Englander Plans to Open Community Service Office in Chatsworth

During a drop-in visit to the , Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander announced that he is closing two longtime Council District 12 offices and consolidating his operations into a Community Service Office in Chatsworth.

He is considering a new location on Oakdale Avenue near Prairie Street that he says is more central to his constituents.

Chatsworth is 38 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Englander wants to accommodate District 12 constituents so they don't have to travel to Van Nuys or City Hall to conduct city business. He wants to set up what he called a Chatsworth "city desk" with representatives of each major city department in residence for a full day on a scheduled, rotating basis.

"No one has ever done anything like this," he said at the Wednesday meeting. "The general managers I've spoken with love this concept."

The move could come as early as January.

The district offices to be closed are at the Chatsworth train depot and on Nordhoff Street at Wilbur Avenue in Northridge.

Englander also told the Neighborhood Council of a street and sidewalk repair motion he filed this week.

He said the city doesn’t have any money to repair sidewalks, or streets labeled “failed,” and he is opposed to placing the financial burden of fixing sidewalks on homeowners.

“It will take $4 billion to $5 billion to fix all of the city streets. We are 90 years behind,” Englander said, adding that his motion was to study a way to fix all of the streets and sidewalks in the next decade, which could be financed through a 30- to 40-year bond. If all streets and sidewalks were fixed properly, he said, the annual income from property taxes would be enough to maintain that infrastructure.

Englander also said he and Councilman Tony Cardenas are seeking a new form of "commission or management company" for Van Nuys Airport, the largest nongovernment employer in the Valley. He called the airport an "economic engine" that is not getting enough attention from the Los Angeles World Airports, which currently governs city aviation. Click here for a related story.

In response to a question, he said he would like neighborhood councils to have an earlier say in the mayor’s budget. "The budget process doesn't work. I think we should blow it up and start over," he said.

Englander said that the city pays millions of dollars to settle lawsuits and there may be a $750-million judgment against the city in a class-action suit over the telephone tax. That would add yet another burden to the city's budget.

“These are tough financial times, and I would like to create public-private [ties] with nonprofits, so that the city can get back to doing what it’s supposed to do, like [providing] police, fire, library services,” Englander said. “We should focus on core responsibilities.”

In other actions, the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council unanimously voted to:

• Allocate $700 as a partial contribution toward an automatic dialing system for Volunteer Surveillance Team at the Los Angeles Police Department Devonshire Community Police Station. The volunteers are specially trained and supervised by LAPD officers to observe and report criminal activity.

• Approve installation of rooftop cellphone transmitters behind a screened wall designed to match the architecture of an existing storage unit at 9350 Topanga Canyon Blvd.