DONE Audit. Laura Chick: "Audit Not About Giving the Department an Ugly Stick."

 By Sara Epstein

LA Controller Laura Chick posted her highly anticipated Performance and Financial Audit this week. In a nutshell, her report says that the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment needs a clear mission and more authority to monitor and assist Neighborhood Councils. Simple enough. What’s not to like? The answer to that depends, of course, on the reader’s bias. The “more authority’ for DONE concept has generated the most early heat.

In any case, in the audit’s wake, Chick has spent more than a little time explaining and clarifying. What follows is Chick’s on-air interview with Southern California Public Radio’s (KPCC-89.3) Larry Mantle.

Mantle:  City Controller Laura Chick, share with us what you found after conducting this audit of the Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.

Chick:  What the audit found is that after about seven years since Charter reform was put into place, creating a DONE and Neighborhood Councils, we've had quite a successful Phase One, which has been about getting, I think about 86 different Neighborhood Councils from all around this giant city of ours, started, certified, elected, boards, up and running.  The audit also said the very expansive vision the elected leaders had for Neighborhood Councils, for the DONE, has not yet been achieved, and that Phase Two is a bit over due.  And, Phase 2 needs to be about getting the Department empowered.  It's kind of ironic to say, "empower the Department of Empowerment," but empower the Department of Empowerment to serve the Neighborhood Councils in the way that they need to be served.

Mantle:  Is part of this challenge that there is so much gray area, that with the reformation of the charter, with the creation of Neighborhood Councils, much of this was left unspecified, uncodified, and that this is still kind of a long term process, of establishing how they'll operate

Chick:  Exactly, you are exactly right.  And by the way, I very much know that, because I was at the table, both on the City Council and the committee that created the concept and moved it forward, of Neighborhood Councils -- that was Joel Wachs, Mark Ridley Thomas and myself. Then, I chaired the City Council committee, for it seems like at least a year, to implement all of the changes in the City Charter that the public had voted on in 1999.  The Charter was purposely left vague and flexible because this was the great experiment.  We were going into unexplored territory, and knowing what a diverse city we have, and that the whole concept was to let Neighborhood Councils be shaped by the people. Now it's time to put more meat on the bones, so to speak.

Mantle:  And that's where these recommendations of yours come in, at least for what the empowerment department that oversees the councils should do?

Chick:  Absolutely.  And here I'm going to jump the gun a little bit.  I'm aware that there's nervousness out there amongst Neighborhood Councils and their members and their board members, about this audit.  The audit is not saying give an ugly stick to the Department and have them pound out some uniform, boring, cookie-cutter, rigid set of rules now, and impose them.  It is not saying that at all.  One of the important things it's saying is the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment hasn't had the right resources, the right mandate, the right skill set, to go and serve Neighborhood Councils and help them do the outreach, for instance, so that Neighborhood Councils are truly inclusive and fully representative of the full community in their boundaries.  To address some of the conflict and dispute resolution, to give skills -- it is not an easy thing to take power and run organizations and have elections and run boring meetings and have grassroots democracy without having some back up and real help and training from the City.  

Mantle:  And how can the City accomplish that?  Does the DONE need more money to do that, to hire more people to go out and do that outreach?  What is required, in your view?

Chick:  First of all, I'm always hesitant to say what it needs is more money and more staff thrown at it.  So the audit is not saying that. But certainly, for the Department to step back, and I'm sure the interim management has done some of that, to assess current staff, to do a real assessment of Neighborhood Council needs, and then to match it up, and sometimes it can be done through some very low-cost or no-cost training to existing staff, or redirection of existing staff, re-allocation, re-deployment.  So, I'm not going to wade in to say that they need to hire more people, but they do need to serve Neighborhood Councils differently.

First, I think the elected officials, in this case, the Mayor and the City Council, and by the way there's a whole citizen-led, very important group (NC Review Commission) that was mandated by the Charter, meeting now and reviewing Neighborhood Councils so there's more feedback coming.  Then the decision-makers, the Council and the Mayor, I think, have some policy and vision and mission issues to debate.  This is about sharing power and really, moving to Phase Two. Quite frankly it's about enabling Neighborhood Councils to have more clout.

Mantle:  Do you think that the Council and the Mayor's heart is in giving more authority and more clout to Neighborhood Councils, or do you think that they're seen in a sense more as a nuisance than as a partner with members of the City Council?

Chick:  I learned a long time ago, Larry, never to speak for any of my colleagues.  But let me just say this in the most general way, that I've been a close observer of L.A. City Hall politics now for over 13 years. It's always difficult for those in power, whatever the arena, to give up power, to share power, to make room at the table for more faces, new faces. So, I think one reason why this hasn't maybe moved faster and smoother is because it is difficult to share and give up power.  So some of it is about individually and collectively Neighborhood Councils taking it, and taking it in the most simple way, and that's by exerting its collective voice.  It had a good first shot at that some years ago on the proposed water rate increase and the timing of it. The Department's role should be enabling Neighborhood Councils to flex their muscle in a very effective way.  (This interview was edited for brevity and/or clarity. To hear this interview, and the entire Larry Mantle program on this subject, visit the KPCC website: www.SCPR.org . To read or download the DONE Performance and Financial Audit, visit the City Controller website: lacity.org/ctr