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.

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.

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.

http://vimeo.com/10883053

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

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

Status updates moved to http://stepdownrussbrown.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/status-updates/

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.

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

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 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

On November 9, 2009, Executive Director Richard Schave and Treasurer/Curator Kim Cooper were forced to resign from the Downtown LA Art Walk non-profit they founded, due in large part to attacks on their credibility and false claims about the quality of their volunteer work from one man, Russell Brown. Mr. Brown serves simultaneously as President of the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council (a community service position), and as Executive Director of the Historic Downtown Business Improvement District (a consortium of major property owners). In a July 2008 editorial, the local Garment and Citizen newspaper called on Mr. Brown to step down from DLANC due to the clear conflict of interest in his holding these two posts.

After Mr. Schave’s resignation from Art Walk, Mr. Brown then made false claims about Mr. Schave in the Downtown News. A more accurate account of how Mr. Schave’s work was perceived is found in Ginny-Marie Brideau’s blog post and the comments from Art Walk volunteers who worked closely with Mr. Schave and Ms. Cooper. See also this Toronto Star article praising Mr. Schave’s vision for Downtown and Art Walk. A glimpse at how respected community members, including Mr. Brown, actively bashed Art Walk’s new leaders is found in this comment from a local gallery owner.

The comment at the bottom of this page was posted by Kim Cooper on Metblogs LA on 12/26/09 in support of Russell Brown’s nomination for Grinch of the Year, which had been made by someone else. This nomination was due to Mr. Brown’s bad faith dealings surrounding the Art Walk. After numerous attacks by anonymous trolls on Ms. Cooper and others who spoke out against Mr. Brown’s activities, blogger David Markland decided to end the Grinch competition and declare no winner, although he admitted that Mr. Brown had received more votes than any other nominee and no rules had been broken. Ms. Cooper’s Grinch of the Year nomination comment provides extensive background on why she was compelled to file a formal ethics complaint with the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment regarding Mr. Brown’s behavior as President of DLANC. It also explains the background for why, after Mr. Brown threatened to sue her and her husband for having filed this complaint against him, she then petitioned for Mr. Brown to step down from his elected position at DLANC.

[UPDATE: On February 5, 2010, The Garment & Citizen newspaper's cover story stated "DONE Boss Says System ‘Very Weak’ as Grievance Reveals DLANC Ethics Gap." On March 17, 2010, DLANC held a grievance hearing to look into the complaints about Russell Brown's behavior. Because Executive Committee member Patti Berman never posted the hearing on the DLANC community calendar or emailed information about it to constituents, the hearing violates the Brown Act and the results are invalid. During his grievance hearing, Russell Brown testified that he did, in fact, conspire with Bert Green to sabotage the Art Walk non-profit and undermine the work of its volunteer managers beginning in June 2009, one month prior to Bert Green handing over management of the event. Video of Mr. Brown's testimony can be seen at this link.]

COMMENT BY KIM COOPER ON METBLOGS IN SUPPORT OF RUSSELL BROWN’S NOMINATION AS “GRINCH OF THE YEAR,” 12/26/09: Russell Brown has been nominated for Metblogs Grinch of the Year. His bad faith, false claims and disdain for the community surrounding the Downtown LA Art Walk provide excellent examples of why Mr. Brown should receive this particular “honor.”

In early 2009, my husband Richard Schave and I agreed to take over management of the Art Walk from gallery owner Bert Green. After a half-year transition process, our first Art Walk was in mid July. We were excited about finally taking charge and bringing many new and exciting changes to the Art Walk and the downtown community.

On August 3, members of the very new and very busy Art Walk board met with Russell Brown, who had been expressing concern that he was not intrinsically involved in the work of this new entity. The board intended this meeting as a gesture of respect to Mr. Brown, who serves as volunteer president of the Neighborhood Council, and to alleviate any concerns that he had about where the Art Walk was going in its new non-profit role.

The meeting was also needed because Russell, in his other capacity as Executive Director of the Historic District Business Improvement District, was refusing to honor that entity’s long-standing commitment of an annual donation of $5000 to the Art Walk. It was hoped that this matter could be resolved for the financial benefit of this community event.

Russell Brown came to the table that day with a litany of strange, inaccurate complaints about the Art Walk, and it seemed that all he wanted to do at the meeting was to hash over these complaints. When asked directly what could be done so that we could move forward in a positive way, Mr. Brown had no suggestions, but merely stated he would be going back to talk to the community about his unhappiness with the Art Walk.

These complaints were actually nothing new, as very similar claims against the new Art Walk management were made by Russell Brown and DLANC’s Brady Westwater at a gathering of gallery owners on June 17. This was before the new management team was in charge of the Art Walk or had had any opportunity to accomplish anything, and already Russell Brown and his colleague was objecting to their work.

In this August meeting, Russell Brown stated that the Art Walk’s management did not return phone calls — but when this was disputed by the people who dedicated part of each day to returning calls, he could provide no concrete examples beyond objecting to the event’s volunteer staff’s use of a voicemail system rather than answering incoming calls.

He stated that the Art Walk’s map was not available and could not be used. This claim was due to a since-resolved matter involving large PDF files that some computers could not download, which had been corrected before the July Art Walk. Russell spoke of this as a continuing issue which made the new Art Walk management unqualified in his eyes.

He told the board that the Art Walk website didn’t work and was unacceptable to him. However, he could not explain what the problem was. At this point the Art Walk website was called up on a laptop, and it was discovered that Mr. Brown was confused about how to utilize the common type of location-based website that uses a zoomable map. The Art Walk’s redesigned front page–which was already returning as the #1 Google result for “art walk” — opened to a map of the Historic Core, with clickable links for each gallery at its actual location.

Mr. Brown said that this was not what the website looked like when he had visited it, and it was discovered that he had clicked the zoom-out button repeatedly, resulting in a view of the entire Planet Earth. We showed him how the website was supposed to look and function, and apologized for the confusion. But he still was not happy, and due to his continued complaints, we went back to the drawing board and redesigned the site simply to placate him.

What about the $5000 annual donation from HDBID? Russell suggested that rather than give this money to the brand new and entirely unfunded Art Walk non-profit, he intended to fund a new gallery owners group to be managed by former Art Walk manager Bert Green, and give some of it to DLANC member Brady Westwater for his Fashion Walk. And in fact, Russell soon moved to remove another source of funding that had been promised to the Art Walk, DLANC’s $500/month for the Art Walk shuttle (canceled in November); this money was also diverted to the new gallery owners group.

Unfortunately, the August meeting was not a positive one, and concluded with Mr. Brown stating that he did not expect he would be able to work constructively with the new Art Walk board, no matter what they did to try to find a common ground. Despite the fact that the board had just taken over the event, with only a single Art Walk under our belts, Russell Brown declared that the new Art Walk management was a failure that he would not be able to support.

And indeed, Mr. Brown continued to undermine the Art Walk in his words and actions, including interfering in a problematic event sponsorship proposal from Cadillac; he personally worked with Cadillac to place their cars on view at the November Art Walk, despite the objections of the non-profit’s Executive Director and Curator.

Finally, in October, Mr. Brown’s complaints reached a fever pitch. He sent an email to the board of the Art Walk stating that due to the failures of Art Walk management to address his complaints – all of which were false or had long since been addressed – that he would no longer be seeking to work with the Art Walk, but would instead… well, let’s let Mr. Brown speak for himself. Please note that the truth is that we printed thousands of maps, returned all phone messages and sent regular press releases, and that the board was well aware of these facts.

“In this tight economy, we can no longer afford to have an organization that does not have maps printed, does not answer phones, does not send out press releases, or folks do not feel comfortable with the follow thru. But more importantly, we just needed a common sense partner, business associate and organizer who worked with everyone to grow this as a successful, art focused, neighborhood business focused event. That has not happened after many months of trying. So we are moving on to create that with a new set of partners who share that common vision.” (Russell Brown, 10/27/2009)

Just days after this email, members of the Art Walk board informed Executive Director Richard Schave and myself that the board wished Richard to step down from his position of authority so that someone could be brought in who had a better working relationship with community leaders.

This statement made no sense to us, and suggested that the Art Walk board had decided to capitulate to Russell’s campaign of false complaints. Rather than remain and try to do our volunteer work in an environment in which bad faith, false claims and rampant hostility would be rewarded, we chose to resign from the Art Walk.

At this point we felt we could do better work off the board than on it, and so with great regret we walked away from the non-profit we founded. Unfortunately, almost all of the volunteers who we brought into the Art Walk organization chose to also withdraw in sympathy to us, and as a gesture of non-support for an Art Walk board that would place the desires of so disingenuous a person as Russell Brown ahead of the Art Walk’s devoted managing Director and Curator.

And so you see that Russell Brown made the same false complaints about the Art Walk on June 17, on August 3 and on October 27. In June and in August, the Art Walk board agreed that his complaints were unfortunate and without merit. But in October, something changed, and the board decided to listen to Russell Brown. That led to the process by which Richard was asked to step down from his position as Director, but to remain on hand as a full-time volunteer manager. We chose instead to walk away from the Art Walk entirely.

And this is why the downtown community has had to hear so much debate and complaint surrounding the Art Walk over the past weeks. This is why the very young Art Walk non-profit has had to go back to the drawing board and bring a new Director up to speed, during which time the galleries and the community have been without a leader. If Russell Brown put one tenth of the energy into creating positive change in his community that he spent undermining my husband’s and my volunteer work with the Art Walk, who knows what great things could happen?

The Art Walk was not our first experience trying to work with Russell Brown. For several years Richard and I had come to him regularly with suggestions for how DLANC or the BID could better serve the community. Unfortunately, Mr. Brown never wanted to follow up on any of our suggestions, and seemed to feel that the community didn’t need these tools. It was in part because of his failure to act that we felt the need to form a non-profit to run the Art Walk and to provide these specific benefits to the downtown community.

Once that non-profit was formed to support the Art Walk, at considerable effort, Russell Brown conspired to drive us out so that he could take credit for and control the tools that we put in place for the benefit of the community.

This technique is typical of Russell Brown’s political machinations. He creates an environment in downtown Los Angeles where the community is told that the only way to accomplish anything is to work within the DLANC system that he controls, and with the support of the HDBID for which he is the public face—but if anyone shows ability or leadership, he does all he can to undermine and eject them, as happened with the Art Walk. Russell Brown then moves into the vacuum he has created, further consolidating his personal power.

Let me speak directly on the matter of Russell Brown’s complaints about the Art Walk website, which he could not understand how to use and so derided to the community and to the Art Walk board. The fact is that Russell’s own organization DLANC has struggled with the development of its own website, seeking to provide much improved functionality and features needed by its community and its elected leadership.

Several years ago, Richard volunteered to help Russell Brown get the DLANC website updated with a open source content management system, Drupal — what the Art Walk website is built on — which would be interactive and community-driven. Richard offered to organize a group of community-minded programmers to raise the framework (provide the heavy lifting) for a new DLANC website, but stated that Russell would have to provide a few dedicated people from DLANC who would maintain the site and edit its content. This offer was never followed up on by Russell Brown.

The website that was eventually built by Richard for the Art Walk was very similar to what Richard wanted to provide to DLANC and that Russell Brown was not interested in. This is a site that many different people can use, with different levels of permissions, that with use will begin to reflect what’s actually going on in the community, and become an important tool. For Russell Brown to complain so vehemently about the Art Walk website is unfortunate in the light of DLANC’s long struggles and high expenditures with its own website development.

Some people have suggested that now that Richard and I have resigned from the Art Walk we ought to stop talking about what went wrong with that entity, and that our insistence on speaking up is simply sour grapes. We don’t think so.

We believe we were put into this difficult position in order to shine a light on things that are broken in downtown Los Angeles, and to speak up on behalf of the many committed community members who have approached us privately to express their support, and share their stories of Russell Brown’s years of bullying and abuse of power.

Russell Brown doesn’t just run the BID and DLANC. He sits on numerous community boards, including ones that oversee the troubled Pershing Square redesign process, and Bringing Back Broadway with its streetcar component. We believe downtown will have a much better chance of moving forward into the new decade in a spirit of good will and good work if we call Russell Brown out on being the bully that he is, and give the community a chance to screw its courage to the sticking point and let people speak their minds.

Until the community begins providing better people to do the important work we all want to see done, the status quo will remain intact. Nothing will change until we all start talking about what’s wrong, and do something about it. We think this Grinch nomination, which has people talking, is a start.

What comes next is up to you.

yours sincerely,
Kim Cooper
formerly founding Curator and Treasurer of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk, a California Public Benefit Corporation