Grievance

Policy No. 2014.01.1 (Revised August 18, 2014) Neighborhood Council Agenda Posting Requirements.

My rights and the public’s right were denied to speak and have action taken on a recommendation of the LA-32 NC’s Public Safety Committee,  host a “National Night Out” event within the Boundaries of the LA-32 NC.  
ARTICLE VII COMMITTEES AND THEIR DUTIES
Section 3: Committee Creation and Authorization
D. All committee recommendations shall be presented to the General Board Meeting for discussion and action.
This occurred as result of a series of violations beginning the necessary posting requirements as cited by the B.O.N.C. Resolution Policy Number 201401.1 Item #2  Neighborhood Councils shall post agendas of all Board and Committee Meetings on their web site or, on a page available to them on the EmpowerLA web site.  Such postings shall be Brown Act compliant.
The president at the special Meeting of the Executive Board, held on June 30, 2016  stated that at the direction of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment and the City Attorney there would be no consideration of the recommended item by the Public Safety Committee because the Chair of that Board had violated the this policy.  To the contrary the Chair of the Committee actually went beyond his duty to not only post the meeting in Compliance with the Brown Act, he took it upon himself to include notification to the LA-32 NC Webmaster about the meeting.  
The individuals who were responsible for any violations were as follows, per the LA-32 NC By-Laws as approved by D.O.N.E. on September 01, 2015.  

ARTICLE VI OFFICERS 
Section 2: Duties and Powers - 
B. The Vice President shall: 
3. Moderate all forms of social media (Web Page, Facebook, Yahoo Group). 

D. The Recording Secretary shall: 
2. Notify the public and the Department of LA-32 NC meetings. 

E. The Corresponding Secretary shall: 
1. Notify the public of all LA-32 NC General and Executive Committee meetings, by posting visible notices at a minimum of five (5) locations as required by City ordinance at least seventy-two (72) hours in advance of the meeting. Additional outreach methods may include, mailing notices to active members, newsletters, e-mail, street banners, and a 
website.  And    
4. Work closely with the Membership & Outreach Chair to devise methods to increase membership and attendance to LA-32 NC meetings, as specified in Article VIII.

ARTICLE VII COMMITTEES AND THEIR DUTIES 
Section 1: Standing Committees - Standing Committees are permanent committees. The following Standing Committees will be ongoing for the continued success of LA-32 NC: 
F. Membership and Outreach Committee - all Committees shall work in cooperation with Outreach Committee to achieve goals as described above in Article V Section 11. Devise methods to increase membership and attendance to LA-32 NC meetings, and shall work closely with the Corresponding Secretary. 

2. LA-32 NC shall maintain a web site presence to disseminate information to council Stakeholders and others interested in LA-32 NC. 

The Chair of the outreach committee is the President of LA-32NC; the President is the primary responsible person for the alleged violations.

The then Chair of the Public Safety Committee had complied with all his duties and responsibilities through notification to all members of the Board and Public Posting that a meeting was to take place.  

It was therefore a dereliction of duty on the part of the President as Chair of the Membership and Outreach Committee, The Vice President, The Recording Secretary and the Corresponding Secretary who caused the denial the stakeholder’s rights, by not carrying out their duties of website management upon being notified that the Public Safety Committee was having a meeting.

In addition to this they failed to adhere to the B.O.N.C. 2014-01.1 Policy #9 that states:  If a Neighborhood Council is notified by the Department prior to any Board or Committee meeting that a confirmed violation of this policy has been reported the Neighborhood Council shall repost in accordance with this Policy.  (Not Done)

If the scheduled meeting cannot be reposted in compliance with this Policy, the Neighborhood Council shall cancel the meeting and make reasonable efforts to inform its stakeholders.  (Not Done) rather the Public Safety Committee members were threaten with a filing of a grievance by a stakeholder and continued interruptions by the Treasurer, who additionally participated in the Public Safety Committee meeting, that we were holding an illegal meeting because the chair was not able to get the webmaster to post the meeting on the website.   There never was a mention, that it was not the responsibility of the Chair of the Committee to have the webmaster post on the LA-32 NC website or that there were possible remedies if such was the case outlined in this section of the policy.

If it becomes necessary to cancel Board or Committee meetings Neighborhood Councils are encouraged to contact the City Attorney for further guidance.  It must be made known that the meeting of the Public Safety Committee Meeting was scheduled in part at the request of the President to the Committee for the purposes of discussing two important items.  One the president had received notice from a stakeholder that Fire Hydrants in the Rosehill Community of the LA-32 NC had been painted red, white and blue and secondly for the committee to discuss for possible action participation in the “National Night Out” program.  There had never been a mention of where or how it was to be accomplished.  The Public Safety Committee complied with all its notification duties.  There was no need to cancel the meeting, because even the stakeholder that threatens had not yet submitted his grievance.  Further no copy of the grievance was produced or discussed by the President before making the unilateral decision to invalidate the Public Safety Committee recommendation.  Reason for invalidation was that D.O.N.E. and the City Attorney were investigating a possible grievance.  Guilty before charged rather than making every reasonable attempt to make the Public Safety Committee’s hard work a reality.

What makes this more egregious, is that the explanation as to why the committee’s recommendation would not be considered was because of a violation of B.O.N.C. Resolution Policy No. 2014-01.1 (Revised August 18, 2014).

I as a stakeholder had to wait until I saw a video recording of the Executive Meeting of June 30, to be able to hear the alleged policy violation.

In the referenced policy 2014-01.1 item #8 states; these posting requirement shall be appended to and become a part of the bylaws of all current and future Neighborhood Councils and any violation of this policy may become the subject of a grievance.

Not only was this policy never included in the LA-32 NC By-Laws recommended and approved by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment on September 01, 2015.  Because of the non-inclusion I had to reference them from another Neighborhood Councils By-Laws that had incorporated them.  

Therefore I include this as an addition violation that has led to deprivation of my rights.

Necessary corrective actions to bring a just and fair resolution of the violations quoted.
(1)    The violations in this grievance are related to funding issues, because the original LA-32 NC Public Safety Committee’s recommendation was for a local “National Night Out” event to be funded for no more than $500.00 as opposed to the Executive Committee’s Recommendation for $100-$200 funding for participation at the “National Night Out” event to take place at the police station outside of LA-32 NC’s territory.  The Executive Committee’s recommendation should be invalidated on the basis that the Executive Committee is composed of 5 officers 4 of who failed in carrying out their duties to make every effort to ensure that the stakeholders rights to public comment on the Public Safety Committee’s recommendation.   Their failure was the cause for the violations and would unjustly reward them by allowing the Executive Board Recommendation to stand.  There was unanimous public comment of the July 6, 2016 LA-32 NC’s general board meeting opposing the spending of funds for the function outside of the LA-32 NC’s territory, all public comment was for funds to be spend within LA-NC’s coverage area.
(2)    All LA-32 NC Board members should be reminded that it is their fiduciary duty is to listen to and represent the interest of the stakeholders.  They must take into consideration Public Comment both at the Committee level and at the General Board meetings that overwhelmingly opposes or supports any stated recommendation.  If public participation is to be taken seriously the General Board must listen, discuss and include consideration of the public comment, especially when it is unanimous in its support or non-support of Committee Recommendations.
(3)    This situation indicates lack of knowledge and understanding of ethical and fiduciary duties of Board members to the stakeholders.  It also shows Lack of knowledge and understanding of the responsibilities of the Executive Board Members as to the requirements set upon them as website managers.  The President as the Chair of the Membership and Outreach committee failed  in her responsibility, the Vice President Failed in his responsibility, the Recording Secretary failed it his responsibility, the Corresponding Secretary failed in her responsibility with direct website oversight and management.   In addition to these failures the Treasurer fail in her responsibility to inform and assist her fellow Executive Board members in carrying out the process under B.O.N.C. 2014-01.1 to quickly resolve the website posting problem rather than participating and at the same time erroneously warning and supporting a threat that the Public Safety Committee was allegedly conducting a meeting in violation of the Brown Act.   No such violation occurred.  The only possible violation of the Brown Act was caused by the failure of the Executive Board Members duties to timely carry out their duties.  General Board Members should have challenged the ruling by President, as stated in Roberts Rules of Order, in order for the Public Safety Committee’s recommendation to considered and voted upon.
(4)    The Board must also know and understand the LA-32 NC By-Laws as it relates to absolute duty to consider all recommendations by committees of the Board.  The recommendations cannot be arbitrarily ignored without discussion by stakeholders.  The president decided based on a declaration that it the Board could not consider the Public Safety Committee’s recommendation per instructions by D.O.N.E. and the Los Angeles City Attorney until an investigation of an alleged grievance for a possible violation of B.O.N.C. 2014-01.1.  Because there was no public right to comment on this arbitrary decision by the President the Public was not afforded the ability to find additional detailed information about what possible violation might have occurred.  Stating the Title of a resolution, B.O.N.C. 2014-01.1 is insufficient.
(5)    Further the above item also points out to the fact that the LA-32 NC’s By-Laws as recommended and approved by D.O.N.E. on September 01, 2015 are not compliance with B.O.N.C. 2014-01.1 which mandates the resolution B.O.N.C. 2014-01.1 be “shall be appended to and made a part of the bylaws of all current and future Neighborhood Councils and any violation of this policy may become the subject of a grievance”.   
(6)    The D.O.N.E. should place the Board on Exhaustive Measures, nullify any actions, especially funding actions, of the current board and allow for only those actions required to make the bylaws of LA-32 NC to be in compliance with B.O.N.C. 2014-01.1. 
(7)    It is understood that this is a new board and many of its member have little or no-experience about the LA-32 NC and its duties, rights and responsibilities.  I recommend that a by-law be incorporated that allows for alternating Board Member Elections that allow for one-half of the Board Members to be seated in alternating elections, in other words one half of the Board seats would be up for election every two years.  Giving opportunity for experienced General Board Members to help guide the new board member through the numerous requirements of being on the LA-32 NC Board.
(8)    I also recommend that because there have been violations they should all be consider on a  group and on an individual basis, so that none by themselves shall invalidate any of the other violations cited.  If a violation is not found with merit it should not have an effective of the validity of any other portion of this grievance.
(9)    Time being of the essence and the fact that funds are to expended, the resolution of this grievance is imperative.