March 5, 2016

Board Meeting Minutes 03 - 05


March 5th, 2016, 10 am

East Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center, 2307 17th Ave S.
EPIC web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office: 2536 18th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404
Phone: 612-280-8418

Board Roster: Jenny Bjorgo, Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Shawna Dillon, Mary Gonsior, Jean Howard, Linda Leonard, Margarita Ortega, Carol Pass
Board Members Present: Jenny Bjorgo, Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Linda Leonard, Carol Pass
Board Members Not Present:  Shawna Dillon (E), Jean Howard, Margarita Ortega (E),
EPIC Members: Michael Green
Guests: Shirley Heyer

10:00   Introductions:

·       Meeting as a committee of the whole
·       Greetings and Introductions
·       Approval of Agenda: approved as amended.
·       Approval of Minutes: approved as corrected (JB and RC were present)
·       Received a grievance from Michael Green.
·       Quorum achieved 10:28 am

10:34   Announcements:

  • Next EPIC Membership Meeting, March 10th, East Phillips Park, Thursday 6:30 pm,
  • Next EPIC Board meeting, April 2nd, East Phillips Park, Saturday, 10:00 am

 

10:35   Attendance review:


MG distributed our attendance tracker, and the board discussed what actions, if any are needed. CP reported. A review of attendance shows that there are no board members who have 4 unexecused absences since we started our tracker. LL pointed out that one main reason for absences is due to a lack of childcare. We discussed how we could do child care. We would need to form the following:

Policies, procedures and job description. Contract services.
MG will contact Ikram Mohamed for childcare.

MOTION: EPIC will budget up to $2400 per year for child-care at board and general membership meetings. LL, JB approved.

Attendance Policy: Adopted by consensus on March 5, 2016

Discussion: What is an excused absence?
  1. Illness in the immediate family.
    1. Scheduled medical appointment or urgent care.
  2. Employment – required attendance
    1. Not regularly scheduled.
  3. Attendance at a meeting related to EPIC business
    1. Not regularly scheduled.
  4. Lack of childcare.

How must directors report excused absences? (These will be from now on, since not previously required) Shall be added to Policies and Procedures in the EPIC Board Handbook.
  1. Call or text any executive board member who is attending the meeting.
    1. It must be received and noted by the board BEFORE the meeting begins.
  1. Email any executive board member who is attending the meeting at least 24 hours in advance of a meeting.

11:00   Grievances review:

 

The NCR took over our middle grievances and made a list of things we need to do to address them, and apparently we have done all these things. Most were done before the grievance was filed.

Policies and procedures are on the website since last summer.
The big grievance that went downtown is almost resolved.
A report will be written by Michelle and presented to EPIC board.
Mary has kept an attendance tracking sheet since last March.

MOTION: EPIC will consult with ask Ellen McVeigh to pro-bono our grievance procedure; if she is unwilling, then we will hire her up to $1,000. Approved. CP, LA.

10:10   Letters report and discussion:


MOTION: EPIC will report on all letters requested and/or sent at its monthly board meetings. Approved. MG, CP.

RECENT LETTERS
1. Kreske grant for $75,000 (planning grant for the roof depot site.)
2. Proposal for $10M for the East Phillips Indoor Urban Farm.
3. CP will update this list, if needed, next month.

OLD LETTERS (NOV. – DEC.)
1. Letter for Habitat 12/18/15
2. Habitat followup
3. To the mayor and police chief (for a meeting); not sent because the same meetings were held by other people and we didn’t want to duplicate them.
4. Thank you letter to owner of Roof Depot for not selling his property to Minneapolis; not sent, told agent to thank the owner (owner did not want to be contacted. But did want to be informed of progress on any serious proposal by the community)
5. Posted an invitation to comment on bike and streets on a new EPIC Facebook page and emails. Additional concerns aired extensively at an EPIC General Membership meeting(Website was not included.)

10:15   Final Financial Report 2016, Taxes, Attorney General’s Report

MOTION: Adopt as our Procedure for approving the Tax filing and AG Report. Approved. MG, LD.
            Procedure for Board Approval of Taxes and Attorney General’s Report, all to be included in Policies and Procedures in EPIC Board Handbook.
·       Chair and Treasurer receive the Year End financial statements, the 990 tax return and the Attorney General’s Report and review, correct if necessary with check back to CPA.
·       Board members are sent digital copy for review at least one week before the next Board meeting, send any questions to the Treasurer and Chair. Treasurer and Chair respond.
·       Board members meet at the next Board Meeting for any additional review and approval.

Procedure: the full board will receive quarterly financial statements from the accountant before the board meeting.

11:54   Julie Graves’ Proposal-NRP Phase II Dollars

Pillsbury United Communities serves children in the East Phillips neighborhood. Julie Graves’ has submitted a proposal for a wellness program directed toward 30 Phillips youth.

MOTION: Partner with PUC to create a wellness program serving children in Phillips and provide $996.25 from our youth services NRP budget, and write a contract outlining responsibilities in accordance with EPIC’s criteria for funding collaborative agreements. Approved. LL, RC.

CP pointed out that we have $30,000 in youth services funds that is unspent.

12:10   Speed Bumps – Funding- Crime and Safety NPP and NRP Public Safety

CP is seeking funds from local businesses, churches and organizations to help fund the speed bumps discussed for  2500-block of 18th Avenue and 2900-block of 16th Avenue. It is not looking good to get large donations; we are waiting to hear from potential donors, especially DurDur Bakery. We are also waiting for the petition for the 16th Avenue. The crime budget has some extra money since we don’t have to pay for the bike. We need to figure out how to come up with the funds for the two streets.

 The chair and treasurer will look at EPIC funds and see if we can find more money. CP left a call with Robert Lilligren to try to get a decision from LE before he leaves or we will have to start over. CP said she thought we could find money to pay for half the project on 18th, about $3,750, anf try to get the other half from Little Earth, the Church and Southside Family Nurturing Center combined. Perhaps also some of the Property owners on 18th as well.

12:15   Cameras –Placement where?

We already have approval for 4 cameras. CP and RC will bring a proposal for location of two cameras in the vicinity of Lake and 16th to the next board meeting. We will consult with Little Earth for cameras on Cedar Field. CP ‘s call to Robert Lilligren included this. We have the money to pay for this so we just need to try to get a decision from LE about where we all agree we want them.

12:20   Roof Depot Site Update: Drafting a bill

MOTION: EPIC fully endorses and adopts the proposal for the East Phillips Indoor Urban Farm written by East Phillips Improvement Coalition, DJR Architects, WEI (Karen Clark), Debbie Goettel of MN Sustainable Development Group, Turquoise River, and others. In addition, EPIC supports the MN Legislature’s bill providing $3M funding for planning and implementation of the project. Approved. MG, RC.

CP reported that we already have a commitment of $6.8M for this project from the East Phillips Indoor Urban Farm Team

12:00   Adjourn
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