Department of Neighborhood Empowerment

DONE Newsletters 2009

April 8, 2009

City Clerk's NC EDG Meetings Start This Saturday, April 11th
In preparation for the 2010 NC Elections, the City Clerk - Election Division invites NC's to provide feedback on the NC election processes and materials by participating in the Neighborhood Council Election Development Group (NC EDG), which will be a series of meetings on various election topics.  These meetings are opened to all stakeholders.  See the schedule here or on the NC Election Unit website.  For more information, please feel free to call the Election Division Election Unit at (213) 473-6804 or via email at Isaias.Cantu@lacity.org.

If you need language assistance at the NC EDG meetings, please contact the City Clerk - Election Division by calling (213) 473-6805 at least 48 hours before the event.  Si necesita asistencia en otro idioma, por favor comuniquese con nuestra oficina con 48 horas de anticipación llamando al (213) 473-6805.

Updates on the Upcoming Regional Roundtables with GM BongHwan Kim and CBT/NLI Classes  
Our General Manager, BongHwan (BH) Kim, will be hosting a series of roundtables in the regions to discuss the upcoming changes to the Neighborhood Council System due to the budget crises.  Under the Carol Baker Tharp Neighborhood Leadership Institute (CBT/NLI), we will also be offering classes with the City Attorney on the mandated ethics training as well.  The ethics training is in lieu of the online training offered by the Ethics Commission.  You will receive a Certificate of Completion, which is effective for 2 year.    

South/West/Harbor  
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Councilmember Bill Rosendahl's Westchester Office
7166 W. Manchester Blvd.
Westchester, CA 90045

Central East  
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 Flyer
Magnolia Avenue Elementary School Auditorium
1626 S. Orchard Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90006
Co-Hosted by the Pico Union Neighborhood Council

Central East
Thursday, April 30, 2009 
Times and locations to be announced soon
Please call (213) 485-1360 to RSVP for refreshments and materials. 

If you will be taking the mandated ethics training, we must receive your RSVP prior to the training to ensure materials and to prepare the certificate.

Procedures for Neighborhood Purposes Grant (NPG) Submissions 
If you have stakeholders who are eager to apply for a Neighborhood Purposes Grants (NPG) with your NC, here is the process for application submission.  The NPG information packet and application are available on our website.  The applicants submit their completed packet directly to your NC.  The NC agendizes and evaluates all grant applications in a public meeting, deciding whether to approve the grant.  Approved applications by the entire Board must then be forwarded to us via your Neighborhood Empowerment Analyst (NEA).  If all the documents are in order, your NEA will provide the application to our Funding Unit where a check will be processed to the grant recipient.  Please let your NEA know if you have any questions about the NPG.

NC Annual Budgets Are Due on June 1st
A friendly reminder that all NC annual budgets for the 2009-2010 year are due to our Funding Unit on June 1, 2009.  The purpose of a budget is to help Neighborhood Councils plan for activities throughout the year and to ensure expenditures are in accordance with City funding policies and guidelines.  A well designed budget provides reasonable details that allows stakeholders to know what the NC's plans are for the year.  Here is a sample budget for your reference.  Please make sure your NC is on track for approving your annual budget for a timely submission.

Updated Save the Date for the Regional Congress in the San Fernando Valley!
Please mark your calendar and plan on spending a day full of learning, information sharing and gathering in the San Fernando Valley Regional Congress scheduled for Saturday, May 30, 2009.  Details of content, location, time and registration to be coming soon.  For updated Save the Date flyers in Spanish and English, please click here.

NC Bylaw Amendment Time Schedule
Any bylaw amendments that address election issues not covered by the City Clerk's 2010 NC Election Procedures Stipulation Language Worksheet must be submitted to us by May 15, 2009.  Bylaw amendments that are not election related may be submitted to us from June 1, 2009 to September 1, 2009.  After this date, we will have a moratorium on processing bylaw amendment applications until after the 2010 NC elections.  Please contact your NEA if you have any questions or need assistance with your bylaw amendments.

Revised RFP for Translation and Interpretation Services
We are seeking proposals from qualified entities to provide translation and interpretation services for the Department and the Neighborhood Councils.  Please see the revised Request for Proposal (RFP), which outlines the guidelines for applicants in submitting their proposals on our website. The deadline to respond is 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 10, 2009.  The RFP, along with all the attachments and appendices, are available for download on the City's website at www.labavn.org.  Registration on this website is free. 

BOARD OF NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSIONERS NEWS

The Commission Needs Your Support on Form 54!
In response to a letter from the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (Commission) objecting to the City Council's recent adoption of Financial Disclosure Form 54, Councilmembers Hahn, Zine and Garcetti agreed to revisit the issue.  Please see their motion.  The Commission is concerned that the current Form 54 will seriously discourage NC Board members from participating in the Neighborhood Council File pilot program.  Please see Commissioner Abrams' article on this issue.

Please let the City Council know now that you want a financial disclosure form that is less intrusive than Form 54 and urge them to ask the City Ethics Commission to present another form as soon as possible.  As NC Board members, individual and organization letters or e-mails to your City Council will carry the weight to make that change happen.

In addition, President Lucks and the Commission urgently ask NC members to submit and pass the follow motion to send to their Councilmembers to support the efforts to replace Financial Disclosure Form 54:

"I move that the ____Neighborhood Council support the motion of Councilmember ____to revisit the issue of financial disclosure in relation to the NC Council File motions and recommend that the currently approved Form 54 be replaced with a more suitable form."

Without letters, emails and immediate action to your City Council representatives requesting a less intrusive replacement for Form 54, Councilmembers Hahn, Zine, and Garcetti's motion will die, and Form 54 will be adopted as is.

The Commission's Upcoming Meetings
The schedule of the Commission's Regular Meetings is as follows:

Monday, April 20, 2009, 11:30 a.m.
City Hall, 10 th Floor Conference Center , Room 1060
200 North Spring Street , Los Angeles , CA 90012 

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 6:00 p.m.
Community Magnet Charter School  Auditorium
11310 Bellagio Road, Los Angeles, CA 90049
(in the Bel Air Beverly Crest NC area)

The Commission Meetings Are Accessible Via the Telephone
You can now listen to a Commission meeting live via the telephone.  This service is available only when the Commission is meeting at City Hall by calling CityFone -- 213-621-CITY.

CITY NEWS

Bureau of Sanitation Celebrates Earth Day 2009 with Reusable Bag Commitments to NC's
To celebrate Earth Day 2009, the Department of Public Works Bureau of Sanitation, in partnership with the Department of Neighborhood Department, will make available reusable bags to NC's for their Earth Day events.  The Bureau of Sanitation will have an allocation of 200 reusable bags for each NC that is hosting an Earth Day 2009 event.  The allocations will be made on a first come, first serve, basis until the allotted bags are distributed.  The reusable bags are to support the move away from single use plastic and paper bags and to support residents that may be most impacted by the pending plastic bag ban or fee in July 2010 as adopted by the Los Angeles City Council last year.  The deadline for NC bag requests is Monday, April 20 at 5:00pm.  Please contact Jimmy Tokeshi at (213) 978-1699 or jimmy.tokeshi@lacity.org with requests.

Earth Day Celebration at Expo Park on Thursday, April 22nd
Please join in on the public grand opening of "Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet" on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 2009 at 11 a.m. in Expo Park . This free event will feature a news conference and unveiling of larger-than- life globes designed by local artists to represent solutions to global warming. There will be entertainment, food and tours of the more than 50 globes that will be on display. To learn more, please visit www.CoolGlobes.org. To RSVP, please email coolglobes@jtpr.com.

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

BongHwan Kim, General Manager
done@lacity.org

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

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