General Manager's Update
I hope this newsletter finds you well. We are getting into our 3rd month of the new Neighborhood Council funding program, and thank you for sharing all the good and not so good aspects. We really do appreciate your feedback and are making adjustments as we continue along. I am also appreciative of the hard work Neighborhood Councils did to put together their budget packages. We are going through them now and will be highlighting some great examples in our newsletter next week. If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions about any of our work, please know that you can always email me at Grayce.Liu@lacity.org , so that we can resolve any matter collaboratively.
I have some bittersweet staffing news to share. Joe Hari, our Policy Director, is leaving the City to become a middle school teacher with LAUSD. Joe has done amazing work these past two years with us, assisting the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates, the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners and Neighborhood Councils in the South, East and Central Los Angeles. Joe will be missed, and we wish him the best in his new job guiding our future leaders. One of our other staff, Tom Harvey, who assisted funding and field work, was injured in a bicycle accident this week. We are happy that he is back home though and are wishing him a speedy and complete recovery.
We had the first of two groups of international visitors from Afghanistan visit this week. Our NEAs, Tom Soong, Amber Meshack and Taneda Larios, along with Deputy City Attorney Alois and Carmen Hawkins fielded questions from these religious and community leaders. While Afghanistan has local community councils as well, I think what came across to our visitors and our staff was how fortunate we are to have our Neighborhood Council system when consequences for not joining their councils or for violating their rules and procedures were death and removing limbs. A group of Afghanistan's government officials will be visiting us next in a few weeks so I expect some more thought provoking conversations to come out of that meeting.
The Congress of Neighborhoods is fast approaching on Saturday, September 20th. This year's theme is "Keys to Success," and there are great classes for you to take all for free. Mayor Garcetti will be the opening session keynote speaker, and you will have the opportunity to network with Neighborhood Council leaders from around the City. Please register if you haven't already done so. A huge thanks to Chair Cindy Cleghorn and her Congress Planning Committee members for putting so much work into your Congress!!
The Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition (LANCC) will have Controller Ron Galperin and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck as guest speakers so I hope to see you there tomorrow. Have a great weekend!
 Best,
Grayce Liu,
General Manager
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Empower Yourself.
Empower Your Community.
Empower LA.
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