October 2022 Board Meeting Minutes

Tangletown Neighborhood Association October 17th 2022

Attendees: Ben Levy, Will Young, Andrea Siegel, Kyle Goldschmidt, Pat Collins, Heather Grovum, Anthony Thompson, Emily Koski, Dan Treinan, Kellie Hanson

Called to order at 7:04pm

Councilmember Koski update:  

  1. Community meeting on 10/25 at Nokomis Community Center.  Seniors Fair with Council President Jenkins from 9-3 on 10/26 at Sabathani Community Center.  Trust, Inc. have fall market on 10/22 at Diamond Lake Lutheran Church from 10-3.  City has returned to weekly collection of yard waste through week of November 28-December 2.  Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program is now underway where specific areas can be submitted for review by November 1 to use for review for 2023 projects.  Fall sweeps start tomorrow to remove leaves from curbs/sewers.
  1. Public hearing at 10/26 at 1:30 on nomination of Brian O’Hara for police chief.  Public hearing at 1:30 on 10/18 for government structure ordinance change.

Secretary update:  Will Young moved to approve minutes with amended second-bullet point on page 3, Kyle seconded at 7:20pm.  Passed unanimously.

Treasurer update:  NRP contract came into the budget about a week ago.  Committees are now advised to consider the cost and return on investment of all events going forward.  Cost of dumpster for Alley Clean Up was a net loss of $425.32.  Kyle proposes that all events be revisited to figure out if events could be pulled off at lower cost.  

Livability & Engagement Committee:  no members present to provide update.  We would like to move welcome bag deliveries to Livability Committee to find volunteers.

Environmental Committee:  

1. Currently in goal setting to figure out how to utilize $15,000 in leftover grant money.  The discussion is to tie it to solar power in some way  It will be a really large project, so they are exploring finding partners, funding, and location.  Also trying to gauge the temperature of the rest of the Board as to whether to take it on as a whole board rather than just a committee.

One option is developing a solar park site in the neighborhood (possibly Fuller Park).  Another option is to pool members of Tangletown to do a group solar buy from whatever solar farm has availability and to provide a rebate to neighbors to encourage people to use solar power more expansively.  Final result does not have to specifically benefit people in Tangletown to comply with the grant.

There doesn’t seem to have been a previous neighborhood to have completed a similar project.  A small group in North Minneapolis worked with North High School, but it is not clear whether it was any specific Neighborhood Association.  North High has subscribers from both the neighborhood and throughout the city.  Minneapolis Climate Action is approaching neighborhoods to promote community solar.  One of the potential benefits is distributed solar where proximity to the site makes it more beneficial.

2. The Tech Dump was extremely successful with 7 semitrucks full of dropped off gadgets.  The initial quote was for one truck, yet seven were used, so it is difficult to determine the actual cost.  It was a partnership of 15 neighborhoods, and that seemed to be too broad.  Next year would probably eliminate paper shredding and a restriction of the type of electronics people can bring.  Between the 15 neighborhoods, $3,250 was contributed and over $5,000 in donations were taken in. 

3. Kickoff even for the Lawns to Legumes had more than 100 attendees.  Another educational event will be held in the spring.

Equity Committee:  no members present to provide update

Building Land Use & Housing Committee:  

  1. Autumn Alley Clean Up was successful, but may be tweaked going forward.
  2. Discussion about Board submitting a “request” through the website on behalf of the whole Association.

Will Young moved to have Ben Levy submit the five intersections with the most complaints in the survey to the website. Kyle seconded.  Motion passed unanimously.

Merger Taskforce:  

  1. Challenges going forward are all about funding.  The basic operating budget going forward is $38,000.  Combining the three would provide annual funding (under current budget) of approximately $100,000
  2. Work group narrowed down to two models.
    1. Both increase the geographic service area and population of volunteers/fundraisers/participants
    2. Formal partnership: form a legal entity with city funding all to the partnership and 3 organizations still existing with no money outside of the partnership
      1. Pros
        1. Orgs stay as “three” organizations that can stay fairly independent
        2. Staff and projects will have one entity to reduce admin costs
      2. Cons
        1. Adds a layer of complexity
        2. Probably still does not create total collaboration
        3. Any entity could leave leaving other two back in limbo
        4. Possibility of redundancy if collaboration doesn’t work out
        5. Confusing model
      3. Bylaws will govern the actual operation
    3. Merger/consolidation
      1. New entity would be created before associations go away
      2. Pros
        1. Reduces admin needs and redundancies
      3. Cons
        1. Loss of unique neighborhood identities
        2. Might still not be sustainable
    4. We have not yet heard the appetite from the other neighborhoods.
      1. All organizations suffer from a lack of volunteers and fundraising
      2. While Lyndale has a larger budget, they are having similar financial problems because funding an educational initiative
    5. Andrea ran a poll of attendees, results:
      1. Partnership – 25%
      2. Consolidation – 50%
      3. Independent – 50%

Executive Director Report:

  1. Equitable Engagement Application – looking for more data from the renters and residents making less than $50,000.  Median household income in neighborhood is about $142,000.  City is looking at what we will do to reach those renters moving forward.  Andrea will release a draft for our review to make comments, provide feedback.

Application is due at the end of the month, so this will be circulated for a final vote by email.

The Executive Committee will meet before the end of October.

Adjourn at 8:43pm

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