Roll Call and Introduction of Guests: Board members present:
Chris Nevil, Steve Knight, who is also President of the Del Rey Neighborhood
Council, Kathy Brier, Guy Doeh, Michelle Rudo,Jack Cumming, Janice Santos, and
Tobyann Mandel. Guests present: Courtney Wong, Field representative of State
Assemblyman Mike Gordon, Celia Brugman, Coordinator of the Southwest Voter Registration
Education Project, Aaron Bernardin a year long resident of the area, and Donald
Dombrowski, who technically is not on the Board, but has been attending the
traffic meetings, and Board meetings. Flora Gil Krisiloff, Candidate for L.A.
City Council in Tuesday, March 8, 2005 election stopped in to give us her regards
and remind us to vote.
Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the February 7, 2005 Board meeting prepared
by Elizabeth Pollock, recording secretary, were discussed with one correction
that Joe and Betty White were also at the Traffic Committee meeting on February
6, 2005 [Betty’s name had been misspelled in the original minutes and
Joe left off]. After the correction, the minutes were approved.
Treasurer’s Report: The transaction detail report
for February 1 through February 28, 2005, were distributed at the onset of the
meeting. There was a slight discussion about a prior correction.
Meeting: It was announced that George Gross and Casey Anderson-Gross were unable to attend because George’s father had a serious bicycle accident in the L.A. Marathon on Sunday, March 6, 2005.
Guest speakers: Flora Gil Krisiloff and associate greeted us from the doorway
and reminded us to vote.
Celia Brugman, coordinator for Southwest Voters Registration Education Project
[SVREP], described her organizations national efforts in getting people to register
to vote and then to vote. Particular emphasis is placed on the Spanish speaking
population, although they do have an outreach in Koreatown and in the African-American
community. She is particularly interested in the Mar Vista, Venice, Del Rey
region, and was interested in getting volunteers through us to help man registration
sites. This started a discussion by Jack Cumming that Hispanics need to view
themselves as part of the larger community, and not just focus on one or two
“Hispanic issues”. Celia said she thought that this would come about
in steps. First they get their voice and then they sort of integrate with the
whole. Jack Cumming again voiced his concern that Spanish speaking people represent
a large part of the population, but need to look at issues as a whole, and our
frustration in not getting more of the Spanish speaking population involved
in Homeowners…especially with the inclusion of Mar Vista Gardens we have
a large population. Guy Doeh inquired as to the organization’s funding.
Celia replied that they have fundraising events like golf tournaments plus a
number of active people are volunteers. Guy wanted more statistics than she
could supply from memory but did say that 22% of the registered voters are of
Latin descent, and 60% vote. She didn’t have any comparisons with other
ethnic groups. This discussion of approaches was getting lengthy and Chris Nevil
suggested that we needed to get to other issues. This might be a project for
homeowners to have a person from the Board…especially a Spanish speaking
one to actually pursue active dialogue with Spanish speaking community. Power
and Mar Vista Gardens were places where we might get some contacts.
Next guest speaker was Courtney Wong, Mike Gordon, State Assemblyman’s, field representative. She gave an update on Mike Gordon’s brain turmor. still do not know if it is malignant or not. He is on the many committees: V.A., health, natural resources, and has introduced 21 bills including ones involving LAX expansion. He was formerly the mayor of El Segundo so that is an area of special interest to him. She gave out a sheet on Mike Gordon and gave out her business card for a contact.
Guest Aaron Bernardin didn’t actually give any kind of speech but did
give an indication that he was interested in the workings of our merry band,
and we are trying to persuade him to become an active member of the Board.
Kathy Brier reported on the police activities. She had already had her report
posted on the WEB. The discussion mostly centered on Sgt. Beacham’s leaving
Pacific Division and how his exceptional service to our community should be
recognized. There was discussion and two motions were passed. A perpetual plaque
for the Pacific Division not to cost more than a $100.00 should be purchased
with Sgt. Beacham being the first honoree. The second a plaque specifically
for Sgt. Beacham to take not costing more than $50.00. Chris Nevil, Kathy Brier
and Guy Doeh are an ad hoc design committee for these plaques.
Steve Knight discussed getting articles for the Newsletter including one from
Jack Cumming’s article on the Culver City purposeful gridlock system.
The groundwork for the General Meeting on April 6, 2005 at Del Rey School has
been laid: permits, permissions, etc. Cindy Miscikowski, our termed-out L.A.
City Council person will be there, and the prospective “run-off”
replacement candidates. Then the discussion was if we should present her with
a parting gift, which led into a discussion of how effective she really was.
There was some disagreement on this although everyone agreed she did hire effective
people..especially Sandi Sawa. We agreed that a “goodby” bouquet
would not be out of order. A motion was passed that such a bouquet not to cost
more than $50.00 to be presented at our meeting would be appropriate. I believe
that we are to elect a new Board at this meeting.
Since George Gross and Casey Anderson were not at the meeting, the discussions
on membership and website updates were tabled.
Steve Knight who is also president of the Del Rey Neighborhood Council announced
the Council’s meeting at the Del Rey Middle School on Thursday, March
10, 2005. He also mentioned that the turnout for the Council sponsored candidate
debate only had about 60 or so attendees. He agreed that the candidates all
seemed to agree in principal on many of the issues…of course, who isn’t
going to say that “gridlock is out of control,” the area needs a
better master plan to prevent overbuilding, etc.
Don Dombrowski went to a meeting on the Marina soundwall. Apparently, Caltrans
is broke, but is borrowing money from MTA to install a soundwall on the 90 freeway
north of Centinela and Ballona Creek. He agreed to write up an article on this
for the newsletter.
Discussion of the closing of the Post Office on Alla and Jefferson and the potential
use of the property which measures somewhere between 15 to 20 acres. The usual
discussion on how we lack open space and the need for a park there went on.
It was mentioned that since it is Federal property it has to be offered to other
Federal agencies for use first. Jack Cumming suggested that naming it after
Howard Hughes as a national park might be an influencing factor. Since this
is a Federal “case,” we need to approach all levels of government.
We need to present it in a positive light on what an asset it would be. We will
need to persuade the local government officials so that they can join in lobbying
the federal representation in this area to push it through. It will be tough
considering the financial situation that government at all levels finds themselves.
We did agree that a positive letter citing the positive affects of having open
space park area should be written to start some ball rolling.
Steve reported that the group proposing the AT&T cell tower at 5101 Inglewood
sent a letter to the zoning commission.
More on Starbuck’s. Chris called Keith Glassman for the data that Starbuck’s
was supposed to supply on the extended hours and also supply delivery times,
The information was not forthcoming so no action
was taken. It was discussed that if we could iron out the time, the supply delivery
times, and the traffic patterns, there would be no objection to Starbuck’s.
Comments on 501©3 conversion. Elizabeth Pollock was not at this meeting.
Tobyann Mandel had done some checking in response to a letter that Elizabeth
had received suggesting that we were more appropriately classified as a 501
© 4 not for profit organization which is more for public service organizations
rather than actual charitable organization. The research agrees with this assessment
that we should be a 501 © 4 instead of a 501 © 3. The IRS also sent
a letter to the Del Rey Homeowners & Neighborhood Association to Lillian
Jenkins requesting some basic information as to gross receipts and assets since
they have not received a report, Form 990. Since our gross receipts never came
even close to the $25,000.00 minimum gross receipts that is the “trigger”
for requiring a report, we never filed one. Questionnaire was completed, signed
by Chris Nevil. Toby photocopied it and mailed it to the IRS.
Toby did tell the group that one of the major practical differences between
the 501[c] 3 and 501 [c] 4 is that donations to the “4” are NOT
tax deductible to the donor. However, we should be able to get the preferential
postal rates that 501 [c] 3 gets.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 PM