General Manager's Update 

 

I hope this newsletter finds you well. We got a lot of love at the Budget & Finance Committee last Friday, and I specifically say "we" because while the Councilmembers were kindly complimenting me for my work, I know any success that I have is because of our successes together. So "we" includes not only our terrific staff, Neighborhood Council leaders and Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, but also our City family who stepped way up when I really needed support these past 9 months: Mayor Villaraigosa and his team (especially Torie Osborn, Monique Earl, Yolanda Fuentes and Neil Guglielmo), our Councilmembers (especially Councilmembers Parks and Zine), Controller Wendy Greuel and her team (especially Faith Mok and Minyeong Chen), City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and his team (especially to Darren Martinez, Carmen Hawkins, Alois Phillips), CAO Miguel Santana and his team (Terry Sauer and Delilah Puche are the best!), CLA Gerry Miller and his team (especially Paul Smith and Darrell Powell), City Clerk June Lagmay and her team (Holly Wolcott is particularly awesome), Board of Public Works (President Capri Maddox is beyond wonderful), GSD Personnel (the dedicated Dan Yoshimura, Narvia Wells, Janice Baumgarten), Office of Finance (especially Jan Zatorski and Clariza Mullins)...I know the music is playing, the mic is about to be turned off, and I haven't even mentioned all the other City departments that have collaborated with us on workshops and with Neighborhood Councils directly, but I wanted you to know that it really takes a City family to raise a department. So a heartfelt thanks to you all!

 

This past week, I bumped into Councilmember Englander at both the LANCC and the VANC where he was giving a presentation on how to fix our streets, aka the $3 billion bond measure though the final proposal may be completely different. It was really great of Councilmember Englander to not only meet with the Neighborhood Councils on this issue, but for trying to get our $20,000 budget request for Congress and Budget Advocates back next year, too. He also rides an amazing Harley motorcycle, which makes him even that much cooler.

 

We celebrated the 10 year anniversaries of Atwater Village and Silver Lake Neighborhood Councils at the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, and then I was happy to have the time to present Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council's 10 year certificate at their meeting on Wednesday where they celebrated with a delicious bar-b-que.       

Many thanks to those who have weighed in our proposed new funding program! I've been answering questions in the field, and your suggestions have been great. We've now released the Budget Package for next fiscal year where in addition to the budget template that includes a section for (s)elections, we've also added a strategic plan and roster as well (more info below). We're asking folks to be more strategic about where and when your Neighborhood Council spends money so we don't have a last minute rush to spend down funds before they are swept. After doing a lot of fiscal clean up work the past year, I can tell you that we are doing the same strategic planning and budgeting ourselves, and we'll all be better for it.

 

I'll be dropping by the SLAANC's Candidate Forum tomorrow so if I don't see you there, have a great weekend!

  

Best,

 

 

Grayce Liu,

General Manager

Department of Neighborhood Empowerment  

 

Empower Yourself.

Empower Your Community.

Empower LA.

    

LA2050 invited Angelenos to join a movement that will imagine the future and then get busy shaping and building it, focusing on eight well defined indicators: education, income & employment, housing, public safety, health, environmental quality, social connectedness, and arts and cultural vitality. To unite citizens, stakeholders, and organizations in addressing the region's toughest challenges, LA2050 put up $1 million and asked for proposals, awarding ten $100,000 grants to the projects selected by the people of LA...

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"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going because you might not get there." Yogi Berra

"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized." Daniel Burnham

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The City Council's Budget and Finance Committee has completed the first phase of the Budget Hearings and is scheduled to reconvene on May 14th when the Chief Legislative Analyst will report on the proposed changes to the Mayor's 2013-14 Proposed Budget. The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment's GM, Grayce Liu, appeared before the Committee on the last day of the initial round of hearings and you can see the Committee's recommendations on this video...

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Alliances and Coalitions

The City of LA has several Neighborhood Council Alliances and Coalitions in addition to the citywide organizations that focus on a specific topic. This past Saturday, the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition (LANCC) met in Hollywood and featured guest speakers City Council President Herb Wesson and Councilman Mitch Englander. It was a standing-room-only crowd and the topics included the City of LA's Road Bond and Civic Engagement. EmpowerLA's GM, Grayce Liu, also presented the new NC Funding Program to the audience...

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The Neighborhood Council Plan affects you. Now you can affect it!

The "Neighborhood Council Plan" affects each of us involved in the Neighborhood Council System. This important Plan is being currently reviewed by our Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. The issue of "factual basis stakeholder" is the first to be considered, and the Commission kindly requests your input in a survey. The Commission will examine the survey results and consider the issue at their next meeting on May 20th. You are invited to both that meeting, as well as the subsequent meeting on May 25th, where the Commission's three regional committees tasked with considering the Plan issues will be convening in a joint session to consolidate the rest of their recommendations....

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LA's Board of Neighborhood Commissioners is made up of seven members of the community who are appointed by the Mayor and represent the diverse geographical areas, serving as volunteers.

The Commission is responsible for policy setting and policy oversight, "including the approval of contracts and leases, and the promulgation of rules and regulations, but shall not be responsible for day-to-day management"...

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The Congress of Neighborhoods offers a unique opportunity to annually bring together over 600 Neighborhood Council Board members and stakeholders from all 95 Neighborhood Councils throughout the City. Held at City Hall on the fourth Saturday of September, attendees meet with City Councilmembers and Commissioners, City Department general managers and their staff, and Neighborhood Council leaders and volunteers in 27 different workshops and two general sessions...

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PlanCheckNC has organized for two senior planners from the Department of City Planning to present on neighborhood projects that are processed and reviewed in our Plan Implementation Units. Senior Planners Shana Bonstin from our Downtown LA office and Bob Duenas from our Valley office will be presenting. Plan Implementation Units oversees all neighborhood projects and process cases that fall within special overlay zones, such as specific plans or community design overlays...

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The deadline to submit Demand Warrants to the Department is next Wednesday, May 15th. To help you meet this important deadline, we are going to be accepting submitted Demand Warrants at the following locations between the hours of 9AM - 5PM:

* Van Nuys City Hall - 14410 Sylvan St., 4th FL (213) 473-9311

* San Pedro City Hall - 638 South Beacon Street, 6th FL (310) 732-4522

* West LA Neighborhood Council - 1645 Corinth Ave. Suite 201 (310) 235-2070

* Constituent Service Center - 8475 S. Vermont Ave.; (323)-789-1434

In addition, the Department will be accepting demand warrants from 7 AM - 5 PM at our main office (200 N. Spring Street, 20th Floor (213) 978-1551)...

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The field division is gearing up to deal with our upcoming funding deadlines and the impact those dates will have on Neighborhood Councils. We have observed that it is not uncommon for the Department to become flooded with Demand Warrant submissions on the final due date every year...

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The Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighborhood Council is taking aim at firearm safety courses offered at Pierce College. On a 10-9 vote this week the council decided to ask the college to move the Pierce Extension courses off campus. The National Rifle Association Basic Pistol Course is offered one Saturday a quarter and a personal firearms familiarization and safe course is offered two weeknights a quarter.

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