EPIC Meeting Minutes: EPIC Community Meeting Minutes 6-10

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EPIC Community Meeting Minutes

June 10th, 2021, 6:30 – 8:50

East Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center, 2307 17th Ave S.

EPIC web address: eastphillips-epic.com

Email: epic.ssantiago@gmail.com

Office: 2433 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55404

Phone: (612) -280-8418

Board Roster: Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes, David Ingold, Shontal Lajeunesse, Steve Sandberg, Earl Simms, Karen Townsend, Nikolas Winter-Simat

Board Members Present: Laura Dale, David Ingold, Karen Townsend, Steve Sandberg, Earl Simms, Nikolas Winter-Simat, Mary Gonsior

Board Members Not Present: Shontal Lajeunesse (E), Cassandra Holmes

Members: Emrys, Brad, Carol, Linda Leonard

Guests: Sheila, Christina, Frank, Christian Korab, Shirley Heyer

6:30 Social Time

6:45 Welcome and acknowledgement of land

Vision and Mission

Community Participation Agreement:

Simplified version:

Respect each other; aim for kindness
Respect each other's time; aim for brevity
Respect the agenda; aim for unity
Own your words, actions, and reactions; aim for peace

6:50 Greetings and Introductions

How to become a member

chat Sarah or email sarah@eastphillips.org with your email address and physical address (to verify you live in East Phillips)

6:55 Approve tonight’s agenda, Approved

Approve minutes from May community meeting, Approved

7:00 Announcements

Next Board Meeting will be: Saturday, July 3rd at 10am online (link to join is at eastphillips.org)

Board Meetings are open to the public

Next Community Meeting will be: July 8 at 6:30 online (link to join is at eastphillips.org)

we will be discussing changing our Housing Neighborhood Priority. We will discuss this further later in the meeting

Next Executive Committee meeting is cancelled, the board is trying out a new board department model

EPIC has a housing program! 0% interest! Fix up your home or buy a new home in East Phillips – Check your email for the brochure or go to: mncee.org/eastphillips
If you smell a foul odor around Smith foundry or Bituminous Roadways call 311 to report

Write down your incident number

Join your neighbors in cleaning up trash on your block for 20 minutes every Saturday anytime between 9am and 11am!
EPICs Operating Policies and Procedures and Board Manual will be updated on our website to include Language Access Policy, Board Training and Development Policy
WEI programs are FREE if you live in East Phillips and if you sign up BEFORE JUNE 25TH

Check out the catalog on EPICs Facebook page
here is the link to sign up: bit.ly/3wG4Whb

Park Board buildings are closed

if public calls Park coordinators and the Park Board Director (Al) they may open Park Board buildings

call!
sarah chillo is the aquatic director schillo@minneapolisparks.org o 612 230-6476 cell 612 655-7564 jean is at east phillips Anthony is at Phillips and Lou is at Stewart They supervise but don't do all the programming They can establish ways to register people with hard copy or in person if we can get the doors open. east phillips 612 370-4888 stewart612 370-4932 phillips 612 370-4946 customer service 612 230-6400 espanol 612 230-6573 somali 612 230-6574 AK Hassan 612 230-6443 ext 3 is our commissioner ahassan@minneapolisparks.org
Al Bangoura: Phone: 612-230-6404 Email: abangoura@minneapolisparks.org

1) $2,000 advance

advance from crime and safety initiative contract that expired 2017
Money needs to be contracted or returned
the board has voted to bring the following motion to the EPIC membership, this is the second of two community meeting votes

MOTION: EPIC will pay the $2,000 advance back to the city of Minneapolis from the 2017 crime and safety initiative contract, NWS, LD, Approved

2) CPP Funding:

2nd community vote on:

MOTION: EPIC approves the proposals and funding from the Youth Workforce Development Program ($23,408) for and the Native Youth Arts Collective ($15,614), MG, LD, Approved

MOTION: EPIC moves to transfer $39,022 from CPP funding to the Youth and Adult Programming neighborhood priority, NWS, DI, Approved

U of M Documentary on East Phillips - guests - 5 minutes

1st community vote on:

MOTION: The EPIC board approves using $6,500 of CPP funds to support the ‘East Phillips Tells the Roof Depot’ documentary project, NWS, MG, Approved

use as a different mode of communication to reach community members than we typically do (i.e. flyers etc.)
highlight our neighborhood in a way that it needs to be presented
avoid cherry picking representatives of the community
Documentarian is very well aware that he is stepping into a sacred space
Board member shared that the price of this project is extremely low
documenting roof depot story - due August 5 (city council meeting)

other project as deep dive into East Phillips

South East Homes Somali Recovery: requesting $16,000 for an East Phillips Housing Support Program. Connects clients (primarily East African) who are unhoused and experiencing chemical dependency issues to housing, providing them with culturally responsive support and mentoring once they have secured housing.

Requires a wording change to our Housing Neighborhood Priority. Currently as it is written the priority is focused on new construction and homeownership.

would need to add wording around unhoused neighbors, or securing housing in general
this requires 21 day notice before board approval plus two community meeting votes

3) Vote on bylaw changes

worked on changes last month
changes incorporated into 2nd draft and it has been on the website for a month

MOTION: The EPIC membership and board of directors adapts the new bylaws posted as the ‘second draft of bylaws’ on the EPIC website with the suggested wording change during this meeting, DI, MG, Approved, one community member abstention

4) Financial Report

The EPIC board approved an organizational budget, share budget with community,

pointing out funds spent year to date

Options the EPIC board is exploring regarding using our CPP funds:

a) building purchase ~ $175,000

renovations - paying someone to make bathroom ADA accessible
residential landlords - makes things murky being the n’hood organization
would want to prioritize avoiding displacing people
make yard community gathering space or expanding the space
need to show that we have sufficient resources to maintain building for next 10 years

b) Co-op ownership model

Another organization is landlord

They purchase land
Removes overhead responsibilities

we wouldn’t be property managers or landlords
in exchange for us providing money to purchase building, they provide office space for free
find someone who would prioritize the current renters

c) Divide money between community based organizations

continue renting, hope to move into Roof Depot in future
multilingual outreach and trash pick up employees
‘tech up the office’ so we can easily Zoom in meetings
pay rent a year or two ahead
Money toward Community Based Organizations

d) Secure vacant lot at 27th and Cedar

continue renting, hope to move into Roof Depot in future
use vacant lot as community gathering space, community garden

partnering with key organizations/groups that want to hold meetings and events in space

A few options:

pursue purchasing lot at 27th and Cedar with some of the money

$80-100,000 to lot purchase
problem: NRP funds can’t be used to hold property and are primarily used for redevelopment

would have to prove that it isn’t suitable for redevelopment

would not qualify for as a public facility
maintenance costs (taxes, shoveling, mowing etc.) are not eligible costs - need to determine how to cover costs

city purchases with EPIC’s funds and makes it available to EPIC for EPIC purposes

the city can incur maintenance costs that are not available to non-public entities
the city could sell it at any point

Ed (current owner) retains ownership and leases to EPIC and allows EPIC to do improvements on land

~$30,000 for lease, awning, solar

Find someone to purchase the land and we pay rent for the space equivalent to making them whole and the improvements

5) YardHomes

A neighbor is working with an organization called YardHomes who has forged a community partnership with City of Lakes Community Land Trust (CLCLT) to install accessory dwelling units in yards of CLCLT homeowners that will be lived in by individuals who qualify for housing vouchers such as Section 8, veterans, etc
Running into issues with the city permitting office
Does the EPIC board approve of Sarah working with neighbor and YardHomes to try to navigate the city’s permitting office?

writing a letter of support if necessary?

has enthusiastic support of their project from neighbors on either side of them as well as across the street

neighbor is happy to reach out to other neighbors

YardHomes founder is happy to hold informational meetings with neighbors and/or a committee
CPED, YardHomes, Cano representative comes to neighborhood meeting

how do you help a neighbor hold enough power

EPIC will write a letter to invite CPED, YardHomes and Cano to engage on the issue.

6) Parks and Recreation advocacy

Pool at Phillips Community Center is closed?
Low turn out for swim lessons at Phillips Community Center
Registration is online
A lot of slots are open
Neighbor would like EPIC to appoint an advocate/liaison between Gina (Phillips Community Center?), parks and rec person at East Phillips (Jeanne?) and Park and Rec person at Stewart Park

outreach to increase participation

Parks have list of day camps, post at Loaves and Fishes etc. as well as when doing doorknocking

can make matrix
post on social media, including Little Earth
add to email

Encourage people about calling to get buildings reopened

if you would like this to happen, contact them

Cross pollination - people who sign on with W-E-I, tell them to sign up as well

7) Community walk with city planners to point out concerns on 24th, 26th and 28th Aves

long history of crashes leading to injuries and sometimes death on these streets
goal is to make it easier for pedestrians to cross streets and to make the streets safer
pick a date and time to do a community walk to highlight issues neighbors see