At tonight’s Board of Directors meeting, the new officers were elected:

• President: J. Russell Brown
• Vice President for Administration: Brady Westwater
• Vice President for Communication and Outreach: Patricia “Patti” Berman
• Treasurer: Alex Cha
• Secretary: Ashley Zarella Anna Danielle Duran

Thanks to Ginny-Marie Case, former VP for Communication and Outreach, for passing along the results from the meeting.

The new Board of Directors is kicking off things with a bang, and more ammunition for Stanley’s grievance, with the agenda just released for the meeting on Tuesday, July 22 at 6:30pm at the Los Angeles Theatre. Special items on the agenda include:

• Election of new board officers
• Presentation on National Night Out
• Motions of support from the Arts committee that were never on the agenda of an Arts committee meeting
• Discussion about relocating the DLANC office

Read the full agenda….

Stanley Michaels, the director representing Civic Center residents, has filed a grievance alleging a general lack of 72-hour notice for DLANC meetings.

I wouldn’t agree with Stanley’s assessment that 72-hour notice of meetings never happens, but it is fairly inconsistent. I’m also not certain that making the announcement on Yahoo! Groups would even qualify as a meeting notice under the Brown Act. To the best of my knowledge, DLANC does not post physical notices anywhere.

Read the grievance.

The Arts committee will have its regular meeting at 7pm on Wednesday, July 16 at Pharmaka (5th and Main). Special items on the agenda include:

• Update on ArtWalk Dash.
• Update on DLANC/Downtown Artist Project events calendar.
• Presentation on Art Project by James Shafer.

Read the full agenda….

The Downtown News covered the problems with Ant’s election as the Fashion District resident director, and both Ant and the City Clerk’s office are pointing the finger at the other.

Ant, who said he wanted to serve on the board to give a voice to the local Latino community and “to get the buses to stop idling near my building,” admits that he does not live in the Fashion District. He said that he submitted the false address at the urging of Isaias Cantu, the city’s senior project coordinator for neighborhood council elections.

“He told me, ‘Get a different address and say you live there. You only have to live there a night,’” said Ant. “I actually believed it was okay, which was my fault. I feel so terrible about the whole thing.”

Cantu, however, maintains that Ant took it upon himself to claim stakeholder status in the Fashion District after being told he did not qualify to run as a South Park resident.

Read the whole article….

The Affordable Housing/Social Services ad-hoc committee will be meeting on Wednesday, July 16 at 6:30pm in the Project 50 Office at 108 E. 5th St. No agenda was provided.

Ginny-Marie Case, still the current VP of outreach for the DLANC board because of the ongoing challenge to the election (which the City Clerk should rule on by Tuesday), passes on a letter from DONE about the election and the overdue budget:

As you well know by now, the Downtown Los Angeles NC received an NC Election Challenge to the election held on June 12, 2008, conducted by the Office of the City Clerk. Per the DLANC Election Procedures, the City Clerks Office will issue the Final Election Report on Tuesday July 15, 2008.

In accordance with the DLANC Election Procedures, Article XVIII, Seating of Newly Elected Board Members, Section A., states that the following:

“Newly elected governing board members will not be seated pending the final results of a recount or resolution of all election challenges. The incumbent board members will continue in their duly elected/appointed positions until the election challenges are resolved.”

Lastly, please be advised that the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) have not received DLANC 2008-09 Budget that was originally due on June 13, 2008. We understand due to the June NC Elections, DLANC did not have the opportunity to finalize and submit the budget. At this time it is strongly suggested that the current board have a Regular or Special Board Meeting to approve the budget, and include a clause stating, “subject to revision by newly elected 2008-09 Board Members.

Whatever the Neighborhood Council wishes to move forward with, please be sure to follow process you have used in the past, such as posting the agenda at regular locations, website, etc., all of course in compliance with the Brown Act.

I’ve attached a copy of DLANC’s Election Procedures. Please feel free to contact me with any other questions you may have.

So keep your eyes open for a special Board meeting, with the old board members.

The Los Angeles Garment & Citizen ran an editorial from editor and publisher Jerry Sullivan taking issue with how DLANC’s board is structured, and how the 2pm starting time for the election may have disenfranchised downtown’s Latino/American working population.

It is clear to the Garment & Citizen that the the operating procedures of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council (DLANC) have served to disenfranchise Latino/Americans.

Read the whole article….

Outgoing Vice President of Communication and Outreach Ginny-Marie Case passes on the news that ANT, the former “Last Comic Standing” contestant who was announced as the winner of the Fashion District Resident seat, has withdrawn because he doesn’t actually live within the Fashion District boundaries. He reportedly lives in the Eastern Columbia building, which is in Historic Downtown.

I’ve also heard rumors that Robert Lockhart is contesting General Jeff’s election as Central City East Resident. Update: Here is Robert’s challenge to the election of General Jeff, Wendell Blassingame, and Antoinette Falice.

The Education committee will be meeting on Friday, June 26 at 6pm in the DLANC Outreach office (450 S. Main). Special items on the agenda include:

• Skid Row children’s Coloring book. $2,000
• Website for education committee, discussion on appropriate content.
• Pet Summit July 19th 2008 South Lawn of City Hall. Educational summit on options downtown for pets’ needs. Pet Summit request $750 dollars for toilets
• The dog kiosks as proposed by the outreach committee, Ken Chiu.
• Information on matching funds program from the city request $3500

Read the full agenda….