Featured Speakers
                                   Dr. Raphe Sonenshein
                              Executive Director of the NCRC 
                                                     and
                                           Larry Gilbert 
                                  Eminent Domain Activist

                         Date: Monday, July 16, 2007
                         Time: 6:45 PM - 8:40PM
                          Place:Galpin Ford - 2nd Floor meeting
                          Room,15555 Roscoe Blvd. [at the 405]
   Parking: Free parking in the Galpin Lot on the West side of Orion
                 Please do not park in the customer service areas.

Agenda

6:45PM- 7:40PM                      Valley VOTE
        Introductions
        Reports by Valley VOTE Committees
            Housing                               Vic Viereck
            LAWA                                   Denny Schneider
            Land Use                             Pauline Tallent
            Neighborhood Councils  Polly Ward
            Transportation                   Bart Reed
            Membership                        Richard Leyner

7:40PM - 8:10 PM         Raphe Sonenshein

Raphe Sonenshein is the Executive Director of the Neighborhood Council Review Commission (NCRC) often referred to as the 912 Commission. Raphe is a Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at California States University at Fullerton. He studies racial and ethnic politics, and the politics and governance of Los Angeles. Between 1997 and 1999, he served as Executive Director of the City of Los Angeles Appointed Charter Reform Commission. He recently was one of two winners of the first Haynes Research Impact Award given by the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation. He received his B.A. from Princeton University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He has written Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles (Princeton U. Press, 1993), The City at Stake: Secession, Reform, and the Battle for Los Angeles (Princeton U. Press, 2004), and Los Angeles: Structure of a City Government (League of Women Voters, 2006).

We are very pleased that Dr. Sonenshein has found time in his very hectic schedule to visit Valley VOTE. The NCRC under his guidance has issued a preliminary set of recommendations to improve the efficacy of the neighborhood council system as required by the Los Angeles City Charter. He will highlight some of the key changes of these recommendations in his presentation.

8:10PM - 8.40PM          Larry Gilbert

Larry Gilbert has been engaged in the fight to protect property rights for over 10 years. He was one of three individuals selected by (than) Assemblyman Tom McClintock to testify before the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on AB 1677 which attempted to alter our redevelopment laws back in 1998.
He serves as Orange County Co-Director, Californians United for Redevelopment Education, CURE, the grass roots partner of Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby's MORR group which holds joint conferences on redevelopment and eminent domain abuses in CA. They publish the book entitled Redevelopment---The Unknown Government.
In addition, he has testified on defining blight before Senator Kehoe's joint Senate Hearing in San Diego last year and has appeared with Orange County Register Senior Editorial Writer and Columnist Steve Greenhut on C-SPAN Book Notes where he promoted Steve's book entitled Abuse of Power.
Larry is also a member of the Castle Coalition, the grass roots partner of the Institute for Justice and has met over 100 victims of Eminent domain at their conference last June. The Institute for Justice litigated on behalf of the Kelo family before the U.S. Supreme court in 2005.  Most recently he testified before the National City City Council in opposition to extending their powers of eminent domain for another 12 years.
Larry lives in Mission Viejo and we are pleased that he is able to make the trip north to join us to discuss the various state bills and proposals dealing with Eminent Domain issues.

Questions from the audience will follow each speaker's remarks. The public and press are invited to the meeting.
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The next Valley VOTE meeting will be on Monday, August 20,2007.

Valley VOTE Mission Statement
Valley VOTE, a diverse coalition of San Fernando Valley residents, business people, educators, community activists, and organizations, is committed to exploring and fostering the implementation of programs that empower the people of the San Fernando Valley and the City of Los Angeles, to improve local governance, education and public participation on policy matters.

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