The original version of this article contained an error and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.
The Westwood Neighborhood Council, an advisory board to the Los Angeles City Council, will hold its third election on Sunday at the Westwood Recreation Complex.
Three positions, all of which have multiple seats, will be contested this year: renter residential group director, business group director and student director.
The council is a collaboration of Westwood business owners, homeowners, UCLA students and renters and other stakeholders within the Westwood community. It held its first election in June 2010 and its second in October 2012.
Community members elect councilmembers for two-year terms.
The most recent election was one and a half years ago, and current faculty director Lisa Chapman said the upcoming election date was moved up by six months since its original election date was in conflict with the Los Angeles city municipal elections. The office of the city clerk, which runs municipal elections, administers the neighborhood council elections and could not administer both elections simultaneously.
She added that moving up the election date also cuts costs for the council.
Chapman is running uncontested for the same seat on a platform of improving communication and social ties with the council and UCLA.
“We need to get out there as council and involve the people in the area, like holding more ‘young people events,'” Chapman said. “In order for the council to succeed, it needs to have as many different representatives from the community as possible.”
Laura Winikow, the incumbent educational community director, is running uncontested for her current office on a platform of improving the representation of the local elementary and middle schools on council.
Winikow said the upcoming election and the actions of the council as a whole should matter to UCLA students because the school is a part of the greater Westwood community.
“Anything that happens in the North Village, no matter what, is reported on here,” Winikow said. “(The council) needs to care about (the students) just as much as they need to care about us, even if we disagree.”
A total of seven UCLA students are running for several positions on the council, and several recent graduates are also running.
Mark Herd, a former councilmember who served on the land use committee for the past four years, sat in his last neighborhood council meeting Wednesday evening. He is running for office as a Libertarian candidate in California’s 33rd Congressional District.
Herd said he believes the council as a whole represents the different types of people within Westwood, since it includes a student seat and homeowner positions.
“What I most want to see is more exposure for the council, like in advertisements, because the council’s budget is limited and the money needs to go around,” Herd said.
He added that despite the election date change, he thinks voter turnout will still be strong because Westwood plays host to many voting homeowners.
Some students said they were aware of the election and consider the council important to Westwood.
James Blancaflor, a third-year sociology student, is part of a continuing education organization that works closely with Dean Abell, a business owner and the manager of Sarah Leonard Fine Jewelers.
Blancaflor is aware of the upcoming election and said he will turn out to vote if he can find the time in his schedule.
The election will take place on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Any person over the age of 17 who declares a stake in the Westwood community is eligible to vote.
Correction: There are seven students running in the election.