ECCO Meeting Minutes for September 1, 2011

ECCO Meeting Minutes for September 1, 2011 at St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church

Minutes submitted by Monica Smith

Attendance

Board members: Nancy Ward (President), Sarah Sponheim (Vice President), Glen Christianson (Treasurer), Brad Durham, Blake Harper, Jim Smith, Linda Todd and Heather Wulfsberg. Monica Smith (NRP), Meg Tuthill (City Council Member, Ward 10) and other residents were also in attendance.

ECCO Board President Nancy Ward called the meeting to order at 7:09 p.m.

Open Forum

Sarah Wisneski and Lucinda Redd, residents of the Greenhouse Condos, 3540 Hennepin attended the meeting to discuss partnering with the condo association to beautify the green space on the corner of 36^th and Hennepin. Sarah Sponheim and Jim Smith volunteered to meet with them to explore options.

Meg Tuthill (City Council Member, Ward 10)  

• The City Council is looking for funding to prevent laying off 10 firefighters.
• The Mayor will present the 2012 budget on September 12
• The City has received applications for three new liquor stores on Hennepin (Kowalski’s, replacing the BP station at 2700 Hennepin and 2652 Hennepin). Only one will be allowed (restrictions requiring 2,000 ft door-to-door between liquor stores). Let CM Tuthill know if you have a preference.
• CM Tuthill thanked Sarah Sponheim for her work to bring the one-sort recycling pilot to East Calhoun.
• A concern was raised about the speed of traffic on the 3300 block of Holmes and the number of young children on the block. CM Tuthill said a traffic wagon could be requested.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Sarah Sponheim, Green Team        

One-sort recycling has come to East Calhoun for a one-year pilot program. The City conducted a waste sort of 100 ECCO households on the last day of the multi-sort recycling program to establish a baseline. Giving feedback to the City is encouraged. Door knocking by Green Team members will begin soon. The City is piloting a dual-sort pilot in Seward (recycling is up 18%).

The Green Team will be marching with green and blue carts in the Labor Day parade. They will provide organics composting at the dinner and have an information table.

Two upcoming Waste Watchers events: Waste Loss Fair, on September 24, 9-10 a.m. at St. Mary’s and Tour de Compost, September 27 at 7 p.m.

Sarah is involved with making the Wine Tasting Fundraiser a green event.

Social Committee

Wine Tasting Fundraiser: Wed, Oct 26, 6-9 p.m. at Calhoun Square. Judy Shields and Heather Wulfsberg are ECCO’s co-chairs for the event. 100% of the proceeds from tickets sold by ECCO in advance come back to the neighborhood.

The ECCO Board unanimously approved a motion to have Heather Wulfsberg interface with the three other neighborhoods bordering Lake and Hennepin to discuss the feasibility of a percentage of the proceeds from the Wine Tasting be allocated to police buy-back for the Uptown area.

Labor Day: All the plans are in place for the Labor Day celebration. Board members to help fill in where additional volunteer help is needed. Nancy Ward will bring nametags for board members to wear at the event.

Monthly socials: The next social will be candlelight social near the trolley path in November.

Annual meeting: The annual meeting will be Thursday, October 6. Nancy Ward has begun inviting guest speakers. The agenda will include information about forming a tree committee. Café Crema is donating ice cream. Davanni’s will be contacted for pizza donation. Heather Wulfsberg to ask Mesa Pizza to donate pizza as well.

Zoning Committee

The home at 3332 Irving Ave will be demolished and a new 2,500 sq ft single-family home will be built in its place.

CB2 construction is underway at 31^st and Hennepin.

CM Tuthill to send information to Nancy Ward regarding a proposal to eliminate the CUP process being considered by City Council.

NRP Report

ECCO’s executive committee will meet to discuss a possible pay raise for Monica Smith. A proposal will be presented at the November ECCO Board meeting.

ECCO is currently in first place for the CES challenge grant. The contest runs through the end of September. An Awards Ceremony will be held on Oct 25. Board and community members are invited to attend. More information to come soon.

The Board discussed ECCO’s NRP housing program. Grant and loan money is still available for home improvement. The loan program has not been well used. A concern was raised that the income cap ($75,600 for a family of four) may be too restrictive for many residents to qualify for the loan. The board discussed raising or removing the income cap for the loan program. A motion to remove the income cap and make the loan available to all did not pass. The issue will be tabled until the November meeting.

Decision making between meetings

Nancy Ward proposed a change to the ECCO bylaws to accommodate decision-making between meetings.

Current ECCO Bylaw: Article 8, Section 4 Action by Consent. Any action that may be taken at a meeting of the directors may be taken without a meeting if authorized in writing and signed by 2/3 of the directors.

Proposed bylaw change to Article 8, Section 4: Any action required or permitted to be taken at a Board meeting may be taken by written action, or by electronic mail, signed by the number of Directors that would be required to take the same action at a meeting of the Board of Directors at which all Directors were present. See binding policies, which govern these decision-making processes.

Proposed new policy: Action by Consent Policies  Consent actions are reserved for conditions which arise without notice, where decisions or input that relate to the good of the neighborhood are required between regular board meetings.

Any Executive Committee member can call for a consent action. The date and time which ends decision-making will be specified when consent action is posted. Three business days are the typical period for decision-making, but can be extended by decision of the Executive Committee. 

Reasonable effort by those posting the consent action item shall also be made to notify Directors by telephone, at the time of giving written notice.

Quorum requirements for electronic or written reply are the same as at regular board meetings. Lack of response will not be considered to be either a yea or nay vote. If a quorum is not met, the action fails.

An electronic signature (name) satisfies the requirement of a signature so long as the electronic communication containing the electronic signature sets forth sufficient information from which the board can reasonably conclude that the communication was actually sent by the purported sender.

The board unanimously approved a motion to change the bylaws and accept the new policy with the following addition: Identify the officer positions by adding “(President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary)” after the words “Executive Committee” in paragraph 2 of the new policy.

Meeting adjourned at 9:20 p.m.

Next meeting: Annual Meeting on Thursday, October 6 at St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church.