Nearly 250 people packed into the City Council Budget and Finance Committee meeting Monday, many of them neighborhood council members there to protest drastic changes to the way the community-based program is run.

After a marathon 11-hour budget session, the committee approved a motion to slash neighborhood council funding by 50 percent for fiscal years 2010 through 2013. The committee also approved a 50 percent cut to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE), the city agency that oversees the neighborhood council system.

The recommendations would reduce annual neighborhood council funding from $45,000 to $22,500. 

A recommendation to reduce the system's funding mid-term for the current fiscal year was taken off the table after the City Administrative Officer's office determined it would not yield a financial gain. 

Shawn Simons, president of the North Area Neighborhood Development Council, said she considered the outcome "status quo." 

"In many ways the cut to DONE could actually be a win," she said. "It will certainly force DONE to examine their structure, and if they do it alone in their own bubble it will be a tremendous loss ...but if they bring the neighborhood council leadership into the conversation and allow us to design a program that will work to support the neighborhood council system that they then implement, that will be a solid win."

Some stressed the will to continue fighting, noting that the decisions made Monday were not set in stone. 

"It's just a recommendation to be voted on, not an ordinance," said Stephen Box of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council and the organizer of BudgetLA. "We have time to work on it. The crisis has been averted. We're off the chopping block today."

The recommendations made at Monday's meeting will be taken to the City Council Wednesday. The City Council will then make recommendations for the mayor's budget, which undergoes a public review process in which neighborhood council members participate.   

In October Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's budget and finance deputy, Ben Ceja, told nearly 500 neighborhood council members that they would have an opportunity to weigh in on the mayor's proposed budget at a regional review of budget priorities in February. In March neighborhood council representatives will meet with the mayor, Ceja said, before the mayor submits his budget proposal to City Council in April.

Neighborhood council members believe this still leaves plenty of time for a fight. 

"We still have an opportunity to sway the recommendation," Simons said. "Our stance would be that clearly the DONE funding [reduction] is fine, but when you are looking to cut, you cut staff and not programs." 

The recommendations, presented to the City Council Budget and Finance Committee, first cropped up in the City Administrative Office's mid-year financial status report last week.

 

The Budget and Finance Committee reviewed the report's suggestions, which included modifying the current funding program by "reducing, deferring, or suspending the annual allocations to NCs," and eliminating neighborhood council rollover funds.

The mid-year recommendations were taken off the table after committee members and the CAO's office determined that the remaining money in the council system was mostly already accounted or budgeted for, Simons said.  

Councilman Bernard Parks said before the meeting that he would vote to approve the 50 percent cut. 

"I support it for the fact that we cannot continue to lay people off and have these funds in place," Parks said, referring to the neighborhood council budget. "We allocated $5 million this year and $4 million is not in use."

After the initial public comment section, the meeting was opened to public comment on the agenda's items. Parks announced that they had received 100 cards for public comment and would be limiting each comment to one minute.

Many neighborhood council members spoke in support of the system, distancing themselves from DONE, whose flaws were largely exposed in City Controller Wendy Greuel's 2010 neighborhood council audit.

 

"The City Council is under utilizing the NC system," Simons said in session, noting the councils' mobilization of volunteers during emergencies like the Chatsworth train crash and Yorba Linda fires. "This is a perfect example of how, if the City Council extended itself to the NC's, we could be of more assistance within our community and help bridge the gap of the budget crisis. We are worth far more in that way than the measely funds you will receive by cutting our budget."

 

Jay Handal, chair of the West L.A. Neighborhood Council, criticized the budget committee members: "You are responsible for the four million people [of L.A.] and frankly, you've done a pretty bad job. You spend a lot of time on elephants, a lot of time on pot, not a lot of time focusing on a city going down the tubes."

Leonard Shaffer, chair of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition and president of the Tarzana Neighborhood Council stressed the value of neighborhood council members: "You get us at minimal cost with a maximum return, we are the volunteers.

"We are quickly becoming the repository of the institutional memory of this city and we are becoming the experts within this city all based on what's happening here and the people who are leaving," added Shaffer. "Your vote today will either have a positive or negative effect on the city for years to come." 

Police officers were called to Council Chambers around 20 minutes after the meeting began when the room looked to have reached its 380-person capacity. People who were turned away by police at the Chambers' door were sent to the Board of Public Works room down the hall where they could listen to--but not see--the meeting. 

The 90-council system was established in 1999 following voter approval of City Charter Section 900. The amendment created a neighborhood council system that includes the citywide Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, which oversees the system.

 

Neighborhood councils across L.A. have for the last 10 years financed community improvements and projects that often make up for a lack of city funding. Councils have installed surveillance cameras in high crime areas, beautified parks and neighborhood landmarks, funded youth programs, and updated technology for police and fire departments. 

Last spring, the budget committee recommended a 78 percent cut in funding to the neighborhood councils. But after a strong showing of support by neighborhood council members, the councils ultimately took a much lower 10 percent budget cut, as Mayor Villaraigosa had initially proposed. That slashed their budgets from $50,000 to $45,000.

The CAO report acknowledged the expected neighborhood council reaction: "These curtailments are all politically unpopular and gaining Council support will be difficult. The NCs have the ability to mobilize and rally Council support in a short timeframe."

But many, including Simons, questioned the timing of the release of the report, which she said came at about 4:58 p.m. Friday with the announcement that the recommendations would be reviewed by the Budget and Finance Committee Monday at 1 p.m.

 

"It gave us very little time to meet," Simons said.

In a four-and-a-half hour meeting Saturday, more than 70 neighborhood council members came together to craft a response to the CAO report, Box said.

 

The statement called for a "partnership between the elected officials at City Hall and the elected representatives of our 90 neighborhood councils" and cited the City Charter in the council system's right to funding.

Neighborhood council members have one day to organize before the recommendations are taken to City Council. 

"We need to flood the City Council e-mail with letters saying, 'Leave the neighborhood councils alone,'" Simons said. "They need to know that the support for the system is out there. Even if it's a loss on Wednesday, it's not necessarily a game-finishing touchdown. There's still time on the clock for this one." 

---

Reach reporter John Guenther here. Reach reporter Callie Schweitzer here. Join Neon Tommy's Facebook fan page or follow us on Twitter.