Copyright, Sherman Oaks Sun 2008

Local neighborhood councils outgrow growing pains

By Catherin Billey

The personalities that characterize neighborhood councils are as varied as the community challenges that face them. But when the councils were formed over seven years ago as part of the Los Angeles City Charter, they were envisioned as precisely this kind of participatory democracy where myriad points of view would conjoin.

The Studio City (SCNC), Sherman Oaks (SONC), and Encino (ENC) neighborhood councils were limited in their early effectiveness by what Los Angeles City Councilmember Wendy Greuel called “growing pains, as with any organization.”

Taking time out from the 2008-2009 budget deliberations for a telephone interview in early May, Greuel said that because she approaches it as a partnership, she has had a good working relationship with the neighborhood councils in her district, which includes Studio City and Sherman Oaks. “They’re the eyes and ears out there in the neighborhoods,” she said. Encino and parts of Sherman Oaks are in Councilmember Jack Weiss’ district.

Asked whether councils are functioning as intended, Greuel said, “I have not seen the kind of personality conflicts that I’ve seen in the past.”

People have learned they must follow the rules and bylaws that govern neighborhood councils, she said. “Often – and we find this in our elected bodies – where you’ve never had to be part of city government and there are rules that you must abide by, it creates tension at times.”

Greuel noted that the collective personality of a council fluctuates after every election. BongHwan Kim, interim general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE), said this is a disadvantage.

“It holds them back,” Kim said. “Eighty percent of council members turn over every two years and people constantly have to relearn.” Challenges include confusion over governing rules, different expectations, personality conflicts, and egos. Kim said he hopes to get out on the front-end of these dynamics.

“The last seven years has been a kind of shake-out cruise,” said Dr. Raphael Sonenshein, a political science professor at California State University Fullerton who worked as executive director of the Neighborhood Council Review Commission (NCRC) last year. The NCRC evaluated the first seven years of the council system and submitted 73 recommendations for improvement.

“They’re learning to find their own way,” he said, “and we just need to find out how to support them, advise them, and multiply their efforts.”

Kim agreed with Sonenshein that DONE should play a larger role in advertising the whole system, which will be easier since neighborhood council elections have been turned over to the city clerk for administration.

Some councils have been more successful than others at recruiting members that represent their diverse neighborhoods.

Mark Lewis, director of field operations for DONE, said the lack of income-range diversity on many councils is problematic. Unlike people with middle and higher incomes, working people and low-income residents don’t have as much disposable time for local involvement.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t want to be more involved,” Lewis said. “But if you’re working two or more jobs, it makes it tougher.”

Also, community leaders haven’t yet developed an affinity for their councils because some come from homeowners groups with a single-issue focus. “A culture hasn’t quite developed in which people have their first allegiance, so to speak, with their neighborhood council system,” Lewis said. “Therein lies the challenge.”

Homeowners associations are comprised of property owners, but neighborhood councils are formed by stakeholders – broadly defined as anyone who rents, works, owns property or a business, or belongs to a religious institution within a council area. Because homeowner groups are superceded by city-certified neighborhood councils, those elected to councils from the narrower framework of homeowner associations might have trouble adjusting.

Some feel that insufficient board orientation is given to newly elected neighborhood council members, who receive information about laws that pertain to neighborhood councils – such as the Brown Act – but not guidance in handling power. “It’s a legitimate criticism,” Kim agreed.

Ben Neumann, who was elected president of the Studio City Neighborhood Council two months ago, said DONE’s lack of leadership has created situations similar to what would occur on a football field if the referee who enforces the rules were taken out. Neumann has come up with his own plan to educate fellow board members, “because I’ve paid my dues based on my own experience.”

Asked what he would most like to accomplish as president, he said, “I would like to make sure that our board becomes the model for how neighborhood councils can work with the city and the stakeholders.”

He wants the system to be “more formal,” in contrast to Kim, who believes councils should be less intimidating to people who may not have prior public service experience. But in the case of the SCNC, greater formality would be preferable to a past history of in-fighting.

Neumann also said that although volunteers don’t expect to make money on a council, he believes from a corporate perspective that they should be paid a nominal fee “so they feel an appreciation.” As for City Councilmembers, he added, “by the standards of middle-class citizens, they’re being paid well for their work.”

Rafi Kuyumjian, immediate past president of the SCNC who served for three consecutive years after serving one year as vice president, agreed with Neumann that neighborhood council volunteers should be paid a nominal fee for the hard work they do with little time to address big issues. He said the land use issues that increasingly dominated council discussion during his tenure were a particular challenge.

“My experience on it was that the city brought out those groups, and with no training, and now they’re dealing with land uses and stuff like that with whatever personal experience they have,” Kuyumjian said, adding that a land use attorney would likely provide more valuable input than someone who runs a boutique, for example.

“My opinion is in certain areas, decisions were made that backfired more in dividing the community than in bringing the community together,” he said, because of limited time and information. He said his greatest success was being a positive part of Studio City by joining other established community organizations. “I brought the neighborhood council into the heart of the Studio City community,” he said, “and now it is a part of the community.”

Rob Glushon, who served from 1997 to 1999 on the charter commission that helped create the neighborhood council system, has been president of the Encino Neighborhood Council for six months.

“I got involved in the council because I didn’t think it was working the way it was supposed to,” Glushon said. He recalled being livid after attending a 2005 meeting which, “like other horror stories you’ve heard,” was characterized by divisiveness and rudeness. “I thought, ‘is this what I helped create?’”

Glushon got a slate of people to run with him and won. Although there will always be internal business like elections and bylaws to deal with, he was inspired to create a four-part agenda that would be a draw for the community: hot topics like traffic congestion and Ventura Boulevard development, elected officials as guest speakers, food from In N’ Out Burger or Mulberry Pizza, and outreach through mail houses. Hundreds of people have shown up for recent meetings.

The ENC’s accomplishments include sponsoring a disaster preparedness program, where over 100 people received emergency kits, and organizing a five-week, one night per week training program where people could become certified as neighborhood emergency captains.

Jill Banks Barad, president of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, has earned a reputation for leading a consistently well-functioning council.

“We know that we need to be fair and balanced in our point of view, and when it comes to land use development…as a knee-jerk reaction, we’re not just against every planning project,” Barad said, adding that that’s the job of homeowners organizations. “And we’re not for everything for every business – that’s the Chamber. What we are is a moderating influence.”

Barad advises new board members to listen to all sides and weigh each issue on its own, not unlike a judge might instruct a panel of jurors. She patterned her council off the City Council, where everyone has a chance to speak but all are limited in time because agendas must be kept tight. “We focus on issues and not on personalities,” she said. “We work very hard not to be divisive, and to be civil even when we disagree.”

Barad has the advantage of being chair of the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils (VANC), too. “We’re not talking only about our own thing,” she said, “we’re talking about citywide issues and how things in the city affect what’s going to happen to us in our community. The more they get educated on how government operates, the better the council will be.”

Councils that function best, she said, are those that are proactively involved with the City Council – and vice versa.

A symbolic issue for the neighborhood councils, Barad and Sonenshein both said, is gaining the right to appeal land use decisions like any other interested party in the city of Los Angeles. SONC enlisted the support of Councilmember Jack Weiss, who introduced a motion to the city council, “and then Wendy co-introduced it,” Barad said.

Although the NCRC recommended that neighborhood councils be empowered with appeal rights, some at city hall don’t consider it appropriate for the advisory bodies, which they say should now be required to fill out conflict-of-interest forms disclosing personal assets as City Councilmembers do. Opening council files, as it is termed, is essentially the equivalent of enacting legislation.

Brendan Huffman, president and CEO of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA), believes that representation on neighborhood councils is still overwhelmingly weighted toward homeowners who are already active in anti-development agendas.

Huffman has been called “anti-neighborhood council,” but he prefers to be regarded as “pro-balance.”

“First let me say that the Valley’s neighborhood councils have definitely helped get more attention to Valley needs from City Hall,” he said. But neighborhood councils must recognize that Valley culture is changing.

“It’s not to say that the neighborhood councils are always wrong when they are battling development; some development is not appropriate in some communities,” he noted. But Warner Center and Universal City, he said, were designed to grow business and provide jobs. “What we’re seeing in the Valley is really an extension of Hollywood. This is a very creative workforce, many of whom are comfortable living in smaller apartments, which is different from the traditional Valley resident who enjoys a nice backyard and a pool.”

Barad made a point of contacting the general manager of Westfield Fashion Square, Keitha Mills, to ensure a well-rounded board. “I wanted someone from Westfield to sit on this board, because it represents one of the biggest developers,” she said.

When it comes time to vote on a Westfield-related motion, Mills will have to recuse herself because of the conflict of interest. “But at least she’s there hearing about all kinds of issues affecting Sherman Oaks,” Barad said. “The question here is who is defining responsible. What’s responsible to one person may not be responsible to another.”

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said local neighborhood councils have demonstrated the benefits of grassroots involvement at the community level.

“Three of our most proactive neighborhood councils run along the Ventura Corridor,” the mayor said. “Strong leadership there has developed a working relationship with the City and residents should be proud to have councils that are doing the good work of fighting for good schools, greening their communities and creating a vibrant business sector.”