March
11, 2006 Meeting
Preparation
The meeting,
including election for officers, was announced in a newsletter
distributed between February 11 and about March 3.
An e-mail was
sent to each member who has provided a contact e-mail address.
Susan Chu and
Laura Ellersieck phoned other members who have provided a contact
phone number.
Acknowledgments
Susan Chu brought cookies and 7-up.
Attendees
16 residents voted and attended at least a portion of the meeting.
Meeting
Agenda Items:
- Annual
officer election
- Draft by-laws
discussion
- Information
Updates
- Adding street lights to existing poles
- Digital electric meter information
- Upcoming Area
Events
- Council District 4 Community Meeting, March 30, 6:30 - 8:30 pm,
Victory Park
- Viña Vieja Park Grand Opening Celebration, April 29, 10
am.
- Tour de Fourth walk/bike event, May 13, 9 to 11 am. Right
before our meeting.
- anything
else attendees wish to discuss
The meeting began about 11:15 am in Hastings
Branch
Library's meeting room.
Election
The ballot box was set up at one side of the room along with a sign in
sheet and blank ballots so voting could take place during the meeting.
On the ballot were each of the current officers running for re-election
plus Scott Dayman running for the Secretary position. There
was also a space for writing in a choice for each office.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the votes were counted by Mike M. and
Jennie F. The results were:
President: Laura Ellersieck - 16 votes
Vice-President: Susan Chu - 15 votes, Scott Dayman - 1 vote
Secretary: Scott Dayman - 14 votes, Susan Chu - 1
vote, 1 abstention
Treasurer: Kathy Vacio - 15 votes, 1 abstention
Agenda items were taken out of order because of an expectation that
by-laws
discussion would take the longest.
- Information
Updates
- Adding street lights to existing poles
- The city
was contacted about the three locations where residents had
indicated a desire to add a light. At 494/500 Avocado, 3217
Del Vina, and 463/469 Vineyard.
- The city
contact is Bob Sulistio, Assistant Engineer, Traffic Design
Section. He sent someone out to survey what the existing
facilities are. He then prepared for each street segment a letter
proposing to add lights, a diagram showing where the existing lights
are and proposed new lights would be, and a petition form to be signed
by affected residents.
- The
Avocado papers were delivered a couple days before the meeting to
Albert B. for his and his neighbor's
signatures. He brought it including signatures to the
meeting with him. It will be sent in.
- Although
the request was only for a light for the pole at 3217 Del Vina, Mr
Sulistio
included a light for the pole at 3193. Laura E. will check with
the neighbors on whether they want it.
- Similarly
on Vineyard, he included three rather than just the one new light
location. One at the 425/433 property line, and one at the
493/499 property line. We are sure that at least some of these
neighbors would also welcome more light. Kathy V. took the
paperwork to circulate on Vineyard.
- Digital electric meter information
- There
is supposedly a green arrow at the bottom
of the display on the new meters which is supposed to flash each time
the wheel would
have rotated once. The number display is showing kilowatt
hours. There is a transmitter in the box so that they
should be able to read the meter from the street or at least without
entering back/side yards. They plan to replace all the
water meters with digital displays and transmitters too. They are
replacing them faster then they normally would because they expect to
save money on the meter reading and maintenance. They expect to
have all the meters in the city replaced in about 5 years.
Visit pwpweb.com for saving and emergency preparedness tips.
They would be happy to send someone to talk at a neighborhood meeting
if we'd like.
- Upcoming
Area Events
- Council District 4 Community Meeting, March 30, 6:30 - 8:30 pm,
Victory Park
- Viña Vieja Park Grand Opening Celebration, April 29, 10
am.
- Question was raised if anyone has non-dog event ideas for the
celebration. One activity that is under consideration is planting
of a grapevine along the fence by neighborhood children.
- A suggestion was made that the city consider doing a brick
walk, plaza, wall, or other construction where people could purchase a
brick and have it inscribed to memorialize their family's presence in
the area.
- Draft by-laws
discussion
- Since the last
meeting Scott Dayman
had asked about the association By-Laws, the creation of which had not
happened since last year. After being requested to volunteer, he
prepared some draft by-laws with some back and forth from Laura
Ellersieck.
- There may be
questions about meaning or purpose of some of the
provisions or differences of opinion about them. Or thoughts that
other provisions are needed. This can take some time, and it can
be frustrating, but in the longer term it will be good for the
association to have some written rules that we operate under rather
than just understandings among those that have been involved.
- Many items
were discussed. The only revision agreed upon was to change the
definition of the Secretary's job duties to maintaining the "contact"
list rather then the "membership" list because there is no way we will
ever have a list of all members.
- Other items
discussed but not changed in the draft by-laws included:
- Should there
be term limits and if so, is two years too little?
- Reasoning against term limits is to keep in office people
who are experienced and known both within the association and outside
of it. And what if no one else wants the job?
- Reasons for term limits are to force the spreading of
knowledge and experience among more members of the association and
avoid having it fall apart just because someone entrenched can no
longer serve for some reason. Termed out officers are still
always welcome to actively participate, take on new roles, help as
requested, and perhaps run for the office again at a later time.
- What's the
purpose of the Steering Committee and do we need it?
- The purpose of the Steering Committee is to have a small
core group of people who are ready and able to take part in discussing
and deciding issues on short notice and for helping to set the
direction of the association. For example, whether something that
comes up between meetings is important enough to notify the entire
membership (distribute flyers to all residences). Or, getting
approval for a small expenditure of funds by the association in a
timely manner.
- Because there are monthly membership meetings for
discussions, we can expect that the Steering Committee would be less
important then in organizations with only a yearly membership
meeting. However, because any decision requiring a full
membership vote requires notice to the whole neighborhood a reasonable
time in advance (7 days is proposed), it isn't feasible for every small
decision to be made by a full membership vote.
- Aside from
the Association Officers, the Steering Committee may have "Directors"
to broaden the representation. How does a "Director" come into
existence?
- As currently proposed, a "Director" is elected by the
members of an "Other Committee" to lead the committee and serve on the
Steering Committee. An "Other Committee" is created by the
Steering Committee to deal with some specific issue and may exist for
any length of time, depending on need. The members of the
"Other Committee" are association members who volunteer to serve on the
committee after its been created. They then elect a Director
(aka. chairperson) to lead them, and that person is thus a Director on
the Steering Committee.
- A reason for doing it this way is to insure an Other
Committee is independent of influence by the other members of the
Steering Committee (although, the draft does not ban Officers from
serving on Other Committees or persons from serving on multiple Other
Committees).
- A reason for doing it this way is to have representation
of the Other Committee on the Steering Committee.
- A question was raised about what happens if there came to
be more then three Other Committies, then which ones would serve on the
Steering Committee?
- A question was raised as to whether it is good to assume
that someone leading a focused committee will necessarily be interested
in fully participating in the broader agenda of the Steering Committee.
- Another suggested way for determining Directors was to
just have Director positions voted on by full membership vote, just as
Officers are. "Other Committees" would still report via their
chairperson to the Steering Committee and full membership.
- It was suggested that it is most frequently the case that
members for a committee need to be recruited to volunteer and in many
organizations that is done by someone appointed as a leader of the
committee because of their already high level of involvement and
interest in the issue of the committee.
- There was discussion that undoubtedly we will need to revise
the
by-laws as we go along and maybe we should just go with what we have
and see how it works.
- Decision was reached to allow time for people to read and think
and discuss the draft. Also to post the draft By-Laws
on the web-site.
It'll be included on the agenda for discussion at the next two
meetings (April and May) and revisions may be agreed upon at those
meetings. The result will then be put to a vote at the June
meeting.
- Other items raised for
discussion at various points
- Contact info for Edison provided so residents can complain
about the weedy mess on the Edison property.
- City's offer to hold PERT classes (Pasadena
Emergency Response Team) locally if there are at least 12 people
from the neighborhood who will attend. Who is interested?
- There has been an increase in graffiti in the neighborhood
recently. On signs and on bridge railings over the wash and
elsewhere. It is being cleaned up within a few days, but is put
right back again. Does anyone know why now, and is anyone (such
as police) looking into who is doing it?
- What's with the pre-fabricated house just rolled onto a lot on
Estado last week? How can the city allow that? A
concerned citizen called the city and they said permits had been pulled
for it but weren't able to discuss any details. Will it be safe
in an earthquake? There doesn't appear to be any foundation. Why
does the front door face the side of the property? Is this thing
going to fit in with the rest of the neighborhood? A
nicely done but oversized house just built on other side of street was
also mentioned. Questions as to why the city's rules allow such
huge houses on little lots in a neighborhood of smaller houses?
- Success of the park tile workshops. A third workshop was
added and all three were overfull. Expectation that excess tiles
will be returned to their creators primarily via a table at the park
opening.
Next meeting is April 8,
same
time, same place.
Adjourned about 1:10 pm.