UPDATE: 50+ Neighborhood Council Leaders ask the Mayor for a Seat at the Table

Date: May 28, 2019 at 5:45:30 AM PDT
To: Mayor & City Council
Subject: Citizens’ Selection Committee / DONE GM

Mayor Eric Garcetti and Members of the Los Angeles City Council,

Attached (and copied below) is a letter to you from Neighborhood Council Stakeholders requesting the formation of a Citizens’ Selection Committee to assist in the appointment of a new General Manager for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.

There are no bcc’s associated with this email.  However, this letter will be circulated to NC stakeholders and other interested parties.

We look forward to working with you in this important matter.

Jack

————————–

City of Los Angeles

Honorable Mayor Eric Garcetti

Honorable Members of the Los Angeles City Council

Los Angeles City Hall

200 N. Spring Street

Los Angeles, CA 90012

May 27, 2019

Re: DONE General Manager

Dear Mayor Garcetti and City Council:

The undersigned, comprised of former and current Neighborhood Council Leaders as well as Community Leaders throughout the City of Los Angeles, request your consideration of this proposal to strengthen our citywide system of neighborhood councils.

Article IX of the City Charter establishes a framework for creating an operating Plan, a Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (“DONE”) to assist and arrange support, a Board of Neighborhood Commissioners to set policy, and a General Manager (“GM”) to oversee the Department; all on behalf of the councils themselves, now 99 in number.

With the recent announcement of the departure of DONE’s GM, we see this transition as a unique opportunity to adopt the lessons learned and to recruit and appoint a leader for DONE who will bring new focus and effectiveness to managing its day-to-day operations.

We believe it is imperative that people who know and understand the system best –neighborhood council members themselves– be part of the candidate selection process. We ask you impanel a Citizens Committee similar in structure and intent as prescribed by the Los Angeles Administrative Code, § 23.145.2, and assemble a team of knowledgeable citizens to help guide the process and make recommendations to promote the best possible outcome.

DONE’s “mission” has both formally and informally evolved over time, as have various understandings of what truly falls within the Department’s purview. Presently, there is not a concise mission statement for the Department, or a job description outlining the GM’s responsibilities. Without these, or a nuanced understanding of how DONE’s operations directly affect its constituency, identifying the qualities and skill sets needed for someone to succeed in this role will continue to be challenging.

As such, and while no means exhaustive in approach, we would like to suggest a potential path for the formation of a Citizen’s Selection Committee:

• The Committee could be comprised of up to eleven (11) people made up of Mayoral and City Council Appointments which should include a majority of present or former NC board members with at least four (4) years of operational experience

• Candidate searches would be open to the public to invite and give equal weight to applicants from outside the Department and City Family

• During the search process, we respectfully request that a former or current NC member be selected as an Interim GM.

Allowing NC leaders, present or past, to participate in the selection process of the Department’s leader will benefit the system, the individual councils, and most importantly, the stakeholders they represent.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this request.

Respectfully,