{"id":279770,"date":"2025-10-05T15:25:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T15:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/279770\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T15:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T15:25:17","slug":"l-a-s-neighborhood-council-members-decry-lack-of-city-hall-support-at-annual-congress-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/279770\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A.\u2019s Neighborhood Council members decry lack of City Hall support at annual Congress \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neighborhood Council<\/a> members from across Los Angeles gathered at City Hall on Saturday, Sept. 27, for a day of workshops, networking and policy discussions, but many left wondering: Where were the city\u2019s elected officials?<\/p>\n

While Mayor Karen Bass made a brief lunchtime appearance at Congress of Neighborhoods, and Councilmember Tim McOsker participated in one of its session on charter reform, many attendees said they were disappointed by the limited presence from other City Council offices at the Congress of Neighborhoods. Some said they felt overlooked, particularly after a year of contentious budget debates<\/a> and concerns over the city\u2019s responsiveness to neighborhood priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are they at?\u201d asked Moy Valdez, a member of the Olivia Mitchell L.A. City Youth Council. \u201c\u200aThis is our community, this is our council, these are the people that actually represent us, and are close to our community. Why can\u2019t they dish out a little bit of their time to come help us today?\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement after the event, the Mayor\u2019s office said Bass \u201cspoke at the Congress of Neighborhoods this weekend where she expressed her support for the work Neighborhood Councils engage in to advocate for their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement added that Bass also attended the 2024 Congress and, with major international events approaching, hopes to \u201cfurther collaborate with Neighborhood Councils across the city to ensure communities can benefit economically from these events.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Councilmember Tim McOsker \u2014 whose District 15 stretches from Watts to the Port of Los Angeles and includes San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City and Harbor Gateway \u2014 was the only City Council member to participate in a workshop at this year\u2019s Congress of Neighborhoods. He joined an afternoon session on charter reform and said he felt it was important to hear directly from Neighborhood Council members.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I think it\u2019s very important for me to come to hear the issues, to hear from the practitioners as to what the issues are that they are facing and what they would like to see in charter reform,\u201d McOsker said.<\/p>\n

He added that his perspective would help inform future recommendations to the city\u2019s Charter Reform Commission<\/a>, and that it was useful for him to focus specifically on the Neighborhood Council system, which, based on what he heard at the event, \u201cit\u2019s not meeting its potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who served as a keynote speaker along with Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman and senior officials from emergency response and public health agencies, praised the dedication of Neighborhood Councilmembers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to be here today at the Congress of Neighborhoods because these are the folks who are taking time out of their life to voluntarily get involved in local government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Held each fall, the Congress is the\u00a0largest citywide gathering of LA\u2019s 99 Neighborhood Councils. Now in its 15th year, the event drew about 500 participants and featured sessions on the city budget<\/a>, homelessness policy, community safety and proposed charter reforms.<\/p>\n