Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Newsletter

September 21, 2005

Re: COMMUNITY BUDGET DAY.  COMMISSION TSILAH BURMAN CONFIRMED.   NEXT BONC MEETING WILL BE 10-27.  NC REVIEW COMMISSION TO BE DISCUSSED. GRASS ROOTS VENICE ELECTION IS FINAL. GREATER WILSHIRE BOARD INSTALLED.  TREASURER TRAINING AVAILABLE.

COMMUNITY BUDGET DAY OCTOBER 1

Don't forget that everyone is welcome to join Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Saturday, October 1 as he kicks off the new Mayor's Budget Process. On this day, Neighborhood Councils will learn how they will be able to take an active role in advising the Mayor on one of the most important and complex responsibilities the Mayor has to perform: preparing the annual city budget. There will be plenty of time for questions and answers, and participants, whether they are Neighborhood Council members or not, will leave with a greater understanding and ownership of their government.

Free parking. Refreshments. Registration at 8:00 a.m. The activities will be from 9:00 a.m. to noon . Everyone should meet in the City Council Chamber in City Hall, 200 North Spring Street . To RSVP, call our department at (213) 485-1360, toll-free at 3-1-1 , or by e-mail at done@mailbox.lacity.org.

TSILAH BURMAN CONFIRMED AS NEW COMMISSIONER

On Wednesday, the City Council confirmed Ms. Tsilah Burman as the newest member of the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. She is filling the vacancy created by the resignation of Ron Stone.  Tsilah is from Woodland Hills, and is the Executive Director for Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, an independent nonprofit organization that facilitates the creation of small, accessible community green space, such as parks and gardens, to address the inequity of open spaces in Los Angeles' underserved neighborhoods, and to ensure community participation and collaboration in every step of the process of creating parks and community gardens.  She has a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Southern California . 

NEXT BONC MEETING WILL BE OCTOBER 27

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners was to be October 4, but that's Rosh Hashanah. Plan on there being a special meeting on Thursday, October 27. Their normal starting time is 6:30 p.m. , but that and the location will be announced. This special meeting date was necessary because of the many religious holidays that occur in October.

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL REVIEW COMMISSION TO BE DISCUSSED

The City Charter requires that by the middle of next year, the City Council and Mayor create a special commission to review the entire Neighborhood Council system and make any recommendations for changes that it wishes. The Charter is really just that vague.

The details of how this should be done must be determined through an ordinance. The Education and Neighborhoods Committee will have its first discussion of this issue at its meeting on September 28, 2 p.m. , Room 1060 of City Hall. You should anticipate that at this meeting the committee will be seeking public input on which issues that the ordinance should cover. Once the issue areas are determined, there can be discussions at subsequent meetings about how what those decisions should be? Some obvious issue areas would be: how do the commissioners get appointed, how long does the commission have to complete its work, how should Neighborhood Councils be involved, should a minimum number of public hearings be required, how can the public be ensured that it has adequate time to discuss and prepare its comments, etc.

Again, my guess would be that there would not be a discussion at this meeting about the ways to address these issues, but rather what the issues for discussion should be. Think of it as agenda building.

GRASS ROOTS VENICE ELECTION IS FINAL

To the amazement of some, there were no challenges filed regarding the recent Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council election, so the results are official and final.

GREATER WILSHIRE BOARD INSTALLED

The newly-elected board members of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council were installed, and they are in business.

TREASURER TRAINING AVAILABLE

As you may know, the rules of the Neighborhood Council Funding Program require that all treasurers and second signatories attend mandatory training to ensure that understand the responsibilities involved with spending the public's money.

Treasurers come and go -- some because of new elections, others because they felt like leaving. We want to hold to our pledge that Neighborhood Councils will be able to get and spend their money when they need to. Toward that end, we do not hold scheduled treasurer training. We provide it on demand. If someone in your Neighborhood Council needs this training, please contact your Project Coordinator or Steve Baule at (213) 473-5383, toll-free at 3-1-1 , or by email at sbaule@mailbox.lacity.org . We will try and coordinate a time and place that works for all those who wish to attend.

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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