General Manager's Update 

  

I hope this newsletter finds you well. This week started early for me (or maybe last week didn't really end!) because I was trying to keep up with all the Neighborhood Council events around LA. On Saturday I stopped by the GM's Roundtable at our EmpowerLA Leadership Academy which featured LA's City Librarian, John Szabo. I didn't realize that besides books, our great library system, the largest in the country, offered so much more. For those who missed the Roundtable, there is an article below with video from Saturday.

  

After that, I was happy to swing by the Valley's ONEgeneration Senior Symposium to thank nine of our Neighborhood Councils who supported and tabled the great event.

  

Sunday was CicLAvia to the Sea where I started riding from downtown and stopped to say hello and thank you to Mid City and Olympic Park Neighborhood Councils who sponsored a section of the ride. I admired the clean streets of Palms Neighborhood Council whose Board members made sure to do a clean up on Saturday before the event. I didn't get a chance to stop at the other Neighborhood Council tables along the route because I was racing to make it to Venice Beach, getting there just as they opened the streets again. After pizza on the famous Boardwalk, it was a long ride back to Culver City to take the handy Expo line back to 7th St in Downtown in a train full of bicycles and tired, but happy riders.

 

On Monday, Mayor Villaraigosa showed his support for Neighborhood Councils in his Proposed Budget by maintaining the Neighborhood Councils' yearly allocation at $37,000 for next year. Neighborhood Councils were also appreciated in the Mayor's "The Future of Volunteering in Los Angeles" report released on Wednesday, and the Mayor again mentioned the importance of funding Neighborhood Councils in his Valley Town Hall that evening. I sent a short letter to Budget and Finance Committee requesting some additional funds be allocated to the Department from funding sources this fiscal year to next fiscal year to assist in reducing the burden on the General Fund. The Budget and Finance Committee will hold its hearing on the Department and Neighborhood Council budgets on Friday, May 3, 2013, in City Council chambers from 1 pm to 5 pm.

 

Today, I was excited to celebrate our EmpowerLA Awardees being recognized in City Council, thanks to the Mayor's Office and Councilmember Zine. The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners will be opening up nominations for this year's awards soon so make sure to submit and be recognized for your hard work!

 

I'm ending my week tomorrow with our EmpowerLA Leadership Academy, the VANC Candidate Forum and the launch of the Congress of Neighborhoods Planning Committee. If I don't see you there, then have a relaxing weekend!

  

Best,

 

 

Grayce Liu,

General Manager

Department of Neighborhood Empowerment  

 

Empower Yourself.

Empower Your Community.

Empower LA.

    

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has delivered the Mayor's Proposed Budget to the City Council which will now commence the annual budget hearings on April 30, a process that consists of reviewing each department's budget, one by one, in public meetings. The Mayor is responsible for developing the Mayor's Proposed Budget. The Budget and Finance Committee then has two weeks to review the Budget and make recommendations to the City Council which will then return adopt its Budget Resolution. An overview of the schedule can be found...

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The Los Angeles City Council celebrated National Volunteer Week in Council Chambers by honoring seven Neighborhood Councils for the work they do in their communities. There are 95 Neighborhood Councils in the City of Los Angeles, led by over 1700 Boardmembers, and their Charter Mandate is to engage their Communities and to monitor the delivery of City Services. Last year, 55 Neighborhood Councils celebrated their 10th Anniversaries and this 22 Neighborhood Councils join them in celebrating a "A Decade of Civic Engagement."...

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Mayor Says "Thank You!"

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held a Town Hall Meeting in Van Nuys this past Wednesday evening, ostensibly to talk about transportation, public safety, and the local economy, but when he stepped out from behind the podium, it turned out he simply wanted to thank Los Angeles for the opportunity to be of service. Los Angeles is a city of meetings and on any given night, there are several opportunities to engage City Hall leadership and local Neighborhood Council leadership, enough to wear out even the most committed of the civic engaged...

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Lessons from the Gateway 

"Sorry you'll have to call the Los Angeles Police Department about that." "New people move in, and think they're living in Torrance" said Miguel Cordova, President of the Harbor Gateway South Neighborhood Council "and so they'll call in an emergency to the wrong city". Conversely, people will make calls into LA and get referred to Torrance. The zip code 90501 is more closely related to Torrance than Los Angeles, and as a result the lesser known Harbor Gateway community is often faced with these cases of mistaken identity.

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Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has named Arnetta Mack of South LA to the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (the Commission), for the term ending June 30, 2015, filling the vacancy created by Carlene Davis, who has resigned. Ms. Mack is a veteran of the Neighborhood Council system, having served on the Empowerment Congress Central Area Neighborhood Development Council, the South Los Angeles Alliance of Neighborhood Councils, and the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates.

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LA's City Librarian, John Szabo, was featured at EmpowerLA's Leadership Academy as part of the General Manager's Roundtable, offering Neighborhood Council boardmembers and stakeholders an opportunity to talk about LA's Public Library. LA's Central Library, with its 72 branches and a budget of $107 million, serves the largest population of any library in the United States...

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Outreach lessons from CicLAvia

CicLAvia was, by all accounts, HUGE! From City Hall to Venice Beach, the streets were opened to people on foot, on bikes, on skateboards, on scooters, and those who just wanted to hang out. Some referred to it as the world's largest rolling park, a dynamic open space filled with people who were discovering their streets from a new perspective. For Neighborhood Councils, this presented a huge opportunity with tens of thousands of people moving slowly through their communities and we can learn a lot from those NCs that seized the opportunity...

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The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners is in the process of taking up the recommendations of the NC Plan and Reform Committees and the first topic to make the agenda was a proposal to do away with the standard definition of "factual basis" stakeholder. The motion was introduced in March and would also eliminate the requirement that councils provide board seats for those who do not live, work, or own property within the NC boundaries...

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Please note that the Treasurer's Training scheduled for Thursday, April 25, 2013 was cancelled due to a low number of RSVP's. We are rescheduling for Monday, April 29, 2013, from 6 - 9 p.m. Please contact the Department at (213) 978-1551 to make a reservation. We invite each and every one of you to attend a training, whether as a refresher or for the first time. See attached flyer for more details...

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As you may know we have been engageing you during our Board Development Series and we are close to wrapping up the sessions on Advocacy. After our upcoming session in South LA, we will move to the Valley and will finalize in June in the Harbor. Please try to attend these sessions as they focus on sharpening the tools that already exist for NCs to be better advocates for your local issues...

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With the funding deadline fast approaching and the implementation of the new funding system, the issue of Neighborhood Councils contracting for personal services contracts needs to be addressed...

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