Patch Blog: On Residency Requirements for Neighborhood Council Candidates

My name is David Lyttle and I am running for one of the two Monterey Hills geographic representative seats to the ASNC and I am part of the Back to Business Slate of candidates.

Last night, I attended the final meeting of the ASNC prior to the upcoming elections to be held on October 13. I wanted to hear about the “Discussion and review of ASNC Financial Audit, for the period for July 2010 to June 2011, conducted by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment” which was listed as agenda item number 6 and secondly I wanted to support the Back to Business Slate to which I belong.

After the initial welcome the General Public Comment began with a statement read by Eliot Sekuler. Mr. Sekuler seemed to be very agitated with Joe Riser. Mr. Sekuler took the public forum to express his concerns about Mr. Riser running for a Sycamore Grove seat although his residence is within the Hermon community. At the very close of Mr. Sekuler’s statement current board member Ariel Van Zandweghye applauded loudly in what appeared to be an outward approval of the concern stated by Mr. Sekuler. Apparently, Mr. Van Zandweghye feels the same way as Mr. Sekuler, i.e. geographic representatives should in fact reside within the neighborhoods that they represent. Being an ASNC board member Mr. Van Zandweghye should be well aware of the qualifications for claiming a stake in a community which includes “factual basis."

If Mr. Van Zandweghye feels this way he may want to ask each of the five candidates of the Preserve Arroyo Seco Slate (which he is part of), who are running for geographic seats to state for the record if they live within the boundaries of the neighborhoods they claim to represent, he may find that one of the Preserve Arroyo Seco Slate geographic candidates does not reside within the community for which they they are running.

For my own peace of mind I left the meeting shortly after it began.