dlancI hope our newsletter finds you well. It was all about elections and budget this week. We conducted Region 5 elections on Sunday and Region 6 elections yesterday as well as putting up multiple Pop-Up Polls for online voting Neighborhood Councils during the week in our bid to bring voting directly to the stakeholders. Kudos to Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils who were able to get 646 people to vote early online through a series of strategic Pop-Up Polls and great outreach! They had another several hundred vote yesterday at the polls, too, where we had a neat high tech polling location set up at the Central Library.Region 7 elections are up next Saturday. Many thanks to our and the City Clerk’s awesome staff, election volunteers and the Neighborhood Councils for their great work!

terryOn Monday, the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates did an amazing job presenting their budget recommendations to the Budget & Finance Committee. The Committee members recognized the Budget Advocates not only for the amount of work they put into their white paper, but also on the quality of their recommendations, which were thoughtful and well researched. Yesterday, we were up at the the Budget & Finance Committee meeting as they reviewed department reports back on their budgets. I’m so very appreciative to the Committee, particularly the Chair, Councilmember Paul Krekorian, for recommending additional staffing for our Field team in next year’s budget. The CLA will now work on their proposed budget updates based on the Committee recommendations and present them next week.

I’m excited to talk up Neighborhood Councils next week at the Assembly Select Committee on Civic Engagement at the downtown Central Library on Friday, May 13th, from 9:30 am – 12:30 pm. Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman is heading committee hearings around the state to examine, encourage and instill a greater sense of civic engagement in California. The purpose of the Committee’s hearing is to redefine civic engagement, examine the roles of neighborhood and local organizations, leverage the use of technology and develop strategies to reach hard to reach populations. There are more details about the hearing below, and I hope to see you there!

The Neighborhood Council-LADWP MOU Oversight Committee and the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition will be meeting tomorrow at the LADWP downtown headquarters. If I don’t see you tomorrow, have a great weekend!