Update: Proposal to Cut NC Funding from $50,000 to $11,200 a Year
Information went out today in a Special Information Bulletin which stated 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. 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. 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. 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 can't make it to the meetings, please use the COUNCILPHONE -- a telephone system that allows the public to listen to live coverage of City government meetings from any phone-can be accessed by dialing the following numbers from the listed locations:
Downtown (213) 621-CITY (2489)
San Pedro (310) 547-CITY (2489)
West Los Angeles (310) 471-CITY (2489)
Van Nuys (818) 904-9450
If you can't make it to the meetings, please use the COUNCILPHONE -- a telephone system that allows the public to listen to live coverage of City government meetings from any phone-can be accessed by dialing the following numbers from the listed locations:
Downtown (213) 621-CITY (2489)
San Pedro (310) 547-CITY (2489)
West Los Angeles (310) 471-CITY (2489)
Van Nuys (818) 904-9450
Posted by Michael Higby @ 5/06/2009 09:53:00 PM
9 Comments:
This is outrageous!!! The STNC just had our budget meeting and there is no way we can survice on that amount of money. Not only that but pitiful stipend doesn't meet the City Charter reguirement to support Neighborhood Council's ability to outreach to community members.
We need to have our voices heard and protest that cut at their Budget Meeting on Tuesday, May 12th!
Yahoo!!! Cut'em 'til they bleed.
A no-good waste of time and energy, doing nothing but fronting for the Councilmembers who should be doing the job, not a bunch of amateur planners who lack the training and experience to make rational decisions.
Neighborhood Councils are the worst thing LA ever did. They are disfunctional.
Why should the city charter meet its requirement to support community outreach when the members themselves don't. Give it up already, wannabees. I just watched the city go bankrupt and no one said a word. But now you are ready to stand up now that they are cutting the budget on your little girl scout meetings. Just go join a fantasy football league or summer rock star camp or go watch Jerry Springer. Or just walk up to someone on the street and pick a random argument with them. Or just walk on a treadmill, you'll go just as far.
Thank goodness - their budgets should be cut to ZERO. NCs are breeding grounds for special interests and do not reflect the communities they represent. Get rid of them.
How do the communities benefit when they're wasting money on temp services and office supplies?! Far worse, there's nepotism and self-serving deals when it comes to contracting out work...AND they physically attack each other at meetings...for example..Echo Park NC and the Jose and Lisa Sigala clan
And, of course, we note that in all this, the same City Councilmembers secured their OWN discretionary (slush, supporter payola) funds, untouched.
That's a couple million right there to be used (supposedly) for a lot of the same community improvements that NCs work on, expect you only have to get ONE vote to get that money -- the councilmember him/herself.
AND in MOST council districts, it's used to "buy" votes in the next CC election.
If you NEED to save $3-4 million related to "neighborhood empowerment" -- don't take it away from the unpaid NC foot soldiers slogging it out in the trenches for hundreds of volunteer hours each year (that's the cheapest SLAVE labor the city can get). Instead, take it away from the paper-pushing, meddling avg. $80K a year bureaucrat/clerks at DONE that just get in the way of NCs.
Close THAT department, and save more money than ALL NCs now spend. Combine ITS few remaining duties with some other constituent-level sub-department -- PW/Beautification, or Human Relations, or, or, or. . .
DONE now adds NOTHING to the NC mandate of involving stakeholders (some of the WORST turnouts at City events are when Bong Water Kim tries to get NC people to "gather" round him and plan or speak out on things).
Most NC people who weren't around during certifications can't TELL YOU what DONE does.
Because. . . DONE DON'T!
DONE, does! The "E" IS FOR EMPOWERMENT, moron.
The "I" in CIA is for "intelligence" also. So, what does that prove?
I can adopt a kid and name him "Einstein". That won't raise his IQ.
There is NOTHING "empowering" about DONE, which is EXACTLY why the city keeps taking duties AWAY from it and giving them to other departments.
It only "empowers" its staff to earn money and get in the way of what NCs were CREATED for -- DIRECT influence on the City (not slowed down by a middle-man fake department that the real powers in City Hall only laugh at as window dressing).
It gets tiring being in, blogging in, living in LA.
No one is for anything. They're against something.
And what they're against is innocuous, billboards, condos, yogurt shops, potted plants, whatever.
Speaking of potted plants though I think a good chunk of the folks involved in SLAP and Neighborhood Councils are lovely folks I don't see much traction happening.
No one is engaging the real LA. No one is for big ideas. It's all about fighting and keeping us a white trash backwater with a third world frosting.
I'm getting DONE.
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