Neighborhood Meetings Considered for L.A. Council Sessions : Proposal: October meeting in the Valley would launch attempt to bring panel closer to constituents.

In an attempt to bring City Hall to the people, two Los Angeles City Council members proposed Tuesday holding regular meetings in neighborhoods throughout the city, beginning with an October meeting in the San Fernando Valley.

The proposal by council members Laura Chick and Mike Feuer calls for city officials to arrange for a meeting at Pierce College in Woodland Hills with an agenda of Valley-related issues.

“The purpose is to let the San Fernando Valley know that it is part of the city,” said Chick, whose West Valley district includes parts of Woodland Hills.

Chick said she has considered the idea for many months but found that after the Northridge earthquake there were few, if any, buildings in the Valley that could accommodate such a meeting.

The meeting will also demonstrate, she said, that 18 months after the quake the Valley is well on its way to a full recovery. “Holding a special City Council meeting in the west San Fernando Valley will help to provide further recognition of triumph and rebuilding efforts,” she said.

A second motion by Feuer, the newly elected member representing parts of the Westside and the Valley, instructs city officials to study the costs and feasibility of scheduling regular council meetings in other parts of the city and at night when more residents can attend. A council committee headed by Feuer will consider the motion today.

Chick and Feuer described the idea as long overdue and necessary to combat the long-held perception that City Hall is inaccessible and out of touch with its citizens.

“I’d like to see us meet at every region of the city and become more accessible,” Feuer said.

The idea is not novel and is not without problems. When former Councilman Mike Woo ran for mayor in 1993, he proposed holding one of the council’s three weekly meetings in the Valley, which represents about 35% of the city’s population. He also called for night meetings and a way to allow residents to testify by telephone.

Woo was defeated by Richard Riordan and his idea has not been pursued until now.

According to city officials, the full council has met outside of City Hall only four times. Three of those meetings were in the Valley and one was in the Harbor area.

The last time the full council met outside of City Hall was in 1990 when the 15-member panel trekked to North Hollywood for a special meeting to discuss the impact of defense cutbacks on the Valley.

Prior to that, the council met in 1989 at the Sunland-Tujunga Municipal Building for a two-hour session that attracted about 200 residents to discuss various community issues, such as the expansion of a nearby landfill.

But city officials who have arranged such trips say those meetings have been replete with logistical headaches and light on substance.

“It’s usually just a lot of proclamations given out and stuff like that,” said a longtime council aide who attended the Sunland-Tujunga meeting.

The most arduous task is selecting a site that can accommodate the 15 council members, city staff, police security and seats for 200 to 300 residents, said Pat Healy, chief legislative assistant to the city clerk’s office.

The City Hall chambers where the council regularly meets seats 380 people and is wired with microphones and speakers so that all testimony can be heard and recorded. Television cameras are also mounted on the walls to televise the meetings live on cable.

Electronic panels on the horseshoe-shaped dais also record votes and keep track of the amount of time each council members is allowed to speak.

Healy said if regular meetings are held outside of City Hall, city workers must make sure such electronic gadgets can be installed and operated from the new site.

“There are some logistical issues in terms of setting it up,” she said.

Another drawback may be cost. If meetings are held at night, city workers may have to be paid overtime, Healy said. The city has not kept track of the cost of such meetings outside City Hall in the past, she said.

None of the four previous council meetings held outside of City Hall were televised live for cable, although the city did televise a mock council meeting at Dodger Stadium during a citywide earthquake drill in 1990.