Lake Balboa Neighborhood Council

We meet on the first Wednesday of each month. Our next regular board meeting will be:

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 7:00pm.

New Watering Schedule Now in Effect for LADWP Customers
Watering Days Expanded, Schedule Based on Customer Street Address

Changes to the City of Los Angeles' Water Conservation Ordinance went into effect today (August 25, 2010) for Los Angeles City residents and businesses, allowing LADWP customers to water with sprinklers up to three days per week. Customers whose street addresses end with an odd number – 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9 – are permitted to use their sprinkler systems on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Customers whose addresses end in even numbers – 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 are permitted to do so on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Addresses ending in fractions are treated as whole numbers and observe the same day restrictions as others on their same side of the street, (ie: 4321 ½ is regarded as 4321, an odd-numbered address.)

Sprinkler time limits are based on the type of nozzle used. Spray head sprinklers and bubblers, which are non-conserving models and are common in most landscapes, are allowed up to 8 minutes per watering station per day. Rotors and multi-stream rotary heads are allowed 15 minutes per cycle and up to two cycles per day per watering station. Watering with sprinklers is restricted to hours before 9:00 a.m. and after 4:00 p.m., regardless of the watering day.

All other prohibited uses of water, which include prohibiting hosing down driveways and sidewalks and water runoff, requiring all leaks be fixed and only using hoses fitted with shut-off nozzles, remain in effect. Hand-watering using garden hoses fitted with shut-off nozzle devices is permissible any day of the week before 9:00 a.m. and after 4:00 p.m.

Tired of Unsightly Mobile Billboards in Our Community?

Take action by letting our Governor know that you support AB 2756, proposed by Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield, which helps ban mobile billboards. AB 2756 has already passed the state Assembly, and is moving through the state Senate this month. If passed, it becomes law only if signed by the Governor.

Go to www.assembly.ca.gov/blumenfield — click on “Ban Mobile Billboards - Sign Here” and send a message that mobile billboards are unsafe, unsightly and unwanted in our community.

(Assemblymember Blumenfield represents the 40th Assembly District, which includes Lake Balboa. He is the Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee. Blumenfield will be presenting the list of names collected on his website to the Governor before he makes his decision on the bill.)

Community Cheers “Very Major” Council Vote to Improve Neighborhood Empowerment

That big sigh of relief you heard this morning was from the city’s 91 neighborhood councils, who cheered a vote by the City Council Wednesday on a motion to they say will strengthen community empowerment.

The motion, by Councilmember Paul Krekorian, chair of the Education and Neighborhoods Committee, restored five positions to the embattled Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) and transfered $1.3 million to it from the Community Development Department (CDD).

“This is a budget-neutral action that does not cost taxpayers a dime, but still allows the department to function in support of neighborhood councils,” Krekorian said. “DONE’s budget and staffing have been decimated of late, so this fiscally prudent move was an important step to strengthen community participation in governance.”

In fact, DONE itself was close to decimation after the mayor proposed rolling the department into CDD during this year’s budget negotiations. Neighborhood councils railed against that proposal, fearing it would be the death knell for the community empowerment department after its funding – and staff positions – had been steadily siphoned off.

As late as 2008, DONE operated with 72 staff members to help the city’s neighborhood councils flourish. Earlier this year, as the city’s fiscal situation worsened, the department’s budget was greatly reduced as its staff was cut to 36 people. Later, that figure was slashed in half again, to 18, where it stood before Wednesday’s action.

“Today’s vote was very major,” said Barbara Monaghan-Burke, chair of the Studio City Neighborhood Council’s Government Affairs Committee. “This is just the beginning of restructuring [DONE] as an independent system so we can operate most effectively.”

The 2010-11 adopted city budget provides $1.34 million to the CDD for functions that had been performed by DONE. Pursuant to the reccomendation of Krekorian’s committee, that amount of funding was transfered out of CDD and into DONE. The additional positions are to be paid for out of that existing funding.

“We’ve never wavered in our support for this,” said Nina Royal, a member of the Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council and chair of the public safety committee. “This is great. It will strengthen DONE and give us better service.”

While many of DONE’s staff fan out across the city, helping the city’s neighborhood councils solve a plethora of problems, the five new positions will work internally to help the department function and maintain a high level of accountability.

While Krekorian cheered Wednesday’s action, he added that it was one step on the road to ensuring greater neighborhood empowerment.

“Today, we sent an important message to Los Angeles that we value the importance of neighborhood councils, and my office will always stand with those who care passionately about community empowerment,” he said. “However, this is not an end, but another important step as we continue to reorganize and improve one of our city’s most important movements.”

If you hear loud aircraft in the sky above you, and you want to know more about the aircraft's destination, trajectory, type, or even altitude, we recommend the following webpage:

The webpage shows aircraft from Van Nuys Airport (VNY), as well as Burbank "Bob Hope" Airport (BUR), Whiteman Airport (WHP) in Pacoima, and the LAPD trainng facility in Granada Hills.

Free Health Screenings

Encino Chamber of Commerce and West-Val Pharmacy invite you to receive free health screenings, diabetes education, and gift bags West-Val Pharmacy. Diabetes afflicts more than 23.6 million Americans and another 57 million people are likely to get the disease if they don't alter their living habits.

New Technology to Fight Graffiti

It's now even easier to report graffiti to the City so it can cleaned up fast.

In addition to calling 311, you can now report graffiti directly using the City's online 311 function at http://anti-graffiti.lacity.org/welcome.cfm.

Just enter the exact address and a report and clean-up order are automatically generated.

The City also is making efforts to explore today's rapidly evolving technology to make it faster and easier for citizens to report graffiti and other non-emergency problems. The City now has its own iPhone application to report problems. The application was created by Citysourced in a public-private partnership and can downloaded for free on iTunes. It allows iPhone users to take snapshots of graffiti, potholes, illegal dumping and other issues. Using the iPhone's GPS system, the photo and the exact location are automatically sent directly to the City's 311 system. It even notifies the user when the problem is resolved.

To download the app or see pictures of how it works, visit this link at iTunes.

The application should be available for Blackberry, Android, Palm, & Windows Mobile 7 platforms this year.

The City of Los Angeles Stormwater Program is conducting a customer satisfaction survey and they need your input!

VISIT www.LAstormwater.org/survey
TAKE the five minute survey and give us your thoughts about the program – what they are doing well and where they need to improve.
Get FREE Stuff! Every person who takes the survey will receive an organic cotton tote bag.

Stop Trailer Billboards

Bob Blumenfield

State legislation authored by Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield (D – San Fernando Valley) and Assemblymember Mike Feuer (D – Los Angeles) was approved by the full Assembly on a vote of 46 – 14. The bill now moves to the state Senate for consideration.

“I’m tired of seeing these unsightly billboards on unhitched trailers all over our neighborhoods. They are nothing more than road spam. I know many others are sick of them too. Literally hundreds of people in our community have complained to me about these eyesores. It’s time to get rid of them once and for all,” Blumenfield said.

“These signs are a distracting safety hazard for drivers, a source of blight in neighborhoods, and a drain on scarce parking spaces intended for business patrons. They should be prohibited unless a city or county affirmatively wants to allow them,” said joint author Assemblymember Mike Feuer.

For years, the City of Los Angeles and other local governments have attempted to control the proliferation of mobile billboards locally, but their efforts have been hampered by litigation, and requirements that signs prohibiting them must be posted at every entrance to the city. In Los Angeles, a city with thousands of such access points, the signage requirements are not financially or physically feasible. Now, the City of Los Angeles is in strong support of AB 2756, which as a state statute will be enforceable without the onerous requirements. AB 2756 also would not preempt local communities, such as West Hollywood, that have adopted ordinances that seem to be achieving the goal of controlling the signs.

Many of us have fruit trees and use or distribute only a small portion of the fruit to our friends and families. Here's an idea that will help you and many others at the same time:

FOOD FORWARD is an all-volunteer grassroots group of Los Angeles residents who care about reconnecting to our food system and making change around urban hunger and food waste. Food Forward volunteers convene at private properties they have been invited to and glean the excess fruit on their trees, donating 100% of it to local food pantries. In just 10 months, they have harvested nearly 65,000 pounds of fresh, free fruit. Food Forward supplies the volunteers, equipment and coordination to pull off picks both large and small, creating an atmosphere of community that encourages its volunteers to reconnect and pass along the abundance of food already present in our daily lives. All property owners receive a tax deduction for every pound they harvest.

We encourage you to volunteer your property to be gleaned, or to be part of a pick. Call them at (818) 530-4125 or visit their website: www.foodforward.org

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Lake Balboa Neighborhood Boundaries
Click HERE for L.A. City approved motion and street-by-street boundaries

Map Key:
The black line represents the city of Lake Balboa.
The blue overlay shows the Lake Balboa Neighborhood Council boundaries.
The green overlay shows the area that the Lake Balboa NC shares with Encino NC.
The yellow push pin is where Lake Balboa NC holds Board Meetings.
The red push pin is where the Emergency Preparedness Committee and Communications Committee meetings are held.

View Lake Balboa in a larger map