Nine members of the Hollywood Studio District Neighborhood Council board say they have resigned after a city official forced them to spend $4,000 to sponsor an event held by the Sheriff’s Youth Foundation and threatened them with removal from the board if they failed to attend the event.
The mass exodus has left only two members on the board and sparked angry criticism of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment(DONE), which oversees the city’s 99 neighborhood councils.
A resignation letter signed by eight of the board members said they “vehemently objected to sponsoring or participating in this event because of the violent, white-supremacist, criminal gang activity historically and currently perpetrated by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.” It said when they raised their concerns to Mario Hernandez, the DONE official who announced the decision at a Feb. 8 meeting, he told them the matter was “not open for negotiation.”
DONE General Manager Raquel Beltran said in an email that her agency “is disappointed and sad about the board members’ decision to resign.” She defended DONE’s action, saying the event and the foundation were “a recommended partner in a previous discussion of the board, and no objections were raised about participating at that time.”
Mayor Karen Bass’ office said she has no comment.
‘He had taken it upon himself to pre-allocate our funds’
In January, the Hollywood Studio District council asked DONE to temporarily step in and take control of its operations as the council struggled to build its board, according to former board Chair Michael Tessler. Only 11 of its 20 open seats were filled and under its bylaws the council needed nine people for a quorum to vote on new members. Allowing DONE to exercise authority over the…
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