Neighborhood Council Clashes Over Hermon Task Force

The tiny community of Hermon has become the center of a major clash between members of the .

Since late last year, a task force of Hermon residents have been laying the groudwork for excluding the Northeast L.A. neighborhood of about 3,500 residents from the ASNC's boundaries, and forming new board dedicated to their small community. 

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update: We originally posted that Hermon was a community of 9,000 residents. The actually population is approximately 3,500. We regret the error.

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The efforts of those Hermonites, though, have not sat well with every council stakeholder, and on Monday night the board was presented with a motion requesting the resignation of those members that have supported the formation of the Hermon neighborhood council.

Jim Henderson, a Monterey Hills resident, submitted the motion to the council during their meeting on Monday night, saying that their "actions are a clear indication that these board members are not acting nor in the future will act in the best interest of the ASNC and its ideals."

Joseph Riser, an ASNC member and supporter of the proposed Hermon neighborhood council, disagreed with Henderon's assertion that the council's Hermon reps no longer had the best interest in the community in mind, pointing out that several items on the evening's agenda were authored by Hermon residents.

The board declined to vote on the motion, citing the lack of an established precedent for requesting member resignations.

The board also shot down a request by Riser to take a roll call vote on the motion--an effort to get each member of the board "on the record" about the issue.

He called the actions of the board members who declined to vote "cowardly."

"What a bunch of cowards," Riser said. "You won't even go on record with how you feel about this? Do you know that every Los Angeles City Council member is required to go on record with all of their votes?"

Jack Fong, a Mount Washington resident and the board's Vice President, said he wasn't afraid to vote, he just needed more information before going on record.

The Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council currently represents five Northeast L.A. communities: Hermon, Mount Washington, Montecito Heights, Monterey Hills and Sycamore Grove.

There are five Hermon residents who sit on the 16-member board. Hermon residents have also been among the most active council members in seeking community improvement funds.

Wendi Riser, who is a Hermon stakeholder, said the small neighborhood had "outgrown the neighborhood council."

"It's like when you have a plant in a planter box that is outgrowing all the other plants," Riser said. "You need to move it to a new location so it can thrive and grow even bigger, and so the smaller plants can begin to grow too."

Though Hermon is home to some of the neighborhood council's most active members, the small size of the council may prove an obstacle in its certification effort.

Earlier this month, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) General Manger BongHwan Kim wrote a letter to the task force, saying there were no established protocols for forming new neighborhood councils for communities of less than 20,000 residents.

Joseph Riser, however, has stressed that the final decision does not rest with DONE but with the Board of Neighborhood Councils, and that there were several other neighborhood councils representing communities of less than 20,000 in Northeast L.A.--include Atwater Village (14,933) and Cypress Park (10,833).

Hermon resident and board member Mark Legassie said he was surprised by reluctance of stakeholders to embrace the idea of a Hermon neighborhood council.

"I thought people would have welcomed this," Legassie said.