Yolie Flores, LAUSD Board member at ERNC meeting tonight; Region G NC elections on April 29th.

If you have an interest in what the LAUSD is doing and will admit to, come on over to spend a little time not to far away in Eagle Rock and hear Board Member Yolie Flores (District 5) speak on current issues for LAUSD. It may be the same old stuff or there may be some new slant on things, but you can hear it first hand and even ask questions right there. (Photo, right: The Center for the Arts, in Eagle Rock on Colorado Blvd.)

It will be happening at the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council meeting (7pm to 9pm) tonight at the Center for Arts (the former L.A. branch library for Eagle Rock). One block west of Eagle Rock Blvd. and Colorado Blvd, on Colorado on the north side of the street (across the street from Starbucks).

Yolie Flores is the guest speaker tonight and should be speaking around 7:30 pm. Parking on the street or off-street at the B of A lot down the block in a relatively safe area, as far as safe locations go in L.A. One of Flores' latest activity was as a proponent of the "Public School Choice" process that put up the choices for the public to have some say in the choice of operators of their local school. This concluded about a month ago for the low performing schools and many new school sites.

Flores in that process, voiced her support for following the recommendations made by Ramon Cortines, Superintendent, and his team assigned to evaluate the advisory voting and the subjects submitting their proposals. Board President Moniea Garcia spoke on why the teacher/school factions should prevail in some of the selections, while the charter and other non-LAUSD based proposals were left out in the cold, despite being the Cortines selection. That was the idea of having Cortines do the evaluations that took in the voting as a factor. Why bother doing that job if they won't follow it? That's LAUSD and it's not any suprise to me.

The real surprise was the fact that there was some dissension on the Board and that it was Flores speaking in opposition to the choice of others, mostly Mayor Villaraigosa-linked people who do his bidding there. And that was the reason for such backing by Tony and associates. If the school district could place the well-being of the students ahead of their own personal and political benefit, we might see some improvement happening. But then they are politicians, no matter what the say to protest that label.

Well, the meetings of the ERNC have been hosted many notable speakers in the last 6 or 7 months. This list includes Pat McOskar, President of the union for the L.A. Firefighters, State Senator Carol Liu, Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, CM for CD-14 Jose Huizar, and City Controller Wendy Greuel.

Many people don't know there's even any Neighborhood Council system city wide, with 90 certified NCs and there's lots of confusion on which NC anyone belongs to. Well, Voting for the 10 NCs in Region G is on Thursday, April 29th and lots of outreach still is needed to get out the word as the City Council considers more funding cuts that include the NC system.

NCs are City Charter created creatures and no matter how much the City Council wants to have them butt out of city business, the Charter keeps them here. The "funding" is a different story and that's where Council can do the system in by going to a "bare bones" type funding to comply with the terms of the Charter.

That's a decision that will be part of the upcoming budget presentation within a couple of weeks by the Mayor. For now, we still have 90 NCs and elections are underway, grouped by the nine Regions.

NC Elections Continue- Council rejects CM Greig Smith's Penny Wise, Pound Foolish Motion; Rollover Funds Swept.

THE NC ELECTIONS DECISION
Greig Smith, City Council Member, decided to take the spotlight and make a motion to save a few dollars by taking the Neighborhood Council elections (affecting 89 of 90 NCs) out from the City Clerk's responsibility and give to the NCs to save some of the unspent funding that the Clerk's Office was allocated. Well, it was not anything that Mr. Smith could have spent much time considering before jumping on this idea- A motion to shift the elections from the City Clerk to the Neighborhood Councils as had been the case UNTIL THIS YEAR'S ELECTIONS, and that change was something that the Council approved some time back, at more than a year ago.

CM Smith tried to scoop up unspent funds from the City Clerk and leave NCs to finish the election with NO time to arrange the changes and NO funding to pay for any outside expenses. The City Clerk took the job, and I think it was done for the City to keep them busy in this non-election year for the City, and get funding from the NCs budget.

To do this change now would be more than a bad move. NCs have proposed taking over their elections for the NEXT election cycle- in 2012, I believe, not NOW when there's an elaborate process already constructed to be followed by all NCs that would go out the window if it was broken down among the 89 NCs now. So we could have a bad election, a lot of irregularities and where any challenges are made, the city has to check into it, especially if anyone challenges something with a lawsuit, a best bet for corrective action if something is not right with any of the elections.

To sum it up, CM Smith would get some change back from the very expensive City Clerk processing of the election but lots of that has already been spent with 9 regional elections to be held from now to June. All that work and planning would be mostly wasted if not all wasted.

On Tuesday, the Council voted to approve an amendment, based on another Education and Neighborhoods Committe recommendation, that allows the elections to continue and see if any cost saving measures can be applied to provide any money saved to go back to the Reserve fund.

NC FUNDS- ROLLOVER FUNDS SWEPT
The NCs that did not spend all funds alloted by the end of each fiscal year that runs from July to June, used to have that money roll over into the next Fiscal Year's funding. That is no more as the City Council is furiously looking for was to collect more dollars in the current budget crisis. Some funds for each NC can be paid from that rollover account IF documentary proof of spending commitments with specified requirements can be established. That just means that funded but not paid items will get paid, provided that necessary documents are presented for accounting proof. A memo with a list of requirements has been sent to each NC's board members for compliance before an April date for cut-off date to use this exception procedure.

Neighborhood Council funding in jeopardy while elections in progress

In all the commotion at City Hall, I haven't been able to stay current with all the news that you can find about City Hall politics and other local operations. The story in the current edition is useful to see just how critical the City budget has become, to the extent that even the Neighborhood Councils are facing the City Council's decision on funding and other changes.
"89 Neighborhood Councils Face the Knife - City Council pauses over plan to slash budgets of groups who criticize it." By Sophia Kercher, Thursday, Feb 11 2010. L.A. Weekly. http://www.laweekly.com/2010-02-11/news/89-neighborhood-councils-face-the-knife/

The Neighborhood Councils ("NCs") were authorized by the L.A. voters around 1999 and that changed the City Charter. The NCs became an authorized part of the city govenment by that action and the city council may not eliminate them although they control the funding that is only required to be "reasonable," giving the City Council a lot of latitude in that funding decision. With that small but important control, they now want to further reduce the funding of the NCs that are comprised of elected and appointed volunteer members. It's now a mandate of the City Charter and that means the City Council is not able to dismantle it.

There is a city wide NC election period now in progress, with NCs of the same "Regions" holding their elections on the same day for all NCs in that region.

The Northeast area is "Region G" and has NCs from Eagle Rock to Lincoln Heights, from El Sereno to Elysian Valley, and many others within the area. These all will be having an election on Thursday, April 29th. Now the future of the system is uncertain as the funding is proposed at a 50% cut of the current $45,000.00 yearly allocation. And that allocation was cut last year by 10% from the initial $50,000 yearly budget.

There are now 90 certified NCs operating and the news showed some examples of that was done by a man convicted of robbery- twice- and he was the treasurer of an urban NC with access to fund. Another bit of spending was questioned in a couple of other NC, and the documentation more than the subjects funded were the problems. The rest of the NCs had kept up the money management reports and were not problem. This bad publicity is making it easier for City Council to come down on the NC system with budget cuts and other changes like cutting the city Neighborhood Empowerment department staff in half by removing 17 positions. (As for that dept., the CMs CAN make a lot of changes to it), and the CMs want to merge it with another department that will have the effect of dissolving it.

The L.A. Weekly story fills in the story with more information and this budget crisis may help the CMs who are against the NC program to cut it down and hurt it's effectiveness. They don't want anyone looking over their shoulder or butting in to the business they do- and you can't blame them with the lousy job shown overall. Some CMs are good with the NC system, but others just are hostile.

One final note here. The City Clerk was given the power to conduct this year's NC elections instead of the Dept of Neighborhood Empowerment ("DONE"). Its costing a few million dollars and many in the NCs think DONE would have been better at the job and cheaper, too. Some suspect that the job was transferred to give City Clerk's office more work and budget funds in an off-election year. In other words, to keep them funded well, at the same time as work is assigned that justifies their existence. It's could be just that, I don't know. City manipulation is not always detectable from the outside.

For now, the decisions are being considered and contacting the CM for your district and any others you can do, too, by telephone calls or any other means, would be useful.

It looks like the city council is intent on selling city assets and that's another objection to add to that call to say "No" to selling parking meters and parking lots, the Zoo, golf courses and other assets that can generate revenue if operated properly

Time is running out.

City Council still trying to find the budget solution; Zuma Dogg's video is on target.

[Updated on Feb. 3, 2010]
The Monday meeting was an 11-hour long session and there still were only a few decisions made. Packing the council chambers were Neighborhood Council members from all over the city, employees, appointees and patrons of the departments that were slated for reduction or elimination, including Disability, Human Relations and Cultural/Arts.

One particular objection to cuts came from CM Bill Rosendahl who said the Calligraphers on staff were not to be cut. And this cost has been reported to be around $500,000 per year, but I have not seen it form myself, but it's still a lot I am told . Of course the CM's won't cut this out since it is a FREE (to them) service to keep them in office. How? You give out the awards in the form of these handmade certificates to people and an organization for whatever reason you choose and you have just bought some votes in the next election. Get these going out to community members often enough and you have a good base of voters. THIS should be the first item to dump but it's a purely selfish decision of Council Members that is paid for by the taxpayer, so it will stay.

There's a report with some important comments and facts on the Monday Budget and Finance Committee meeting in the L.A. Times, "Some L.A. Council members resist spending cuts, layoffs - A majority of the council's Budget and Finance Committee has refused to sign off on the plan to cut 1,000 jobs, a key component in the plan to plug a $208-million shortfall." By David Zahniser and Maeve Reston, February 3, 2010, http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-la-budget3-2010feb03,0,7778047.story


Tuesday's full Council meeting was not quite so long, but there was a much livelier debate. CM Richard Alarcon jumped all over the CAO Miguel Santana about not getting more jobs for the federal stimulus money instead of cutting jobs- but Santana is the administrator, not the guy with the decision making power- apparent even now since the Council is DECIDING what to do with the RECOMMENDATIONS/REPORT of Mr. Santana.

Eric Garcetti, Council President, was quick to take up the theme, "We are a family." Well, maybe instead of a family, if it was treated as a business it wouldn't be so fouled up. Trying to look good to all sides is what the council people try to do. Appeasing the work force and the tax payers at the same time is tough to do and maybe not possible, but "votes" is the precious commodity they constantly strive to amass. That motivates them to spend more and more and say "No" to program funding less and less. The Mayor started the ball rolling down the path to disaster by approving all the DWP's inflated pay scale salaries and raises when he took office after defeating Jim Hahn in Antonio's second run for the Mayor's job.

The difference in pay for DWP jobs is about 20 to 40 percent above comparable positions in the city's other departments. The union, the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) more or less runs the show there at DWP, and they were just given raises in the past few months while other city employees were being furloughed. (See: L.A. Times, "L.A. council unanimously approves raises for DWP employees," December 11, 2009, -- David Zahniser at L.A. City Hall , http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/12/la-council-unanimously-approves-raise-for-dwp-employees.html

The city's Engineers and Architects took a hard hit for not getting on the bandwagon with the Mayor and were and will be punished for causing trouble, with furloughs applying to them in a very generous share.

The Coalition of Unions, another group that got a really good no-layoff deal for making some concessions is now digging in its heels against the city's plan to re-negotiate the terms and implement layoffs of their members. A strong letter that states the city is in breach of their agreement went out last week and it looks like the city is in for a big fight. The only significant change here is will come just about when it's bankruptcy time and all the deals and agreements are thrown out and everything is restructured under a bankruptcy court judge's supervision.


All a sad outlook for a lot of people, and especially the people of the city.


I saw Zuma Dogg's stickcam video that recapped Monday's budget hearing- "Zuma Dogg Recaps Budget Hearing (IT'S OVER!)" - 02/02/2010 - http://www.stickam.com/viewMedia.do?mId=187472900 and it's something to listen to even though I am in the game for supporting Neighborhood Councils and DONE (Dept. of Neighborhood Councils), especially since that's about volunteers, not a paid workforce as contrasted with other objectors to the funding cuts.

The video is 18 minutes and gets off to a quick start and keeps up the pace so that time moves quickly. Even just hearing a part of it will tell you that the city management is not looking up to the task that it has. It is pretty insightful as Zuma Dogg usually is, but if you have a sensitivity to profanity, you are forewarned. Nevertheless, it is loaded with very specific criticisms and comments as well as coming down to the seriousness of the case.

A point I want to bring out is that Zuma Dogg HAS been saying all this stuff for years that the Council has just come to realize. He told of these dangers to THEM, the CMs at council meetings for so many times over the years. Even the Mayor's April speech on "The State of the City" incorporated projections and actions (all later ignored by Tony himself).

The ZD video is very candid and vivid. You might not like it but even with that viewpoint, the whole city situation is addressed in the blunt, often tactless style used by ZD- but that is so refreshing and colorful while getting to so many points and mini-evaluatons of the actions in the city. Entertaining, but I think it's also got a lot of correct assessments all through it.

And now to Wednesday and another try for City Council to make cuts. By the way, the share of the budget the departments and such that are included in the recommendations is 30% and the part that fire and safety (Police and Fire Department) have is 70%, so, as was stated at the Monday hearings, "all is on the table," that is, all except for then nearly or above 200-person workforce Tony Villaraigosa hired as his staff that originally was in the 70's. And STILL it doesn't help get him on any thing close to the right course for being a real mayor and getting a job done. See Steve Lopez' column in this weekend's L.A. Times, ("A Fresh Start" at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez31-2010jan31,0,5864779.column ), the mayor, after all, is personally at a "good place" or whatever he says on personal self-assessment, to bypass any handling of the reality of the city problems with any tenacity.