OurLA.org, by Michael Cohen, 25 February 2010

Deputy Mayor Larry Frank presented at a Board of Neighborhood Commissioners meeting Tuesday, the organizational structure for the Mayor’s proposed plan to merging the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment into the Community Development Department.

The merger eliminates DONE as a separate and distinct department and replace it with an Office of Neighborhood Council Support making it merely a minor appendage to the much larger CDD.

It’s not just that the new, tiny 16 employee office is small, compared to CDD at 300 employees,  it’s troublesome because it will not be an independent voice for neighborhood councils, but will answer to the Assistant General Manager of CDD. That’s right the new Director of Neighborhood Council Support (née DONE) and BONC as well for that matter will be UNDER the AGM at the CDD.

To add insult to (real) injury the CDD General Manager publicly at last week’s (Feb. 16th) City council Education & Neighborhoods meeting expressed no desire to have DONE part of his department, something that Larry Frank and the Mayor would have know before the plan was made public.  So we have reluctant shotgun marriage forced by the Mayor.

Structure is everything in an organization.  Will DONE have to be satisfied with whatever resources and hand me downs it can get from the CDD?

Although I can see some synergy between DONE and CDD on outreach for some important community programs, more likely though DONE will get marching orders to assist CDD in areas and directions that neighborhood councils do not want to go. Money and resources that should be used to improve L.A.’s neighborhoods could be largely consumed by CDD’s mission.

Some say it is possible for DONE to continue to exist as an independent department the way the voters decided and still cut as many positions and dollars as the mayor’s consolidation plan anticipates.  Even if turns out to be legal, having a commission and a department that were created by the City Charter reporting directly to an assistant general manager in a department that is created by ordinance is simply a bad idea.

Neighborhood Councils were set up to be an independent community voice, not carry water for the City Council or Mayor and not certainly for the Community Development Department.

This revelation is much more serious and far reaching than losing rollover funds or having delayed NC elections, far more serious than reduced NC funding. The  Mayor’s plan in contrast, stabs a stake into the very heart of the NC system.  If this subservient role is enshrined in the City Charter and by ordinance neighborhood councils may not have access to resources they need and could be subject to unfriendly directives and maneuvered in directions not of their choosing – by both the CDD and the City Council. The sentiment of some in the City to minimize the pesky NCs will have been realized.

The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners made no recommendation to the City Council, wanting to study the proposal in more detail.

The Education and Neighborhoods Committee will take up the issue at their next meeting on March 9th.