New GEPENC Board Sworn In, 2 Seats Remain Open

Seventeen newly elected board members of the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council took the oath of office Tuesday night at the council offices at 1572 Sunset Boulevard.

Jay Handal, a volunteer from the city's Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, administered the oath before an audience of at least two dozen.

Representatives from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Council District offices 1 and 13, LAPD's Northeast Division, the Edendale Library and the Echo Park Recreation Complex were also in attendance.

(Look for video of that later at the site.)

Newly-elected president Ari Bessendorf presented a certificate of appreciation to outgoing president Jose Sigala, now a candidate in the March election for the open city council district 13 seat.

He also outlined his vision for what the council's priorities should be for 2012-2014.

"We want to treat people even-handedly," he said. "And we want to speak to the community with a unified voice."

He said he saw revised bylaws, reconciled finances and outreach as priorites in reaching those goals.

He also said the board must get its committee structure back in place, as a way of decentralizing decision-making and involving community stakeholders who are not on the board.

The board voted to hold another regular meeting on Nov. 13 to specifically address committee staffing.

Several ad hoc committees were also created at Tuesday's meeting.

One ad hoc committee will work at reconciling outstanding expenditures incurred by the council in the past.

Another will review the current condition of the 1572 Sunset Boulevard space leased by GEPENC and assess whether that remains the best location for board and subcommittee meetings.

The board also voted to immediately begin accepting applications for open positions in District 1 and District 3 for a vote at the council's Nov. 27 meeting.

Tad Yenawine, the board's newly-elected public information officer, will coordinate applications and outreach.

Interested candidates can reach him at strictlyty@gmail.com.

Handal and Stephen Box, also of DONE, promised the board that they had the agency's support in dealing with the issues the board currently faces, including its currently frozen budget.

Several former board members sat in the audience through the meeting, including Erlinda Kim.

She read a prepared statement, asking "Who is responsible for the incredible lack of outreach in this election," referring to the recent Oct. 6 neighborhood council elections.