Public Records Reveals: Plot Uncovered to Paralyze Venice Neighborhood
Council
By Jim
Smith
Leaders of the Grass Roots Venice
Neighborhood Council (GRVNC) have learned, through the release of public
records, that several Los Angeles city departments were secretly monitoring
their activities. Ultimately, members of a working group within the city
government succeeded in overturning the neighborhood council’s election
and rendering the GRVNC unable to function.
The documents also show that city officials
believed racism against white Venetians was rampant, and was coming from other
whites, including those on the GRVNC! While Venice avoided rioting last summer
by angry white people, hostility toward the neighborhood council persisted, as
documents show.
“Venice has gone
rogue...” declared a Dept. of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) staff member
while asking the League of Women Voters not to assist in the GRVNC election. A
Human Relations Commission member warned against allowing neighborhood councils
too much latitude: “Expecting the NC’s to develop their own
procedures, or to develop a city-wide procedure is too
risky...”
The documents, obtained
through a public records request by Venice resident John Davis in December,
reveal that DONE convinced the GRVNC Board to submit a challenge of its June
2004 election to an arbitrator that DONE knew was biased against the council. In
addition, one email (Exhibit G) is from a DONE official to the arbitrator,
suggesting to him how he should frame his decision. GRVNC was offered no such
access to the arbitrator.
Davis
requested the public records after he and eight other elected GRVNC Board
members were put out of office in November. Davis said he was surprised by the
number of people and city departments that had been involved in monitoring
GRVNC: “Even the Mayor’s office and the local city council office
(CD11) appear on the email list discussing what to do to the certified
neighborhood council. Why they never contacted GRVNC is still a
mystery,”
Other community leaders
displaced by the arbitrator’s decision, which was held by DONE for a week
before being released on Nov. 16, include: DeDe McCrary, Bridget Graham, Emily
Winters, Dr. Alice Stek, Zoe Garaway, Deborah Krall, Michael McGuffin and Dennis
Hathaway. DONE, acting on its own, also refused to recognize four additional
Board appointees – Francisco Letelier, Inge Mueller, Kristen Weirick and
Don Geagan. By eliminating the four, who had been functioning for several
months, DONE rendered the Board unable to achieve a
quorum.
The documents also show that
the arbitrator, Gary de la Rosa, a staff member of the Human Relations
Commission (HRC), was deeply involved in GRVNC affairs even before the June
election. He and others apparently believed allegations by anti-GRVNC activists
in Venice that the Board was fostering an atmosphere of racism against whites.
There was no attempt by DONE or any other city officials to contact any officers
of the GRVNC about the allegations. GRVNC was unaware that it was the topic of
discussion and derision by the city officials, whose email list included LAPD
officers; deputy city attorneys; an aide to Councilmember Cindy Miscikowski; and
a Venice resident, Rick Feibusch, a resident who was hostile to the GRVNC; in
addition to DONE and HRC.
The
neighborhood council is prohibited from functioning officially due to the
arbitration, but GRVNC officers are calling for the arbitrator’s decision
to be thrown out because of bias, and are appealing to the Board of Neighborhood
Commissioners (BONC) about the interference of the DONE staff which are under
its jurisdiction.
In the past year, the
GRVNC has taken strong positions against Playa Vista and LAX expansion; joined
with artists in opposing a new Ocean Front Walk ordinance promoted by the city;
and advocated for 24-hour restrooms on the beach that could be used by the
homeless and others.
Posted: Tue - February 1, 2005 at 05:33 PM