Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Wednesday promised to evaluate the city’s neighborhood council system, which was once touted as a way to give voice to local communities but often has been ignored by those in power.
Her comments on LAist’s AirTalk program follow the recent resignation of the former general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE), which oversees the city’s 99 councils. Raquel Beltran had come under increasing criticism for how she managed the neighborhood council system.
“I really want to have the whole system evaluated,” Bass said, adding that there can be “big differences in the capacity, the neighborhood involvement, the functioning.”
She noted that “[e]ven in one neighborhood, you might have multiple councils.” Bass said she wants to “really improve the system … Now that we have an opportunity to have a new general manager, it’s an opportunity to evaluate everything.”
Neighborhood councils want more details
“I’m glad that Mayor Bass is finally listening to the concerns of neighborhood councils,” said Lionel Mares of the Sun Valley Neighborhood Council. “We do need reform and changes.”
“I’m just curious what the mayor really has in mind,” said Kay Hartman, a member of the neighborhood council in Palms. “The direction she has in mind – it’s really hard to evaluate.”
“It’s hard to respond” to the mayor, said Damien Burke, who was once treasurer of the Hollywood Studio District Neighborhood Council. “She didn’t really say much.”
He recently resigned from the council when a representative of DONE demanded they make a donation to the Sheriff’s Youth Foundation over the objections of an overwhelming majority of the council. The foundation returned the money amid the…
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