Department of Neighborhood Empowerment

DONE Newsletters 2007

February 7, 2007

Re: Letter from Deputy Mayor Larry Frank

Dear Neighborhood Council Boardmembers, Stakeholders and Department of Neighborhood Empowerment Staff:

Over the past few days, a growing confusion has arisen about the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment's information bulletin about funding allocation requirements (No. 2007-05) and what I may or may not have said about the bulletin at a recent LANCC meeting.

In an effort to dispel the confusion, I would like to take this opportunity to explain my position and clarify the inaccuracies contained in the City Watch account of the meeting.

1. I never stated that I or my office was 'blindsided' by DONE'S information bulletin. I said that I was not aware of the bulletin until the previous day. This is not uncommon. The city departments are expected to implement the city's policies and rarely run their work past the Mayor's office. In fairness, the budget proposal was included in the December 29th response to the Controller's audit so that is on me. I believe that DONE saw the outreach and community improvement funding allocations as a helpful direction to the NC's. Although people have raised concerns about having to budget a year in advance, after talking to DONE staff, I am confident that there is flexibility left to make changes in budgets as the needs arise. There will likely be some tweaking in the stated policy as it develops.

2. I also do not recall stating that a change in leadership at DONE was only days away. We are in the middle of the hiring process for a new DONE GM and those final interviews are days away, but there is still a city council process that will follow before the new GM becomes official.

3. As I stated in the meeting, it is important to note that interim general manager Lisa Sarno's future role at the DONE remains open. She was previously assistant general manager before taking on the responsibilities of interim general manager. If she were to continue to work for the DONE the Mayor's office would continue to be supportive of her work.

4. The Mayor's office supports the current efforts of the DONE to create an inclusive system of neighborhood councils and to provide the tools that board members and stakeholders need to be effective advocates for their communities. As I noted, there is an interesting dialogue developing in the 912 Commission on DONE roles and responsibilities and we are interested in the findings of the Review Commission in this regard.

5. Finally, it is unfortunate that this discussion has taken on a negative cast. We should not let this distract us from many of the recent positive developments in our city's neighborhood council system. Consider Gail Goldberg's work with NC's, the very thoughtful deliberations of the 912 Commission, the role of five elected NC representatives participating in the selection of a new DONE GM. Within DONE, we now have IEA election chair trainings, capacity building sessions on a variety of requested subjects, new and energetic staff supportive of the NC missions, and a youth curriculum that introduced the city's summer job participants to the Neighborhood Councils. On the city budget process, last year only 28% of neighborhood council board members completed the budget survey. This year a new and improved survey with NC input garnered 40% participation. We recently concluded our second community budget meeting where over 120 appointed neighborhood council representatives discussed the results of this year's budget survey and elected 14 budget representatives to meet with the Mayor later this month and convey to him the budget preferences of the city's neighborhoods.

Regardless of the criticisms leveled at Lisa Sarno and DONE, the above accomplishments could not have happened without them. Lisa was named interim general manager at DONE and inherited a department that lacked a clear focus and measures of accountability. Much of this was detailed in the City Controller's recent audit of the Department which bears a rereading by all. Lisa has embraced the audit as a roadmap for positive change. She has worked very hard to create systems and accountability among DONE staff and consultants, while expanding training efforts, all on a reduced budget, with the aim to improve DONE'S support of NC goals. And we look forward to successfully building on these efforts in the future.

Larry Frank
Deputy Mayor, Neighborhood and Community Services

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Lisa Sarno, Interim General Manager
done@lacity.org

Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
334-B E. 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

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