Councilmember Joel Feuer explained a previously allocated $50,000 for community courts and urged that the council authorize its use for needs assessments in two pilot areas: Central City East (downtown/Skid Row area) and Van Nuys. Feuer said working groups composed of court leaders, community activists, public-interest attorneys and city offices had visited other jurisdictions and developed plans that are "rather far along," but that an assessment is needed to identify the highest-priority quality-of-life problems to address.

"The money that's on the table would go to actually performing a needs assessment as to precisely which community quality-of-life problems are elevated to the highest level by people in those neighborhoods," Feuer said. Administration staff corroborated that $50,000 was placed in the budget for community courts and said OARS would prepare a request for proposal to carry out the assessments.

Several council members, led by Councilman Richard Hernandez, pressed for written reports and more documentation of the selection process, site criteria and community partners before authorizing the RFP. Hernandez said he was “acting without any kind of a report” and asked for committee review. Councilmembers raised questions about replicability, whether Van Nuys and downtown were appropriate pilot sites, and the Brown Act implications of committee members jointly sponsoring motions.

Councilman Feuer moved to continue the item for one week to allow written reports from the CLA and OARS; the motion passed without objection and the item was continued to Oct. 17.

No final contract award or RFP release was authorized in the meeting transcript; the council continued the item to receive the requested reports.