Chronicles

The documents in this section contain but a portion of those created during the process of the ASNC becoming Certified, holding Elections and seating our first Board. They are not meant to be a complete history and are presented solely for the purpose of providing some background on the creation of the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council.

A Brief History

The Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council was certified on October 2, 2002, to represent as a coalition the communities of Cypress Park, Hermon, Montecito Heights, Monterey Hills, Mount Washington and Sycamore Grove.

On November 19, 2002, the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (BONC) reconsidered the areas defined as Greater Cypress Park, and removed them from the ASNC.

 Eventually Cypress Park was granted its own Certified Neighborhood Council, the Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council. As of this writing in mid 2004 they have not yet held a first election.

A number of Greater Cypress Park residents, some of whom had represented Cypress Park on the ASNC Steering Committee, expressed an interest in rejoining the ASNC. These stakeholders wrote a letter to the City Council supporting this position which resulted in a unanimous 13-0 decision by the City Council to support the appeal. But nothing ever came of their request.

The ASNC proceeded to its first election in November 2003 with stakeholders from the five communities of Hermon, Montecito Heights, Monterey Hills, Mount Washington and Sycamore Grove.
Here is the list of candidates who ran for the first ASNC Board. There are both Regional and At-large Board seats in the ASNC.

Following the election, the Inaugural Board convened in January 2004.

League of Women Voters Election Report - pdf format









ASNC Transition Committee Documents

 Agenda 1
Agenda 2
Agenda 3
Agenda 4
Agenda 5

ASNC Founding Documents

DONE website - Department of Neighborhood Empowerment

ASNC's Final Bylaws September 2003

ASNC's Updated Bylaws May 2003

ASNC's Original Bylaws as submitted October 2002

ASNC's Original Bylaws as submitted October 2002 in MS Word document format

ASNC's Boundaries

ASNC's Official Application

ASNC's Official Application in pdf format

Other Reports and Transcripts

Meeting with DONE January 23, 2003

Treasurer's Report January 23, 2003

DONE meeting - transcripts of the November 11, 2002 in pdf format

BONC Transcript ASNC Certification October 2, 2002

Letter from DONE approving Bylaws change giving more time to hold elections

DONE's Letter of Determination in pdf format

Misc Documants and Articles

It's Official! We Move Ahead to Elections!

Greg Nelson, General Manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, has sent notice that the revised ASNC Bylaws have been received and that he recommends " ... the ASNC Transition Committee move forward in its efforts to elect its first Board ... "

Click here to read Mr. Nelson's letter or to see the original PDF click here.

The mailing list

ASNC Complete Personal Privacy/Public Documents Update Available!

The ASNC has been asked to reveal the approximately 3000 names on our mailing list, having been informed that, as a public entity, we must comply with the Public Records Act. However, not all public entities are required to provide complete information upon demand, and ASNC volunteers wanted to confirm the necessity of breaching members' privacy before sharing your personal information. Read Laura Knowles' detailed compilation of all the information she has assimilated regarding the matter of ASNC accessing your private information. She provides an extensive analysis of our community members' privacy issues and ASNC's obligation as a public entity to make our records public, though she would like to emphasize that this is an ongoing process, and this is what we know so far. (Current status: This matter is currently under the scrutiny of the City Attorney's office.) Laura also provides an alternative solution with the intention of improving internal communications within ASNC without divulging members' personal information without first obtaining permission. Laura's letter is available here.

LA Times Discusses Cornfields/Taylor Yards Land Use

Read the Dec 22, 2002, Los Angeles Times in-depth article about the land-use struggle going on at Taylor Yards and the Cornfields. Full text article can be found at http://www.latimes.com/. You will need register and log in to review the article. For your convenience, the text can also be viewed on the Forum.

Education and Neighborhoods Committee Votes 3-0 to Retain GCPNC Certification

In response to the City Council's vote to re-assess Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council's (GCPNC) certification, the Education and Neighborhoods Committee (ENC) voted to uphold the decision of the Board of Neighborhood Councils (BONC) in certifying the GCPNC. The ENC is chaired by Janice Hahn. On December 17, ASNC members and GCPNC members presented testimony to the ENC supporting their differing claims. The City Attorney also presented testimony requesting that the BONC decision not be overturned. The ENC members recommended no action. The City Council voted 10-0 to uphold the ENC decision, and the Cypress Park appeal is now defunct.

I know I speak for many members of the ASNC when I wish the leadership of the GCPNC all the best. Cypress Park is a wonderfully emergent neighborhood, with a passionate, active constituency that was well worth fighting for. We hope that our worthy and vigorous opponent will now stand beside us as we work to improve the entire north-east portion of Los Angeles.


Los Angeles City Council to Review ASNC Reconsideration/GCPNC Certification December 17

On December 10, 2002 City Council, as moved by Council President Padilla, voted to assert City Council jurisdiction over the BONC decision to reconsider Cypress Park, which had already been certified within the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council, and subsequently certify Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council. During the discussion, the council members stated that they wish to review policy issues regarding structure and boundaries of neighborhood councils. They understand that conflicts have resulted in a couple of neighborhood council certifications, and felt that they needed to reassess the lack of structure in the Charter.

The motion passed by a 13-0 vote. A discussion of the legality of the ASNC reconsideration/GCPNC certification by BONC will take place Tuesday, December 17th, 2pm, at City Hall, Room 1060, presided over by the Education and Neighborhoods Committee.

There will be time allotted for public testimony. The Committee will discuss whether to agree or disagree with the Nov. 19th decision of the BONC to remove Cypress Park and portions of Mt. Washington from the ASNC and certify GCPNC. The Committee will then report to the full City Council (date not yet known) where a final decision will be made whether to uphold the BONC decision or to request the BONC to reconsider its decision. If the BONC is requested to reconsider, BONC will reconsider its decision of certifying GCPNC at one of its public hearing meetings and it may keep its original decision or change it.

The following clarifications came from Greg Nelson, General Manager, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment:

"To be clear

1. The only action that the City Council could take is to veto the action that the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners took when they certified the Greater Cypress Park NC and thereby changed the boundaries of the Arroyo Seco NC.
2. The final day, for all practical purposes, for the City Council to act on the recommendation of the committee is Dec. 20.
3. If the matter were sent back to the commission, they could make the same decision once again.
4. Any discussion about changes in policies and procedures would have to [be] a separate issue and wouldn't have any time deadlines for action unless the committee established some reporting deadlines at their meeting."

Neighborhood Councils to Receive First Installment ($12,500.00) of Funding Via
Innovative Stored Value Card

Editor's note: Financial assistance from the City is only available to Neighborhood Councils with an elected board in place, and an officially authorized, trained treasurer available to accept the disbursement. The ASNC has not received any funding and will not be eligible for funding until the above two conditions have been met.

Los Angeles in delivering on the voters' mandate for a far-reaching empowerment of neighborhoods, Mayor James Hahn and City Controller Laura Chick have announced that Neighborhood Councils will soon begin receiving significant City funding. Each qualified Neighborhood Council will receive the first installment of their annual $50,000 via a highly innovative system called the Neighborhood Council Stored Value Card.

"This is a significant move forward in an unprecedented shift of power from the corridors of City Hall to our neighborhoods. The dedication of public dollars to Neighborhood Councils underscores our commitment to enabling and empowering them. These councils are fast becoming a strong and important pulse running through our City. With the diligent work of the City's Controller, Treasurer, City Attorney and the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, our Neighborhood Councils may begin receiving their funds soon," said Mayor James Hahn.

"There were two goals that guided this process: How can we get the Neighborhood Councils their monies in an expedient and flexible way? And how can we best ensure that the public dollars are protected? The Neighborhood Council Funding Program and the Stored Value Card are the result of Neighborhood Councils, City leaders and the private sector working together and using common sense and ingenuity in creating a funding process which I believe will be the Gold Standard for others to follow," said City Controller Laura Chick.

The first funding installment for each Neighborhood Council is $12,500, which they will receive every three months. Councils can access their funds following a training process by the City for their Council Treasurer. The training sessions will be available as soon as next week with the Stored Value Cards issued the following week.

Each Neighborhood Council Stored Value Card is similar to a bank ATM debit card and has built in safeguards with certain purchases electronically prohibited. In addition, the cards can be used to withdraw limited amounts of cash. This mechanism is made possible through Bank of America which administers the Cards. The City has also created an expedited check approval process to quickly pay vendors that do not accept the card.

For more information on the funding process, neighborhood councils can contact the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment at 213-485- 1360.

City Council Votes to Review B.O.N.C. Decision/Revise Charter Specifications

December 10, 2002

At today's City Council meeting, Council President Padilla moved that the City Council assert jurisdiction over the BONC decision to reconsider Cypress Park within the ASNC and certify Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council.

During the discussion, the council members stated that they wish to review policy issues regarding structure and boundaries of neighborhood councils. They understand that conflicts have resulted in a couple of neighborhood council certifications, and felt that they needed to reassess the lack of structure in the Charter.

The motion passed by a 13-0 vote. The ASNC reconsideration/GCPNC certification will be heard by the Education and Neighborhoods Committee December 17, 2002 at 2P.M., City Hall Room 1060. This committee will recommend whether they should veto the Nov. 19th BONC decision and send the issue back to BONC to rehear, or to leave the decision as it stands. Committee chair is Council member Hahn, and the committee meets 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of every month.

Another Editorial Regarding the City Council Decision to Review Charter Guidelines
with respect to GCPNC's Certification

By a vote of 13-0, the L.A. City Council this morning unanimously approved a motion by Council President Alex Padilla that they "assert jurisdiction" under City Charter Section 245 over an appeal by ASNC/Cypress Park regarding the removal of Cypress Park and parts of Mount Washington from that certified neighborhood council and referred the appeal to the Education and Neighborhoods Committee chaired by Councilmember Janice Hahn, for further review and action.

The acceptance of the appeal overruled the findings of the City Attorney's office that ASNC, in this case, had "no right of appeal." The first such action accepted against a decision of the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (BONC), the appeal was based both on public testimony this morning and appeal points presented formally to the Council president and City attorney, which included the following:

  • On Tuesday, November 19, 2002, the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (BONC) held a public hearing at which - by a vote of 4-2 - the Commissioners created and apparently certified the "Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council" from within the sealed boundaries of another six-week old certified Neighborhood Council, the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council. Consequently, violating the ordinances by which it works with the Los Angeles City Council, namely their own set of governing rules, and those of the City Charter that provided for their existence. In a dual action, BONC voted to essentially de-certify Cypress Park, a member community of the already certified Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council (ASNC), from the ASNC.
  • By removing one entire community, in this case Cypress Park and part of another, from the six-community Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council (ASNC) after October 2, 2002, the BONC effectively de-certified a large and integral portion of a fully certified and completely compliant neighborhood council, in violation of the Plan for a Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils (Article IV, Sec. 5).
  • This involuntary and illegal de-certification was permitted by the City Attorney as a "reconsideration" of the Board's earlier action (voted for only by four commissioners on October 22, at a hearing far distant from the communities involved, and without any posting in Cypress Park or its neighboring community) - even though BONCs jurisdiction in the matter had expired one full week earlier (October 15), as per City Charter, Section 245: "the Board's determination shall become final at the expiration of the next five meeting days of the Council, which the City Council has convened in regular session, unless the City Council acts within that timeframe by a 2/3 vote to bring the action before them or to waive review of the action." There is no other clause in the City Charter that allows this type of action to be taken after that "final" date, regardless of the Board's meeting schedule.
  • In calling for the "reconsideration" from BONC (and an earlier "filed" appeal to the City Council), the "Greater Cypress Park" group's letter of petition referenced as their principal rational for requesting consideration, a "failure" of the City's Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) to inform BONC that a date for their own hearing had been agendized (at that point for December 17, 2002). In fact, no such agenda item appeared on any official BONC schedule before the October 2, 2002 hearing date for the ASNC. Neither was it referenced in any of the staff reports comparing the situations of the two prospective neighborhood councils. The Board's decision to support an (untimely) "reconsideration" vote later that month was primarily based on this false claim of a scheduled hearing, when there was no such date certain, or even tentatively scheduled. This is an important consideration since neither DONE, nor the BONC are required to hear an applicant (many such applications have been denied outright). However, these City departments, are required under the Plan, to follow an entirely different and multi-step process to de-certify a functioning council - in any part.

From the Arroyo Seco Journal

Arroyo Seco Gets Yet Another Chance - Surprise Vote Sends Cypress Park Decision Back to Committee; Move Could Mean Trouble for Reyes

by Edward Rivera
LOS ANGELES, December 10, 2002

In a surprise move that left even the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment and the City Attorney's office out of the loop, the Los Angeles City Council today voted to send the question of an independent Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council (GCPNC) back to a council committee. The action means that the newly certified council is in danger of being decertified and may have to rejoin the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council (ASNC).

The move by the City Council was such a surprise that members of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) were forced to rush to the Council Chambers at the last-minute in an attempt to head off the council action. Gwen Poindexter of the City Attorney's office phoned the DONE office to inform them of the move, since she also had not known the item was up for a vote.

What makes the vote particularly troubling, said GCPNC Council co-chair John Edwards, was that both First District Councilmember Ed Reyes and 14th District Council member Nick Pacheco had both informed him that no such vote would be taken. (Both neighborhood councils straddle both Reyes' and Pacheco's Council Districts)

"They phoned me and told me not to show up" said a furious Edwards. "Even Gwen Poindexter didn't know. No one knew they were taking a vote on this issue today."

In order for the item to be voted on today, it was introduced by Council President Alex Padilla, with a tactic known as Rule 23, in which council members ask for special agenda items to be introduced. The Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council had missed the deadline for their appeal of the recent ruling which carved out Cypress Park from their six-community Council. Thus their only hope was for a rule 23 item on the City Council agenda.

The discussion and subsequent vote occurred under curious circumstances since several members of the ASNC were present in City Council chambers and spoke on the matter. No members of the Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council were present. In fact, Edwards was informed of the situation by the Poindexter, who phoned him at home once they learned of the pending vote.

According to Padilla spokesperson David Gershwin, the City Council has now asserted its jurisdiction over the matter and the issue is no longer the responsibility of the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. The Education & Neighborhoods Committee, made up of Councilmembers Janice Hahn, Padilla and Tom LaBonge will hold a public hearing on the matter.

The vote is heavy with implications for Reyes political future, since he is from the community of Cypress Park. While Padilla raised the Rule 23 item after receiving a letter from members of the ASNC, many observers believe that Reyes is behind the move, which would be perceived as turning his back on his own community. Should the issue return to the full council for a vote, Both Reyes and Pacheco could abstain from voting. Pacheco, who is in a reelection battle with former mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, would then hope to earn the good graces and votes of Mt. Washington. Reyes in turn could defend himself in Cypress Park by claiming neutrality.

Find the source story at www.arroyosecojournal.com.


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