City to Rule on Who Can Vote in Neighborhood Council Elections

The Los Angeles City Council instructed its attorneys Tuesday to draft rules setting limits on who can participate in neighborhood council elections.

There are 95 neighborhood councils across the city and the next round of elections is scheduled to begin in March 2014. 

Locally, there's the Studio City Neighborhood Council, Sherman Oaks Neighboorhod Council, Mid-town NoHo Neighborhood Council, the North Hollywood West Neighborhood Council, the North Hollywood Northeast Neighborhood Council, the Valley Village Neighborhood Council and the Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council.

Neighborhood councils are community-based bodies that receive taxpayer money to spend on neighborhood improvements, civic events and other projects. They also advise the City Council on a range of issues affecting neighborhoods including land use, street maintenance and city resources.

The City Council voted 15-0 in favor of a motion introduced by City Councilman Jose Huizar that calls for doing away with the "factual basis stakeholder" category of voters and candidates in neighborhood council elections.

A new category called "community interest stakeholders," which covers people who can prove "substantial and ongoing" ties to a neighborhood, would be added instead.

Under the City Charter, neighborhood council elections are open to people who live, work and own property in the defined area.

Many neighborhood councils, however, allow "factual basis stakeholders" to participate. But Huizar said the "factual basis" category has even allowed people who can show a receipt from an area Starbucks or other local business to cast votes or run in elections.

Huizar initially proposed the idea last October when 300 people who fit the "factual basis stakeholder" category cast votes in the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council election, rivaling the 500 votes cast by people who actually live, work or own property in Eagle Rock.

Medical marijuana shops were a hotly debated topic among the candidates in the Eagle Rock neighborhood council election and critics of the dispensaries complained that outside supporters of medical marijuana shops were encouraged to participate in the election.

The previous election in Eagle Rock drew fewer than 100 people, according to Huizar spokesman Rick Coca.

Huizar said his proposals were based on feedback from neighborhood council representatives.

-- City News Service contributed to this report