November
8th, 2012, 6:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
East Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center
2307 17th Ave S.
EPIC
web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office:
2536 18th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404
Board Members Present: Carol Pass, Jennie Bjorgo, Linda Leonard, Steve Struthers,
Chiffon Williams, Rosie Cruz,
Board Members Not Present: Mary Gonsior, Earl Simms, JoseLuis Villasenor
Guests: Monica Romero
EPIC Members: Margaret Kirkpatrick, Brad Pass, Seth Kuhl-Stennes
Linda Leonard chaired. Called meeting to
order at 6:45
6:45 Introductions:
·
Greetings
and Introductions
·
MOTION: Approval
of Agenda. (Approved by consensus)
·
MOTION: Approval of Minutes from EPIC
10/18/2012 General Membership meeting as corrected (Approved by consensus)
The following Corrections are in italics:
Italicized
line page two regarding the first motion on that page should read:
The board recommended Motion to support
A-POD passed.
The second “MOTION” on page 2 moved by
Joani, not Steve Struthers.
6:55 Announcements:
·
Obama
won the election & the Minnesota State Legislature is in DFL hands
·
Alley
Annual Meeting is on Friday, 6:30 pm, Nov. 16th at East Phillips Park, Music
and fun.
·
The
Phillips Pool Project received the
$350,000 Twins Stadium funds and $100,000 from Augsburg College to add to the Legislature’s
fund of $1,750,000. Thanks to Hannah for hard work.
7:00 Implications
of the Election…Comments???
The polling place for the southern portion of EPIC was changed
due to redistricting and residents were
unaware of where they should vote. EPIC members went door to door to advise
residents of their
new polling place, resulting in a very high turnout for East Phillips.
7:15 Presentation and update of the 2830 Cedar Daycare Center
Project – Monica Romero & Maria
Perez (Maria Perez, owner, was ill and could
not come. Monica presented)
Monica Romero is the Latino Economic Development Center
Director of Development.
Maria Perez’s current child care is on 29th street and 18th
Ave. Home day care since 2003, for children 6 wks old to through school age
after school. Culturally adjusted childcare for quality education in Spanish
immersion. Employees should be bilingual.
Monica asked if there were specific questions,
SS stated some neighbors think there may be inadequate
resources and asked
if it could be successfully completed.
CW asked if the day care and the associated jobs would be
open for all ethnicities, Monica said it would be.
Maria purchased bldg. in 2010 and started looking for funding
and they accomplished a full business plan and approached lenders.
Plan includes sky lights, fresh meals, a play ground and
energy efficiency.
Building was vacant before she bought it.
Funding of $75,000 from CPED
Funding of $150,000 is committed by LEDC
South side of building is in very bad shape. All electrical
and much plumbing must be replaced and a “lifter” must be installed.
The initial contractor backed out because of his lack of
ability to provide advance construction funds and operate on a reimbursement
basis.
Carol has provided them with another contractor who will
provide an estimate in two weeks.
The lender is a CDFI and is federally approved to finance…
has certified the initial funder.
Next steps:
Agree on a new cost estimate and time-line of completion.
Up to 80% of the $700,000 total project cost will be guaranteed by Raza Development
Fund
The project will provide an energy efficient design, a
commercial kitchen for providing quality food and it will be a needed asset to
the community.
It is a complicated project but is progressing and will be
completed. It will serve 89 children.
All architectural drawings, floor plans and blue prints are
done. CPED has a letter of intent.
All permits and commitments are in hand and with all this,
Minneapolis has extended their permit
to build to May, 2013.
Monica was thanked for coming and for the thoroughness of her
information.
7:35 Update
on Greenway Heights Apartments, 2845 Bloomington Ave. On the Greenway
Just received $1.26 million in gap funding assistance through the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency Super RFP. The funders were Minnesota Housing, Family Housing Fund and Met Council. We also received approval last week for the balance of an Affordable Housing Trust Fund loan for this project from the Community Development Committee of the City of Minneapolis.
Hope
to go in the ground in summer of 2013.
7:44
LL left . Meeting continued as Committee of the Whole.
7:45 Discussion on Funding Collaborations- Requirements for Public Charities, 501©(3)s
Differences from Foundations…funding
organizations. See EPIC Board discussion
CP
Passed out minutes of the 11/3/12 Board Meeting.
At
previous Board meeting we clarified from discussions with our neighborhood
specialist that there is a difference between Public Charities and Private
Foundations.
MK
commented “we all here are aware of this distinction. We have many
organizations in the neighborhood that we might be able to enter into
collaborative agreements with”.
CP
said that we can only enter into these agreements sequentially because it
involves doing a lot of work on our part and we have limited capacity.
MK
commented again asking “is there is anyone here who does not understand this.”
CP. It is very rare for a neighborhood
organization to fund other organizations and it can only be done if it is a
situation where our members can contribute and be involle and where EPIC is
enghanced and strengthened through this process. Funding another organization’s
operations is not appropriate. Funding a program we can work on together
collaboratively to serve neighborhood residents is what we are to be doing.
CP
pointed out that one of EPIC’s purposes is to assist people with problems we
can collaboratively help with. We are to serve under-represented members of the
community. We cannot support the operations of another organization or their
staff of volunteers, but we work collaboratively support a program we both
share that serves our residents.
SS
proposed a motion, which paraphrased Joanie Essenberg’s made last meeting
BP
pointed out that according to our By-Laws a motion cannot be voted on that is
not on the agenda.
SS
withdrew his motion.
Certain
assistance such as providing bike locks for East Phillips kids or funding East Phillips
kids’ rock climbing tickets for a one-shot park board field trip is okay.
The
discussion boiled down to an effort to create a template for getting on the
EPIC Agenda and presenting community needs.
CP pointed out that
this is already happening and that we had tried to codify this at the last
board meeting. This is a policy that was worked on at the last board meeting
and we will continue to work on it
8:00 Review
of EPIC partnership with A-POD, A Partnership of Diabetics and collaborative funding
to provide for our resident’s wellness all of them, but
targeting the Latinos, who are as
yet unserved.
The
APOD collaboration seems manageable. But will take time. The proposal needs to
be tweaked to
make it more collaborative.
8:15 What
should happen to the Waite House Building? Report on recent meetings. Note:
this has been
a discussion of the process only, not the requesting organizations and/or
businesses.
-CP went to a third
meeting and brought the EPIC Motion from the 9/13/2012 meeting. She reported
only three people from Midtown were there for much of the meeting, with the
MPRB lawyer and Don Siggelkow.
-The
discussion is not about approval or disapproval of any group gaining access to
the building, it is
about the process that was accepted by the MPRB to determine who would get the
building. Initially
the MPRB tasked Midtown Phillips with creating an open and inclusive process to dispose
of the building. It turned out that there were only three or four white people,
no one from the
diverse constituencies were on the committee to make this decision. The only
Latinos, two
people, walked out of a previous meeting in protest because they had not been
informed of
any of this in time to for anyone else to put in a proposal. They stated also
that there was an exclusion
of any diverse input.
-BP
gave a brief summary to the group of the last meeting and pointed out that they
had removed from
the RFP the
sentence that ‘All constituencies would have representatives on the decision making
team thereby
reneging on any effort at an inclusive process.
-CP
discussed the motion suggested by Joannie Essenburg at the last meeting, which
would be in conflict
of our previous motion (9/13/12) opposing the un-inclusive Midtown process for disposition
of the Waite House property. The first motion of 9/13 would have to be
rescinded before a motion in conflict with it could be passed.
-CP
stated that these none of these comments were or are directed at any of the proposers or
proposals. They were directed
only at the process about which she had received numerous comments from Community members, Latino, Native and others expressing their disappointment at being left out of the process.
8:30 Land
Use and Development : Updates on
·
Alliance Housing –
Meeting with Herb Frey, Executive Director of Alliance,
·
Smith Foundry and
Bituminous Roadways –
MOTION:
– BOARD RECOMMENDED MOTION: EPIC commits the
organization to a major
effort to remove Bituminous Roadways (and Smith Foundry by SS recommendation) from
the city.
SS
expressed concern that if Bituminous leaves, Smith would take over their area.
LL
Moved & SS seconded motion passed.
·
Abbott Hospital air
quality permit (not discussed)
8:45 Adjournment 