WELCOME NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL BOARD MEMBERS!
As Neighborhood Council (NC Board Members, you have joined some of the most impressive and dedicated public leaders in the City of Los Angeles, to support your success, the City and the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners have created several required trainings. NC Board Members, both elected and appointed, are required to complete specific activities to vote on issues that come before the council: Ethics (provided by the Office of the City Attorney), Funding (provided by the Office of the City Clerk), Code of Conduct (provided by EmpowerLA), the Anti-Bias Learning for Employees (ABLE) Training (provided by the Personnel Department), and the Gender Identity, Gender Expression Implicit Bias Training (provided in collaboration with EmpowerLA and USC).
There are additional essential trainings Board Members must complete. They include the Workplace Equity Policy training and Planning 101 training for appointed planning and land use (PLUM) committee members. Suppose your board has not appointed a PLUM committee, the training responsibility defaults to the entire board. Without the Planning 101 training, boards may not take action on land use matters.
To help you monitor your board colleagues’ compliance with these essential trainings, EmpowerLA’s website for your Neighborhood Council displays this information. Sharing the news on your Department website allows the public and the NC’s board to see who is eligible to vote. To see your Neighborhood Council’s training status, visit EmpowerLA.org/councils and choose your Neighborhood Council. Be sure to consult your NC’s bylaws for additional requirements as a condition of voting on board or committee matters.
Please click on each tab below to access more information about the topics:
Neighborhood Council Board Members, both elected and appointed, are required to do all required trainings in order to vote on issues that come before the council: the Ethics Training, Funding Training, Code-of-Conduct Certificate, and Anti-Bioas training. EmpowerLA tracks the compliance on these trainings and posts the expiration dates for each training on the EmpowerLA website so that the public and the board can see who is eligible to vote. Visit EmpowerLA.org and select your council to see a page that has information on your council, including the location of your meetings, your bylaws and maps, and a roster of Board members with their contact email and their training status. Please take a look and verify the accuracy of this information, emailing Rosters@EmpowerLA.org with any updates or corrections.
- There are 5 total trainings
- Ethics
- Funding
- Neighborhood Council Board Member Code of Conduct Policy – Amended 2/20/24
- Anti-Bias
- Gender Identity, Gender Expression Implicit Bias Training
- There are 3 trainings required to vote on Funding Items
- Ethics
- Funding
- Neighborhood Council Board Member Code of Conduct Policy – Amended 2/20/24
- There is 1 required training to actively participate on the board
- Neighborhood Council Board Member Code of Conduct Policy – Amended 2/20/24
For new Board Members that have yet to be updated on the NC EmpowerLA Page Board Roster, please make sure to email Rosters@EmpowerLA.org and CC your officers. The new Board Member will then have the information updated on the EmpowerLA NC page roster. Please make sure to have completed your trainings, so that it can updated at once when you are added to the NC EmpowerLA Page Board Roster.
To be eligible to vote on any NC Expenditure, Financial Reports, and/or annual budgets, the board member must:
- Be an Elected, Appointed and/or Selected Board Member of the NC
- Be 18 years of age or older
- Have completed the Ethics Training at least every two years.
- Board members may also attend the live ethics training offered by the City Attorney’s office (check weekly EmpowerLA newsletter sent to board members)
- Have completed and signed the Code of Conduct Training at least every two years.
- Have completed the Funding Training and obtain a passing score of 70% or above on any test associated with the online course at least once every 2 years.
- Financial Officers will have to attend an in-person training with the Office of City Clerk. Click here to see the upcoming in person traininigs.
- Any Funding trainings completed before July 1, 2018 will expire June 30, 2020
Ethics:
- Ethics Certifications expire 2 years after the date taken.
- As per California Government Code Section 53235, Neighborhood Councils board members are required to take an Ethics training consisting of 2 hour, at least every 2 years.
Code of Conduct:
- This training does not expire
- As Per Policy Number 2014-2(1), a board member has 30 days to complete their Code of Conduct training. If a newly elected board member does not complete the Code of Conduct training within the 30 day time frame, that board member will be suspended from their Neighborhood Council, cannot act on any Neighborhood Council matters, and cannot be counted towards establishing a quorum for the Neighborhood Council. If the Code of Conduct is not completed within 30 days of suspension, the boardmember will be removed from the Neighborhood Council board.
Funding:
- Funding Trainings expire 2 years after the date taken.
- Every board member must complete the Ethics, NC Board Member Funding, and Code of Conduct trainings to be eligible to vote on financial matters. Please review the Neighborhood Council Funding Policies here.
Anti-Bias:
- This training does not expire. This may be subject to change in the future.
- The Anti-Bias Learning for Employees (ABLE) training course was developed by the City of Los Angeles in partnership with the Kirwan Institute at Ohio State University.
Gender Identity, Gender Expression Implicit Bias Training
- This training session aims to educate participants on identifying and mitigating implicit biases, particularly related to gender, to enhance inclusivity and understanding in interpersonal interactions.
- There are 5 total trainings
- Ethics
- Funding
- Neighborhood Council Board Member Code of Conduct Policy – Amended 2/20/24
- Anti-Bias
- Gender Identity, Gender Expression Implicit Bias Training
- There are 3 trainings required to vote on Funding Items
- Ethics
- Funding
- Neighborhood Council Board Member Code of Conduct Policy – Amended 2/20/24
- There is 1 required training to actively participate on the board
- Neighborhood Council Board Member Code of Conduct Policy – Amended 2/20/24
The Cornerstone Board Member Training Portal
To make required trainings easier for Neighborhood Council Board Members and provide access to more online activities, in 2019 the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment transitioned all Board Member trainings to a platform called the Cornerstone Board Member Training Portal, or simply Cornerstone. Board Members must complete all essential trainings on the Cornerstone Board Member Training Portal. The trainings on Cornerstone have been approved by the City Council, Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, the Ethics Commission, the Offices of the City Attorney and City Clerk, the Personnel Department, and the Planning Department for trainings over which they have responsibility.
How to Renew your Trainings
All neighborhood council required trainings expire after 2 years from the date taken. If it has become time to renew your trainings, you can do so by following the step-by-step guide below.
Understanding what this means – Each board member is assigned a copy of each training (Ethics, Funding, and Code of Conduct) when their account is created. You can take these trainings immediately once you log in. After 2 years, those trainings expire. You will need to “Request” a new iteration (or copy) of the training. This new copy will then allow you to take the training again, and will update and display a new training completion date. You CANNOT simply re-launch your previous training to renew it because it will not record a new completion date.
BENEFITS OF CORNERSTONE:
One login for all required trainings: Ethics, Code of Conduct, and Funding (non Financial Officer training*)
One central location to access status of training
Easy to use online classroom style
Automatic email reminders for about-to-expire certificates
Department access, control, and support of all trainings
Access to additional trainings provided by the City of Los Angeles
Faster updates to the status of board member trainings on EmpowerLA website
Instant access to completed certificates for Board Members
*Financial Officers will have to attend the in-person training with the Office of City Clerk. Click here to see the upcoming in person trainings.
Translated Trainings (Entrenamientos traducidos) (翻譯培訓) (번역된 교육)
- Anti-Bias (ABLE)
- Ethics
- Funding
- Please contact the Funding Department at Clerk.NCFunding@lacity.org
- Comuníquese con el Departamento de Financiamiento al Clerk.NCFunding@lacity.org
- 請聯繫資金部 Clerk.NCFunding@lacity.org
- 펀딩과로 연락주세요. Clerk.NCFunding@lacity.org
- Code of Conduct
Frequently Asked Questions
Please click on the “+” sign to see the answers.
Unfortunately, the LA City Cornerstone account does not allow users to add themselves. This is a paid service, and we are limited on how many users can be added. Therefore, the Department will have to provide you with the login information. If you have not gotten your login information, please email communications@EmpowerLA.org.
The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment sent Cornerstone login information to each board member as their election was finalized. Cornerstone rolled out by election Region, starting with Region 5 (Hollywood area) Neighborhood Councils on the week of April 15, 2019. The remaining regions received their emails about 2 weeks after their election, with the last email sent out on July 9th for Regions 10 (South LA) and 13 (Downtown LA).
Yes, for any Board Member who has gotten their certification using the old method and is still in compliance (certifications have not expired), their certification will be archived in Cornerstone for future access.
Please contact us at communications@empowerla.org and we would be happy to retrieve your login information.
Please allow the department 1-2 weeks to update your training status. If it has been more than 2 weeks since you’ve completed your training and the EmpowerLA website does not reflect your training status correctly, please contact communications@empowerla.org.