BOARD MEETING MINUTES – Monday, May 20th, 2019 – 7:00 p.m., Fuller Park
Board members present: Dan Williams, Pat Collins, Ryan Fisher, Briana Daymont, Brian McDonald, Dirk Nicholson, Erik Brenna, Carl Arrell, Kellie Hanson, Valerie Hurst,
Board members absent: Dick Fiala, Steve Wohlford, Joy Gottschalk, John Dukich,
Also present:Sally Bauer (TNA Executive Director), Jeremy Schroeder (Ward 11 Councilmember),Rachel Hoben (Fuller Park Director), Jacob Frey (Mayor), Brad Bourn (Parks Commissioner)
Called to order:7:04
Welcome
Bri welcomed the attendees and introduced the speakers. Questions for speakers were submitted via notecards at the beginning of the meeting and via social media.
Mayor Jacob Frey
Mayor Frey thanked the TNA board for having him. TNA and neighborhood organizations are key to grass-roots engagement and policy implementation. He is focused on 3 issues.
First, he is all-in on affordable housing and he believes there is an affordable housing crisis right now with people are being displaced from neighborhoods due to skyrocketing property values and rents rising out of control. Minneapolis is investing $40 million (three times the previous record) towards affordable housing, most of which is going to workforce housing (eg those earning 50-60% median income) and the lower end. He is working on providing tenant protections which he believes has to be an early focus. Rather than prioritize everything he wants to do a couple things exceedingly well.
His second focus issue is economic inclusion. He wants to make sure that communities left out of the equation have opportunities that are afforded to everyone else, such as entrepreneurism, lending opportunities and access to capital. He also is focusing money on cultural districts in the city, and has set up a revolving fund to help pay for some of the capital issues as they come up.
His third focus is police and community relations. This is an ongoing issue for the entire administration as lots of trust has been lost and he is aiming to win that back. He thinks Chief Arrondo is doing great work. They instituted a body camera policy one year ago and have seen compliance rise from 53% to 95% over the year. They are conducting implicit bias and de-escalation training and making sure officers have support and resources to do their jobs well. We should expect a lot from officers but need to give them resources to succeed.
What impacts of the Minneapolis 2040 plan do you see on Tangletown in the next 5-10 years?Mayor Frey doesn’t think there will be massive changes in this timeframe but there will be needed changes. Minneapolis has a long history of intentional segregation; in the past zoning has enforced that unless you can own a fairly large parcel you cannot live in vast swaths of the city. The 2040 plan tries to encourage a diversity of housing options and thus a diversity of people. He does not believe there will not be areas of the city that will be bulldozed. We might see larger homes that could accommodate duplexes. In commercial corridors with only one or two stories now you might see two or three in the future with commercial space on the first floor. He cannot predict what’ll happen on each block but it will not be massive changes in the next 3-4 years, but over time the plan allows for the city to continue to evolve. He stated that the city is much less dense now than in the 1950s when the population was 90,000 more.
Can you touch on anything we should expect to impact Tangletown in next 6-12 months? Mayor Frey said that the city operates on much quicker cycles than the state Legislature. Tangletown will be impacted by the city budget and property taxes. He is doing everything possible to account for a growing city and growing tax base without increasing taxes much on individual parcels. Hypothetically if there was an increase in the city’s property tax levy that does not mean that our individual taxes will increase by that same amount, but only that the final dollar level has been increased. For example, if a new building is built and the previous building generated $35,000 in tax revenue the new building might now generate $2.5 million per year. To capture that value that the building owner has put into the city you have to increase the budget but that may have no impact on your taxes because revenue is coming from other sources.
He believes we can only achieve progress when working with a broad-based coalition. Please reach out to him at any time. He believes the beauty of Minneapolis is that officials are incessantly involved which allows them to do some unique and incredible things.
Councilmember Jeremy Schroeder
Jeremy has been on the job since 2017 and has a background in nonprofits working with city and state. Affordable housing is a passion of his and he tries to be constantly involved and accessible.
He believes the Neighborhoods 2020 plan (N2020), passed by the council last Friday, is a framework for how neighborhoods should operate. He feels lucky to represent TNA because we have been very involved. He gave an update on the Transportation Action Plan (TAP) which is part of the Minneapolis 2040 plan framework with the goal of making the City accessible to all. While he hasn’t heard much about transportation issues in this district, other neighborhoods have seen increases in truck freight traffic which the TAP will try to address. He is also working on environmental sustainability, reducing emissions, and the 100% renewable engergy by 2030 goal which was approved last year. Other projects include a sustainable building code and a senior resource fair to be held in the fall.
What is your vision for the role of neighborhood associations now and going forward?He sees neighborhood organizations like TNA as place-based organizations that can fulfil the city’s goals, like energy sustainability and others. He thinks it’s easy to work with businesses and utilities since they have to come to the city for permits and other requirements, but that doesn’t work for residents. There is an education component that neighborhood organizations can drive. The question is how to incentivize neighborhood organizations to do the right things, especially when Neighborhoods 2020 calls their funding into question. Jeremy wants neighborhoods to have the resources to succeed and encourages everyone to keep submitting comments since it is helpful to hear what neighborhoods need.
What are the demographics of Tangletown and how do you reflect that in the support you give Tangletown versus other neighborhoods?Jeremy said that Tangletown has one of the highest concentrations of residents in the creative industry which he thinks is an undeveloped resource. A Tangletown’s ZIP code also has one of the highest concentrations of electric cars and the neighborhood has been a big supporter of sustainability. There are areas of need elsewhere in the city that Tangletown just doesn’t have and he is making sure solutions for those other areas don’t harm Tangletown. He has been somewhat disappointed in the N2020 discussion because it has pitted neighborhoods against each other.
Parks Commissioner Brad Bourn
Brad has been a commissioner on the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB) for 10 1/2 years. Because of his board presidency in 2018 he has been spending more time on City-wide issues. He represents everything south of Lake Street and West of Interstate 35W. He thanked Rachel (Fuller Park Director) for all the new Fuller Park programming like family and youth programs. This is also the first season with air conditioning at Fuller park. Fuller has benefited from the work MPRB has done with the City for the new joint plan called MPP2020. He said that many parks amenities are past their usable life. When he was first on the board there were one or two wading pools offline, while last year seven or eight were. MPRB will spend $11 million per year on rehabilitation for the next 20 years instead of constructing new parks, with funding directed towards parks with the combination of highest infrastructure need and historic under-investment.
The Minnehaha Creek Master Plan and the Southwest Area Master Plan are coming up for a 45 day public comment and draft plans soon. The board, in partnership with the city and state legislature, is implementing a “park dedication fee” which is an upfront fee imposed on new development in the city to account for increased density and its impact on parks. Neighborhood associations have a huge impact on how that fee allocated will be allocated, but the bad news is that Tangletown has none of this funding yet. In January MPRB hired only the 12th superintendent in its history and the new superintendent’s passion is youth and family engagement. Brad mentioned the recent fire at the Bde Maka Ska restaurant building, which is unsalvageable and must be demolished. He said a good way to support parks is to patronize park restaurants as 12c per dollar of sales goes back into the park system.
Brad asked for comments on the park system or the master plan to be sent to him. He hasn’t seen full recommendation yet but the goal is to move away from 60 year old infrastructure. Many many parks were designed the same way and now MPRB is trying to figure out how to better distribute amenities to fit each neighborhood. Designs may have more uniqueness in each park than people may be used to. He encouraged everyone to take a higher level look at the designs and account for amenities that may be nearby. His goal is to serve everyone better and even if differently.
What is the timing for Fuller updates?Brad said the puts together five-year capital improvement plans for each park’s overhaul and Fuller is not in the next 5 year plan. When they allocate funding to a given park they do public engagement in that neighborhood to decide the specifics like how many ball courts, what kind of amenities, etc.
Committee Updates
Spaces: The committee held a Spring Spruce Up event with around 65 participating households. Please submit your photos for the contest. Utility boxes in the neighborhood were wrapped last year anti-graffiti material featuring neighborhood artists’ designs. The committee need volunteers to help with the ongoing Washburn water tower landscaping project. The committee will be installing Tangleotwn banners along major thoroughfares, will be holding fall cleanup event, replacing the historical marker at the Washburn water tower, and working with MPRB on upcoming master plans.
Engagement: Ryan presented welcome bags for new residents which contain information about TNA, neighborhood businesses, and Tangletown in general. They will be distributed quarterly as we get property sale closure reports. The committee hosted the first ever Winterfest to increase community engagement during winter months. They are partnering with Lynnhurst and Kenny for Lyndale Open Streets (June 2nd) to serve popcorn and snow cones near the Washburn Library. TNA’s 4th of July event (which usually draws several hundred people) is right around the corner and the committee is looking for volunteers. They are planning additional events in late summer and fall and have received requests for more adult focused activities. The annual neighborhood garage sale will be held on Sept 14th.
Environmental: last year the committee worked to eliminate PERC (a hazardous dry-cleaning chemical) at LaMac cleaners. Participants in the the Litter-be-gone event, held in partnership with the Washburn High School Green Team, collected eight bags of trash and four bags of recyclables. The committee received a $10,000 grant to promote increased organics recycling sign-ups and use. New initiatives include storm drain stenciling, organics recycling outreach and education, storm drain adoption, sustainability Q&A in the TNA newsletter and on Facebook, a sustainability cooking class, and rebates for home energy improvements.
An attendee asked if one of the committees was responsible for pedestrian safety issues like crosswalks, pedestrian awareness in alleys, and winter sidewalk clearing. Dirk answered that the Spaces committee is and while it’s hard to directly affect change to city streets he’d like more people interested in safety to join the Spaces committee..
Bylaws Updates
TNA bylaws have not been updated in a long time and were fairly outdated. Bri outlined the highlights of our previously proposed, which include a 6 consecutive year term limit, officer term limits of one year, allowing the board to change the annual meeting date, and placing most financial policies in a separate financial policy document rather than in the bylaws themselves.
Carl moved to approve the proposed bylaws changes, Pat seconded. Voice vote, all in favor, motion approved.
Officer Reports:
Secretary– Brian made a motion to approve the April minutes, Carl seconded. Voice vote, all in favor, motion approved.
Treasurer – Brian presented TNA’s 2018 profit and loss statement. 2018 total income was $69,917.35 and expenses were $63,090.13. He also presented the 2019 budget which expects $53,765.03 income and $51,865.03 expenses. Year-to-date income is $12,447.19 with expenses of $21,262.73 for year-to-date net loss of -$8,815.54, but this doesn’t account for upcoming reimbursements from our NRP and CPP contracts with the city.
Board Elections
Three current members are up for re-election if they wish to continue on the board. A total of nine board seats are up for election today. Board members Dirk Nicholson and Valerie Hurst nominated themselves for re-election. Attendees Craig Wiester, Brenda Anderson, Bernadette Tomko, and Alyssa Thull nominated themselves and gave short introductions.
Voice vote from the board and all attendees to elect all six nominees for seats on the Tangletown Neighborhood Association board, all in favor, none opposed.
Wrap Up
Kellie presented upcoming TNA and Fuller events, including Eureka Recycling Plant Tours (June 1), Open Streets Lyndale (June 2), Spaces Committee meeting (June 4), and the Fuller Park Ice Cream Social.
Adjourned: 9:00
Minutes submitted by Dan Williams, TNA Secretary