Special Committee Meeting on Neighborhood Councils Tuesday

Council Member Bernard Parks, Chair of the [City Council's} Education and Neighborhoods Committee, is reaching out directly to the NC community to elicit comments, concerns and recommendations relative to the structure and operations of Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils.

That's part of an email that went out Friday from BongHwan Kim, General Manager of the City's Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE).

DONE oversees funding and operations of the Neighborhood Councils around the city.

The first of the four meetings will take place Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. at the West Los Angeles Municipal Center, 1645 Corinth Avenue, Room 200, LA 90025.

The release says the City Council committee headed by Parks wants to hear from neighborhood council "participants and stakeholders" about "issues and concerns" regarding the current system.

Apparently, the "funding program, election of officers, board member training, grievance systems, standard by-laws and fiscal records, the role of DONE and the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, and current governance structure" are all on the table.

DONE is currently considering holding of neighborhood council elections scheduled for this year due to a  

The final meeting will take place March 8 at City Hall downtown at 6 p.m. Room is yet to be determined.

The Neighborhood Council system has been subject to periodic review and critique since its creation in 1999.  As noted in a report from 2007:

The Neighborhood Council system has a twin challenge: first to join together participatory and representative models within its own system, and then to bring that force to the fully representative model of City Hall.

Click here to read the final report of the Neighborhood Council Review Commission report dated September 25, 2007.