[Council File Research/Audio Look-up] - Title Not Set [3/X]

Moving on from "the beginning," we have another situation that Committee Members, and Chairs need to use.  Where a Council File (CF) has existed for some time and now you are just catching up.  In this case we will use Council File 18-0467 "Neighborhood Council System Reforms."  The reason why I am writing these articles.

On May 25th of this year, Councilmember Ryu put forth a motion/proposal to address comments recieved. Complaints! They were complaints.  Enough with this polite shit.  I'm not an NC member any more.

People where complaining that things weren't working right in the NC system.  Training for one thing, things like Planning 101 did not prepare Chairs for their role.  Budget stuff, definitions, Community Interest Stakeholder in particular, and etc.  Point is that the motion/proposal is to address and tweek things.  Summarized here: http://empowerla.org/city-council-introduces-proposed-neighborhood-council-reforms/

But what we are specifically looking at in terms of that motions and these articles is "Develop an ongoing compendium of best practices generated from Neighborhood Councils and share those on a periodic basis with all Neighborhood Councils and include "how-to guides" for accomplishing those best practices"


So from here as we investigate this CF, we need a few things.  First off is the "official" history of the file, which you can find using clerk connect.

The summary lists a few things of note such as the date introduced (May 25th, 2018), date of last change (which is the last time the Los Angeles City Clerk has entered a file in to this case "official document."), and which City level Committee it is currently in (Health, Education & NCs - aka HENC).

You will also note that there are two listings of files/documents.  One in the upper right corner and one in the wider "main summary screen."  These two sections contain pretty much the same information but just formatted differently.  You will occasionally see items appear in the upper right section that differ from the main summary window.


Each of these sections are scroll-able to reach the files for download.  However, please note that on some mobile devices it is less than obvious as there may not be a scroll bar (use your finger).

Under the "File Activities" selection, each file is marked by a pdf icon that can be used to access and download the supplemental files.  Meaning not just the CIS, but any document "official" attached to that CIS should be accessible/retrievable here.  Though, it may not.  Some of these files are never submitted to the City Clerk (such as those attached to agendas) and thus do not appear here.

For that... well you have to dive deeper.  Even though this file is listed as being aligned with HENC, doesn't mean that other Committees or NCs haven't taken up these items.  To research that (NCs), look at the CIS's and see which dates did they vote on.  Take a look at their agendas, websites and see if they have audio/video on their meetings.  Check if any documents were submitted.  What comments. ((We are gonna skip that here)).

What we are interested in is what City Departments have weighed in on this.  And you can either do a google search, and skim through all the titles, or think about it.  Obviously, HENC would be holding hearings on this so go search and grab their agenda(s) from (http://cityclerk.lacity.org/councilagenda/ or at https://www.lacity.org/your-government/meeting-audiovideo/council-committee-meeting-audio).  This part takes a while to search through agendas.

But secondly, and more importantly, Councilmember Ryu is "requesting Neighborhood Councils and Neighborhood Council Alliances to provide feedback and /or Community Impact Statements (CISs) to the Health, Education and Neighborhood Councils Committee within 90 days" (ending about August 20th I think), and this would interest the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (BONC).

BONC oversees the NC system, to put it simply, and has been holding meetings on this subject matter.  The last one on August 7th, in Boyle Heights.

The way that I would come across this information, was that some time ago, while on a seperate agenda sign-up page (https://www.lacity.org/your-government/government-information/subscribe-other-meetings-agendas-and-documents/department-commissions-committees-boards) I scrolled to the part where it stated that "Neighborhood Empowerment, Department of" with a place to put a check-mark next to: "Board of Neighborhood Commissioners Agendas"

At this meeting, the BONC was taking public comment as Agenda Item #11, and specifically here I gave comment on the section in reference to 11(f).  "Adopting policies for training of Chairs and Vice-chairs of Neighborhood Council land use committees."

Attached to this Agenda, was information contained on what the BONC has as supporting documents.  Which you cannot find online.  To get that information, you will need to have either been there OR contact your BONC rep, or as listed on their website as Commission@empowerla.org. (I put in request for that information.

Here I will note, that while gathering this information, and before we go further.  I was attempting to gain a copy of the Audio.  The BONC has a website (http://empowerla.org/commission/policies-and-meetings/) where you can download the agenda "packet" and listen to the audio via streaming.  But not exactly download the audio.  For that you will have to do some minor hacking (I'll get to that in a second).

If you are on a desktop, you will see the page divided in to two categories, "Meeting Agenda Packets" and "Meeting Minutes."  These too items may/will appear different on some tablets.  With the Agenda packets being listed first and the Minutes being listed far below in a linear order.


The Minutes them self will not be uploaded until approved and the audio files won't contain a direct download link on most systems I have tried.  Nor will right-clicking work.

 To get the audio link for this file (in this case), or any audio file on this page, you are going to need to view the page source.  Go learn how to do that on a youTube video or something, specifically for the device you are using.  Once in the course do a search for the meeting you are looking for (in this case "August 2018"), and there you will find an mp3 link within a few lines of code. You don't need the whole link file name, just up to .mp3.

and boom: http://empowerla.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/BoardofNeighborhoodCommissioners080718.MP3

You can now use any number of programs from your browser's default settings to download this.  This is just one way to do research.  And what you want to do, is to gather this info, to work offline. And just listen to what people are saying.

I'll go further in to this council file tomorrow.