Valley Alliance to Host Mayoral and Controller Forum Saturday

The Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils (VANC) will hold a Candidates’ Forum for the 2013 mayoral and city controller race, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 23, at L.A. Valley College's Monarch Hall, 5800 Fulton Ave., Valley Glen. The co-sponsor of the event is the Associated Student Union.

The forum will feature leading mayoral candidates Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel, Jan Perry, Kevin James and Emanuel Pleitez, and city controller candidates Ron Galperin, Dennis Zine and Cary Brazeman.

The forum will be moderated by Dan Schnur, director, Unruh Institute of Politics, University of Southern California. He will lead the panel in a discussion of land use and development issues, transportation, budget and the interaction of city government with neighborhood councils.  

“This is an opportunity for neighborhood council members to demonstrate their impact on city government and have their voices heard,” said Jill Banks Barad, founder and chairperson of VANC. “It is also an opportunity for the citywide candidates to speak to all 34 Valley neighborhood councils at once,” Barad said.

The Forum is free and open to the public. Coffee and refreshments will be available starting at 9 a.m., before the first panel.  The city controller panel will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the mayoral panel at 11 a.m.

The Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils was founded in 2003 and is the oldest and largest neighborhood council coalition in the city. It represents the 34 councils in the Valley, more than one-third of the councils in the city. The mission of VANC is to inform neighborhood council leaders and stakeholders of the critical issues facing them locally and citywide and to get them involved in the process.