I hope our newsletter finds you well and that you are gearing up for a wonderful weekend.

As you may know, your Field Operations Division in the Department is working hard to get some housekeeping in order as it relates to agendas, bylaws, rosters, etc. This last month, our Neighborhood Empowerment Advocates, NEAs, have been reaching out to you asking for a complete board roster in order to forward to: Rosters@EmpowerLA.org. Please know that having this information is extremely critical for the success of our communication with you. We communicate with NCs regularly on various issues and having complete and accurate information is of utmost importance. Out of 95 NC’s, we are still missing 29 board rosters. I know everyone is super busy and that your volunteer time is valuable, but please make it a point to respond to our NEAs on these types of requests and/or send us your complete roster at the email above. Also, when there is a single and/or number of changes to your submitted roster, we ask that you make the updates and send it again on the roster template. We can not make individual changes to rosters that are uploaded.

Please remember that our Bylaws Moratorium has been lifted and it will go into effect again April 2015. I know that it sounds as if you have plenty of time, but time tends to creep up on us so please address your bylaw adjustments as soon as possible so that you have enough time and can plan accordingly.

Please continue sending your agendas for review and posting to NCSupport@lacity.org With the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners policy on posting now in effect, please be sure to send your agendas to the Department with enough time for review, feedback and posting.

Our NEAs have been busy providing Board Retreats for various NCs. We have been to Tarzana NC; East Hollywood NC; North Hollywood Northeast; LA-32 NC; and Sherman Oaks NC to name a few. We will be working with Glassel Park and Greater Cypress Park NC this coming week. Please let us know if you are interested in a board retreat and we will do our best to accommodate your needs. Remember that there is a level of planning and prepping that is involved on our end so give us enough time to be able to work with you to ensure that your retreat meets everyone’s expectations.

Some of our NEAs (Melvin Canas and Taneda Larios) made time during the weekend to come out and support a couple of events to celebrate culture and promote outreach and participation. We attended the Fiestas Julianas event which took place this past weekend. The Westlake South NC was a big partner on that event. The festival and/or “fiestas” took place in the Westlake and MacArthur Park areas We also supported the forming effort – Zapata King forming NC in South La with their event on outreach and promoting civic engagement. Zapata King was joined by Empowerment Congress Central and Voices of 90037. Both events were a huge success and we give kudos to Westlake South NC and Zapata King forming effort for their work and commitment!

As part of our work in civic engagement and capacity building, we again had the unique pleasure of welcoming a small delegation from El Salvador. The delegation was comprised of Mayor Alfredo Penate of Santa Ana, El Salvador and Ms. Karen Figueroa, Communications Director for the Mayor. Mayor Penate spent time talking with City Attorney Mike Feuer and his wonderful staff including Ms. Capri Maddox, City Attorney Special Assistant; Darren Martinez, Supervising City Attorney for NC Advice Division; Carmen Hawkins, Deputy City Attorney; Alois Phillips, Deputy City Attorney; Arturo Martinez, Supersiving City Attorney for Anti- Gang Section; Aura Garcia, Mayor Garcetti’s Office Representative and Mr. Manuel Olmos, Board Member for the Westlake South NC as well as Department staff including Melvin Canas, Taneda Larios, Lisette Covarrubias and yours truly.

For more information on this visit, please refer to Melvin Canas’ article which includes more information on the purpose and goals of our visitors.

In a couple of weeks, the Department will be hosting a delegation from Saudi Arabia through our working relationship with the International Visitors Council of Los Angeles. We are excited to meet and welcome our visitors from Saudi Arabia and are looking forward to finding ways in which our cities can relate, find common trends and learn from each other as we make a connection through civic engagement.

Lastly, please be reminded to save the date, August 9, 2014, for the next Open Government and Ethics training provided by the Office of the City Attorney. Please let us know if you’ll be attending the session by contacting our Department’s Help Line at (213) 978-1551 or via e-mail to: NCSupport@lacity.org.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Leyla Campos
Director of Field Operations