I hope this newsletter finds you well. We said a very bittersweet goodbye for now this week to our Neighborhood Empowerment Advocate, Lisette Covarrubias, who is leaving us today to go work with Metro. Lisette has been with the Department for 9 years, and her great work with Neighborhood Councils was evidenced when board members from Park Mesa Heights Community Council came to her Bon Voyage party yesterday at our downtown office to wish her well along with the City Attorney’s Office and our staff. The Neighborhood Councils will now have a lovely ally at Metro. We thank Lisette for her service here and hope she has an awesome time there!
The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners held a special meeting on Monday to review our staffing situation. Deputy Mayor of Budget and Innovation, Rick Cole, came and provided helpful information on how the personnel situation works throughout the City, which is causing the delays in filling our vacancies. Jay Handal, Co-Chair of the Budget Advocates, was also there to support our staff. The Commission issued a letter on the matter, which was presented to City Council on Wednesday by Commissioner Lydia Grant. Many Neighborhood Council board members also sent emails in support of the Department. On behalf of our staff, I just want to thank everyone for their support while we sort this out.
Deputy Mayor Cole also stopped by our staff budget retreat on Thursday and spent a good hour with our staff discussing the innovations Mayor Garcetti and his team are bringing to the City. Given his incredibly busy schedule, we were really honored to have him share his insight with us and encourage our staff participation in the process. Many thanks to Deputy Mayor Cole for his inspiring chat with us!
Speaking of inspiring, last night at the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils meeting, Controller Ron Galperin took us through his amazing Control Panel LA. If you haven’t had a chance to click through it, please do because it is a treasure trove of information mixed with our Controller’s wonderful sense of humor, particularly on some of the interesting things the City spends its money. There’s even a section on where all of the Neighborhood Council funding has been spent, too. After that, the VANC also voted to support the department staffing as well so a big thank you to our friends at the VANC!
Just a reminder that on Wednesday next week, we’ll be holding our final Funding training of the year at our downtown office before we do our last revamp until July, 2015.
Wishing everyone an excellent weekend!
Best,
Grayce Liu,
General Manager
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment aka EmpowerLA
