The Neighborhood Council

Through the Neighborhood Watch, I learned about Community Emergency Response Team (C.E.R.T.) training.  The Los Angeles Fire Department offers a series of seven evening classes that attempt to teach people what to do in the event of a natural disaster such as an earthquake, or a manmade disaster such as an act of terrorism or civil unrest.  Over the seven weeks (there is one class a week), you learn a bit of first aid, a few search and rescue techniques, some organizing skills, and you get some advice on what you might need in the way of tools and supplies for your own personal safety and survival.  I found the information quite useful, if somewhat limited in scope.  The limited scope encouraged me to do some supplemental studies where I got some in-depth information on the same subjects the C.E.R.T. classes covered.  I am continuing with that study since there doesn’t seem to be any limit to the scope of being prepared.  Even the years of my Boy Scout training and my attaining the rank of Eagle Scout were only the beginning of learning what it means to Be Prepared, but that subject will be several blog entries of its own.  You may have noticed that the title of this entry is “The Neighborhood Council.”  That’s what I want to tell you about today. 

I have known of the Neighborhood Council for a number of years, but, until recently, I hadn’t paid much attention to what it did or who was involved.  At one of the CERT classes, some flyers were handed out which gave information about and sought candidates for the upcoming Neighborhood Council elections.  I took one of the flyers with me when we went home after the class.  It sat on my desk for a day or so and then I looked at it more carefully.  There was a website address given and, out of curiosity, I had a look at it.  There were some candidates already listed, so I looked at those.  I noticed that they were running in regions.  I figured out which region I was living in and looked to see what candidates were running there.  There was only one and I didn’t at all agree with what he saw as the immediately and long-term needs of the community.  There were two open seats for my region.  I just couldn’t let it go.  If this person was the only one running, a dissenting voice would be needed just to keep things in perspective.  I submitted myself as a candidate.  That one innocent act of seeing a need and deciding to fill it was the tiny pebble that started an avalanche in my life. 

The day I submitted my name was just five days before the deadline.  I thought that at that late date it was unlikely that very many other people would be entering the race, and it is a “race,” as I have come to find out.  By the time the deadline arrived there were sixty-two candidates running.  Between the time I entered my name as a candidate for my region and the arrival of deadline, I decided that I might have a better chance of getting elected if I ran “at-large,” in other words for the whole area of Silver Lake, rather than only for my region.  I withdrew as a regional candidate and put my name in as an “at-large” candidate. 

Now I needed to know more about what I had gotten myself into.  I attended the next meeting of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council (SLNC) Governing Board.  It was better and worse than I expected.  I know what politics is like in Los Angeles and this was just a local version of the same old story.  There are people who expect government to do things for them and there are people who want to be left alone to do things for themselves.  In Los Angeles, there seems to be a great many more of the former than the latter involved in any given political discussion.  The lack of civility in the comments and questions from the community to the council members was not completely unexpected, but I was unpleasantly surprised by the amount of name-calling and childish tantrum throwing that occurred when some people didn’t get the results they were demanding.  There was also a fair amount of squabbling over technicalities and procedural issues which took time away from their actually getting through the items on their agenda.  In other words, not a lot got done.  The most contentious issue that came up, was discussed and decided upon, but was later ruled invalid by the bureaucracy at the city level that oversees these Neighborhood Councils.

 

I subsequently attended a couple of committee meetings, one dealing with Public Safety and another with Planning and Urban Design.  The public who attended those meetings had a very similar attitude to those I had seen and heard at the Governing Board meeting.  I was getting a very good idea what I was getting into. 

After discussing my candidacy with a few other like-minded people, I decided to go forward.  If I am elected, which seems rather unlikely, I hope to be able to add a sane and rational voice to the council.  I have acquired a working knowledge of the fundamentals of good government by studying U.S. and world history.  Perhaps, I will be able to share some of those fundamentals with the group.  If nothing else, I have a foundation of knowledge to stand upon and no real axe to grind in being on the council.  My purpose in running is simply to contribute some civility, rationality, frugality and common sense to this Neighborhood Council.  From what I’ve seen so far, those things would be valuable to that organization and of benefit to this community.