Westwood Neighborhood Council Formation Committee Meeting

September 3, 2009

Westwood NC: Contentious Road to Certification Could End Tuesday
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CITYWATCH By Ken Draper

TActive Imagehe long and contentious road to certification could finally end on Tuesday for the forming Westwood Neighborhood Council. The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners has called the hearing for 6 p.m. The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment is prepared to recommend certification. In looking through the Departments recommendations, the most serious glitch seems to be the City Clerk bureaucracy insisting they will not conduct an election for the fledgling council before 2012 … leaving Westwood bylaws with a plan to fill the board by appointment.

If the findings are as reported by the DONE, the Westwood NC should be certified with the caveat that the bylaws be changed to reflect a plan for immediate, open and transparent elections and both the DONE and the BONC commissioners should guarantee assistance in nudging the City Clerk and making it happen. It’s past time for a Neighborhood Council voice in Westwood.

In addition, this is an opportunity for the BONC to carve a niche in one of their priorities: to get Neighborhood Council voices in the few remaining communities in LA without an NC.

The journey to a certification hearing has been long and ugly. Filled with intimidation, contention and bad will. Threats, boycotts, name calling, lies, petitions of opposition and a bunch of verbal pushing and shoving were standard fare. Four attempts to form a council preceded this one but the organizers wilted under the noise and fury of the home and property owner groups.

The opposition has never been about a specific organizing group it has been a concerted effort to keep any Neighborhood Council out of the hood. Ten years later they still argue that a council would be a threat to their fiefdoms and their influence. (Here’s a link to a formation public meeting as an example.) [LINK]

Tuesday could put the certification part of the battle to rest. Then the new Westwood Council leaders will face the even harder task of bringing the community together.

To do that, open and transparent elections will be a necessity. Committing to civility and fairness … even with their worst antagonists … must be a priority. Understanding the reasons Neighborhood Councils were created would be helpful.

We wish them well.

INFO

Forming Westwood Neighborhood Council Certification Hearing
Tuesday, January 19 (6 p.m.)
Westwood United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, 3rd Floor of Helms Hall
10497 Wilshire Blvd

(Ken Draper is the editor of CityWatch. He can be reached at editor@CityWatchLA.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) -cw

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Vol 8 Issue 4
Pub: Jan 15, 2010