I hope this newsletter finds you well. There is so much cool stuff going on, I have to do a rapid bullet point summary to fit it all:

  • Congratulations to Bill Hopkins of Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council and the Chair of the Valley Disaster Preparedness Team for their 7th Annual Valley Disaster Preparedness Fair last Saturday that drew nearly 1500 people, which Councilmember Mitch Englander, Chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, said was the largest in Los Angeles Many Valley Neighborhood Councils supported this great event. Check out the pictures on their website.
  • Central Alameda, South Central, CANNDU, Voices of 90037 and Zapata/King (Forming Committee) Neighborhood Councils are sponsoring a College Application Preparation Workshop in South Los Angeles tomorrow from 9 am – 4 pm. Click here for the flyer.
  • For their October meeting, the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils is hosting the only Valley debate of the LA County Board of Supervisors candidates, Sheila Kuehl and Bobby Shriver, on Thursday, October 9th at CBS Studios at 6 p.m. Click here for the flyer.
  • We started our Funding Training and Feedback Townhall sessions last night in the Harbor area. Big thanks to Betty Wong-Oyama and Mario Hernandez for leading the training as well as Tom Soong and Deputy City Attorney, Carmen Hawkins, for supporting! I was there to hear what works and what needs to work better for the checking account system, which was extremely helpful. We’ll be going around to the other parts of the City so click here for the flyer.
  • The new events process has created a lot of talk around town, and I’m happy to say that we have been able to simplify the process with our Events Approval Form. More on that in Armando’s report.
  • The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners will be meeting next Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Council District 10’s office, 1819 S. Western Ave. in South Los Angeles, and Council President Herb Wesson will attend to speak on the subject of leadership so please join us! Check out this LA Daily News article on the Commission President Karen Mack.
  • Speaking of the Commission, their request to have Neighborhood Council Community Impact Statements be expanded from for and against a Council File to additional options for clarity will be implemented by the City Clerk starting today for filing the CIS, and they will appear on City Council agendas starting next Friday. Neighborhood Councils will now be able to weigh in on a Council File in these specific ways: For, For if Amended, Against, Against unless Amended, No Position (CF was discussed and acted upon, but the Neighborhood Council could not muster enough votes either way) and Neutral Position (CF was discussed, and Neighborhood Council decided to take no action at all). Many thanks to Council President Wesson and City Clerk Holly Wolcott for their assistance in approving the change and to Councilmember Bernard Parks for his guidance on the matter.
  • Saturday, October 11th, will be a busy day. Not only is it regional Budget Day around the City, but the Neighborhood Sustainability Symposium is also happening. I’ll be moderating a session on Organizing Your Neighborhood to Advocate and Kevin Taylor, President of Reseda Neighborhood Council, will be one of the panelists.

Lastly, remember the Neighborhood Council-LADWP MOU Committee and LANCC meetings tomorrow have been rescheduled to Saturday, October 18th, at the LADWP building in downtown, and CicLAvia is on Sunday.

Keep cool this weekend!

Best,

Grayce Liu,
General Manager
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment aka EmpowerLA