This general message is being sent in order to assist your Neighborhood Council when you have a situation where your board will provide a grant or payment to a non-profit and one of the Neighborhood Council board members is also a member of that non-profit.
Many Neighborhood Council board members are also active in non-profits in their communities. Your Neighborhood Council may provide a grant or payment to a non-profit where a board member is also an officer of a non-profit only if specific rules are followed.
The board member who is also on the non-profit is prohibited from having any involvement in an award of monies by the Neighborhood Council to that board member’s non-profit.
This means the board member may not talk about the issue with other board members, the board member may not sign the Neighborhood Purposes Grant on behalf of the non-profit, the board member may not present the issue to the Neighborhood Council at a public meeting and another person from the non-profit must present the issue to the board. When the item comes up for discussion at the board meeting, the board member must immediately announce that he/she is leaving the room and request that the minutes, if any, reflect that the board member is being disqualified from considering the issue. The board member must not be present in the room when any portion of the item is discussed.
Please be careful with these restrictions when you are considering payments or grants to a non-profit. The failure to follow these rules leads to the undesirable consequence that the Neighborhood Council will not be allowed to make the payment or grant to the non-profit.
Thank you for your your time and efforts toward improving your Neighborhood Council and your communities. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding this matter.
Deputy City Attorney Carmen Hawkins is the regional advisor for Neighborhood Councils in the South, Central, Harbor and West areas of the City and she may be reached at carmen.hawkins@lacity.org.
Deputy City Attorney Alois Phillips is the regional advisor for Neighborhood Councils in the North Valley, South Valley, and East areas of the City and she may be reached at alois.phillips@lacity.org.
