Minutes
PALMS NElGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
Eighth meeting of the Council and its
REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005

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

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

1. Facilitator (Alejandro Soschin): Call to order at 7:20 p.m. in the small auditorium of the IMAN Center after the adjournment of the Neighborhood Watch, welcome.

The Facilitator introduced Liz Carlin, field representative of newly elected City Council Member Herb Wesson. She made a brief statement.

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 (left early)
Alejandro Soschin	Nonprofit representative	Present
Willie Bell	Palms West Residential A	Present
Billie Silvey	Overland Residential B	Absent
Mario Bruhwiler	Motor Residential C	Present
Neal James Anderberg	Studio Residential D	Present
Ingeborg Prochazka	Exposition Residential E	Present (left early)
John Riordan	Pacific Electric Historic Business 1	Late (left early)
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 desire of the city to have a street resurfacing plan within the next 30 days and urging the Roadworks Committee to proceed with its consideration. He announced that Council Member Rosendahl is planning a neighborhood council summit in mid-January. He reminded Assembly members that they are responsible for contributing time to at least one committee.

3. Public forum: Comments were made by Terry Robinson, who said she will ask for Election Committee volunteers in February; Naomi Serotoff, seeking speed-limit signs on Overland Ave. and on Sepulveda Blvd. and complaining of early trash-pickup at the corner of McCune and Overland; Bea Steelman, who thanked Len Nguyen of Council Member Rosendahl's office for the new street tree in front of her house; Jackie Lamishaw of the Winnetka Neighborhood Council, who spoke on the work for a Memorandum of Understanding with the city's Planning Department first meeting January 7. Richard Leib spoke on the tree-planting project on Palms Blvd.

4. Secretary: Minutes of the meeting of November 2 were approved by general consent.

5. Facilitator: By general consent, Alejandro Soschin was re-elected as Facilitator for a three-month term ending March 7, 2006.

6. Secretary: Garrigues reminded the Assembly that the post office box address for the council iis P.O. B. 341070. He said the postal mail list stands at 10 names, six of them from Westside Village, and 157 e-mail addresses.

7. Treasurer and Budget Committee. Palms spending policies were approved by a voice vote with the addition of a requirement for the treasurer to make a monthly report at Assembly meetings. The amended policies are below:

PALMS NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL: POLICIES REGARDING EXPENDITURES

1. Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) procedures take precedence..

2. Treasurer may give custody of Commercial Prepaid Card to a designee.

3. Card is preferred way to buy anything less than $1,000.

4. President appoints one or two Stakeholders as "second signers."

5. Card can be used only by President, Treasurer or Second Signer.

6. Treasurer or designee withdraws money via ATM (once a month) to maintain cash balance of around $500. Treasurer has custody of cash.

8. Anybody can make necessary and proper purchases related to an item in the budget already approved by the Representative Assembly.

9. Cash spending limits may be established by Treasurer. Examples: $50 for refreshments for monthly PNC meetings and $25 for committee meetings.

10. Requests to Treasurer for petty-cash reimbursements are accompanied by ORIGINAL receipts, plus note explaining reason and suggesting budget line.

11. Treasurer accepts requests and pays out cash reimbursements immediately before or after Assembly meetings. Also at other times if necessary. Call Asad Yavari at (310) 478-1010 or (310) 867-3091.

14. Expenditures if more than $1,000 or if card cannot be used: Treasurer follows "expedited check process" or "demand warrant" requirements.

15. Secretary maintains list of property purchased by the Council.

16. Treasurer makes a monthly report at Assembly meetings.

10 (moved up on the agenda). Congress of Neighborhoods. Stakeholder Cliff Cheng, Jackie Lamishaw of the Winnetka NC and Bob Gelfand of Coastal San Pedro NC presented a proposal for a Congress of Neighborhoods and asked Palms to ratify. A motion by Garrigues to refer to a committee died for lack of a second. After discussion, the Facilitator said that the matter could be placed on the January agenda, and no other action was taken.

11 (moved up on the agenda). Westside Village. Garrigues presented a Statement of Facts and a Resolution concerning a petition by Westside Village residents to join Palms in a joint neighborhood
council.

He moved adoption of the Resolution. Seconded. After discussion, amendments to the resolution were adopted by general consent. The resolution as amended was as follows:

RESOLUTION

1. The Palms Neighborhood Council through its Representative Assembly believes with the Mar Vista Community Council in "cooperative and friendly relations with all its neighbors" and that the Westside Village boundary dispute must be thoroughly discussed after sufficient outreach to all Westside Villagers.

2. The Palms Neighborhood Council believes that a decision must be reached by consensus, election or some other method of settlement.

3. The Palms Council agrees that it will consult and cooperate with the Human Relations Commission and will send a representative or representatives to all meetings called by the commission or its representatives.

Stakeholders who spoke during the debate were Richard Leib, Len Nguyen, Bea Steelman and Joseph Zimring. Deanna Stevenson of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment also spoke.

Assembly members who obtained the floor and spoke were Garrigues, Prochazka, Donahoo, Robinson, Bruhwiler, Anderberg and Soschin.

A motion to close debate was not seconded. Donahoo moved to table the resolution. Seconded and carried.

8. Outreach Committee (Bruhwiler): After discussion, a motion was adopted by general consent to allot $1,420 to the printing of a winter newsletter and the purchase of display racks and that the job go to the lowest bidder except that it can go to a Palms business if the bid is no more than 10% higher than that of the lowest bidder.

12. Collective Assembly position on the Mayor's Budget (Stout): After discussion, it was decided by general consent that the decision will be made at the January meeting of the Council/Assembly.

13. Assembly business: Soschin spoke on L.A. Scores and its problems with playing time at Mar Vista Park, and Garrigues requested that the matter of posting places for official notices be placed on the next agenda.

14. The meeting was adjourned at ?????