The North Westwood Neighborhood Council gathered Wednesday for their monthly public general meeting held over Zoom. The NWWNC is the official neighborhood council representing Westwood Village and UCLA to the Los Angeles City Council. The next meeting will be held Feb. 1.
Announcements:
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Nuha Khalfay, a general resident stakeholder and co-chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, said there is a surplus of money to provide to businesses in the neighborhood and asked council members to help discuss outreach and organizations to fund.
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Josh Trifunovic, president of NWWNC, said all council members will start to help post meeting agendas in Westwood and on the website on a rotational basis to alleviate the work of the president, vice president and secretary of the council.
Agenda:
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The council unanimously voted for Eric Coestad, a second-year political science student and councilmember, to be the new NWWNC secretary.
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The council then officially organized each standing committee so agenda items can be processed on a committee, rather than by the full council. Trifunovic added that general committee members do not have to be council members.
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Ernesto Arciniega, a graduate student member, and Khalfay said they are the current co-chairs of the Budget and Finance Committee. John Sischo, an at-large stakeholder; Kevin Crummy, a business stakeholder; and Kyle Schmidt, treasurer and undergraduate student member, are the current members.
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Trifunovic said he is and will remain the chair of the Outreach and Communications Committee, with Peter Clinco, an organizational stakeholder. Maikel Kohanhediud, a business stakeholder, joined.
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Crummy is the current chair of the Planning and Land Use Committee, with Khalfay and Coestad as members. Samantha Smithies, an undergraduate student member, also joined the committee.
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Vigneshwar Senthilkumar, a renter stakeholder, joined the Transportation and Safety Committee as a member, though it is still without a chair.
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Andrew Lewis, the council’s vice president, nominated Smithies to chair the Election Committee, and she accepted. Lewis also joined the committee.
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Lewis said he chairs the Homelessness and Community Health Committee, with Khalfay, Senthilkumar, Jacob Wasserman and Catherine Sarkisian, a faculty member, as members.
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No one was placed on the Community Activities and Projects Committee.
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Next, Schmidt, who is the first card holder, explained the role of second card holder, which entails signing off on financial documents for full verification. Trifunovic nominated himself for the role and was confirmed with a vote.
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Gabriel Kahn, an editor at the nonprofit data-based news organization Crosstown, which is based out of University of Southern California, invited the council to view the group’s data on parking tickets, building permits and political donations throughout LA. Kahn said the data comes from the city of Los Angeles and is publicly available, though Crosstown makes the information accessible.
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Wasserman then introduced an issue with community impact statements, which allow neighborhood councils to submit comments based on the wishes of their stakeholders to different departments. However, Wasserman said community impact statements were not getting sent to the proper groups, such as the City Planning Commission and the Ethics Commission, because of an issue with the submission portal. Trifunovic made the motion to support technological updates to the portal, a motion the Los Angeles City Council has on their agenda, and it passed unanimously.
Finally, Lisa Chapman asked council members to join the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, which will take place Wednesday to help count the number of people experiencing homelessness in the area. The count will begin at the Westwood Presbyterian Church, she said.
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