Who's on first? What's on second...What are they talking about?
If I was a Neighborhood Council member who had volunteered my days and nights and weekends to make LA a better place, the action of the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee would be the last straw.
I'm just a supporter of Neighborhood Councils, someone who believes they are the key to turning LA around, regenerating our neighborhoods and sense of community, saving the city from the course of destruction it is on.
The committee's action is a declaration of war against the people of the city, the people who pay the bills for a government that has so squandered their money that it faces a $530 million budget deficit that is all but certain to get far worse in the coming weeks and months.
Enacted as the key reform of the CIty Charter a decade ago, Neighborhood Councils have been patronized at best and treated with utter contempt at worst -- just like the rest of taxpaying public.
The action of the Chairman Bernard Parks' Budget Committee in a late-night session Tuesday took the mistreatment to a new level.
Accepting the mayor's doctrine of "shared sacrifice,: the NCs agreed to the same 10 percent cut in funding as everyone else in City Hall which meant each of the 89 NCs throughout the city would get roughly $45,000 next fiscal year instead of the usual $50,000. Most of that money goes to help police and firefighters with equipment and to make their neighborhoods better.
Questions were raised about the $1.5 million still left in NC accounts --- much of it earmarked to be spent on other local improvement -- and the arrogant eyes of the Budget Committee members lit up.
Maybe they would take a third of that, or two- thirds, or maybe all of it to pay for their pet projects, or city elections, or salaries for workers who may or may not be laid off.
Then, Parks threw a curveball. Let the NCs that haven't spent all their money keep what's left but slash the pot available to be shared by all 89 NCs by 80 percent to $1 million -- little more than $10,000 each.
The pathetic and cowardly discussion of that showed that the people responsible for managing the city's finances couldn't pass fourth grade math, which may explain why LA is headed into bankruptcy unable to provide basic services, unable to pay its bills, unable to squeeze anymore money of the public to make much of a difference.
Outrage spread across the community activist world via emails this afternoon:
Westsider Irene Sandler commented: "The death knell; the final chapter; the long
(or short) good-by?"
Jill Banks Barad, President Sherman Oaks NC and Chair of the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils, said:
"What a shocker! The news that Budget and Finance would consider such a drastic cut back in Neighborhood Council funding is truly stunning. It's not just a slap in the face, it's a hit to the head with a baseball bat!! .. with the City's budget deficit, Neighborhood Councils are needed more than ever. Neighborhood Councils could pool their resources with City departments to provide the much needed services to our communities.
Here's Department of Neighborhood Empowerment GM BondHwan Kim's message to the 1,700 NC members today:
From: BongHwan (BH) Kim, General Manager, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
This is to inform you that the Budget and Finance Committee will be recommending to City Council that the NC funding program be reduced to a total of $1M for next year - this roughly breaks down to $11,200 instead of the $50,000 per NC. There was no change to the current rollover policy and no changes to the Mayor's proposed 20% reduction for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. The City is faced with a budget deficit of roughly $500M and the Council recently approved moving ahead with the process of laying off over 400 people. This is the time for Neighborhood Councils to educate and advise your elected officials as to the importance of the NC funding program as they move through their deliberations.
The Budget and Finance Committee will convene on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 to finalize their complete recommendations to send forward to the City Council. The full City Council will then begin holding special meetings to consider the Committee's budget recommendations on Monday, May 18, 2009. On or before June 1, 2009, the Council must approve or modify the Mayor's proposed budget and submit it to the Mayor for approval. The Mayor then has 5 days to act on the budget as adopted by Council. Updated Budget and Finance Committee Agendas and City Council Agendas can be found on the City's home page, City Meetings and Agendas calendar.
If you wish to express your opinions and concerns about the Mayor's 2009-2010 Proposed Budget, you can appear for public comment at both the Budget and Finance Committee and full City Council, submit Community Impact Statements via the City Clerk, or send your letters and emails to your elected Councilmember. You can also follow the deliberations on your home computer via Live Streaming Audio here, or on LA CityView, Channel 35, for live coverage.
Please contact your Neighborhood Empowerment Analyst if you have any further questions.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the National Enquirer.
Does the City Charter hold exception to the proposal to underfund the Neighborhood Council to this point of irrelevancy?
Let's ramp up our grass-roots democracy, social justice, renewable energy coalition (Villaraigosa's revenge on Solar B anyway) and defeat every Democrat at every level of office in Los Angeles.
With Greens, Libertarians, Peace & Freedom, and ah - Republicans too!
Repression eliminates the bystander, the neutral observer, the theorist; it forces everyone to pick a side. A movement cannot grow without repression.
Please remember that the person who wants these cuts is a Republican - Smith. And Parks was Republican endorsed.
1:22 AM Oh. no you don't! Both parties have warts but the ones who are quick to point someone else's failings usually are doing so to
take attention away from themselves. There are five members, the only GOP is Smith, but they are all losers! To me that is 4 to 1 Dems on the losing team. There are only two GOP on the City Council. Remember that.
Trutanich must win, it is now time to let someone else do the job. If he is fallible we will find that out soon enough. But we already
know all about Jack Weiss. He is out for himself alone and we already have experienced what happens to us when we vote a guy like that into office. Are you his Mother?
While I was on the board of the Foothill Trails District Neighborhood Council, I personally voted against or abstained on this board passing nearly $10k on so-called "outreach" parties held by board members or their friends. On more than one occassion they voted themselves more money than was on the agenda. And in most cases, the involved board member(s) refused or did not bother to recuse themselves. At the same time, the same board refused to pass funding to support much needed children's programming at our local rec centers.
So I have zero problem with asking NCs to share in the "shared sacrifice". Most have cash lying around anyway that has yet to be spent.
However, I think the restrictions related to having to spend the funds by a certain date should be lifted if this cut is passed. That way NCs can budget what they have in the bank over the next few years. It might teach the less-than-forthright councils about budgeting and responsibility.
Just for the record, I have since resigned from this board and am embarassed to say that I actually helped form this NC. It's extremely disappointing.
Although I'm understanding of the need to share in the reduction of the budget, what is being proposed is annihilation. No other city department or payrolls of high-ranking city officials is being reduced by 78%.
This is a clear demonstration of the disregard the city council has for the NC system.
Perhaps it would be better to part ways from the city and allow ourselves the ability to fund-raise. Unfortunately, the less organized NCs will suffer greatly.
I realize that there are those on the council that think that NC's should go away and leave running of the government and governing the people to themselves.
But as the oft quoted George Washington saying goes, "If We Don't Learn Our History, We're Doomed to Repeat It " then you realize that cutting NC's off at the knees with regard to this budget reduction will only serve to galvanize the people once again to respond to a city government that doesn't listen, doesn't want to listen and, frankly, is perceived as aloof and uncaring.
I am one for spreading the wealth, or in this case, sharing the pain, but it needs to be equitable. 78% is not the 10% reduction that was floated originally. Council members should try to run their offices with a 78% reduction. It should be clear that this proposed reduction is impractical and, in the end, not yield the results that the Council may hope for.
What I am hearing is that a number of NCs are stating their admin cost is more than the $11,200 currently on the table.
This means that NCs are operating with more than a 20% admin rate.
Most non-profits who do public service kinds of work have a very hard time getting funding if they don't use at least 80% of their funding directly on those services.
And you fools actually thought that City Hall planned to listen to you?
They tolerated you until they had the chance to eliminate the NC's, which they will now do.
Move along now, nothing here to see!
Let's see...$530 million budget deficit. Two guys suggest they take $1 milion away from the NCs so that's 1/53 of the deficit.
Have any city council members offered to cut their salaries and perks? They make about $300,000 a year. How many of them are there? 15. OK, let's cut their pay by 10% to help the people through this crisis because THEY created the budget and approved all the expenses. So that's 15 * $30,000 = $450,000. Hey that's almost a half a million dollars! That's about 1/106 of the budget deficit.
I'm all for it. Shared sacrifice. The city council should start with themselves.