The View from the ERNC Candidate Forums This Week
by
Robert Guevara - Candidate for ERNC President
Election Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012- 10am-4pm
Eagle Rock City Hall, Colorado at Maywood
(Note: This was a post that I thought would be up way
earlier in the day, Friday, in the Eagle Rock Patch.com, than whenever if ever it finally appears. Part of this delay is my doing for being slow in
finishing the writing. And part is due
to a computer operating in the tired mode, just when some speedy changes would
help. Since I did write this, I might as well post it now. It wasn’t supposed to be a
post-election commentary but it may come to that. The ideas and views still stand as I have them now.)
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The live Candidate Forum on Tuesday and the Eagle Rock Patch
online reporting and Forum helped to sort out the many candidates for
Saturday’s ERNC election. I am running for President after 3 years on the
board. I appreciated the opportunity to share my views and hear those of the
other candidates.
Here is what I want to fill in about the area that supplies
more direct information on the subject of the Purpose of the NC. Also I want to show some reasons I think I
would be the best choice for President over any of my opponents, most of whom I
have come to know and like over the years working with them.
Funding Concerns with the ERNC Budget
A big part of the questions posed by the live and the online
forums were in connection with the funding that the ERNC receives annually from
the city, a current level of $37,000, with the same amount going to each of the
95 NCs. There has been a yearly cut for
the last 3 years with more expected in the future based on the city’s
precarious financial condition.
The responses of candidates showed the assortment of views
about the purposes and goals of the NCs and few of them reflected what the
ERNC’s connection to the city government is or should be. I think there was a lot of misinterpretation
of the system, but I have had years now of working in this particular area of
interest.
There were many questions about “funds” and the ways that
the money from the ERNC’s annual budget should be handled from the candidate’s
perspective. This might have been a validation to candidates that funding is a
primary purpose of the NCs over working in the area of involving all
stakeholders, not just the funded entities.
The questions produced a variety of proposals, usually
focused on improving one or more aspects of life in Eagle Rock, with programs
or projects considered for that purpose.
These were all for getting to a better level of conditions in Eagle
Rock, but still leaving our interaction with the city government untouched.
NC Purpose- In The Beginning
My view is more a reflection of the basic purpose of the NC
system as the short statement as the purpose of neighborhood councils presents
it:
“To promote more citizen
participation and make government more responsive to local needs.”- Los Angeles City Charter, Article IX
We still are in an “advisory” capacity, but fully authorized
to act as such by the City Charter, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
and several major reportson the system have this as the foundation for the
system’s creation.
- A USC Policy Brief
from 2007 shows one extensive study still applicable on operations of the
neighborhood councils.
The priority for the NC system as shown in the many
documents about the NC manner of administration is the accomplishment of
outreach to facilitate the City Charter description, a goal all in itself.
Any funding actions in the nature of grants from the local
NCs are secondary to all else that connects to the task of being responsive to
the stakeholders and voicing the concerns to the city council. The funding side of things is done at the
discretion of each neighborhood council, within the parameter set for
eligibility, which were very loose until this year when the mandatory use of
the NPG, the Neighborhood Purposes Grant applications was enforced.
We have a condition now where funding is the considered
purpose that NCs are to serve while outreach is more of a condition that will
presumably occur on its own. After 10
years in existence as a neighborhood council, the stakeholders’ continuing lack
of knowledge of the NCs, even as to its existence in some instances, shows very
well that this is not the case. The
impact of outreach is achieved by directly working toward accomplishing it as
the Election effort demonstrated can be done.
Personal Experience as a Qualification Factor - Both as
independently chosen actions and as an ERNC Representative.
Some reasons for getting your vote include being the only
past or current board member with a history of participation in the wider scope
of activities in city’s NC system. I
like to stay informed on relevant events and conditions affecting us on the NC
level. The overall topic of city
government activity is a particular interest of mine.
I have a better perspective on what the city government is
about from hearing from our officials, representatives and the critics as well
as the many peers that have developed an expertise in understanding and working
within the system.
I have been the only ERNC member attending the several
events over the years, as well as related but voluntary events. I have been an ERNC Budget Reps for the
Community and the Mayor’s Budget Days each year as part of the NC involvement
with the annual city budget planning, electing the NC Budget Advocates who do
further work to produce recommendations that are presented to City Council
My participation in LANCC, “Los Angeles Neighborhood Council
Coalition,” has been immensely helpful in understanding the system and the
ongoing issues that the NCs are facing individually and system wide. I think we need to be involved with the
city government operations more than just what the past ERNC activity has focused
upon.
Along with becoming more informed on issues and events, I
have met many people who provide me information of all types, many of them
being from other NC across the city.
The acquaintances and friendship made along the way is another beneficial
impact of the efforts, as we all want to have a better city. We share a lot of views, what we think and
what we learned, all to help make improvement.
Collective progress and impact is a result of the LANCC meetings, as
well the other events and meetings that happen less frequently.
Miguel Santana, the Chief Administrative Officer for the
city, spoke much earlier in the year and said that when he came on board, the
city was “ hair’s breadth from bankruptcy.”
Now this was from a guy that knows and the story from the Mayor at that
same time was totally different, all going to show that what is said at the
time and what is true for that time do not always match, and with the city, the
mismatches are many.
A lot of what can be learned comes from the participants
themselves from there own presentations and there’s not much to compare being
there in-person to size up things by how it is being said and what is not said,
as well. So attending meetings can
have a useful purpose and most of the time there’s something gained from them,
if only to be sure of how deceitful a person can be to the public and not be
affected by that.
Participation and Representation in Events Has Value
I attended the kickoff election meeting for the 8 NCs of
Region 8 in Glassell Park as well as three more training and candidate
information sessions.
Even as to elections, no one on ERNC’s current election
committee used the opportunity from these meetings to employ the techniques
presented, and as far as I know, they still had not met Terrence Gomes, the
Region 8 Independent Election Administrator, the “IEA,” who was present at each
of these meetings.
Aside from missing the opportunity to learn diverse outreach
approaches and hearing more on marketing aspects, the personal contacts are not
made with city personnel in attendance, ranging from staffers to department
heads that are there to make their own presentations.
Forming Alliances for Better Representation
Despite the uniqueness and warmth of community generally
here in Eagle Rock, an awareness of and involvement with the operational side
of city is needed to keep Eagle Rock and the Northeast L.A. area represented to
preserve and promote what is important to us. There was little concern in the
past for collaborating and joining with other neighboring NCs until now. There are 37 NCs covered in the large Valley
Alliance of Neighborhood Councils, “VANC,” an influential group outside of the
formal city system and created by voluntary participation.
Motivating the Creation of an NC System
A major cause for creating the NCs system came from the
conditions where San Fernando Valley considered seceding from the city. There
was a widely held view that the level of city services and quality of
representation were disproportionately poor when considering the money that the
city was collecting in fees and taxes in the Valley. In short, we now have 95 certified NCs in the city system that
grew from heading off the drastic goal that this dissatisfaction might have
produced.
A Part of City Government
Very little discussion by candidates on Tuesday even touched
upon the nature of the NCs as part of the operation of city government or the
interaction done with the city at the NC level, which is a principal reason for
the formation of the NC system. More
time was spent on the preferred applications of the available funding if the
candidate was to be elected.
Each NC has the outreach aspect of NC operations as the most
challenging part of operations, some to a greater degree than others. The recent
election outreach shows what progress can be achieved in reaching more people
when it is done by purposeful action. Spending first on projects and programs
still does not address the “representative” part of having an NC exist, putting
the cart before the horse, as those “in the know” would be more likely to have
access to funding that heretofore was generously made available, to the extent
that outreach did not really suffer because it was not actually part of the
plan. Again, by “gifting” among the community recipients by the NC, it was
rationalized that the NC was doing that purpose, i.e., an interpretation
something like, “We reached out. Look
what the money got.” And really, the
public was not one bit more in touch with the NC or getting better informed on
how city services could be handled any differently than before, since no input
on the public’s behalf was made due to “no input” being sought by the NC in the
first place.
So I am probably being more harsh than the situation calls
for but when there is no recognition of real priorities or the need to touch
base with constituents every once in a while, the local operation really leave
you with a big feeling of frustration.
It is probably due to the fact that I go to meetings where members of
other NCs have similar tales and some others have some successes that are
shared that keeps me in the picture. I
know there’s a better way.
The idea that was circulated today about dedicating a seat
on the board to be the “factual basis” representative was an approach to
counter NC takeovers non-resident groups that I learned about from the LANCC
discussions a few years ago. I
presented a proposal to fill a long vacant Business Director seat. The idea was
about taking action after “x” months unfilled, with an “At-Large director”
appointment who would “continue until the next election at which time the seat
would revert to the original category.”
That was an idea from a discussion during a LANCC meeting,
probably arising at the same session as the dedicated “factual basis
seat.” Bringing that idea up at the
ERNC meeting got the equivalent of a pat on the head and “run along now, we
have to move on.” So we moved on. Now, in true retrospect, it’s one of those
things that might have been useful had there been a climate more receptive to
the suggestions made for better management of the NC rather than get a big
helping of resentment for bringing up ideas from outside sources and not from
ourselves on these things.
ERNC Funding Realities
Unfortunately, the FY 2012-2013 budget’s available funds
will be around $11,000 according to a statement made last Tuesday.
Aside from ideas of funding and a limited ability to do so,
the real purpose of the money is to provide the town halls for community views
to be aired, for costs like the ones encountered in the election outreach so
that all stakeholders will be included in what information is being
disseminated.
The budget for the NCs was created to enable each NC to be
able to cover overhead and to pursue the task of outreach to establish the
connection to the community and be able to provide the information as the City
Charter authorized all this to happen.
Another area that has not been visited in years by the ERNC
is disaster preparedness, something of an area of concern brought to our
attention in the power outage following the windstorms nearly of the past
year. Earthquakes continue to be
another preparation area. Information
sessions and fairs have been conducted by other NCs.
To add to the explain current ERNC spending for this FY,
consider that the Eagle Rock Music Festival last week used $7,500 as one lump
sum funding. This same funding amount was made last year when our budget was
$40,500. I tend to be the conservative
one on the board and could not support these levels. We have reduced funding and an exposure for more assorted
overhead expenses to arise. We had a
discussion 2 years ago at a prior funding request whereby we suggested seeking
other private donations based merit and popularity of the Festival. The result
would be to gather the funding sought and reduce its need to request ERNC’s
limited funds.
Learning About the City and Issues
My interest in the Neighborhood Council activity comes from
my concern over the management style of the city in local government and its
resulting impact on us all.
Over years of observing and being involved in the NC system,
I learned that our city officials were not really doing many things with the
constituent’s best interest in mind. My agenda is simply to share with others
that information that many try to hide and to give to others who may be too
busy to find what is being done by City Hall’s professional politicians so that
we can have a better quality of life and intentionally so, not depending on
City Hall working it in when convenient.
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Some good sources for information that many do not
notice- the L.A. Weekly, the L.A.
Times and the L.A. Daily News are but a few of the sources of
information about the city. Deeper
examination on city actions is provided by several major activist blogs that
include CityWatch, RonKayeLA and Mayor Sam’s, with several others
providing varied news about city hall and beyond. The politicians and their staffs keep up with these sources, too.
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