Minutes
PALMS NElGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
Seventh meeting of the Council and its
REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005

IMAN Center, 3376 Motor Ave., Palms, California, U.S.A.

Please e-mail suggested corrections to George Garrigues, secretary, here.

1 • Facilitator: Call to order by Alejandro Soschin after the adjournment of the Neighborhood Watch, welcome and self-introduction/roll call of the members of the Representative Assembly. A quorum was established.

Members of the Palms Representative Assembly
Todd W. Robinson	President	Present
Pauline Stout	Vice President	Present
George Garrigues	Secretary	Present
Asad Yavari	Treasurer	Present
Alejandro Soschin	Nonprofit representative	Present
Willie Bell	Palms West Residential A	Present
Billie Silvey	Overland Residential B	Present
Mario Bruhwiler	Motor Residential C	Present
Neal James Anderberg	Studio Residential D	Present
Ingeborg Prochazka	Exposition Residential E	Present
John Riordan	Pacific Electric Historic Business 1	Present
Lori Donahoo	Charnock Ranch Historic Business 2	Present
F. Danny Monempour	Palms Depot Historic Business 3	Absent

2 • President Robinson made his opening statement, announcing the fact that the Web-based community calendar (established by the Assembly on Oct. 5, 2005) is now up and running. He urged everybody to make use of it.

3 • Public forum: Comments were made by Richard Leib and George Garrigues, residents of Westside Village, and Bea Steelman of Palms, who spoke in favor of the Assembly taking a stand to welcome Westside Village into the Palms Neighborhood Council.

4 • Secretary: Minutes of the meeting of October 5 were approved by voice vote.

5 • Treasurer: Asad Yavari said the council has purchased a filing cabinet and a safe and he, with the Budget Committee, is in the process of formulating a spending policy.

6 • Development and Land Use Committee. Chair was absent so there was no report. George Garrigues stated that new apartment buildings will be constructed in the 3600 block of Dunn Drive.
Alejandro Soschin called attention to the need for affordable housing in Palms. He noted that there is not enough parking at Palms Elementary School.

7 • Announcement of Transportation and Road Works Committee. President Robinson announced the membership of this new committee, as follows: Ingeborg Prochazka, chair; Willie Bell, Lori Donahoo and John Riordan. The duties of the committee as listed on the agenda are:

1) Evaluate and understand the method for using the $100,000 available to the NC for road works (report Dec PNC meeting)

2) Schedule a community input forum to present the information and take recommendations (Outreach will assist) (in Dec/Jan)

3) Present alternatives to the Assembly for final decision (Feb meeting)
4) Complete necessary documentation for city (as needed)

8 • Motion approved by voice, with one negative vote, to send the following to an Ad-Hoc Disaster Preparedness Committee:

Evaluate the Disaster Preparedness Plan used by the Westside Village Civic Association, including the viability and budgetary concerns of the "We're OK" door hangers and ways we can build on the model they used.  Please keep the following in mind:

Rough cost estimate per hanger is $0.65
Budget is very limited
Do not consider the method of distribution - Outreach will distribute

If the Committee decides this project is viable for the PNC to pursue, the following needs to be submitted as a motion for approval by the PNC:

Time line: Outline the major steps in the project with dates

Budget: Keep in mind that we receive funding on a rolling basis and matching the time line with our funding distributions will make it more possible to fund something like this.  For example, schedule four printings of a door hanger over 12 months versus all up front.
Identify Possible Emergency Response Locations:  A general idea of possible locations is sufficient

If the committee decides this is not viable, the committee will be dissolved at that time.  At any time in the future though, any individual or group can submit a general plan to the President for initial evaluation and possible PNC motion to assign to a committee.

9 • Outreach Committee Report

Motion was adopted to approve spending $2,000 of the Outreach Committee's budget for a Leadership Forum to be held Feb. 4, 2006, as outlined in the attached.

President Robinson outlined an idea for small plastic "Information Stations" for distributing PNC material. 

Stakeholder Len Nguyen said he would check with Viacom Decaux as to the status of the information kiosks promised to the neighborhood.

10 • Assembly business: Vice President Pauline Stout distributed surveys for the Mayor's Community Budget Day and asked for the item to be on the agenda in December. Prochazka said she would like the DONE to schedule training sessions in development and land use. She also suggested name plates for the Assembly members, and Pauline Stout volunteered to make them.

Garrigues asked that people who want items on the agenda should send the President an e-mail or telephone him. He said he is cleaning out the postal mailing list files. Robinson said he would like to see a succinct statement as to what the Westside Village petitioners are seeking from the Assembly so that he will know what to put on the December agenda.

11• The meeting was adjourned.

George Garrigues, secretary