The North Westwood Neighborhood Council requested a budget increase from the city of Los Angeles during its March meeting to enhance its ability to allocate money to the Westwood community.

The NWWNC currently has an annual budget of $32,000. This budget used to stand at $45,000 in 2019 but underwent cuts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The city of LA also proposed an additional 22% decrease of the NWWNC’s annual budget from $32,000 to $25,000 in its 2025-2026 fiscal budget memo released May 8.

The NWWNC approved a community impact statement during its March meeting requesting the LA City Council and Mayor Karen Bass to increase the annual funding toward neighborhood councils, specifically allowing more money to be allocated toward neighborhood purpose grants.

Neighborhood purpose grants allow LA’s 99 neighborhood councils to distribute funding to local nonprofits and organizations that work in the community. Most neighborhood councils allocate the bulk of their annual budget toward issuing grants, according to Andrew Lewis, vice president of the NWWNC and chair of the Community Health, Homelessness and Safety Committee.

Lewis said neighborhood councils are already used to working with a small amount of funding. He added that his team has tried to divide grant money as widely as possible across the Westwood community but said the narrow division of funds has lessened the money’s ability to make an impact.

“We’ve gone to now splicing those up into $2,000-something grants, or $3,000, or even sometimes $1,000-something else, just so we can disperse as widely as possible, but it’s definitely lessening the impact,” Lewis added.

Lewis said these budget cuts limit neighborhood councils’ abilities to support local initiatives. For Westwood, this means organizations such as UCLA UniCamp – a nonprofit summer camp run by UCLA students – UCLA food closets and Westwood libraries are subject to smaller grants, yielding less financial support to sustain themselves.

Neighborhood councils can express financial need to the city through community impact statements, said Elizabeth Brady, chair of the NWWNC’s Budget and Finance Committee.

“Every neighborhood council has this ability to send a community impact statement,” said Brady, a former Daily Bruin contributor. “It’s a letter to the city asking for something, whether that be a local issue or a commentary on legislation that is happening, and it is a way for us to communicate with the City Council.”

Brady, who has served on the NWWNC since 2023, said neighborhood councils have an important responsibility to advocate for neighborhood needs on a citywide scale, especially given LA’s large size.

“The city of LA is massive,” Brady added. “It is one of the largest cities in this country, and it does rely on the neighborhood council system to really advocate for local needs.”

Connor Webb, chair of the Transportation, Environment and Public Space Committee of the NWWNC, said he believes budget cuts targeted neighborhood councils because their positions are volunteer-based and do not require government salaries.

Webb added that he believes the NWWNC’s budget increase proposal will likely not succeed.

“It won’t be successful – I’m very confident on that,” Webb said. “I think right now, our hope is just that we maintain our current level of post-pandemic funding of $32,000 a year.”