“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.”
John Steinbeck

Greetings, Neighborhood Council Treasurers, Board Members, and stakeholders. We are rapidly approaching the end of this fiscal year and funding staff is working extensive hours to ensure we fund your requests before the deadline. With the P-card officially shut off at 5 pm on Friday afternoon, there will be no more opportunities for the Neighborhood Council to make any payments until the start of the new fiscal year. On that note, the NC Checking Account setup process is going at full steam and we are working hard to set up and open your new bank accounts. Does your NC have all of your paperwork in order to have access to funds in fiscal year 2014-2015?

Best,

Armando Ruiz
Neighborhood Council Funding Program Director

 

IMPORTANT DATES / DEADLINES

  • · 10 days after your June NC Board Meeting – May Monthly Expenditure Reports due
  • · July 1, 2014 – Start of fiscal year 2014 – 2015

Union Bank Account Documents

In order for your NC to have a bank account opened, you must ensure that your Treasurer and 2nd Signer have completed all the necessary Union Bank documents. If you’ve had a change in Treasurer or 2nd Signer, you must complete new bank account documents by contacting the Funding Team right away.

Demand Warrant Round-up

The deadline to submit Demand Warrants to the Department has come and gone, and boy was it busy! The Department’s hardworking Funding staff is now sorting, scanning, categorizing, prioritizing, and analyzing each of the over 200 Demand Warrants that were submitted in person and via fax, mail, and email yesterday. We will do our absolute best to ensure that the requests are complete and processed expeditiously. Please be patient with us during this time as return phone calls and emails will only be handled in the afternoon, giving us sufficient time to dedicate to processing payments prior to the fiscal year end deadlines.

Funding

Here is a breakdown of the percentages of different demand warrant categories received on the 15th:

funding1

 

Full Funding Training Video Available

As further evidence of the awesomeness that is our Department staff, we’re proud to introduce a full Treasurer’s Training video now available on our website. Thanks to the video and technical expertise of Sevak Paramazian and Arin Abedian, this training has much better sound, visuals, and special effects. Jessica Pua, Kathleen Quinn, and the one and only Betty Wong Oyama will guide you through the intricacies of the funding program while you watch from the comfort of your own home, bed, hammock, whatever! Once the fun is over, make sure you follow the link to register your attendance and receive credit for your newly enhanced knowledge of funding practices.

No Grace Period for Funding Training Requirements for New Board Members

Please be advised that all new board members must meet the existing training requirements in order to be eligible to vote on funding matters. The EmpowerLA website has links for the general board member training and registration information for these board members to satisfy the requirement whenever is most convenient to them. There will be no grace period in which these new board members can vote on funding matters without taking the requisite training because all board members are responsible for the approval and use of public funds. Without the proper training informing them of funding policies, as well as ethical laws, these new board members may not be able to make informed decisions on behalf of the board.

NC Funding Forms, Now on Google!

We are looking for eager and interested NC Treasurers to pilot our brand new Google packets which will contain all of the new funding forms that are currently being utilized and some that will be implemented once the checking accounts are opened. If you are a fan of Google docs, or want to see what this interface looks like, please contact Kathleen Quinn (Kathleen.Quinn@lacity.org) or Sevak Paramazian (Sevak.Paramazian@lacity.org) We are hopeful that this interface will make life easier for the NC Treasurers and their boards by providing a “one-stop shop” approach to accessing their funding forms and information.