McNenny

BACKGROUND

The City’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment was created to “make government more responsive to local needs.” (See L.A. County Charter, art. IX, § 900; see id., art. IX, § 901.) The City’s charter provides: “Neighborhood councils shall include representatives of the many diverse interests in communities and shall have an advisory role on issues of concern to the neighborhood.” (Id., art. IX, § 900.) In 2017, at the time of the challenged election, section 22.819 of the Los Angeles Administrative Code provided

2 in part: “A stakeholder within an existing certified Neighborhood Council who desires forming a separate certified Neighborhood Council within the boundaries of one or more existing certified Neighborhood Councils shall submit a subdivision petition to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (Department) on a form approved by the Department.” (Former L.A. Admin. Code, § 22.819, subd. (a).) The same ordinance required the Department to conduct an election within 90 days of the approval of a subdivision petition. (Id., subd. (b).) The Committee, Jeff Page, a Skid Row resident and committee member, and appellant McNenny (collectively referred to as…