Council to Reduce Neighborhood Council Funding from $50,000 to $11,200
Date: May 6, 2009
To: Neighborhood Council Friends and Colleagues
From: BongHwan (BH) Kim, General Manager, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
This is to inform you that the Budget and Finance Committee will be recommending to City Council that the NC funding program be reduced to a total of $1M for next year - this roughly breaks down to $11,200 instead of the $50,000 per NC. There was no change to the current rollover policy and no changes to the Mayor's proposed 20% reduction for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. The City is faced with a budget deficit of roughly $500M and the Council recently approved moving ahead with the process of laying off over 400 people. This is the time for Neighborhood Councils to educate and advise your elected officials as to the importance of the NC funding program as they move through their deliberations.
The Budget and Finance Committee will convene on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 to finalize their complete recommendations to send forward to the City Council. The full City Council will then begin holding special meetings to consider the Committee's budget recommendations on Monday, May 18, 2009. On or before June 1, 2009, the Council must approve or modify the Mayor's proposed budget and submit it to the Mayor for approval. The Mayor then has 5 days to act on the budget as adopted by Council. Updated Budget and Finance Committee Agendas and City Council Agendas can be found on the City's home page, City Meetings and Agendas calendar.
If you wish to express your opinions and concerns about the Mayor's 2009-2010 Proposed Budget, you can appear for public comment at both the Budget and Finance Committee and full City Council, submit Community Impact Statements via the City Clerk, or send your letters and emails to your elected Councilmember. You can also follow the deliberations on your home computer via Live Streaming Audio here, or on LA CityView, Channel 35, for live coverage.
Please contact your Neighborhood Empowerment Analyst if you have any further questions.
To: Neighborhood Council Friends and Colleagues
From: BongHwan (BH) Kim, General Manager, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
This is to inform you that the Budget and Finance Committee will be recommending to City Council that the NC funding program be reduced to a total of $1M for next year - this roughly breaks down to $11,200 instead of the $50,000 per NC. There was no change to the current rollover policy and no changes to the Mayor's proposed 20% reduction for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. The City is faced with a budget deficit of roughly $500M and the Council recently approved moving ahead with the process of laying off over 400 people. This is the time for Neighborhood Councils to educate and advise your elected officials as to the importance of the NC funding program as they move through their deliberations.
The Budget and Finance Committee will convene on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 to finalize their complete recommendations to send forward to the City Council. The full City Council will then begin holding special meetings to consider the Committee's budget recommendations on Monday, May 18, 2009. On or before June 1, 2009, the Council must approve or modify the Mayor's proposed budget and submit it to the Mayor for approval. The Mayor then has 5 days to act on the budget as adopted by Council. Updated Budget and Finance Committee Agendas and City Council Agendas can be found on the City's home page, City Meetings and Agendas calendar.
If you wish to express your opinions and concerns about the Mayor's 2009-2010 Proposed Budget, you can appear for public comment at both the Budget and Finance Committee and full City Council, submit Community Impact Statements via the City Clerk, or send your letters and emails to your elected Councilmember. You can also follow the deliberations on your home computer via Live Streaming Audio here, or on LA CityView, Channel 35, for live coverage.
Please contact your Neighborhood Empowerment Analyst if you have any further questions.
Posted by Michael Higby @ 5/06/2009 03:40:00 PM
35 Comments:
The FTDNC spent almost $10,000 on "outreach" events cleverly disguised as parties held by their very own board members last year, while they flat-out refused to help the two rec centers and children's programs in their boundaries. So this decrease doesn't bother me one bit.
I do not think the rollover rules should be enforced, however. The budget isn't going to be any better next year and NCs should be allowed to manage their own money as needed over the next 3-5 years.
Could it be that the NC's independent voice is not valued by the Mayor?
NC's will survive, indeed thrive thanks to this blatant attempt at silencing them.
431pm=hot air. it's not about silencing voices and this will not make NCs any stronger or more united. how about this...keep the NC budget the same because it's the most important money to be spent city wide on things like plastic card holders, soccer uniforms and all kinds of feel good waste. I know, not your NC. I don't think most neighborhood councils could decide between plain or peanut M&M's. Money well saved!
This isn't going to go over well with the NCs or the communities.
It is fair to cut their budgets to share the pain, but all the way down to $11k? That's political castration and has nothing to do with saving money.
Hey! I wsnted my neighborhood council to make up some fuzzy dice with the name of my NC on them to hang on people's rear view mirrors as outreach. Now, I probably can't do that. My sister's boyfriend makes the fuzzy dice at his novelty print company, and now I probably can't give him the business, I mean have them made. And they were going to be for outreach! What a shame. This will hurt the local economy AND kids.
Hey! I was planning on spending that money on things I should paying for out of my council budget! What gives?
I guess we can't have those customized bottle water labels printed with our NC logo. Don't worry, we were going to talk about water conservation when we drank out of the bottles. Plus, my cousin prints the labels and kids were going to stick them on the bottle as summer jobs. This is going to hurt the water conservation effort AND kids!
However pathetic the NC participation was before, I think this will cause MORE people to participate for whatever reason. I think NOW people will start showing up to the meetings and the NC system will become more effective. In other words, The NC "THRIVE" Era! Hell, I'm predicting a participation expansion. I want MY NC's $11,000 to go toward more seats, casue we're gonna need 'em!
In Sunland-Tujunga, our NC has the benefit of using North Valley City Hall for offices. The same can not be said for many other NCs who must pay for office space. A 78% cut in their budgets means that they will likely lose that space when they have to decide how to spend their money. Not having a physical location for constituents to go to dilutes the effectiveness of the NCs and the entire neighborhood empowerment concept.
BTW, I accidentally deleted a comment I was trying to post by a reader. If you submitted a comment in the last few minutes for this thread, please resubmit. My apologies.
Wasn't part of the reason that the NC system was begun was to give the Valley a "voice" in council to deflate the motivation for that earlier seccession movement?
I suppose that threat is over and the NCs can be dissolved, since that is what will happen if the change is implemented. There was already a plan for all NC volunteers to be required to fill out the financial disclosure form as a paid employee would do.
Not all the NC do the same thing, and from some of the comments, I see what some of the perception are, and it's perceptions that matter for lots of things.
The city could do a one for one trade by ending the Calligraphy shop it has, saving $1 million a year and the NCs would remain intact. As a practical matter, the council will never give up that p.r. device.
It seems that the council doesn't have any concern about the NCs turning on them if they let this change go through. It would be on the other end of the p.r. spectrum for the council, and what would be nice would be the displaced NCs working against the CMs re-elections but most are termed out next time around anyway.
Still, all would not be good for the council to do this and the Mayor, well, that dream of relocating to Sacramento is only going to be for his retirement. Who's left to support his bid?
NCs having offices is a huge waste of money.
How so Michael?
If you were going to secede but did not because you were offered a "voice" through this system that was billed as experimental in the first place, then you got exaclty what you deserved, suckers.
You're wrong about the office Michael. Offices allow NC's to be efficient and organized. It's easier to outreach when you all have a place to meet. They are very important for people interested in government to have a place to gather.
This is a way to scare neighborhood councils into action and prove what they're worthy of.
We already know they have been wasting their money on City Council member requests who have their own budgets - officeholder accounts - as well as local schools that have their own budget - LAUSD - or their local SLO and/or division chief who have their own budget - LAPD - but let's hope they've learned something from this and use that remaining money to outreach, educate, and organize and office administration is vital to doing that well. Beautification is one of the least expensive and easiest things to do. Participation is the important thing.
But if neighborhoods participate and organize, they might challenge the current make up of the power structure, so it's in their best interests to get rid of neighborhood councils, I guess.
Why not just cut it to zero?
That is basically what they are doing anyway.
I think a better idea would be to have EVERY city department cut some staff members loose or agree to reduce salary costs by about 15%.
The Mayor wants to do his Communist "share the pain" thing anyway...OK...then every City employee can take a 15% pay cut.
City Council Members included!
See how well that goes over....
If NCs were allowed to "bank" money for upcoming projects, instead of spending it, then it is obvious the people who made that decision have no concept of role of neighborhood councils or how the money should be spent. For whatever reason, when I just read that NC money is being saved, not spent, I have made a final conclusion regarding my opinion of neighborhood councils.
You had my attention till you threw in the "communist" thing. C'mon Phil, budget cuts are not that. Drop the bizarre rhetoric and maybe people will take you more seriously.
The entire NC program is just a way to keep everybody distracted. They mean nothing. They accomplished nothing. And I am surprised that they cut the budget for them, since it was a way to make dum dums feel important.
The City Council needs to adopt an ordinance that will make all councilmembers' position PART TIME. This change will save taxpayers billions of dollars.
NC's are a huge waste of time, money and energy.
NC's are the closest yet to community based organization. while theres some joke aspects, NC's are a step to neighborhood empowerment. its an important concept not to be scoffed at, I don't think.
A lot of us have to work and can't go to the Council. Zuma Dogg since you don't work would you go to the Council and urge them not to cut our funds? We need our money.
If Matt Dowd was a woman:
http://p1.hotornot.com/pics/HE/HS/KE/H8/BYOZERKTACNM.jpg
9:12
No, "my friend", CC is the waste of time. This is GOVERNMENT- by, of, and for, in case you haven't heard by now.
THe fool that has asked Zooma to go to the Council and argue the case for NC's ought ot get his head examined.
They do nothing Zooma askes except the opposite.
Keep it up and they'll take it all away...
NC's are a total waste of $ !!!
Give the money to keep our libraries and parks open!!!
Why not just git rid of BongHwan Kim and his uselesss Neighborhood Empowerment "Analysts" and restore the salary savings to the NCs. What do they get paid for that can't be done by volunteers?! As for the NCs, maybe you should stop physically attacking each other at meeting to be taken seriously..(example: Echo Park NC and the Sigala clan)
Even better idea Phil...get rid of all those inexperienced kids in the Elected Offices (and not just the family members from the ghetto in need of jobs) and replace them with laid off Civil Service employees. We don't need 20 jesters per each Elected Official attempting to entertain and get in on the photo-ops..all they do is stand around and pretend to be someone important on their Blackberries when in fact they're just checking their E-Harmony accounts and planning the next Happy Hour!
Save money by eliminating DONE analysts and BH Kim. The only ones doing real work are the funding staff that help get our projects paid for, and they can easily be absorbed by a different department that has real purpose.BH Kim and his analysts don't do anything tangible but babble nonsense, ..seriously, what do they get paid for and what do they analyze? That's about $1.5 million that could go to our neighborhoods rather than pay for deadwood staff!
It shouldn't matter if their their funds get cut. It's a volunteer program; therefore, they should make do with what they get! If they're so active in the communities, then they should raise their own money to fund their pet projects and stop draining the City's General Fund. Non-profits raise their own $ and apply for grants to cover operational and program expenses. So why should the NCs waste taxpayer $ to serve their own vested interests?
What do Neighborhood Councils empower anyway?...their own egos? Bunch of bored power-hungry nitpickers that don't get good television reception and too cheap to pay for cable, so they go out and bother everyone else
MAYOR SAM??? As in SAM YORTY??? OMG!!! I thought I would never, ever have to see that name again....he was the original, shorter, more nasal, louder George W. Bush. IF YOU FOLKS ARE CARRYOVERS FROM HIS TIME AND ILK, PLEASE GET LOST AGAIN!!!
As a younger active member of a Neighborhood Council I can recognize that the negative comments are from citizens that view members as 'old farts'. My NC has given me an avenue to give back. None of what we do is generated from the board, but rather from outside organization requests -- like youth orgs, parks, and libraries. Every single person that comes to a meeting participates just as actively as a board member.
I hope that if you are complaining, you are also contributing members of your neighborhoods in other ways and not just complaining for the sake of complaining. It sounds like most people here are merely lazy and selfish to consider the hard work of the outside groups. Every single member of my board has a full time job and family -- they aren't volunteering their precious time because they are bored; they actually care. Politicians seem to view NCs as 'mettlers' -- why not keep the power with the people? At least what little there is left.
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