Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council hosts Candidate Forum Tonight; Region 8 NCs (East/Northeast L.A.) Election Day This Saturday-

TONIGHT, CANDIDATES SPEAK- including me.




ERNC hosts a "Candidate Forum" tonight, April 22nd at 7 pm at the Center for the Arts (the original ER Branch library) on Colorado Blvd, one block west of Eagle Rock Blvd. Parking at Bank of America lot to the west, free.


I am a candidate for a new position created, "Director at Large." Two others have filed for the same office.   David Greene, current ERNC Vice President, and Keith William Black, a candidate who I have not seen before in the assorted meetings I have attended, and he appears to be much younger than either me or David Greene.  Greene's finishing his first term, elected in 2012 among the 15 of 19 new ERNC board members. 


I am very disappointed in the way he's handled information, especially leaving the ERNC website www.eaglerockcouncil.org to remain unchanged and still listing on resources, officials that are not in office or have changed districts, including "Villaraigosa" as the mayor when he left in July 2013.  It is a loss of an opportunity to reach stakeholders for little or no cost.




All the while I continue to participate in assorted groups and NC matters as a stakeholder, but not so for any current board members or new candidates.



I have seen only one other ERNC board member at the city-wide alliance, LANCC and the NC Plancheck monthly meetings.  


Further, no ERNC board member for the last 3 years attended the annual Congress of Neighborhoods, where all of the systems' 95 NCs are invited to this event, meeting our city official with training workshops and informative sessions and displays providing us with opportunities to speak with them.     




Very little participation of the NC keeps a lot of information from reaching the stakeholders, really, the ones that should be served by any NC.
 
And what am I doing and thinking that makes me a better choice for anyone's vote here?
It appears as simply "Consistency and Ongoing need for NC improvement"-


All that I see in the Eagle Rock Patch interview for the 2012 election is very much as valid now as before.  The concerns are still there.


(The link below goes to a item with several other interviews also presented, mine being the first on the page)
Check the ER Patch interview that Ajay Singh wrote for 2012's NC election and its still on the website, http://eaglerock.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/i-think-of-myself-more-as-an-ombudsman-says-ernc-presdb020b6fc5 




What I said about needed action for improvements then still holds true as little or nothing has been done to make the NC "stakeholder-friendly" and an information-source for actual empowerment, as initially a goal for the NC system.





ABOUT THE ELECTIONS FOR LOCAL NCs:


Well, the Neighborhood Councils in Region 8, the East and Northeast area, will have Election Day this Saturday, April 26, 2014.  The "day" for elections in each region is the same, but each NC can select the 6-hour period for voting. 




In Eagle Rock, voting will be 10am to 4pm. at the Eagle Rock City Hall on Colorado Blvd., at Merton Ave.    The last election was in October 2012, with the Medical Marijuana Dispensaries something of a central issue for voters, generally a concern for who would be elected to work towards more control and who would be more favorable to the MMDs.
 


On that election day, over 800 voters turned out with two slates of candidates in place, one being
"Eagle Rock Neighbors,"  for a control and restriction of the many MMDs in ER and in LA.  The other slate was the "Progressive Slate" that was first called "The Green Slate" and had some candidates with very receptive ideas on marijuana and dispensaries.   There was a concern of "outsiders" voting in the election for the Progressive candidates, and the main purpose of most voters was to repel such "outsiders."




As a note here, none of the candidates was an outsider, all living or working within Eagle Rock. Voters, on the other hand, could  vote with a simple statement of connection to ER by shopping here, evidenced by a single receipt from any store in Eagle Rock.   (That loose qualification was changed since then to require a "substantial" connection to the community).


I am on nobody's slate and, as before, consider the representation to be for the entire neighborhood and not any special group or persons, taking into account what community views are and I will share information from city sources that current ERNC members have missed by non-participation in most events over their term.   My ongoing and accumulated experience and information is what I say makes me the better candidate for this position as "At-Large Director."

Neighborhood Council Elections in Region 8 on Sat., April 26th. Candidate filing extended for one more week.

The election day coming on April 26th for the group of neighborhood councils in Region 8, including most of east and northeast, from Eagle Rock to El Sereno to Boyle Heights, including Lincoln Heights.  Candidate registration was to end Wednesday March 12th, but extended another week since there's many NCs without enough candidates filing to make a race.




The last election was at the end of October of 2012, rushed after the City Council decided to yield to the4 protests of NCs when the Council wanted to skip the elections to save money and continue terms of then-current board members for 2 years.


The normal election period is during the springtime months of even numbered years, so 2012 was a rush to complete the elections after the City Council decided on holding elections after all.


The newcomers to the NC system were many and there still are some thinking that the current elections being held for 12 regions separately over the current months were coming early.  No, it's the 2012 elections that came late, and this is the normal election period for neighborhood councils.


A lot of people think that what the NC are about is making decisions for their neighborhoods but the NCs only have "advisory" power, and the city council is free to do whatever it wants, to consider NCs input or not.  The council members usually give the appearance that the NCs matter but not all of what happens ever follows the recommendations of an  NC.  


What I think really matters is how much lobbying is done by special interest  and the campaign funding activity that goes on and that is not noticed much by the average city person.  For that matter, most of what happens in city hall is not noticed by most people.  This condition is what most elected officials in the city like since it cuts down on anyone getting in the way of what they want to do.


There may be a lot of grumbling people after a decision is made by the City Council, but if you consider that the city elections bring out about 20% or less of the city's registered voters, you see that the majority don't even bother to vote. 


This accounts for many elections decided by 11% or less of the registered voters, with Council district turnouts for a winner being anywhere from 6 to 9 thousand votes for some districts.


Well, the NC elections will be held and the NCs have another uphill battle to get voters to participate but first, there needs to be some candidates for some selections to be presented for voters.


Unfortunately, getting the word out by any NC may not be very effective.  Outreach, communication to the neighborhood residents and businesses is supposed to be made anyway, theoretically to inform of what the city is doing and finding out what the people consider should be done.  Since that sort of outreach is not very well established by many, if not most, NCs, you see this "election outreach" as more or less starting from "square one.."


It's also a matter of asking the NC board members who want to remain in office to work against those interests by recruiting what will be their election opponents.   The extent of impact that this may have is not certain but still, it's a factor.  


More on this later.