Russell Brown returns to DLANC; special election voided and DLANC placed under supervision by DONE
DLANC_SPECIAL ELECTION COMPLAINT_LTR_03-07-13
The above PDF file is copy of a letter sent to DLANC board members on March 7 about proven complaints regarding improper actions surrounding the special election held on February 11, 2013.
Specifically, DONE found that DLANC’s full board did not approve unprecedented changes to the special election, that DLANC did not hold its election in a clear and transparent manner, and that changes were made to qualifications to run for Business interest seats.
Further, DONE criticized the Executive Committee, led by Patti Berman and Russell Brown, for improperly holding private meetings to discuss election matters which should have been discussed and decided by the entire Neighborhood Council. And it observed that the special election itself was held in an inaccessible space with no signage or clear wheelchair access.
Of the three complaints filed with DONE about the special election, one explicitly names Russell Brown, who recently returned to the DLANC’s board after stepping down in April 2010, for providing incorrect information about who is permitted to run for a Business interest seat, and refusing to accept valid documentation of right to vote.
The upshot is that DLANC is now under supervision by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, and the results of the special election have been voided. A new election will be held. Barry Stone, Neighborhood Empowerment Advocate, has been assigned to supervise DLANC, with the assistance of Jay Handal, a volunteer member of the Councils for Councils Program.
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Tags: civic reform, complaint, dlanc, done, downtown, election, election fraud, ethics, executive committee, grievance, neighborhood council, russell brown
The Downtown News reports that Russell Brown has been replaced as Executive Director of the Historic Downtown Business Improvement District by Roberto Saldaña, former in-house counsel for Broadway property owner Joseph Hellen. This vote follows soon after the formation of a city Task Force to deal with crowd control and public safety at the Downtown Art Walk. It was Mr. Brown’s interference in the management of the Art Walk non-profit which led us to create this blog.
UPDATE 9/30/11: Under pressure from Councilman Huizar, who refuses to meet with the new Executive Director Roberto Saldaña, the BID has reversed its vote to replace Russell Brown “to protect the panel from any lawsuits.”
UPDATE 10/20/11: The Los Angeles Times reports “Huizar’s office accused of blackballing appointment… What followed, critics assert, was an unusually public and petty use of City Hall power to punish an adversary’s ally.” Note that is reported that “Jessica Wethington McLean, who runs a Huizar initiative to improve downtown’s Broadway business corridor, told board members that they were in danger of being investigated by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley.” Note the similarity to the baseless legal threats made by former BID Executive Director Russell Brown against the Art Walk volunteers.
Important links for new visitors seeking a quick introduction:
• What Russell Brown did to prevent the Art Walk non-profit from functioning, and how he smeared the reputations of the non-profit’s volunteers with false claims of incompetence (summer/fall 2009).
• Russell Brown’s 3:40AM emailed threat to sue the Art Walk volunteers who filed an ethics complaint against him for abusing his position in the Downtown L.A. Neighborhood Council (January 2010).
• Video of Russell Brown’s DLANC ethics hearing, during which he admits to sabotaging the Art Walk non-profit (March 2010).
In light of the many visitors coming through search engines, comments will be allowed on this post.
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Tags: art walk, Broadway, downtown, ethics, HDBID, progress, russell brown
Tonight, the City of L.A. is permitting the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council (DLANC) to hold its first meeting since the disputed June 25 election. Few have bemoaned the troubled organization’s absence from community affairs over the summer. But with this meeting comes the overdue turning of the spade upon the corrupt and unethical Executive Committee, which for too long has been the personal fiefdom of the landlords’ hired man Russell Brown and his sidekick Brady Westwater.
Earlier this year, Russell Brown stepped down from any further “service” to the community following a series of embarrassing revelations and news stories shining a light upon the huge ethical gaps that have made DLANC irrelevant at best, and a blight on the community at its worst. Brady Westwater, too, declined to run again.
The revelations about Russell Brown’s underhanded abuse of power emerged as the truth came out regarding his months-long campaign to sabotage the Art Walk non-profit and smear the characters of the unpaid community volunteers who were working full-time to transform the Art Walk from a private enterprise to a California Public Benefit Corporation, which it is today. After the volunteers resigned rather than face any further abuse from Russell Brown and his associates, they spoke up about the attacks that they had suffered.
But none of this would have ever come to the light if one particular community member had not taken it upon himself to put those volunteers in a position where they could experience first-hand the outrageous behavior which for DLANC President Russell Brown was simply business as usual. That community member was gallery owner Bert Green, who hand-picked Richard Schave as the person to whom he would hand over control of the Downtown Art Walk in mid 2009.
Although Bert Green would almost immediately begin collaborating with Russell Brown on the sabotage of Art Walk and attacks on the volunteer management of the non-profit — evidence of which can be found in Russell Brown’s own words from the videotape of his DLANC grievance hearing for ethical violations — the fact remains that if Bert Green hadn’t sought out an ethical, community-minded person and handed the reigns of Art Walk to him, it is unlikely that Russell Brown’s poor behavior would have come to light, as it did, in late 2009. The many new faces on DLANC’s incoming board come out of the growing awareness that new blood was needed to power a broken system.
And while the community must remain ever vigilant — particularly about longtime Executive Committee member Patti Berman, who personally censors the Newdowntown Yahoo group, and failed to place any notice of Russell Brown’s grievance hearing on the DLANC mailing list or community calendar — things could be, and have been, worse. It is up to the Downtown community to attend meetings, stand up and speak out, document the organization’s discussions and votes, and hold DLANC accountable. As outgoing board member Ashley Zarella Hand recently warned “DLANC… has… no real system for getting information out, sharing past successes (and failures), or retaining any form of organizational memory – beyond its leaders.” Those leaders chose to whitewash a history of grievances filed against them over the past five years, grievances which were echoed in the complaints filed against Russell Brown in 2009.
And so we recognize Bert Green for his somewhat unexpected service. As DLANC swears in new blood and has the opportunity to make a fresh start, endeavoring to meet the highest ideals of the Neighborhood Council system, we note that none of this would have been possible without Bert Green. Thank you, Bert Green, for all you have done to clean up a dirty political machine, and make Downtown Los Angeles a better place to live, work and play.
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Tags: abuse, art walk, bert green, brady westwater, civic reform, corruption, dlanc, downtown, ethics, grievance, janus, los angeles, neighborhood council, russell brown
Success! The Downtown News reports that Russell Brown will not seek re-election to DLANC. Thank you to everyone who watched the videos, shared the links, signed the petition and talked to their friends and neighbors about what went wrong when Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council board members sought to sabotage the workings of a non-profit. And thank you, Russell Brown, for doing the classy thing and not seeking re-election. You didn’t step down, but you’ve done the next best thing.
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MAIN PETITION LINK – http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stepdownrussbrown
Dear DLANC board members,
On March 17, my husband Richard Schave and I faced your President, Russell Brown, in a grievance hearing regarding my complaint that he behaved unethically in smearing our volunteer work for the Art Walk non-profit. You may not be aware that this hearing took place, as in a further violation of the ethics section of your bylaws, Patti Berman didn’t post the hearing on the DLANC calendar, nor was it circulated via email to stakeholders.
Tomorrow night at your board meeting, the grievance committee will present to you their determination that nothing should be done to censure Russell Brown for unethical behavior. This is based on the decision made on the day of the hearing to throw out the most serious charges against him, and a troubling misinterpretation of the ethics section of your bylaws. Although this is not included in the final report prepared by the grievance committee, Chair Gunnar Hand made a point of ending the hearing by stating his opinion that ethical behavior is not required by DLANC board members, but merely suggested.
As a community member whose full-time volunteer efforts were smeared over many months by Russell Brown on behalf of DLANC, and who ultimately had to resign from the Art Walk board due to his dishonest and constant attacks on my professionalism, I respectfully disagree with Mr. Hand’s interpretation. At the link below you will also find another dissenting view from attorney Maurice Kane.
Please take the time to watch this ten-minute video before tomorrow’s board meeting, so you will have the opportunity to see your President confessing to conspiring to interfere with free speech at DLANC meetings as well as explaining how he decided, without consulting any of you, that DLANC would not support the Art Walk’s transition to non-profit.
Russell Brown’s behavior is harming DLANC and reflecting on each one of you. Please think carefully before offering your tacit support of his unethical behavior when you meet to consider this matter tomorrow night.
best regards,
Kim Cooper, founding Treasurer/Curator of the Downtown LA Art Walk non-profit,
who resigned in November due to Russell Brown’s harassment
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MAIN PETITION LINK – http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stepdownrussbrown
Here is a link to the annotated video featuring highlights of Russell Brown’s March 17 grievance hearing for ethical violations. It is recommended viewing for anyone curious about how this misguided individual damaged the Downtown Art Walk non-profit and harassed and smeared its volunteer staff, all under the pretense of serving the Downtown community.
On Tuesday, April 13, 2010, DLANC’s board will consider the recommendations of the Grievance Committee that Russell Brown’s behavior is not something that DLANC chooses to police. Members of the public are encouraged to attend the meeting and fill out a speaker card if they believe ethics are not optional, but required by Neighborhood Council members, or if they have anything else to add to the dialogue.
For more info, visit stepdownrussbrown.wordpress.com
***
On March 17, 2010, the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council held a Grievance Hearing to address complaints of ethical violations by Russell Brown, DLANC’s President, surrounding the Downtown LA Art Walk non-profit. The hearing was not posted on DLANC’s calendar, nor was it included in their community email announcements — a violation of the ethics clause of DLANC’s bylaws. Such posting is the responsibility of VP of Communication and Outreach Patti Berman, “at the direction” of President Russell Brown.
This randomly selected Grievance Committee was formed in response to complaints that prior to February 2010, Russell Brown would have been permitted to sit on the committee that investigated ethics complaints against his own behavior.
In this annotated video of the secret March 17 grievance hearing, you will see Russell Brown personally admit that he used text messaging during the December 2009 DLANC meeting to summon an accomplice to dissuade community members from speaking out about his behavior regarding Art Walk. He also admits that he and Bert Green agreed in June 2009 not to sign over the intellectual property of the Art Walk to the newly forming non-profit, and that Russell Brown determined that the galleries, DLANC and HDBID (Russell’s employers) would not support the new non-profit. You will also see footage of the unpaid corporate sponsorship placement of Cadillac cars and SUVs at the November 2009 Art Walk, which Russell Brown arranged privately, against the wishes and without the knowledge of the non-profit’s Director Richard Schave.
Gunnar Hand, Chair of DLANC’s Grievance Committee stated at the end of the March 17 hearing that while DLANC’s bylaws call for Russell Brown to “endeavor” to behave ethically, that was a suggestion and not a requirement, and so the Committee would not vote on if they disapproved of his behavior or if he should be censured.
As community members whose full-time volunteer efforts to better the Art Walk were smeared over many months by this individual who represents himself as speaking for the community, and who ultimately had to resign from the Art Walk board due to his dishonest and constant attacks on our professionalism, we respectfully disagree with Mr. Hand’s interpretation. Also, see below for another dissenting view from attorney Maurice Kane.
Ethics are not voluntary, and Downtown LA deserves better than Russell Brown. For more information on this situation or a link to sign the petition calling for Russell Brown to resign from DLANC, please visit – stepdownrussbrown.wordpress.com
-Richard Schave & Kim Cooper, founding Director and Curator/Treasurer of the Downtown LA Art Walk non-profit
**
Attorney Maurice Kane offers the following interpretation of DLANC’s ethics clause:
This language in Bylaw, Article XII: “The DLANC, its Directors, and all Stakeholders will endeavor to conduct Council business in a professional and respectful manner. The DLANC is committed to developing a system whereby pertinent information transmitted through the City’s Early Notification System will be disseminated or made available in a timely manner to every Stakeholder. The Council, its Directors, and all Stakeholders will refrain from violating Board rules and shall abide by the Plan and all City, County, State, and federal laws that apply” must be read in its fullest context to mean that the persons covered are obligated to proceed in “a professional and respectful manner” and such persons are further directed to adhere to Board rules and the other sources of authority listed, i.e., the Plan and all City, County, State, and federal laws that apply”
Its actually a broad and binding ethical mandate and not a narrow, circumscribed, restricted, do-what-you-can guideline as they would prefer.
Also, from an etymological standpoint, “endeavor” includes “duty” and strenuous effort and when one juxtaposes that word to the remainder of the Ethics Bylaw, its clear that the DLANC, its Directors, and all Stakeholders have to do the utmost to obey the Board rules, the Plan and laws (County, state, federal)
The terms “professional” and “respectful” have meaningful, substantive content that have to be followed in a good faith manner, especially when you consider the State of California’s Ralph Brown Act, parliamentary procedure such as Robert’s Rules of Order, etc
Main Entry: 1en·deav·or
Pronunciation: \in-ˈde-vər\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): en·deav·ored; en·deav·or·ing \-v(ə-)riŋ\
Etymology: Middle English endeveren to exert oneself, from en- + dever duty — more at devoir
Early 15c., lit. “in duty,” from phrase put (oneself) in dever “make it one’s duty” (a partial translation of O.Fr. mettre en deveir “put in duty”), from O.Fr. dever “duty,” from L. debere “to owe” (see debt). One’s endeavors meaning one’s “utmost effort” is from late 15c.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME endeveren, from the phrase putten in devoir to make an effort, assume responsibility; cf. AF se mettre en deveir.
transitive verb 1 archaic : to strive to achieve or reach
2 : to attempt (as the fulfillment of an obligation) by exertion of effort intransitive verb : to work with set purpose
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Tags: abuse, civic reform, complaint, dlanc, downtown, ethics, free speech, grievance, los angeles, neighborhood council, russell brown
Status Updates
MAIN PETITION LINK – http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stepdownrussbrown
Status updates moved to https://stepdownrussbrown.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/status-updates/
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MAIN PETITION LINK – http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stepdownrussbrown
Opening statement of Kim Cooper to the DLANC Grievance Committee investigating charges of ethical violations by DLANC President Russell Brown. For the Grievance Committee’s decision, see this press release.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Grievance Committee, I thank you for your service and your time. No, I REALLY thank you for your time. You’ll understand why when you see how many documents I’ve brought you.
But my grievance can be the last one to EVER be this involved, if you act decisively to show the community that DLANC will not tolerate bullying, dishonesty, self-dealing or abuse.
Everyone in this room is here because they care about downtown. You’re going to hear some disturbing things about DLANC’s President this evening, and while you listen, please ask yourself:
Is this how you wish to be represented?
Is his Downtown the one you wish to serve?
(Integrity): Why have we spoken out about what happened to us? My husband’s and my previously unsullied reputations as ethical, socially active community members were on the line. We are decent, hard-working people who were subjected to months of abuse by someone who represented himself as speaking for this body and this community.
I’m not going to bore you with our entire resume, but Richard and I give a lot back to Los Angeles, and we didn’t deserve this. Nobody does.
(Service): There are all kinds of community service. This isn’t what we signed up for, but we’ve come to feel that this is what we were put here to do.
We’re different from most of the people who have been harassed by Russell Brown in that we don’t rent a shop or apartment he has any influence over, and we are not financially beholden to him or any of his cronies. We understand why other people in the community are afraid to speak up, because some of those people have told us privately what they’ve endured. We would like this culture of intimidation and misogyny to go away.
In preparing my grievance, I discovered that there are several very serious grievances against DLANC and Russell Brown that have vanished from the record: DONE does not have them and they have been removed from the DLANC website.
One of these grievances, Julie Rico’s from 2005, demonstrates that DLANC’s arts-related committees have for at least five years been suffering from a problem with institutionalized misogyny, obfuscation and intimidation. I would like to share with you something from that 2005 grievance:
No, I don’t have a copy of the missing grievance, but after the DLANC hearing in which nothing was done to help Ms. Rico, her partner Sid Carter spoke out about the problem to the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners on 3/15/05. Here is what he said:
“On March 1, 2005 a special Grievance Panel was convened by DLANC to address Julie Rico’s complaint. Nothing of substance was initiated as a result of the Grievance Panel meeting, as I reported to Mark Lewis and Melvin Canas on or about March 3, 2005. A written statement of Lesley Taplin, a former member of the AACE Committee (now known as the Arts Committee) was presented at the Grievance Panel meeting in Ms. Taplin’s absence.”
Lesley Taplin: “Unhealthy belligerence has continued to dog the AACE Committee, for both men and women in it. The AACE Committee’s publicly posted agendas never noticed the public that it was going to discuss the extraordinary action of asking a voting member to resign from the AACE Committee or face being removed from the Committee against her will. Members of AACE have been particularly abusive to members of the opposite sex that they are fighting with. Meaning, when a man and woman are fighting, they treat each other with more disrespect than would happen if a woman were fighting with a woman or a man with a man. I have not personally experienced this in other committees on the DLANC board, only in this [AACE] committee. I don’t know why this is happening, but the group needs to be aware that this is ABERRANT behavior in DLANC, so the members can become more conscious about not doing that in the future.”
Part of the reason I am speaking out so actively now, and hosting documentation about my grievance on my own website, is because I don’t want someone else to have to go through what Julie Rico did in 2005, and Richard and I did in 2009. Forewarned is forearmed!
(Professional damage): I run a one-woman publicity agency called Explosive PR, and I’m very good at what I do. Over five months, I produced six comprehensive press releases for the Art Walk and distributed them to thousands of journalists, at no charge. (Examples: 1, 2, 3.) Art Walk never received more high quality media attention than it did on my watch. Among Russell Brown’s false claims against us was that we didn’t send press releases, which is a smear to my professional reputation.
(Intimidation): Our public response to the issues surrounding Art Walk began in response to Russell Brown smearing us in the Downtown News in November. I began using my skills as a writer and publicist to defend our reputations, and since then I have had my First Amendment rights repeatedly attacked through threats of physical violence and threats of lawsuits, simply because I have spoken out about the actions of a “public official.”
(Damage to community): As you will learn when you consult the documentation, our enormously successful volunteer work for the Art Walk and the downtown community was sabotaged through a complex conspiracy involving numerous community members led by Russell Brown.
Participating Art Walk galleries were denied the benefits of our PR and organizational expertise because Russell Brown and Bert Green called a meeting where they told gallery owners we were idiots and not to work with us; several of these galleries have since closed.
There is a sense in downtown that the air has been sucked out of the community. Cultural and economic growth has been stifled. Good people have seen what happened to us, and walked away from the Art Walk because they no longer wish to be associated with it.
A backlash against the Art Walk has emerged in the months since we stepped down, and attempts have been made to blame us for it. But if Art Walk isn’t as much fun as it was when we ran it, that’s hardly our fault.
(Out of control): When Russell was sent my grievance by DONE, he could have laughed at it, knowing that DLANC’s toothless grievance policy allowed him to investigate himself. Instead, he sat down at his computer at 3:40am and sent an email threatening bring civil and criminal charges agaist me and my husband through the City Attorney’s office.
So here we are.
I have asked my husband Richard Schave to present my case during the next section. Thank you for your time.
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Tags: abuse, city attorney, department of neighborhood empowerment, dlanc, done, downtown, ethics, grievance, history, los angeles, misogyny, neighborhood council, policy, russell brown, threats
• Status Updates
MAIN PETITION LINK – http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stepdownrussbrown
2/5/10 – Garment and Citizen cover story: DONE Boss Says System ‘Very Weak’ as Grievance Reveals DLANC Ethics Gap (link )
2/9/10 – DLANC board votes to adopt new grievance procedure recommended by DONE in response to ethics complaint against Russell Brown (video).
2/11/10 – Blogdowntown changes comment policy to discourage anonymous attacks, such as those to “tar and feather” Kim Cooper for having made ethics complaint against Russell Brown.
2/19/10 – Garment and Citizen reports on changes in DLANC grievance policy and states “The changes in procedures come as word among DLANC board members and observers indicates that at least one more grievance will be filed in the near future.”
2/19/10 – Kim Cooper files Public Record Act request with DONE, the Neighborhood Councils oversight agency, asking that they produce several missing grievances known to have been filed against Russell Brown and DLANC: Julie Rico’s 2005 complaint alleging gender-based bullying and harassment, and John Sellars’ two 2005-6 complaints alleging election fraud and Brown Act violations. DONE responds that they do not have Ms. Rico’s complaint, and to date has not responded about John Sellars’ grievances. Information about both grievances is also missing from DLANC’s website, although some evidence remains in archival links.
2/21/10 – Daily News reports on Mayor Villaraigosa’s plans to fold DONE, the Neighborhood Councils oversight agency, into another city department, with General Manager B.H. Kim expected to step down.
3/15/10 – LA Observed column Chicken Corner asks if there’s a “Fox in the hen house?”
3/17/10, 6:30pm – DLANC Grievance Committee hearing to address ethics complaint against Russell Brown. Location: Los Angeles Public Library, Conference Room A or B (to be determined, not known by complaining party until arrival on site). Kim Cooper’s opening statement to the Committee here.
3/18/10 – Press Release: DLANC Grievance Hearing Reveals Huge Ethics Gap in Downtown LA
3/18/10 – LA Observed column Chicken Corner: “The way the venue was handled does suggest… hostility toward the proceedings themselves by a committee that is supposed to be operating without bias.”
3/31/10 – Despite repeated requests, two weeks after the hearing, DLANC’s grievance committee has not provided their decision in writing, instructions for appealing the decision, or information on when and where the grievance information will be posted on DLANC’s website.
4/1/10 – Following several weeks of asking Community Partners why a non-profit in its incubator program was allowing threats of physical violence from anonymous commentors to remain online (see 2/11/10 update), Blogdowntown announces that it has “just completed a repurchase of blogdowntown from Community Partners, and are now moving forward as an independent, for-profit entity supported by ads.”
4/7/10 – It is now three weeks since grievance hearing, and one week until DLANC meeting when grievance committee presents their findings, but despite repeated requests, the grievance committee has not yet provided their report.
4/8/10 – DLANC grievance committee provides their report, recommending no action against Russell Brown. The full DLANC board will consider the matter at the 4/13/10 meeting. Members of the public with an interest in the matter are encouraged to attend and fill out a speaker card if they would like to comment.
4/12/10 – Annotated video of Russell Brown’s 3/17/10 grievance hearing for ethics violations is published. In it, you will see Russell Brown admitting he used text messaging to summon an accomplice (Marc Loge) to dissuade community members from speaking to DLANC, that he and Bert Green agreed in June 2009 not to sign over the intellectual property of the Art Walk to the newly forming non-profit, and that he determined that the galleries, DLANC and HDBID (Russell’s employers) would not support the new non-profit. You will also see footage of the unpaid corporate sponsorship placement of Cadillac cars and SUVs at the November 2009 Art Walk, which Russell Brown arranged privately with the assistance of on-again/off-again Art Walk board member Marc Loge, against the wishes and without the knowledge of the non-profit’s Director Richard Schave.
4/12/10 – Open letter emailed to DLANC board members alerting them to the substance of Russell Brown’s confessions.
4/13/10 – Despite having all received a link to and had opportunity to view video evidence of their President confessing to unethical behavior (see 4/12 entry), the DLANC board votes unanimously to accept the recommendation of the grievance committee that all charges against Russell Brown should be dropped. Board member Stanley Michaels votes to drop charges, then seeks action on his own grievance against Russell Brown, for failure to file DLANC’s updated bylaws in a timely fashion.
4/15/10 – LA Weekly reports on the controversy surrounding Russell Brown’s interference in the Art Walk non-profit.
4/21/10 – Success! The Downtown News reports that Russell Brown will not seek re-election to DLANC. Thank you to everyone who watched the videos, shared the links, signed the petition and talked to their friends and neighbors about what went wrong when Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council board members sought to sabotage the workings of a non-profit. And thank you, Russell Brown, for doing the classy thing and not seeking re-election. You didn’t step down, but you’ve done the next best thing.
4/29/10 – DLANC holds another grievance hearing regarding dereliction of duty by Russell Brown and Brady Westwater, based on a complaint by DLANC board member Stanley Michaels, but fails to publicize the existence of the hearing until after the event.
5/8/10 – Bert Green, implicated by Russell Brown in his confession as a co-conspirator in the sabotaging of the Art Walk non-profit, publishes a blog entry containing untrue personal and professional smears against former Art Walk volunteers Richard Schave and Kim Cooper and false claims that Russell Brown did not act to harm the non-profit, something he confessed to doing on video. Bert Green is currently an Art Walk board member, which means he has fiduciary responsibilities to do what is best for the non-profit and a moral obligation to be truthful; no where in his attack blog does he state that his fellow board members (among them Marc Loge, who has announced that he is running for DLANC office) are aware of his actions.
5/13/10 – In direct response to Art Walk board member Bert Green’s false attacks, Richard Schave and Kim Cooper post online a chronological record of their emails and documentation from their time managing the Art Walk.
6/11/10 – Los Angeles Garment & Citizen reports: “DLANC Election Set for June 25; New Blood on the Ballot: Approximately 100 [neighborhood] councils have been certified in recent years, compiling a spotty track record. A handful have grown into effective advocates for local interests, while many others have inspired little interest or participation. DLANC appears to have fallen into the latter category, with a small core of participants and not much in the way of community ties at the grass roots level. The decision not to run again by several of the body’s executive committee—who are elected in a vote among all board members at the beginning of each two-year session—has some participants hopeful of a change that could bring stronger links between the group and broader Downtown community in the upcoming term.”
MAIN PETITION LINK – http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stepdownrussbrown
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Tags: civic reform, dlanc, done, downtown, ethics, grievance, los angeles, progress
MAIN PETITION LINK – http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stepdownrussbrown
The following is one of several “missing” grievances filed against Russell Brown or other DLANC board members, but not provided by DONE after a Public Records Act request was made. This grievance has also vanished from the DLANC website, along with any record of how it was handled by the Grievance Committee. The following information was found on the subscription-based Newdowntown Yahoo group.
Subject: DLANC Election Challenge
Posted to subscription-based Newdowntown Yahoo group, Sun Sep 24, 2006 10:17 pm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newdowntown/message/12608
Lisa W. Sarno
Interim General Manager
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
334-B East Second Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90012
September 24th, 2006
Delivery by eMail
Dear Ms. Sarno
Please consider this an election challenge involving Mr. Russell
Brown, candidate, and Mr. Jerry Kvasnicka, independent election
advisor (IEA).
I am submitting this directly to you as the Coordinator that would
normally cover this, Betty Wong Oyama, refused to acknowledge an
election complaint/challenge that I filed last November.
Please assign another person to handle this challenge.
This challenge involves Russell Brown & Jerry Kvasnicka
� Candidate forms were required to be filed by 5PM on August 12th 2006
by being returned to DLANC Election Committee Staff, the Independent
Election Advisor or delivered in person or by mail to the DLANC office
on 1st Street, mailed to a P.O. Box 41048, CA 90041 or faxed to 866 636
4441. Strangely no email address was made available. This would require
that the DLANC office be open and that the PO Box be available to
receive mail until 5PM. They weren’t and candidates including myself
were denied the mandated right to file our papers in terms of and in
compliance with the Neighborhood Council Election Procedures.
The DLANC office was closed when I went there at approximately 3:30PM.
I went to the 90041 Post Office to Mail it to the PO Box there but
found that it was closed and had been since 3:30PM that day. I
subsequently had it faxed to the 866 636 4441 number.
� Jerry Kavasnicka claims that he never received my candidate papers on
the fax number. Being shown an affidavit by the person that had sent
the fax, attesting to the facts, he seemed to accept that a fax had
been sent but became irate and refused to verify me as a candidate thus
he has prevented me from running as a candidate and has not provided
any written reason for rejecting my candidacy so I can appeal his
decision.
� The legal description of the City West area is not defined and
enclosed and would appear to encompass the entire DLANC jurisdiction.
Jerry Kvasnicka denied this fact.
� In a blatant violation of the Brown Act, Jerry Kvasnicka met secretly
with Mr. Russell Brown and a majority of the DLANC Executive Committee
in un-noticed, agenda less and unreported (no minutes) meetings. At
least one of these meetings was held at a private apartment rented by
Mr. Russell Brown (February 10th) in downtown Los Angeles.
� Jerry Kvasnicka in explaining candidate requirements to a group of
potential candidates, I believe on August 8th, stated that even though
Mr. Russell Brown’s driving license had a Hollywood Hills address that
was going to be OK as he had been to Mr. Brown’s residence in downtown
Los Angeles. This courtesy was obviously not extended to other
residential candidates as far as I know. At this same meeting he made a
comment about candidates running “dirty tricks” and then, along with
Mr. Brown turned and stared at me, saying “No dirty tricks ! Right John
!”. This was a statement designed to diminish and defame me in the eyes
of others and coming from Mr. Kvasnicka, as election administrator, it
was also prejudicial and indicated a bias on his part against me.
� As an independent election administrator Mr. Kvasnicka must surely be
familiar with the common law doctrine of incompatible offices which
prohibits a person from holding two public offices at the same time if
the performance of the duties of either office could have a significant
adverse effect on the other.
California case law prohibits any person from holding two or more
incompatible offices simultaneously. The law provides that a person
holding incompatible offices is deemed to have vacated the first office
at the moment she accepts the second office. People ex rel Chapman v.
Rapsey, 16 Cal. 2d 636, 644 (1940)
His statement regarding Mr. Browns driving license having a Hollywood
Hills address would seem to indicate that he was aware of the fact that
Russell Brown was still holding an elected position on the Hollywood
Unified Neighborhood Council Board of Directors, in violation of the
doctrine of incompatible offices and on the basis of a falsified
drivers license, which is in and of itself a serious violation of
California law.
� Mr. Brown violated Section IX of the Neighborhood Council Election
Procedures by using his name, email address, home and cell phone
numbers on DLANC election documents, emails, DLANC New Downtown Yahoo
Group postings and on published and outreach notices in the local
press. Nowhere is the DLANC office phone number to be found. I am sure
that he will say he was forced to do this as he was head of the
“Election Committee” but the fact of the matter is that he was
campaigning and advertising for his candidacy and by doing so unfairly
predjuced the campaign of Genevieve Liang and perhaps discouraged
others from running at all.
“For more information, please visit our website at http://www.DLANC.com
Or Call DLANC Secretary and Election Committee Chair
Russell Brown
DLANC.jr2Brown@…
Cell 213-999-0379 Home 213-687-0898”
I would request that Mr. Brown be barred from taking office and
Genevieve Liang be installed as the winner in the Resident Area Wide
seat. In the alternative that the election for the Area Wide seat be
rerun.
I also request that the City West election be rerun.
Yours truly,
John Sellars
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Supporting material for the petition calling for Russell Brown to resign from DLANC 
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