I hope our newsletter finds you well. This has been very full and wonderful week. We started our new staff and have been busy training them to get them up to speed. There were many great candidates to choose from, and I want to thank the Personnel Department, in particular Binh Le, and my managers, Armando Ruiz and Stephen Box, for doing an amazing job in the selection of our new staff. We were looking for a combination of experience and fresh perspectives to take the Neighborhood Council system to the next level, and I'm happy to say that we succeeded. You can read more about them and our new Deputy City Attorney for the Neighborhood Council Advice Division below. We'll be conducting a few more weeks of training before we send them out, but you can definitely meet them at the EmpowerLA Awards and Neighborhood Council Recognition Event on September 11th or at the Congress of Neighborhoods on September 26th so if you haven't registered for both events, register today!

On Tuesday, a group of our staff and I attended the Los Angeles Digital Government Summit 2015. This was a great conference to share new innovations and award government agencies doing a fantastic job in delivering better customer service through technology. Congratulations to the teams of our own ITA General Manager Ted Ross and City Clerk Holly Wolcott for receiving innovation awards for their work! We received some awesome training on how to integrate technology into our work and will definitely be incorporating that into our plans to deliver better services to the Neighborhood Councils.

On Wednesday, I attended an Executive Leadership Training hosted by our friends at the Emergency Management Department. I so appreciate EMD General Manager James Featherstone and his super team for putting this conference together on effective leadership in times of crisis in Los Angeles. It really made me think on how to make sure that EmpowerLA's Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) is solid so that in a time of emergency, which goes beyond earthquakes to include pandemic disease, flood, fire, violent actions and cyber threats, our Neighborhood Councils can continue their local operations serving their communities. If your Neighborhood Council does not already have an emergency preparedness plan, that should be one of your priorities. We'll be working here to develop a citywide plan to support Neighborhood Councils in this area, but a good place to start is EMD's  5 Steps to Neighborhood Preparedness.

I attended Mayor Eric Garcetti's celebration of Women's Equality Day at the Getty House where he signed his Executive Directive No. 11 - Gender Equity in City Operations. This follows his Executive Directive No. 10 - Vision Zero, which was also released this week. EmpowerLA and Neighborhood Councils will have parts to play in both directives so stay tuned on some exciting opportunities coming up.

Speaking of which, Mayor Garcetti's Executive Directive 8 - Clean Streets Initiative is moving along. Our Neighborhood Council outreach plan was approved by the Board of Public Works today so check your Neighborhood Council monthly profiles for more information on next steps of how Neighborhood Councils can help keep their communities clean and beautiful.

We'll be having the first of our 2016 Neighborhood Council Election Town Halls tomorrow to begin finalizing the Election Manual based on your previous feedback. It'll be held at the Hollywood Constituent Center at 6501 Fountain Ave. from 10 am - 12 pm. Reminder that the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners meeting next Tuesday is cancelled and will be rescheduled to September 11, 2015.

Stay cool this weekend!