I hope our newsletter finds you well. HUGE shout out to Glassell Park Neighborhood Council for their commitment to reviewing Council Files relevant to their community and filing Community Impact Statements (CISs). They are at 15 filed CISs since July. I spoke to Vice President Marie D’Antonio about their secret for cranking out CISs, and Marie said that she and President Ben Disinger make time to review all the new City Council Files that come out. They then choose 3-4 to put on their board agenda each month for discussion and action. I really want to appreciate Ben and Marie, some of our new millennials in the Neighborhood Council system for making sure the GPNC is meeting the mission of Neighborhood Councils. If every one of the 96 Neighborhood Councils were filing 3 CISs each month, that would be 288/month for a total of 3,456 CISs in a fiscal year, which would take the Neighborhood Council system to a new level of civic engagement. I hope your Neighborhood Council will aim to file more CISs. There are so many City services and actions for your community to weigh in on. Check out Council File 15-1343 to establish Indigenous Peoples Day as a legal holiday in Los Angeles as one example.
Save the date of December 6, 2016 to join the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners and EmpowerLA in honoring the 15th year anniversary for Wilmington and Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Councils in the Harbor area. We’ll be planning a cool presentation with refreshments. This will kick off our celebrations for the next year as 55 Neighborhood Councils will also turn 15 in 2017. Thanks to our awesome Outreach Coordinator, Arin Abedian, we even have a new special pin made out of wood for the occasion. This is such a great achievement so I hope that you’ll join us!
We’re also thrilled to announce that the next Neighborhood Council Civic University 1.0 will be on January 17, 24, and 31, 2017. For those of you who attended the first Neighborhood Council Civic University 1.0, I know you’ll agree that it was a fantastic program that talks about the history of Neighborhood Councils and how we fit into the City government structure. Taught by our BFF, Raphael Sonenshein, the Executive Director of the Pat Brown Institute of Cal State Los Angeles, the Neighborhood Council Civic University series is a collaboration between Cal State LA, Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office, the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners and EmpowerLA. For more details on how to register, see below.
Just a reminder that we’ll be closed tomorrow in observance of Veteran’s Day. PlanCheckNC will be meeting on Saturday though where Controller Ron Galperin will be presenting the amazing PropertyPanel.LA. Next week, I’ll be reporting from San Sebastian, Spain, at the 2016 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy where I’ll be presenting on our awesome Neighborhood Council system. As always, thanks for doing all that you do to Empower LA and make the Neighborhood Council system worthy of international recognition! Have a wonderful weekend!
