Only weeks before fiscal deadline, Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council funds first improvement project of the year

With just weeks left in the fiscal year, the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council is squeezing in its first beautification project — reviving mosaic planters along the historic Cesar Chavez Avenue corridor.

At last week’s Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council meeting, the board approved up to $3,000 of plants and supplies from local businesses to repair and replant along a stretch of the Brooklyn Avenue Historic corridor.

“Given that we haven’t been able to get any money out to the community this fiscal year, we really wanted to try to attempt to get some money out into the community by doing a community improvement project,” said Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council treasurer Wendy Polanco.

What took so long to approve a community improvement project?

In December, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, also known as Empower LA, placed the council in “exhaustive efforts,” a restrictive status that bars it from approving grants or donations until the council meets all required regulations for operating.

That means local Boyle Heights organizations have missed out on $24,000 in funding the council set aside to fund programming and events for local schools and nonprofit organizations. In years past, Felicitias and Gonzalo Mendez High School, Abuelitos de Boyle Heights, The Wall Las Memorias and the Weingart-East L.A. YMCA received Neighborhood Purpose Grants to fund activities like neighborhood beautification and tutoring services.

$24,000 in grants in limbo

Whether that $24,000 will disappear or roll over to next year is unclear. The City Council determines the amount a neighborhood council is able to roll over from one fiscal year to the next, which ends June 30. In some years, councils have been allowed to roll over their entire unused budget amount, and in other years, there’s been a $10,000 cap on the amount of funds that can roll over.

To approve any funding next year, the council has to return to normal operating status, a goal for the board to complete before the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. Not including any potential rollover funding, the council will have $6,000 available for neighborhood purpose grants, $1,742.43 for community improvement projects and $24,257.57 to fund general operating expenses for a total budget of $32,000.

“My hope is that at the start of the new fiscal year BHNC will be out of exhaustive efforts,” said the council’s Neighborhood Empowerment Advocate Erica Gatica Doughty at the meeting.

What happens next?

To return to normal operations, the council and its members must complete their exhaustive efforts work plan, which includes filling board vacancies, filing outstanding expense reports, establishing an outreach plan and completing required training. According to last week’s meeting agenda, six council members had yet to provide proof of completion for all required training to serve on the council.

The final Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council general board meeting of the fiscal year will take place on June 25 at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

Reporting for this story came from notes taken by Amy Rodriguez , a Los Angeles Documenter, at the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council meeting. The Documenters program trains and pays community members to document what happens at public meetings. Check out the meeting notes and audio on Documenters.org.