The Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council thanks our outgoing board members for years of unwavering dedicated service to our community: Mel Mitchell, Richard Rippey, Maha Batta, Bright Aregs and Vasdev Singh.

Outgoing PRNC Board Members Dick Rippey, Mel Mitchell, Maha Batta, Bright Aregs and Vasdev Singh show off their certificates of service from our local electeds.

Mel Mitchell was one of the founding members of the PRNC back in 2003 and has served continuously for 11 years. He was one of the leading forces in shaping the Porter Ranch Community School and shepherding through the visioning and design process. In his role as President, he fashioned the Council as the place to go when you want City information on local issues, creating a forum for City officials to speak to our community and hear our concerns. Through his leadership we had informative speakers on the topics of street and sidewalk repair, land use developments and cell phone towers. He helped craft a solution to the bike lane debacle on Wilbur through hosting the General Manager of DOT to hear our concerns and serving on a community committee to evaluate alternatives. In addition Mitchell helped organize community clean ups, planted trees, and donated computers to Castlebay Lane Elementary and expand our outreach.

Vasdev Singh served on the PRNC for eight years. For many years he coordinated the Council’s Speakers Bureau handling the details of inviting and coordinating our speakers. He ably represented the Council in planning the many Congress of Councils, at budget events, and at the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils. As a City employee, Vad has a great understanding of how the city works, and provided valuable assistance to the other Board members when working with City departments.

Bright Aregs served the Council for eight years. He was most recently Chair of the Land Use Committee and a Liaison to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment for Planning and Zoning. He continually worked to bring attention to the traffic issues for the 118 Reseda off ramp at Rinaldi and Amigo.

Board Member Becky Leveque thoughtfully brought cake to celebrate the outgoing board members and welcome new ones.

Maha Batta served on the PRNC for four years, most of that time as Treasurer. The role of Treasurer is the most demanding on the Board, requiring endless paperwork and reports. Batta admirably was willing to take that on, when no one else was.

Richard Rippey served on the Council for the last four years, most recently as Vice President. He led the charge on securing the official blue Porter Ranch signs through the City of Los Angeles. This included coordinating the effort to gather 500+ petition signatures, submitting the application, multiple letters and a Community Impact Statement from the Board and coordinating with the Council Member’s office to shepherd the signs through to approval and installation. The signs add to our community pride with our official name. Rippey also ably coordinated the 2012 elections increasing our turnout and presence in the community.

The PRNC is an all-volunteer board and is only successful as the result of the tireless efforts of its board members and stakeholders. We sincerely commend these board members for a job well done.

PRNC Board 2013 Left to Right: Vasdev Singh, Bright Aregs, Sean O'Rourke, Paula Cracium, Mayor Garcetti, Maha Batta, Councilmember Mitchell Englander, Ethan Turer, Pat Pope, Becky Leveque, Mel Mitchell, Richard Rippey