For immediate release
18 March 2010
DLANC Grievance Hearing Reveals Huge Ethics Gap in Downtown LA
LOS ANGELES- On Wednesday, March 17, a Grievance Hearing was held at the Central Library which was supposed to usher in a new era of transparency and accountability for the embattled Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council. Instead, a huge ethics gap in the NC bylaws was revealed, with Committee Chair Gunnar Hand admitting in closing statements that while the accused, DLANC President Russell Brown, was supposed to try to behave ethically, he was not obligated to do so. While his actions may have been unethical and undemocratic, under the bylaws of DLANC, they were acceptable. All charges against Brown were dismissed.
Although DLANC had been instructed by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) in February to implement new rules for hearing grievances in which DLANC President Russell Brown was banned from personally investigating the charges of his own ethical violations, the Neighborhood Council failed to provide a level playing field in which the grievance could be heard.
The Grievance Hearing, organized by DLANC's James Doizaki, Acting Chair of the Rules & Elections Committee, was remarkable for its poor planning, last-minute changes in format and utter community invisibility. The event was never announced through DLANC's community email lists, nor was it placed on the DLANC calendar. Although the subject of the Grievance was DLANC President Russell Brown's interference in the workings of the Downtown Art Walk non-profit, it was scheduled at the same time and blocks away from the monthly Arts Committee meeting attended by many interested parties. The participants were not informed of the location of the hearing, the format or agenda, or the need to provide six copies of all supporting documents, until the day before the event. Then as the hearing began, grievance filer Kim Cooper was informed that the agenda had been changed and two of four issues raised by her complaint could not be heard or considered based on information just provided by the City Attorney's Office. Any question of conflicts of interest or defamation were removed from consideration.
In order to hear a complex case concerning allegations of gross misconduct over nearly a year, with dozens of pieces of supporting material supplied by both sides, the Grievance Committee had booked a room in the Central Library which closed at 7:50pm--just one hour and twenty minutes after the hearing began. With maintenance staff sweeping under their feet and a security guard asking when they would be leaving, the Grievance Committee elected to hold a rush vote without reading any of the supporting evidence.
Since the most serious charges against Russell Brown had been tossed out as the hearing began, there remained only two minor points to rule upon. On the question of if Russell Brown told Art Walk Director Richard Schave that DLANC funding for the Art Walk shuttle would be ending before the DLANC board voted on the matter, the answer was that he had probably done so, but the Committee didn't think it mattered under their bylaws.
The question of whether Russell Brown had actively impeded Richard Schave from speaking out at the December 2009 DLANC meeting was more complicated. In testimony and printed documents, Russell Brown freely admitted that he and Art Walk board member Bert Green had conspired during the DLANC meeting to send a text message to then-Acting Director of the Art Walk Marc Loge, asking him to come to the DLANC meeting and deal with "the problem" of speaker cards from community members who wished to speak about Art Walk. A disheveled Mr. Loge did appear at the meeting after having run several blocks, did call Richard Schave outside, and did make a false promise to reinstate him as Director of the Art Walk if Schave would say nothing against Russell Brown at the meeting, where CNN cameras were filming for another reason. The Grievance Committee determined that since Schave was not physically intimidated or otherwise prevented from speaking, that no violation had occurred under DLANC's bylaws -- but some members expressed frustration that their own bylaws did not permit them to make another decision.
Among the issues removed from discussion as the meeting began was the serious question of Russell Brown's conflicts of interest. Brown, who has been asked in a local newspaper editorial to resign from one of his two jobs due to ethical conflicts, is President of DLANC (a community service organization serving all local citizens) and Executive Director of the Historic Downtown Business Improvement District (a private landlords organization).
However, one piece of evidence introduced by Russell Brown on his own behalf is a striking illustration of the deep conflicts of interest which negatively impact his work in the community and make him incapable of representing all constituents equally. In a June 2009 email thread between Brown, HDBID Board Chair Tom Gilmore (Brown's employer) and Downtown Art Park manager George Stiehl, Gilmore states "Richard is the new 'Director' of Artwalk and obviously wants to start off on the wrong foot. I would ignore. Official/smoficial, who cares?" Russell Brown's contemptuous treatment of Richard Schave as Director of the Art Walk, the subject of yesterday's Grievance Hearing, was simply an extension of his employer's poor attitude.
Russell Brown also testified that he told gallery owner Bert Green in June 2009 that the Art Walk non-profit under Director Richard Schave would never get the support of DLANC (the entity of which he is President) or of the BID (the entity of which he is Executive Director). Schave did not begin formally running the Art Walk until July 2009.
The Neighborhood Council system is undergoing major changes, with DONE, the agency charged with overseeing their activities, folded into a separate city agency due to its failure to properly manage the Councils. Yesterday's failed DLANC Grievance Committee Hearing demonstrates the compelling need for a citywide ethics and grievance policy which is not hamstrung by poorly written Neighborhood Council bylaws, disorganized volunteers and a lack of a strict format for how grievances are to be handled in an equitable manner. Until that happens, the Neighborhood Councils will remain a failed experiment in community empowerment, their systems manipulated by savvy political operators like Russell Brown.
Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
"RUSSELL BROWN SHOULD RESIGN" PETITION LINK - http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stepdownrussbrown
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS LINK - http://stepdownrussbrown.wordpress.com
