NEIGHBORHOODS LA-She has perhaps the unenviable job of dealing with ninety-five Neighborhood Councils all of whom have their own ideas on what is best for the City of Los Angeles. As one of the City’s few female department managers she is underfunded, under staffed and from my perspective over worked. In spite of all the negatives, Grace Liu is passionate about her job. All her emails and weekly messages start out” I hope this finds you well”. EmpowerLA has been using the theme “Keep Calm and Carry On” and Ms. Liu is the personification of that theme.
To answer the “Who” question … Grayce Liu is the General Manager for the City of Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment ( DONE---Now known as Empower LA) and is responsible for the overall management of the department, including development of the budget, strategic planning, programs and services, policies, personnel and constituent and City government relations. She has been with the Department for 5 years and was the Director of Policy and Communications for the Neighborhood Council system before being appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to lead the Department in 2012.
Aside from driving an electric car and drinking this vile green liquid, which must have magical properties because Grayce seems to be everywhere. She attends many NC meetings as well as most Alliance meetings. She drops by the various election sites, attends budget and related City council meetings and always has time to answer questions or deal with problems.
We can liken her to the “Mary Poppins” of the NC System. She did not however pop out of the sky to bring reason and success to the NC’s … even though she does own a Mary Poppins Umbrella.
HOW GRAYCE GOT HERE
By looking at her resume she should be at least 102 years of age. To understand where Grayce is coming from it is necessary to know the various paths she took to get to this point.
She graduated Summa Cum Laude in Cultural Anthropology from University of California at Santa Cruz in 1993, where she undoubtedly absorbed her “ecologically correct life style” while being a Phi Beta Kappa and Student body representative. Then it was Loyola Law School and a stint in Italy studying international law. She was admitted to the Bar in 1995.
Her first job entailed writing and filing briefs against federal agencies in immigration, employment and civil rights law. While there she supervised the sexual harassment case of one of the largest single plaintiff awards against a federal agency.
Then Liu joined the corporate world as Director of Licensing Program - Krav Maga Worldwide Enterprises, the Israel Self Defense System. She still teaches self-defense so that should come in handy at certain staff and NC Board meetings. She established her own law firm specializing in immigration and real estate law. At the same time became a writer/producer and developed movie, television and direct- to- video projects in the U.S. and China. Somewhere along the way she became fluent in verbal Mandarin.
Grayce turned to public service full time as the Community Program Director for the Center for the Pacific Asian Family (CPAF) and the co-chair of the Asian and Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Task Force in the San Gabriel Valley. In her roles at CPAF and on the Task Force, she worked to educate the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities about domestic violence and sexual assault. This necessitated building coalitions with domestic violence service providers, law enforcement, hospitals, and social services in order to provide effective and culturally sensitive services to API domestic violence and sexual assault survivors.
LOVED THE EMPOWERMENT MANDATE
After working at CPAF for five years she was suffering from burnout. Seeing nothing but misery and despair took its toll. She was ready to move on. One of her colleagues told her there was a position open in an LA City Agency she had never heard of- DONE. She said she was surprised that there was such an agency, loved the mandate about empowerment and applied.
She was assigned to the San Fernando Valley, given two binders of information and told that everything she needed to know was in those binders. Grayce said it was a great learning experience because she was forced to learn everything in the field with the Neighborhood Councils as her teachers. At the time D.O.N.E was chaotic. The General Manager left because of medical problems and she subsequently passed away.
For the first six months she went to as many NC meetings as possible. She was shocked at the rancor directed towards DONE. In fact, when she mentioned she was from that agency, people were hostile and actually would walk away. At that time, then Councilmember Eric Garcetti was teaching his “Government 101.” Aside from the listening tour, she says, that was her most important lesson in how City government worked.
She added, that inspiration and real help came from three members of the Sun Valley NC: Mary Benson, Karl Kunak and Mike O’Gara. They and Jill Banks Barad, the founder of the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils (VANC), President of Sherman Oaks NC (now a Commissioner of the DWP Board) taught her what they needed from the Department: Accurate information in a timely way and to be treated with respect.
At that time, there were different attitudes at the Department about how to service Neighborhood Councils with some thinking that their job was to take charge of the Neighborhood Council volunteers.
There was a feeling that “top down” was the way to manage. After about nine months on the job, General Manager, Bong Hwan Kim, appointed her to a senior project coordinator position. Then the recession was in full bloom and the Department was cut from 45 to a staff of 17. In retrospect Grayce commented, “It was one of the best things that happened. We had to reinvent ourselves and our relationships in both our policies and outreach.”
Prior to the City Clerk taking over elections, DONE was primarily conducting elections almost every month. Each NC had different election rules so to create uniformity, the Neighborhood Council Review Commission recommended that the Department relinquish the election organization to the City Clerk in 2007.
The cuts to the Department have been challenging though. “All City departments were cut so we all had to pick up the slack and it forced us to be more efficient and streamlined. Our department is like another NC- high and low functioning … sometimes experiencing difficult interpersonal relationships.”
She added, “Everyone, however, wants the NC’s to be successful. Even the Funding Department is happy when they can see that they were able to help a particular NC pay for a community event that was a good use of its allocated money.”
Funding rules seem to be the bane of almost every NC’s existence. It feels like the rules change all the time. Apparently since NC’s are still operating under the Brown Act and its transparency regulations -the rules change when the Brown Act changes its rules. This means that stakeholders are allowed to see all transactions and who voted Ay, Nay or abstained in the posted minutes.
BIGGEST FRUSTRATION
A year ago it was determined that each NC would have a checking account with a fixed amount of money added each month. Grayce admitted her biggest frustration has been the interminable delays by the various City departments in order to get the individual checking accounts approved. It has been nearly one year, and it still hasn’t made its way through the labyrinth of bureaucrats.
When asked for her biggest accomplishment in the almost two years of her holding the reins she remarked, “Getting doors open now at City Hall. We have tried previously but weren’t very successful. . Now Department Managers are coming to us and asking for meetings with the various NC leaders. Our challenge now is… how do we get the City Departments and the “elected’s” to work together and continue to open communication with the Neighborhood Councils? NC’s sometimes are their own worst enemies. Different areas want different things for the City as whole. We need to find common interests.”
When asked her biggest disappointment she replied “when I can’t make something happen fast enough to keep a volunteer happy and we lose him or her. Problems like some of the funding craziness, the bullying, and the verbal hostility can’t be settled overnight. We end up losing good people and that hurts.”
Her personal mandate with “Empowerment” is working collaboratively to create choices and options- pros and cons. Always working from bottom up in terms of collaboration. There is still resentment on the part of some in the NC system who feel that the Department and Grayce have too much power.
The LA Charter establishing the Neighborhood Councils states they should be independent from City government. Yet they are funded by the taxpayers and have a responsibility to follow the rules of a City Department.
This job is not a walk in the park. When one has decision making ability not everyone will be pleased with the decision. For the most part Grayce Liu has managed to make these hard working volunteers feel as if they are making a difference and that she really cares and appreciates the long hours that hundreds of talented people devote to making the system work in the best way possible.
I asked her if she had time for a life outside NC Land. She has three horses but limited riding time now. She also finds that paying the Banjo is a great stress reliever and is part of a group of Karaoke devotees.
She still volunteers teaching assertiveness training and self- defense to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Grayce has been recognized for her work with the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils “Got It” Award, Los Angeles County Domestic Violence Council Betty Fisher Award, California State Assembly Certificate of Recognition, California State Senate Certificate of Recognition, Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, and the Garvey School District Certificate of Recognition.
It is going to be interesting to watch this multi-talented young woman and the path she takes. Meanwhile, we are fortunate to have her at the neighborhood council helm.
(Denyse Selesnick is a contributor to City Watch covering policies, activities and foibles in NC Land. She is currently co-chair of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Congress Program Committee and a long time stake-holder in the Tarzana NC. She can be reached at [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 33
Pub: Apr 22, 2014
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