New Charter, New Doors

Los Angeles is just starting to see the fruits of the voters’ decision in June to adopt a streamlined, modernized city charter. Earlier this month the City Council confirmed the seven men and women nominated by the mayor to the new Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, created by the new city charter. It is these seven who will oversee the network of neighborhood councils that the new charter will generate across Los Angeles, grass-roots caucuses designed to close the gap between the city’s far-flung communities and City Hall.

But if that council action was a big step along the way to a more responsive city government, a process now underway is no less important. Mayor Richard Riordan and a panel including Councilwoman Laura Chick are interviewing four finalists, culled from a field of some 70 applicants, to manage the new Department of Neighborhood Empowerment--a New Age mouthful for a department with a nuts-and-bolts mission. The man or woman finally chosen for the post, which will pay $90,000 to $150,000 a year, will be the point person for all manner of neighborhood gripes and dreams. He or she, along with the new board, will devise the rules and conditions under which the councils will operate.

Riordan must make his choice by Oct. 21, according to the new charter, and he must choose wisely. Rightly or wrongly, much of how the public comes to judge the new charter will hinge on this department and its first leader. Many residents in St. Paul, Minn., and Portland, Ore., where such councils have been around for a while, feel they have forged local solutions to local problems and given voice to community needs. That’s a tall order in Los Angeles, where distances are huge and frustration and anomie run deep.

The new charter requires neighborhood councils to reflect their diverse constituencies and interests including, for example, homeowners, renters, local business owners, schools and so on. But exactly how these councils will be chosen, what they will do, what resources they will have and how they will work with elected leaders and city staff are all questions the new board and its general manager will have to answer.

The pitfalls are obvious: Disenchantment and distrust run high in many communities, and there has always been the risk that the councils would become captive to angry homeowners seeking to shut themselves off from the rest of the city. But there are also heady possibilities. The councils might help neighborhoods bring about tangible, street-level improvements--neighborhood greening, longer library hours or new classes at the local park. To realize them, however, Riordan needs a person not only with proven management skills but who is also a good listener. Deep knowledge of Los Angeles is a must, too; this is no place for an outsider. But neither is it the spot for an inside political player.

Charter reform is really happening; a new Los Angeles city government is taking shape and a lot of choices must be carefully made.