Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Newsletter

May 5, 2003

Re: The DONE Pledge. DONE Decision-making Priorities. Brown Act Training. Treasurer Training. Change in City Clerk's Posting Procedures. City Budget Summaries Available.

THE DONE PLEDGE

At the last Congress of Neighborhoods, I presented the DONE pledge. It's a commitment from us to you.

1. We will treat the public as our friends, with courtesy and respect.

2. When explaining a restriction, making a suggestion, or reporting a delay, we will always explain the reason why. (We believe that if you know the reason why, you will understand.)

3. We will ensure that people who call during working hours always have an opportunity to speak to someone. We will not hide behind our Voice Mail systems.

4. We will avoid using insider or bureaucratic language.

5. We will be good listeners. (It may be interesting to note that the word "listen" contains the same letters as the word "silent".)

6. We will honor the Mayor's "no wrong door" policy, and never use the words, "It's not my job!" Instead, we will find out whose job it is.

7. You will never hear us say, "Because that's the way we've always done it," or "We tried it that way once but it didn't work." We will constantly question that way we do things, and the way the City does things in order to improve the system.

8. We will never make promises we can't keep. We will keep the ones we do make.

OUR DECISION-MAKING PRIORITIES

(In order) Whenever we make a decision, we use these priorities to guide us:

1. What's best for the stakeholders.

2. What works best for the Neighborhood Council governing board.

3. What works best for City Hall.

In the best of all worlds, there is no conflict between these three.

UPCOMING BROWN ACT TRAINING

Monday, June 16, 2003, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
West Valley Municipal Building
19040 Vanowen Street, Reseda

Saturday, June 21, 2003, 10:00 a.m. to noon
Constituent Service Center 8475
South Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles

UPCOMING TREASURER TRAINING

Saturday, July 19, 2003, 10:00 to noon
Lincoln Heights Regional Office
3516 North Broadway, Lincoln Heights

Questions? Call toll-free 1 (866) LA HELPS.

CHANGE IN CITY CLERK'S POSTING PROCEDURES

At the most recent meeting of the Early Notification Working Group, a Neighborhood Council leader (I can't remember who) suggested that the City Clerk change the way they title the agendas and other items when they e-mail them to subscribers. The suggestion was that if the date could be included in the Subject line so the recipient could better distinguish one item from another without having to open up each document. Well, the City Clerk and the Information Technology Agency responded right away with the new system that you might have already noticed. They tried to explain to me what they did to implement the change, but when they started using terms like "Cold Fusion code" I stopped listening. The important thing is that you asked and the City Clerk responded. "A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." Now I'd like to find out who gets credit for that suggestion.

BONC POLICY MEETING

Be sure and check the home page of our Web site (www.lacityneighborhoods.com) for the staff reports that will be part of the special policy meeting held by the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners on May 12.

CITY BUDGET SUMMARIES AVAILABLE

You already know that you can view or download all of the city budget documents online at the city's home page (www.lacity.org). But if your Neighborhood Council would like to have a hard copy of the budget summary booklet, the CAO would be happy to mail you one.

You can call Victoria Villa-Augustin in the CAO's office at 213 / 485-8295, or call 311. Her e-mail address is vvilla@cao.lacity.org (that's two "V"s, not one "W").

Greg Nelson

213 / 485-1360
866 / LA HELPS toll-free
213 / 485-4608 fax
done@mailbox.lacity.org email