On behalf of the Board, PRNC Board Member Vas Singh and his wife Narinder celebrate the ten year anniversary of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council with Grayce Liu, the General Manager of EmpowerLA and the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (BONC) at the February 2013 BONC meeting.

Neighborhood Councils were the product of a 1999 voter approved Charter for the City of Los Angeles. The new Charter contained several provisions designed to improve neighborhood engagement in City policy making. Specifically, Article IX, Section 900 created a citywide system of advisory councils for local neighborhoods. Because Los Angeles is a geographically large city with a diverse population, it was important that the new system of Neighborhood Councils evolve organically from the grass roots. Planning and the development of ordinances related to the system took two years, and the Plan for a Citywide System of Neighborhood Council was adopted in 2001.