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At a meeting Friday Deputy Mayor Larry Frank laid out the position of the Mayor to eliminate the Charter-created Department of Neighborhood Empowerment and put it in the Community Development Department with reduced staff, several participants reported. Neighborhood Empowerment Commissioner Al Abrams, in an email below, urged NC leaders to spread the word that there was a really possibility NC elections supervised by the City Clerk's office would be canceled. Attorney and activist Noel Weiss, responded with this analysis, which was first posted as a comment on RonKayeLA.com By Noel Weiss The death of DONE is very,very premature. The people are going to fight back vigorously on this. I am not a fan of DONE's performance. . . However, the transfer of the powers or duties of a Department created under the Charter to another Department, office, or Board must follow the protocol set out in Section 514 of the Charter. There are very strict requirements to be followed. It does not appear the Mayor has come close to following them in (post-haste) moving DONE's functions into CDD (a Department created under Ordinance). Nothing can be done officially or lawfully without first having the City Council consider the Mayor's proposal (and it has to be a detailed proposal, accompanied by proposed Ordinances and budgetary transfer instructions); whereupon the Council must either reject, accept, or modify the Mayor's suggested change within 45 days. If the Council does not act, then, and only then does the Mayor's proposal go into effect. Aside from the issue of DONE's demise or delineation, there remains the broader question of whether the Mayor is going to treat the Charter like a Chinese Menu, picking and choosing which provisions by which he will abide. The Council's action last Thursday (which emerged out of closed session) authorizing and directing the elimination of up to 4000 jobs or positions was also of questionable legal validity because (a)Under Council Rule 43, all new motions have to first go to a committee (where the public can comment), (b)the substance of the motion was never really properly agendized (the agenda item did not come close to describing the motion),and (c) the public never got a chance to comment on the motion. At a minimum, the motion should have been assigned to Budget & Finance, where it could have been promptly waived out of committee, and then put on the Council agenda for discussion by the public. Then the public is made aware of the content of the motion and is afforded a fair opportunity to comment. If the Mayor continues to ignore his responsibilities under the Charter, and unlawfully attempts to consolidate power into his office, the chances of the City's bankruptcy are enhanced, not diminished. We cannot afford to have a constitutional crisis on top of a budget and economic crisis. This will add further uncertainty and angst to the current situation. Our Charter is not intended to resemble or create a 'boss-style' Chicago political system and we are not some third-world country where 'crisis capitalism' or 'shock politics' is used to leverage the consolidation and aggregation of power into the office of the executive. We need to follow the law; and we need the City Council to stand up for its prerogatives, be pro-active, take the tough votes (after debating the issues), and not appease bully or oppressive (dictatorial) tactics. We also need the City Attorney to enforce the law and demand that the Mayor promptly rescind his actions regarding DONE and possibly Environmental Affairs as well. Precedent exists for the City Attorney to sue an elected official. Rocky did it against Laura Chick and the Controller's office, and Nuch continued the suit (which I guess upset Laura Chick). Nothing precludes the City Attorney from suing the Mayor to restrain acts which are ultra vires (in excess of the Mayor's (very limited) popwers under the Charter). It is also time for the Commissions to start doing their jobs because they are another key check and balance under the Charter. That is why I am calling on BONC (the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners -- which has jurisdiction over DONE) to immediately call a special meeting to (a) discuss the lawfulness of the Mayor's actions, (b) to consider alternative proposals to create efficiencies (one proposal promoted by Jack Humphrevile drafted by Shawn Simons - an N/C President) will save up to $4.5 Million, generate efficiencies, position the N/C's to begin to go after grants and thereby generate revenue, and allow the N/C's to keep their $45K allocation and roll-over money), and (c) to appoint a Board of Examiners under Section 217 of the Charter to hold Citywide hearings during the next 20-30 days and solicit meaningful public input on the Mayor's plan with regard to DONE and any alternative plans which the public can devise and present. That way, the City Council will have meaningful, thoughtful input before deciding whether to ratify, rescind, or modify the Mayor's proposal (and that's all it is (legally) at the moment). My bet is with the power of ideas and with the power of the people. It is up to Nuch to now do what he said he would do and (a) enforce the law, and (b) represent the interests of the broader body politic over the narrow political interests of the Mayor. If the Mayor had attended to business last year and provided some real leadership, we might have been better prepared for the current difficulty. As it is, however, I have every confidence that we will emerge stronger and better from this. . . in large part because we will have followed the rule of law. If the people want to amend the Charter to give more power to the Mayor, then they are free to do so. . .but until that happens, we need to abide by the provisions in the Charter and cease appeasing these bully (scare) tactics being employed by the Mayor. All attempts to leverage our current budgetary difficulties into the unlawful aggregation of authority and concentrated power in the Mayor's office (which, by the way, will be beyond the Controller's performance audit powers) need to be soundly confronted and rejected. Here is Abrams' email: Dear NC Friends, DONE is being dismantled starting at the beginning of the week with an announcement by the Mayor and a press statement. Its remnants will be going over to CDD, the Community Development Department, over the next four months.
Transition employees, between 2/24/10 and 6/30/10 will equal approximately 13 full-time staff, perhaps less.
Starting July 1st, at CDD there will be a "skeleton crew" of only 9-10 employees left to take care of the needs of all the 90 NCs.
The Commission stays.
We have to make sure that the City Clerk elections remain in place. This is VERY important.
Some Councilmembers want to immediately stop the elections with an emergency ordinance at Wednesday's City Council meeting.
Their goal: take the balance of the money that is left in the elections account, and leave the NCs to "do their own thing." They're hiding behind the statements of "giving back the elections to the Neighborhood Councils". This is a false and insincere attempt to gut the NC system.
The truth is that this will be disastrous for NCs. Without a staffed department there to help them, which is about to be "scrubbed clean" and without ANY funding for ANY elections, NCs will be left out in the cold to fend for themselves.
I cannot emphasize enough that stopping the elections now with an emergency ordinance and stripping the City Clerk's office of its election funding will result in chaos throughout the City and dismemberment of the NC system.
You must contact your Councilmember immediately and tell him or her to "let the NC elections continue as planned with the City Clerk's authority and supervision for this year's complete election cycle."
We can all deal with the way elections are to be held in 2012 at a later date.
Please spread the word. If you need more information, please feel free to contact me.
Best regards,
Al
Albert Abrams
Vice President
Board of Neighborhood Commissioners
City of Los Angeles
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