EPIC Board Meeting 1-4

EPIC Board Meeting Minutes

January 4^th, 2019, 10am – 12pm

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: Cassie Holmes, Steve Sandberg, Mary Gonsior, Laura Dale, Carol Pass, Rosie Cruz, Sarah Santiago

Board Members Not Present: Abah Mohamed (E), Shontal Lajeunesse (U)

Members: Jolene Jones, Brad Pass

Guests: Shirley Heyer

10:16   Agenda Approval, amended, approved

Minutes Approval, approved

            Announcements

·      Next Community Meeting will be: January 9^th at 6:30 at East Phillips Park

·      Next Board Meeting will be: February 1^st at 10am at the EPIC office (2433 Bloomington Avenue)

o   Board Meetings are open to the public

·      Next Executive Committee meeting will be: January 23^rd at the EPIC office (2433 Bloomington Avenue)

o   Executive Committee meetings are open to the public

o   Board members please send agenda items (for both community meetings and board meetings) to Sarah before executive meetings each month (January 23rd)

·      Next Southside Green Zone meeting is Monday, January 27^th from 5:30-8pm

o   Members of the public are welcome, please RSVP by emailing  kelly.muellman@minneapolismn.gov.

10:21   KALY Radio

·      Contract from April 13^th 2017 for $10,000

·      EPIC paid in installments

·      EPIC ran out of ability to pay, only paid $2,165

·      Fulfill old contract first

o   Is the funding still available?

·      Carol will contact Bob Cooper about this

MOTION: EPIC will continue to fulfill the original contract with KALY Radio. StS, MG, approved.

10:30   Jolene Jones

·      Requesting $65,000 for the Little Earth NELC Playground Resurfacing and Fencing, would like to get the full $135,000

·      Will raise the remainder, but need funds first to match

·      EPIC needs to first determine how much money is available – next item on agenda

10:40   Plan a timeline for revisiting all the rejected proposals

Note: The competitive RFP process used to spend EPIC’s funds was executed by CPP/Minneapolis – this is not a process that EPIC has used in the past, and EPIC is not designing a process for reoccurring funding. This is because EPIC is not a funding organization; instead, EPIC has policies to utilize our CPP funds to serve the neighborhood through “partnerships” with neighborhood institutions such as East Phillips Park, Waite House, Hispanic Baseball League, KALY Radio and more. Unfortunately, the competitive process of soliciting RFPs was imposed on EPIC by CPP/Minneapolis, and it actually created unhelpful tension between EPIC and our partner organizations who did not receive funding through the CPP/Minneapolis process.

Here’s what IS happening: Because of the very short timeframe imposed by CPP/Minneapolis, many proposals that EPIC had prioritized for 2020 were cut out at the start of the RFP process. CPP/Minneapolis staff promised to help EPIC revisit these rejected proposals and help us identify other sources of funding for those projects. That is the task that we set for ourselves going forward in 2020. The review of these proposals will begin this month and we will work as quickly as we are able.

            Timeline:

1)    Meet with Ethrophic and Steve (from the city) and determine amount of money available (CPP and NRP) – give January 7^th, 8^th, 14^th, 15^th at 6:30 as options

a)     Decide how much money to disperse via the RFPs and how much to reserve for organizational needs

2)    Organize the ‘rejected’ RFPs and ‘accepted’ RFPs into EPIC priority (Community connection; public safety/crime prevention; new home construction/housing; environmental justice/community-wide childhood illness; youth and adult programming; community gardens) categories

a)     Which RFPs are our priorities? Which RFPs fall into EPIC priorities that we haven’t funded?

b)    Evaluate communities served

3)    Prioritize proposals and recommend proposals for February board meeting

Questions:

a)     How much money do we have?

i)      $87,000 left in NRP

ii)    $74,000 in CPP

iii)  Looks like we should have $200,000

b)    How much money to disperse via the RFPS and how much to reserve for organizational needs

i)      Look at which category each funded RFP falls into

(1)  Go from there for the remaining money

ii)    Are RFP’s necessary or desirable (or should we select the groups we wish to work with?)

iii)  Can the Native Wellbriety and African Immigrant Community Service projects be addressed in conjunction with our open contract with KALY Radio, and ask them to partner with the City/County regarding the homeless situation this summer?

11:54   LD, StS, approved. MOTION: Approve a minor language change to three NRP Phase II housing strategies:

·         1.1.1. Emergency Home Repair Loans

·         1.2.1. Deferred Rehab Loans

·         1.4.1. Home Buyer Assistance (Existing Homes)

Expand the language of these strategies to include, “Funds from this strategy may also be used to support other home improvement and home buyer programs in the East Phillips neighborhood”.

11:57   CPP requirements for probation

·      what do we have done already (send those to Steve G.)?

·      Questions on what constitutes closure on each item?

·       Plan a timeline for completing the remainder of items:

1)    Meet to determine which items we already have so we can bring to the full board and get approval.

a.     One meeting per month covering each worksheet item (i.e. policy and procedures; financial accountability; organizational accountability; board of directors and engagement activities)--January 11^th at 10:30am will be our first meeting to cover this topic

2)    Send the completed items for approval (to Steve G.)

12:09   Form a committee of board members to oversee the DEED Grant with EPNI

·      Transition some duties from Carol to EPIC board members

·      Understand our relationship and responsibilities with EPNI

§  Splitting rent etc.

·      Create documents of policies and procedures for how to manage the DEED grant

·      Steve and Mary volunteer – they will set up a time to meet

12:18   Finances

·      Mary submitted invoice for CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy for payment (Sept. 2018-August. 2019: $610.01.)

·      Mary submitted invoices for CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy for payment (Sept.-Nov. 2019: $121.17. (Quarterly payments going forward.)

12:20   Create committees and make a list of responsibilities for each committee: Sarah will create a document with who is on each committee, when they were created and their tasks (Brad will send documents with more information)

·      Events committee

o   (Summerfest, Clean Sweep, national night out, create calendar of events that is connected to the Alley posting)

o   Annual meeting committee – Brad and Steve

§  Elections and terms

§  Look at tasks w/CPP requirements in mind

·      Garden Committee

12:28   Alley Post (Steve) -- TABLED

·         What do we want to put in EPICs Alley post?

·         One person expressed interest in position to put together Alley post

·         Need to have job description and rate

Lower priority items to address if we have time: -- TABLED:

Epic’s Office Address

Crime and Safety – notes to Kali and Richard?

Insurance report (Carol)

Updates:

c)     Carol letter about 25^th/Bloomington and 29^th/16^th (send before GMM with copy to GMM)

d)    Website (Mary)

e)     Garden Committee (Board member for March)

f)     New Chair?

g)    Binder for organizing EPIC information

i)      Events – lists of supplies, contacts, etc.

h)    Mailbox