. 09 I'd just like to say that we're hopeful, and I'm 10 hopeful, and I think all our neighbors that have been 11 here, and I think we should now take on the motto of the 12 U.S. Postal Service that, "not rain, nor sleet, nor 13 snow," nothing will hold us back from having a 14 Neighborhood Council. Thank you very much. 15 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. 16 Marguerite Byrne followed by Rudolf Gintel and Susana 17 Funsten. 18 MARGUERITE BYRNE: My name is Marguerite Byrne, 19 I reside at 116 North Las Fallas Avenue, at Hancock Park. 20 I'm a long-time board member, and past President of the 21 Hancock Home Association. I did everything that my 22 friend Jolene Snett said, and I'm glad this is a 23 juncture, finally after a long time. Thank you. 24 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Rudolf 25 Gintel, Susana Funsten, Ed Levine. 0035 01 RUDOLF GINTEL: My name is Rudolf Gintel. I'm a 02 resident at Hancock Park. My business is located there 03 also. My children went to school there, and I just 04 wanted to say that I support the Board in their 05 recommendations, and I don't wish them to be swayed by 06 obstructionists who are filing lawsuits now as they have 07 tried to prevent our election for many years, and this is 08 not an election that I consider to be based on racism or 09 leadism or any -ism. We just want a fair, impartial 10 election, one that cannot be overturned later because 11 there is fraud. Thank you. 12 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Susana 13 Funsten. 14 SUSANA FUNSTEN: I want to support the Board's 15 recommendation. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Ed 17 Levine, Margaret Kuhns and Scott Goldstein. Going once, 18 going twice. No Mr. Levine. Margaret Kuhns, Scott 19 Goldstein and Marilyn Thomas. 20 MARGARET KUHNS: Margaret Kuhns. I support the 21 Board. 22 PRESIDENT STONE: Margaret Kuhns supports the 23 Board, or the staff's recommendation. 24 Scott Goldstein, Marilyn Thomas and Sheldon 25 Goodkind. 0036 01 MARILYN THOMAS: My name Marilyn Thomas. I live 02 at 200 North Van Ness. I've lived there for 38 years. 03 Previously I lived at 135 South Norton. We owned that 04 home for 57 years. I taught school at Third Street 05 School. My interest is in the voting age, and I have 06 five children that are adults now, and I highly recommend 07 that most children, I can think of maybe two, in the 08 years that I've taught would be qualified to make the 09 decisions to vote, and I also believe that 18 is the 10 voting age, so that's the way it should be for everyone 11 in this entire country. Thank you very much. 12 PRESIDENT STONE: Scott Goldstein, Marilyn 13 Thomas, and Sheldon Goodkind. I'm sorry, Marilyn, since 14 Scott Goldstein is not here. 15 SHELDON GOODKIND: I support the Board's 16 decisions. 17 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you Mr. Goldstein. 18 SHELDON GOODKIND: Goodkind. 19 PRESIDENT STONE: Goodkind, I'm sorry. I'm 20 losing track here. Thank you Mr. Goodkind. 21 Peggy Giffin. Actually if you are just going to 22 state your support, if you can come up to the microphone, 23 just do it very quickly so our reporter can get it on the 24 transcript, and please state your name. 25 PEGGY GIFFIN: Peggy Giffin, 260 South Highland 0037 01 Avenue. I support the Staff's recommendation. 02 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Marcy Newman, 03 Carlotta Keely and Russell Keely. Please state your 04 name. 05 Carlotta Keely: Carlotta Keely 120 South Hudson 06 Place. I've been a resident there for 20 years. I 07 support the staff, and I speak for husband, Russell 08 Keely, and I speak for him on lots of things. 09 PRESIDENT STONE: Russell Keely's speaker card 10 is next, and we're going to just pass that on to you. 11 Mark Rohnman, Kristina Mata and Lee Chase. 12 MARK ROHNMAN: My name is Mark Rohnman. I live 13 at 111 South Windsor Boulevard, Windsor Square. I'd just 14 like to say that this is about fairness. It is about 15 representation of interest, and I fully supportive to the 16 recommendation of the Staff, to the commissioners, and I 17 hope we all come to the right answer this evening. Thank 18 you. 19 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Kristina 20 Mata, Lee Chase and Suzanne Chase. 21 KRISTINA MATA: My name is Kristina Mata, and I 22 am in support of the recommendations as well. I wanted 23 to speak to two different things. I believe that we do 24 need to refine the verifications on Page 9, Item 8, the 25 end of the first paragraph, or the second paragraph 0038 01 there. It states that the following are the results of 02 voting during the discussion on candidate requirements 03 and my understanding was that that was the result of the 04 brainstorming rule and not the voting, and so I want to 05 bring that to your attention. 06 Also that on that I am very supportive of 18 07 being the age to vote, but the spirit of the process of 08 neighborhood bylaws was to seek out and hear the voice of 09 our youth and engage them in our community, and so I 10 think there are many in this room that can be aggressive 11 and follow through on that. Also that there are many in 12 this room that will also be aggressive in recruiting more 13 of our mentors, and those who are more disenfranchised in 14 more represented areas. Thank you. 15 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Lee 16 Chase, Suzanne Chase and Raymond Hartung. 17 No Chases. Raymond Hartung, Michael Barton and 18 Joyce Davidson. 19 RAYMOND HARTUNG: Ray Hartung. I live at 426 20 South Lucerne Boulevard. I've been a resident homeowner 21 in the area for over 20 years, and I support the 22 recommendations of the Staff. I strongly urge you to 23 adopt the 18 minimum, which is widely recognized as the 24 standard for voting. I think that it's essential to 25 remember that for this body to work and be effective, it 0039 01 has to be considered by the residents and the other 02 stakeholders in the area to be legitimate, and I think 03 asking someone to vote who doesn't have the maturity to 04 reach an informed decision undercuts that purpose. 05 A pharse that reappears in documents in our 06 history is the consent of the Government, and within that 07 consent it has to be perceived as a fair procedure in 08 process, and I also encourage you to get this election 09 going. There has been too much delay, and I think 10 anymore delay will just undercut the support. You can 11 see from the turnout tonight, there is considerable 12 support for this process to be fair and expeditious so 13 let's get it in order. Thank you. 14 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, Michael 15 Barton, followed by Joyce Davidson and Wendy Savage. 16 MICHAEL BARTON: Michael Barton, I live at 238 17 South Van Ness Avenue. I believe that the number of 18 people who have shown up here tonight to be involved in 19 this process should, we believe, that the Neighborhood 20 Council System could be a viable and completely relevant 21 way to get involved with Government. So we believe it is 22 critical and important for all of our lives. I strongly 23 support the staff's recommendations and ask you to help 24 us to get involved and approve those recommendations. 25 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Joyce 0040 01 Davidson, Wendy Savage and Jane Gilman. 02 JOYCE DAVIDSON: I'm Joyce Davidson. I live at 03 540 Lillian Way. I lived there for 13 years, and I very 04 much support the Staff's recommendations. 05 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Wendy Savage and 06 Jane Gilman and Mike Genewick. 07 WENDY SAVAGE: Hi, I'm Wendy Savage. I live at 08 627 South Plymouth Boulevard. I lived in the 09 Neighborhood Council region for 20 years. I'd like to 10 say that I do support the recommendations. I'm very 11 thankful that the age -- the minimum age of 18 has been 12 included in this list, and I also agree with 13 Mr. Gresham's suggestion to fine-tune the verifications 14 to items that we were actually just brainstorming. Thank 15 you. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Jane 17 Gilman, Mike Genewick and Vincent Cox. 18 JANE GILMAN: Hi, I'm Jane Gilman. I had a 19 business on Larchmont Boulevard for 41 years. I've been 20 involved with the Neighborhood Council since it's 21 beginning. I urge your approval of these 22 recommendations. We've been doing this for a long time. 23 We really would like to become a voting board, and I 24 think what you have stated in your recommendations to 25 cover the things that need to be done, particularly the 0041 01 voting age of 18, and the Candidate Stakeholder 02 Verification. Thank you. 03 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Mike 04 Genewick and Vincent Cox. 05 MIKE GENEWICK: My name is Mike Genewick. I 06 live at 108 North Venice Avenue. I've been a resident of 07 the Windsor Square area for over 30 years, and I've been 08 involved with youth in that area for over 20 years with 09 the youth soccer, and I strongly endorse the 18-age limit 10 for voting, and I endorse the Staff's recommendation. 11 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Vincent 12 Cox, Christian Frere. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: Christian Frere, Edith Frere, 14 June Bilgore. 15 CHRISTIAN FRERE: Thank you very much, Mr. 16 President and Commissioners. I've been living on Las 17 Fallas for 23 years, and I used to visit my girls ten 18 years before. I would like just to tell you that I 19 entirely support the recommendation of your staff. That 20 it is the limit of 18 years old. Thank you Mrs. -- I 21 don't have your name. And also to check very seriously 22 the qualifications of the stakeholders. Thank you very 23 much. 24 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Edith Frere. June 25 Bilgore, Pen Densham. 0042 01 EDITH FRERE: My name is Edith Frere. I don't 02 have quite the accent of Christian Frere, but we do at 03 the same place 436 South Apartments, and I have lived in 04 the area since 1956. I am excited that there is 05 something as inclusive as this neighborhood council 06 process going on. It's obvious that it's meant to be an 07 inclusive and fair process, and I completely support the 08 recommendations of the Staff, especially as to verifying 09 qualifications and to the 18-year-old voting age. 10 THE COURT: Thank you very much. June Bilgore, 11 Pen Densham and Frederick Pickel. 12 JUNE BILGORE: June Bilgore, 355 South Windsor 13 Boulevard. I strongly recommend the Staff's 14 recommendations. 15 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. 16 PEN DENSHAM: Pen Densham, resident 627 South 17 Plymouth Boulevard 20 years in the neighborhood. I like 18 to speak to the sense that there's a distrust amongst the 19 neighbors and among the stakeholders, and I'd love to 20 extend a very genuine open-hearted hand to the people who 21 feel that their not being included through this process. 22 We do have our issues with the Scottish Rites Temple. 23 There are laws being broken there, but they're not 24 about the individuals that go to that temple, and I want 25 to personally state that I would welcome discussing with 0043 01 them, at any time, their own relationship with the 02 neighbors and with the other stakeholders. We welcome 03 people a with a great open arm that have a good morality 04 to join in the community with these stakeholders. I 05 personally very much want that to be heard. Thank you. 06 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Frederick Pickel, 07 Jack Humphreville and Jack Matloff. 08 FREDERICK PICKEL: I'm Frederick Pickel, and I 09 live at 618 South Mansfield Avenue, where I have lived 20 10 years today. For over 25 percent of that 20 -- I'm 11 sorry. Over 25 percent of that 20 years, I have been 12 working on the Neighborhood Council effort. We really 13 hope to bring it to the fullest, and we strongly support 14 the staff's revised recommendations, and we support your 15 efforts to bring the election before -- to get this as a 16 functional group in spite of other threats of delay and 17 lawsuits. 18 So with the revised age of 18, which has been 19 "Bright Mind" by Today's U.S. Supreme Court Case that 20 showed -- demonstrates the "Bright Mind" at age 18. We 21 do support the staff's revised recommendations. Thank 22 you. 23 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Jack Humphreville, 24 Jack Matloff and Susan Allan. 25 JACK HUMPHREVILLE: My name is Jack 0044 01 Humphreville. I live at Windsor Square, at 456 South 02 Arden Boulevard. I have been there for about 20 years. 03 I'm also one of the principal owners of the Los Angeles 04 based newspaper company that employs between 500 and 05 1,000 people. I support the Staff recommendations. 06 Previously it was eluded that there were some shenanigans 07 going on with the Scottish Rites the other night. The 08 only shenanigans were that they had an illegal boxing 09 match, where they were serving liquor. It's was not -- 10 it's also that the neighbor is not anti-Mason. It's for 11 proper landings. Thank you 12 PRESIDENT STONE: Ladies and gentlemen we have 13 five minutes left on public comment, Jack Matloff, Susan 14 Allan and Jay Lender. 15 JACK MATLOFF: I'm Jack Matloff from 511 South 16 Lucerne. Our family has lived family there for 35 years, 17 and we have seen the neighborhood evolve to it's current 18 turmoil for reasons that are not appropriate. I would 19 like to support the comments made by Mr. Forbes, as I did 20 last week, because I think he has superbly summarized the 21 situation. Thank you. 22 PRESIDENT STONE: Susan Allan, Jay Lender and 23 Frank Badami. 24 SUSAN ALLAN: Good evening, my name is Susan 25 Allan, and I live at 618 South Orange, and I've lived 0045 01 there for 40 -- 50 years, and I support this Council. I 02 support the amendment, and I support everything that you 03 people are doing, and I'm very appreciative that you've 04 have taken such and interest. Thank you. 05 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Jay 06 Lender, Frank Badami, Charles Dougherty. 07 JAY LENDER: Jay Lender, I live at 436 South Van 08 Ness with a wife and son. I support the recommendation 09 of Staff and hope you adopt it. I want you to imagine, 10 if you will, for a moment that voting for the wrong 11 candidate meant that your employer could assign you to 12 hard labor, your banker could freeze your assets and 13 policemen could put you under house arrest. That is 14 exactly the kind of coercive power that a parent has over 15 his child, and this is why -- not 18, but the age of 16 majority is when voting rights begin in the rest of the 17 world. I hope that we will also include 18 as the 18 minimum age for voting in this election process as well. 19 Thank you. 20 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. 21 FRANK BADAMI: Good evening, Frank Badami, and 22 we live at 511 South Van Ness. I've been block captain 23 on that block for the last six years. Yes, myself and 24 I'm speaking for a lot of people on my block and also 25 56th Street that joined our block are in support of 0046 01 current staff changes, and I'd like to point out that the 02 inclusion of the 18-year-old age limit for voting would 03 not be a change but just a definition. There are also 04 many other definitions. In fact, the fact that there are 05 definitions already in the bylaws and the voting 06 procedures should not prohibit having this also included 07 as a definition. Thank you. 08 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Charles Dougherty, 09 Stanley Finemen, Eve Fineman. 10 CHARLES DOUGHERTY: Good evening, I'm Charles 11 Dougherty. I live at 906 South Windsor Boulevard. I'm 12 President of the Windsor Village Community Association, 13 and I would like to strongly urge that you accept and, by 14 vote, will approve Staff's recommendations for our 15 Neighborhood Council tonight. 16 Two of the issues that have been talked about 17 before I both agree with in terms of being a positive 18 identification for people to legitimize the election and, 19 quite frankly, to be in step with what's going on in the 20 country. I don't know of many places you can go and do 21 something as important as voting without having some form 22 of identification. You can't even buy spray paint 23 without identification. I think I make my point. 24 Also, I find it incredibly cynical that people 25 would talk about wheeling strollers up to the voting 0047 01 booth to get some more votes for whoever they 02 particularly want to have on this council. I find that 03 cynical. I find manipulating middle school kids and 04 teenagers to be criminal, and I believe that if we have 05 no voting age that would be a great possibility, 06 especially in light of what I heard tonight in this room. 07 Words are very powerful things, and in this 08 country, nothing happens to us when we say words, 09 generally speaking, but their use should be guarded and 10 used with care to make the point as high-minded as 11 possible, especially if you were going to include 12 children in that process. Thank you very much. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Stanley Fineman 14 Eve Fineman and Martha Matloff. 15 STANLEY FINEMAN: I'm Stanley Fineman. I live 16 614 South Orange Drive in L.A. I been there only five 17 years, but I endorse the Board's recommendations and 18 certainly the 18-year-old-voting age. Thank you. 19 PRESIDENT STONE: Eve Fineman, Martha Matloff 20 and Pamela Reed. 21 MARTHA MATLOFF: I support the Board's 22 recommendations. 23 PRESIDENT STONE: Ms. Fineman -- is that Ms. 24 Fineman? Ms. Matloff supports the Staff's 25 recommendations. Thank you. Please state your name for 0048 01 the record. 02 PAMELA REED: My name is Pamela Reed. I live at 03 500 South Arden Boulevard, and I just want to compliment 04 Ms. Bell for her great job. She maintained an even 05 strain when things got pretty hairy, and she runs a class 06 act. 07 I cannot tell you how happy it has been the last 08 eight years that my husband and our children have been 09 living at Windsor Square, and we also have been very 10 involved in children's athletics at EYXL, and he's been a 11 coach and a commissioner, and he started the girls' 12 softball league. We're now over a hundred families, and 13 I have been privileged enough to raise money for our 14 local fire station and adopt that station, and I just 15 want to say that with the community service that we've 16 been privileged to do. 17 What I love about living in this area is the 18 diversity and the embracing of that diversity. I have 19 never ever, ever, experienced nor me, a Christian, or my 20 husband, who is Jewish, any kind of anti-Semitic bias, 21 and that's why I love living here. Our garage is also a 22 polling place, and I know how long it takes to make a 23 provisional vote and a -- a ballot excuse me, and I 24 really hope that our election process will be as concise 25 as possible. 0049 01 And lastly, I really echo the words of a former 02 speaker, "One person, one vote." If we can't change it 03 today I hope we can change it in the future. We all come 04 to the booth with a context. This could be challenged, 05 because my kids play soccer, and there's no room for 06 soccer moms on the ballot, and we're going to be getting 07 money to deal with the parks. So the context is big, 08 "One person, one vote." It works in the Constitution of 09 the United States. It should work for us. Thank you. 10 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. 11 We have time for one final speaker, and then 12 after that, what I will do -- the rest of the cards I 13 have all been checked to either speak or to be recorded 14 for the items. I'll read the names into the record. So 15 the last speaker is Safwat Israusi, and the last speaker 16 supports the staff's recommendation. Okay. 17 So with that, we will close the public hearing, 18 and I'm going to read into the record the other names 19 that have checked off their speaker cards in favor of 20 the -- the agenda item. Linda Israum, Carolyn Bennett, 21 Erol Hassan, Debbie Hassan , Eric Hassan, Cindy 22 Chvatai-Kean, Shirley Gintel, Richard Byrne, Susan 23 Grossman, Myrna Gintal, Jerry Bowen, Beatrice Rosenfelt, 24 Sue Carr, Anne Loveland, Janet Loveland Roman, Juanita 25 Kemper, Milicent Schuher, Michael Tolkin, Elliot Marbury, 0050 01 Dr. Laura Ferguson, Henrieta Coseatino, Sheryl Bonanno, 02 Patricia Jasper, Judy Dugan, Robert Wishant, Ben 03 Thompson, Ian Jack, Francine Jack, Rose Kuo, Debra 04 Stricklin, and Kelli Hudgens. 05 Thank you everyone for your comments and for 06 keeping your comments brief to help things move along 07 tonight. That concludes the public testimony part of the 08 hearing, and with that I would now turn it over to our 09 Commissioners to see if we have any questions for Staff 10 or Commissioner comments. Commissioner Christopher. 11 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Thank you, 12 Mr. President. Can I have Ms. Bell come back to the 13 microphone, please. 14 PRESIDENT STONE: There was no one listed as 15 against the item. Thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Jamiko, one point 17 raised by Mr. Rosenberg, raised an issue in my mind, the 18 change in the bylaw from 41 Board Members to 31 Board 19 Members. Can you explain the issue? 20 JAMIKO BELL: I can -- Jamiko Bell -- I can give 21 you as much information as we have so far. It appears, 22 and this is the transcript that I'm holding in my hand. 23 It's a certification hearing for this group. Apparently 24 they went forward with Olympic Park, and there was a 25 boundary dispute and through the course of that, it 0051 01 appears that Mr. Gresham conceded that they would have to 02 adjust their bylaws should that territory be given to the 03 other council and that would affect their neighborhood 04 council. We'll continue to investigate and to look at 05 the determination letter and -- 06 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: I now remember that 07 situation. Thank you. 08 JAMIKO BELL: Yes. That appears that's what 09 occurred, but we'll turn all that information over to the 10 City Attorney. 11 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Okay. Thank you. 12 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. 13 Additional questions? 14 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: That was the only 15 question I had -- oh, one other -- I take that back. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Christopher. 17 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: The second question. 18 The pre-registration requirement, which has been added to 19 the bylaws, or to the election procedures. Is that a 20 mandatory pre-registration or an optional 21 pre-registration? 22 JAMIKO BELL: It's optional. It's primarily for 23 the convenience of the Election Administrator, who's 24 going to have to administrate an election at 7:00 a.m., 25 just to kind of give him a list to start with. 0052 01 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Thank you. 02 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional questions or 03 comments from the Commission? 04 I have one either for Staff or for the City 05 Attorney. There were a couple of First Amendment Issues 06 raised, maybe the City Attorney can comment on those. 07 DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY MARTINEZ: Darren Martinez, 08 Deputy City Attorney. Can everybody hear me? 09 PRESIDENT STONE: I think we need the microphone 10 on for the City Attorney. 11 DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY MARTINEZ: Darren Martinez, 12 Deputy City Attorney. There were a couple of issues 13 raised, and I apologize. I forgot the gentleman's name 14 who did speak on the issue. 15 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: Mr. Martinez, could 16 you speak up, please. 17 DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY: There was a gentlemen who 18 had raised a couple of Constitutional issues during the 19 course of this speech on this matter, and he raised a 20 couple of issues with respect to language that was used 21 in the election procedures. One of that -- or one of 22 those issues is that on Page 15 of the Proposed Election 23 Procedures, it states that "Candidates shall not engage 24 in defamation, including mudslinging." 25 I would recommend to the Commission that they 0053 01 adopt a recommendation proposed by this gentlemen. His 02 suggestion was that the term "mudslinging" should be 03 eliminated as it potentially falls within the 04 constitutionally protected First Amendment speech. 05 "Defamation" is a more precise definition with respect to 06 the types of speech that a candidate cannot engage. 07 While I understand that they were attempting to provide 08 an example of mudslinging. That may be overbroad, and I 09 recommend that the Commission go ahead and adopt that 10 gentleman's recommendation. 11 With respect to the second item that was 12 mentioned. The matter is really and item that is 13 referenced in the Department's report. It's not an item 14 that's contained in the Election Procedures. In the 15 Department's report, on Page 11, it does indicate that 16 there was a voting that was taken with respect to whether 17 an Agnostic institutional organization will qualify as a 18 religious institution under the terms of that 19 organizations bylaws. 20 What I would recommend to the Commission is that 21 they simply advise the applicant that an Agnostic 22 organization or institution is one that should be 23 included within the religious institutional and to allow 24 that final arbiter to make the decision based on their 25 evaluation of that stakeholder status similar to any 0054 01 other stakeholder status. While there aren't changes to 02 make to the election procedures, that's the advise or 03 recommendation that the -- I'd suggest the Commission 04 issue to the Neighborhood Council. 05 I suppose I just want to bring up one additional 06 matter. Just for the record, I do want to confirm that 07 prior to the proceedings tonight, Mr. Rosenberg did hand 08 me a copy of a Complaint that's been filed with the Los 09 Angeles Superior Court, that that lawsuit is filed 10 against the City of Los Angeles, the Board of 11 Neighborhood Commissioners and the Greater Wilshire 12 Neighborhood Council. 13 That does raise issues with respect to the 14 ability of the Board and adopting these election 15 procedures and specifically with respect to providing a 16 limitation on age restriction, and I'll acknowledge that 17 I have received a courtesy copy of that lawsuit. 18 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, Mr. 19 Martinez. Additional Commissioner questions for Staff or 20 comments or deliberation? Commissioner Lucente. 21 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: Thank you, Mr. President. 22 As was mentioned previously, we had a very lengthy 23 hearing last week and was able to obtain testimony from 24 many many stakeholders, and in the Greater Wilshire 25 Neighborhood Council. Areas of those stakeholders 0055 01 included, residents, businesses and representatives of 02 the various stakeholder categories. We also received and 03 had the opportunity to extensively question the city 04 staff regarding their proposed staff recommendations, and 05 it was a very informative meeting. 06 I did want to mention that, you know, it is the 07 responsibility, I feel, of this Commission. I think we 08 have done our job throughout the city. Really it comes 09 down to establishing a fair balance and credible 10 Neighborhood Council system. As was mentioned last week, 11 this really boils down to an issue of common sense, and 12 with that, the Staff has appropriately recommended 13 stakeholder and candidate qualifications. I believe that 14 the Staff recommendations, not only for this week, meet 15 the letter of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council's 16 bylaws, but also the spirit, and I would speak 17 specifically to the inclusiveness that is contained in 18 these bylaws. 19 They are, in deed, highly inclusive and by 20 supporting or acting on our right, as the Commission, to 21 establish these procedures, including the establishment 22 of a minimum voting age. We are not, in any way, 23 inhibiting the representation by any stakeholder groups 24 listed in the bylaws or participation in the Neighborhood 25 Council by stakeholders in the Greater Wilshire 0056 01 Neighborhood Council area of any age, and so I think that 02 the Staff has done a great job in providing a fair 03 balance and credible set of recommendations. 04 I know that -- I will then move that this 05 Commission approve the proposed Election Timeline for May 06 24th, 2005; approve the League of Women Voters of L.A. as 07 the Independent Election Administrator; approve the 08 Relations Commission of the City of L.A. as the Final 09 Decision Maker; approve the minimum age requirement of 18 10 years old in order to vote; approve a Prepared Ballot 11 Election without a Vote-by-Mail/Absentee ballot component 12 or write-in candidate option; approve an Identification 13 type of candidate option; approve an Identification type 14 of Stakeholder Verification utilizing the same 15 requirements as listed for candidate verification. Those 16 qualifications will be refined by the Staff; approve of 17 pre-registration process for voting. Instruct the 18 Department to make the provisions to the election 19 procedures in the accordance with the action taken 20 tonight by this Commission; and approve the Greater 21 Wilshire Neighborhood Council 2005 Election Procedures. 22 I think that it is important that this 23 Commission establish some findings to support the 24 establishment of a minimum voting age and those findings 25 will be as follows: 0057 01 That the bylaws of the Greater Wilshire 02 Neighborhood Council do not state an age minimum for 03 voting and for holding office. There is neither 04 agreement nor clarity with regard to the intent of the 05 founding members of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood 06 Council about the inclusion and or exclusion of an age 07 minimum for elections. 08 There is currently no interim board for the 09 Staff or Board of Neighborhood Commissioners to turn to 10 for clarity on the issue of age. There is significant 11 input from the community requesting that this Commission 12 make the determination with regard to this issue; and 13 therefor, I believe that these findings support the rule 14 as I stated previously, that for the 2005 Election the 15 Board of Neighborhood Commissioners will serve an age 16 requirement of 18 years for voting and/or holding office 17 into the 2005 Election Procedures. 18 One thing I did not mention is the 19 one-stakeholder, one-vote issue. As I mentioned last 20 week, I think that people need to draw the line, a very 21 clear line between this and the minimum voting age issue 22 where -- which is not referenced in the bylaws the 23 stakeholder categories and the voting procedures are very 24 explicit regarding this, and I would say that by 25 recommending these staff -- by adopting the Staff 0058 01 recommendations, there's a big difference between one 02 stakeholder, one vote, and one-vote voting in multiple 03 categories. That may seem like a saddle distinction, but 04 it an important one, and it is very common throughout the 05 City of Los Angeles and Neighborhood Councils. 06 So I would -- I would put that motion on the 07 table. I'm sorry it's so lengthy, but obviously it's 08 very complex. And my final statement would be that this 09 Commission strongly advised that the newly-elected Board 10 of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council formally 11 address the issue of age in the bylaws prior to the next 12 elections. 13 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I'll second. 14 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Lucente has made 15 a motion seconded by Commissioner Woods Gray. Is there 16 Commision comment or discussion on the motion? 17 Commissioner Herrera Duran. 18 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: Yes. I would like 19 to address two issues with the -- with the motion. 20 One, I want to reinforce what I said last week 21 about identification of candidates and identification of 22 stakeholders. There should be no more stringent rules 23 for identification for one particular group, such as a 24 working group, or whoever it is, than there is for 25 others, otherwise that would be unfair, and if one group 0059 01 is asked for tax forms or whatever, then the rest should 02 be asked for tax forms and this sort of thing. So I just 03 want to make sure that everything is on an equal footing 04 when everybody comes to present their Stakeholder 05 verification. 06 What I do want to talk about, and I know we 07 didn't discuss this last week, Commissioner Lucente, but 08 I'd like to discuss it now, and that is the voter age 09 that we have, the minimum age requirement that we talked 10 about. I realize, and I know 18 is the age for voting in 11 the Federal elections and so forth; however, it has been 12 our custom, and it has been our role to encourage youth 13 to be present and to be part of the Neighborhood 14 Councils. 15 What we've tried to do many times is have youth 16 groups or part of the Board or part of the stakeholders, 17 have a youth component, so that we can start bringing up 18 and training the youth in the community so that they can 19 take over, so that they can understand what's happening; 20 that's extremely important that they take part in the -- 21 in the decisions that are being made, and I think that if 22 they are there, they can be trained; they can be taught; 23 they can influenced positively in the determination of 24 what's going on in their neighborhood, and I think that's 25 extremely important. 0060 01 That has been what we have always tried to do in 02 the past with our certifications and with our bylaws and 03 so forth. So I am wondering if you would accept a 04 friendly Amendment to your motion to lower the minimum 05 require to 16 years of age rather than 18 years. 06 PRESIDENT STONE: Ask the author of that motion. 07 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: I'm interested in other 08 comments. 09 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional comments from other 10 Commissioners on Commissioner Lucente's motion and the 11 suggestion by Commissioner Herrera Duran. Commissioner 12 Christopher. 13 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Thank you, 14 Mr. President. I think from what I can sense from the 15 hearing tonight, that we're down to pretty much the age 16 issue for voter registration, that most all the other 17 concerns have been ironed out back and forth between the 18 Neighborhood Council and the Staff. 19 With regard to the overall -- the over-arching 20 position of the Neighborhood Council, this has been a 21 very long birthing process. We probably have the longest 22 gestation period of any Neighborhood Council in the City 23 of L.A., which may or may not be a good distinction, but 24 hopefully once we get up and running, good things will 25 come from Greater Wilshire. 0061 01 It strikes me tonight that there are 200 people 02 in favor of the Staff report and essentially one person 03 in opposition of the Staff report, and I'm not sure what 04 that represents. This is not a popularity contest, but 05 it does give me an indication that there are more people 06 in support, at this point, than there are in general 07 opposition. That's a sense that we're moving in the 08 right direction, but it does bring us back to the 09 question of voting age. 10 Some of the things that Commission Herrera Duran 11 had raised are true of what we've done in the past. I 12 just have to look to neighboring Neighborhood Councils of 13 the west of you, Mid-city West, which does not have a 14 voting-age restriction. They don't have cell phones 15 either. In that Neighborhood Council, any number of 16 fairly young children vote in the election, and it hasn't 17 tainted the elections, and it hasn't affected the 18 legitimacy of the Neighborhood Council in any way. In 19 fact, it has given some cachet in terms of it's 20 involvement with the young people in the community. 21 One of the things that I am struck by tonight is 22 the fact that there aren't any youth here in the 23 audience, if you noticed. 24 AUDIENCE: It's a school night. 25 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Yeah? Maybe, but 0062 01 we've been out on a lot of other school nights when we 02 have had people who participate and whether or not, for 03 whatever reason, that just happens to be a circumstance 04 we're faced with tonight. 05 AUDIENCE: They have come to other meetings. 06 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: I understand, but I'm 07 pointing out what I see -- what I see in looking out in 08 the audience tonight. And at the risk of challenging any 09 number of my friends here in the audience, the bright 10 line that I think Fred Pickel referenced in terms of what 11 is the legal age for voting in most parts of the country? 12 Also it should be referenced to the fact that we give 13 15-year-olds permits to drive cars, to learn how to drive 14 on the road. So if you're talking about when children 15 get to do certain things, giving them a 4,000-pound 16 automobile and saying, "Go figure it out," is not 17 necessarily different than giving them a piece of paper, 18 a ballot, and saying, "What can you do with your 19 neighborhood?" 20 I came in here tonight probably thinking that 16 21 years of age was a better voting threshold for 22 Neighborhood Councils than 18 years old. I have heard, 23 however, a strong commitment on parts of the community to 24 the 18-year-old threshold, and I'm struggling with that 25 from a personal perspective versus what I see as a 0063 01 neighborhood or community consensus, which appears to be 02 well-formed here tonight, and I'm not yet sure, in my own 03 mind, where I should come down on that. 04 I'm thinking of the 15-years-old who is driving 05 the 4,000-pound automobile and trying to reconcile that 06 bright line that Fred says he can't cross. I think I'll 07 listen to some of my other commissioners on the issue, 08 but it is a concern that I have in the way we're dealing 09 with the situation. 10 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Commissioner 11 Christopher. Commissioner Woods Gray. 12 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I appreciate 13 Commissioner Lucente's motion and I, last week, thought, 14 but when you're chairing a meeting it's kind of hard to 15 do too much talking. I think that's why we finished so 16 early, but anyway I did think of the fact that in the 17 past we've encouraged youth to be involved in our 18 Neighborhood Councils and many people, if you ever 19 attended a meeting from the beginning when we started 20 three years ago, have heard me say this before, because I 21 I like to get high school students involved in our 22 Neighborhood Councils, and we come to a point that they 23 were even on Boards, but could not vote on financial 24 issues, and that to me was completely acceptable, because 25 I believe that -- if you look around this room, you 0064 01 realize that our 16-year-olds need to be trained, because 02 they are going to take our places shortly, and if they 03 work with you, they can learn a lot from you, and I know 04 many 16-year-olds who can clearly think for themselves 05 and decide what the issues are. They may not decide in 06 perhaps the way we would want them to, but they have 07 rationale and reasons why they would make the decision, 08 and so I could actually support my fellow Commissioners 09 on that particular issue, if they feel strongly about 10 that and would like to make an amendment to the motion. 11 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Commissioner Woods 12 Gray. I guess I'll add my two cents in as well, and I 13 don't disagree with the comments commissioners on my 14 right, to Commissioner Herrera Duran's, and to every 15 comment just raised. I don't think that the election 16 procedures that are before us tonight would in any way 17 preclude youth from participating in the Neighborhood 18 Council. It would preclude them from voting in the 19 Neighborhood Council election. There is certainly other 20 ways to encourage participation, and I think we would 21 all -- we would all insist upon that from this 22 Neighborhood Council and from others, as we've spoken 23 during different certification hearings. 24 The other point that I would like to make, as 25 Commissioner Lucente pointed out in his motion. This -- 0065 01 these election procedures govern the first election, and 02 that it is certainly one of the first orders of business 03 that we would hope of the new board or of the Election 04 Board is to consider the age issue, and there could be 05 determination from the community that it is 18 years old. 06 It could be the decision from the community that it 07 becomes 17 years old or 16 years old, but I think the 08 important thing is that it needs to be a decision from 09 the community and not from -- not from us as individual 10 Board members. 11 So, ladies and gentlemen, notwithstanding my 12 enjoyment of hearing applause for what I say, I would 13 please appreciate for you to keep applause down to a 14 minimum. Additional comments? Commissioner Lucente. 15 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: Thank you, Mr. President. 16 I do consider your amendment suggestion, Commissioner 17 Herrera Duran, as a friendly amendment and certainly that 18 thought of that 16-year-old minimum-age requirement did 19 cross my mind on many occasions, last week and in deed 20 this week again, but I think there is one difference from 21 where we came from last week to this week and that is 22 that there was substantial and, I think, significant 23 evidence from the stakeholders of the Greater Wilshire 24 Neighborhood Council that established a rationale for the 25 establishment of the minimum voting age of 18, that being 0066 01 primarily, and it was repeated many times, as that is the 02 legal age for voting in State and Federal elections. And 03 I think in light of some of the complexities that are 04 presented in us establishing these procedures, I think, 05 it is important to leverage or weigh that feedback that's 06 from the stakeholders weights that are heavy in 07 establishing the rationale for the establishment of that 08 minimum age at that level of 18. So I would respectfully 09 request that the minimum voting age for this Neighborhood 10 Council remain at 18. 11 I would also state that one point of 12 clarification in my motion and that it did and also 13 intend to include the recommendations as outlined by the 14 City Attorney regarding the "mudslinging" verbiage that 15 is currently there and the advisement to the applicants 16 regarding the definition of "Agnostics" and their 17 participation of this Neighborhood Council. So I would 18 respectfully ask your support for this motion and let's 19 move on. 20 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Woods Gray and 21 Commissioner Christopher. 22 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: After listening to the 23 maker of the motion, Commissioner Lucente, I do realize 24 that and do recognize the fact that the stakeholders 25 really made a real plea for 18, and I heard that over 0067 01 over and over, and it's been two sets of people, last 02 week and this week. And while I, on one hand, wanted to 03 include youth in the programs, not only -- I do want to 04 have the youth involved in the Neighborhood Council, but 05 perhaps not at the voting age for this particular 06 neighborhood council, only because -- in the past have 07 also said -- that Neighborhood Councils need to decide 08 how their councils are organized and how their councils 09 are run. As the second on that motion, Mr. Lucente, I 10 would support your motion. 11 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: Thank you. 12 PRESIDENT STONE: Commission Christopher. 13 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: One of the good 14 things about the process we go through, week in and week 15 out, is we get to listen to each other and try to form 16 our arguments and our opinions based to some extent to 17 the comments of our colleagues, and I'm listening to 18 Commissioner Woods Gray and Commissioner Lucente, and I 19 have to, I think, at the end of the day, come down on the 20 side of the independence of the Neighborhood Councils. 21 As much as I would probably prefer to have the voting age 22 lower, it seems to be a fairly clear consensus on the 23 Neighborhood Council that it be 18. 24 I would only ask that the Neighborhood Council, 25 as Commissioner Stone, said earlier make every effort to 0068 01 include the youth of the community in the activities of 02 the Council and make every effort to use the council as a 03 vehicle to inform and educate that youth in the ways of 04 the city government to ensure that as they cross that 05 bright line that they are well prepared to participate in 06 the council's activity. 07 One other comment I want to put on the record, 08 Mr. Rosenberg, earlier issued a challenge with regard to 09 my abilities to sit in this action this evening. He does 10 that in recognition of the fact, as a professional 11 architect in Land Use Consultant, I provide a 12 professional services to number property owners within 13 the bounds of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council. 14 That's not an unusual condition; that occurs in other 15 parts of the city. 16 My clients in the neighborhood council include a 17 number of people, including the Archbishop of Los 18 Angeles, who owns property in the area, but as we have 19 discussed with the City Attorney in the past situations 20 of a similar nature. As long as the decisions of the 21 Neighborhood Council and the decisions of the Board 22 Directors, here tonight, the Board of Commissioners, does 23 not affect my clients in anyway differently from any of 24 the other property owners or landowners in the 25 Neighborhood Council, I have no conflict of interest in 0069 01 this situation. 02 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Commissioner 03 Christopher. Additional comments on Commissioner 04 Lucente's motion? If not, I will poll the commission. 05 Commissioner Lucente? 06 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: Yes. 07 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Woods Gray? 08 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Yes. 09 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Christopher? 10 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Yes. 11 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Herrera Duran? 12 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: No. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: And I am a "Yes." 14 The motion passes four to one. Thank you, 15 ladies and gentlemen, for your participation. We are 16 going to take a five-minute break, and then come back 17 with Agenda Item Number 4. 18 19 (FIVE MINUTE RECESS.) 20 21 PRESIDENT STONE: Ladies and gentlemen, we're 22 going to proceed, so if you do want to continue talking, 23 if you could please do so outside, we would greatly 24 appreciate it. We are going to proceed to Item Number 4, 25 which is Discussion and Possible Board Action related to 0070 01 the pending Empowerment Congress Southeast Area 02 Neighborhood Development Council second election. 03 Jamiko Bell. 04 JAMIKO BELL: Yes. Thank you, Commissioners. On 05 February 4th, the Department, on behalf of the Board of 06 Neighborhood Commissioners sent a letter to the Southeast 07 Neighborhood Development Council requesting that they 08 submit a written report on the status of their election, 09 outstanding issues, proposed solutions, and their 10 recommended steps and time frame for completing the 11 elections. Attend and present, at the board meeting on 12 the 22nd, which was then carried over to this meeting 13 this evening, and provide a written report to the 14 Department one week prior to the Board meeting for 15 distribution to the Board and to the Public. 16 On February 17, the Department received a response 17 from the Neighborhood Council, which is your Attachment A 18 in your packet. Attachment B is the chronology of our 19 attempt to assist this Neighborhood Council and to work 20 with them in moving toward their elections. 21 On July 23rd, 2004, we sent our initial letter, 22 notifying them that their election was to occur in 23 October and requesting that they form their Election 24 Committee and begin to work toward an election. 25 On August 30th, we followed up with a second letter, 0071 01 as the first one was unanswered, to remind them again 02 that their election was coming up; they needed to form 03 their Election Committee and contact us, so that we can 04 begin to assist them. 05 On September 14th, we received the first draft of 06 their Election Procedures, with an election date of 07 November 6th. 08 On September 23rd, we sent a response and basically 09 we asked them for modifications of the procedures for -- 10 to include specific information, which is outlined in the 11 report, but mainly we ask them to adjust their timeline. 12 The Election Procedures they submitted initially allowed 13 for an election 30 days from the date we were looking at 14 the document, and that wasn't adequate time for Outreach. 15 We asked them to please better define the Vote-by-Mail 16 Process that they had inserted in the bylaws. 17 We needed contact information for an Administrator 18 and Final Decision Maker. We needed the stakeholder 19 definition being utilized in the Election Procedures to 20 match the bylaws. We also needed information about the 21 places where stakeholders could acquire information about 22 the election, et cetera. 23 On Accept 27th, we received the second draft. Now 24 the second thing to note about the second draft is that 25 it was substantially different from the first draft, 0072 01 which basically meant a whole new review. Some sections 02 which we had asked them to change were deleted and then 03 other sections that we actually took no issue with were 04 modified or changed substantially. 05 So we had to do a new review of the procedure, and 06 on October 7th, we resubmitted to the Neighborhood 07 Council the changes that we were requesting, and they 08 were mostly the same changes, adjusting their timeline, 09 the Vote-by-mail Process, correcting the stakeholder 10 definition to reflect what was in the bylaws, clarifying 11 the Final Arbiter and their roles and responsibilities, 12 and at this point, because they had proposed to move 13 their election to January 15th, the bylaws Amendment was 14 required in order for them to conduct an election outside 15 the month of October. 16 In addition, we informed them that we would be 17 contacting their Independent Election Administrator and 18 Final Decision makers, as they were not individuals with 19 whom the City had worked before, and we knew had never 20 participated or conducted a Neighborhood Council 21 Election. 22 On October 19th, we received a third draft. On 23 October 25th, we sent a response requesting an amendment 24 to the bylaws for the election to be held, for them to 25 please again define their Vote-by-Male process and to 0073 01 adjust the timeline to allow for 60 days of Outreach. 02 On October 26th, we sent a letter to those folks 03 named as an Independent Election Administrators and Final 04 Decision Makers, letting them know what their roles were, 05 what was going to be expected of them, and then 06 requesting a meeting to make sure that there were 07 properly briefed and trained as to what they need to do. 08 In a better effort to assist the Neighborhood 09 Council with their third draft of procedures, we actually 10 modified the procedures ourselves and sent them back to 11 the Board, in a strike-through version saying, "This is 12 what we need you to change. If you change this and the 13 Board approves it, consider your election procedures 14 approved." 15 We actually, along with the Bylaws Amendment 16 Application, which we still needed, but we helped them, 17 in that document, adjust the timeline, try to give them 18 some ideas for the Vote-by-Mail Process to define it 19 further. 20 On October 28th, we received a fourth draft of the 21 Election Procedures, and at this point, Mr. Cantu, Isaias 22 Cantu, their Election Coordinator, attended a Board 23 meeting to basically go through the strike-through 24 version, explained what the issues were, why we were 25 requesting certain changes, and that we really really 0074 01 needed them to address their Vote-by-Mail piece. There 02 were two major issues with regard to Vote-by-Mail. 03 Number 1, there were no dates associated with the 04 Vote-by-Mail process. We did know when applications 05 would be available; when they should be returned; what 06 the date was for the ballot submission; none of that 07 information was included. 08 And secondly, the Vote-by-Mail Process requires 09 postage for the return envelopes, which the Neighborhood 10 Council currently, at this moment, had no Treasurer and 11 they had no way to pay for that particular expense. With 12 regard to the election it was a concern for us, which we 13 expressed to them. They indicated to Mr. Cantu at the 14 November 8th meeting that they plan to proceed with their 15 Vote-by-Mail Process as stated in their Election 16 Procedures. 17 On November 10th, we met with the IEA's and the 18 Final Arbiters and informed them of what the process was, 19 what they needed to do. On November 15th, one of the 20 Final Arbiters requested that we contact the City 21 Attorney with regard to conflict of interest; we did. We 22 found that there was no conflict of interest, and we 23 relayed that to the gentlemen in question; however, he 24 requested a written opinion from the City Attorney, which 25 was not forthcoming in order for him to be comfortable 0075 01 with participating. 02 On October 19th, we sent an email to the 03 Neighborhood Council, checking in, finding out what was 04 going on, how we could assist them, and that we wanted to 05 meet with them to really finalize the set of procedures. 06 Maria Rutledge, who was a Board Member in the Election 07 Committee Member, as indicated on our Board Resolution 08 Form, authorizing us to speak with members of the 09 committee. She was the only one who responded. We met 10 with her, gave her again the strike-through version of 11 what needed changed in order to get the election on 12 track. 13 We followed up with the calls to the Election 14 Committee Chair and some of the other members, including 15 the President, Mr. Rogers, during the call to the 16 Election Chair, we were informed that she was planning to 17 resign, and we followed up with a discussion in email 18 that she was, in fact, going to resign. 19 On November 22nd, we e-mailed copies of the 20 strike-through version again to the Election Committee, 21 made the various changes. On October 23rd, we met with 22 Ms. Rutledge to go over the election procedures. 23 On October 29th, Mr. McClellan, who is the Chair of 24 the Election Committee, sent an email to the Department 25 indicating that, in her opinion, our meeting with other 0076 01 members of the Election Committee was improper. 02 On December 8th, we e-mailed the Board regarding 03 confirmation that Ms. McClellan was in fact intending to 04 resign and that she responded on November 14, that she 05 did intend to resign; however, they did not have a quorum 06 at the meeting where she was planning to resign. 07 On December 18th, the Final Arbiters indicated to 08 the Department they were no longer willing to 09 participate, and on February 4th, we issued a letter to 10 the Neighborhood Council asking them to please appear. 11 For the weeks following the Department's October 7th 12 letter, there were several emails and voice conversations 13 with, not just the Elections Team but with the Advocate 14 Staff trying to figure out how they were doing; help them 15 with their election; what we can possibly do. From 16 November 2004 through late January early February of this 17 year, the Department made several informal requests that 18 they submit their Bylaws Amendment, again, because that 19 was what was required given that their election was 20 supposed to occur in October of 2004. 21 On February 17, they submitted a fifth draft of 22 their Election Procedures, and we did an informal review, 23 from last week's meeting to this week's meet, and we 24 found the following issues still outstanding for this 25 Council: 0077 01 They have yet to submit the bylaws amendment to 02 allow for the election; The League of Women Voters is 03 named as both Independent Election Administrator and the 04 Final Decision Maker; that's not allowed. We need two 05 organizations, one to do each role, and the League has 06 not been confirmed for this role. The election timeline 07 needs to be revised yet again, because the kick-off event 08 is scheduled to occur February 28th, and we don't have 09 approved procedures and the Department is not going do 10 Outreach for an event when we don't have approved 11 procedures. 12 The candidate filing -- the most important thing is 13 the candidate filing period opens and closes on the same 14 day and it's currently three months from the election. 15 So there are some tweaking issues that need to be done to 16 make sure that's the open process; and again the 17 Vote-by-Mail Process is still not clearly defined. 18 There's a little more definition in it now, but it's 19 still not quite there yet. So there are still some 20 changes that need to be made to this particular draft. 21 That's where we are. 22 PRESIDENT STONE: Questions for Staff before 23 hearing from the public? Commissioner Lucente. 24 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: So what's the net at of 25 all this? 0078 01 JAMIKO BELL: The net is we do not have a bylaw 02 amendment. We do not have approved Election Procedures. 03 We are on our 5th review of their Election Procedures, 04 and still some of the key information we've been asking 05 for since October is not forthcoming, as far as we can 06 see, and we are very concerned that the election is not 07 moving as expeditiously as it could, and we are bringing 08 it to you for discussion and consideration 09 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: Thank you. 10 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional Commissioner 11 questions or comments at this time? If not thank you, 12 Jamiko. We have three speaker cards on this item. 13 Elizabeth McClellan, Lula Bishop and Jim McQuiston. 14 LULA BISHOP: Good evening, my name is Lula 15 Bishop. 1549 West 82nd Street, Los Angeles California. 16 The Neighborhood Empowerment Congress Southeast 17 Neighborhood Council. I would like to give each one of 18 you one of these. I have to take a minute here, because 19 in listening to Ms. Bell this evening -- 20 PRESIDENT STONE: Miss McClellan, if you could, 21 please, speak into the microphone. 22 LULA BISHOP: I don't know where her information 23 came from, because some of the things that she was saying 24 we have not heard. The Empowerment Congress Southeast 25 Area Neighborhood Development Council, Southeast 0079 01 Empowerment Council received information, in memos, from 02 your office, reminding the Council of the timeline for 03 scheduling the second election was October 24th, 2004, 04 and a request to change the bylaws to reflect this 05 announcement. 06 Up on the second reminder, the preparation for a 07 2004 Election process was discussed at a special meeting 08 in September 2004. At the process -- as the process was 09 discussed at the special meeting. Miss McClellan, a 10 neighborhood representative, volunteered to prepare the 11 election process. Miss McClellan was the 2003 Election 12 Chair Person and prepared the first SEANDC Election 13 Process. Miss McClellan also prepared the 2003 Election 14 Process with Board members, and Election Committee 15 Approval. 16 Miss McClellan stated that she did not intend to 17 run for a position on the 2004 Governing Board; therefor, 18 she would be devoted -- devoted to the time to through 19 the election process. She proposed to the Board that it 20 would not be unnecessary to prepare a New Election 21 process in the entirety, due to the previous 2003 22 Election Procedures in subsequent election process, a 23 DONE-aproved process, and in accordance with the SEANDC 24 certified bylaws. The Board accepting her proposal and 25 voting to elect Miss McClellan to Chair 2004 Election 0080 01 Process Committee by majority Board rules. 02 Miss McClellan asked for a volunteer member to 03 assist her with this election process and asked 04 permission from the Board to move forward with the 05 preparation of the election, documents in accordance with 06 the 2003 Election process. The Board ordered to permit 07 Miss McClellan to develop Southeast Second Election 08 Process -- 09 PRESIDENT STONE: Miss McClellan, your time is 10 expiring -- I'm sorry, Miss Bishop. 11 LULA BISHOP: Okay. But have you this in front 12 of you. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: If there is anything you want 14 to add that's not in the letter. 15 LULA BISHOP: I would like to say that Jamiko 16 was in compliance. Mr. Cantu, he had a problem. I don't 17 know if it was personal or what, but he had a problem 18 with Miss -- everything that he asked Miss Clellan to do, 19 she did it, and I was on the Committee, so I know she did 20 it. She e-mailed. We were working together on it, and 21 all was approved. 22 Now, what I'm seeing here -- what I see as a 23 Board Member, and I'm on -- a Committee Member, the 24 Southeast Neighborhood Empowerment Congress has been 25 doing elections for ten years under, at one time 0081 01 Councilman Margaret Thomas, now Senator Margaret Thomas. 02 Election process is not new to us. 03 The problem we have on the Election Committee 04 together, just like we have all the time, it was brought 05 to us that we had to have the Women League of Voters, so 06 is that telling us that this is who you have to use? You 07 don't have a right to choose who you want to do this? I 08 don't feel, as a Committee Member and the Treasurer, that 09 someone has the right from the DONE to sit and say, "This 10 is who you must use." 11 Some of the things that Ms. Bell just said, I 12 never heard, and I haven't missed any meetings. I had 13 three deaths in my family, the last of last year and the 14 first of this year, and I think I missed one meeting. 15 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. 16 LULA BISHOP: There's something wrong with this. 17 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. 18 Elizabeth McClellan. 19 ELIZABETH MC CLELLAN: Good evening, Commission. 20 I'm Elizabeth McClellan. I reside at 236 East 91st in 21 Los Angeles, where I have been a resident for 32 years. 22 I'm a committed community activist long before there was 23 a Neighborhood Council or DONE or any of that thing. I 24 was always working in the neighborhood, and I have done a 25 stellar job in doing so, and I could bring you the 0082 01 credentials to prove it. 02 I'm not here today -- I don't even want to 03 discuss anything except that I want this election to go 04 forth. Whatever it is that Ms. Bell and Mr. Cantu, and I 05 think I told him this in the email, that they need to do, 06 that this Board needs to do to make it happen, please 07 let's make it happened. It shouldn't -- it hurts my 08 heart to see all of this time wasted, all this energy 09 wasted on something so simple. We just want -- there are 10 just two components to an election, two. 11 The most important one is Outreach. If you read 12 the document that we submitted, you would have to say 13 that we had enough outreach in there. We tried outreach 14 everybody we could. The other part is just to hold an 15 election. If you look at the document, we have the 16 location; we have the time frame; we omitted all business 17 for that day. Those are only two things to hold an 18 election. All of this other stuff, if you got to -- if 19 it would please the DONE, please, please them. 20 And according to this email that I'm going to 21 read. I wrote to Miss Bell to let her know that I had 22 made a second copy of the bylaw amendment. She said that 23 we had an amendment to the bylaws. So I wrote her on 24 October 26, '04. 25 This is the second copy of the bylaw amendment 0083 01 petition as requested by this Election Policy Committee. 02 Please acknowledge this copy upon receipt. It's attached 03 to the back of this; Secondly, I never intended, and I 04 want to apologize to this Commission and to the 05 Neighborhood Council. I never intended for this to go 06 this far. This is so bad for me. I want this election, 07 Commissioners, to go forward. Let the Neighborhood 08 Council go on. We got so much work to do. This is so 09 frivolous to me, and thank you, please. 10 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. 11 Ms. McClellan. 12 ELIZABETH MC CLELLAN: Yes. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: Jim McQuiston. Oh, I'm sorry. 14 Ms. McClellan. 15 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: Could I just ask you a 16 question. 17 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Lucente Lucente 18 had a question for you. If you wouldn't mind coming back 19 up. Sorry about that. 20 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: That's okay. 21 So based on that statement, are you rejoining as 22 the Election Chair? 23 ELIZABETH MC CLELLAN: Oh, no, sir. I wouldn't 24 do that. We voted a new Chair. But before I go, would 25 you turn to Page 17 for me, please. 0084 01 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: Well, I didn't ask for 02 that -- 03 ELIZABETH MC CLELLAN: I know, but I just want 04 to ask you to turn to Page 17, since you brought me back. 05 I meant to mention it when I was up here. Page 17. And 06 it's -- yes, of the procedure, Page 17. 07 PRESIDENT STONE: Yeah, go for it. 08 ELIZABETH MC CLELLAN: I started out by saying, 09 and this is the procedure, now it's a bylaw now. This is 10 so close to the bylaw. I mean everything in the bylaw is 11 in this procedure. It's in accordance with our bylaw, 12 certified bylaw, Article IV, entitled Membership. The 13 Neighborhood Council, Development Council, Membership and 14 meetings are all put into community stakeholders, 15 business and da da da da. 16 Look right down to where it says Election Date. 17 The Election -- second election date is Saturday, June 18 11th, that's how it started out. The subsequent election 19 would be held in October. The voter poll shall be open 20 10:00 a.m., stakeholders sign in and so on. Look at the 21 asterisk. It says, "Subsequent Election should be held 22 in October on the scheduled election date, time and 23 location. Subsequent election would be held 60 days 24 prior to the current term ending." What else can we say 25 about the election being held in October? That's what I 0085 01 wanted to say. 02 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, Miss 03 McClellan. Jim McQuiston. 04 JIM MC QUISTON: Jim McQuiston, East Hollywood 05 Community Association. I was looking through this 06 voluminous record here, and one thing caught my eye, 07 which really bothers me, and since it involves candidates 08 for this Neighborhood Council, I thought I should bring 09 it up. There is a Page 26, but I don't know what the 10 Page 26 is. It's -- I have to riffle through this thing 11 to find it, but it's a Candidate Filing Verification 12 Form, and in there, down near the bottom before you sign 13 it, it says that, "I accept the commitment and 14 responsibilities of this position and duly pledge to 15 participate in the work of the Empowerment Congress 16 Southeast Area Neighborhood Council Governing Body to..." 17 and then it sites the duties that you're agreeing to do, 18 "to engage, educate and empower Southeast stakeholders in 19 Quality of Life Enhancement Projects." 20 Now, that sounds very noble, but it's not what 21 the Charter says you're supposed to be doing. The 22 Charter is very specific. It says you're supposed to, it 23 says you're supposed to -- it says, "Shall monitor the 24 delivery of city services in their respective areas and 25 have periodic meetings with responsible officials of city 0086 01 departments subject to their reasonable availability." 02 It also says that you're supposed present to the Mayor an 03 annual list of priorities for the city budget. 04 Now that is a lot of work, and if your 05 perspective person gets this Application Form, he has no 06 idea what he's getting into, and he's liable to drop out 07 when he finds, after he's elected, and I think this form 08 has to be fixed before candidates get this form. So I 09 did want to point that out to you, that it is a trap, and 10 it's one reason why we're having trouble keeping people 11 on Boards because they don't realize, first of all, how 12 much work this is. 13 There are people who accept the work gladly and 14 if you get the wrong person on the Board then we have all 15 these complaints that are coming up to the Board. So I 16 think this is something that you need to take notice of 17 and get the language changed. 18 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Julian 19 Rogers. 20 JULIAN ROGERS: Hello Commissioners. Hello, 21 audience. Julian Rogers, Empowerment Congress Southeast 22 Area Neighborhood Development Council. I'm the Current 23 Chair. Firstly, I'd like to say that although -- well 24 let's start at the beginning. When our council was 25 notified of our pending election, we took immediate steps 0087 01 to secure and election date and follow procedures. 02 As it was stated in this document that Miss 03 Bishop read, in September we had special meetings to form 04 the Election Committee, and at that point we started the 05 process of trying to produce an election process that 06 would not only pass the scrutiny of the DONE but would 07 also work for our Community. 08 As it has stated, that process took -- and we're 09 still in that process. It has taken over five drafts. 10 Throughout that process, or toward the end of that 11 process we've had mishaps -- well, I'd like to say that 12 it was stated by Ms. Bell that our arbitrators decided to 13 walk away, and that's true, they did. But the fact of 14 matter is that they didn't walk away because they chose 15 not to work with the Neighbor Council Board, or because 16 they didn't want to continue their education on civic 17 responsibility or volunteerism, but it was because of the 18 frustration that they shared with the Miss McClellan, who 19 was the Election Chair and also the Committee, and 20 needless to say, the Council as well. 21 From that point to this point, we have 22 consistently been working on an election process that 23 would once again pass the scrutiny of the DONE. We have 24 not achieved that as of yet. We are currently continuing 25 to do that. Some of the items that I've read as far as 0088 01 the -- to be more clear on the Voting-by-Mail, that's the 02 first I've heard of it, that wasn't clarified in our 03 document, and there's quite a few other things. 04 I would just like to conclude by saying that, 05 once again, we are trying to correct this issue and Miss 06 McClellan, who was the original Election Chair and who 07 attempted to do a wonderful job has chosen to resign. We 08 have appointed a new Election Chair and Committee, who 09 has -- who did submit the document that DONE critiqued. 10 The frustration that we've had, and I'm going to ask that 11 Mr. Cantu, as well as -- and I know that Mr. Cantu has 12 had conversations with the Election Committee to meet 13 with them so that they can clarify the corrections that 14 need to be done in this document. 15 I'm going ask that -- I'm going to reiterate 16 Miss McClellan statement, and I'm going to reiterate 17 probably your frustration that we continue to work on 18 this document, so that we can get over this process, 19 because we're wasting a lot of time. We definitely have 20 a lot of more important things to do. I'm saying that 21 electing a new Board is not important, but we definitely 22 got a lot more enhancing things to do, and I'd just like 23 to say to the gentlemen, our Election Chair is here and 24 some of the members of the Committee are here, and I'm 25 sure she heard your comment in regards to what the 0089 01 application says, and I think she would take that into 02 account and adjust that document accordingly, but we are 03 conscious of where we're at. We don't want to be here. 04 We want to conclude this matter. Thank you 05 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Kim 06 Townsend. 07 KIM TOWNSEND: Good evening, my name is Kim 08 Townsend, and I live at 10332 South Avalon Boulevard, in 09 Los Angeles, and I am the the Newly Elected Chair of this 10 Election Committee. I want to thank Miss McClellan for 11 her hard work and dedication to this process. I want to 12 address the gentleman that was concerned about, it's what 13 the candidate would be aware of when they're running for 14 any particular office. 15 Miss McClellan, who's in the Committee did 16 address that, it's on Page 14, I think; is that correct? 17 It's on the last paragraph of that page, we were going 18 spend the time with the candidate and explained in 19 detail. 20 And lastly, I would like to address Miss Bell. 21 Thank you for all your work, your hard work. I do 22 appreciate it. The process is very tedious, and if I 23 want to work this together, it's with you and let's get 24 these five bullets solved, because they are not very 25 complicated, okay. Thank you very much. 0090 01 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. I do not 02 have additional speaker cards on Agenda Item Number 4. 03 Is there anyone who has not spoken who would like to 04 speak on this item? If not we will consider the public 05 hearing portion concluded, and open it up for 06 Commissioner comments. Commissioner Herrara Duran, 07 followed by Commissioner Christopher. 08 PAT HERRERA DURAN: It it seems to me that 09 everybody -- I always forget this. It seems to me that 10 everybody wants to get this process over with, and the 11 election pushed forward. It would seems to me that is 12 true, which I'm sure it is; that we could very easily 13 decide what it is, exactly, that needs to be done. Get 14 those articles and whatever it is in, and let them go 15 ahead with the election. 16 I'm not sure if they can do it on the date they 17 have planned as of now, but at any rate, whatever it is, 18 it seems to me this should not be, as everybody is saying 19 that difficult of a process to get in place. And I think 20 Mr. Lucente, Commissioner Lucente, asked what it was that 21 was needed at the beginning, and I have it noted down 22 also. So I'm sure we could come to some agreements and 23 this could be settled very amicably tonight. 24 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, 25 Commissioner Christopher. 0091 01 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: I will reiterate some 02 of what Commissioner Herrera Duran just said. I don't 03 see any resistance here to any of the issues being put 04 forward by the Staff. I see a lack communication or lack 05 of understanding, back and forth, between Staff and the 06 Neighborhood Council to some extent, and what I would 07 recommend here tonight is that we ask Staff to meet 08 directly with the Members of the Neighborhood Council and 09 work through the issues, and I think it could probably be 10 accomplished in an afternoon somewhere. 11 It doesn't seem to be all that complicated to 12 get from point A to point B. If we could do that and 13 have that the Staff report back to our next meeting or a 14 meeting 30 days, at the most, that issue has been 15 resolved, then we can pass this item. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Woods Gray. 17 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Yes. I'm pleased to 18 see that the new-election Chair is willing to work with 19 the Department and move forward, and I think I hear that 20 from the Chair of the Neighborhood Council, that they are 21 willing to work with the Committee -- with the Department 22 and move forward, and that's what's really important, is 23 that you are willing to do that. 24 And I also want to just remind you that our 25 Neighborhood Councils are very different from the 0092 01 Empowerment Congress, and I do know that you had many 02 years of working and organizing the Community, but the 03 Neighborhood Council is not the Empowerment Congress and 04 so you'll have to sometimes give a little bit to the new 05 department and work with them in that way, because the 06 rules are different from the Empowerment Congress to the 07 Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. And I am too 08 willing to let them go back and work with the department, 09 because I hear the willingness. And hopefully they will 10 be able to come up with Election Rules that the 11 Department can recommend to the Neighborhood Council and 12 to the -- to the Commission. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Commissioner Woods 14 Gray. Additional comments? If not I -- 15 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: Oh, yes. I'm 16 sorry. 17 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Herrera Duran. 18 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: I want to -- if the 19 statements that Mr. McQuiston made about the engaging and 20 the empowering. We want to be a little more specific 21 about that, because a lot of people do get into this -- 22 into the Neighborhood Council, and they don't realize 23 there is a lot of work, and there is a lot of different 24 kinds of work that are involved with it. 25 I would also like to stress and to support what 0093 01 Commissioner Woods Gray had said. Although the 02 Empowerment Congress, and all of this evolved from the 03 Empowerment Congress with the various Neighborhood 04 Councils; it is different. There are some different 05 rules, and there are some different playing grounds that 06 we need to address, but I know that you know that, and 07 we'll move forward with that. 08 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Christopher. 09 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: In the context, 10 there's also some things that we might be able to learn 11 from the Empowerment Congress. 12 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: That's true. 13 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: We have to be open to 14 as well. 15 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: That's true. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional comments? If not, 17 I think the message of the Commission is clear, in that 18 the Department should work, and it seems like there is an 19 agreement from the -- from the Empowerment Congress and 20 Neighborhood Council, that they are willing to work with 21 the Department do try to wrap things up and move forward. 22 So we appreciate that, and no motion necessary, as I 23 said, I think the intent of the Commission is clear on 24 that, and that will conclude Item Number 4. 25 We will turn now to Item Number 5, which is the 0094 01 Discussion of Possible Board Action related to the 02 pending Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council first 03 election. Jamiko. 04 JAMIKO BELL: Yes, Commissioners. This item is 05 being brought back to you at the request of Commissioner 06 Lucente at the previous meeting last week. Basically, 07 you can look at the two-page report. It is a summary of 08 our attempt to contact and work with the Cypress Park 09 Neighborhood Council. 10 Beginning on May 5th, 2004, when we sent the 11 first letter requesting that they come before the Board 12 and talk about their election. We sent several letters 13 to them on August 17th, we sent a letter to John Edwards, 14 who was then the Chair, about the process for 15 establishing their Interim Board. We went through that 16 process, which lasted most of the summer. 17 On September 23rd, we sent an e-mailed and an 18 official letter now that the issue of who was on the 19 Board and who was authorized to act had been settled. It 20 was a welcome and introduction to the Election and Policy 21 Team. It's our standard letter that we send out to all 22 the groups. 23 On October 18th, we sent an e-mail and official 24 letter of our first election procedure review. On 25 October 25th, we sent an email and official letter, 0095 01 letting them know where and to whom to send timely 02 notification of election committee meetings, per the 03 BONC's request, and those letters are all included in 04 this packet. 05 November 1st, we met in person, and December 06 6th, we sent an email status to check on their progress 07 and the email is contained in this packet. On December 08 13th, we sent an email inquiring about Election Committee 09 meeting schedules. We have yet to be notified of any 10 upcoming Election Committee meetings. 11 On December 13th, we sent an email and official 12 letter, which was an invitation to assist them with 13 drafting their Election Procedures and to set up a 14 meeting to work with them, to help facilitate the 15 process. 16 December 13th, we sent the Second Election 17 Procedure Review. On December 28th, we met in person at 18 the DONE office to assist them with their bylaws and 19 amendment application. On December 30th, we sent an 20 email and official email about bylaws amendment 21 submission. 22 On January 11th, we had a phone conversation. 23 January 11th, we also sent an email and an official 24 letter as a follow-up to that phone conversation with 25 assistance and offering assistance again to work with 0096 01 them in person on their election procedures. 02 January 19th, we sent another email offering them 03 assistance. On January 26th and 27th, the letter was 04 drafted on the 26th and e-mailed on the 27th. We sent an 05 official letter explaining the actions of the Board and 06 the Neighborhood Commissioners with regard to not taking 07 up the issue of their bylaws amendment, which came 08 forward, and again offered our assistance to help them 09 draft the procedures. 10 On February 1st, we sent them an email indicating 11 that we would not be able to attend the Committee Meeting 12 that they were having, because they had given us 13 two-days' notice, we would not be able to be there. 14 On February 17th, we sent another email, checking on 15 their status, because we had not heard from them, and on 16 March 1st, today, revised procedures did come in from 17 this group, proposing an election date for June 25th, and 18 all the, in chronological order, are all the letters and 19 emails and attachments and attempts to assist this group 20 with their election. 21 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Jamiko. Questions 22 for Staff? If not, thank you very much. And we have 23 three speaker cards. I'll call Belen Eller followed by 24 John Edwards and Peter Lucas. 25 BELEN ELLER: Hello, Commissioners. I'm Belen 0097 01 Eller. I'm one of the original members of the Greater 02 Cypress Park Neighborhood Council Interum, of course, as 03 you heard tonight, our Election Procedures are completed. 04 We have an election date for June 25th, and we sent out a 05 thousand invitations in our community to come to a 06 stakeholders meeting on the 25th of this month, and we 07 want everybody to get involved with the election and to 08 have a chance to possibly run, and we're just ready rock 09 and roll. 10 And also I just want to say that I just found 11 out about this meeting today, last night. I'd like to 12 have a little more time than that next time, but thank 13 you very much. 14 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. John Edwards. 15 PETER LUCAS: Hello, my name Peter Lucas and 16 John Edwards would like to follow me, if that's all 17 right? 18 PRESIDENT STONE: That's fine. Go ahead, Mr. 19 Lucas. 20 PETER LUCAS: Thank you. So I'm here to answer 21 your questions. I was invited by you. I received this 22 email yesterday at 2:30 in the afternoon, didn't read it 23 until 8:00 o'clock last night. In the meantime, I have 24 been working on them. Luis Duarte, the Chairman of the 25 Election Committee, found out he did not have the time do 0098 01 the work. He suffered -- I guess they had some cut-backs 02 at his office. He was doing more work than he 03 anticipated on doing, and he passed that off to me last 04 week, on Wednesday, and since then I have completed the 05 revisions, turned them in with the letter to stakeholders 06 and all that information is in front of you. 07 I'm happy and willing to see this process 08 through to the end. I am stalwart in my commitment. I 09 will finish these procedures, and I will get this done, 10 and I make a promise to you here tonight that I will work 11 with Mr. Cantu, who has been wonderful, and I will, to 12 the best of my abilities, along with his office make sure 13 that this timeline is followed and that there are no more 14 delays on our part. I make that promise tonight. If you 15 have any questions for me, I'm be happy to answer them. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Lucente. 17 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: What's your role? 18 PETER LUCAS: I'm the vice -- I was actually the 19 Vice Chairman of the Election Committee, so it was not my 20 position to be calling meetings. Luis Duarte, you could 21 see all of my communications in there to him and to your 22 office, asking him and imploring him to call this meeting 23 so that these procedures could be done. That was never 24 done, and I'm not trying to denigrate anybody in anyway. 25 I'm just relating the facts of it. 0099 01 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Are you now the lead 02 Chair? 03 PETER LUCAS: I will be the new Chair, yes, and 04 I will promise that will be done. Also I'm the Vice 05 President of the Interim Governing Board, and I will see 06 this through. Any other questions? 07 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: Are you saying 08 that, I'm not quite sure, that you have had no meetings, 09 no communities meetings advertised on the way that 10 they're posted in this sort of legal meetings in -- on 11 the Neighborhood Council? 12 PETER LUCAS: Do we post our meetings for the 13 Neighborhood Council? 14 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: When have you had 15 them? Do you have a list of them? The reason I'm asking 16 is several weeks ago, we asked to be invited to your next 17 meeting, and we're still waiting for that meeting. 18 PETER LUCAS: I think John can answer that. I 19 think lack of communication. I don't know about that. 20 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: When you were 21 developing your Election Procedures, did you have 22 meetings? 23 PETER LUCAS: Yes, we did. 24 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: And you've got a 25 list of those? 0100 01 PETER LUCAS: We do, some of it, yes. 02 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: And you've 03 submitted those to DONE, and DONE knows about these? 04 PETER LUCAS: They came back with the revisions, 05 and -- 06 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: No. There's no 07 revisions to who was at the meeting and what -- 08 PETER LUCAS: 0h, yeah. That's all documented. 09 We have that information, and I think DONE has that 10 information as well; although she shakes her head no. 11 PRESIDENT STONE: Mr. Lucas, Staff has indicated 12 that they don't have that information so -- 13 PETER LUCAS: I can see that, yeah. So we'll 14 get it to you. 15 PRESIDENT STONE: So -- so that will be 16 recommended. 17 PETER LUCAS: All right. 18 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: But if you -- if 19 you had these meetings, and you haven't informed DONE, or 20 nobody's -- how, I don't understand. 21 PETER LUCAS: Well, we do inform DONE. Actually 22 I sent an invitation to Mr. Cantu. 23 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: And you have 24 records of those invitations? 25 PETER LUCAS: Well, there's an email right there 0101 01 in your packet. He wasn't able to attend that meeting, 02 because he underwent surgery for his elbow. There is an 03 email there. On the 3rd of February, I believe, I sent 04 him a letter, an email, asking him to meet with us on the 05 7th of February, I believe. 06 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: That's not what I'm 07 asking you for. I'm asking you for a record of your 08 Community Neighborhood Council meetings. 09 PETER LUCAS: We have that, and I'll submit it 10 to you? 11 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: Legal meetings 12 posted and so forth? 13 PETER LUCAS: Well, we post all of our meetings 14 and always have. 15 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: So let's forget about the 16 record of the meetings. How many meetings have been held 17 in the last six months? 18 PETER LUCAS: More than a half dozen. 19 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: More than a half dozen? 20 PETER LUCAS: More than -- just the Election 21 Committee. 22 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: No, I'm talking about 23 overall meetings. 24 PETER LUCAS: Oh, we usually have one every two 25 weeks. We have had more than a half -- we've probably 0102 01 had, in the last six months, 18, which are posted in our 02 places. 03 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional questions or 04 comments from the Commission? 05 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Commissioner Lucente, 06 we were having lots of debates about their postings and 07 meetings, and I actually did have time to attend one 08 meeting and check out the postings within the last six 09 months. There was about 50, and they had a real good 10 program. It was in content. 11 The reason I went is because everybody came in 12 and said how contentious the meetings were and that there 13 was all this -- it was so disorderly. So I said, well, 14 I'm going to just go, and no one will know. I'm just 15 going to go in there and sat in the back and watched, of 16 course. Johnson knew I was there, and I just sat in the 17 back, because the meeting was already going on, and it 18 was a very orderly meeting. That was why I went there, 19 because I just wanted to see. And they also said there 20 was no posting, so I wanted to drive through the 21 neighborhood and see for myself. 22 That was my only one sampling. What I do know 23 was they had a problem getting DONE staff. Until Parker 24 started working with this program, it didn't seem to get 25 to moving, and that was only like a few months ago. Now, 0103 01 that's my impression and experience and feeling about 02 what have been going on. 03 PETER LUCAS: There's been a lot of skepticism 04 on our part. There's been a lot of innuendo and a lot of 05 name calling, and lot of contentiousness in the 06 neighborhood itself, in regard to the Greater Cypress 07 Park Neighborhood Council; however, I'm not here to 08 denigrate anybody. I'm not here to put anyone down. I'm 09 here and want to work with every group in Cypress Park. 10 I'm hear and want to try to unit the neighborhood, to not 11 tear the Neighborhood down. That has always been my 12 position, and I've always been open, fair and clear in my 13 communication in that regard, just to answer your 14 skepticism, Commissioner Lucente. 15 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional comments or 16 questions? Thank you, Mr. Lucas. John Edwards. 17 PETER LUCAS: Your welcome. 18 JOHN EDWARDS: My name's John Edwards from 19 Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council. Miss Herrera 20 Duran, when I was asked by you to be invited, within a 21 week we got an invitation with the Department of 22 Neighborhood Empowerment to invite all three members. We 23 were very disappointed that nobody showed up from this 24 Commission. So I will -- I will bring this invitation 25 and show it. We were very disappointed that Commissioner 0104 01 Trujillo, who comes from the east side didn't attend, 02 because one of the constant criticisms of Commissioner 03 Trujillo has been that we haven't done outreach to the 04 Arigon Schools. 05 I did some research on the alliance website, 18 06 months ago I posted about we would like to invite youth 07 groups from all neighborhood councils to play chess, you 08 may remember, that was because it's the Divine Savior 09 Chest Group. So we have a really great relationship with 10 Divine Savior, and I never really understood why 11 Commissioner Trujillo said we don't do the outreach to 12 them. So it's on the website for 18 months ago. 13 I would say I try to keep in touch with the 14 Neighborhood Council. I've been busy, and I will be 15 until May, but they have been having regular meetings. 16 When I look at the correspondence I see -- I believe Mr. 17 Cantu was away for a couple of weeks. There were 18 meetings scheduled. Every two months there was a 19 Community meeting, and I want to remind this Commission, 20 because I know you get an awful lot of papers in front of 21 you. So you probably get blurred with other Neighborhood 22 Councils, but the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment 23 actually wrote an exemplary review of our postings, and 24 I'll you that copy, because you've obviously forgotten. 25 They said we have a fine example of postings. 0105 01 So we post on time. We do them all the places 02 we said. Miss Belen, that's been her job ever since 03 we've been a Neighborhood Council. I'm very pleased that 04 they've sent out 1,000 invitations to community 05 organizations, community members, to come on March 22nd, 06 which is a regular Neighborhood Council Meeting, and 07 again, an open invitation to everybody here, because what 08 they thought was important was the entire community 09 should be involved in these elections. 10 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Is that the 25th or 11 the 22nd? 12 JOHN EDWARDS: It's the 22nd, it's a Tuesday. 13 Yeah. And so -- and we put down the date. So 14 what is a little bit surprising, I saw the Election 15 procedures that we turned in today, and I think it's -- I 16 understand two-days notice is a very short time, and 17 that's wrong. But I got to tell you, we weren't told 18 about this meeting until yesterday afternoon, and we come 19 all the way from Cypress Park. It's a long way. We left 20 at 4:30 this afternoon. You're shaking your head. I got 21 an e-mail yesterday afternoon at 3:00 o'clock to inform 22 me about this meeting. That's the first time I saw it. 23 So we came all the way. We left at 4:30. That's 24 why we couldn't bring more people. So the fact of this 25 matter is we are working on our elections. We have been 0106 01 working, as the correspondence shows with the Department 02 of Neighborhood Empowerment. Mr. Cantu was obviously 03 sick for two weeks, I understand, for an operation on his 04 wife, and didn't attend some meetings, that's noted, but 05 I think since December, when we had the last meeting, 06 between December and now we got a completed set of 07 Election Procedures. 08 We've changed some things in there, because we 09 had MODEF as the Final Arbiter and I understand they 10 don't want to do that anymore. So that had to be changed 11 and evertime there's a change, we have to go back and 12 have another meeting about it. We can't just decide on 13 our own. So that's taken some time. Thank you very 14 much. 15 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Question. How long 16 have you had Mr. Cantu with you? 17 JOHN EDWARDS: Well, it started, I suppose, 18 probably, August or September of last year, is that 19 approximately right? But what we were going through that 20 period was who was really the Interum Board? Was there 21 one? It wasn't so much about elections at that time. It 22 went on for some months, if there was Interum Board, and 23 that's a problem and so -- but anyway, it was about 24 August or September. But when we got that sorted out, 25 and it was agreed who was the Interum Board, we've been 0107 01 working or they've been working solely on the election 02 since that time, as I've seen it anyway. 03 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: And that's been the 04 last, what? Three months? 05 JOHN EDWARDS: Yes, since December. 06 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: And you straightened 07 out the Board? 08 JOHN EDWARDS: Yeah, and every two weeks as I've 09 seen anyway. I've been notified. They've had an 10 Election Committee meeting. They worked on those 11 elections. I believe now -- what I saw -- I saw a copy 12 given to me this morning, emailed to me this morning, and 13 it's been changed exactly to the final wishes of the 14 Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. So, anyway, 15 that's -- 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much Mr. 17 Edwards. Additional questions or comments from the 18 Commission? If not, thank you very much. Can I ask 19 Staff to come back up? Additional questions or comments 20 for Department Staff? Commissioner Woods Gray. 21 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Do you have any idea 22 as to whether the -- whatever they turned into you this 23 day might have answered the questions that you gave them 24 to fulfill in their -- 25 JAMIKO BELL: No, we don't. It came in this 0108 01 afternoon. We did not have time to review it, no. The 02 one thing I do want to call your attention to, if I may, 03 is on October 25th we sent a letter to the Greater 04 Cypress Park Neighborhood Council at the request of the 05 Commission, indicating that we needed notice of their 06 meeting schedule and there intent to hold meetings. We 07 asked them to please include on their e-mail list, notice 08 of meetings, myself, Parker Anderson, Isaias, Mark Lewis, 09 and Martha Perez, who worked on the Advocates Team. 10 We also asked them to forward an invitation to 11 all their meetings and their meeting schedules to, at 12 that time, Mitchell Fujiwara, who is the Commission 13 Executive Assistant, for us to forward to the Board of 14 Neighborhood Commissioners, so we would all be aware what 15 the meeting schedule was. 16 What you have in our packet is every e-mail 17 correspondence that we have from them, and we went 18 through my e-mail box, Isaias' e-mail box, the NC 19 Election's mail box, Mark's mail box and Marcos' mail 20 box, to pull everything that we had with regard to the 21 communication -- and Parker's -- to pull everything we 22 had with regard to communication of Election Meetings, 23 and we have what we given you, which is two-days notice 24 on one meeting, and yes, Isaias was unable to attend, and 25 that's all we can speak to, because that's all we are 0109 01 aware of. 02 The posting issue, yes, we conceded that they 03 were not having an issue with posting, the issue was 04 notifying the Department so that we can assist them 05 appropriately. Again, as Mr. Duarte noticed, they 06 changed Election Chairs at a meeting a few days ago, 07 which we didn't know anything about. So that's sort of 08 where we are. 09 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Woods Gray. 10 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: So on the calendar 11 that's posted on the website, there's no space for 12 regular meeting times for Cypress Park? 13 JAMIKO BELL: On the DONE? 14 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: The one where we see 15 all the meetings of all the Neighborhood Councils and 16 groups? 17 JAMIKO BELL: Those are -- if there is, those 18 are regular meetings, and these are Election Committee 19 Meetings that we are trying to track. They should be 20 noted appropriately as well, yes. 21 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: They wouldn't be 22 there because they're not -- they have not had their 23 elections yet? 24 JAMIKO BELL: Right. 25 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Okay. 0110 01 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional Commissioner 02 comments or questions? Commissioner Christopher. 03 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: The only comment I 04 would have at this point is that we do have to submittal 05 by the Neighborhood Council. You haven't, obviously, had 06 a chance to review it yet. 07 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: I can't hear you. 08 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: How's that? We do 09 have to submittal by the Neighborhood Councils. You have 10 not had a chance to review that submittal as yet. I 11 would rather go forward from where we are today, than 12 look back and try to figure out who said what to whom in 13 the past. And if we can take that submittal and 14 determine whether or not it meets the Department of 15 neighborhood requirements and build on that to get to an 16 election as quickly as possible. I think that's the goal 17 we're all after here, and I would suggest we do what we 18 did with the Department Congress Southeast, which is go 19 back, take a look at the submittal and find out if it's 20 okay, and report back to the Board, whether or not the 21 Neighborhood Council could move forward, or is in the 22 position to move forward with their election. 23 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Lucente. 24 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: Thank you. Thank you, 25 Mr. President. I'm glad that revised procedures have 0111 01 been submitted, and I hope this sequel is a fresh start 02 for this process. I don't think this compares at all, 03 you know, from what I just heard from the Southeast 04 Neighborhood Council. I think the contrast could not be 05 greater, and what the issue is for me is -- 06 PRESIDENT STONE: Yes, I'm finished. I don't 07 have any questions. 08 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: -- what the issue is for 09 me is not that meetings are held or not held. It's that 10 this community has not been given an opportunity to 11 select who their leaders are. This is not about having 12 self-appointed leaders for, you know, this Neighborhood 13 Council, and that's what we've been dealing with, month 14 after month after month. I left the country, and this is 15 still before us. It's a joke, you know, to put it 16 mildly, and so if these people are not being 17 representative in this Neighborhood Council Area, plain 18 and simple. So I hope this is a fresh start. 19 And the gentlemen stated that he's willing to 20 see this through to the end, rest assured. I'm willing 21 to see this through to the end too, including and up to 22 requesting the Staff to prepare a report for 23 de-certification of this Neighborhood Council. Thank 24 you. 25 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Commissioner 0112 01 Lucente. Commissioner Woods Gray. 02 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Commissioner Lucente, 03 this is a very different area. First of all, I believe 04 it's a very -- the civic participation in that particular 05 area has been lacking for many years, and they really 06 needed more help from the beginning to guide them through 07 the process. This is my personal opinion, okay. And I 08 believe that somewhere along the way it is either this, 09 us, or our Department that didn't hold their hands. 10 Because I like the way the hands of the people in -- is 11 it? 12 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Foothill Trails. 13 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Foothill Trails. I 14 love the way they were guided through their election 15 process, and helped along the way. I love the way Van 16 Nuys has turned out, and I am really appreciative of the 17 way some of the other councils are working, because the 18 Department has put a lot of effort into it. They've gone 19 out. They met with the people. They've done everything 20 to guide them through the process. This place, this 21 council has needed a lot more help, I think, for the kind 22 of council that it was to start with, and because of 23 that, I am happy to see now that perhaps they may be 24 moving in a different direction; that they have some 25 guidelines and they will -- not only did they have the 0113 01 power -- the problem of not knowing how to work 02 civically, but the problem of not having -- they didn't 03 have -- Mr. Cantu was there whenever they said, but 04 before that, I don't know that you were there then, to be 05 honest. 06 I mean aside, as a condition of your job, this 07 is what I'm talking about. But the fact that he's there 08 now, and I actually see that he's developed a rapport 09 with that particular community, I believe that things may 10 begin to happen there. 11 Actually, I am very disappointed because of the 12 fact that I wanted to see, remember this is a council 13 that has many youth in it, and I wanted to see programs 14 going on there now, something else happening for that 15 community that would help those thousands of young adults 16 who needed the help. So I guess what two, three years -- 17 two years now, I'm really disappointed that they lost out 18 on having the money to use for programs and to get them 19 going, because -- 20 And then there was this inviting. You'd have to 21 be here, to be there, to see this inviting of the under 22 minding of Neighborhood Council. I've never seen people 23 who didn't say, "Oh, well you wanted the election, let's 24 go on." No it was like, "So you got certified, but I'm 25 going to see what I can do to destroy you anyway." I'm 0114 01 like, I've never seen such, and I witnessed this. It's 02 really a very interesting neighborhood, but it does look 03 like maybe they are moving in the right direction. 04 I'm really happy about that because I would hate 05 to see a Neighborhood Council fail, and I'm glad to see 06 the work that the Department is doing, and whether the 07 Department admits it or not, I'm glad to see it -- it 08 drove me to say that people on the side of Parker is 09 really great. He does some good things. I was wondering 10 about him for a minute, but anyway, and then I got some 11 really great comments from the community about you, 12 Parker, because I never knew you were a WLCAC until I 13 started this conversation, and so this is good. 14 The Department is better off by having you 15 there, and so we will, I think -- I personally would like 16 to see the Department look over their Election Rules and 17 let's see where they are headed with these Election 18 Rules, and I do believe that Mr. Cantu is going to work 19 with them, and I do know they do have meetings. They 20 actually -- whether that's -- I don't know -- 21 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: That's a self-appointed 22 Board. 23 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: They went through the 24 process to get that Board. We checked that out. We 25 verified that here. 0115 01 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: They're electives? 02 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: No, they are not 03 electives. It's still that old Board, but sometimes we 04 stumble and fall down, you know, it's just one of those 05 kinds of groups, I think, that really needs a lot of 06 help, and like I said, I think maybe they're going to 07 move in the right direction. So let's hope that that's 08 where they are going, and I would like to see the 09 Department come back with report on those Election Rules, 10 perhaps at our next meeting, because by that time they'd 11 have time to look them over. 12 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional comments? 13 Commissioner Herrera Duran followed by Commissioner 14 Christopher -- the time has been yielded to Commissioner 15 Christopher then Commissioner Herrera Duran. 16 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: I think, Commissioner 17 Lucente, your point is well taken. It's been, I believe, 18 three years plus, from the certification time to -- 19 AUDIENCE: (Inaudible). 20 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: It is what it is. 21 It's been a long time, whether it is two or three years, 22 but it's been a long time, and you're right. The members 23 of the community are not being represented in a manner 24 that we would like them to be represented on the 25 Neighborhood Council, but my initial comments were geared 0116 01 to the idea that we have a basis now, I hope, that we can 02 go forward with it, and as long as the Neighborhood 03 Council pursues that and moves forward to elections which 04 are represented, that's the goal of this Board. I agree 05 with you that if the Neighborhood Councils fails to get 06 there, then we have other options, and it's time we get 07 to those options at this point. 08 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Herrera Duran. 09 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: I agree with 10 Commissioner Lucente and Commissioner Christopher. I 11 think this is has gone on long enough, and if this 12 doesn't work out fairly soon, and we cannot get the 13 election procedures together and the election together, I 14 think we need to move toward decertification and allow 15 the community to get its own act together apart from what 16 has happened. We may be enabling this group to continue 17 and not let a new group come in and do what it needs to 18 do in the community, and I think we need to take a look 19 at that, or we're part of the problem for not making a 20 decision. 21 So if this doesn't get settled fairly soon, 22 within a couple of weeks or within a couple of meetings, 23 I think we need to take a very very serious look to see 24 what we need to do to help the Community, because we do 25 need to get some services out there for them. 0117 01 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Commission Herrera 02 Duran. Any additional comments? I would just add that I 03 intend to agree with -- most of the comments raised, but 04 especially with those by Commissioner Lucente tonight. 05 Commissioner Woods Gray, you mentioned an area of no 06 civic participation; I agree with you. I'm just very 07 concerned that, unfortunately, this Neighborhood Council 08 that we certified has not done anything to increase civic 09 participation and, if anything, it's dragging down the 10 participation, so it's not what we would like to see. 11 I think we've -- Staff has said they have not 12 been able to look at those procedures yet. They will do 13 so and report back to us at our next meeting, and I'm 14 skeptical, but prove me wrong, prove us wrong, and prove 15 that you're really up to the challenge to represent the 16 community. 17 Additional comment? If not, I'll conclude Item 18 Number 5. Thank you very much. 19 We will proceed to Agenda Item Number 6, which 20 is Discussion of written staff report and possible Board 21 Action regarding Grassroot Venice Neighborhood Council 22 and the ongoing status in their election. 23 Welcome back, Jamiko. Parker is still blushing, 24 so please give him a moment. 25 Go ahead, Jamiko. 0118 01 JAMIKO BELL: Okay. Grassroots Venice -- Jamiko 02 Bell again for the Department -- just to bring the 03 Commission up to speed on the Venice situation. 04 On June 27th, 2004, the Board of Venice 05 conducted election to fill vacant and Expiring Board 06 seats and to ratify six Board-sponsored bylaw amendments. 07 Prior to this, the Department had strongly and formally 08 urged the Neighborhood Council not to proceed with this 09 election for a myriad of reasons that had been iterated 10 on several other staff reports. 11 They did decide to move forward. The election 12 procedures that they approved on June 14th, named the 13 Department of Neighborhood Empowerment as the Final 14 Arbiter and Final Decision Maker. We did not feel, given 15 the history leading up to the election, it would be 16 appropriate for us to do, and so we -- with the consent 17 of that Board, asked the Human Relations Commission to 18 review the election. 19 On November 16th, the Human Relations Commission 20 issued their report. They conducted that GRVNC violated 21 it's bylaws by considering more than one item at the time 22 of their general election. The election was invalidated, 23 the newly-elected board members were unseated, and the 24 GRVNC lost any ability to achieve a quorum in order to 25 conduct business. 0119 01 With regard to the issues of filling Board 02 vacancies, on November 22nd, Venice community meeting 03 attended by the Department, several board members shared 04 an opinion that a Board quorum did exist because 05 sufficient appointments have been made from the period of 06 the election to November 16th. We acknowledged that 07 those Board seats were made, those appointments were 08 made. I'm going to have to -- and they also indicated 09 that they felt they had a quorum, because there was one 10 seat, where a Board member seat was invalidated through 11 the election process, and their previous seat, which was 12 not up for election, was vacant and that person would 13 revert back to that one Board seat, which would give them 14 a quorum. 15 After we reviewed the documents that chronicled 16 this whole process of resignations and elections and 17 appointments, we actually, and we did this with the City 18 Attorney's Office, determining that for one brief shining 19 moment in time, all the Board seats were filled, which 20 means there wasn't necessarily a seat there for someone 21 to go back to. It's not like it has been vacant all 22 along. It had been filled and then vacated again through 23 whatever the process had been. 24 Despite the four appointments made between June 25 27th and November 16th, the nullification of the Election 0120 01 and the seats vacated, they were still one Board member 02 short of a quorum, because we weren't going to 03 acknowledge the revert, them been able to revert back to 04 that seat. We can re-visit the issue of the vacant seat 05 if the Board wishes and just look over the documentation 06 again and confirm that that seat is, in fact, not there 07 to go back to. 08 The Board Quorum Analysis. The bylaws of Venice 09 require two actions in order to fill a vacancy: 10 One, the Board must appoint a new member to that 11 seat, and it must be ratified by the stakeholders. Prior 12 to November 16th, the ratification did not occur, and so 13 therefore, even though those four appointments were made 14 a appropriately by the Board, they had not ratified per 15 the bylaws and so those seats are not recognized either. 16 As far as remedies for this particular group, 17 what we have then is a Board that is coming up. We don't 18 have a Board, but we have a Neighborhood Council that is 19 coming up on election in June, which is dictated by the 20 bylaws, and we are trying to come up with ways to assist 21 this Council and to get this election if we can. 22 There are several options the Commission can 23 explore in trying to find a remedy to this situation. 24 One is that DONE appoints an Administrator and Final 25 Arbiter to conduct the election in June of 2005. We will 0121 01 use the same process that we have utilized for Van Nuys 02 and are currently using for Greater Wilshire to run, and 03 we would use the approximate timeline here. 04 A Community Meeting to Finalize Board Approval 05 Procedures. Bring them back to the Board of Neighborhood 06 Commissions for approval, a 60-day Outreach Marker, and 07 then possibly an Election Day, and I put the last 08 Saturday in June, but that's tentative. We'de have to 09 check with the schedule of the IEA, depending on who's 10 chosen. 11 The Board did approve the procedures in June of 12 last year. Those are approved and with some minor 13 changes to dates and a couple of other things, those 14 procedures are fine. They represent an open and fair 15 election, and if we were to take those procedures and 16 just run an election in Venice, we could actually get a 17 Board up and running by the end of June, or the first 18 part of July. 19 This is actually the option that we recommend. 20 It's the straightest course out of the current situation 21 for Venice, and it gets their election back on track. 22 Now, the issues of stakeholder bylaw amendments, all 23 those kinds of things can be addressed by the Board after 24 they are up and running. 25 The second option is that DONE conducts the 0122 01 meeting to ratify -- 02 PRESIDENT STONE: Jamiko, If I could just ask on 03 this point, and I think you just made it, but I want to 04 be clear. If this remedy is selected, and a new 05 election -- we move to the new election in June, this 06 would not -- there had been some discussion about bylaw 07 changes. This would be based on the existing Grassroots 08 Venice Neighborhood Council Bylaws? 09 JAMIKO BELL: This would be based on their 10 current bylaws and their election procedures, as approved 11 last year. So we wouldn't address any bylaw changes at 12 this point in time. 13 The second option would be, DONE conducts the 14 meeting to ratify the appointments of the four Board 15 Members, or to elect new Board Members for those seats. 16 That's what the bylaw requires; that they either validate 17 those or vote in someone else, if they are not happy with 18 those choices. 19 There are two option in this category. The 20 Commission can choose to instruct the Department to 21 conduct an election meeting to ratify the four 22 appointments, but again for the reasons outlined above, 23 which regarded that one seat, they still wouldn't have a 24 quorum, which really doesn't really help them very much. 25 We can choose to adopt the policy presented by 0123 01 the Department on January 25th, about the loss of a 02 quorum due to vacancies and inability to fill it. We can 03 modify it so that it does apply to Venice, and that would 04 allow them to appoint a Board Member into the empty seat, 05 but then we'd still have to run an election to ratify the 06 other four seats to get them to a quorum. 07 The think the key issue with this is, is given 08 that it's March, an election in June would not happen, 09 and then the newly-elected Board, the newly-appointed 10 Board, the constituted Board after we ran through this 11 process would have to spend time adjusting the bylaws, 12 would be their first order of business, so we could get 13 an election back on track. 14 The third option, as indicated at the last 15 meeting and we brought forward as an option is 16 de-certification of the Council. There is a bylaws 17 amendment that's circulating in the community, which was 18 submitted to the Board and to the Department a few 19 meetings ago, and I think that Mr. Christopher said it 20 correctly, is that it such a departure from the current 21 structure of the Neighborhood Council, but it really does 22 constitute a whole new organization, and perhaps 23 de-certification may be an option for this community. 24 They could take time out, seek dispute resolution, 25 reorganize themselves and come forward with a 0124 01 Neighborhood Council Certification Application and bylaws 02 that better reflects their intention as a community. And 03 if you were to choose this option, we would have to come 04 back with the process to de-certify the group, and those 05 are the options. 06 What you have attached are the two polices 07 referenced in this document for your information. 08 PRESIDENT STONE: Questions for staff at this 09 time? If not, thank you for now. We have a number of 10 speaker cards, and I will suggest that we go through them 11 in the order that they were received, and the hour's late 12 so -- we won't put a restriction on time, but if you can 13 be as brief as possible that will be greatly appreciated. 14 Suzanne Thompson followed by Emily Winters and 15 Jim McQuiston. 16 SUZANNE THOMPSON: Good late evening. It's a 17 long evening. I have a feel for what it's like for you 18 guys to be up there. Again, I want to thank you for all 19 the wok that you do. It's a tough job and you give it 20 all. I would like to respond, I'm Suzanne Thompson 1531 21 Cabrillo Avenue, Venice, Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood 22 Council. 23 First of all, to the staff report -- gosh I hate 24 to say this, but it's full of misinformation. I hate to 25 use the word "lies," but that's what I feel like saying 0125 01 right now, because it says we didn't do any notification. 02 Again, we did 19,000 newsletters that went out through 03 walking man. We did ads in the "Argonaut Newspaper," 04 with circulation of over 80,000 readers the "Beach Head," 05 over 10,000, the "Venice Paper," as well as the "Venice 06 Garden Tour." We did an ad in that tour talking about 07 the elections. They say we didn't do outreach, again, 08 it's all just false information. 09 In the arbitration, it wasn't arbitration and 10 you know it. And it was not impartial, and there was 11 obvious bias and interference, and the Human Relations 12 Commission, I attended that meeting, and I ask the Board 13 Members if they knew anything about our invalidation. 14 They knew nothing about it, and Mr. Nelson has told us 15 himself that Mr. Gary de la Rosa was not trained to be an 16 arbitrator, and so therefore, I think you need to take 17 take that into consideration and not punish Grass Roots 18 Neighborhood Council any further. 19 As far as my at-large seat, that's what they are 20 talking about. Did John Kerry lose his seat, his Senate 21 seat when he lost his presidency? No, he didn't. And I 22 think what I heard tonight, and what I've heard from the 23 other Neighborhood Councils here, you keep saying, "Let's 24 not make it difficult for these other Neighborhood 25 Councils to have civic participation," yet you're doing 0126 01 the total opposite to Venice. 02 And as far as the seats were full at one point, 03 the whole time, I'd like to see that documentation, 04 because on the November 16th Election, when Mr. Nelson 05 was there and Parker Anderson, it was Michael McGoffen 06 and myself that put the documentation together, and we 07 could not see that any seats were filled at that time. 08 So again, I think things are being made up by 09 DONE. They are not communicating with us. They are not 10 asking us for the information. They're just making up 11 these things, and I think it's really unfair. And then, 12 the lack of quorum meetings, Committees can't work. So 13 you're saying that we can't have an Elections Committee. 14 We had an election last night to verify those four 15 appointments. We had 65 people come out and vote and 16 said "yes" to those appointments. 17 To keep saying "no" to Grass Roots Venice, I ask 18 why, BONC? Why are you doing this. I'm going to take a 19 little more time, because I know other people did tonight 20 as well. Possible remedies, number one -- 21 (AUDIENCE NEGATIVELY RESPONDED.) 22 PRESIDENT STONE: Ms. Thompson, we'll give you 23 one more minute. Please wrap up. 24 SUZANNE THOMPSON: Okay. The possible remedies, 25 Grass Roots neighborhood Council can run their own 0127 01 elections. I think it sounds good, except for the fact 02 that we can do that, and why does DONE have to run our 03 election? Why does DONE have to say that don't represent 04 the community? We've had elections and the only person 05 that committed any voter fraud is here tonight, 06 complaining about our -- us. 07 So Number two, like I said, we've already 08 ratified the stakeholders; that's been done. And as far 09 as de-certification, if you do that to Venice, it's going 10 to have tremendous repercussions all over this 11 Neighborhood Council System. There's a lot of people who 12 come to Venice and ask us, "How do you do your Community 13 Impact Statement? How do you do this? How do you do 14 that?" 15 We're working with other Neighborhood Councils, 16 like we said, like President Tom Lapont, that we work 17 together and brought up 1200 people. These are the 18 things you want Neighborhood Councils to be doing. So 19 please acknowledge our quorum. Let us do the election. 20 We're ready to go. It's March, so we have have an 21 election in June, so that people in this room are saying 22 they haven't been represented, cannot boycott elections, 23 cannot phone in threats to the school and have the 24 elections almost shut down, but can do the work like we 25 did and bring out over 700 or 1200 voters. 0128 01 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Emily 02 Winters. 03 EMILY WINTERS: I'm Emily Winters, I'm a 42-year 04 resident of Venice. I would like to say there's really 05 no reason for us to not have a quorum. I feel if DONE 06 really wants to empowerment the Neighborhood Council, 07 they would have found a better solution than just 08 invalidating an election where 500 voters plus, plus the 09 21 Board Members were invalidated. 10 I told you that the last time. This is how 11 democracy gets put under the rug; however, what is done 12 is done. But we could put together a quorum. We could 13 have a good election in June, and I feel that there are 14 people who say that they are not represented. Those 15 people are people who refuse to come to the election; who 16 refuse to run for the election; they boycott the 17 election, and they don't come to the meetings to try to 18 work with us and work our the problems of the 19 neighborhood. So of course they are not going to be 20 represented. 21 Now, I ran out a platform there in my district. 22 I won by a lot of votes. We were going to start an Arts 23 Council in Venice. We're in the process now of having 24 community meetings. It's going be put into the Venice 25 Circle, which is a very important area in Venice. We 0129 01 held a public meeting, which was very well attended. We 02 have participated in this. We have tie-ins with Indians, 03 that's been proposed to be put into Venice, because they 04 are original settlers there. We are working on projects 05 to work with children, and to work with senior centers. 06 We have a lot of things going on in Venice. We 07 have a centennial coming up. We're working on 08 Venice artists, artist about Venice. We're having some 09 Mongolian musicians come in and give a concert in Venice 10 to open up, opening cultures and so forth. 11 To try and validate all this work and say that 12 our committee cannot function, is really hurting the 13 communities. How are you going to help us? Can you 14 explain to me why? Why is it we're not getting any help 15 from DONE? They're not doing one thing, but obstructing 16 us. I'm really unhappy with how this is going, and I 17 assume it's coming from you also. So I do hope you will 18 reconsider and see that we are a valid community. 19 We'll be certainly glad to work with the 20 election. We're trying to move forward, and we're being 21 obstructed from doing that. Thank you. 22 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Jim McQuiston 23 followed by James Sith. 24 JIM MC QUISTON: Jim McQuiston, East Hollywood 25 Community Association. As I was looking through Item 6, 0130 01 I came to Attachments A and Attachments B. I didn't see 02 any mention of any of that in the Agenda. Those are 03 actually Policy Motions, and they are not even signed by 04 anybody that's making the motions. I don't how they're 05 getting into the attachment there. If you approve those 06 you are approving a motion that no one has made, and that 07 bothered me. 08 One of the issues that I brought up at your 09 retreat was that the City Council Agendas are very 10 explicit and most of the DONE and the Neighborhood 11 Council agendas, you can't really figure out what's going 12 to be talked about, and I think that's attachment 6(a) 13 and (b). There are quite a few Policy Motions in there, 14 and I don't how they got in there. I had never seen 15 something like that in any of the reports. So that was 16 my only comment I made. I just don't think that's 17 appropriate to put those in that way. 18 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Mr. McQuiston. 19 Actually before Mr. Smith -- just on that point, by Mr. 20 McQuiston, I wanted to verify with the City Attorney that 21 we do have those policies before us in the report, and 22 that we do, as a Commission, have the ability to adopt 23 those policies tonight. 24 CITY ATTORNEY MARTINEZ: That's right, 25 Commissioner. I wouldn't recommend that the Board 0131 01 refrain from acting. The Department has proposed these 02 policies to the Commission. If they had them provided as 03 part of the documents that were distribute to the 04 Commission. The agenda language does indicate that the 05 Board is considering this item, and that they are 06 considering potential action on this item. Maybe, 07 perhaps, to clarify or explain to Mr. McQuiston, these 08 are policies that have not been adopted or have not been 09 approved at the Board at this point in time. What it is 10 is the Department's proposal of a potential course of 11 action that the Board could consider and should consider 12 in respect to this item. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you for that 14 clarification. Mr. Smith. 15 JAMES SMITH: I'm James Smith. I'm the elected 16 Treasurer of the Venice Neighborhood Council. I was 17 elected in June of 2003, and for much of that time, I've 18 been unable to carry out my duties because of actions by 19 DONE, inactions by DONE or misguided actions by DONE. 20 In the beginning I was eager to work with DONE, 21 but I found through my experience with them that they 22 were less than helpful with me and our Neighborhood 23 Council. In fact, DONE has become the department of 24 nitpicking, splitting hairs and jumping through hoops. 25 That's been our experience, and I think the Board should 0132 01 have DONE let Neighborhood Councils develop in their own 02 unique ways. Unless they are guilty of illegal acts, 03 discrimination or other violation to the Charters, DONE 04 should let Neighborhood Councils develop, and they have 05 done that, in Venice. 06 The Neighborhood Council System, I believe is in 07 serious trouble, and you don't have to take my word for 08 it. You can go to Neighborhood Council Activist and 09 Leaders around the city. In fact, you can talk to some 10 of the candidates for Mayor, and they will tell you that. 11 Often, the attitudes towards stakeholders is 12 condescending and sometimes arrogant, and I want to say, 13 in Venice, I can't speak for other Neighborhood Councils, 14 but in Venice, there is a hundred years of various forms 15 of self-government and city participation, so please 16 don't patronize us. We are able and capable to run 17 elections fairly and efficiently. We are able to conduct 18 our business under the Charter, and the Board should pay 19 attention to that. 20 DONE, on the other hand, has excavated the 21 different divisions within our community. People have 22 played off against each other, by carrying favor with 23 DONE, and it's made a situation worse than if they had 24 just stayed out of it, and I think that they found fault 25 with just about every effort that we've made to follow 0133 01 our bylaw or strengthen the Neighborhood Council, and I 02 would like to say that if any of DONE staff are unhappy 03 with the direction DONE is going, they should speak up. 04 They should speak up publicly, because they are doing a 05 disservice to the Neighborhood Council system. 06 Now finally on this -- these remedies. They are 07 riddled with inaccuracies and fabrications, and the 08 interpretations of GRVNC bylaws, that DONE is not 09 empowered to make, according to the City Attorney's 10 opinion on Page 11 of the Greater Wilshire document. It 11 says that the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners does 12 not have the authority to interpret the bylaws, and that 13 should go for DONE too. 14 Number one remedy, DONE wants to run our 15 election. Why should they do that? They are not the 16 elected board of Venice. We are the elected board. 17 Number two remedy, they want to hold a meeting to ratify 18 appointments to the Board. We done that, but that's no 19 good for them, because we did it, not them. What's the 20 difference other than them running our affairs? 21 PRESIDENT STONE: Mr. Smith, if I can ask you 22 please wrap up. 23 JAMES SMITH: I will. Number 3, de-certify, 24 GRVNC. I think now we are getting to the real agenda of 25 some people in the Department of Neighborhood 0134 01 Empowerment. No reason has been given for this drastic 02 action. Our bylaws have served us well for three years. 03 Our organizational structure is just like other 04 Neighborhood Councils. We just need DONE to back off so 05 we can take care of Neighborhood Council business. 06 So I ask the Commission to instruct DONE staff 07 to follow the City Charter and help, not hinder the 08 Neighborhood Council. Instruct them to work with our 09 Board and our Neighborhood Council, and we can have this 10 election, and we can have the fine Neighborhood Council 11 in Venice. Thank you. 12 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Don Geagan, Sheila 13 Bernard and John Davis. 14 DON GEAGAN: Good evening. My name is Don 15 Geagan, I've been a long-time resident in Venice going on 16 42 years. My children grew up there. I've participated 17 in the Old Venice Town Council before, so I'm not new to 18 the process of town councils. One of the things that 19 always bothers the situations when you have something 20 like neighborhood town councils is the lack of funding. 21 It seems to be a little bit more forthcoming, but as I 22 can see the city going ahead with the funding, it seems 23 that is not really allowing the city or the people in the 24 neighborhood to run their own affairs, and that's one of 25 problems that I have with what's happened to Venice, is 0135 01 that there has been a lot of interference, as they said 02 before. 03 I was not originally going to run to be elected, 04 but I was appointed. However, I participated in the Town 05 Council since it started, and whether the people that 06 were elected in the original board were to my liking or 07 not, it wouldn't mean that I wouldn't participate. I 08 stayed there. I stayed on all of the committees that I 09 was appointed to, which was the Environmental Committee 10 and working with the youth of the neighborhood, which was 11 the Venice 2000, which I just participated in a walk on 12 Saturday, in the city of L.A. 13 So it isn't that people don't participate. It 14 isn't that people don't follow the elections. I've been 15 on the election Board in all three elections that we had 16 in Venice. I haven't seen anything that would be out of 17 the ordinary as any other election would be. So I really 18 don't understand what's going only with DONE. All I'm -- 19 I'm not on any e-mail list, so I'm not privy to all of 20 the things that have gone on between these emails. I'm 21 not a person that does that. 22 I usually take the people and look them in the 23 eye and say, "That's a person that's willing to cooperate 24 with me, and "Those are the persons I'm willing to work 25 with." Like I said before, I've worked on several 0136 01 committees within the Neighborhood Town Council, and I 02 I've done my best here to try and make Venice, which is a 03 very difficult city because of the problems that it had. 04 It's a very difficult city to bring everybody together; 05 however there's outreach there. 06 There's people in this -- in this -- right in 07 this area that I've worked with on -- on -- if you want 08 to say both sides, people that I didn't agree with in the 09 beginning, but I'm willing to work with them. I've 10 reached out to them and worked with them on many 11 commissions and many committees. So I don't understand 12 what the problem is with what I hear is rhetoric that 13 goes on in the City of Venice. I don't see it, and maybe 14 because we're going to have a new election. I'm talking 15 about the election that's going to take place in March. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Mr. Greagan, if I can ask you 17 to please wrap up. Thank you. 18 DON GREAGAN: Yeah. And maybe things will 19 change in Venice, but I have to agree with what's been 20 said before. I don't see why we just can't continue 21 with -- an election will happen, whether it be June or 22 July, and we will go on with the business of Venice. 23 Thank you. 24 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Sheila 25 Bernard followed by John Davis and Kelley Willis. 0137 01 SHEILA BERNARD: Good evening, Commissioners. I 02 want to acknowledge that -- can you hear me okay? I want 03 to acknowledge that in Jamiko's report, she did state 04 that the preference of the staff was to see the election 05 go forward in June. That's probably the most important 06 thing. 07 People who were elected for the Board need to be 08 willing to work with those folks who are proposing 09 de-certifications. The folks that are proposing 10 de-certification need to be willing to work with the 11 Elected Board. Both sides need to be willing to work 12 with DONE, and DONE needs to be willing to work with both 13 sides. There needs to be real mediation or arbitration 14 of sime kind to take place, so that we are not just 15 pulling back two years, three years to where we started, 16 but we're actually moving ahead. 17 I was disappoint when the Human Relations 18 Commission didn't provide a true arbitration or 19 mediation, which is what I was hoping for with their 20 involvement. They, I believe, may have been -- may be 21 capable of being the arbiter, but generally, when two 22 sides are having a very acrimonious time, and you want to 23 mediate between them each side chooses a mediator and 24 then those two mediators choose a third mediator who 25 could mediate between the two side. 0138 01 We do have a lot of polarization in Venice. 02 That polarization stems from real substantive issues 03 relative to the economic changes going on in Venice. 04 These aren't things -- these don't have to do 05 necessarily -- there may be some personal hatreds too, 06 but I think more than personal hatred, we're talking 07 about economic conditions that are creating conflict. 08 Those conflicts need to be worked out with a third party 09 in a calm and neutral setting. 10 This Board can help see that happen. DONE can 11 help see that happen, but I don't think a solution -- 12 this was to stop our evolution. The solution is to 13 continue our evolution with everyone's assistance and 14 getting all sides to sit and look each other in the face 15 and discuss the issues that really divide us. 16 So I hope you will go with your staff report and 17 help this election, assist and encourage this election to 18 go forward in June, and encourage all of the factions 19 involved to talk to one another, to participate in the 20 election planing and the publicity for the election and 21 in all matters related to the election. Thank you. 22 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. John 23 Davis. Ladies and gentlemen, we have about 15 more 24 speaker cards, so if everyone could keep their comments 25 as brief as possible, that would get us out of here at a 0139 01 reasonable hour. Thank you. 02 JOHN DAVIS: Honorable President Stone and Vice 03 President Woods Gray and distinguished Commissioners, I 04 would like to read a one-page -- a one-page item into the 05 record. 06 The staff report for this item was only released 07 to the public yesterday, disallowing stakeholders to 08 respond to it prior to this hearing. This was 09 irresponsible. Furthermore, this late staff report 10 suggests implementation of policy that was not given 11 24-hours or 72-hours notice, so when the City Attorney 12 mentions that notice was given, this staff report didn't 13 come out until yesterday at 11 a.m.; that's not notice of 14 what was -- what was actually happening. It doesn't even 15 resemble what is in the staff report. So I don't 16 believe, if you take action, you know, and implement such 17 policy. 18 Also, a binder of materials pertaining to this 19 hearing has been prepared for the Commissioners, but not 20 the public. If these materials are used in taking action 21 on this item, they must be provide to the public as well, 22 to comply with the Brown Act. 23 The issue is now simple. This hearing is based 24 upon what -- is based upon a staff report for Item 6, 25 which Item 6 terms a Final Arbitrator Report. It's 0140 01 actually an unapproved staff report of the Human 02 Relations Commission. Did you receive the document I 03 sent to DONE staff for you? I provided a via over-night 04 mail. It should have arrived Friday. I contacted 05 Miss Bell to make sure that she would include it in the 06 binder to you, and I'm just wondering if you received it. 07 It had a front page that looks like this. 08 JAMIKO BELL: Yeah, they got it in their mail. 09 JOHN DAVIS: Okay. Very good. And I'll be 10 brief. I only have half a page to read. I'll be very 11 brief. I've incorporated that document by reference and 12 request that it be retained for the administrative 13 record. It contains a response from the Human Relations 14 Commission indicating that the Commission did not take 15 action as it is defined in the governing Ralph and Brown 16 Act, section 54952.6 regarding the GRVNC. 17 Executive Director of DONE, Greg Nelson, has 18 claimed, in writing, that this unapproved HRC staff 19 report constitutes an action of the Human Relations 20 Commission. I have -- will conclude. I have a half a 21 page. I'd like to read it, please. 22 PRESIDENT STONE: No. We have your statement. 23 So if you can please conclude. 24 JOHN DAVIS: I'd like to read. 25 PRESIDENT STONE: I'm asking you to please 0141 01 conclude your -- summarize your statement for us. 02 JOHN DAVIS: Okay. I'll summarize it. Let me 03 be quite frank. The Director has lied to you, and lied 04 to the GRVNC and claims that an action of HRC occurred, 05 when none occurred. The staff report has no course of 06 law and should deface any type of action upon this 07 document today. I assure you, I will seek judicial 08 review. Thank you. 09 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. 10 JOHN DAVIS: I also have some local newspapers 11 that have all of the derogatory emails that were sent to 12 the GRVNC and that is widely known -- 13 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Kelley 14 Willis. Go ahead. 15 KELLEY WILLIS: Okay. It's been a long time 16 since I got here and you guys got here before me. Okay. 17 I'll go pretty fast. I don't like the Staff's 18 recommendation, because it basically ignores all the 19 reasons that got us here to begin with, including but not 20 restricted to the stakeholder's request for bylaws 21 amendments for which the current Board, when they had a 22 quorum, completely and very viciously ignored. 23 Number two, having an election to try to 24 validate the appointments that had been made. 25 (A) still doesn't address that issue; and (b) 0142 01 may not Present the Board -- present the Commissioners 02 with a Board that actually still has a quorum; so I'm 03 here for (c) or three, or whichever one it is. I'm a 04 little punchy here. I think we need to just basically, 05 as in the last meeting, do a three-finger solute on this. 06 control, alt, delete, just reset the entire operation. 07 If the bylaws adjustments that had been 08 presented to the Board of Commissioners is too extensive 09 to see them as changes to the current bylaws for the 10 Neighborhoods -- for the Neighborhood Council, so that we 11 can correct some of the problems that got us here, then 12 by all means, let's look at de-certifying this and 13 getting the community back involved and going over the 14 whole process again to do it again. 15 We know it can be done. We know it can be done 16 in Venice. I'd like to go over some of the comments that 17 were made here earlier tonight. Suzanne, takes great 18 umbrage at the idea that John Kerry didn't lose his seat 19 in the last election. John Kerry didn't resign his seat 20 to run; she did. Jim Smith bottomlines his entire 21 commentary by saying, leave us alone to run it the way we 22 want. By the way, send us the $150,000 okay. Thanks, 23 bye. 24 And lastly, Sheila comes up here and remarks on 25 the need to be even-handed and get everybody to the table 0143 01 for some arbitration. Starting well before the June '03 02 Elections, certain groups were asking for dispute 03 resolutions, and the people who currently sit on the 04 Board absolutely, positively and unabashedly refused to 05 participate in any kind of dispute resolution. 06 In fact it wasn't until you guys actually 07 grabbed them by the short hairs and said, "pay 08 attention," that they even showed up to meetings like 09 this, and then of course there's John Davis. I would 10 like to quote "The Bard," "It is a tale told by an idiot, 11 full of sound and fury and signifying nothing." Thank 12 you for your time. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: Ladies and gentlemen. Steve 14 Freedman followed by Elinor Aurthur. 15 STEVE FREEDMAN: Good evening, I'm Steve 16 Freedman. I've lived in Venice for about 30 years and 17 went to school close by, in Mar Vista, previously. I 18 believe that the original bylaws and structure of GRVNC 19 was a recipe for disfunction. They enabled a small group 20 of ideologues to gain control of the organization and use 21 it as a vehicle to peruse their own agenda. And they 22 continued to do so at the expense of the interest of most 23 Venice stakeholders. 24 From the moment that this self-titled 25 progressive candidate stated their platform and promoted 0144 01 themselves as a slate, I felt that their partisan 02 approach was at odds with the intend of the L.A. City 03 Charter with respect to it's concept of Neighborhood 04 Councils. What has developed is a highly-partisan and 05 polarized organization, that is so divided that it cannot 06 function on behalf of the community at all. 07 The controlling faction of the Board has 08 repeatedly refused to follow the suggestions, 09 instructions and decisions of DONE. By ignoring the will 10 of many vocal Venice stakeholders, the progressive group 11 has driven this organization into the ground. Venice's 12 Neighborhood Council is irretrievably damaged, because 13 it's clearly dead, I believe that the best approach would 14 be to burry it. 15 The only hope for Venice to have a productive 16 and functional Neighborhood Council is to build a new 17 organization with new bylaws and a meaningful system of 18 geographic representation that will serve the stakeholder 19 in a democratic manner, One that will engage the 20 neighborhoods of Venice in the dialogue, to reveal what 21 the real stakeholders of Venice want and then work to 22 achieve those goals that the community can agree upon. 23 A group of dedicated Venice residents has 24 drafted such a set of bylaws that addresses all of my 25 concerns with the original structure and would lay the 0145 01 groundwork for a fresh start. I respectfully request 02 that you vote to de-certify the GRVNC and support the 03 effort to start over again. Thank you. 04 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Elinor 05 Aurthur followed by David Buchanan. 06 ELINOR AURTHUR: Good evening, Commissioners. 07 Thank you for staying late and for listening. I am like 08 Jim Smith, one of the Board Members that was elected in 09 2003. And for a good time, a good part of this time of 10 my term I have not been able to serve my community in the 11 capacity to which I was elected because of actions and 12 inactions, and what I do see is interference on the part 13 of DONE. 14 I wanted -- I wanted to remind you all of the 15 discussions that we have been having with previous 16 Neighborhood Councils, and the effort that it takes to 17 get a Neighborhood Council up and running, and how many 18 meetings it takes and outreach and education and coming 19 together, and in Venice we did this, starting in the year 20 2000. People started formulating the bylaws. This is a 21 very broad-based effort. It went through a lot of 22 changes, and these bylaws were ratified by this Board, 23 and what we are talking about now is trying to let this 24 Neighborhood Council function. 25 We've done a lot of work. We had elections in 0146 01 2001. I may not remember this. I was elected in 2003. 02 There were elections in 2002 also. And the Board 03 functioned for a long time and has done a lot of things. 04 In my capacity, I ran on a platform of trying to have 05 more community control of development and try to work for 06 affordable housing and to help the poor in Venice, and to 07 deal with the economic problems that Sheila mentioned. 08 There are serious economic conflicts and challenges in 09 Venice. I have been trying to work in that regard, 10 and -- I don't want to lose the thread of my thought. 11 We've done a lot of work in Venice, and it's not 12 that we are just a narrowly-based group. At our last 13 election, that was much interfered with by people. We 14 still had more than 500 people coming out to vote, and 15 the election before, we had over a thousand people coming 16 out to vote. So we are not a neighborhood council who 17 does not have participation. 18 So I would really like to ask DONE to try to 19 help us. I know they are supposed to help us. They're 20 supposed to assist the neighborhood councils, but I feel 21 they've been splitting hairs and finding fine 22 technicalities and every possible way to prevent us from 23 operating. I would really like to have them help us put 24 our quorum -- acknowledge our quorum and plan these 25 elections. 0147 01 I also wanted to say that Grass Roots Venice has 02 asked for assistance and mediation, and it's not true 03 that we have turned our back on that. We have been, for 04 a long time, been asking for help with this. We asked 05 the City Attorney's office for help with this. We have 06 not gotten it. I implore you people to help us, because 07 we are -- we are really trying, and I also would like you 08 to remind people -- 09 PRESIDENT STONE: I'm sorry, but if I can ask 10 you to please wrap up. 11 ELINOR AURTHUR: I am going to wrap up. Please 12 remind people not to sling mud. We've told other people 13 that today, and I think it's important to remind the 14 people of Venice, also, that we need to respect each . 15 Thank you. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. David Buchanan, 17 followed by De De Audet. 18 DAVID BUCHANAN: Good evening, Commissioners. 19 My name is David Buchanan and this is the third time I've 20 appeared before your regarding the GRVNC. At our last 21 meeting, we presented the Board with an alternative to 22 the current structure of the Neighborhood Council in 23 Venice. Well, I do not believe this is panacea that 24 could cure all of our ills. It is, indeed, a good start. 25 Over the past few days I've done quite a bit of 0148 01 soul searching regarding our Neighborhood Council. I 02 talked to people from both sides of the issue. I believe 03 I gained some valuable insight. The one thing that I did 04 not want to happen was the de-certification of the 05 Neighbor Council. When we worked together with others to 06 craft a revision of the bylaws that we felt would truly 07 represent all of Venice, it was never done with 08 de-certification in mind. 09 I've always felt that going back to square one 10 was just that, a step backward, and in the time when the 11 Neighborhood Council movement in Los Angeles is moving 12 from infancy to adolescence to maturity, I did not want 13 my community to be in diapers again. However, the 14 opinion of the City Attorney has left us with little or 15 no alternative. Tonight, you've been presented with 16 three options, and I come to the conclusion that only one 17 option is viable toward the creation of a strong 18 representative Neighborhood Council. 19 Option one create more questions than it 20 answers, and it will ultimately land us back before you a 21 few short months from now. Nowhere are the two bylaws 22 adjustment currently before DONE factored into the 23 election process. These bylaws adjustments should have 24 been a matter of this Board's consideration months ago. 25 Even if the bylaws adjustments are considered and 0149 01 implemented and the election takes place in June, the 02 first item that a newly-seated Board must consider is 03 that initiative petition that is now signed by over 300 04 stakeholders. 05 The petition is successful during a 06 community-wide vote. We could completely change the 07 structure of the Neighborhood Council and eliminate and 08 redefine all of the existing seats. This would, once 09 again, assuming this Board approves the revision, 10 eliminate the quorum of the GRVNC, and the matter will be 11 presented to any newly-elected neighborhood council. The 12 300 signatures mandates that we do so. 13 So finally, I would say that option two takes us 14 to the same place, so it leaves us with option three. 15 And option three, I'm afraid, is the only alternative 16 that allows for an orderly implementation of a bylaws 17 revision. Once de-certification has been approved by 18 this Board, public meetings could begin immediately on 19 new bylaws. 20 Much of the heavy lifting for de-certification 21 application and an application for certification has 22 already been accomplished. We have the boundaries. We 23 have the database of community stakeholders. We have the 24 original bylaws. We have the bylaws revisions. We could 25 accomplish the creation of a new Neighborhood Council 0150 01 that fairly and fully represents all of Venice and do so 02 on a fast-track basis. Thank you very much. 03 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. De De 04 Audet followed by Eileen Pollack-Erickson. 05 DE DE AUDET: Thank you very much for giving us 06 your time. I know what it is to spend two nights a month 07 and probably a lot more studying. Thank you very very 08 much, each one of you. I do appreciate it. 09 See I'm wearing my Venice centennial button. 10 Please don't give us an election in June. This is our 11 centennial year. Many of our most-active people in 12 Venice are just wrapped up in trying this to make this a 13 bang-up year for Venice and for Los Angeles. Elections 14 held on weekends. We're going do be inundated with 15 traffic. It will be -- June is a terrible time to hold 16 an election in Venice. If the weather is good, everyone 17 wants to come to the beach, and we like to have them 18 there -- our business people -- I happen to be a resident 19 and don't have a business there, and we love to have the 20 people come, but we do get the traffic, and it just isn't 21 a good time for an election. So please consider that 22 would you. Thank you. 23 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Eileen 24 Pollack-Erickson, followed by Jodi Gusek. 25 EILEEN POLLACK-ERICKSON: Thank you 0151 01 Commissioners for hearing us tonight. I'm a 28-year 02 resident of Venice myself, and my children are being 03 raised and have been raised here. It's interesting 04 reading the status report and seeing the options that we 05 provided. First GRVNC ignores the strong and firm 06 urgings, according to Jamiko, regarding elections. They 07 are an independent body, the Human Relations Commission, 08 determines that GRVNC violated its own bylaws and 09 invalidated the election in a binding decision. It was 10 determined the GRVNC was short of a quorum and could not 11 conduct business. 12 They again ignored DONE's directives and held a 13 special election with the intention of ratifying their 14 Board appointments. It's a testament to GRVNC's status 15 in the community. Only 65 people showed up for that 16 election, and it's interesting to know that virtually 17 everybody speaking here tonight on behalf of GRVNC is a 18 Board Member of that body. The existing bylaws are the 19 root of the problems of GRVNC, and it does not represent 20 the community. That's why a group of community members 21 spent hundreds of hours drafting new bylaws, that will 22 enable our Neighborhood Council to fully represent all 23 40,000 people in Venice and not cater to special interest 24 groups. As you know, over 300 people have signed that 25 petition. 0152 01 Option one suggests holding a new election under 02 existing bylaws. This would only perpetuate the problem. 03 Option two, in effect, ignores all violations of the 04 GRVNC and allows them to continue business as usual. 05 Option three is probably the best of the three presented, 06 to de-certify GRVNC. I would ask that the Commission, if 07 possible, adopt the new bylaws, but if not, I think 08 de-certification is the only viable option. Thank you 09 very much. 10 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Jodi 11 Gusek followed by Richard Myers. 12 JODI GUSEK: Good evening. I'm Jodi Gusek. I'm 13 a Venice stakeholder. I've lived in Venice for eight 14 years now. I will speak very briefly, because I'm sure 15 everybody's getting very tired. Thank you, also, to 16 everybody efforts here tonight. Everyone on the Board of 17 Neighborhood Commissioners and everybody that has worked 18 so hard with DONE. I speak in favor of adopting the 19 Venice Neighborhood Council bylaws that have recently 20 been revised and proposed also. And recently, we've 21 obtained, I think, over 300 signitures to support for 22 those. 23 It's my feeling that, excuse me. I'm getting 24 over the flu. It's my feeling that before we can elect a 25 new council, these new bylaws must be adopted. As it's 0153 01 only through the adoption of these revised bylaws that we 02 can fix our Neighborhood Council. The revised bylaws are 03 crucial for several reasons, but perhaps most 04 importantly, they provide that the majority of elected 05 council seats actually are accountable to and responsible 06 to 19 specific districts within Venice. There's lots of 07 different districts in Venice that all have special 08 needs, and they need members who are a accountable to 09 them. 10 By having a more representative council in 11 Venice, we can discourage some of this slate politics 12 that have been able to function and that have created so 13 much animosity, I believe, and that have played "Groove 14 Nick" -- and personally GRVNC -- excuse me, frankly, I 15 think has gotten us in this mess. Thank you very much. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Richard Myers 17 followed by Marta Every. 18 RICHARD MYERS: Thank you. I'll try to keep my 19 comments short. I just wanted to specifically mention 20 some problems with -- in general, I believe that DONE's 21 report is very accurate. I don't know, Suzanne, thought 22 the outreach comments were wrong, and I know, personally, 23 from writing the election complaint from last year that 24 those complaints have been looked at by various people 25 and found to be true. So those points are just way off 0154 01 base. 02 As to DONE's report tonight, I specifically want 03 to address my comments to the first -- their suggested 04 remedy, and there's just a few clarifications that will 05 need to be made for that, if that is the course that you 06 decide to take, and I just want to bring those out. They 07 mentioned that you would use the approved election 08 procedures. The problem is there were no approved 09 election procedures. 10 I mean there were some election procedures 11 approved by the Board, but there were various problems 12 with those election procedures. There were three or four 13 different election procedures. This was the point of the 14 original election complaint, which got the election 15 thrown out. So there is quite a bit of clarification 16 that has to happen there. 17 Things like, is there Vote-by-mail or not 18 Vote-by-mail? Is it proportional voting or not 19 proportional voting? All these things, at one term or 20 another, were in the election procedures, so to say to 21 use the approved election procedures is ambiguous and 22 needs to be clarified. And then, also, this has to 23 happen at least 60 days before the election, and I think 24 that's going to be difficult if we need to clarify the 25 election procedures. 0155 01 So there is definitely problems there. I mean I 02 hope we can either, through the new bylaws or through 03 elections, get to a new Board, but there is definite 04 problems with the current system and those need to be 05 addressed. Thank you. 06 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Marta Every 07 followed by Darryl DuFay. 08 MARTA EVERY: Good evening, Commissioners, my 09 name is Marta Every, and I live in Venice. Thank you for 10 staying with us at this late hour. If your blood sugar 11 is as low as mine right now -- earlier this evening, 12 Sheila Bernard said that the most important thing for 13 Venice was to have an election in June. With all due 14 respect, I do not believe that's true. The most 15 important thing is not to have an election in June. The 16 most important thing is not to have a restored board 17 quorum. 18 The most important thing is not to have $50,000. 19 The most important thing is for us to have a democratic, 20 representative, competent, a neighborhood council in 21 Venice. And that's why I'm here tonight. We need to 22 move forward. A lot of people have been looking back, 23 but we need to look forward. A bunch of us got together, 24 and we looked at what the problems were with our 25 neighborhood council. We looked at the structure. We 0156 01 looked at what we could do, and we spent a lot of time 02 coming up with bylaw revisions. 03 We submitted these bylaws revisions to the 04 community and we got feedback. One of things I'd like to 05 give you tonight, not to read tonight, take it home, are 06 revisions that actually address those issues. We have 07 tried to engage as many people in the community as 08 possible. That's why we have the 300 signatures. We 09 haven't tried to engage the Board Members here, but it's 10 been kind of a stone wall. 11 The problem that we have with the recommendation 12 for DONE to go forward with an election in June is it 13 doesn't solve anything, because as Dave Buchanan already 14 said, the very first thing that's going to happen is we 15 will submit these bylaws revisions to a stakeholder vote, 16 and we will go right down the rabbit hole again. I know 17 that DONE is looking at Option Number One as the light at 18 the end of the tunnel. I'm telling you, it is an 19 on-coming train, okay. 20 It is not the light at the end of the tunnel. I 21 know that de-certification has never been done. I know 22 that de-certification is not the first option. It is the 23 first option you'll use when everything else has failed, 24 but I think if we have not come there now, we are very 25 very close, and I just very quickly in conclusion, the 0157 01 other part of this too, which I want you to keep in mind. 02 This is law-diminishing returns. 03 We have had three elections so far, including 04 the one from last night, where the vote didn't count. We 05 had one last May. We had another bylaws revision where 06 that got thrown out. We had one in June, where this one 07 got thrown out, and now we have this one, where they 08 didn't tell anybody that it was going to be thrown out. 09 PRESIDENT STONE: If you could please wrap up. 10 MARTA EVERY: Okay. So very quickly, public 11 service depends on a never-ending stream of volunteers 12 who don't know what they are getting themselves into. 13 Okay. We have reached that point. People in Venice are 14 tired of this. We need to start fresh. We need to have 15 a neighborhood council that works, and we believe that 16 the solution that we put in front of you will do that. 17 Thank you. 18 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Darryl 19 DuFay followed by Chris Landon. 20 DARRYL DUFAY: Thank you, again, for spending 21 your time with us. It's broken. There's no question, I 22 think, that the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council 23 is broken. And the staff recommendation should probably 24 have read, it's the most direct course to oblivion, 25 because what they are asking you to do is to go back to 0158 01 March of last year and forget about all that took place 02 between March and June. 03 There are two sets of existing bylaws. The 04 bylaws are not up to date. There are sets by the Board 05 and by stakeholders. The election procedures, I sat for 06 eight meetings on the Election Committee, until I 07 resigned when I found out, and we were not told, that the 08 Bylaws Committee, headed by Mr. Smith, had an entire 09 different group of bylaws that they were going to 10 present. There are no election bylaws. I see that 21 11 days from now is proposed to have GRVNC board-approved 12 procedures. What procedures? 13 I tell you, it cannot be done and should not be 14 done. It is broken. Regarding the third, if I may move 15 to the last one, the de-certification. I would suggest a 16 fourth one, and that is a community meeting based upon 17 these proposed bylaw, these new bylaws. And may I sum up 18 that the proposal on the bylaws are one aspect and that 19 is to create a neighborhood council of neighborhoods, 20 with at-large seats in addition to that, and that's it. 21 That's the crooks of the bylaws, and I think it is 22 possible, necessary that we have a community meeting to 23 vote on those, otherwise we are going repeat -- repeat 24 the mistakes that have been made up to now. And the 25 present, self-discrediting group, which had a meeting 0159 01 last night for an election which Mr. Nelson, again, sent 02 them letter, don't do it, had it anyway, and then he even 03 changed the application for one of the members, who 04 decided not to go ahead, and they had a write-in 05 candidate. Folks, I can tell you their pattern of 06 behavior does not justify and shouldn't been done. Thank 07 you very much. 08 PRESIDENT STONE: Chris Landon. 09 CHRIS LANDON: Pass. 10 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Followed by Greg 11 Fitchitt and Joel Shields. 12 GREG FITCHITT: Hello, Commissioners. I'll try 13 to keep it quick. Greg Fitchitt. I was the vice 14 president for the Neighborhood Council from 2002 to 2004. 15 I was actually the Chair of the elections that were 16 actually upheld. I didn't realize that was going to be 17 such an accomplishment, but it appears that it has been. 18 I would like to urge the Commission to choose Door Number 19 Three, which is de-certification at this point. It's 20 unfortunate, but I think it is necessary. I don't agree 21 with the petitioners who are proposing an all-district 22 system. I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think 23 it will solve the problems. 24 One of the main problems is that it would mean 25 each person who goes out to vote is now voting for one of 0160 01 19 or 27 Board Members. They won't feel like they have 02 the same stake in participating as they do now, where 03 they get to vote for a majority of the Board. So I think 04 that's one real problem, but I think that through 05 de-certification we can get back and we can open the 06 thing up again and, you know, hopefully come to a 07 structure, a Board structure that really will allow both 08 of two sides that you see, and that you've seen for the 09 last year, to participate meaningfully in the Board. 10 Right now you got one side, and you got another 11 side, and if one side is in control, then the other one 12 is fighting it, and back and forth, and it is very 13 unproductive. I think we need to have a structure that 14 allows for proportion representation so both sides will 15 be encouraged to participate, and both sides will be able 16 to have a voice on the Board. I think that's the only 17 solutions that is going to work for Venice, and I think 18 the only way we can get there is to have 19 de-certification, get back, have community meetings and 20 create new bylaws that hopefully will allow for that kind 21 of structure. Thanks. 22 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. Joel 23 Shields and Warren Bowman. 24 JOEL SHIELDS: Good evening, Commissioners. 25 Joel Shields. Thank you so much. I guess I'm one of the 0161 01 few people here that want to thank DONE for their work. 02 Jamiko, Parker and Greg. He has provided you with an 03 option. They have provided with an option that the 04 stakeholders who have come before you, asking for -- that 05 is to de-certify. I don't see the goal to de-certify. I 06 see it as an opportunity to re-certify a neighborhood 07 council that takes into account what stakeholders have 08 asked you for this evening. The stakeholders are the 09 ultimate authority. DONE is not. The GRVNC Board is not 10 and BONC is not. It is the stakeholders that have the 11 ultimate authority, and we have come before you this 12 evening, again, asking you to respect what we are asking 13 for. 14 A lot of us have come down and spoke to you this 15 evening, personally, there are over 300 people who have 16 signed the petition for these new bylaws, and I really 17 would like for you -- to encourage you to take a look at 18 at option that DONE has provided and that is to 19 de-certify. Thank you so much. 20 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Warren Bowman. 21 WARREN BOWMAN: My name Warren Bowman, and I'm a 22 stakeholder. I'm sorry, I thought I was at a 12-step 23 meeting. I'm just here to add my voice to the chorus, 24 asking for you to please get this thing started again. 25 GRVNC is obviously dead, please sign the death 0162 01 certificate, so we can rebirth it. Thank you very much. 02 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much. I have a 03 no additional speaker cards on Agenda Item Number 6. Is 04 there someone that has not spoken that wishes to speak on 05 this item? If not, we will close the public hearing and 06 proceed to Commissioner comment and deliberation, and I 07 think Parker has something to add. 08 MR. PARKER: There's one thing that's rather 09 unique about Grass Roots Venice bylaws, and I think is 10 important -- pardon -- the current bylaws of the Grass 11 Roots Venice Board, I think, it's important in looking at 12 the options and considering some of the input from the 13 folks that have spoken here earlier this evening. 14 Article 2, under Section C, says that it's the policy of 15 Grass Roots Venice to respect the community stakeholders 16 of Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council as the 17 ultimate authority and controlling force of GRVNC. 18 It's a really important piece, because when you 19 look at the process for initiating a petition to change 20 bylaws, it gives a tremendous amount of authority for the 21 stakeholders to initiate that process, and to great 22 extent, the Board's function is to merely a pass or a con 23 to it. And specifically if the voting members initiate a 24 petition and, in essence, 50 people sign that, and then 25 submit it to the Board the executive committee, their 0163 01 required to trigger a member vote between 30 to 90 days, 02 and if that's approve they're required to submit it to 03 our department for our action and or approval. 04 So there's a very specific process that gives 05 the stakeholders the ability to initiate changes to the 06 bylaws. One of the things that was mentioned, and this 07 has a tremendous impact, for example, if we move forward 08 for an election it could well be that the first order of 09 that Board would be to move forward a stakeholder 10 petition for vote requiring two-thirds approval, which 11 could change the structure of the Board and could put us 12 back in front of your Commission for action. 13 So there are some -- there are some sort of 14 endemic aspects of the bylaws that put Venice in a 15 peculiar and somewhat precarious position, in terms of 16 stabilizing itself, that frankly we got to look at when 17 we talk about what we do. I just wanted to share that. 18 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Actually, Parker, 19 before you leave, I had a couple of questions. And maybe 20 it could be the way we start off our Commission 21 discussion and deliberation. Can you comment a little 22 more on the the approval -- it's listed in the staff 23 report as the Approved 2004 Election Procedures. Did the 24 Department review those procedures? If so, were they 25 approved by the Department or were they partially 0164 01 approved? Are there some shortcomings? 02 MR. PARKER: Those were submitted to -- 03 PRESIDENT STONE: Are they consistent with the 04 city-wide election procedures? 05 MR. PARKER: Generally speaking, yes. Obviously 06 the dates and timing were not, because those were 07 approved by the board 13 days before their election, but 08 basically, they comport with the general intent of the 09 approved city-wide election procedures, yes. And we 10 would -- if we were going to help facilitate the 11 election -- we don't run elections -- our goal and our 12 role would be to convene the community to generate their 13 input, to bring back your commission the various items 14 for you to make the decisions about with respect to the 15 Independent Election Administrator, the Final Decision 16 Maker, the time frame, the procedures and so on. And 17 then we work with and support the Independent Election 18 Administrator and the Arbiter in undertaking the 19 election, but we don't run the election, just to clarify 20 some confusion that exited around that. 21 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Christopher an 22 Commissioner Herrera-Duran. 23 MR. PARKER: We would take those approved 24 election Procedures as a basis for engaging the community 25 in a discussion of what the final should be. 0165 01 PRESIDENT STONE: Commission Christopher. 02 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Parker, since we're 03 faced with some unique challenges in the situation, maybe 04 we can try a little out-of-the-box approach. One of the 05 things I heard consistently from the existing board 06 members, or immediate board members, is the reluctance to 07 allow DONE to run the election, and in their terms. 08 The statements they've made tonight had been 09 that, understanding that under Option One, DONE would not 10 actually run the election, nor would they be the final 11 Arbiter or Final Decision Maker. I keep using the older 12 term. 13 MR. PARKER: I did too, and I apologize. 14 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: But the description 15 you just gave us here, gave DONE a role in preparing for 16 that election, which I think raises some concerns on the 17 part of Neighborhood Council. Would it be possible to 18 define the Election Administrator early on or up front, 19 and essentially transfer all that function to the 20 Election Administrator, instead of the Department 21 handling the input and presentation of that information 22 back to the Board, so that there was a greater feeling on 23 the part of the Neighborhood Council that there was more 24 independence in the process? 25 MR. PARKER: I don't see why we couldn't 0166 01 structure the process differently than what we've DONE 02 before. In the case of Van Nuys, the League of Women 03 Voters was very involved in the beginning and did 04 participate in discussing with the community various 05 options and specifics of how it should be rolled out. 06 The one role that we do feel that may be of value is to 07 convene folks to help them accomplish a sort of 08 bottomline way of providing their input, and I'm not 09 quite sure how we'd work that with the league. Jamiko, 10 do you want -- 11 JAMIKO BELL: I think -- 12 MR. PARKER: Jamiko worked really closer with 13 the League in Van Nuys and -- 14 JAMIKO BELL: Jamiko Bell, again. I think it's 15 an issue of the capacity of the IEA to be able to go 16 through that process. We've actually had an informal 17 discussion with the League of Women Voters about, not 18 just this election, but a couple of other elections that 19 we are concerned about, and they've indicated their 20 informal interest in helping us with some of these 21 elections that the Department is taking responsibility 22 for. 23 And I think it's an issue of their capacity to 24 conduct that public process. They've been involved in 25 the process, but as far as convening the community and 0167 01 actually conducting those meetings and drafting 02 procedures, there's only one person at the League and 03 they don't have the capacity to do that. 04 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Well, one of the 05 other alternatives -- one of the things that was valuable 06 in Van Nuys, and valuable in the election procedures 07 workshop was the presence of the city clerk and the use 08 of their facilities to work in some of those capacities, 09 and it might be possible to, in some way, to substitute 10 the city clerk for DONE. In this particular instance, in 11 order to assure the neighborhood council and all factions 12 within the neighborhood, that there is in fact an 13 impartiality in the process. 14 MR. PARKER: Well, let me make one thing clear. 15 We really didn't want to get into the business of 16 facilitating the elections. We're -- 17 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: I understand that. 18 MR. PARKER: And so we would support anyone who 19 can step into that role. I guess the only cavity that 20 would be when we last engaged and exhausted the City 21 Clerk's Office in developing city-wide election 22 procedures. They indicated that they were probably just 23 about through in working with us in that capacity. 24 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: If we beg and plead, 25 we might get some response. 0168 01 PRESIDENT STONE: Especially in -- following on 02 Commissioner Christopher's point, giving my question that 03 these election procedures closely fit within or meet the 04 election procedure. So I think there's some precedent in 05 having the City Clerk try to see one of these through as 06 well. 07 MR. PARKER: We have no problem with someone 08 else coming in and facilitating and obtaining a 09 bottomline for presentation to the Commission. None. If 10 you can find someone who'd do that, that has the ability 11 to produce that bottomline, we will be happy to work with 12 them. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: We have Commission Herrera 14 Duran, Commissioner Lucente. 15 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: This is just a 16 technicality, Parker, but wasn't the first of the 17 election that was held now, it was invalidated because 18 there were two things going on at the time they were 19 having the elections to be held? 20 MR. PARKER: That was the finding of the 21 Arbiter, yes. 22 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: On this one we have 23 here. They've called people, and they said they called 24 people to an election, but they also called people to 25 view the, you know, the mail debate and that sort of 0169 01 thing. So doesn't that invalidate whatever election 02 might have taken place? 03 MR. PARKER: To be honest, I haven't seen that. 04 Are you referring to the activity that occurred last 05 night? 06 PRESIDENT STONE: Yeah. 07 MR. PARKER: Our position is that there is no 08 Boards. They have an ability to call for a special 09 election. 10 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: Thank you. 11 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Lucente, did you 12 have a -- 13 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: I'll wait. 14 PRESIDENT STONE: Okay. Additional questions 15 for staff? Or comments? I guess I'll just kick off from 16 a procedure standpoint. There were some comments about 17 the proposed policy, which is Attachment A, and I 18 appreciate the city attorney's A and B, depending on 19 which potential remedy we need to go towards, if we go 20 towards a remedy. 21 I appreciate the City Attorney's clarification, 22 but notwithstanding that I think there is some concern, 23 at least that I have, and I believe some of my fellow 24 Commissioners about considering and approving a policy 25 tonight that was not noticed and could put forth in very 0170 01 clear terms on our agenda. 02 So just kind of by way of procedure, what I 03 would like to see us focus on tonight would be on -- 04 well, Commissioner Christopher raised some good 05 out-of-the-box suggestions, did that in the context of 06 the proposed remedies. Numbers, one, two and three and 07 kind of get a sense of our commission, where we want to 08 go, where we don't want to, and I think without adopting 09 a policy tonight, a Board policy, we can certainly pone 10 in on which approach we would want to follow. 11 Commissioner Christopher. 12 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: If I can follow up on 13 that discussion. When we last visited the issue, I had 14 concerns about the bylaws as they were being -- let me 15 take that statement back. A potential set of bylaws, 16 which were being circulated within the community as a 17 potential solutions, being an amendment, because it 18 appeared to be a radical departure from the existing 19 system. And that led to the discussion of 20 de-certification as an option as a means implementing 21 those bylaw changes. 22 That's still clearly an option to us tonight, 23 and has been advocated by any members of the community. 24 Their alternative to de-certification is the threat that 25 they will submit the bylaws as an amendment and force 0171 01 the -- whatever reconstitutes to the board there might be 02 to hold an election. There's a presumption in there that 03 the new bylaws would pass. 04 I'm not sure that's a valid assumption. It may, 05 in fact, get to the point where the bylaws are presented 06 as an option -- an amendment -- flaws may be pointed out 07 in the bylaws, and the bylaws may get defeated at that 08 point. So there may be some issues in that direction. 09 One -- if in fact there's a group of stakeholders that 10 are 300 strong as indicated in the petition, supporting 11 the bylaws that they may want to look -- did we just lose 12 sound, oh no, okay -- that they may want to look at the 13 question of whether or not the bylaws that are being 14 proposed need to have some kind of a transition clause 15 that would familiarate some of the issues of how you 16 institute those bylaws in relation to the existing 17 bylaws. That's one suggest to deal with, one concern. 18 The other from my perspective tonight, without 19 sound, is that option number two, in ratifying the four 20 appointments to the Board is not necessarily, from my 21 perspective, an effort to move in this situation. It 22 tends to either lock in in some of the problems of the 23 past, or not necessarily get us to a clear solution going 24 forward. 25 I would like at it in having reviewed the 0172 01 situation over the past couple of weeks and come to the 02 conclusion that that particular option -- as we keep 03 cutting in and out -- only would represent a sort of a 04 half step, and not necessarily a solution needed for 05 Venice at that particular point, which would leave us 06 with option one as an alternative to option three, and my 07 question to Parker was one -- was directed to addressing 08 the concern that has been raised in Venice that's tainted 09 the participation in the Department in this particular 10 election either through some unfortunate emails or 11 through other avenues in the process that had made the 12 Department less of a -- or brought the Department to be 13 viewed as less than an impartial third party, and to the 14 extent that we can look at option one without the 15 Department being named as the mover or the director of 16 the situation. 17 I would expect that the current Board of 18 Directors would not have a problem, as they say, not 19 being allowed to run our own election, because as much as 20 the Department is being looked at as less than impartial, 21 the current Board is also being looked at as less than 22 impartial in that same discussion. So to remove DONE 23 from that equation would also look to remove the current 24 Board from the same situation. 25 So we would have a truly separate or distinct 0173 01 third party who would be the ones to run the election. I 02 would hope that the current Board would not raise 03 objections to that situation, because I have to deal with 04 DONE's participation in the process. So if we could 05 go -- if we chose to go down path number one, door number 06 one, then we would do so looking for a means to have an 07 election upward and truly independent, and that it be 08 acceptable as a process to both the departments from a 09 procedural point of view and from the Board as a policy 10 position to support a, what we hope would be a clean and 11 acceptable election to all parts of Venice. 12 Having said that, there's still -- there would 13 still the underlying question, whether or not the Venice 14 bylaws is originally adopted for Grass Roots Venice are, 15 in fact, something that will support the Neighborhood 16 Council moving forward and will lead to a strong and 17 vibrant Neighborhood Council, and then representing the 18 views of all the community. 19 I have to come back to the discussion I was 20 having earlier this afternoon about Venice, and a 21 response to someone who came to me and said, "Well 22 actually, the Grass Roots Venice people have done a good 23 job of getting the Neighborhood Council out into the 24 community and involving members of the community," 25 because as you go down and go through Venice canvassing 0174 01 various neighborhoods, you actually get response from 02 people who support Grass Roots Venice, and that's 03 something that hasn't been seen in the past. 04 It leads to my discussion of all gatekeeping. 05 All neighborhood councils at this stage in development 06 are, to some extent, gatekeepers in their communities. 07 You talk about the fact that you had an election last 08 night. You had 65 people vote. 65 people are the 09 gatekeepers to the other 25,000 people in the Venice. 10 It's good that 65 people came out, but it's hardly a 11 representative body for 25,000 stakeholders in the 12 community of Venice. 13 The people who are offering the bylaw amendment 14 are saying, we have 300 signature. In that scenario, 300 15 signatures to the gatekeepers to the community of Venice 16 and are a little bit better on the scale of 17 representation, but not a lot, when you consider 25,000 18 people. Even when you get up to the question that there 19 were 500 people voting in the last election; that's good, 20 and that's great and we love to see that kind of 21 participation in my neighborhood councils; but still, 500 22 people are the gatekeepers for the rest of the community 23 of Venice. The other 25,000 people. 24 There was a discussion within the last couple of 25 weeks about, "Well, they only represent 500 people, 0175 01 because that's how many people voted in the last 02 election, and we represent Venice." Well, no. They got 03 500 votes, you didn't. So, there are balancing questions 04 on all sides of this equation. No one can stand here 05 today and say, I represent Venice. Each of you represent 06 a small, relatively small, segment of the Venice 07 community, to some extent that you're more active in the 08 community than others; you get to be the gatekeepers, but 09 you have to understand that that's your role, and the 10 gate has to be open to everybody else in Venice. 11 It's not a, oh we got elected, and it's our 12 sandbox and nobody else gets to play. You are, as 13 Elected Board Members, the representatives of Venice, at 14 large. And some where in here. I'm not sure where yet, 15 there's a middle-ground proposition that gets us all to 16 the table and all to participate, and wish I had the 17 magic bullet and we've -- God knows we've tried in the 18 last couple of weeks to find one. 19 I think as close as we can get tonight is to 20 agree that number one probably more desirable than trying 21 to de-certify and start over again. The reason I say 22 that is that there has been a lot of effort put into 23 Grass Roots Venice, and I would hate to sort of hang that 24 head on my belt and say that's the first de-certification 25 in this city, not that I'm unwilling to go there. Trust 0176 01 me, if we get pushed, we will be more than happy to take 02 that tour, but I'd rather see all parties of the 03 community buy into a system that gets us out of the hole 04 we dug for ourselves, which -- and collectively we've all 05 had a hand on the shovel, and move forward to get Venice 06 the representation it deserves and the attention that it 07 deserves. 08 And from the point of view of the stakeholders 09 with the petition for the new bylaws, that's why I 10 mentioned in term earlier, if you come forward with bylaw 11 changes make sure that they can be implemented in a way 12 that the Board can transition from one set to the other. 13 So that you're not caught in the trap where you put them 14 forward and somebody points out the flaw, and they go 15 down in flames, and your effort it lost. 16 The current Board members should be open to the 17 idea of working with the other group to get to a set of 18 bylaw amendments that both sides can agree on, because 19 that would be the ideal situation for Venice down the 20 road; that there is, in fact, a middle ground. And the 21 question really comes down to, the political question of, 22 are all at large delegates or all at-large board members 23 in Venice the right thing to do? There's an interesting 24 analysis by a gentlemen whose name I have to find here 25 Kirk Wynerd. Is Kirk in the building tonight? Okay. 0177 01 Fortunately, Kirk is not here, but as a political 02 scientist, Kirk has gone through and done a rather 03 detailed analysis of why Grass Roots Venice works or 04 doesn't work and has managed to missed the barn, and it's 05 part of missing the barn that has done a lot in 06 neighborhood councils, and probably we the barn on a 07 couple of occasions earlier this evening, but part of 08 neighborhood councils are to represent all the viewpoints 09 in Venice. 10 It's not a win-or-take-all situation. It's 11 meant to be the place where all of the district voices in 12 the community come together and beat each other over the 13 head and come out with a consensus viewpoint of what the 14 neighborhood is about. But if it's a win-or-take-all 15 situation, and one group gets to play in the sandbox and 16 the other voices don't get to play in the sandbox, then 17 what good is the voice that comes from the neighborhood 18 council, and very quickly, the elected officials will 19 look at that voice and say, "Not necessarily all Venice," 20 and begin to act accordingly. As we've said many times 21 over the years before, the more voices you represent at 22 your neighborhood council, the louder your voice will be 23 heard in city hall, and that really where we are at 24 tonight. 25 And to be able to craft the system, whether it's 0178 01 proportional or representation for some of the seats, 02 whether it's district representation for some of the 03 seats, something that allows all of voices to come to the 04 table, and it's -- and not to the exclusion of one voice 05 over the other voice, but for everybody to be able to 06 talk to one another, and I would -- I think where I'm 07 coming at, or coming down to tonight is that I would like 08 to see us pursue option number one. 09 Find a way to do that in a structure that 10 doesn't involve the Department in any direct way that 11 would give them, or give the neighborhood council a 12 feeling that this was less than impartial, and have the 13 Board agree that they are not the ones in charge of this 14 election; that this one has to be done outside, so that 15 everybody can feel that it's free, open and involves 16 everyone. 17 And at the same time, look to toward bylaw 18 amendments that will take the structure that was 19 originally established for Grass Roots Venice and open it 20 up a little bit more, to more voices in the community, so 21 that by the time we're done, which may take some time and 22 some effort on everybody's part, we really have the 23 structure in Venice that the community deserves. 24 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Commissioner 25 Christopher. Commissioner Woods Gray. 0179 01 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I agree with much of 02 what Commissioner Christopher has said. I asked myself, 03 when I was listening to all this. Why would we 04 de-certify a neighborhood council that has actually been 05 functioning for several years and seemingly doing a good 06 job it it, and that we have used as a model for other 07 neighborhood councils, at times, to see what was going 08 on? That was just a question that I posed for myself. I 09 believe I like the idea of number one. I agree with 10 Commissioner Christopher on that particular issue. 11 Tonight I have a problem with Attachment A, 12 because I think that one of the things that we have said 13 as, a commission, is that we must have hearings on 14 everything. We must involve the neighborhood councils 15 and the agenda does not address that issue. So therefor, 16 the Neighborhood Councils were not invited to provide 17 information to input on that particular policy issue. 18 That would be my only problem with suggestion number one. 19 I want to get this problem solved for you, so that you 20 can move ahead, because I think that's important. It 21 doesn't do you any good to have neighborhood council, or 22 people running around still trying to figure out how to 23 undermined each other. 24 You need to just get organized and go with one 25 group or that's a group of all the people, as Commission 0180 01 Christopher had said. So I would support that idea, with 02 one. I'm not in favor of de-certification, and number 03 two doesn't seem to solve the problem. I also, if your 04 bylaws state what someone else has said before, you can 05 organize -- if the stakeholders would decide to change 06 the bylaws, they would happen anyway, if you had 07 organization in place. So you need to get an 08 organization in a place so the stakeholders can be heard. 09 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Commissioner Woods 10 Gray. Commissioner Herrera Duran. 11 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: I agree with both 12 had said, except that I think we are going to have, and 13 it seems to me we would have difficulty finding somebody 14 who would be willing to step in to the entire role that 15 is required to run this election. This is the impression 16 and the feeling that I got as we talked to the staff 17 about this. This isn't just the way in which they became 18 involved, in the Van Nuys and the other areas. 19 We haven't sought that; we haven't looked for 20 that, and we don't know yet if we will find them. I 21 personally don't have a problem with de-certification to 22 start all over, to let everybody come to the table on an 23 equal footing, to have bylaws develop new, as they need 24 to be. I don't think that that would be a step backward. 25 I do think that would be a step forward. Those who want 0181 01 to be involved can be involved, and those who have their 02 outreach and whatever done to bring everybody in would 03 that much ahead. I personally, as I said, don't have a 04 problem with de-certification to start fresh. I do have 05 a problem, and I think I need to be sort of -- I have to 06 have some kind of an understanding of exactly how, if we 07 did go with One, exactly how the Department would be 08 looking for someone to run this entire election, as they 09 would step completely out. That does bother me. 10 I don't want this to become a precedence. We 11 have already done something with Van Nuys, and now we're 12 bringing another one. I mean is this what we are going 13 to be doing all the time, is bringing our problems for 14 somebody else to solve, in terms of the election? 15 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Commission Herrera 16 Duran. Additional comments? Commissioner Lucente. 17 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: Thank you. This is 18 obviously a very complex issue, and I appreciate the 19 suggestions of my fellow commissioners in trying to move 20 this forward. Commission Christopher's proposal is 21 interesting, but I really don't think it addresses the 22 fundamental issues that is before us, and that is not an 23 issue of fairness of election from a procedural point of 24 view. It's a fundamental issue of community 25 representation. And does this, you know, current 0182 01 structure provide for the kind of community 02 representation which really represents the best interest 03 of the stakeholders in this neighborhood council area? 04 I am really bothered by the fact, as indicated 05 in this special election meeting, that a notice can go 06 out when the Department has made it abundantly clear that 07 this, you know, there isn't a Board. And so it, at best, 08 it's misleading, at worst, it's fundamentally 09 disingenuous and misrepresents, I think, the you know, 10 the best interest of the stakeholders in this 11 neighborhood council area. 12 I mean to flaunt the neighborhood -- the 13 Department of Neighborhood empowerment to this extent is 14 just unreasonable and outrageous, frankly, and I think 15 that -- I think the example of Van Nuys is very 16 interesting, because there was a lot of people in that 17 community as well, but they didn't proceed to meet and 18 pretend that they were a neighborhood council when they 19 really weren't. 20 They worked through with the Department. We 21 engaged the city council offices and the City Clerk's 22 Office. We've brought all kinds of resources to bear, to 23 solve very complex and difficult issue, and look at the 24 result, was it difficult? Yes. But the result in the 25 end was positive, and so I think I come down on the side 0183 01 that is broke, and I am not sure that having an 02 independently-administered election will fix it but what 03 may happen, I mean, perhaps that is an avenue and I don't 04 completely weigh out or rule out that objection, but 05 the -- you know, what is a likely occurrence is that you 06 will have both factions trying to, you know, basically 07 prevail an election and, you know, nothing will change. 08 I mean one group will win, and the other one 09 will lose, and Venice will remain a divided community, 10 and that doesn't serve the best interest. That is not 11 what this Neighborhood Council System really is all 12 about. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, Commissioner 14 Lucente. Additional thoughts and comments. 15 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I have this question 16 for Staff, I guess. What the -- the first election was 17 challenged -- the election just previous that we're -- 18 was challenged because of a process. I mean, they broke 19 some of the bylaws or something, otherwise they wouldn't 20 be here. It wasn't about the divided Venice or whatever. 21 Maybe that was. They tried to divide it as far as filed 22 something wrong and challenged. 23 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: The challenge included a 24 number of different specific allegations. The single one 25 that the Human Relations Commission addressed was the 0184 01 fact that two activities occurred on election day. They 02 did not address the other challenges. 03 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: And was that because 04 they couldn't fight cause or -- 05 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: No, because the one they 06 addressed, from their perspective, was the fatal flaw 07 that negated the election. They didn't need to move 08 beyond that to investigate the other allegation. 09 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Then are we to assume 10 that they would have found fault with the others, because 11 they didn't address them? 12 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: Basically, the way the 13 election process is structured, the finding of the Final 14 Arbiter is finding periods. So whether there are other 15 issues or problems or were not, the election was still 16 invalidated. They don't have a Board to function so. 17 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: It just seems to me 18 that we're talking about lots of other things that 19 happened and actually, it was just the fact that they had 20 an election -- they broke their bylaws in a way where 21 they had two events in the same room, which has nothing 22 to with all these other things that we're just talking 23 about. They would have been functioning without that 24 possible problem? 25 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: We don't know that, 0185 01 because the Human Relation Commission didn't address the 02 other aspects of the challenge. They stopped with that 03 first one. 04 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Herrera Duran. 05 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: I'm about ready to 06 jump out my chair, because that's exactly, Commissioner 07 Woods Gray, what I mentioned in the flier that went out 08 and what Commissioner Lucente was talking about. They 09 did exactly the same thing, I guess it was last night, or 10 whatever. 11 They followed that same procedure. They were 12 not to have an election. They were told not to. They 13 were told not to have this meeting, and they did it and 14 that's the flier that says that. If you take a look at 15 it, and you read it, they did exactly the same thing. So 16 where does it stop? When does it turn around? 17 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: That's right. 18 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional comments? Well, I 19 think I'll add a couple of points. I think we have kind 20 of a split commission on where to go with the possible 21 remedies. I lean towards number one, in some shape or 22 form, but I think it needs a lot more thought, and we 23 need to consider Commissioner Christopher's suggestion of 24 exploring the City Clerk or another outside body to help 25 take, I think for everybody's sake, to help take DONE out 0186 01 of the equation in some way here, and it would certainly 02 help on DONE's workload, I know that, because you got a 03 lot of other stuff on your plate. 04 But I wouldn't want to see, if we do go to -- 05 down the number one approach, I wouldn't want to see DONE 06 out of this completely, because I think there is a lot of 07 outreach that would have to be done, no point intended, 08 for a successful election in June, and that's outreach on 09 everybody's behalf and the Department certainly has 10 resources to help a neighborhood council publicize an 11 election. 12 I raise the question about how far along those 13 approved 2004 elections were, and the answer seemed to be 14 that they were well put together, and I don't want to put 15 words in your guys' mouth completely, but they seem to 16 meet the election procedures -- the approved election 17 procedures by the city council. If that's the case, then 18 I think this is a little different situation than Van 19 Nuys, where we kind of have to start from square one with 20 election procedures. 21 I don't think it's going to take that much to 22 get these procedures approved. What it's going to take 23 is everybody buying into a process that's fair and that 24 everyone has a chance to vote and there are no 25 irregularities, and I think we still need to determine 0187 01 who participates in that. 02 I am concerned about this. This is not -- this 03 isn't helpful. The Board Members of Grass Roots Venice 04 Neighborhood Council have come to our commission, have 05 written us letters, have testified that they want our 06 help. You don't want us to go down approach number three 07 here, but at the same time you're proceeding with special 08 election meetings and that makes it difficult, and in my 09 mind, that stuff has to stop if we are going to move 10 forward with the next election, which is in June. 11 I think everybody needs to put the past behind 12 us here and move forward. This is reaching back to the 13 past. This is trying to recreate -- reconstitute a Board 14 that the Final Arbiter said shouldn't be in place. So I 15 think we're -- I don't know if we're much further along 16 tonight than we were a week or so ago, but I would like 17 to see the Department Staff reach out to the City Clerk 18 and involve me in that outreach, if possible, 19 understanding that there is a little thing like a 20 city-wide election that's happening in a week. So they 21 got a lot of stuff on their plate. 22 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: They may have the 23 time afterward. Well they're in a run-off situation. 24 PRESIDENT STONE: They'll probably have a 25 couple of days afterward, and then there will be 0188 01 something else on their plate in May. So we need to be 02 cognizant of that and respectful of that. Other thoughts 03 and comments? 04 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I just have a 05 question. 06 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Woods Gray. 07 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: At what point do we 08 stop approving election procedures? If they had an 09 election the year before or two years before, why do they 10 keep writing the election procedures over, over and over 11 every election? 12 JAMIKO BELL: Jamiko Bell again. Neighborhood 13 Councils, based on the city-wide election procedure 14 that's been approved have to revise their election 15 procedures to comply with that document. Once that's 16 done, we're actually setting up a process, hopefully, 17 that will allow them to amend that document similar to 18 the way they amend bylaws. We want to change this 19 section, this section, the rest of it stays the same, but 20 for now, we require those changes, because they're -- 21 only Van Nuys, this set for Venice that we're talking 22 about and Greater Wilshire that comply with that policy. 23 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: That's good to hear 24 that in the future they won't have to continue to do 25 this. 0189 01 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Christopher. 02 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Yeah, I'm sort of 03 counting noses up here. I see three of my colleagues who 04 are leaning toward option number three, and -- two and a 05 half. 06 PRESIDENT STONE: Creative counting, but that's 07 your prerogative. 08 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: It depends on how you 09 look at it, and there some absent commissioners. It may 10 be that there are going to be enough votes, eventually, 11 to support a motion for option number three, and all of 12 you ought to think about that for a little while and, 13 obviously, it's not going to happen tonight, but if it 14 goes out another month, there may be those votes to do 15 that. 16 And I don't know what the community can do from 17 both sides of the equation between now an then but you 18 may want to think. 19 AUDIENCE: It's on you guys. It's not on us 20 anymore. 21 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: I'm just telling you 22 what the decision may be. 23 PRESIDENT STONE: Additional comments or 24 questions or thoughts before we wrap up this item? 25 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Did we address 0190 01 Attachment A and B in any form? I mean are we having a 02 hearing on them or not? 03 PRESIDENT STONE: No. We're not having a 04 hearing on those. 05 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Okay. 06 PRESIDENT STONE: Because policy is tonight. 07 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: No, not tonight, but 08 in the future will we talk about that, or would that come 09 as a future agenda item. 10 PRESIDENT STONE: They would have to be on a 11 future agenda if we were to adopt those procedures. 12 If there is no , comment right now, I don't 13 think there is any action to be taken on this item by 14 this Board tonight. We appreciate the public -- 15 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Do we want DONE to 16 look into -- 17 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Woods Gray. 18 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Do we want DONE to 19 look into the City Clerk's office is that my 20 understanding? 21 PRESIDENT STONE: Yeah. We did. We directed 22 Staff to explore that with the City Clerk, being 23 cognizant of their time constraints, and I think 24 Commissioner Christopher's comments about the community 25 meeting, to think long and hard about how everyone plans 0191 01 to approach things, is a good warning. Additional 02 comment 03 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Should we give a time 04 frame in bringing it back. 05 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I think we'll be able 06 to do it in June anyway. 07 PRESIDENT STONE: Yeah. We should. 08 Commissioner Christopher raises a point of putting a time 09 frame when we want to have this back before us. There 10 are fewer -- this is probably the most important thing, I 11 think, on our plate right now, or one of the most 12 important neighborhood councils, so I would say that we 13 hear back at our next hearing. Is that comfortable? 14 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: That's the 29th is 15 it? 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Well, we need to get into our, 17 right now it's on the 29th, but our next agenda item is 18 considering moving our meeting schedule, so it will be at 19 our next meeting. We want to be cognizant of not -- not 20 missing the deadline to stay on track for the June 21 Election. I think we still have that ability. Okay 22 without further discussion, well conclude Item Number 6, 23 and move on to Item Number 7. 24 Item number 7 is Discussion and possible action 25 regarding changing our Board of Neighborhood Commission 0192 01 meeting dates. It is currently the first and last 02 Tuesday of the month, and during our retreat there was 03 discussion about making it the first and third. 04 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: Did you talk moving 05 about moving it to an other day, entirely, at all? 06 PRESIDENT STONE: I think at the retreat we put 07 all options out there, so it would be nice with five out 08 of the seven of us here today to come to some conclusion. 09 I think we getting -- my feeling is we need to get away 10 from the first and fourth, or first and last, whatever it 11 is because it's too many -- 12 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: It was first and 13 third -- 14 PRESIDENT STONE: Ladies and gentlemen, if you 15 can please -- if you can please keep it down. It's hard 16 for us to hear. Commissioner Lucente suggested the first 17 and third Tuesday. Is that -- Tuesday is still good for 18 you. 19 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: Yes. 20 PRESIDENT STONE: How do the others feel about 21 first and third Tuesdays? 22 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: Can I suggest 23 Thursday? First and third Thursdays? 24 PRESIDENT STONE: If Staff has any feelings on 25 days of the week or what would work better. 0193 01 CLAUDIA DUNN: Claudia Dunn, Assistant General 02 Manager. I seem to recall that Commissioner Longoria has 03 a problem on the first Tuesday of the month. 04 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: The first Tuesday? 05 CLAUDIA DUNN: Yes. So that might be something 06 to consider. We can double-check, but I'm almost 07 positive she has a standing thing on -- that why she's 08 not here tonight. 09 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: And I have one on 10 the fourth -- fourth Tuesday that I'm getting into a lot 11 of trouble with. 12 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I can try to be on the 13 first and third. The third I have a conflict with, but I 14 can alternate back and forth. The second is not good for 15 me. The second is not a good one. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Okay. So we have a possible 17 problem with the first and the third, or one of those 18 days from commissioner Longoria, and Commissioner 19 Christopher, do you have a preference? 20 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: I don't have 21 preference. I would actually, probably, look at Thursday 22 being a better option than Tuesday, but I don't have a 23 structural conflict on Tuesdays 24 PRESIDENT STONE: Is there additional thought on 25 Thursdays versus Tuesdays? 0194 01 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: First and third 02 Thursdays are not bad -- Tuesdays, excuse me, are not bad 03 for me. It's just that fourth Tuesday that makes it 04 difficult. 05 CLAUDIA DUNN: We have some additional 06 information. Most neighborhood councils, and this is -- 07 this would be important to consider based on if you 08 wanted public participation and attendance, is that most 09 neighborhood councils have their meetings on Tuesdays, 10 correct? Yeah, on Tuesdays. 11 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Not one of them has 12 ever come down here and addressed us on that issue. 13 CLAUDIA DUNN: No. We know because our staff is 14 required to go to the meetings. That's why a lot of our 15 staff has trouble getting to these Commission meetings. 16 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: So we don't always 17 need all the staff, only the ones in the -- 18 CLAUDIA DUNN: No. What I'm saying is if you 19 have a meeting and you consider public input on policies 20 or anything, it would limit the attendance on some 21 neighborhood councils to come and give public opinion. 22 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: We need one 23 representative from each neighborhood council. 24 CLAUDIA DUNN: I understand that, I'm just 25 grazing as just for possible consideration. 0195 01 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I know. I'm just 02 saying that's all we need though is one representative. 03 PRESIDENT STONE: We have a public comment card. 04 Jim McQuiston would like to address the issue at this 05 time. 06 JIM MCQUISTON: Jim McQuiston, East Hollywood 07 Division. One of the major problems is that we want 08 neighborhood councils. 09 PRESIDENT STONE: Excuse me. Mr. Gelfand, it's 10 hard for us to hear what's going on here, so if you want 11 to -- 12 MR. GELFAND: (Inaudible). 13 PRESIDENT STONE: No. No, we didn't. 14 MR. GELFAND: Can we make one? 15 PRESIDENT STONE: Mr. Gelfand, I -- no. Thank 16 you. Go ahead, Mr. McQuiston. 17 MR. MCQUISTON: One of the things we are trying 18 to do is get neighborhood councils to participate in city 19 council functions, and the two most important council 20 committees meet on Tuesdays, and recently they've been 21 meeting on Tuesday evenings to try to get public 22 participation, that is the Budget Finance Committee, 23 which the neighborhood councils are required to service, 24 you might say, by the Charter, and Education and 25 Neighborhood Committee, which is considering a lot of 0196 01 policy issues, which affect neighborhood councils, and 02 who participation and they're having off-shore committee 03 meetings now. They already had one in Tarzana a couple 04 of weeks ago, and they finally had them in all 15 council 05 districts, and the the one day in which the city council 06 committees don't seem to meet is Thursday and even in the 07 daily meetings it would be much better if you meet on 08 Thursday, and then if we don't some participation from 09 neighborhood councils, at least they can't say, well we 10 had a meeting. 11 Remember tonight, even the Mar Vista fellow came 12 in and said, "Well, I have to leave at 7:30, and so that 13 more or less supported what he could say too. So I'm 14 really pushing either for Wednesday or Thursday as far as 15 the day, but I do think that you should meet every other 16 week rather than having two weeks close together. It's a 17 lot easier on the staff, and it also is a lot easier to 18 remember. 19 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you very much, Mr. 20 McQuiston. My feeling on this is that -- I appreciate 21 the comments that are made about what happens on a 22 Tuesday night or Wednesday night. I don't prefer doing 23 it on a Thursday night. I would -- if we make a change, 24 it doesn't have to be the final change we ever make on 25 this. I just like to get us off of the first and last 0197 01 Tuesday tonight, and I would propose to that we, tonight, 02 change it to the first and third Tuesdays, and with our 03 next meeting being in two weeks, because that would be 04 third Tuesday -- am I correct on that? There would be a 05 meeting in two weeks, which would be the third Tuesday? 06 Which would be a pretty good timing based on whoever 07 stands with Venice and could report back. Is that -- 08 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: I'll second that motion. 09 CLAUDIA DUNN: That's fine. I believe the City 10 Attorney can validate this. It's your standing rules we 11 have to change, so I have to come back with a revision to 12 the rule. 13 DARREN MARTINEZ: What we'll do is we'll propose 14 a new amended rule, or if you want to just read what the 15 rule is they can bring it back to you, but that way you 16 have it, you have a copy you can -- 17 PRESIDENT STONE: I'm sorry, I missed that. We 18 -- 19 CLAUDIA DUNN: You have to revise your standing 20 rules. 21 DARREN MARTINEZ: Yes. It will be a motion to 22 amend your standing rules, however if you have the 23 appropriate language, if you wish to do it that way or if 24 you prefer to have the Department come back with the rule 25 already drafted and then approve it, however you choose. 0198 01 PRESIDENT STONE: We would like to hold a 02 meeting on the 15th, so we would need to then approve -- 03 have the staff change -- 04 CLAUDIA DUNN: It's Rule 3. 05 PRESIDENT STONE: Have Staff change our standing 06 rules in accordance with the motion that I've made and 07 seconded by Commissioner Lucente, to have our meetings 08 now on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. Does 09 that work with the City Attorney? Are you going to give 10 us a cite on that rule? 11 CLAUDIA DUNN: It's Rule 3. We can set the next 12 meeting for two weeks from today, and come back then with 13 the revised rule, and you just rubber stamp it. That's 14 all. 15 PRESIDENT STONE: Okay. I'm comfortable with 16 that. So the date of our next meeting -- 17 CLAUDIA DUNN: -- will be the 22nd; is that 18 correct? Yeah, the 22nd. 19 PRESIDENT STONE: I won't be in town. 20 CLAUDIA DUNN: Okay. One thing I will tell you, 21 as long as we're talking about the calendar. There was a 22 certification hearing scheduled for March 29th, for 23 Mission Hills, and they're a bit delayed for like a 24 month. So we actually don't have to have that one on the 25 29th at all. 0199 01 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: And what was the 02 reason we couldn't have the special election on the 15th? 03 PRESIDENT STONE: You mean special meeting? 04 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Special meeting, I'm 05 sorry. 06 PRESIDENT STONE: Commissioner Lucente won't be 07 there. It wasn't -- we can't have unanimous 08 participation, but that's rare anyway. 09 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: We've gone to the 10 first and third Tuesday? Is that what's happened? 11 PRESIDENT STONE: I think we're almost into the 12 first Wednesday of the month as well. I think for us to 13 move forward on this, the first and third Tuesday would 14 be my preference, to get us off of the first and last 15 Tuesday. 16 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: As long as it's not 17 the fourth. That's good for me. 18 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I have not preference 19 to either. 20 PRESIDENT STONE: Okay. So do -- Darren, do we 21 need to do anything else on this? 22 DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY MARTINEZ: You know, what 23 we will do is -- let's follow up on this at the 24 additional meeting. The item that I'm looking at right 25 now, currently, and the Rules and Order for the Board is 0200 01 Item Number 3, and it does say, the Board conducts 02 business meetings twice a month, on days and times to be 03 determined by the Board. What I want to follow up is 04 where that item initially begins, and I would have to 05 find that, so however it's handled, whether or not we 06 need to take further action or not. We'll make sure that 07 it's properly agendized or that it does reflect the 08 accurate desire of the Board that we now changed the date 09 as desired. 10 PRESIDENT STONE: So what we will be doing at 11 the future meeting, we'll just be confirming what we 12 already decided tonight. 13 Okay. Agenda Number 8. Before midnight. Greg. 14 GREG NELSON: Greg Nelson, General Manager. I'm 15 glad a you mentioned midnight, because I was going to do 16 it just so the record could reflect that it is midnight, 17 and people could appreciate how hard you work all the 18 time. I think this is the 7th after midnight that we've 19 done. 20 I'll be really quick. At the Education and 21 Neighborhoods Committee meeting today, there was approval 22 of a motion that we had asked for the City Council to 23 approve, that recognizes the fact that neighborhood 24 councils are getting contributions from L.A. Shares, that 25 wonderful non-profit program, but at this point, all of 0201 01 those donations have to be approved by the City Council, 02 and we didn't want to just nickel and dime them to death 03 with motion after motion so what we got approval from the 04 committee on was a blanket approval of any contributions 05 from L.A. Shares to the neighborhood councils, so we 06 don't have to come back with paperwork and motions. 07 There was a comment made by one of the members 08 of the committee, Councilwoman Hahn. She's mentioned 09 this before about how she would really would love to 10 encourage neighborhood councils to do more community 11 impact statements. If I had been thinking correctly at 12 the time, I probably would have said I was going to come 13 to this commission meeting today and mention it to the 14 Commissioners, because perhaps, individually, those 15 things that they can mention to their neighborhood 16 councils also, the value of doing the community impact 17 statement and having it printed on the city council 18 agendas. 19 On Monday, the Mayor did announce that he was 20 going to give neighborhood councils an active role in the 21 selection of the new planing director. The proposal was 22 that when the choices get down to three, he or will 23 choose one neighborhood council member, or somehow the 24 neighborhood council will be chosen from each of the 25 seven areas and that they will be involved and actually 0202 01 directly interviewing the three applicants and then 02 giving their recommendations to the Mayor. 03 And there also was a mention made by the Mayor 04 of a grant that they got from Homeland Security people, 05 that we think would allow, we think, by June 06 implementation of a system where any of us who feel like 07 we would like to have the most instant quick notice of 08 emergencies sent to our cell phones, sent to our e-mail 09 addresses, whatever method of communication we would 10 like, and you would sign up for it by going to the City's 11 website and typing in how you wish to be communicated, 12 and you could be the first to know about the next tsunami 13 or whatever the emergencies are that they notify people 14 of. 15 That was about -- there was one other thing, and 16 I just blanked out, because it's too late, so -- I'll 17 think of it. 18 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Greg, you mentioned 19 the L.A. Shares donation. 20 GREG NELSON: Yeah. 21 COMMISSIONER CHRISTOPHER: Whatever happened to 22 the donation ordinance, which was to allow neighborhood 23 councils to accept -- 24 GREG NELSON: That is this close, as I hold my 25 fingers a quarter of an inch apart. It is circulating 0203 01 right now from the City Attorney to the different 02 departments, all ordinances following a thing called Rule 03 38 have to circulate to the different departments so they 04 could provide their input. So I think we're -- we're how 05 close to having that done? Okay. So it is extremely 06 close. When Gwen Poindexter answered that question 07 during committee, she said -- she actually said, "it's in 08 your committee." So it is -- it's extremely close and 09 that, of course, is going to be another major step 10 forward in the building of our system, so that we as a 11 Department and Neighborhood Councils themselves can 12 accepts donations under a certain threshold amount 13 without going to the City Council. 14 PRESIDENT STONE: Yes. Commissioner Herrera 15 Duran. 16 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: What did you find 17 out about the funds for NUSA? 18 GREG NELSON: The funds for -- 19 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: Or were you going 20 to make some inquiry about -- 21 GREG NELSON: No. You know what I was going to 22 do, and I didn't do it, or did I do it? Yeah. I was 23 going to send it to you, to the NUSA information. 24 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: And you did do that. 25 GREG NELSON: Okay. I got that part done, thank 0204 01 you. I'm waiting for the controller to give us some 02 answers as to whether or not they would be okay with the 03 neighborhood councils using their money, and where we're 04 at right now is, if they follow the city's travel policy 05 requirements, they would probably be for it, and I'm 06 saying the Controller, it probably isn't quite good 07 enough. I really would like to know before a 08 neighborhood council goes through the trouble of deciding 09 that they want to go to NUSA, that if they meet the 10 requirements, one through ten, that the Controller would 11 approve it. So I'm trying to get a more definite answer 12 out of him, because I would hate to send the neighborhood 13 council down some merry path, only to be turned away when 14 they get to the other -- 15 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: Well, would you 16 keep pursuing that, please. 17 GREG NELSON: Yes. I've been to NUSA five 18 times, and you been twice? Once? 19 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: Fifty. 20 GREG NELSON: Fifty, yeah. 21 PRESIDENT STONE: We have a speaker card, John 22 Davis. On the General Manager's report. 23 JOHN DAVIS: Honorable President Stone and Vice 24 President Woods Gray, distinguished commissioners. What 25 I'd like to speak about is the things that are missing 0205 01 from the director's report that should appear there. The 02 director is making unilateral declarations as to 03 neighborhood councils and their status. Now what is 04 supposed to happen is the executive director is supposed 05 to bring these proposals forth to this commission and 06 make suggestions, and this is the body that is supposed 07 to make declarations. 08 An the executive director cannot take action. 09 So that is my very brief comment, is director is making 10 declarations as if they were an action of this board, and 11 they are not. And they are negatively affecting 12 neighborhood councils, and he should be instructed not to 13 make declarations, and if the neighborhood council is 14 without a quorum, that should be something that you tell 15 us, not unilaterally declared by the director. 16 Therefore, the report is insufficient, and those are my 17 comments. Thank you. 18 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Additional 19 commissioner comment on this item? 20 If not, I move to Agenda Item Number 9, which is 21 Commission Business. 22 COMMISSIONER LUCENTE: I just want to go on the 23 record that I will not be able to attend on March -- 24 COMMISSIONER HERRERA DURAN: I didn't hear what 25 was said. 0206 01 PRESIDENT STONE: That Commissioner Lucente will 02 not be able to attend the meeting that we are planning 03 now on March 15. We were going to have that in Studio 04 City, so sorry about that. Additional commission 05 comments on this first Wednesday of the month. We do 06 have a speaker card, Mr. Davis, do you have anything you 07 want to add on this? 08 JOHN DAVIS: Yes. My name is John Davis, again 09 distinguished Commissioners, there's an agenda item -- 10 there's an item that says, brief comments from the 11 public, that I may ask questions and you may provide a 12 brief response. The first thing I would like to bring to 13 your attention, President Stone, immediately is decorum, 14 and it's your duty to maintain decorum at these meetings, 15 and after I spoke on Item 6, a gentlemen called me an 16 idiot. 17 Now, you did nothing to correct him and say, 18 that's not proper. This is not the proper forum for name 19 calling. In fact, name calling is an "argument ad 20 hominem," which means it is an invalid argument, and it's 21 below this commission to allow that to happen, and I wish 22 you would correct future people who do name calling, 23 because it's just counter productive and inflammatory. 24 Second of all, I want to bring this commission's 25 attention to the fact that it's governed by the Brown 0207 01 Act, which you know, and I suggest you speak to the City 02 Attorney a little bit more about, because there is a 03 concise definition of action in the Brown Act. "Action" 04 means decision, positive or negative, on and item that's 05 presented to this commission. Now there has never been 06 an action regarding certain neighborhood councils to 07 state that they have no quorum, only declarations by the 08 Director himself. So I want you to consider this very 09 carefully. Ask the City Attorney, and I provided you 10 with documentation, showing you what action means. 11 Ask the City Attorney if actions -- I mean the 12 action of the Human Relation Commission was really an 13 action, or was it just a staff report, and understand 14 what your duty is to take action. Don't let your 15 Executive Director make declarations, crusading as 16 actions of this Board. Make them yourself. Make them 17 valid, and then we can do something with them, but when 18 it's just declarations and hearsay, it really doesn't do 19 anything good for us. We expect to hear that from this 20 Commission. That's your job, and please investigate what 21 the term "action" means. That's what I ask of you, and I 22 provided you with that information, if you read it. So I 23 hope you've read it. Thank you. 24 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you. Any commission 25 business? If not Agenda Item Number 10. 0208 01 Future Agenda Items. We are now talking about 02 adding a -- based on our new meeting schedule, meeting on 03 the 15th of March, and we talked about having Venice as a 04 status report on that. The next meeting -- March 29th 05 would not be a meeting day. The next one will be April 06 5th, so hopefully that can be the Certification Hearing 07 that was pending for March 29th, could be pushed to the 08 5th. 09 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: Mr. President. 10 PRESIDENT STONE: Yes, Commissioner Woods Gray. 11 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: And is this, the 12 Commission that's present today, interested in a hearing 13 only A and B Policy if it's going to be helpful in 14 certain situations. Should we ask that that be put on 15 the next agenda, or should we have it put off to another 16 agenda? 17 PRESIDENT STONE: I think that the policies have 18 been drafted, and we certainly can put them on our agenda 19 for discussion and possible action. We don't have to -- 20 we don't have to apply them to a particular neighborhood 21 council too. I think that's one of the benefits of the 22 policy is that it clearly delineates what we -- how we 23 feel about a particular subject, and what we want to do. 24 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: So, in that case, we 25 have a hearing, then whenever we need it, it will already 0209 01 be there? 02 PRESIDENT STONE: That's correct. 03 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I just wondered if it 04 was the wish of this Commission here tonight to have that 05 put on the agenda for the next meeting. If so, I would 06 suggest that, if no one objects to it. 07 PRESIDENT STONE: Okay. Well, Commissioner 08 Woods Gray. It's your request that that goes on the 09 agenda too. I have no problem with that. 10 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I just want everybody 11 to be willing to discuss it at the next meeting. If 12 they're not willing, I don't want it. 13 PRESIDENT STONE: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER WOODS GRAY: I'll wait until we're 15 ready. 16 PRESIDENT STONE: Thank you, and Agenda Item 17 Number 11 Adjournment. So ordered. 18 19 (Hearing ended on March 2, 2005 at 12:10 a.m.) 20 21 22 23 24 25