Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Newsletter

August 2 , 2005

Re: CONGRESS PHOTOS AVAILABLE ON WEB.  LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS.  THE REBIRTH OF URBAN DEMOCRACY.  NEW COMMISSIONER NOMINATED.

CONGRESS PHOTOS AVAILABLE ON WEBSITE

To view or download the photos that were taken by Gary Leonard at the last Congress of Neighborhoods, go to our website and click on Reference Library>Photo Gallery. It's the last gallery on the page. As we normally do, we've posted many similar photographs so that you can find the ones of yourself that you like best and save them. After a few weeks, we'll cull the collection a bit.

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS - BAD NEWS AND GOOD NEWS

In the beginning, many Neighborhood Councils wanted help running the elections. The League of Women Voters of Los Angeles, and Julie Rajan specifically, stepped up to the plate with a generous commitment of time, experience, and support. They helped with over 100 elections.

Julie has left the League, and it must now turn its attention to other crusades.

The good news is that Julie trained Jerry Kvasnicka who was the point person in the lion's share of those 100 elections. And Jerry has agreed to continue to provide his services to the Neighborhood Councils. There is only so much that one person can do, so he won't be available for all of your elections. You shouldn't notice a difference in this service that we provide.

Our heartfelt thanks to the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles.

"THE REBIRTH OF URBAN DEMOCRACY"

If there is one book that did the most to shape our Neighborhood Council system, this is it. Three professors from Tufts University studied five other cities with model grass-roots participatory democracy systems, and wrote a book about their findings. The book, and systems in the other cities, inspired our work in Los Angeles. If you want to get an idea about what's in the book, and if you want to get a better of idea of what the experiment is all about, you can read three pages of excerpts on our home page.

NEW COMMISSIONER NOMINATED

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has nominated Rev. Dr. Lewis Logan, III to serve as a member of the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. He replaces David Trujillo who resigned. He lives in Council District 8, and is the Pastor at the Bethel AME Church. The appointment needs to be confirmed by the City Council.

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Greg Nelson
gnelson@mailbox.lacity.org

866 / LA HELPS
213 / 485-1360
213 / 485-4608 fax
done@mailbox.lacity.org email
www.lacityneighborhoods.com website