How to get your Neighborhood Council placed on Exhaustive Measures for exercising Due Diligence on Fiscal Issues

As noted in our previous post regarding "Disempowerment LA's Exhaustive Measures Action" against the LA-32 Neighborhood Council, we elaborate further on how a Budget and Finance Committee's Due Diligence on a sensitive, community fiscal issue (involving the destruction of financial documents), may had played a role in "Disempowerment LA's" punitive actions against the LA-32 NC. 

** Blogger's Note: in this installment on the background reasons for "Disempowerment LA's" punitive actions against the LA-32 Neighborhood Council, we disclose exclusive background pertaining to items numbers 6 & 4 from our previous "Top Ten Reasons" why the "Powers to Be" have taken over a community elective body. One of the items, involving fiscal allocation decisions the LA-32 NC takes up every year, is funding for the long-running El Sereno Bicentennial Parade. Past incarnations of the LA-32 NC have allocated between $2,500 to $5,000 dollars each year, pending final board approval. The 501-C3 Non-Profit that runs the parade, The El Sereno Bicentennial Committee has been in existence for decades, but not without controversy. In July, 2011, the parade organizers kept A & E "Flip this House Star and later CD 14 City Council Candidate Rudy Martinez being a part of the parade due to political pressure from CD 14 City Councilman Jose Huizar, who was using CLARTS Funds to help pay for parade costs and post parade entertainment, with concluding fireworks at El Sereno Park. In the videos below from the January 16, 2014, LA-32 NC Budget & Finance Committee, current Bicentennial Committee Recording Secretary Genny Guerrero can be heard at the 27:30 mark on the Part Two Video, disclosing that the organization was not in IRS compliance until recently (late 2012, early 2013?) and that previous fiscal records on parade expenditures had been destroyed. Yet, while disclosing this information, Ms. Guerrero berates LA-32 NC Budget & Finance Committee Member Angelica Duarte and threatens to get an attorney (for what reasons?) to rebuff Ms. Duarte. Base upon the comments (and demeanor exhibited by Ms. Guerrero towards Ms. Duarte), they should prompt any discerning Stakeholder, and especially a NC Budget & Finance Committee Member to ask the following questions;

First, who was the Non-profit, fiscal agent for the Bicentennial Committee in past years (Barrio Action?), responsible for overseeing parade funds (which included public money) and why has anyone never come forward with information pertaining to nefarious fiscal dealings?

Second, should a NC fund a Non-profit organization who's meetings are open by invite only?

Third,  does a NC have a right to view the fiscal documents of a Non-profit before voting to approve funding? (IRS says yes, a certain "Disempowerment LA NEA" (initialed L.C.) may say no, allegedly).

Fourth, should the NC request a line-item expenditure list on what Councilman Huizar has paid for in past parades and will fund for this year's parade (** BTW, with "Disempowerment' LA's punitive takeover of the LA-32 NC, they will not be contributing any funding for the 2014 Parade)?

Fifth, do board member have the right to question whether their President has breached ethical boundaries, by hosting fundraisers for the Bicentennial Committee at her business, then exert her powers to grant them $5,000 in "promised funding" (as documented after the jump)?

Lastly, should someone be emailing City Controller Ron Galperin, the LA County District Attorney's Office of Public Integrity, the IRS, State Franchise Tax Board and maybe the FBI, that an audit/ investigation is warranted, especially when fiscal documents pertaining to expenditures of public funds are destroyed? 

After all, demanding accountability, especially when allocating public funds, is what elected Neighborhood Council Members are supposedly EMPOWERED to do on behalf of their Stakeholders---Scott Johnson in "Disempowerment LA-occupied LA-32".  

** Disclaimer: The videos below were filmed by Jorge Garcia of the "El Sereno Delusional Society" please disregard his comments as they do not represent the truth on this matter. Further, his wife Yolie Garcia (in bright color blouse) is a member of the LA-32 NC Budget & Finance Committee (in addition to Ms. Duarte and LA-32 NC Treasurer Anthony Manzano). Also note that this blogger is the LA-32 NC Recording Secretary (in hat on video), but my comments are solely my own, and not representative of any official LA-32 NC Board Position.   

January 16, 2014 LA-32 NC Budget & Finance Committee Meeting, Part 1.

January 16, 2014 LA-32 NC Budget & Finance Committee Meeting, Part 2.

January 16, 2014 LA-32 NC Budget & Finance Committee Meeting, Part 3.

January 16, 2014 LA-32 NC Budget & Finance Committee Meeting, Part 4.

Is it Ethical, or a Conflict of Interest, for a NC President to host fundraisers at their business for a longtime community group (with past fiscal issues), then allegedly "promise" to get the same organization $5,000 in NC/public funding?

Your thoughts ..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14