Los Angeles Daily News

A farce exposed
Bungled Van Nuys elections say a lot about advisory neighborhood councils

Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - By all reports, the recent elections for the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council were a farce, which is only appropriate.

After all, the whole neighborhood council system is a farce.

The councils, which are City Hall's dishonest response to public demands for decentralization, lack real power, authority or funding. So they also lack a coherent system of electing members. Is anyone surprised?

The problem is that the City Charter never makes it clear exactly who may vote in a council election. Currently, anyone who's a "stakeholder" is eligible, meaning those who live, work or own property in the area.

But for election workers, determining who qualifies as a "stakeholder" is a tall task. In the Van Nuys elections, not all voters were required to declare, under oath, that they do in fact qualify. And even when they did, elections officials had no way of verifying their declarations.

The result is a contested election, with the losers claiming the winners dragged ineligible voters off the street to stuff the ballot boxes.

All in all, a fitting conclusion. The councils lack credibility and integrity. Why shouldn't their elections, too?