It’s the Quickest Route to City Hall

At his home in Santa Ana, Dave Lopez regularly fields calls from residents complaining about prostitutes walking Harbor Boulevard, commercial auto repair in private home garages and illegal home additions.

And there are scores of residents around Santa Ana just like Lopez, doing the same thing.

When they get the calls, they decide which ones are most important, then call City Hall for action. And they’re heard.

Lopez and the others head a network of 60 tightly organized neighborhood associations that blanket the city. They serve as liaisons between residents and municipal bureaucrats by fielding, filtering and prioritizing complaints and concerns and passing them along to city officials for action.

It’s a layer of government that, some say, makes City Hall more responsive than ever to its citizens -- or, others complain cynically, shields politicians from having to deal directly with annoying gadflies.

Association leaders essentially serve as unpaid City Hall representatives in the community.

The neighborhood leaders “end up having a real strong understanding of specific neighborhood issues,” said Councilman Jose Solorio, who, like other council members, only rarely attends association meetings. “They bring information to the council that’s viable and that affects more than one individual. The leaders tend to be active and well-known so we take them seriously. We know they represent more than just themselves.”

The associations are also valued by city officials for resolving some problems without bothering City Hall, or identifying problems that might otherwise escape the attention of the city because of staffing cutbacks.

The associations “work because people like me have a vested interest in their neighborhoods,” said Lopez, a retired school custodian. “It does mean that we are doing free work for city hall, but we do get [satisfaction].”

Lopez, who spends days taking care of his grandchildren, said he became involved because of concerns about neighborhood upkeep.

The associations also meet regularly under an umbrella organization known as ComLink, or Communication Linkage Forum. It was formed in 1989 with five neighborhood associations representing about 60 neighborhoods. Association rosters list about 12,000 people.

Cities including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena, and Anaheim also have created neighborhood associations, although each city’s operate differently. More than 80 such groups have sprung up in Los Angeles since 2001, and unlike the ones in Santa Ana that meet civilly and generally promote accord with City Hall, the ones in Los Angeles have proved to be boisterous stages to protest city decisions.

Santa Ana’s association leaders say they’d rather bank on diplomacy than confrontation.

While Santa Ana City Hall is criticized for giving a cool reception to individual, complaining citizens, association leaders are welcomed warmly because they have developed credibility and a rapport with city officials.

Because he employs that strategy, Lopez jokes that his neighbors believe he has “the magic touch” in City Hall.

Evangeline Gawronski, president of ComLink, also found that city officials are more likely to take her call than that of a person they do not know.

“I don’t want to be considered a thorn in anyone’s side. I like to feel I’m a partner,” said Gawronski, of the Wilshire Square Neighborhood. “I’m a person who does not attack but works with them.”

Involvement has proven to be a springboard to City Council election for Lisa Bist, of the Wilshire Square Neighborhood, and Alberta Christy, a former ComLink president.

A graffiti removal program was established with help from the associations, which can use city paint to cover graffiti on common walls. Associations’ concern about fireworks led to the proposal of a city ordinance about when they can be purchased and used. Complaints about too many vehicles parking on a particular street has led to a City Hall study of permit parking. And after an ordinance restricting the operation of food truck vendors in neighborhoods was ruled unconstitutional, association members helped craft enforceable regulations.

In Santa Ana, six city employees are assigned to regularly attend association meetings, organize meetings of ComLink, print fliers to announce ComLink meetings and invite speakers from City Hall.

Alternately, City Hall uses associations to disseminate information and lobby for support about such issues as a proposed 37-story downtown office tower.

Stacy Anne Harwood, an assistant planning professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who has studied Santa Ana’s associations, said they effectively stifle the number of complaints aired at City Council meetings. But by taking their best shots, they get action, members say.

An association is “a conduit,” said Mary Bloom-Ramos, who heads the Eastside Neighborhood Assn. “It gets code enforcement to neighborhoods that haven’t seen a code enforcement officer in 20 years.”