I hope our newsletter finds you well. We had an awesome Neighborhood Council Budget Day last Saturday! HUGE thanks to Co-Chairs Terrence Gomes and Liz Amsden and our FY 2015-2016 Budget Advocates for planning a great program. After a delicious breakfast, everyone crowded into City Council chambers to hear from a variety of speakers, such as City Council President Herb Wesson, Controller Ron Galperin, Budget & Finance Chair Councilmember Paul Krekorian and CAO Miguel Santana to name just a few. There were also presentations on the homelessness and Metro ballot measures as well as why it's important to serve as a Budget Advocate. The day concluded with the election of your new Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates for this year, Co-Chaired by Liz Amsden and Jay Handal. We're looking forward to working with our new Budget Advocates this year.



Very early on Sunday, I jumped on a plane to the Aspen Institute Center for Urban Innovation where fellow Angeleno, Catherine Geanuracos, who is also on Los Angeles' Innovation and Performance Commission and on my Civic Engagement Google Innovation Lab team, and I joined 22 other leaders in the private and public sectors nationwide to work on inclusive innovation in cities. Our goal was to use the the Aspen Institute's signature roundtable format to figure out how to marry the techniques and tools associated with innovations to a commitment to equity, respect, inclusion and self-determination in marginalized neighborhoods. I left on Wednesday feeling very inspired by the possibilities as well as leaving others inspired by our Neighborhood Council system, which is already addressing many of these issues. This is the start of an 18 month work group so I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Speaking of inspiration, I received an email from United Neighborhoods Neighborhood Council President Jeff Camp on what a great board retreat they had last weekend.
They worked together on their strategic plan for the year so that all the board members could prioritize what was important to them. Many thanks to UNNC for being so thoughtful on their community work! 

If your Neighborhood Council hasn't taken the time to build out your Strategic Budget Plan for this year, please find some time this month so you can submit it online by the September 1, 2016 deadline.


Much appreciation to the Harbor Alliance of Neighborhood Council members for joining me Wednesday night to provide feedback at our EmpowerLA Town Hall. It was 3 solid hours of very productive conversation. The second to last EmpowerLA Town Hall will be at the LANCC tomorrow with the last at the SLAANC later on this month. If you have feedback, but can't make the remaining sessions, please submit your comments online .

In addition to the LANCC and the NC-LADWP MOU Oversight Committee meetings tomorrow, we've got the Mayor's Neighborhood Council Civic Youth, too. If I don't see you tomorrow, have a wonderful weekend!