GENERAL MANAGER'S UPDATE
I hope our newsletter finds you well. I'm excited to share that our Neighborhood Council family is continuing to evolve and grow from the needs of the community. We expect to add our 96th Neighborhood Council at next week's Board of Neighborhood Commissioners meeting on February 3rd in South Los Angeles. The Zapata King Neighborhood Council certification application will be going before our commission, and I want to thank the community members for stepping up to organize and to our staff, especially Neighborhood Empowerment Advocate Taneda Larios, for supporting their efforts. We also have a new citywide alliance forming. The Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance will launch on February 21st to support effective engagement on LA's new Sustainable City Plan, drought response strategies, the region's Climate Action Framework and other timely sustainability initiatives. More info below!I hope our newsletter finds you well. 

Thanks to all who have weighed in on the Neighborhood Council Funding Program forms and processes! We released the new forms last night during our funding training, which was live streamed and recorded. We'll have the links up to the new forms and training on our beta website launching next week. Coming up next month will be end of fiscal year closing instructions and the budget package for fiscal 2015-2016.

 

Speaking of budget, the General Managers met with Deputy Mayor Rick Cole and CAO Miguel Santana last week and received updates on the state of the City budget. The good news is that we are slowly working our way out of the budget deficits of the past, and the bad news is that we are facing a $165 million shortfall next year. We are always looking for ways to create efficiencies and innovative collaborations though so I was grateful for the opportunity to take a training on Performance Leadership by Professor Bob Behn of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Many thanks to Emergency Management Department General Manager James Featherstone for organizing and hosting the training for all of the City's executive leadership. It was excellent!

 

As the March elections draw closer, please be aware of the rules for hosting candidates at your Neighborhood Council meetings and taking positions on ballot measures. We'll be starting our 2016 Neighborhood Council Election Townhalls next week after the LANCC meeting so hope to see you there. Have a relaxing weekend.

 

Best,

 

Grayce Liu,
General Manager
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (aka) EmpowerLA 

 

 

Empower Yourself,Empower Your Community, EmpowerLA

 
Team Updates
Armando Ruiz
Leyla Campos
Stephen Box
Jeffrey Brill
Mayor's Message

 Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), and the U.S. Department of Commerce announced today that the first annual National Aerospace Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Exposition will be held in Los Angeles. This is the first stand-alone FDI event in the United States co-sponsored by the Commerce Department that will focus on a single industry: aerospace manufacturing.


The Mayor and LAEDC collaborated last year to bring the exposition to Los Angeles, working jointly to find a suitable venue for the expo, and submitting the winning proposal in a competitive process against other cities and states. The selection of Los Angeles to host the first aerospace expo reflects L.A.'s dominant position in the United States' aerospace market. More aerospace companies are located in Los Angeles County than any other county in America.

  

                        >>> read more

Elections are coming up on March 3rd, and City Council races are heating up! Neighborhood Councils, among other groups, are hosting plenty of candidate forums and debates around the city. Attend one of them to learn more about the candidates in your district and be an informed voter! 


On February 23, the first shared-use mobility conference about Southern California will take place at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles. Live * Ride * Share: Southern California will highlight the profound changes taking place in mobility and emphasize the the fertile ground to transform our relationship with cars thanks to new technologies, shifting Millennial preferences...

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Ballot Measures and Candidate Forums

In order to meet their mission of increasing civic participation and making government more responsive to local needs, Neighborhood Councils should be aware of what's going on at City Hall and how that affects them and their stakeholders. When the City Council considers issues, they create Council Files numbers that can be tracked with the LACityClerk Connect Council File Management System. You can...
 

Neighborhood Councils Launch Sustainability Alliance
Sustainability leaders from Neighborhood Councils across the City of Los Angeles have formed the Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance (NCSA), which will advance citywide sustainability and resilience through advocacy, sharing of best practices, and collaborative action by L.A.'s Neighborhood Councils and partner organizations. The NCSA invites all Los Angeles Neighborhood Council stakeholders...

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Make Music LA Proposes National Make Music Day

Make Music Los Angeles, an organization that engages all communities of Los Angeles in an annual cross-cultural celebration of the power of music and art to enrich lives through education and musical performances in neighborhoods across the county, has created a petition to declare June 21st as Make Music Day nationwide. Make Music shares the vision of a world in which the joy of making music is a...


The first 2015 Congress of Neighborhoods Planning Committee meeting will be held on Saturday, January 31. Neighborhood Council leaders from throughout the city are partnering with the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (Empower LA) to bring the 2-15 LA Congress of Neighborhoods to City Hall on Saturday, September 26. The Congress of Neighborhoods is designed by neighborhood council leaders with...

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In a true show of force and community solidarity, leaders from several Neighborhood Councils and community organizations, as well as concerned residents and neighbors, gathered on Monday for a press conference at City Hall to announce their concerns regarding the City's evaluation of proposals for the operation of the Greek Theater and their endorsement of a more in-depth comparison study of the...
 


City Attorney Mike Feuer today announced that his office has launched a public awareness campaign in coordination with the County of Los Angeles Department of Consumer Affairs and entertainment industry advocacy groups to educate the public against Hollywood talent scams. As part of his crackdown on perpetrators of scams against aspiring entertainers, the City Attorney has filed charges against a...

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As the City's imported water supply becomes more critical, so does the need to expand our local, sustainable water resources, including water recycling. Water recycling offers a reliable, economically feasible and environmentally sensitive way to augment the city's water supplies. Recycling programs treat wastewater so that it can be used safely for irrigation and industrial purposes, groundwater...
 

Each year, the City of Los Angeles receives federal grant funds to assist businesses to create jobs; provide job training for adults and youth; improve neighborhoods through projects that eliminate slum and blight; provide affordable housing, domestic violence shelters, and fair housing services. These grant funds are limited and need to be prioritized and targeted in a way that will provide the most benefit to the most people....

 >>> read more

On Saturday, February 7, at 1:00 pm, EmpowerLA is hosting an Elections Town Hall at LA Ctiy College to review the 2014 Neighborhood Council Elections and to discuss the upcoming 2016 elections, including the implementation of citywide online voting. The Election Town Hall is an opportunity for Outreach Chairs, Election Chairs, Candidates, Poll Workers, and any interested Board Members and Stakeholders...
 

Empower Yourself. Empower Your Community. Empower LA.
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Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
200 North Spring Street, Suite 2005
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Tel - (213) 978-1551
Fax - (213) 978-1751
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