Feedback from the SLANC Town Hall on October 1, 2011

These comments were received from the South Los Angeles Alliance of Neighborhood Councils (SLANC) members at their October 2, 2011 town hall.  A SLANC work group had already reviewed the motions and prepared a response that was presented at the town hall to the other members to take back to their Neighborhood Council for adoption.  The SLANC's proposed response can be viewed here.


At the town hall, the work group members presented the response to the other members, and there was general agreement about the recommendations in the response.  In additional, the following other comments were made:


General

• The motions do not identify what the problems are - hard to come up with a solution if the problem is not clearly identified
• The Department seems to be doing less while the volunteers are asked to do more
• The Neighborhood Council should be given ninety days notice for any changes in the system

Training

• Candidates should be trained before running
• Neighborhood Councils should decide the consequences for not training
• Don't swear any elected Board members in until they are trained
• There should be a standardized number of days that candidates have to be trained by and the Department should monitor it

Regional Governance

• Have Neighborhood Councils share best practices through online systems like "Base Camp"
• Doesn't have to be a formal structure
• Should be able to opt out of financial administrative help
• Update the Board member database with interns so people can contact one another more easily though Neighborhood Councils also have to be clear to each other how they get on one another's agendas, too

Funding

• The danger of having Neighborhood Council's accept donations is that City Council will further cut funds if the Neighborhood Councils are getting it elsewhere
• Treasurers should not have to do the paperwork and have the card, which encourages fraud.  The card holder should be separate from the Treasurer who collects all the paperwork
• The Neighborhood Council funding program needs to have accountants review the numbers so it should be moved back to the Controller's Office
• Need an electronic system to interface with the Neighborhood Council funding