This post was updated July 30 at 7:05 p.m.

The official neighborhood council that represents UCLA and Westwood Village to the Los Angeles City Council is the North Westwood Neighborhood Council. Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month and are open to the public at UCLA’s Weyburn Terrace. The next meeting is set to be held Aug. 2.

The July 19 meeting was moved from July 5 because of the Fourth of July and was the first to be held under the new council.

Comments by public officials:

• Sherwin Shamoeil, a field representative from Assemblymember Rick Zbur’s office, said State Senate Bill 411 has been approved in one committee and will now go to another before being discussed on the floor. If approved, the bill will allow local councils to hold meetings virtually if they prefer to do so. He also said SB 14, which raises sentencing for those convicted of human trafficking in California, is headed to a second committee. Shamoeil added that Zbur’s office has moved to 1445 North Stanley Ave. and invited the council and stakeholders to the office’s open house Aug. 20. He also said Zbur was chosen to be the Democratic Caucus Chair by Speaker Robert Rivas.
• Karen McClain, the government and community relations liaison for the UCLA Alumni Association, said the university is hosting a virtual meeting to discuss the Sunset Canyon Recreation replacement, in which the university plans to update, repair and revitalize the center. She told the council that UCLA recently bought the historic Trust Building, which will be occupied by UCLA Extension in September.

[Related: UCLA Extension to occupy the Trust Building as UCLA acquires the downtown location]

• The Nimoy Theatre, which was recently renovated into an off-campus performing arts space, will hold an open house Sept. 17, followed by opening night Sept. 23, McClain said. She reminded the council and stakeholders about the ongoing concerts at the Hammer Museum in partnership with KCRW, occurring every Thursday throughout July. She also said STC4All, a coalition of organizations and supporters from across LA advocating for accessibility and equity of the Sepulveda Transit Corridor rail, is launching an ambassador program in the fall and urged students and faculty members to join.
• Erica Gatica, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment project coordinator, shared information about the training council members have to go through for their new positions. She also shared that she and NWWNC chair Josh Trifunovic will create a strategic plan to help the NWWNC get back on track to submitting Community Impact Statements on time and reaching quorum at every meeting.

Public comment:

• A community member spoke about the recent approval by the NWWNC transportation committee of the Metro Justice Letter and the Streets for All Letter, both of which advocate for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor.
• Kevin Wise, a managing partner at SCI Executive Services, said he has been discussing the recent uptick in violence with Westwood businesses, and he would like to be a community and business liaison to the board.

• Steven Sann, chair of the Westwood Community Council and founding board member and program and events chair of the nonprofit Friends of the Westwood Library, invited the council and stakeholders to the Friends of the Library Book Sale on Aug. 26.
• Representatives from the LA Alliance for a New Economy spoke about an ongoing project in partnership with the LA Department of Water and Power that allows renters to convert to using solar energy using offsite panels. They also urged the council and stakeholders to fill out their community climate survey to help assist them with future programming.

Agenda:

• During the meeting, Raag Agrawal was appointed to the graduate student stakeholder seat.
• Trifunovic was reelected as council chair, winning 10 votes, while his opponent, Marcello Robinson, had three votes.
• However, some council members, including Jacob Wasserman, said they were concerned about Trifunovic’s ability to post frequent quality content on the NWWNC social media pages, submit community impact statements and gather enough members of the board to hit quorum in future meetings.
• The election for vice chair between Andrew Lewis, previous vice chair, and newly elected Robinson ended in a tie. The 7-7 vote and the dispute were resolved through a coin toss conducted by Gatica. Robinson was named the new vice chair.
• Council members and community stakeholders alleged that Lewis sent an email that said he and Trifunovic were planning on running for vice chair and chair and that others can’t run for those positions. Stakeholders also brought up his incident during a Westside Regional Alliance of Councils roundtable with supervisor Lindsey Horvath at Belmont Village Senior Living, in which he was allegedly verbally assaulted for being late by Chris Spitz, the at-large representative on the Pacific Palisades Community Council, and removed from the discussion by Belmont staff.
• Lewis said in an interview after the meeting that he was verbally accosted by Chris Spitz and that Belmont staff happened to walk by when he responded to her, and he was then kicked out. He added that his email was to let the council know he was planning on running again, but that other positions had zero applicants, and did not say others could not run for chair and vice chair.
• Wasserman was elected as secretary, winning with nine votes. Elizabeth Brady was elected as treasurer in a unanimous vote.
• The council then moved to appoint financial officers on the board.
• Brady and Robinson were appointed to hold the NWWNC bank card. Wasserman and Nuha Khalfay were appointed as signatories.
• Cristopher Espino, Wasserman, Lewis and Brady were appointed to be Community Impact Statement filers.
• The council then moved to appoint chairs and members of committees.
• Khalfay was appointed chair of the Budget and Finance Committee.
• Robinson and Agrawal were appointed as co-chairs of the Planning and Land Use Committee.
• Trifunovic was appointed chair of the Outreach and Communications Committee.
• Lewis was appointed chair of the Homelessness and Community Health Committee.
• Evan Curran was appointed chair of the Transportation and Safety Committee.
• The council then approved the January and March Monthly Expenditure Reports.
• The council accepted the resignation of Catherine Sarkisian, who left the board to care for an ill family member.
• The council also approved an $880 payment to ASUCLA for their usage of Ackerman Union as a polling place for their most recent election in May.

[Related: North Westwood Neighborhood Council holds in-person voting at Ackerman Union]

• The council then approved a $678 payment for the Weyburn Commons Village View Room, where meetings are currently held, for June and July. The council also approved usage of the room, for costs up to $750 – depending on the equipment rented – for the August and September meetings.
• The outreach committee is working on finding a new place to hold meetings. Some of their options include the Westwood Library, Westwood Presbyterian Church and the Watermark at Westwood Village, a senior and assisted living community.
• The council also tabled a vote on withdrawing from the Westside Regional Alliance of Councils indefinitely.

Announcements:

• No announcements were made.