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NORTHWEST SAN PEDRO NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILMEETING MINUTESFebruary 9, 2004The meeting was called to order by President John Greenwood at 6:40pm. 1. Roll call of board members. Present: Ester Ek, Carlos Garcia, John Greenwood, Shari Hill, Jody James, Margaret Moilov, Michael Nizetich, Ray Patricio, Emily Rochte, George Thompson, Marisa Trutanich, William Upchurch, Guillermo Villagran Excused Absence: Shannon Day, Diana Nave, Philip Nicolay, David Rivera 2. Minutes of November 10, 2003 and January 23, 2004 meetings * November 10, 2003 minutes approved as written * January 23, 2004 minutes approved with corrections. Corrected minutes will be distributed 3. Councilwoman’s Office Update Robert Urteaga, Special Projects Director Councilwoman Janice Hahn’s Office The Capitol Drive Storm Drain Project- $80,000 allocated and includes a new fence and irrigation. Action on this project will take place in the next 1-2 months. Only on street side, not back side. The council was reminded that they were to submit neighborhood council matching grant. Trying to beautify with a 6 foot fence which will be built to deter young people from climbing it. The Statler Drive fence will also require bush removal. The funding is there. Project is to repair and replace as needed. Park Western Clean-up Peck Park – 20 citizens expressed an interest in being on this advisory board. Interviews will be conducted to select members. Caroline Brady from the council office will oversee this group. NWSPNC will also select a member Viacom St. Furniture – 13 requests for bus shelters. Installation will begin in mid-June and continue until the end of the year. It is an option to install temporary bus shelters in the interim. These interim bus shelters are not as nice. The Councilwoman’s office will wait for direction from the NWSPNC on this issue. Street re-surfacing is scheduled by street maintenance to do 5-6 streets in the council boundaries around the Taper Avenue area. Pot Holes and Tree root damage to the sidewalk were discussed. Problems can be reported to the Councilwoman’s office. 4. Speaker on Naval Housing Issues – this issue was not discussed. The guest speaker was not in attendance. 5. Public Comment Bob Gelfend discussed the Black History Month Series at the Warner Grand sponsored by Watts Neighborhood Councils, The Central, Coastal, Councils and Councilwoman Janice Hahn’s office. Michael Nizetich made a motion to donate to the San Pedro Black History Month Film Festival. Since this item was not on the agenda it will be voted on at next month’s meeting. 6. Committee Reports a. Budget Committee 1) Treasurer’s Report – approved as presented No change since last meeting $4,000 was moved into the account late today. NWSPNC can allocate $500 per month for petty cash 2) Budget for 2004-2005 – the draft of the proposed budget was presented. Mr. Upchurch explained the budget process. Neighborhood Councils are being transitioned to the City’s fiscal year. Money not spent by June 30, 2004 will be lost. Mr. Upchurch will re-draft the budget and present a revised proposed budget to the NWSPNC. b. Peck Park Committee – Peck Park/LANI initiative Ray Patricio reported on the meeting. Margaret Moilov reported on the LANI process to get community consensus and to prioritize the work to be completed. The public will be able to view the drawings and provide input. The local cable company will be running the video tape of the meeting to better inform the public. Automatic members to this group are a PAB (Park Advisory Board) member and a representative from NWSPNC. John Greenwood appointed Margaret Moilov to be the board representative from the NWSPNC. c. Issues Committee 1) Forum on Boy Scout camp Margaret Moilov passed out a copy of the press release concerning the open forum on Sunday February 15. The Newspaper ran the wrong date for the meeting. The date of the forum is a concern due to the holiday weekend. The date was picked since this was the only weekend the facility was available. Margaret Moilov made a motion that the forum be video taped at a cost not to exceed $125.00 so that the public can have the greatest access to the information. It was requested that the full amount be funded. Mike Nizetich seconded the motion. Motion was passed unanimously. 2) Motion on DWP rate increase – guest speaker Gerald A. (Jerry) Gewe, Assistant General Manager of Water Services Discussion Mr. Gewe presented an overview of the development of the public works (water) in the City of Los Angeles. Citizens pay for the service of water, that it is clean and safe, and the infrastructure to support the water system. The last water rate increase was in 1992. Due to 9/11, DWP has doubled its security force, and there have been water quality improvements. This will result in an 11% increase as soon as the ordinance is passed by the City Council on 2/12/04 and a 7% increase in July 2005. DWP has avoided increasing rates by using bonds to complete improvements. Not increasing rates is no longer possible. DWP rates are comparable to the rates of municipalities similar in size. The rate increase is not directly related to employee salaries but to the previously identified work needed. DWP does most of its own capital construction whereas other water utilities may not. This impacts the employee ratio. The perception that public entities are not as cost effective is a perception that must be dispelled. DWP should provide education to the public along with the rate increase information as these are important is important issues to the public. Mr. Gewe stated that while this is important the general attitude does not reflect that it is a priority to the public. DWP has received only $155,000 from the federal government for homeland security. The City Controller’s audit from one year ago was covered. Mr. Gewe says the DWP web site has the entire audit posted as well as the measures they are taking to comply and/or respond to the audit findings. There is a concern that the meeting for public input is the Tuesday (2/17/04) following the City Council vote on 2/12/04. Mr. Gewe says that this may be due to an oversight on the part of DWP since they are just now learning of the Neighborhood Councils‘ concern about this issue. On Tuesday, 2/17/04 at the Cabrillo Bath House there is a meeting for Public comments on this issue. Discussion Margaret Moilov made a motion to support the DWP increase. This motion died. Guillermo Villagran made a motion that the NWSPNC submit a resolution to the City Council recommending that they postpone their vote on the rate increase pending more information from opponents to this increase and to solicit more public comment. Amendment was made to the motion to send a copy of the resolution to the City Controller. Copies of this resolution will be sent to the Mayor, Councilwoman and the City Controller. The motion was seconded by Carlos Garcia. Motion passed. The motion will be drafted by Guillermo Villgran. The vote was: 7 yes, 3 No and 3 Abstain. The Issues Committee meeting scheduled for March 4, 2004 will be rescheduled so as not to conflict with the PCAC meeting. d. Port Committee 1) PCAC update – please see the written report that was submitted. John Greenwood asked for council members to attend the 3/4/04 meeting from 5:30-8pm to man the council booth to showcase the NWSPNC proposal for the China Shipping Mitigation funds. 2) China Shipping Proposal Update 3) Resolution on Port Capital Investment Priorities The motion was made as written in the Resolution presented to the NWSPNC by Carlos Garcia and seconded by Michael Nizetich. Motion failed. 6 yes, 5 no and 2 abstain e. Outreach Committee – status of brochure Guillermo Villagran – input from the council on possible improvements to the brochure were reviewed by the committee. Some of those suggestions will be implemented and the brochure is being revised. The brochure will include the artist’s drawings of the proposed new fire station, police station, and animal shelter. The brochure should be available for review at the next meeting. f. Bylaws Committee Mike Nizetich passed out the latest revision to the By Laws. Please attend the meeting on 2/23/04 at 6:30pm at Peck Park if you have any questions or concerns. 7. President’s Report a. Representative on Joint Transportation Committee Marisa Trutanich was appointed to this committee by John Greenwood. b. Liaison to City Controller William Upchurch was appointed to this position. c. Goals for fiscal year 2003-2004 John Greenwood passed out a handout from the August 23, 2003 NWSPNC Planning Retreat. Shari Hill asked for volunteers to the CERT training. She did gain some volunteers from the council. 8. Date of Next meeting - March 08, 6:30 p.m, Peck Park. The date was clarified and the availability for Peck Park will be checked. Meeting was adjourned at 9 p.m. Attachment A – Resolution Encouraging Increased Funding of Measures to Improve Security at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach Attachment B - Vote of Council Members from February 9, 2004 meeting Resolution Encouraging Increased Funding of Measures to Improve Security at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach Whereas the threats to the public safety, health and economic well being of the communities surrounding the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach increased significantly after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, Whereas a similar attack at the ports would have a devastating impact on the public health, economy and well being of the communities adjacent to the ports, Whereas the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach have identified approximately $240 million in potential improvements and investments to enhance port security, Whereas the ports to date have not been able to obtain from federal, state or local governments the necessary funds and funding commitments to make these improvements and investments, Be it resolved this day, February 9,2004, that the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council (NWSPNC) strongly encourages both ports to make the security of the ports from a terrorist attack their highest priority.. To that end, the NWSPNC strongly encourages both ports to examine their spending plans and priorities, and to jointly commit to provide a significant portion of the funds needed to improve security at both ports as soon as possible. We encourage other neighborhood councils, associations and port community advisory groups to adopt similar resolutions. We commend the ports' efforts in securing federal, state, and local funds to help pay for the identified port security improvements and investments. We also commend the efforts of our elected local government, state and congressional representatives to obtain the funding necessary to improve the security at the ports for the nation's benefit and the public health and safety of our communities. Attachment A to February 9, 2004 Minutes of Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council Meeting Attachment B – Vote of Council Members from February 9, 2004 meeting
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