SUN VILLAGE – The Sun Village Town Council has confirmed with the Bee that there will be an April election – to be held at a certain time, date and place.
Gim Lawrence, assistant treasurer of the Sun Village Town Council (whose president is Magdalene Lawrence), told the Bee on Friday – in so many words – that it was not this local reporter’s job to inform the public of the upcoming election.
After talking to Gim Lawrence on Feb. 27, the Bee was told that members of the Sun Village Town Council would be filing election paperwork in Los Angeles the following week. But apparently a follow-up phone call to the status of Sun Village’s April election became a point of annoyance to Lawrence. The following is a brief transcript of the Mar. 21 phone conversation:
Civic Bee – Has the Sun Village Town Council filed election documents in Los Angeles like you told me several weeks ago?
Gim Lawrence – We are doing everything according to our bylaws. Everything is being done by our bylaws. [Big pause - apparently, this response was to satisfy any further questions from the Bee.]
Bee – Uh, can you tell me anything more about the election, such as the date and place it will be held?
Lawrence – Everything will be announced in the paper (referring to the Antelope Valley Press). What else do you need to know?
Bee – I would like to provide information to residents to help them prepare for the upcoming election.
Lawrence – You don’t have to let the residents know anything. We will take care of that. The information will be in the newspaper next week.
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OFFICIAL INCAPACITY
This truly would be an example of how not to behave as a public official – if, in fact, Lawrence were to be actually considered a “public official.” Members of an unincorporated community’s town council are not recognized by Los Angeles County as a legislative body that must abide by California’s Ralph M. Brown Act, which guarantees the public’s right to attend and participate in meetings for local legislative bodies.
According to Norm Hickling, the Antelope Valley field representative for Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, a town council acts only in an advisory capacity to the county supervisor, and they are not required to provide or file documentation on where or when they will hold an election. (So why was the Bee told different by Lawrence in the Feb. 27 phone conversation?)
“The county doesn’t oversee their election, and they can pretty much do it anyway they want to,” Hickling told the Bee on Mar. 17. “There are no official rules that apply to electing members of a town council or notifying and involving the public – however, it obviously would be good government practice to be as open as possible to the public regarding the election of town council members.”
Hickling also said that each town council establishes their own bylaws that determine how they are formed, structured, and wish to behave. “But they are given no real ability to create laws – only act in an advisory capacity to the county supervisor,” he said.
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CONDUCT UNBEARABLE
According to a September 2012 article by Ann M. Simmons of the Los Angeles Times, the defensive attitude and posture of town council members from Sun Village may have something to do with a supposed rivalry between Sun Village and it’s neighbor:
“Littlerock and Sun Village are both unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. There is disagreement over boundaries, but many Sun Village residents hold that their community is bounded by Avenue Q on the north, 135th Street on the east, Avenue T on the south and 80th Street on the west. It has its own chamber of commerce and town council (whose powers, like the Littlerock town council’s, are strictly advisory).”
Whatever the reason behind the town council’s tension and distrust toward its neighbors, residents (or even themselves), Simmons’ article offers some interesting background into Sun Village’s history and current abrasive posture.
Simmons reports that “what’s mainly at issue in the periodic disputes between Sun Village and Littlerock is pride, identity and memory, since there is little material or political advantage at stake. County supervisors are the chief decision-makers for the latter.”
However, transparency is the social currency of trust. Without conducting business in public, being accountable to members of the community – or even open with members of the media – legitimacy of representation fades rapidly.
Though members of the Sun Village Town Council may not be a local legislative body, their fellow residents deserve to know about the upcoming April election as soon as possible and be able to access that information through various channels of the community.
At the same time, the public deserves better information than some ambiguous statement that a notice will be published – or more likely buried – in the local paper, whose online site blocks public access to public content through a paywall system.
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Members of the public may attempt to reach the Sun Village Town Council by phone at 1-800-992-5254 (and brace yourself for the phone menu). The council does not appear to have an official website or Facebook page, but offers an email for reaching its members at [email protected]. However, the Sun Village Town Council has not responded to any of the emails sent by the Civic Bee.
