I hope our newsletter finds you well.

Congratulations to our Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates for their great presentation to the Budget & Finance Committee on Monday! They spent several hours discussing their white paper and the CAO report on their recommendations with the committee members. Reminder that Budget Day has been moved up to Saturday, June 27, 2015, so make sure your Budget Representatives are there to select the Budget Advocates for next fiscal year.

The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners met on Tuesday night to begin their discussions on a policy addressing the Neighborhood Council website standards and elements. The Commissioners also took on the second part of the Neighborhood Council Board Member Code of Conduct Policy dealing with consequences for violations. If you have any feedback on these issues, please email them to Commission@empowerla.org. The Commission's EmpowerLA Award nominations have also opened today. I know Neighborhood Councils are doing UH-mazing work around the City so please take the time to submit your wonderful work for consideration.

I was happy to stop by the Central Library on Wednesday morning to speak at the monthly meeting of the 73 branch managers and other senior staff, including our awesome City librarian John Szabo, who invited me to do a presentation on Neighborhood Councils. I was happy to hear that many of the City's libraries are already partnering with the local Neighborhood Councils and thanked them for their support of the councils in their areas where they host Neighborhood Council meetings. Congratulations to John and his hardworking librarians for winning the National Medal for Museum and Library service!

Speaking of hardworking, I want to take a moment to appreciate our amazing staff for their work in supporting the Neighborhood Councils. During these budget hearings, from Councilmembers to other departments, everyone is amazed by the amount of work that our small staff does for the 96 Neighborhood Councils from contracts to funding to education to meeting support to outreach. Because of the vacancies we've had this year, our staff have really stepped up again and again because they believe in the Neighborhood Council system. It's really a privilege to work side by side with them.

It's another busy Saturday. Council President Wesson first Neighborhood Council Town Hall, co-hosted with the VANC, starts tomorrow at Van Nuys City Hall with another, co-hosted with the SLAANC, set for next Saturday. PlanCheckNC also meets tomorrow in Hollywood.

If I don't see you this weekend, have a great one!

Best,

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