EPIC Community Meeting Minutes
October 21, 2021, 6:30 – 7:30
Cedar Field Park: 2500 Cedar Ave
EPIC web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Email: epic.ssantiago@gmail.com
Office: 2433 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis, MN
55404
Phone:
(612)
354-6802
Board Roster: Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes, David Ingold, Shontal Lajeunesse, Steve Sandberg, Earl Simms, Karen Townsend, Nikolas Winter-Simat
Board Members Present: David Ingold, Mary Gonsior, Laura Dale, Karen Townsend, Steve Sandberg, Cassandra Holmes
Board Members Not Present: Shontal Lajeunesse, Earl Simms, Nikolas Winter-Simat (E)
Members: Sol, Emily Morrison, Rachel Barth, Brad Pass, Carol Pass, Lily Bergeron, Tim Springer, Kim Hayden, Linda Leonard
Guests: Casey Carl, Sheila, Elena Fulz, Joe
6:00 Community members welcome to visit the
booths hosted by organizations and groups organizing around the charter
amendments
6:30 Welcome
●
Vision
and Mission
●
Intros
●
Group
Agreements
○
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
●
How
to become a member
○
For
those joining in person: simply mark that you want to be a member on the sign
in sheet
○
For
those joining virtually: chat Sarah or email sarah@eastphillips.org with your email address and physical address (to verify you
live in East Phillips)
○
All
members are allowed to vote on EPIC decisions and motions
●
Agenda
Approval (MG, LD, Approved)
Minutes Approval of CM 9.9.21 Minutes, (DI, MG, Approved)
●
Announcements
o
Next
Board Meeting will be: Saturday,
November 6 from10am-11am online (link to join is at eastphillips.org)
▪
Board
Meetings are open to the public
o
Next
Community Meeting will be: Thursday, November 11 from 6:30-7:30 online (link to
join is at eastphillips.org). The focus of the meeting will be about a proposed
redevelopment of the property on 26th and Bloomington.
o 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/east-phillips: Programs for East Phillips Residents | Center
for Energy and Environment (mncee.org)
o
If
you smell a foul odor around Smith foundry or Bituminous Roadways call 311 to
report
▪
Write
down your incident number
o
Join
your neighbors in cleaning up trash on your block for 20 minutes every Saturday
anytime between 9am and 11am!
o
Roof
Depot Update,
▪
City Council passed Hiawatha Expansion to tear down Roof Depot
7-6 on Oct. 8, 2021, and Mayor did not veto.
▪
The Training Center and 3 acres were removed from the previous
plan, and the 3 acres will be put out
for bid by CPED.
▪
EPNI has filed an appeal challenging the City’s EAW.
▪
The election for mayor and City Council on November 2nd will be
very important to the future of this project.
6:40 Feature Presentation//Community Discussion
topic: Charter Amendments
● Casey
Carl - City Clerk
○
3 ballot
questions:
○
Home rule
charter is the “city constitution”
■
Defines
power of the city
■
Prescribes
operating structure
■
Specifies
processes for acts and decisions
○
Q1
government structure reform
■
Change
form of government: executive mayor & legislative council
■
Executive
committee were formed by public mandate in 1984
■
Negotiates
all contracts, oversees 10 charter departments
■
Mayor
nominates all heads of charter departments, requires council vote
■
10
underlying Coordinator departments
○
Q2 public
safety department
■
Public
Safety Department (new charter department under the mayor)
■
Removes
the current Police Department from being a charter department
■
Remove
mandatory minimum funding (staffing) levels and the additional taxing authority
to pay for that.
○
Q3 rent
stabilization
■
Existing
law says that no city has the right to
enact rental requirements unless approved by residents
■
Creates a
new power of the city council to enact rent stabilization policy (ordinance)
■
Ballot
language is very confusing
○
Contact: (612) 673-2216 or
casey.carl@minneapolismn.gov
○
Visit
Vote.minneapolismn.gov for more information
■
Find the sample ballot,
fill it out and bring it with you to the polling place!
7:10 Community Decisions
1)
Vote
on whether to approve spending funds for a positive street identity project:
MOTION: The
EPIC board and membership approve of using $3,000 of our NRP Positive Street
Identity strategy for the artist competition portion of the light emitting
sculpture project,
pending successful fundraising for the remaining of the funds, StS, CH, Approved, Tim Springer abstained
● Information about the project:
○ Decrease likelihood of crime
○ Decrease the likelihood of crashes
between bicycles and cars
○ Wayfinding icon
○ Beautify the space
2) Vote on whether to give first
approval to the proposed bylaw amendment and initiate the 21 day review process before the 2nd vote.
● Purpose of proposed bylaw amendment: To engage input from more
community members in East Phillips, especially those who are not represented at
Community Meetings, and to empower the Board to fulfil the mission of EPIC in
the financial decisions of the organization on
behalf of all residents.
MOTION:
The EPIC board and membership give the first of two approvals to update Section
IV. I. 8 of the EPIC Bylaws as follows:
(underlining for additions, strike through for
deletions):
The following decisions in all cases require approval of the
voting membership:
● Election of Directors; and
● Ratification / rejection of
amendments to Bylaws.
● An issue regarding money of over
$1,000, the expenditure must be recommended by the board and have at least one
general membership meeting's required notification and vote for review, in any
case not less than twenty-one (21) days, allowing for at minimum a full 21-day
neighborhood review process. The reviewed motion shall then be voted on at an
EPIC membership meeting following the review. This review process is to include
amendments to the Bylaws.
So that if updated it would read:
The following decisions in all cases require approval of the
voting membership:
● Election of Directors; and
● Ratification / rejection of
amendments to Bylaws.
MG, CH, Approved
In favor: 9
Opposed: 4
For
discussion before voting:
DRAFT OF POLICY AND PROCEDURE - Input is most
welcome!!
602 Fiscal Accountability
● The Board of Directors, in alignment
with its Duty of Care, shall do all
due diligence in communicating, gathering input, and notifying the neighborhood
of important financial actions.
● See 602.6 for Payment Procedures
● See 602.13 for Purchasing
Procedures.
● All non-administrative expenditures
(including contract allocations) above $1,000
shall require a majority of Board approval after demonstrating alignment with
the community’s values and, as applicable, satisfy the requirements of the
granting organization. Demonstrations of community alignment/support should be
maintained in Board meeting minutes (and should be added to the following
meeting’s minutes when approval is given outside of a called Board meeting).
Contracts or other expenditures that include multiple payments/disbursements
should be approved according to their total contract amount.
● In addition to the above
requirements, expenditures over $5,000
shall require an 80% supermajority of Board approval.
● In addition to the above
requirements, expenditures over $15,000
shall require significant community support as demonstrated by the following
measures:
● Community notifications for feedback
via the mailing list shall occur at least 14 days before voting by the Board.
● At least 20 people are recorded giving
their support, with engagement from various demographics/parties.
● A majority of recorded community
input is supportive of the expenditure, and strong dissension within the
community is to be noted and addressed.
● Per EPIC Bylaws IX. C, the Board
will receive quarterly financial statements from the accountant for review before
the board meeting.
Questions/Discussion:
1) how do proposals come about?
a) Board reviews funding requests
2) Don’t see community meeting involved
at all
a) Can come from community meeting
i)
Right now it’s about demonstrating support, rather than
about the votes at the meeting
3) Note that the policy is still a
draft - the board would have flexibility
a) Board member in favor of one
community meeting vote for expenditures and notes that the way it currently
operates makes it hard to spend money
4) Community member wonders how
practical it is to get the well put together questionnaires and surveys that
are multilingual - record keeping will be difficult
5) Board member notes that the current
board doesn’t have multilingual members, in the past the board helped to
translate
a) Helps take away a barrier - often
the people who really want something to happen come to the meeting. Many
barriers to people coming to meetings.
i)
Important to have people who speak the languages in our
community to be talking to neighbors
6) Community member is concerned about
the difference between community engagement vs. community empowerment. Don’t do
it at the expense of community empowerment
7) Board member shared that two
community meeting votes was put into place for transparency and to show that
people aren’t running away with the neighborhoods money; gives constituents
confidence in the board, and it also gives community members a seat at the
table
8) Carol: the 2-vote
system gives the community the power to review the boards’ decisions and put a
halt to projects that are not wanted. Believes that it is not okay to go ahead
without a community mandate. It is not really two votes but is a review
process. The motion takes away a vote from the community. Supports getting
final say from community
9) Board member shares there should be
a community meeting vote
10) Building a multi-ethnic multi-racial coalition – you don’t
wait for them to come to your event, you have to go to “their” event. It does
put more responsibility in the hands of the board, it takes time but is
worthwhile.
11) Community member would like clarity
7:45 The camp at 25th and Bloomington will
likely be evicted on Monday 10/25
● The leaders of the camp think that
American Indian Movement (AIM) is behind the push to evict so quickly
○ They are asking that if community
members support the camp and the camp’s work in preventing more Indigenous
Women from being murdered or going missing to contact AIM and ask them to give
the camp more time to find an alternative site
● Board members wonder if AIM is the
right target and whether someone at the city should be contacted as well
7:50 Adjourn
