Neighborhood Boundaries – New White Paper

We have added a new white paper to our website. We have a white paper that describes how other cities dealt with the issue of defining neighborhood association boundaries. Here is a link to our neighborhood boundary white paper.

Timetable for 2012 Operating Budget Process

On April 20, CAO Andrew Kopplin sent a memo to all City Departments, Boards, Agencies, and Commissions to announce the 2012 Operating Budget timetable. Here is a link to a pdf copy of the April 20 Budget Memo. Please note that this is not a binding timeline and it can be changed at the Administration’s discretion (and it is possible that it may have already changed). Here are the dates outlined in the memo:

June 2 – 17: Department prepare and submit revenue estimates

June 17: Offers due to Results Teams

June 29: Feedback to Department from Results Teams

June 27 – July 22: Department prepare base expenditure budgets

Early July: Department training on modification to budget system

July 5 -22: Department revise offers based on Results Team feedback

July 22: Final revised budget offers due to Results Team

July 29: Completed expenditure budget parckages returned to CAO

Late Summer: Community Meetings

August 1 -5: Results Team rank offers

August 5: Final rankings from Results Teams to Budgeting for Outcome (BFO) Management Team

August 8 – 31: CAO Budget Hearings

September 5 -16: Final budget decisions

September 19 – October 14: Development of budget materials

October 14: 2012 Proposed Operating Budget submitted to City Council or at a Special Council Meeting to be announced

Healthy New Orleans Neighborhood Training

Dear Interested Party,

Thank you for your interest in the Healthy New Orleans Neighborhoods (HNON) Project. As you know, HNON is envisioned to inform, empower, and support residents and neighborhood leaders in planning and taking action for healthier neighborhoods. As a first step to the HNON program LPHI and its partners, NPN and Concordia have been creating an interactive website and toolkit, which we previewed at the meeting.  It is now at a point of development to afford the opportunity for your and other community member’s feedback.  We would like to invite you to the first HNON website training hosted by Catholic Charities- Sojourner Truth Community Center. At the training we will provide you with a login name and password to access the Healthy Nola Neighborhoods site.

As one of the first to drive this new site, we ask that you provide us with your honest and thoughtful feedback regarding the content, ease of use and functionality of the site and toolkit and that you keep the draft content secure until the web content is finalized. If you are interested in being one of the first people to see and drive the HNON website then please email us back at aburg@lphi.org for the date and time you would like to join.

Catholic Charities-Sojourner Truth Community Center(2200 Lafitte Street) will be hosting HNON trainings:

Dear Interested Party,

Thank you for your interest in the Healthy New Orleans Neighborhoods (HNON) Project. As you know, HNON is envisioned to inform, empower, and support residents and neighborhood leaders in planning and taking action for healthier neighborhoods. As a first step to the HNON program LPHI and its partners, NPN and Concordia have been creating an interactive website and toolkit, which we previewed at the meeting.  It is now at a point of development to afford the opportunity for your and other community member’s feedback.  We would like to invite you to the first HNON website training hosted by Catholic Charities- Sojourner Truth Community Center. At the training we will provide you with a login name and password to access the Healthy Nola Neighborhoods site.

As one of the first to drive this new site, we ask that you provide us with your honest and thoughtful feedback regarding the content, ease of use and functionality of the site and toolkit and that you keep the draft content secure until the web content is finalized. If you are interested in being one of the first people to see and drive the HNON website then please email us back at aburg@lphi.org for the date and time you would like to join.

Catholic Charities-Sojourner Truth Community Center (2200 Lafitte Street) will be hosting HNON trainings:

Tuesday May 31^st:      4:00 pm to 5:30 pm

Wednesday June 1^st:  9:00 am to 10:30 & 4:00pm to 5:30 pm

May NOLA CPP Newsletter

Here is the latest news from the New Orleans Citizens Participation Project. In this newsletter we have an update on the NPP process, a call from City Council for citizen participation in the renewal of a cable TV franchise, changes to City Council’s public comment rules, and NOLA CPP’s results in Global Giving’s April Open Challenge. You can read the lastest NOLA CPP newsletter by clicking here.

Council tightens rule on input

Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA) – Saturday, May 21, 2011

Author: Bruce Eggler and Michelle Krupa Staff writers

Call it the Sandra Wheeler Hester rule.

The New Orleans City Council this week adopted a comprehensive revision of its rules and regulations.

Most of the 41-page document is pretty dry stuff, dealing with matters of parliamentary procedure, council appointments, referring matters to committees and the like.

The one area that raised some controversy was the council’s desire to further tighten its already tight rules on public comment at its meetings.

The new rule limits comment on any agenda item to six minutes, with each speaker limited to three minutes, except that on zoning and other land-use issues, each side gets up to 15 minutes.

Mindful that a determined and talkative citizen such as “18-Wheeler” Hester might sign up for three minutes on a dozen or more agenda items at one meeting, the council also added a rule limiting each speaker to a total of six minutes per meeting, again excepting land-use issues, and further required that the speaker indicate at the start of the meeting how many minutes he or she wants for each item.

In fact, it has been months since the loudly loquacious Hester has attended a council meeting, though one never knows when she might show up again, and she is capable of disrupting a meeting badly enough to extend it by 30 or more minutes.

In general, though, public comment takes up far less time at council meetings than the members’ own often-rambling comments, and less than the seemingly interminable “special orders of business” the council schedules at the start of most meetings. Council members often spend the special orders heaping praise on people who have no need, or probably even desire, for such praise, or make speeches repeating platitudes they have uttered countless times before.

Two members of the public, longtime community activists Albert “Chui” Clark and George Mahdi, protested the new time limits.

Clark denounced the new rules, as he denounces almost everything the council does, as “racist” and said they are an example of how democracies become dictatorships. Mahdi told the council, “By right, there ain’t no time limit on justice,” and added, “You don’t get carte blanche on what you do.”

Councilman Jon Johnson pointed out to them that most issues coming before the council now are discussed first at committee meetings. “That’s the forum for lengthy discussion on public issues,” he said, noting that at the Legislature, the public never has an opportunity to address the full Senate or House.

There has been, however, a long tradition in the United States that the public is able to address local legislative bodies on public business.

Just don’t plan on doing it for more than six minutes a meeting.

. . . . . . .

City Council Encourages Citizen Participation in Cable Television Franchise Renewal Process

From the City Council Website:

New Orleans, LA – May 17, 2011 – The current Orleans Parish Cable Television Franchise is up for renewal this year. Citizens are encouraged to participate in a survey prepared to help the City Council evaluate the performance of Cox Communications, the current cable television provider for Orleans Parish.

The renewal process begins in the City Council Cable, Telecommunications, and Technology Committee, chaired by District “A” Councilmember Susan Guidry.

“We want to hear from citizens. Our public engagement process will include an online survey and public hearings,” said Councilmember Guidry.

To assist the City Council, please take a moment to answer the survey.

Cox has a non-exclusive franchise to operate in Orleans Parish. The non-exclusive franchise was initially granted in the mid-1980s and renewed in 1995.

Federal law governs cable television franchises and designates citizen input as a step in the local renewal process. The public input gathered will be used in the renewal evaluation process. Federal law does not allow the City Council to set subscriber rates; therefore the Council has no influence over a Cox subscriber’s monthly bill.

The second phase of the citizen engagement process will be a public meeting hosted by the New Orleans City Council Cable, Telecommunications, and Technology Committee. The public meeting will be held in the Council Chamber later this summer.

Click here to participate in the online survey. For additional information, visit www.nolacitycouncil.com.

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NOLA CPP Documents in Spanish

Thanks to our friends and partners at Puentes, we have translated some of our documents into Spanish. Right now, we have only translated our Executive Summary and Frequently Asked Questions, but we are in the process of translating more documents. These documents can be found at the NOLA CPP En Espanol page in the left hand column. Here is the link directly to the Executive Summary – Spanish and CPP FAQ – Spanish.

We Reached Our Fundraising Goal!

We have reached our fundraising goal in the April Open Challenge on Global Giving’s website. In one month, we raised $4,115 from 56 donors. As a result, we have earned a permanent place on Global Giving’s website which will help the NOLA CPP raise money and awareness worldwide. Thank you for everyone who donated and helped us reach our goal. You can follow our continued fundraising efforts and donate funds from our Global Giving webpage.   Thanks!

The NOLA CPP Team