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Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Culture

SILVER LAKE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL CULTURE: Elections 2014

On Wednesday March 5th the SLNC governing board will reconsider its entire election committee plan, with a special motion asking to move the polling location already established from the Micheltorena Elementary School.   

Come out on Wednesday March 5th to make your opinion known on all this:

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Across the city, Neighborhood Councils are afforded one polling place (all 95 of them) from which to carry out their elections. Historically the SLNC has asked for more polling places following the logic that more voting places equals more voters. Historically I have supported these efforts until they threatened the well-being of the election as a whole.  

In December we all voted to support a demand for an exceptional 2nd voting location for Silver Lake understanding that our executive committee would fill out our Election Stipulation sheet with A central Silver Lake choice, and two options for a second location. The central location would be Micheltorena Elementary School where the council regularly meets, and the two options for the second location would be CitiBank and Ivanhoe Elementary.  Why the board failed to include Bellevue Rec Center in south Silver Lake – I do not know.

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Then the city rejected our demand for a second polling place and has limited us to ONE along with every other neighborhood council in the region.  

In February’s governing board meeting the board voted to support the SLNC election committee plan that included budget, promotional materials/ banners/ posters/strategies,  AND a location for the election at Micheltorena School. The motion passed and the election committee was empowered to create flyers, banners,  internet materials and move forward with promoting the elections / election location -- candidate outreach etc.

Now some board members  are  calling the entire election plan to question, and attempting to change locations mid-process after promotion of voting location has already begun. The argument seems to be that in presenting the three polling places on our Elections Stipulations sheet, we never chose Micheltorena School as our single location in the event we lost our bid for a ‘second location’.       

I suspect there are both real concerns and politically motivated set-ups occurring here. Certainly north Silver Lake is a stronger location for north Silver Lake voters, and a location that serves to build on maximum votes received there in 2012.   But why undo work, and money already spent?   The ship has sailed on these political maneuverings -- it's time to get into ideas and visions and plans for the new neighborhood.   

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Recently A board member challenged my vote and input on the election plan because I live across the street from the Micheltorena School  where voting will take place according to the plan.   the idea is I have a conflict of interest in the election taking place near my home.   This is very curious.   this is not a plan i created.  I am not on the elections committee.   Why didn’t this challenge come up BEFORE the debate and the election committee plan approved?   Why didn’t it come up at all in 2012 when I was chair of the elections committee myself?     

I do not believe I have a conflict of interest related to this election plan any greater than any council member who is a candidate in this election  -- but now that we will again be asked to vote  -- as the council is reconsidering the election plan --  I have asked our referees at the city to weigh in on the matter, and give me an official opinion.  I will keep you posted. 

Meantime I’ll be dreaming about a new neighborhood council, and the better world Silver Lake might be. 

 

Xo  Charlie

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