Hollywood United Neighborhood Council Board Meeting
Minutes for February 21, 2006
6:30-8:30 PM
Community Room
First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood
Agenda Item 1 - Roll Call and Approval of the January 17, 2006 Minutes
Meeting called to order by President Susan Polifronio at 6:33pm.
Roll Call: Present: Abrahamian, Birnbaum, Chesse, Ettinger, Fisher, Foster, Gaw, Glazier, Larson, Polifronio, Royce, Schlessinger, Slossberg, Swan. Absent: Brown (excused), DeBello (excused), Suhayda (excused).
Minutes from the January 21, 2006 board meeting were approved after review and discussion by the board. Motion: Andrew Glazier to approve the minutes. Second: Jordan Birnbaum. Vote: Yes---12, No---0, Abstain---0.
Agenda Item 2 - LAPD Senior Lead Officer Reports
Joel Fisher: Officers not in attendance because of changed meeting day due to Presidents' Day. While the crime statistics overall in the city are up, they are down in Hollywood. The police response time in Hollywood is 1 st or 2 nd best in the city.
Agenda Item 3 - Public Comment: Items Not on the Agenda
Fran Reichenbach: - There are two things that are an issue to me. I haven't seen any unified action on the part of the HUNC Board to hold the city accountable with the Early Notification System. Many of you were upset about Councilman Garcetti making housing decisions without any input from you. People in the community are startled the HUNC Board has not sent a message to Garcetti about the CRA and about the Gower Project. If you can't take a stand at this early time in existence, it's very disappointing. While not everyone on the HUNC Board was notified of the Gower Project, Russell Brown was aware of the project and failed to inform the Board. I see no disciplinary action against Russell. As a unified voice, you need to take a stand for ethics.
Susan Polifronio: In response, we did send a letter to Garcetti expressing our disappointment at not being timely notified of the Gower Project. The letter was approved by the Board in December. The letter will be placed online. Russell Brown was aware that the CRA was interested in the property, but he did not know what the property was for.
Stephen Box: On the speaker cards, it asks if a speaker is a paid speaker and/or is a lobbyist. I wanted to bring that up to explain why one might ask if a speaker at a HUNC Board meeting is paid or is a lobbyist. In the minutes of a 2003 meeting, Andrew made a motion to stagger seats for elections. Thus, for the unclassified stakeholder election of 2004, the stakeholder receiving the second most votes should be elected to a one-year term. Andrew received the second most votes in the unclassified stakeholder district in the 2004 election. Therefore, his term should have lasted from 2004-2005.
Susan Polifronio: That should be taken up with DONE.
Stephen Box: (additional comment)
Andrew Glazier: I resign.
President Susan Polifronio calls a brief recess.
: The LA Marathon is scheduled for Sunday, March 19. The Marathon was created in 1985 after the Olympics in LA.
John Farion: There's a correction on page 2 of the minutes. I want to clarify that I asked HUNC if its financial support can go to Hollywood Health Partnership, not towards HCAN Bus tokens.
Motion: Susan Swan to make the correction to the minutes. Second: David Schlessinger. Vote: Yes---13, No---0, Abstain---0.
Agenda Item 4 - Executive Committee Reports
Vice President Susan Swan: I made some updates to the website. Please check it out and let me know if I've missed anything. We might move our site to a new host that would allow us to use a poll on the web to get community input.
Past President Joel Fisher: There were many people at City Hall this morning for the Shelter application for a CUP. There was a great deal of speakers for and against it. The decision has been deferred for 90 days to give each side time to collect letters and support.
President Susan Polifronio: I'm very dismayed at what just happened with Andrew Glazier. I've worked with him for years, and he's always been very dedicated and a hard worker. He's been accused of a lot. I'm dismayed these accusations caused him to resign.
I attended the Brown Act roundtable with the City Attorney. I will pass out their Quick Hits handout, which answers some common questions about the Brown Act. It was a good roundtable discussion with a lot of questions. I also learned that standing committee should have a defined, consistent membership. Motions should go to committee first, the committee should make a recommendation for Board action, and thn the motion should go to the Board for a vote. If we discuss items that are actionable with over 4 Board Members, we are committing a Brown Act violation. Rosenberg's Rules of Order are a condensed version of Robert's Rules of Order. Rosenberg's Rules may be easier for us to follow. The link to these rules have sent out be e-mail. I've asked for a roundtable on legal indemnification of Board Members.
Treasurer Maurece Chesse: I'm waiting for electronic confirmation for some purchases we made.
A. Report on Brown Act Roundtable with City Attorney, request for future topics For Action: See President Susan Polifronio's report above.
Agenda Item 5 - Committee, Task Force and other reports
Elections - Maurece Chesse: Board elections are set for Tuesday, May 23. There have been a lot of procedural changes for this year's elections. The election procedures went from 8 pages to 21 pages. We now have two candidate workshops, rather than one. There will also be a Candidates Forum, at which candidates can address the public. The 1 st mailer is ready to be sent out. We send a condensed version of the procedures to the stakeholders.
Bylaws: no report (as Andrew Glazier was to make the report)
Education & Youth - Gary Slossberg: We had a committee meeting on February 7. We discussed having a clean-up project at the Fern Dell area of Griffith Park on April 8 from 9 to 12 and involving kids from local schools. We are coordinating that project with the Oaks Homeowners Association, who has done projects in this area before. On May 5, FOLAR is hosting their annual Education Day to teach about the LA River. We are encouraging 6 th grade students at Cheremoya to attend that. The following day, as part of the Mayor's Day of Service, we want to plan a clean-up project at Bronson Canyon Park. We will ask students to go to this project, rather than the River Clean-up that same day. Lastly, tomorrow evening from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at LeConte Middle School, there will be a Days of Dialogue event to promote cross-cultural dialogue. I have flyers for anyone who wants more information.
Agenda Item 7 - Special Items
B. Letter requested to be sent to Central Regional Volunteer Oversight Committee to recommend using Prop K funds (1.5 million dollars) to partially fund the purchase of Cahuenga Peak, thereby permanently making it a part of Griffith Park and protecting it from development, for discussion and action. The next RVNOC meeting is on Thursday, Feb. 23 rd at 6PM (in the CAO Main Conference Room, 15 th floor, Room 1500 City Hall East, 200 N. Main Street)
Susan Swan: There's a meeting this Thursday at 4pm to discuss the issue regarding Cahuenga Peak. I would like to see Prop K funds used to partially purchase Cahuenga Peak to make it part of Griffith Park.
Motion: Susan Swan to write a letter of support in favor of using Prop K funds (1.5 million dollars) to partially fund the purchase of Cahuenga Peak, thereby permanently making it a part of Griffith Park and protecting it from development. Second: David Schlessinger. Vote: Yes---13, No---0, Abstain---0.
A. Fire Station 82/ Proposed Regional Fire Station at Florentine Gardens: update and possible letter for discussion and action.
President Susan Polifronio turned over gavel to Vice President Susan Swan.
Erik Sanjurjo: Fire Station 82 is not going to Florentine Gardens. We need to find another location. We will look into other sites that have previously been discussed. Our office has a meeting next week with the fire department and City Attorney. LaBonge's office is peripherally involved in the issue, although the fire station is in Garcetti's district. One of the major difficulties in finding a new location is the need to find a place large enough for the fire station and training facility.
Susan Swan: I'm shocked that Hollywood United NC is not involved. Didn't red flag days and other developments hinge on getting a regional fire station?
David Schlessinger: I want to put out that our needs have not changed. I heard that we might end up with two small stations.
Erik Sanjurjo We're very disappointed just like you are.
Viktoria Gaw: Have they considered building on the present fire station location?
Erik Sanjurjo It's not big enough. They need at least 2 acres.
David Schlessinger: I request that this item be on the agenda next meeting with an invitation to the fire department to be present at the meeting.
Susan Polifronio: I would like to send a letter to ? presenting our general concerns.
Motion: David Schlessinger to send a letter to City Council and the Fire Department stating our concerns and dismay at abandoning the plans for a regional fire station at Florentin Gardens. Second: Susan Swan.
Norma Foster: Why are saying "dismay"? Why are we mentioning Florentine Gardens?
Vote: Yes---11, No---0, Abstain---2
Business: no report
Neighborhood & Environment: See Agenda Item 7B in regards to Cahuenga Park.
Public Safety & Transportation: The Mayor appointed a taskforce to focus on emergency preparedness.
PLUM: no report (as Andrew Glazier was to make the report)
Events: Arts & Culture: no report
Social Services & Faith-Based - Hilary Royce: 3 Board Members attended a meeting with CRA to discuss the Gower Project. We're not clear yet about what the project will be, so we decided to meet again. We also plan to have a town hall meeting in a month or so to discuss the project. The 1 st hour of the town hall would focus on education about the homeless issue. The 2 nd hour would focus on information and dialogue about the Gower Project.
Erik Sanjurjo There are still questions regarding what services will be provided and who the clientele will be. We want to get a better demographic picture of the homeless population in Hollywood. We want to know who is least served, what their needs are, etc. We have a meeting with the CRA on March 15 to get more details.
Historic Preservation & Residential Zoning: no report
Gower Task Force: See Social Services & Faith-Based Committee Report above.
Human Trafficking - Norma Foster: We had the first big meeting at City Hall. 5 Neighborhood Councils in Hollywood will appoint representatives to go to the a Town Hall meeting on Human Trafficking. Also, LA service providers will be trained on how to detect human trafficking. LA is the 1 st city to engage in this type of effort.
CPAB - Norma Foster: We had a good meeting and briefing with Captain Sanchez. We have a new Senior Lead Officer. She will be at the next Board meeting.
DWP - Andrew Ettinger: I handed out a packet of information about DWP. It's a lengthy report on the background and MOU process. I believe we should support what CPOR supports. I would like to agendize this item for the next Board meeting. I recommend Chris Hessie as an alternate in case I can't attend a meeting.
Hollywood Community Plan: There's a meeting regarding the plan tomorrow from 5pm to 8pm in the Mayor's Auditorium.
LA River/FOLAR - Viktoria Gaw: I went to the meeting in Atwater Village. We got together in groups to decide what to do with our area of the river. We are trying to get businesses to turn around so that their trash no longer faces the river. We discussed moving the toxic waste plant in Glendale anyway from the river.
City Budget/Laura Chick: no report
Collaborative Learning Project: Please fill out the online survey. You should have received a letter regarding it. Each Board Member has their own unique barcode.
A. CRA/Gower Task Force Ctte Report: See Gower Task Force report above
B. HUNC Election Announcement: See Election report above.
C. 1) Shelter Night Club application for Conditional Use Permit For Action
This item was discussed at the special meeting last Saturday. The letter opposing
Shelter's application for a CUP was sent.
2) Basque Night Club Expansion For Action:
3) Letter regarding modification of Street Dedication For Action:
Casey ?: My understanding is that Andrew Glazier wants the street dedication to go from La Brea to Western. My recommendation is to do away with the letter for street dedication or, if we approve it, to restrict it to HUNC's boundaries. The Eastwood Coalition wants to have more setbacks.
Richard McNaughton: I handed a letter pointing out the problems with the street dedication. Normally when a developer goes to PLUM, we talk about traffic and safety issues. Usually we only cover a short area. This letter regards all of Hollywood. I think we should vote on the letter. It's disingenuous to have the item on the agenda and push it back to a later meeting when you see people opposing the item.
Susan Polifronio: According to the letter from Jim McQuiston says that this item should not even be on the agenda.
Joel Fisher: We can the item off the agenda by the decision of the chair.
Motion: Joel Fisher to defer action on the Street Dedication Letter agenda item until next meeting. Second: Jordan Birnbaum. Vote: Yes---12, No---0, Abstain---0.
4) Approval of 6 month subscription to SurveyMonkey Service For Action: Tabled to March as Andrew Glazier was scheduled to present, but was no longer in attendance.
D. Human Trafficking Report on Upcoming Conference - See Human Trafficking Report above.
Agenda Item 6 - Old Business
A. Discussion of LANCC:
Motion: Joel Fisher to move LANCC discussion to March meeting. Second: ? .
Norma Foster: I recommend that everyone look at Jim McQuiston's letter regarding LANCC and at the LA Times Article. Please study the LANCC issue before next meeting.
Vote: Yes---12, No---0, Abstain---0.
Adjournment
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