From our friends at NECA…

You are VERY welcome to join this Saturday’s meeting of NECA — the North East Central Alliance of Neighborhood Councils. Free to attend, it’s  Saturday, March 27 from 10:30am-12:30pm, at the Glassell Park Community Center, 3750 N. Verdugo, Los Angeles, CA 90065. The special speakers are L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti, Board of Neighborhood Commissioners Vice President Albert Abrams, and Jack Humphreville, president of the DWP Advocacy Committee.  They will appear one after the other. We’ll hear about and discuss such crucial topics as the city’s budget crisis, the status of DONE, and the controversial proposed “ECAF” rate hikes associated with DWP.  There will be Q&A, of course.

NECA meetings are open to the officers and other board members of the many Neighborhood Councils in the Central and East areas, and to stakeholders and other guests from throughout the city.  Alliances such as NECA are NOT governed by the Brown Act, in part because generally, alliances do not solicit or attract that level of representation from any one NC.  But we always urge appropriate sensitivity, common sense and responsibility regarding such matters, in particular when any individual NC has many members present.  Motions can be made as part of a NECA meeting, though none are presently scheduled for this Saturday.

An Alliance is a great way of building a shared voice and common purpose.  NECA is NOT about conquering territory — it’s about developing relationships and helping each other in local and civic causes. In our brief history, we’ve enjoyed meetings that have been provocative, informative and hopefully transformative, but we’ve also sought to be supportive, or at least respectful, and not belittling toward each other and our guests. To this meeting, we’re inviting current board members, but also newly elected ones who are not yet in office, and even some whose status may be in doubt:  a later NECA meeting, but not this one, will be focused on ways to examine and improve NC elections.

I hope you’ll contact me with any questions or comments, and an RSVP is especially useful.  Our meeting is scheduled to start at 10:30 and end at 12:30 but might last a bit later, in part to accommodate some folks who may try to attend other meetings, but also because we expect some great discussion.

Thanks again - Paul Michael Neuman (also, co-chair of Silver Lake NC) / pmneuman@yahoo.com

Download the agenda here:  [1] NECA AGENDA 032710