Sunday Notes on the Neighborhood Council Scorecard

 The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners bring their empowering brand of oversight to the El Sereno Senior Center as Stakeholders and Commissioners engaged in dialog regarding the status of the LA-32 NC and discuss possible remedies for dealing with disruptive behavior among NC Members and the likes of "Procedural Bullys".  

It was not a good night for Empower LA General Manager Grayce Liu (seated second from right at front tables) as numerous LA-32 Stakeholders spoke out against the disempowering, punitive actions taken against the community-representing elective body.

The Stakeholders of the LA-32 Neighborhood Council were treated to a timely evening of interaction from the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (BONC) last Tuesday as the body conducted its monthly meeting away from City Hall at the El Sereno Senior Center. BONC Commission President Karen Mack, presided over a productive, constructive evening of dialog, that allocated ample time for LA-32 Stakeholders and other constituents from elsewhere, to broach their comments, thoughts and concerns on agenda and non-agenda items. For Empower LA GM Grayce Liu, the evening was filled with comments pertaining to the punitive, subjective Exhaustive Efforts taken against the LA-32 NC and the apparent department's embargo on filling board vacancies. Ms. Liu, did seem to have two supporters in new LA-32 NC Treasurer Michelle Corzantes. along with former LA-32 NC Elections Chairperson ( and founding member of the race-baiting and youth exploiting El Sereno Historical Society) Yolie Garcia, who both spoke against filling the vacancies (while also falsely attacking ex LA 32 NC Board Members), but who's motives must be questioned, considering their role in the inappropriate use of uniformed Wilson High School LAPD Magnet Cadets for campaigning.    



 Sparse turn out for the new (mostly Councilman Huizar recruited) incarnation of the LA-32 NC.

For "Disempowerment LA Neighborhood Empowerment Advocate/ LA-32 Overlord" Lisette Covarrubias (seen on left in insert to photo), her first meeting overseeing the new incarnation of the LA-32 NC led by her Union Labor Representative Marleen Fonseca, featured the following;

** Fonseca's inability to properly preside over the proceedings in a constructive, object manner.

** Attacks and interruptions of public speakers by the likes of Fonseca and Treasurer Michelle Corzantes.

** Disclosure that the Agenda for the Executive Committee Meeting were posted at locations (El Sereno Middle School, Ceasar Chavez and Sierra Vista Elementary among others) that were contrary to those stated on the official document. Thus, presenting a possible Brown Act Violation.

** A disjointed presiding process that merits a grievance and highlights the need for comprehensive training for new board members (maybe Lisette will drop her alleged grievance against Council for Councils in the spirit of providing objective mentoring).

** Authorization to purchase operating equipment without a complete inventory.

** A moment of leadership from new Vice-President Kaprisha Vallecillo, who disclosed that the requested item to deal with board vacancies was not placed on the agenda by Covarrubias.

For those in the audience, it was clear that Ms. Covarrubia's objective professionalism was lacking and further review should be undertaken to ascertain whether bias, has and is, being exercise with the Fonseca-led body........., and lastly, from Wednesday, she is among the wrong friends for career advancement.    

 Former LA-32 NC Vice-President (quitting the board for the third time in January) Tammy Membreno and Mayor Eric Garcetti East Area Director are all smiles.

As the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners present their first draft on proposed training and behavior standards for NC's, longtime NC Activist Bob Gelfand offers some discerning musings on the 17 paragraphs of supposed behavior modification standards as we excerpt below .......

They could have made it fairly simple, something like "our meetings run according to standard parliamentary procedure, and you shouldn't interrupt or scream at the top of your lungs. At least not more than once per meeting." 

But no. The proposed code of civility goes on for 17 enumerated paragraphs. Seventeen.  Let's take a look at two of them. 
Number 6: "I will not use language that is abusive, threatening, obscene, or slanderous, including using profanities, insults, or other disparaging remarks or gestures." (** reminds me of a certain former LA-32 Vice-President and her "mini-me", who's emails were cited by Empower LA as part of the reason for placing the NC on Exhaustive Efforts, but I digress) \

Now I think we should admit that number 6 starts off reasonably, at least where it forbids you to actually threaten another person or to use obscenities. These are normal rules for public meetings. 
It's the rest of rule number 6 that is bothersome, because that part about "disparaging remarks or gestures" could be interpreted as the rule against rolling your eyes at somebody's comment. You may say that this is overreaction on my part, but I'm here to testify that I am the recipient of the comment, "Don't roll your eyes at me Bob," spoken by one of my fellow neighborhood council participants at a regional meeting. Sorry, but some reactions are almost automatic, and we shouldn't legislate against ocular rotation, twitches, or even frowns.

.........., we should remember that in crafting supposed statutes of behavior, to not under-estimate how the politically-connected can exploit standards to inflict retribution on those ......., in lieu of ejecting (ie. quitting) for the third time in the case of Ms. Membreno (allegedly). 

Longtime NC Activist Jay "Ole Yeller" Handal. 

It was announced at the Tuesday BONC Meeting, that a debrief of the recent Empower LA proceedings will take place Monday in Hollywood, while not to demean Jay "Ole Yeller" Handal's work as a NC Budget Advocate, his demeanor and objectivity as the Region VIII Independent Election Administrator was noted during comments at Tuesday's meeting. Previously at another BONC event, we were presented with the below letter below regarding "Ole Yeller's" persona. We sincerely hope that "Ole Yeller" would paid heed because as noted in the results from the West LA NC Elections, yelling only gets you so far in pursuing your political ambitions (or becoming GM of Empower LA).   



Arrogance can only get you so far in political life. 

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

Scott Johnson in CD 14