GM's Message 09.09.16

I hope our newsletter finds you well. Happy Birthday to Los Angeles! LA officially celebrated its 235th birthday on September 4th. I hear that Mayor Eric Garcetti's birthday video to LA has been getting 1000 views a minute. It's pretty neat so check it out here.

The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners met in the Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council area on Tuesday night. They voted to update their Neighborhood Council Board Member Code of Conduct Policy to provide for a two year renewal timeline and have given Neighborhood Councils board members until November 1, 2016 to either sign the agreement or watch the video training. Many thanks to the awesome CHNC President Elvina Beck for hosting and sharing best practices and to our thoughtful Central area Commissioner Debbie Wehbe for providing refreshments for everyone!

On Wednesday night, Councilmember David Ryu and Council President Herb Wesson hosted the first a Meet the City Leaders reception for the Korean small business and community members at City Hall. EmpowerLA staffers and I mingled to chat up Neighborhood Councils.

I was happy to be one of the many City panelists in a standing room only crowd in Council Chambers to talk about Neighborhood Councils and invite everyone to the Congress of Neighborhoods on Saturday, September 24th. Speaking of which, I know the Congress workshops are filling up so if you haven't registered yet, please do so now.

I stopped by the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils on Thursday night to talk about the expansion of the Novus pilot for Neighborhood Council agendas that we developed in collaboration with the City Clerk's Office. This agenda portal is the same that is used by City Council and would allow Neighborhood Councils to create their agendas, write minutes and post everything directly to the Early Notification System. We are proposing to standardize some agenda language and formats citywide so we will be looking to Neighborhood Councils to provide suggestions in the upcoming months. The VANC members also went through the many ballot measures coming up in November. Here is a reminder of how Neighborhood Councils can weigh in on ballot measures as well as candidates.

This morning, I attended a very touching 9/11 Memorial Ceremony organized by the Los Angeles Fire Department. Mayor Garcetti, LAFD Chief Ralph Terrazas, Police Chief Charlie Beck and a host of other City leaders were also in attendance to remember those lost on 9/11 15 years ago.

A permanent memorial of 9/11 with the biggest piece of one of the Twin Towers outside of New York is located at LAFD's Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center at 1700 Stadium Way. I encourage you to stop by and see it.

Tomorrow, our Neighborhood Council Civic Youth will be doing their day of service with community clean-ups in 10 areas of the City. PlanCheckNC will be hosting a conversation with LA City Plannin Director Vince Bertoni and the Congress of Neighborhoods Planning Committee will be meeting right after PlanCheckNC at the Hollenbeck Police Station. Have a great weekend!

Best,

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

Empower Yourself, Empower Your Community, EmpowerLA

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