BOARD MEETING MINUTES – Monday, March 18th, 2019 – 7:00 p.m., Fuller Park
Board members present: Dan Williams, Pat Collins, Steve Wohlford, Ryan Fisher, Briana Daymont, Dirk Nicholson, Erik Brenna, Valerie Hurst, Joy Gottschalk, John Dukich, Brian McDonald, Kellie Hanson, Carl Arrell
Board members absent: Dick Fiala
Also present: Councilmember Jeremy Schroeder, Rachel Hoben (Fuller Park Director), Nate Gottlieb (Southwest Journal reporter)
Called to order: 7:03
Officer Reports:
Secretary – Steve made a motion to approve the February minutes, Dirk seconded. Voice vote, all in favor, motion approved. Sally will follow-up with Stacy at the City about the question in the February treasurer’s report about returning the $10,000 reimbursement to city.
Treasurer – Brian is working on the profit and loss statement. Tax preparation is on-track for the May 15 deadline.
Fuller Park
Rachel announced that Fuller’s summer program guide and community education guides are now available. A spring pickleball program starts in May. It costs $50 for team of two for the six-week league with 45 minutes of play each night. There will be a “bags” league too.
Councilmember Jeremy Schroeder
Jeremy state he had no specific comments tonight but wanted to stay for the discussion of Neighborhoods 2020 and offer input when he could.
Neighborhoods 2020
Pat presented her draft of TNA’s response to the Neighborhoods 2020 (N2020) plan, divided into responses to specific sections of the plan.
Neighborhood & Community Relations: The board agreed with the goals of the section. Steve proposed that we include a statement that neighborhoods have different makeups and that a one-size-fits-all approach to diversity requirements doesn’t work. Bri said this could be encompassed in the point about neighborhood organizations having a voice in diversity requirements. Sally pointed out the current N2020 wording takes neighborhood demographics into account but that a positive statement from the board reinforcing that point would be useful.
Governance: the board agreed with these goals.
Meetings & Participation: the board agreed with this section.
Funding: the board discussed what “community organizations” meant versus neighborhood organizations. Sally said this was very under-specified in N2020. Community organizations could be cultural groups or other interest-based groups (eg bicycling, etc). Jeremy suggested HOME Line (https://homelinemn.org) as another example. Steve did not agree with the statement that TNA “strongly supports” community organization funding if there are still so many unanswered questions. Carl suggested wording of “we support a well defined application and funding guidelines for these groups and look forward to working with them after NCR develops guidelines”. Pat adjusted the bullet point to largely use Carl’s language.
The board discussed support for discretionary and impact funding as specified in N2020. There was concern around the impact requirement of yearly increasing participation to continue receiving funding and if that was too high a bar. For example, if an event is successful and impactful then losing impact funding just because that event doesn’t annually increase engagement every year seemed wrong. Steve suggested adding language that TNA believes that increased engagement is not the only measure of success.
The board agreed with all other points..
Workgroup & Neighborhood organizations: Steve proposed adding language that TNA would like to ensure that the input from workgroups and other organizations was taken into account in the final N2020 plan and that the process for considering that feedback was transparent. Sally recommended asking for at least a minimum of a response from the City to recommendations from various groups. Jeremy summarized some of the feedback process but also agreed with the need for more transparency. Steve suggested the language that “we’d like to see a transparent decision making process that considers, respects, and thoughtfully responds to suggestions/comments/etc from relevant stakeholders.”
Pat will make edits and send the final version to the board for final approval. Pat/Bri would also like to allow each member to submit this document themselves with personalized statements. Sally suggested reaching out to former board members, committee members, and volunteers to submit statements too.
Bylaws
Bri suggested voting on bylaws in April, which should be possible as long as we are following our existing bylaws for voting. The board discussed electronic voting and the requirements around participation when board members would be unable to be physically present. Steve also proposed limiting the language around executive committee responsibilities between board meetings, which was adopted. Steve was also uncomfortable with the level of review that the bylaws have had. Carl suggested that our original bylaws were not heavily legally reviewed either, and that we can update the bylaws at any future time.
Joy moved to publish the edited bylaws to the public for comment with the intent to vote on the updated bylaws at our April meeting. Carl seconded. Steve moved to amend the motion to hire a lawyer review. No second. Voice vote on the original motion; all in favor, motion approved. Sally will also pass the bylaws to the City for review.
Committees
Spaces: the committee developed a response to the MPRB master plan proposals for triangles, Fuller, and Minnehaha Creek. Sally suggested submitting the document as a resolution on behalf of the Spaces committee of TNA.
Engagement: the committee is working on final design of welcome tote bags. The committee also proposed adding a “vote or your favorite Tangletown restaurant” feature for Open Streets Lyndale.
Environmental: the committee is making progress on the work plan and figuring out timelines. Andrea Siegel agreed to co-chair the committee with Joy. The Washburn Green Team attended the last meeting and discussed better engagement with TNA.
Executive Director Report
The Interstate 35W southbound exit to 46th St. will be closed for a year starting in late June as part of MnDOT’s 35W project. Sally suggested coordinating a multi-neighborhood meeting as a forum for resident feedback.
The Engagement committee is ordering tote bags and Sally wanted to ask if other committees would like to combine orders. Ryan suggested that a smaller initial order would be better. Steve suggested that tote bag giveaways would detract from the uniqueness of the welcome bag project.
Sally’s current plan for annual meeting speakers is to invite Councilmember Jeremy Schroeder, Parks Board representative Brad Bourn and possibly Mayor Jacob Frey. Steve suggested limiting the number of speakers (versus last year’s annual meeting) and enforcing strict time limits.
Sally reviewed and categorized all open-ended questions to our recent neighborhood surveys. She will send results to specific committees.
Executive Director Annual Performance Review
After discussion Joy moved to delegate performance and compensation decisions resulting from the Executive Director annual performance review to the executive committee. Dirk second. Voice vote, all in favor, motion approved.
Adjourned: 9:00
Minutes submitted by Dan Williams, TNA Secretary