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# Valley Alliance Prez Gets DWP Commission Appointment
September 17 2013
Written by Stephen Box.
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THE VALLEY - The Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils (VANC) held its monthly meeting at the Sherman Oaks Hospital, complementing a full agenda with a few moments of celebration as the representatives of the 34 Neighborhood Councils in the San Fernando Valley honored VANC Founder and Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council President Jill Banks Barad for her recent confirmation as a Board of Water and Power Commissioner.
The Board of Water and Power now has two Neighborhood Council Board Members on its five person panel, demonstrating the significant access and influence that Neighborhood Councils have earned over the last decade.
VANC also heard from three presenters:
First up was a presentation on the new development services department will result from the consolidation of City Planning, Building and Safety, and the plan check elements of the Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Engineering, and the Fire Department.
This new, as yet unnamed, department goes to work on January 1, 2014 and the Office of the City Administrative Officer has hired a management consultant to assist in implementation of the new department and to get stakeholder feedback, ideas, and concerns about the new department. For more information on the new department, [click here](http://empowerla.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Notice-to-Council-and-Mayor-for-Newsletters.pdf%20).
Next up was City Planning’s Rocky Wiles who introduced the newly created Condition Compliance Unit (CCU) which was approved by the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee as part of the 2012-2013 FY Budget. The scope of the CCU is to ensure compliance with all entitlement conditions of approval including effectuation, monitoring, and to ensure that applications to renew expired (or close to expiring) grants and required plan approval reviews are submitted to the Department for reconsideration.
Then [Nextdoor.com](https://nextdoor.com/%20)’s Justine Fenwick and two of her field organizers gave an overview of the hyper-local neighborhood networking tool that allows neighbors to meet in online neighborhoods, creating community and sharing information. The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment is working with Nextdoor to create a citywide network of Nextdoor neighborhoods that Neighborhood Councils and Senior Lead Officers can work with to improve public safety and communication.
VANC voted unanimously on a resolution calling on the City Council, its committees, and all commissions to give five minutes of public comment time to representatives who are speaking on behalf of one of the 95 certified Neighborhood Councils in LA.
The Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils meets monthly on the second Thursday and is made up of representatives from the 34 Neighborhood Councils in the San Fernando Valley. Email for more information.
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 75
Pub: Sept 17, 2013
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