I hope our newsletter finds you well. We had a great Neighborhood Council Budget Day at City Hall on Saturday, thanks to the hard work of our Budget Advocates and our EmpowerLA staff (shout out to Mike Fong and John Darnell especially!). There were presentations from Mayor Eric Garcetti’s new Deputy Chief of Staff, Matt Szabo, and Deputy Mayor for Budget & Innovation, Miguel Sangalang as well as from Controller Ron Galperin, City Council President Herb Wesson and City Council Budget & Finance Chair Paul Krekorian. I especially enjoyed when Budget Advocate, Brigette Kidd, shared her experience on what she learned being a Budget Advocate for the past year and how it was a worthwhile learning experience.

Many thanks to our Budget Advocates from last year for their amazing work!  We look forward to working with our new Budget Advocates for FY 2017-2018.

 

On Monday evening, we were in Councilmember Curren Price’s offices to conduct our third Beyond Neighborhood Councils: How to Run for Higher Office, Get Appointed to a Commission or Find a Job in the City workshop.  Much appreciation to our staffer Mike Fong for putting this event together, and to our own Joy Atkinson, who sits on the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners for joining LADWP Commissioner (and former Neighborhood Council board member) Aura Vasquez, and Cultural Affairs Commissioner, John Wirfs, to share their experience with the participants. We’ll be doing another round of Beyond Neighborhood Councils again next fiscal year.

Thanks to the wonderful work of our staffers, Brett Shears, Arin Abedian, Erica Cruz and Tom Soong, we’ve launched our first EmpowerLA podcast!  We plan on doing monthly podcasts with City staff, Neighborhood Council members and stakeholders to chat about the history and impact of Neighborhood Councils in Los Angeles.  More information below about our first podcast, which focuses on the start of Neighborhood Councils 17 years ago from the perspective of our longtime Neighborhood Empowerment Advocate, Tom Soong.

Don’t forget the LADWP MOU Oversight Committee and the LANCC meet tomorrow.  We’re also looking forward to the inauguration of Mayor Garcetti tomorrow night at City Hall!  Next week, our offices will be open on Monday, July 3rd, but closed on Tuesday, July 4th.

Have a relaxing weekend and a super 4th of July!