I hope our newsletter finds you well enjoying our wonderful Summer weather!
Our team of Neighborhood Empowerment Analysts (NEAs) has been busy wrapping up our board orientation sessions in South LA and Harbor Areas. As of now we have trained approximately 1700 board members and stakeholders on the basics of being a Neighborhood Council. We are hoping that having the key principles and basic information under your belt, will enable you to meet the challenges ahead successfully. We have had approximately 85% training participation and we aim to make it higher. If you have not yet had your basic board orientation, please reach out to your NEA; we will also circle back with you to see if now is a more convenient time for you to take the training.
The Department as a whole, has been working on our metrics as we end the fiscal year. I’d like to share some of the numbers we provide to the Mayor’s office. Amongst the Field Team, comprised of Taneda, Amber, Lisette, Melvin and Tom, we reported the following: E-mail and Phone Calls – 41,868; Bylaws revisions – 110; Trainings & Board Retreats conducted 161 which equals to 1700 Board Members trained; 5 collaborations & events; 720 meetings to support your operations and assist with troubleshooting; and finally we have hosted 7 international delegations that have reached out to our Department to learn about the neighborhood councils and replicate and/or learn from our great system in Los Angeles!
As I mentioned previously, our Bylaws moratorium will be lifted on July 1, 2014 and will be reinstated back on April 2015. Please get us your bylaw adjustments applications as early as possible, you can request an application by e-mailing us at: NCSupport@lacity.org. If you need assistance in resolving bylaws issues and/or have specific questions about your bylaws, please let us know. Remember that changes to your bylaws are never automatic; the Department has to review them and in some cases, specifically where board structure changes are involved, we have to involve the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. So please plan accordingly and anticipate on any changes that need to be scheduled with our Board of Neighborhood Commissioners.
You told us you wanted more Ethics and Open Government training and we heard you!
We are working to finalize the schedule with City Attorney’s Office, Advice Division to bring forth four to five additional trainings on ethics, conflict of interest, and open government. Please save the following date: As of now, the Harbor Area’s date is confirmed for: August 9, 2014 in the evening hours. Next week I will be sending the survey monkey link for you to rsvp. More dates, times and locations will be forthcoming.
Featured NC of the Week….
Kudos to Mid-City Neighborhood Council (MINC) on their best practice. When a stakeholder e-mails MINC, this is the automatic response the stakeholder receives:
Thank you for contacting me. Your message has been received, and I will respond soon, if necessary. Please know that the Mid-City Neighborhood Council (MINC) is an organization made up solely of volunteers. I will do my best to reply in a timely fashion, but it could take up to 48 hours for me to respond to your message.
MINC was chartered in 2002 as part of the City of Los Angeles’s Neighborhood Council system. The NC system was created in 1999 to allow those who live, work or worship in a particular neighborhood, i.e., “stakeholders”, an opportunity to have a voice in community and city decisions.
You are invited to join us at any of our meetings! We have general meetings twice a month, as well as a number of monthly committee meetings. Since the Neighborhood Council functions as a part of the City of Los Angeles, the public is welcomed at all our meetings and all our activities are subject to the Ralph M. Brown Act, designed to promote open and transparent government. All MINC meetings and agendas are posted 72 hours in advance on our website and various locations in the Mid-City area. There is a public comments agenda item at every meeting – and any stakeholder is welcome to speak for up to 2-minutes on a given topic.
• MINC Stakeholder Meeting – 2nd Monday of every
• MINC Board Meeting – 3rd Monday of every month
Both of these meetings are held at 7:00 PM at the LAPD – Wilshire Division Community Room, 4849 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90019 – next to the Midtown Shopping Center.
For more information, check out our website at mincla.org. We also have a mailing list where you can receive timely information, as well as a Facebook and Twitter page.
This is a simple yet great way to give useful and practical information to the recipients, and this message aims to teach and inform stakeholders about the NC system. It also provides the opportunity for people to engages at various levels either by attending a meeting or connecting through social media. Nice job MINC! Way to Go!!!!
The Department received notice this week of the passing of Pilar Martinez. Those of you who knew Pilar remember her with her headset and microphone, doing something that truly took great skill to do: bridging the language barrier and bringing stakeholders closer to their elected NC representatives. Pilar worked side by side with some of our neighborhood councils providing Spanish interpretation for monolingual stakeholders. With the passing of Pilar, the system loses a great asset, an incomparable skill set and a dear friend. She will be remembered dearly and we hope that her family and friends find strength during this difficult time.
As always, thank you for all the great work that you do to support your community and this great Neighborhood Council System!
If you have any questions, please contact us at NCSupport@lacity.org or via telephone at (213) 978-1551. Have a great weekend!
Leyla A. Campos
Director of Field Operations
