EPIC Community Meeting Minutes
November 14th 2019, 6:30 –
8:50
East
Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center, 2307 17th Ave
S.
EPIC
web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office:
2433
Bloomington Ave.,
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Phone: (612) -280-8418
Board Roster: Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes,
Shontal Lajeunesse, Abah Mohamed, Carol Pass, Steve Sandberg, Sarah
Santiago.
Board Members Present: Steve Sandberg, Laura Dale, Cassandra
Holmes, Shontal Lajeunesse, Carol Pass, Sarah Santiago, Rosie Cruz, Mary
Gonsior
Board Members Not Present: Abah Mohamed
Members: Karen Clark, Jacquelen Zita, Joani
Essenburg, Joan Vanhala, Peggy Clark, Hannah Lieder, Kevin Lieder, Jose Lois
V., Luce Guillen-Givins, Taja Schulte
Guests: Dan Bruce, Jessie Saavedra, Steve Gallagher, Marano
Espingo, Lt. Richard Hand, Harvey Winje, Jana Metge, Chad Hebert, Seamus F.
6:30 Social
Time
6:45 Greetings and Introductions
6:50 Approve tonight’s agenda,
MG, SL, Approved
Approve minutes from
October’s community meeting, MG, LD, Approved
6:54 Announcements
§
Next Board Meeting will be: Saturday, December 7th
at 10am at the EPIC office (2433 Bloomington Avenue)
o
Board Meetings are open to the public
§
Next Community Meeting will be: Thursday,
December 12th at 6:30 here at East Phillips Park
§
Next Executive Committee meeting is Thursday,
November 21st from 7-8pm at the EPIC office
o
Executive Committee meetings have been changed
to the third Thursday of every month
o
Executive Committee meetings are open to the
public
§
Waite House Harvest Festival November 21st
5-7 – first come first served
§
Thankswimming 5K – November 28th $50
($5 discount for open swim club members – ages 14 and up
§
Public comments being accepted on Unified
Housing Policy and Revenue Loss Offset Assistance Policy in connection with
development of a permanent Inclusionary Zoning Policy until December 2nd
(more on this later in agenda)
o
Housing Policy and Development Committee
§
Wednesday December 4th at 1:30
o
City Council
§ Friday, December 13th
at 9:30am
§ 2020 Street Resurfacing Program (See separate handout
being passed around)
§
Larry Matsumoto from Public Works Transportation
Maintenance and Repair will give a presentation at our December community
meeting.
o
Pre-public hearing
meeting, Tuesday March 10, 2020 at 6.30 pm at Steward Rec Center
o
Public Hearing
meeting, Tuesday March 17, 2020 at 10.00 am at City Hall, Council Chambers, 3rd Floor
7:02 MPD – follow ups and updates of
concerns from previous community meetings. Officer Hand contact info: (612)
673-2439
·
Burglaries
are on the rise
·
Homeless
encampments – Bloomington and 25th and 12th and the
Greenway
o Concern about what will happen as
we enter winter
o Bloomington and 25th
§ 10-15 people throughout the night
– five people in process of transitioning into housing
§ St. Stephens working on getting
the remaining people out there transitioned into housing
o 12th and the Greenway
§ Still working on addressing the
Greenway area
o Concern shared about the amount of
garbage, and rental license is being devalued
o Community member concerned about
homeless being swept away, but there are not enough open beds. Homeless people
need housing, food, clothing and compassion
o Community member concerned about
the drug dealers who are not homeless
o Feedback on neighborhood
priorities
o Officer Hand wants feedback from
East Phillips on how to use funding including measurable goals
o Officer Hand wants input on what
issues MPD should focus enforcement on
7:20 Community
Driven Projects
·
The
city has stated that $175,000 of East Phillips funding will be spent on organizations
(501 (c)(3)s or organizations with a fiscal agent) doing work in East Phillips
that follow EPICs priority plan (community connection/public safety/crime
prevention; environmental justice; youth/community wide childhood illness; and
adult programming; community garden) and NRP state law
o
The
city hopes to have contracts by the end of 2019 or mid January 2020 and have
the money used by the end of 2020
·
The
city would like EPIC to have a say in where this money goes, but if EPIC is
unable to make these decisions the city will decide where the money goes
·
33
applications were submitted! Totaling $1.3 million!
o
EPIC’s
board reviewed the 33 applications and has recommended projects it is bringing
to the community for a vote tonight
·
Community
discussion:
o
Community member
concern about the timeline and transparency
o
EPIC wants to invite
those who were unable to get funding to discuss NRP law and go over the
proposal process with the city
o
EPIC wants to come
back to the community and figure out how to fund very worthy projects that did
not make the list (i.e. making sports projects possible by adding mentorship)
o
Confusion about
proposal process. It was not clear that sports (without mentoring) were not
allowed
o
Several community
members would like Banyan to be added to the list
o
Motion
in the agenda was amended – removing NACDI and Somali (these proposals did not
meet criteria after legal review by the City), altering Women’s Environmental
Institute to the updated budget (reduced)
MOTION:
·
WHEREAS, The EPIC
Board was very appreciative of the number of applications received in the short
window of time for submissions; and
·
WHEREAS, the
timeline imposed by the City allowed EPIC only one meeting ( our Sat. 11/9
Board Mtg.) to evaluate proposals and make selections (we asked to have an
additional meeting before the 11/12 EPIC Community Meeting, but the City said
no; if we didn’t make choices on Saturday, they would make them without us);
and
·
WHEREAS, the choices
made reflect the board’s inability to consider such things as partially funding
some projects, or working with applicants to amend their proposals to fit
the guidelines; and
·
WHEREAS, Guidelines
for what spending was eligible were not clearly stated in the application due
to the severely constricted timeline; and
·
WHEREAS, The City
will help us write responses to each of the applicants explaining their/our
decision, and suggesting ways that they may apply to receive funding from other
sources, or from EPIC in the future.
·
WHEREAS, The list of
proposals that EPIC agreed together with the City to bring to the November 14th
EPIC Community meeting for funding in calendar year 2020 are:
ORGANIZATION PROPOSAL TITLE $ AMOUNT
Little Earth Residents AssociationNative Youth Arts Collective $21, 483
AICDC AICDC East Phillips Targeted Outreach Program $20,000
*Semilla Transformation Through Community Art$20,000
KRSM radio Voices of Phillips$12,500
*Women’s Environmental Institute--$41,460
Indigenous Peoples Task Force (IPTF) IPTF Mobile Harm Reduction Unit $13,338
African Community Services. Somali Comm. Outreach for Opioid Abuse Prevention $26,771 ORGANIZATION
PROPOSAL
TITLE $ AMOUNT
Little
Earth Residents Association Native
Youth Arts Collective $21, 483
AICDC AICDC
East Phillips Targeted Outreach Program $20,000
*Semilla Transformation Through Community Art $20,000
KRSM
radio Voices of Phillips $12,500
*Women’s
Environmental Institute -- $41,460
Indigenous
Peoples Task Force (IPTF) IPTF Mobile Harm Reduction Unit $13,338
African
Community Services Somali Comm.
Outreach for Opioid Abuse Prevention $26,771
THEREFORE, EPIC moves to approve
$155,552 of the $175,000 to the above-listed organizations/proposals with
$19,448 left to be decided. MG, CP, Approved (members who had conflict of
interest abstained; city staff counted hand votes: yes-12. No-6. Abstained-5).
8:56 MOTION to adjourn,
remainder of agenda is tabled
MOTION: Banyan would like to be added to the
list for $19,448, IR, AM. Yes-13. No-0. Abstained-4. Approved. (Prior
to vote, Joani Essenburg, ED for Banyon confirmed it would be possible to
complete the program outlined in the proposal for $19,448 instead of their
request of $25,000)
TABLED ITEMS:
8:00 Alley
Newspaper TABLED
·
EPIC is putting out a request for bids for
someone who has the skills necessary to put together a post on behalf of EPIC
each month for our Alley newspaper post
·
Any Ally newspaper bids Steve?
8:05 Public Review Notice to neighborhood groups (Brad/Carol)
TABLED
·
City council is considering amendments to the City’s Unified Housing Policy and Revenue Loss Offset Assistance
Policy in connection with development
of a permanent Inclusionary Zoning Policy. Inclusionary
zoning is intended to advance the City’s housing goals by ensuring that
affordable housing is provided in new residential or mixed-use developments
(see ‘public review notice for neighborhood groups’ separate sheet for more
info)
8:20 Housing Program motion TABLED
·
Changes from the
first draft of housing guidelines:
o
Move dollars
from 1.1.1 Emergency Home Repair
Loans to 1.4.1 Home Buyer Assistance ($27,665 + $34, 454 or $62,119)
o
Increase loan amount: Up to $10,000
o
Change Income limit: At or below 115% Area Median Income
o
Combine Deferred Rehab Loans and Emergency
Deferred Loans: for $56,253.00
o
Change to Deferred Rehab and Emergency Loans
o
Add: Funds may be used to remedy conditions that makes a
house uninhabitable, extremely dangerous to the occupants, or is capable of
causing severe health problems.
o
Change Income limit: At or below 115% Area Median Income
·
Stacy Sorenson’s
feedback on changes:
o
The “original”
Deferred Rehab program was open to owner-occupants and absentee owners, but the
Emergency Deferred was open to just owner-occupants. In
folding in the Emergency Deferred, the Guidelines have the combined program
open to both – but you might want to consider having it just available
to owner-occupants, especially since this is a deferred loan program and
you’re making less money available.
o
Combining the two
(above) might result in having no funds available for emergency deferred loans since the Deferred Loan program is less restrictive
o
Stacy ran the
changes by Jim Hasnik at CEE. He thought that the amount you’re making
available for the Homebuyer Assistance Program might be high. One option might
be expand to the language of all three strategies so that changes to the
amounts available within the contract can be made without additional plan modifications
or contract amendments. With $10,000 per homebuyer the funds might go pretty
quickly – could lower this ‘per buyer’ amount’ (We will work with Ethrophic on
this).
MOTION: We accept the guidelines as amended.
8:30 Updates (3 minutes each) TABLED
--Roof
Depot and delisting - Steve or Brad
--Development at Lake Street -
Steve
-- Outcome of EPIC’s June 2019 application for a $25,000
Violence Prevention Grant from the Minneapolis Department of Health -
Steve
--Public Works Jobs (Cassie-5
minutes) - has anyone received notice of the jobs posted for the public works
jobs?
–EPIC invites community members to
write to the legislature and city council about the failure to inform East
Phillips about jobs at Public Works
