Assisting Los Angeles Businesses with Local Disaster Relief Teams

12/21/2020 (Permalink)

The Local Los Angeles CIty Council even Relies Upon SERVPRO for water damage mitigation

SERVPRO Provides Rapid Support to Los Angeles Commercial Operations

The Los Angeles City Council meets every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00 am in City Hall’s John Ferraro Council Chamber (Room 340), on 200 N. Spring St. On the first Friday of every other month, however, the City Council gathers at the Van Nuys Civic Center.

The Council is made up of single members elected from every district. The 15 members each serve a four-year term. The President and President Pro Tempore of the Council are elected at the first regular meeting of each term. Each Councilmember serves on several Committees, and all matters are referred between the Council and Council Committees based on the adopted Council Committee Structure Resolution.

All meetings for both the Council and Committees are open to the public, except for a few "closed sessions" on sensitive issues. The public may interact and comment on agenda items at both Council and Committee meetings. If a public comment on any item is not heard in Committee, an opportunity for public comment can occur in the next Council meeting.

Los Angeles City Council Agendas and Transparency

The City Council is committed to being a transparent part of the city. To further access to the Council and understanding of the city’s issues, they have developed these methods:

• The Council & Council Committee Meetings Calendar provides the agendas released for upcoming Council and Committee meetings. The Council Recess Schedule identifies the special days and events when the Council does not meet.
• The Council Administration office provides Meeting Agendas, Audio and Video recordings, Journals/minutes for all City Council meetings going back to 2008, and Computer-Aided Real-Time (CART) Transcripts to 2016.
• All public members with a valid email address can subscribe to Meeting Agendas, Hot Sheets, Journals, and Motions. The "Hot Sheet" Referral Memorandum (detailing where Council items are referred) when they are published, Motions the day they're introduced, and Council journals/minutes. The Hot Sheets are also posted on CFMS's Referral/Journal page.
• The Council Vote Verification System (CVVS) shows how the City Council voted on each issue. The public can also track Council meeting votes live during streamed Council meetings held at the Los Angeles and Van Nuys City Halls.
• The Council Meeting Attendance Log is published monthly and provides the attendance record of each councilmember. While not an official record, it provides a summary of every meeting attended, regardless of the member sat in for the full session or a shorter time.
• The public can also access a copy of the Council Rules, which apply to both Council and Committee meetings. The Council regularly amends its procedures to ensure city business conduct complies with local, county, and state law.
• Translation Services: The City Clerk's Office provides translation services for Council and Council Committee meetings only. Any member of the public requiring translation services should contact the Council and Public Services Division's Translation Services coordinator at least 72 hours before the meeting they need to attend and specify the language service required.

Los Angeles City Archives and Records Center

The City Clerk's Records Management Division is comprised of the City Archives and the Records Center. Its assigned duty, under the City Clerk’s Charter, is to serve as the custodian of the City Records. Included among them are Planning, Historical, and Departmental Records.

Members of the public wanting to review City Planning Records must first call the Planning Department's Automated Records Unit to obtain the box numbers for the files related to their property of interest. Once they have the box numbers, members of the public next contact the City Clerk’s Office to schedule a visit.

By appointment, historical city records are available to all.  City Council Records from 1940 - 1979 are indexed online at Council Files (1940 - 1979), and Records from 1980 to today are indexed online at Council Files (CFMS). All files identified in the CFMS may be reviewed at the City Archives. Records maintained include the following:

• Council Minutes
• Archived Digital Vault
• Council Minutes from 1850 to 1979
• Indexes to Council Minutes from 1940 to 1979
• City Council Indexes from 1940-1979
• Images
• Videos

Departmental Records can be reviewed by City employees of their department. Before scheduling a visit with the City Clerk’s Office, employees must get the box numbers for the files they want to review from their department’s Records Coordinator.

The Records Management Division is also responsible for the disposition of Obsolete City Records. Obsolete Records prepared for disposal are posted for the public’s review on the City Clerk’s webpage under Records Disposition Reports for 60 days. Members of the public can request to be placed on an e-mail notification list of Obsolete Records pending destruction activities by contacting the Records Management Division.

SERVPRO Supports Los Angeles City Council and Business Operations

The City of Los Angeles has worked diligently to eliminate paper records. The effort to move to digital protects the integrity of stored records for not just the City but also businesses trying to serve their clients and meet the needs of digital record keeping.

Even with paper eliminated, carpets, furniture, and interior walls are still at risk from water that pool in a storage closet or spread across floors. At SERVPRO, our goal is to eliminate or reduce these risks and return each facility to its original, dry state.

Our first step is to quickly remove excess water using extraction devices on floors, carpets, and out of items like upholstered furniture. Next, our response teams dry every affected item using a combination of fans and air movers to draw out the damp air and replace it with a flow of warm air across the affected property. Where needed, team members hand dry items to prevent the destruction of varnish and other finishes. Our team can utilize special drying chambers to mitigate water damage to stored documents and other paper items.

SERVPRO is proud to support L.A. businesses, especially at this time. If your commercial operation needs water removal after a burst pipe or flood, call SERVPRO of Silver Lake /Echo Park today at (213) 628-2000.