Board Meeting MInutes 04-04

April 4, 2009

Welna’s 9:30 am

 

Attendance: Mary Gonsior, Carol Pass, Earl Simms, Linda Leonard, 

Approved agenda: annual meeting; elections; Xcel

Minutes: unavailable

Annual Meeting

Food……needs to be prepared in the church kitchen with food purchased from grocery.

Earl will help at the meeting table

Time:  set up 8 am

Earl will help set up, cook

Margaret Kirkpatrick arrived to discuss the xcel greenway conversation about the substation. We should probably be talking with Longfellow. They don’t want it of course. The Greenway doesn’t want to lose their green space and the plans made for the park. Longfellow has already invested in plans. Carol and Margaret will talk with Longfellow leadership about a community walkaround or community meeting of some kind that would invite business owners/managers. Mary proposed them forming a task force from EPIC to deal with the Xcel question.

Annual Meeting

People have to have attended an EPIC meeting to be able to run for office. We have to check the attendance list. We need to print the application forms.

Annual report…….Carol will write it and try to incorporate it into the Phase 1 review. We could summarize the ten years and Kendra’s survey. Mary will edit it. The Home Block Nursing nonprofit might be resurrected because Norma Renville might be interested.

Budget.

Mary moved/Linda seconded changing the annual meeting budget to $700. The annual report and phase one report combined have another $400 for printing.

Rosie arrived and we passed it.

Responsibilities:

1. agenda carol/Linda: excel; park; urban 4H
2. set up  brad sherzad alfonso, jenny, earl
3. clean up crew  brad, jenny, earl, others
4. Food  mary, rosie, earl
5. greeters/sign in table, membership list Mary
6. MC brad
7. invitations….use park building materials, flyers; brad/carol; List: Peter M; scott v and other commissioners; mayor; gary Schiff; keith Ellison; Karen clark; Linda b; Leon Oman; Midtown; holy rosary; jay clark; amy arcan;
8. audio visual: brad
9. decorations, themes: Mary
10. election: ballot counter, preparation of slate, contract and printing out forms

Maybe Jana can count…….carol’s to do.

11. door prizes, tickets……brad
12. entertainment: kids/guitars at Holy Rosary
13. slide show? Brad
14. security     Brad
15. annual report…….Carol will try to combine the phase 1 report with the annual report

Meeting adjourned at 11 am and Mary left. Post discussion about misc. concerns.

General Membership Meeting Minutes 03-26

March 26, 2009 – 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.,

Holy Rosary Church Basement, 24^th and 17^th Ave S

6:30      Social Time

6:40      Meeting Called to Order – Introductions

• Approval of Agenda
• Approval Meeting Minutes from February 19thth, 2008

·      Announcements: Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will convene an informational planning meeting on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 9:30 AM for the purpose of receiving information from representatives of Xcel Energy on Xcel's SmartGrid City project in Boulder, Colorado.

·      Phillips Park Patrol: New mobile radios and vests, Starting soon, Check with Jenny Bjorgo

6:50      PARK CENTER : Discussion of next steps.  EPIC endorses the following MOTION: that DJR be subcontracted       by LHB and that DJR have full responsibility  for design and construction of the EPPCC Center and that LHB take responsibility for environmental and LEED factors, that contractual responsibilities are defined  and separate and that EPIC engage DJR to assist EPIC and the Design Team  in fundraising and community process.

7:30      Funding for EPIC Programs: MOTION: East/Midtown Phillips Youth Sports:

 $5,000 for the Soccer/Tutoring Program, and $5000 for the  Liga Hispana de Beisbol field rental. Review for vote. This money for these two amounts must be moved from EPIC’s NRP Action Plan Admin. line item to a changed Lifespan Goal 2, Strategy 2, which needs to reads: Explore the feasibility and create a neighborhood community center for youth and families that may operate 24 hours a day and that  will provide multiple programs and services to neighborhood youth, individuals and families both in the future Center and elsewhere. (The bold words were added to this Goal in November, 2006,  when we voted to spend the money for the Park Center. The new part now is in red)

           

Our motion will be in regard to both approving these funds and moving them from Admin. to the newly-worded Lifespan Goal 2, Strategy 2. This action will provide for the Plan Modification needed in this case.

7:40     XCEL Substations and Power Lines: Information, Carrie Ann Johnson’ss Face book  

7:45   Rep. Clark’s bill HF 1993:  to deal with the toxic Penta/dioxin pressure treated utility poles that Xcel and other utilities are using in Minneapolis and elsewhere. Motion: Support Bill

7:50     ANNUAL Meeting – April, Saturday 25^th

           

8:15     Adjournment

General Membership Meeting Minuts 03-12

March 12, 2009 

Holy Rosary  Conference Room

Attendees:

Jennie Bjorgo (JB), Brad Pass (BP), Carol Pass (CP), Chiffon Williams (SW), Tom Malloy (TM), Linda Leonard (LL), Sherzad Kordian (SK), Rosie Cruz (RC), Aden Awil (AA), Earl Simms(ES)

JB Chaired and called the meeting to order 6:48

MOTION:   Approve the agenda. CP Moved, BP Seconded Motion Passed

BP Point of order: Since there is not a quorum shall we proceed as a committee of the whole?

MOTION: To proceed as Committee of the whole, passes

MOTION:   Approve the Minutes. CP pointed out that under “Funding for Programs” on page 2, the three organizations are not identified. East Midtown EMPY

Motion passed with addition of the 3 organizations.

Earl Simms arrival creates a quorum

MOTION: Proceed as a normal meeting, approve agenda and Feb. Gen. Membership minutes

Announcements:

Xcel meeting on Smart Grid tomorrow at 9:30 AM

Community of Phillips Patrol (COPP) patrol is cranking up with compatible walkee- Talkees with Little Earth Patrol.

Park Center:

Reviewed PowerPoint and figured Money.

Funding for EPIC Programs:

$5,000 for EMPY,  $5,000 for Liga Hispana de Beisbol,  Discussion: Linda: will the CURA Grant take us far enough to continue program, since this NRP money takes so long?  Brad: We might have to carry it for a month and be reimbursed. Hope not.

MOTION:   Moved to support the proposed funding and Plan modification with language change forward to the Annual Meeting. Passed

Don Greeley provided ID cards for COPP

Xcel Substations:

See Carrie Ann’s Web site for info

Rep. Karen Clark’s Bill HF 1993:

MOTION:   Support Bill Motion Passed

Annual Meeting Saturday, April, 25th:

Terms are up for Mary G, Linda, Earl & Rosie – may run again. Returning are Carol, Aden, Jennie and Sherzad.   Prospective New Board Members Chiffon, Cedric,

Agenda:                       Carol

Food:                           Rosie, Jennie, Continental Breakfast, tomallies

MC:                             Brad

Set-up                          Brad,

Door Prizes:                Jennie, Brad

Entertainment:             Holy Rosary Kids Guitar Band

Flowers:                      Annie???

Adjourned at 8:56      

Board Meeting Minutes 03-07

March 7^th, 2009

Directors Present: Jenny, Carol, Linda, Earl by phone

Guests:

We accepted the agenda and minutes as committee of the whole.

Reports as per the agenda:

Waiting for 10K for soccer

NRP has other bills in the works. One is for statewide applications.

We suggested Chiffon as a board person to take the place of Juliet who resigned.

We discussed meeting at Holy Rosary on Mondays, not Thursdays.

Jenny took the list that Carol made for the annual meeting and Jenny will start to get people to help.

We might use a Quit Claim deed and transfer the title of the garden.

Common Bond dropped out of the Village Project. Sherman might help build the project for us with PRG. Carol will meet with them next Friday. We want to recommend Sherman.

Annual Meeting: we should have an annual meeting planning meeting for April 25^th.

Xcel: Karen Clark is working on a bill regarding density and power lines.

EPIC board censors the park board for freezing the Design Team out of the redesign process and expects the final design to meet the approval of the Design Team.

General Membership Meeting 02-19

February 19, 2009

Meeting called to order at 6:43

We convened a committee of the whole with no objections.

Margaret, Chiffon, Brad, Alfonso, Mary

Board: Carol, Linda, Aden, Sherzad, Rosie, Earl

Agenda: We added NRP and Housing and approved the agenda.

Minutes from November were approved.

Comments: The Berglin/Clark bill spared us the paint shop, the asphalt plant, and the burner.

Tomorrow is an Xcel Mtg at 3 pm at the NELC to determine next steps in regard to the project.

6:52 EPIC Financials

2009 Budget and 2008 expenses explained. Filed with the minutes. Possibility of funding our two sports/tutoring programs. There was agreement that it is time to work on greater support for Phillips youth, especially the ethnics that have no programs specifically for them. Admin. funds not needed.

We could finish out phase one funds with program support.

7:00 quorum reached with Rosie.

Rosie talked about 45 kids to play soccer and a tutoring program at Anderson. The background checks will be done. The kids in the soccer league who have academic problems are welcome even if they don’t attend Anderson school.

Linda moved/Chiffon seconded the proposed 2009 budget. Budget adopted without opposition.

Earl arrived.

7:19

Chiffon moved and Aden seconded a motion to the effect that EPIC take a request to the county commissioner to include support for the pedestrian bridge over Hiawatha connecting East Phillips Park to the Franklin Light Rail station. Passed.

7:22 Xcel

Margaret pointed out that if/when there is streetcar service on the Greenway, it would be very difficult to work around power lines. Carol reported that xcel plans to crisscross these big wires which will disrupt all sides of the Greenway. We don’t know what motion the Greenway folks want us to support.  The next meeting is tomorrow and people should come. There was a meeting at Little Earth, but there was no follow-up plan. Carol Pass wants to ask Karen Clark to introduce a bill for Minnesota that would tie the power line issue to density of population, especially in an urban area. Margaret concurred. Carol and Margaret are working on the issue and will report back.

CP passed out Xcel’s data sheet on the spread of Magnetic flux of underground as opposed to overhead high voltage power lines. The underground application is dramatically better as far as the spread of magnetic flux.

BP compared today’s lack of information on the health effects of Magnetic flux to the health effects of Arsenic on the population in the 1930s. Today it is clear that arsenic is a huge problem. It is unconscionable that we are considering exposing this underprivileged population to something that 30 years from now may prove to be as egregious as arsenic and lead.

BP suggested coming to the 2-20-09 NELK information meeting with a motion which is similar to the Greenway Coalition’s motion in opposition to the project.

CP not much happened in opposition to the Burner until people showed up with signs and banners. Perhaps we should consider a sign.

The City council has no legal right to stop the powerline. It is up to the PUC.

MK pointed out that the PUC could say to the city – “if you want to pay the extra $15 million to put the line underground you can do it”.

Funding for Programs:

Covered in discussion on financials. These two organizations, Liga Hispana de Beisbol and the Soccer/Tutoring program have been put forward for additional funding. Motion for review of funds and support for the programs and proposed language change, see Agenda for motion. Passed unanimously.

EPPCCC

Park Board authorized LHB to phase the building with a redesign using the 4.136 million we have. If and when we raise 3 million more we can add phases. Most commissioners and LHB probably will promote a one story building. John Gurban sent commissioners a letter saying he doesn’t want the building on the west side of the park and wanted it to be reconsidered. Most commissioners were incensed and reminded him that a 7:1 vote was to be west side. Later Gurban sent Brad a note indicating that all communications about the project were to go through him and him only. Brad went down to a meeting at Keith’s office and saw Mike and others who refused to speak with him about the project because of Gurban’s gag order. There will be a report March 4 at the Park Board. One of the commissioners made a motion at a meeting to return all the funds.

CURA Grants: One in midtown is to study the different park buildings and resources and use and programs.

We’ve been told that our plans are competing with the gym/pool building. That we have duplication of services. EPIC will continue to ask for funds and submit grants. We wrote a letter in support of public art in the park.

EPIC supports a redesign that will utilize the full amount of money raised and it will approximate as closely as possible the design approved by the neighborhood and park board in May, 2008. This plan must facilitate and not preclude the addition of the second floor plan as accepted in 2008. Brad made the motion and Mary seconded it. Passed.

Linda made a motion and Earl seconded:

That the request for public art for the building reflect the cultural diversity of East Phillips and be intergenerational in nature. Passed

Park Patrol: Little Earth suggested that we get compatible equipment and we did. One training has been completed and about 8 people were there.

Annual Meeting: Will try to find a space for one of the last two Saturday meetings in April.

NRP. It was not Davney that introduced the NRP bill. It was Karen Clark, Torres Ray, and the neighborhood. Gary misrepresented the history in his mailings. It was Davney and Dibble who split the bill in half in committee giving the money to the city to manage and the neighborhoods lost out. The money we lobbied for at the legislature has essentially been removed from the program it was designated for. The new money might only be able to be used in the areas where the taxes are raised. This means it would all go to the downtown where the  tax increment would be accrued. The city said NRP couldn’t go back to ask the legislature for clarification, but some NRP people still do intend to go back to this session to correct what has happened. The money is going to be limited to buying office supplies, but nothing for housing or organizing or building. We agreed that if there is no money to manage, there’s only limited reasons for meeting. The only available big bucks will be competitive and that will make it hard for neighborhoods like ours.

Meeting adjourned at 8:33 pm

Board Meeting Minutes 02-07

Board Meeting Minutes 2/7/2009

Welna's Hardware Board Room

9:46 Meeting called to order.

Shirley Heyer is a guest. Carol Pass, Linda Leonard, Jenny Bjorgo present.

Committee of the whole without a quorum.

Agenda approved.

Approved the minutes.

Financial report: Carol distributed last year’s budget; this year’s projected budget; and last year’s expense account reports. She also distributed a statement of activities and a statement of functional expenses.  There is also a balance sheet with $7,184 plus some deposits.

We focused on the next year’s budget. We  have some unrestricted money to pay the garden property tax.  CDBG is less than before. We changed some features to clarify the statement. Carol is going to update the statement and send new ones out based on actual invoices. We have about $37,000 but most is for NRP consultant and CURA sports/youth grant expenditures.

NRP Issues: We have a community engagement board and an NRP board now. David Rubidor from PRG was hired by the city office. There are duplicate functions with NRP controlling one with Phase 1 and 2 monies, but the community engagement board having only advisory roles, but no power. Each neighborhood only gets a small part. We will get about $300,000 but most has to be spent on housing. Maybe we should do something positive with Bloomington Ave in the 2600 and 2700 blocks.  We need to probably hire our consultant another year  to help with the community center project. We could use some money for a revolving loan “due on sale” to improve buildings. We can get a match from the

federal gov’t IF we can get another neighborhood to go with us and get 300,000 for housing.  Midtown only gets $170,000 this year. Shirley and Carol discussed options for deferred loans.

Park Center

Karen Clark met with the MET COUNCIL this week and Brad Pass sent a letter of clarification. We have until 2011 to get the project contracted and ready to go. Brad and Carol met with Ellison’s staff person as well as Klobuchar’s office and the metcouncil tax bonding meeting.  We need a statement from the MetCouncil for the Park Board to document clarifications. Unfortunately Keith’s staff gave misinformation from the House side.  Senator Klobuchar’s staff person explained that it had to be in both the House and the Senate in Congress. Appropriations for 2009 are due Feb 20. Keith’s office made a mistake and didn’t write that the building would be owned by a gov’t agency. Arthur and Carol are going to try to correct last year’s request and submit requests under programs this year. 

Kresge is interested in our project and wants us to reapply.

We received one $10,000.

Excel . There is a meeting Monday on land use and transit in the Midtown Greenway. Midtown Greenway needs a grant to stay in charge of the discussion. Carol will talk to Bill at Little Earth to let him know that excel funds the energy coop.

The Obama administration energy matching grants could be used for lines that will buy back solar and wind energy. Someone else is planning a new hydroelectric plant. We need a motion to push Excel to match federal money and to make new projects a 21^st century project.  Carol and Shirley will craft a motion to bring to the membership of both neighborhood organizations. Underground, able to buy back wind and solar, and apply for federal funds, and put the lines down 28^th.

Housing:

PRG is doing the village project…Kathy is in charge. Caroline from GMAC has an interest in housing. There are addresses that Shirley has already. Edie Oats said applications are due Feb 17^th and the programs ned letters of support from neighborhood organizations. By consensus we authorized Carol to write a letter of support for PRG.

Village Project. Kathy said that Gary Schiff told her that he does NOT support the project because there isn’t enough green space. He told her this at the meeting we endorsed Common Bond. Gary has apparently chosen to work with blocks instead of neighborhood organizations.  This tends to split the neighborhoods. Midtown and East Phillips both have a lot of money invested in the project. We also have a reserve fund for a total of about $500,000. Kathy said Common Bond is getting cold feet about managing it. We are looking at the possibility of another developer who might be interested.

Sherman and Associates are going to change the live/work units probably to apartments on Bloomington near Lake Street. He needs a letter of approval. Almost no one will grant a mortgage for such a project. We authorized Carol to write a letter of support. We should find out if the building next to the site is in foreclosure. 

Garden Purchase

Should PPL hold our garden? They wouldn’t be able to sell it for 30 years because of the conservation clause. Our problem is that some of the gardeners keep trying to control the garden or EPIC. PPL would need to have a contract with EPIC to manage the garden.

Jenny would be willing to manage our community garden.

Annual Meeting: We could maybe rent space in Sabri’s building. We might be able to be in Southside Learning Center. We need to have it in April. The 18^th or 25^th Saturday morning would be best.

Midtown’s annual meeting. Feb 17^th at Anderson School. Potluck.  5:15 is dinner. Backyard Initiative report. David Rubidor is going to talk about the whole new department in Mpls and Phase 3 of NRP. Bob Miller is going to come and give counter information.

Ask Leon to borrow the earphones for simultaneous translation.

Midtown is going to submit a request for safety pedestrian bridge over Hiawatha from the light rail to East Phillips with Great Streets planning money. It’s due ASAP. Carol should do one for 25^th and Bloomington for Great streets. EPIC could get 25^th/Bloomington money. Open Arms could apply too. Shirley went to a workshop and said there have been changes 3 times. You could get 10 grand for a transportation consultant. Someone at CPED knows about this federal money.

Adjourned at 11:30

Board Meeting Minutes 01-17

1/17/2009

Carol Pass, Mary Gonsior, Linda Leonard, Earl Sims,

Called to order at 9:57 am at Welna’s Hardware

Agenda approved by consent with a committee of the whole.

Board minutes from November comments:

We passed a more involved motion about excel at our membership meeting.

The paint booth for all the light rail trains was stopped because of the bill Karen Clark’s bill stopped the process.

The bill also stopped progress on the city’s plan to put in a new hot asphalt plant.

We’ve not had time to pursue purchase arrangements for the community garden.

17

Mary moved and Linda seconded the motion to approve the Minutes. Passed

EPIC Finances

Carol and Mary discussed the format of the financial statement and appropriate labels for the report. They are going to use “Statement of Activities” changing the title of “donations” to “restricted grants”, but Carol got different advice from an accountant. There are some differences in report styles between nonprofits and corporations. Mary and Carol will continue the discussion and how best to report our figures. We agreed on a three year depreciation schedule.

-------Earl Simms arrived at 10:20

Report on NRP

Carol went to a Midtown meeting to talk about the mayor’s new community advisory board. Carol was just elected to the NRP policy board. NRP still has more than advisory power. It is a nonprofit that controls millions of dollars for neighborhoods. The new advisory board is what the mayor wants and it centralizes power downtown. No one from the 8^th or 9^th Ward got on the advisory board even though Carol and Jana Metge applied. The new board has 8 people the mayor and council chooses and 8 people from neighborhoods. The mayor has chosen all anglos, non of whom has been involved in neighborhood organizations. NRP is asking neighborhoods how we want to select the other 8 people. NRP has proposed a formal resolution for a meeting Feb 21^st. 60% of the neighborhoods have to respond by the end of January.

Motion: To adopt the NRP resolution; Mary moved/Earl seconded. Passed

Earl would like to meet at Perkins whenever the first Saturday falls on the 1^st and ACE isn’t available.

We appointed Carol to attend the Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission meeting on Feb 21 to discuss how to select representatives and to frame issues for the citizen’s advisory committee which will have 8 representatives from the neighborhoods. It’s the beginning of a discussion.

The NRP elections resulted in the election of Kari Anderson as a delegate and Carol as an alternate to the Policy Board.

REPORT ON PARKS

There was a survey from the park board about residents’ view of programs and facilities but they were available only at Stewart Park and almost no one goes there. They were due the 15^th of Jan.

Karen Clark spoke with Brad and Carol about state financing of the community center. The design team has not been meeting, but 3 park commissioners met with Brad and Carol,

As chair of the design team, Brad sent a letter to Representative Alice Hausman to correct impressions that Tom Weaver of the Met Council sent, given the documents provided him from the Park Board staff.

Vreeland, MM Anderson, and Annie Young as Park Commissioners reviewed the correspondence with Brad and Carol. They are worried about losing the money to the state and that we need a one story contract right away. They want to meet Jan 21^st to decide at the Park Board Meeting with a report about where we are in the design, contract, and money raising process.

Karen Clark sent a letter and a copy of a law that we have two more years on this report to the park board.

***EPIC wants a copy of the Park Staff reports and correspondence relative to the East Phillips Park Building. We’re going to ask Karen  Clark to get that information by her request.

Karen is on the conference committee and holds some power over the Park Board at the Legislature.

***Carol and Brad need to ask Karen to meet with commissioners and the design team and to go to the Park Board meeting next week.

EXCEL ENERGY

There is a concern about the effect of above ground high magnetic influence with the high power lines. EPIC already passed a motion about underground. The community meeting last week surfaced a lot of information. Abbott might write a letter encouraging Xcel to bury the wires. Excel published in the papers already that it is going down the Greenway with criss-cross wires wires. MPCA has no power. Only the public utilities commission needs to issue a permit.  This would negatively impact high density housing and health issues along the Greenway.  We need a new law for needs assessment based on population density as well as distance of the lines. 

We want a rate change to Hennepin County or the entire city to pay the cost of burying the lines. Excel sometimes runs over the community, sometimes cooperates.  Excel is building another substation that they haven’t told us about and it seems they plan to link these to provide power elsewhere.

******Look at the cost and loss to major development along the Greenway for business and housing.

We need to have the city council to oppose overhead lines. Developers have told us they would refuse developments near these lines.

Motion: EPIC is adamantly opposed to overhead high power lines running anywhere in the neighborhood and want them buried down East 28^th  .Street.  passed.

REPORTS

Court watch photos

List of foreclosures in Phillips

We have the community of Phillips patrol vests and walkie talkies; cops patrol

Meeting adjourned at 11:45 am.