I hope our newsletter finds you well.  City Council is scheduled to take action on September 26th on the Health, Education and Neighborhood Councils Committee recommendations for CF 15-1022-S2 regarding Neighborhood Council election timing and online voting.  The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners voted to write a letter that supported the continued development of online voting under conditions that would improve performance, security and ease of use.  Thanks to all Neighborhood Councils who have weighed in on this matter with Community Impact Statements!  

We have some staffing updates at EmpowerLA to share.  Congratulations to Neighborhood Empowerment Advocate, Barry Stone, for promoting to Los Angeles World Airports this week after 10 years in our department!  We wish him well there.  We’re happy to promote our staffer, Jose Galdamez, from our IT team to a Neighborhood Empowerment Advocate.  Jose will be joining the Valley team along with new staffer, Kimberly Rodriguez, who worked with us to develop the Neighborhood Council Civic Youth Program when she was working with the Mayor’s Innovation Team.  Kimberly will continue to work on outreach projects with EmpowerLA.  Congratulations as well to Arin Abedian, our Outreach Coordinator, who promoted from a Project Assistant position to a Project Coordinator position!  Arin will continue to work on our outreach materials and also develop online classes for Neighborhood Councils on the Personnel Department’s platform for easy tracking and on demand use.  We’re also lucky to have one of our former election assistants, Kyle Stone, join our admin team.  In a few weeks, we’ll be welcoming our FUSE Corp Fellow, Aparna Mukherjee, who is relocating from New York to spend a year with us developing outreach and civic engagement techniques and trainings for the City.  Lotsa neat stuff coming up this year!

Don’t forget the Neighborhood Council Emergency Preparedness Alliance meets tomorrow.  Next week, the City Council Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations Committee will discuss multiple Council Files on cannabis on Monday, September 25th, at 11 am in City Council Chambers.  Tuesday, September 26th, is National Voter Registration Day so register to vote if you haven’t already done so and register a friend or family member while you’re at it.

Have a wonderful weekend!