Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Newsletter

September 4 , 2005

Re: Neighborhood Councils Supporting Hurricane Victims.

Several Neighborhood Councils have asked about the choices if they want to do something to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Establishing a drop-off center for those who wish to contribute something of value to the Red Cross or other relief efforts are perfectly fine. Checks should be written to the relief agency. If the money were to go to the Neighborhood Council first, there would be an accounting difficulty that would only delay the opportunity to help the victims.

It is fine to use the outreach part of your Neighborhood Council's budget to help advertise such an effort. People will participate in their Neighborhood Council if it does something that is relevant. Right now, it's a good guess that many people believe that helping the hurricane's victims is extremely relevant.

A Neighborhood Council cannot use its city funds to give a donation directly to relief agencies. There are two reasons: (1) the City Council has limited Neighborhood Councils to using their money for either operating expenses or neighborhood improvement projects, and (2) this would likely be a “gift of public funds” which is prohibited by the state.

It is important that you always “ ask first ” if you are thinking about using the city's money for anything unusual.

On Tuesday, the City Council is expected to consider a motion regarding the city's role in this disaster. I expect that Neighborhood Councils will be part of the discussion. If you are not able to monitor it on Channel 35, I will send a newsletter announcement as soon as possible after the meeting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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