December 2007 Archives

In the recent Winnetka Neighborhood Council election, there were 11 declared candidates and one write-in candidate vying for four seats.

More than 160 stakeholders voted in the election, which was held at Canoga Park Bowl.

The four candidates receiving the most votes were Jozef T. Essavi with 93 votes, J.J. Popowich Jr. with 72 votes, MaryAnn Smiley with 63 votes and Erick Lace with 51 votes.

Daniel Wiseman, a member of the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council, recently e-mailed the following about the possibility of the City Clerk getting involved in Neighborhood Council elections. He writes:

The central issues are:

1. Most NC elections have occurred just fine, thank you.

2. With rare exceptions, all challenges to elections have been from disgruntled “losers” in an election ... thinly based on some procedural “error,” which was not accepted by the “Final Decision Maker.'

3. Elections are a time-consuming NC activity made more frustrating by two things: a confused and confusing DONE (Department of Neighborhood Empowerment) complex and an unread set of “Citywide NC Election Procedures,” which even the “readers” didn't seem to understand.

So, it was not surprising that the NCRC (Neighborhood Council Review Commission) thought the NCs wanted relief and asked the City Clerk to step up and help them.

However, consider the following:

1. When was the last time you saw an increased involvement of a City Agency make things easier?

According to election results, the members of the 2007-08 Chatsworth Neighborhood Council are:

Dan Huffman, Scott Munson, Jeff Hammond, Chuck Knolls, Allen Glazer, Varoujan Deirmenjian, Vicki Briskman, Dorothy Marie Allison, Steve Columbus, Jelena Csanyi and Linda Ross.

Learn about the plans concerning the expansion of the Westfield malls in Woodland Hills and Canoga Park at the next meeting of the Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council, which will have a town-hall format.

The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 12 and will take place at Woodland Hills Academy across from Kaiser Hospital on DeSoto Avenue at Burbank Avenue in Woodland Hills.

The public will also have an opportunity to hear pros and cons on the Mayor's proposal to keep an obsolete tax on our cell/phone bills, because “the city needs the money.”

The Nov. 29 meeting of the North Hills West Neighborhood Council got very heated when BongHwan Kim, interim general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, attended and acknowledged that DONE's grievance policy needs to be updated and be more “transparent.”

DONE is the city agency that works with neighborhood councils throughout Los Angeles.

According to a press release from resident Peggy Burgess, the board members and residents who filled the meeting room were ready to fight anticipated grievances that had been lodged against the council.

Their main argument against DONE was that board members were given copies of all written and verbal complaints within five days, as required by law, her release states.

The next meeting of the Northridge West Neighborhood Council will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11, at Beckford Avenue Elementary School, 19130 Tulsa St., Northridge.

The main agenda item will be the proposed Las Lomas development in the North Valley.

The agenda for the Dec. 11 meeting will be updated the weekend before the meeting. To see it, go to www.northridgewest.org.

The Northridge West Neighborhood Council meets at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of every month.

For more information about the council, call (818) 366-5226.

The Winnetka Neighborhood Council is helping some local schools deal with a shortage of books. It recently allocated $2,200 to buy books at the following elementary schools: Fulbright, Limeric, Sunnybrae and Winnetka.

Also, the council a few months ago donated $2,500 to Sunnybrae Elementary to make improvements to its lunch area and student garden.