Category: City of Los Angeles

Click here for the new City Council Committee Meeting times.  Read more »

After more than a year of working directly with residents and stakeholders, City Councilmembers encourage an ongoing public dialogue of new rules in the months to come

Los Angeles City Council President Herb J. Wesson, Jr. was joined today by Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield, Paul Koretz and Nury Martinez in releasing the city’s draft regulations governing commercial cannabis activity. The City Council has been engaging in an open and public dialogue over the last year about how to best regulate all aspects of the cannabis industry citywide. Today marks another step forward in the transparent process with the beginning of a 60-day public comment period prior to any further action by the City Council.

After shepherding Measure M to a historic 80.5% passage rate, Wesson immediately began the process of gleaning best practices from neighboring cities and states who had already established responsible cannabis regulations. Wesson who chairs the Rules, Elections, Intergovernmental Relations, and Neighborhoods committee which has overseen the crafting of the draft regulations. Since beginning the process Wesson has held over a dozen meetings, including in the evenings, inviting members of the public, industry experts, and regulators from other states including Colorado, Oregon, and Washington to provide testimony.

“We will continue to have a robust dialogue about the regulatory framework and a healthy debate of Los Angeles’ growing cannabis industry prior to final recommendations being considered by the City Council, said Los Angeles City Council President Herb J. Wesson, Jr. “I’m calling on all residents and stakeholders to provide comments and feedback on the draft documents to ensure the pending regulations are inclusive of all communities.” Read more »

As the City of Los Angeles nears the end of its current fiscal year, a new report from the City Administrative Officer shows a significant decrease in the city’s budget deficit. Although the city is not out of the woods just yet, Los Angeles has narrowed it’s 2016-2017 fiscal year from $245 million to $57 million, thanks to work by the Budget and Finance Committee, an increase in revenues, and the discipline of city departments. The city’s Reserve Fund is also set to remain at levels higher than it has been in decades.

Next month, the Budget Committee reviews the Mayor’s 2017-2018 budget proposal. Once the budget is released and hearings begin, the committee will meet with all of the various city departments to hear about their needs and listen to the public’s input.

This week, the Los Angeles City Council, alongside dozens of Olympic athletes who call Los Angeles home, voted to approve the LA2024 bid for the Olympic and Para-Olympic Games.

Los Angeles is a cultural and industrial mashup unlike anywhere else in the world. Residents from over 100 countries are held together by a collective optimism, a push for progress, and a dedication to sport. The spirit of our community is based on harnessing creativity and curiosity for the purpose of imagination and reinvention. The Olympic and Para-Olympic Games continue to spark passion for Angelenos throughout Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is currently competing against Paris and Budapest to host the summer 2024 games. The International Olympics Committee is slated to announce its decision in September 2017. If selected, LA would become a three-time host of the summer games.

Click here to read the full bid for the 2024 Olympic Games. Read more »

The Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates have created a Service Report Card for citizens of Los Angeles to rate their local City Services.  Every community is different and every community has their own set of problem areas.  Here is your chance to let the Mayor’s office, Los Angeles City Council and the City Hall Departments know exactly what matters to you the most! The due date to complete this service report card is on Friday, January 15.

English: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/servicereportcard2015

Spanish: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/reportedeservicio2015

With over 1300 responses to the survey so far, the Budget Advocates have collected more than a thousand more responses than the Mayor’s own Department of Budget and Innovation this year.  As elected officials to the City of Los Angeles, the NC Budget Advocates represent each and every stakeholder in the City of Los Angeles.  This survey is designed to help pinpoint the problem areas in our city as well as highlight the areas that are successful.

The City’s Implementation Plan for the Clean Streets Citywide Program (Council File: 15-0600-S78) aims to provide a comprehensive program to improve Angelenos’ quality of life by cleaning up our streets. This plan includes the effort to promote the City of Los Angeles’ free service to pick up discarded bulky items such as mattresses, furniture, and appliances. Please help the city discourage the abandoning of trash on the street by dialing 3-1-1  or going online to request free bulky item pick up.

Earlier this year Mayor Eric Garcetti launched several Executive Directives, one of which was the first ever Sustainable City pLAn. Sustainability is about more than combating climate change and reducing pollution: it encompasses economic development, social development, and environmental protection. The pLAn looks at ways the whole city of Los Angeles: citizens, communities, and businesses, can be more cognizant about responsible waste, clean energy, water conservation, efficient transportation, improved air quality, and the creation of green jobs. Sustainability is about making sure that the natural resources we have today are available for future generations tomorrow.

Mayor Garcetti has taken a proactive approach in Los Angeles becoming a leader in sustainability. On Monday, Mayor Garcetti joined Vice President Joe Biden and leaders in the clean-technology industry for a roundtable discussion on ways to develop clean technology. Vice President Biden sees Los Angeles as leading the country in innovation and sustainability as Mayor Garcetti has pledged an aggressive goal for the City to cut emissions 80% by 2050, stop using coal by 2025, and embedding sustainability into everything that City Hall does. In addition, last week Mayor Garcetti announced a campaign called the Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge (LABBC) or ‘Drop 100’ where commercial buildings will take the necessary steps to save 100 million gallons of water every year. This campaign helps by conserving water for the drought, as commercial buildings account for 19% of the city’s water supply. Learn more about the Mayor’s Sustainable City pLAn.

With the Mayor taking a proactive stance on sustainability, Neighborhood Councils can also engage with this important campaign by exploring new areas and ways in which they can help the city reach sustainability goals, specifically by submitting a Community Impact Statement on reducing greenhouse gas in the city as proposed in Council File #14-0907. A CIS is an opportunity for NCs to influence legislation. To learn more about Community Impact Statements, attend an upcoming EmpowerLA CIS training workshop!

Community empowerment starts with you, so thank you for your continued interest to stay connected, engaged, and empowered.

This week, a public hyperlink was established on the City’s website directing users to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services’ website to provide information on adoption opportunities.

Every child needs a loving, supportive and nurturing family. Sadly, in the United States, there are 400,540 children in the foster care system with 104,236 children ready and waiting to be adopted. In California, there are 55,851 children in the foster care system with over 13,178 children ready and waiting to be adopted. In Los Angeles County, there are over 18,000 children in the foster care system with over 500 of them ready and waiting to be adopted.

The City of Los Angeles’s website: www.lacity.org is the main portal in which residents can access public services and receive vital information. The City’s website is also an important tool to facilitate instant and direct access to public resources for residents, and can be utilized to encourage people to consider adopting a child.

This link brings greater awareness about the need for permanent and loving homes for children in foster care and assists those interested in the adopting process, making it smoother and easier to navigate.

Click here to view the new link.

Looking for affordable housing? There is a new resource available from the Los Angeles Housing + Community Investment Department (HCIDLA).

Los Angeles County Housing Resource center, together with HCIDLA launched this new web-based ADA accessible application tool to match qualified tenants with affordable housing.

This application is 100% free and features searchable vacancies based on household amenities and location criteria. It can be accessed online or via toll-free phone and provides a platform for owners to list and update rentals.

The website updates regularly to reflect available units and can be found at http://housing.lacity.org/.

Los Angeles lawmakers voted unanimously Tuesday to pass a new law requiring Angelenos to lock up or disable their handguns at home if they aren’t close at hand.

In an impassioned speech before the vote, City Councilman Paul Krekorian argued that the new rules would help prevent deadly accidents and youth suicides by stopping the guns from falling into the hands of curious children or despondent teenagers. Krekorian said more preschoolers are killed with guns annually than police officers.

“It’s unacceptable to live in a country where it’s more dangerous to be a preschooler than to be a police officer — and we can do something about that today,” Krekorian said.

Under the new law, Angelenos who violate the storage requirements could face a misdemeanor charge. Gun rights activists have warned they may sue over the rules, arguing that city lawmakers shouldn’t decide how people choose to protect themselves in their homes. Read more »

Mayor calls for investments in long-term initiatives, and rolls out short-term proposals to address emergency needs.

Mayor Eric Garcetti today announced the first steps of a comprehensive strategy to address the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, an effort that would invest at least $100 million annually in City funding to help house tens of thousands of homeless individuals.

To address immediate needs, Mayor Garcetti also announced a critical short-term strategy to secure an additional $13 million in emergency funding to expand homeless services and housing. The bulk of that funding, $10 million, will be allocated to veterans and non-chronically homeless people in the form of housing subsidies — to rapidly re-house individuals who need short-term assistance to get off the street and on with their lives. Mayor Garcetti called for shelters to remain open 24 hours a day during the rainy season, and for winter shelter availability to expand by two months. The Mayor also proposed seed money to incentivize new storage and access centers across the city — that would newly provide access to restrooms, showers, laundry, and services, as well as providing safe storage for personal possessions.

This comes as Los Angeles City Council leaders this morning declared homelessness in Los Angeles a “state of emergency” and introduced a motion to allocate $100 million in one-time funding for homeless services. Read more »