“Did These LA Officials Violate Federal Court and City Hall Rules?” by Daniel Guss
(It's a rhetorical question. Of course they did.)
@TheGussReport on Twitter - Did you hear the one about the elected LA City Hall officials who were told the rules, but did as they pleased anyway?
Of course you did. So did everyone else around the United States in recent years, as a parade of them were sent - and are still lining up to go - to the federal pokey.
Well, a few levels down the City Hall policy food chain, below City Council, Mayor, Controller and City Attorney, still further down from the lobbyists, unions, departments and media is the bottom rung of official Los Angeles political power.
Or whatever is left of it at that level.
It’s where you’ll find LA’s ninety-nine Neighborhood Councils, or NCs, overseen by the largely ineffective and appropriately acronymic DONE, or Department Of Neighborhood Empowerment, a bureaucracy that is largely in-place to keep the hoi polloi engaged but under control.
DONE would rather you think of Neighborhood Councils this way.
Trust me, DONE’s description isn’t wrong, but mine is more accurate.
DONE is where you’ll soon likely see some serious re-education, as they are fond of calling it in Xinjiang. Just don’t hold your breath waiting for actual accountability.
***
On Tuesday, across the way from The People’s Republic of LA City Hall, disgraced former attorney Thomas Peters will find out how much of the rest of his life he will spend in federal prison for his role in the LADWP scandal as a top lieutenant to then-City Attorney Mike Feuer. (Hillel Aron capably explained what led to Peters’ January ‘22 plea deal.)
Federal prosecutors, Peters’ defense attorneys, his supporters and the Defendant himself will have their say on Tuesday, before Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr. gets the final word.
But a few dozen members from a few Neighborhood Councils will not get their say, though not for a lack of effort, according to an odd late filing.
***
Last week, an envelope with the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council listed as the return address, was mailed to Blumenfeld. It contained a four-page letter explaining why the judge should throw the book at Peters. Attached was a related October 2020 LA Times story by Dakota Smith.
According to court records, the envelope’s senders also included the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, the West L.A. Neighborhood Council and the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, though the letter to the judge contained within the envelope is vague on their role in mailing it.
In the Peters file, the clerk added a deficiency notice, informing the senders that their communication violates Local Rule 83-2.5, no letters to the Judge.
It is not clear whether Blumenfeld will issue a subsequent order regarding the attempted communication or just let it go at sentencing.
***
While NC board members are allowed to identify themselves as members of a given Neighborhood Council while speaking for themselves as individuals, the boards are not authorized to take a position on issues outside of their City Hall purview. But the return address on the envelope - which indicates that the communication is at the very least from the Eagle Rock NC as a whole - will now put it and perhaps the other NCs named in the court records, under scrutiny for going beyond the scope of their clear and limited mandate.
It should also draw scrutiny to DONE, which is responsible for overseeing NC compliance, but where accountability is rare.
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who chairs the City Council committee that oversees DONE, Vanessa Serrano, Interim GM of DONE and various members of the misbehavin’ NCs could not be reached for comment. A spokesperson for DONE emailed me Monday evening to say that they are not aware of the situation, but did not respond when more detail was provided.
Same.
As it.
Ever was.
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(Daniel Guss, MBA, was nominated for three 2022 LA Press Club awards and was a runner-up in 2021 and 2020. He is City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and has been a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)