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NORTHWEST SAN PEDRO NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILMEETING MINUTESJanuary 12, 2004Meeting called to order by John Greenwood at 6:38pm Pledge of Allegiance was led by John Greenwood. 1. Roll call of board members. Diana Nave – excused absence Attending: Shannon Day, Esther Ek, Carlos Garcia, John Greenwood, Shari Hill, Margaret Moilov, Philip Nicolay, Michael Nizetich, Ray Patricio, David Rivera, Emily Rochte, Marisa Trutanich, William Upchurch, Guillermo Villagran. 2. Minutes of November 10, 2003 meeting – postponed until the February meeting. 3. Election of Board representative for Non-Governmental Seat and At-Large Seat Candidates will have one minute to speak: Non-governmental: Ralph Appy, Jody James Candidate at Large: James Hansen, Lowell Jeans, Lisa Martinez – not present did not speak, Capt. George Thompson – not present did not speak, Richard Williams – not present did not speak. Balloting closed at 6:50pm. The newly elected members are: Jody James and Capt. George Thompson 4. Janice Hahn Councilwoman, 15th District, presented a check to assist in the revitalization of the Peck Park Canyon to the NWSPNC. Janice spoke of the roots of the neighborhood council and the purpose of the councils. Previously the Council approved $10,000.00 and she brings a check for an additional $70,000.00 payable to LANI and which she presented to Ray Patricio and John Greenwood. January 26th is an open house at Peck Park regarding the Peck Park Initiative. 5. Jerry Gaines has been appointed to a committee of DONE for standardizing election procedures. And he spoke about Neighborhood Council elections. Every council is different but there are some common issues and guidelines that must be established. They will be gathering comments and input from all of the neighborhood council groups and work to establish standards for holding elections, running for office. John Greenwood also spoke of concerns with the timelines for elections and replacing members. 6. Speaker on Port Security – David H. Malin, Port Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Philip Nicolay introduced David Malin. A handout was made available at the meeting to cover this topic of Port Security. Mr. Malin explained that Port security funding comes from a number of sources. The ratio of officers assigned to the port is high in comparison to LAPD officers on duty in the city. Port security is very important. If something were to happen it would have far more devastating effects than an airport or other potential targets. It is hard to determine what is the right amount of money to commit to port security. He is interested in public input on ways to improve communication and improve security. His E-mail address is on the handout. (Dmalin@portla.org) Q – Should shippers pay more of the cost for security? A (David Malin) – Hard issue – it’s a hard call. Difficult to say who should pay the cost. A (Janice Hahn) - $28 million in port budget is going to security this year. This is City money, not Federal. We need to do a better job asking for federal support. We need to do a better job asking for money. Los Angeles is the third busiest port and is still very vulnerable. Planning is difficult since money is allocated only year to year. Q – (Carlos Garcia) what is the emphasis – port security versus port expansion? How does the port come up with its priorities? A (David Malin) – The Port is in business and is to make money. It is hard to say where the balance is. If something were to happen, the emergency response will come to the Port. Perhaps we would put some more money in for security. It is hard to say. Q – How are things coordinated with the Port of Long Beach? There will be a meeting soon to share information and assist in working together. A - Jane Harman's field representative is Chad Molnar. His email address is chad.molnar@mail.house.gov – Also spoke. Said the Congresswoman is introducing legislation to deal with some of these issues. A - Janice Hahn - Security should be based on threat levels. Two bills floating in Washington: 1) Congressman Rohrabacher – container fees; 2) Doug Osey - Customs money - a % put back into the port. People should write a letter to support these bills. Mr. Malin said that twice per year there are exercises to simulate how to respond to various emergencies. Shari Hill asked for volunteers - Need 25 volunteers from the San Pedro area to participate CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training conducted by.the Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD). 7. Public Comment Bob Gelfan from the Coastal Neighborhood Council requests $500.00 to support San Pedro Film Festival. This item will be placed on next month’s agenda. John Driscoe introduced himself as the Neighborhood Prosecutor. Abbey Zimmerman from the Mayor’s office spoke and reported that recently released information says crime is down 22% in the City of Los Angeles; 87 of 88 cities in the County of Los Angeles had an increase in their crime rate. The City of Los Angeles is down from first to third in murders. 8. Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form 700 – Mark Lewis, City Dept. of Neighborhood Empowerment. Mr. Lewis thanked the San Pedro High students for their assistance in the election. Mr. Lewis asked NWSPNC members to wait until the Form 700 is approved by the City Council to complete the form. There will be training to assist in completing the forms. Forms must be completed within 30 days after approved by the City Council. There is a $10.00 per day fine for late submissions. Forms will be mailed to each person. Janice Hahn objected to the $10.00 penalty and will bring this up when the vote is put before the City Council. 9. Committee Reports a. Budget Committee 1) Treasurer’s Report for fiscal year 2003/2004 (Expenditures to date & remaining funds) Written report submitted and presented by Bill Upchurch $5,363.94 available left in the budget the report presented did not reflect expenditures for previously approved items of: $10,000.00 to the Peck Park Trail $ 5,000.00 for furniture at Peck Park Community Center Money is distributed at $12,500 at a time. You can access more than that at a time if requested. 2) Funding for wireless microphones for meetings A motion was made by Shannon Day that up to $500 is allocated to but wireless microphones and speaker box. To be used at monthly meetings and other neighborhood events. John Greenwood seconded the motion. Motion carried by unanimous vote of the council. 3) Funding for cell phone – this item was not discussed as it was placed on the agenda in error. 4) Funding for Peck Park furniture. Shari Hill reported that she has researched this and that the amount of $5,000.00 is not adequate to purchase commercial grade furniture. Anything less than commercial grade furniture would not hold up. Shari Hill requests $20,000 to purchase commercial grade furniture of: 2 couches, 3 chairs and 3 tables Margaret Moilov – felt that for that kind of money the public should be included in approval. Bill Upchurch feels that this is the responsibility of the City to purchase new furniture for the community center. Philip Nizetich agreed. Shari Hill makes a motion to spend $10,000 for furniture. Philip Nizetich seconded the motion. The vote was taken by the acting secretary as a roll call vote. The motion failed. – 5 yes; 9 no; 1 abstain (The amount of $5,000 for furniture, previously approved by the board, still stands.) 5) Fee for use of Peck Park meetings rooms Cost is $525.00 year. Shari Hill made a motion to pay the $525.00 annual use fee for the Peck Park Community Center. Emily Rochte seconded the motion. Discussion: Margaret Moilov feels that if the NWSPNC is paying a fee there should be some service provided on the part of the staff. Currently, the council members have to set up and take down chairs. Janice Hahn – expressed that she does not feel that the fee is too much. It is a bad year and the City is facing huge cuts. It was asked if the fee covers the cost of sub committee meetings? No but council could negotiate this up front. The motion was approved by a unanimous vote. b. Peck Park Committee 1) Master Plan - Presentation of check by Councilwoman Janice Hahn - See item 4 above) c. Issues Committee 1) Report on odors from property at Kinder Morgan on North Gaffey. Philip Nicolay says Kinder Morgan admitted that the odors were from them but were from a bad batch of fuel. Open coned tanks are the source of the odor, Kinder Morgan promised to install pressure valves. They will also install pipes between tanks to help with this. Kinder Morgan asked the people in the nearby neighborhood to not call Air Quality Management District (AQMD) but to call Kinder Morgan. John Greenwood said that as of today Kinder Morgan has not installed the equipment and they (Kinder Morgan) are meeting with AQMD later this week. Kinder Morgan assured the group that there is no benzene in the fuel, it is all non-volatile. Kinder Morgan will sample the air. Bill Upchurch says he can smell the odor a couple of times a week. It is so bad. Jody James says the concern is what are the fumes doing to our health? AQMD has smelled the odor. Kinder Morgan is in compliance and says they have been good neighbors for 10 years and this is just a bad batch of fuel. Jody James will join this (state name of committee) committee. Bob from the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council says people should call and complain and force Kinder Morgan to deal with the issue. 2) Early notification system – this item was tabled. 3) Support letter for initiative for Bandini Canyon Trail under Proposition 40 Margaret Moilov introduced – Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative representatives Shannon Jaax, LANI Program Manager and Joyce Perkins, LANI Executive Director. They are working with community groups and helping to bring the vision to fruition. Currently the area is plagued by illegal dumping and vandalism. It is a residential area and security is an issue. The proposal from the steering committee includes a trail, use of native and drought resistant plants, low level lighting, fencing, landscaping and a tot playground (recreation portion) 1.5 million. They are asking for the support of the NWSPNC only they are going after proposition 40 funding. Bandini Canyon project is a joint project with the Peck Park project. NWSPNC and the Peck Park Advisory Board will be hosting the first neighborhood open house on 1/26 at 6:30pm. Public input will be solicited at this meeting. Also looking for steering committee members. Come on the 26th. It is still under consideration if there will be any bathrooms in the canyon area. David Rivera made a motion: that the NWSPNC support the Bandini Canyon project and issue a letter of support for the Proposition 40 grant. Margaret Moilov seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. 4) Vote on Terminal Island energy proposal This was a previous agenda item. Shari Hill asked for clarification on the purpose of the vote, since the project is only in the concept stage and details are not yet know. Guillermo Villagran read the findings of the committee. (see attached) Guillermo Villagran made a motion: Given these findings, the Governing Board of San Pedro Northwest Neighborhood Council supports the proposed Terminal Island Renewable Energy Project and urges Mayor Hahn and Councilmember Hahn to support the project as well. Northwest Neighborhood Council commends the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation for its creative and proactive foresight. Esther Ek seconds the motion. Discussion was to clarify what the proposal was and Janice Hahn said she was not convinced at this time that this was a good thing for the area. John Greenwood made a motion to remove last sentence from the resolution read by Guillermo Villagran commending the Bureau of Sanitation for its creative and proactive foresight. Motion was seconded and included in the motion. Bill Upchurch stated that this will take many trucks off the roads. The motion was carried by a vote of: 4 abstain, rest yes. 5) Forum on Boy Scout Camp – proposed expenditure for hosting forum Margaret Moilov – instead of going for or against the proposal it was decided that the NW Council would host an open house (2/15/04) at the Camp. Another issue is Bridge to the Breakwater. The schedule for this event will be decided on 1/15. Cost is $250.00 and Margaret Moilov is asking for council to pay this. The Coastal Council is paying for the banners to advertise the event. Bill Upchurch seconded the motion. Shari Hill suggests that the USC group support this event. Margaret Moilov recommends we use this free hosting for another event. Motion passes, two no’s. d. Port Committee 1) Port construction at Pacific Avenue Marisa Trutanich presented ideas, on behalf of the Port, on some minor landscaping to beautify the area by the old Bail Bonds place at John S. Gibson and Channel. Wants councils support. There is no charge. Margaret suggests using native plants and drought resistant. Marisa will take this suggestion back. Shari Hill made a motion to accept the Port’s offer and leave the choice of plants up to them. Margaret Moilov seconded the motion. Vote carried by unanimous decision. 2) Status of China Shipping Mitigation Proposal Philip Nicolay announced that the bid period is now closed. He is unsure if any new proposals. 27 proposals were received. All proposals will be presented to the full PCAC. Must review proposals and rank them. Will choose 3-5 top proposals. 45 days later after March meeting ranking sheets will be returned. These will go to the full Port Commission. Notebook will not contain the response from State Lands Commission, so this will not be a part of the process. John Greenwood thinks proposals approved by the State Lands Commission should be considered. Philip Nicolay reported that the Port could fund the council’s proposal as a mitigation project. It does not matter where the funds come from as long as it gets done. It is a better plan now than 8 weeks ago. It was discussed if Philip Nicolay should make a presentation to the full PCAC. It was agreed it would be better to be on the agenda than just spring it on them. John Greenwood questioned how the NWSPNC could find out if the beautification of N Gaffey is going to be part of the Mitigation process if we can’t get it before the board? China Shipping should notify the Council of their next meeting and that the project should be part of the China Shipping mitigation project not part of the Settlement project. Meeting is the last week of January. Very important to know what the State Lands Commission said. Margaret Moilov suggested it should be a public presentation, taped and run on Cox cable so every citizen can see it and be fully informed. Information will be posted to NWSPNC web site. Continue discussion 3) PCAC report – Shannon Day/Mike Wheeler PCAC By laws are under consideration. Shannon Day is on the committee and is the chair of the lighting, aesthetics and noise sub-committee. They will meet the 3rd Thursday of the month in the port building. (this is a tentative date) Various upcoming meetings are coming up relating to these areas. Watch the web page for more details. Carlos Garcia suggested meeting after the Browns Buildings meeting on the 11th related to the Port consultants. Mike Wheeler announced they are working with the air quality sub-committee to determine the best locations to do continue monitoring. There will be 4 air quality monitoring stations for diesel fuel. Please see the written report provided. e. Outreach Committee – status of brochure Guillermo Villagran presented the Brochure proof to the NWSPNC members – there is only one copy and once approved he would like to print 1,000 brochures. Funding was previously approved. Must review and provide any feedback by tonight. f. Bylaws Committee – The meeting has been changed to 1/13/04 6:30pm. 10. Organizational issues a. Maintenance of files/secretarial functions Michael Nizetich will take the box. John and Shari will go over this with him. b. Board members speaking on behalf of NWSPNC Shari Hill advised members to use caution when speaking in a public forum. Members need to be careful that when speaking at various functions to specify if it is their personal opinion or if member is representing the majority opinion of the NWSPNC. There was general agreement on this. Issues Committee – next meeting 1/23 at 6:30pm tentatively at San Pedro Hospital meeting room. 11. Date of Next meeting - February 9, 6:30 pm, Peck Park. Meeting adjourned at 9 p.m.
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