I hope our newsletter finds you well. City Clerk Holly Wolcott and I are doing a regional alliance tour this month to discuss Neighborhood Council elections and funding with board members. Last week, we were at the Harbor Alliance of Neighborhood Councils and the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition. This week, we stopped by the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils last night. We’ve definitely had some lively discussions around EmpowerLA’s Neighborhood Council online voting report back for Council File 15-1022-S2. We’ve also discussed a new topic that wasn’t in the report about how to accommodate a timing conflict in the 2020 elections since City Clerk will have to assist with the municipal elections at the same time as the Neighborhood Council elections. Should Neighborhood Council elections be adjusted either earlier or later in 2020? Another suggestion has been to push the 2018 elections to 2019 instead. I hope your Neighborhood Council will weigh in as soon as possible with a Community Impact Statement. You can also submit your own public comment to the City Clerk’s Office as well. Make your voice heard!
Shout out to South Robertson Neighborhood Council (SORO) for being one of the winning collaborators for Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Great Streets Challenge! The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners and EmpowerLA will be recognizing more of our Neighborhood Councils’ wonderful work at the EmpowerLA Awards Dinner at City Hall on Thursday, March 30, 2017 (RSVP here). We’ve also created a new award, the Neighborhood Council Civic Engagement Los Angeles Vanguard (NCCELAV) Award, to recognize City departments and employees who have done awesome collaborations with Neighborhood Councils. See below for more information on Mayor Garcetti’s Great Streets Challenge winners and how to submit for the EmpowerLA Awards and the NCCELAV Award.
We’ve had a few personnel changes in the past week that I’d like to share. We’re welcoming back Funding Manager, Mario Hernandez, in his new role as a Neighborhood Council Advocate. I’d also like to welcome Patricia Mares and Kori Parraga to our administrative team. Patricia will be wrangling the phones and the front desk in our downtown office, and Kori will be assisting us in streamlining our administrative procedures so we can work more efficiently for our Neighborhood Councils. Many thanks to all of our staffers who have been covering the phones these past few months and handling the extra workload while we went through the hiring process! I’d also like to say a fond farewell to Neighborhood Council Advocate, Melvin Canas. Melvin was with us since 2001 and a wonderful staffer and historian of our department. Happily, he is only going downstairs to join the Neighborhood Council Funding Program at the City Clerk’s Office so we will not be losing his wisdom. We wish Melvin well in his new position and look forward to continuing to work with him.
Don’t forget that PlanCheckNC meets tomorrow on LA’s General Plan update. Have a super weekend!
