San Gabriel

2007 Meetings' Minutes

15 February 2007 Meeting Minutes

San Gabriel Neighborhood Association February 15, 2007 Meeting Minutes

The meeting began at approximately 6:15pm with 21 attendees.

Nina Trasoff, the Ward 6 Council Member, introduced herself and gave a short presentation. She represents 40 neighborhoods ranging from 22nd Street to Broadway and from Stone to Wilmot. Roger Carrillo was introduced as our neighborhood liaison.

West Nile Virus is being tackled early this year. At the end of the month there will be a community education forum reviewing: What to watch for personally, what to watch for through the city??™s responsibilities, and when to send out inspectors. The city needs this input so they can act on it appropriately.

Coyotes reside in Arroyo Chico. On February 26 Game & Fish will have a meeting at Ward 6 office dealing how to live w/coyotes. i.e.: don??™t feed them, what to do to protect your pets. You may not shoot them??“ and you may not discharge any weapon in the city limits.

Nina has been meeting with the Air Force Base for the past 3 months concerning over flights and the impact to the community. Nina is hopeful that there may be a positive outcome. The new Air Force director understands they are partners with the community. Hopefully will have something to announce by the end of March.

Neighborhood streets: There is a colored map of every road in the city. Best=green, and there are only 2 green streets in the city. Council decided to start a sustainability program, meaning safety, roads, and staffing for 10 year plan. $4 million covers 4 square miles of street repair. City Council selected the area Broadway to 22nd and Craycroft to Wilmot. Neighborhood streets in this quadrant will be covered in high quality polymer. Hopefully next fiscal year, which starts in July, our neighborhood will be surfaced, but no promises.

Question: What roads are being considered? Answer: Nina stated neighborhood roads, not major arterials.

Question: What is MC3 goal? ??¦brought up by work at home person. Answer: Nina covered missions, times, and alternatives.

Nina encouraged attendees to call 911, not just for gun-to-head, but even just if something doesn??™t feel right. 911 needs a record of the call in order to do neighborhood stats and what to watch for.

Minutes from November 2006 meeting were read without objections.

Treasury report: Central AZ Credit Union wouldn??™t accept previous treasury funds. They required a taxpayer ID, names of signers of accounts in the minutes, and wanted $1500 to open the account. Recommended to open account at AZSTCU that does not require a minimum deposit.

Kirk recapped 2006 SGNA accomplishments:
??¢ Published 4 newsletters
??¢ Completed Hearts to Hands & other Historic projects
??¢ West Nile Violation Incident intervention
??¢ The board members put in over 152 combined hours of work
??¢ Kirk participated in MC3 meetings and submitted recommendations

Current/ongoing projects
Kirk got our own neighborhood submission to the MC3 & Air Force Base. We are the only neighborhood that has its own recommendation accepted. It has been several months since the completion of MC3 and no decisions have been finalized.

Counter alliance deals with meth houses. Trend of meth houses is not cooking, but using them as distributing houses. A SGNA member called in possible meth fumes a few months ago, but the police couldn??™t find the source. SGNA Board has received several calls on meth. One SGNA member works for adult probation and stated that the Bryant area has historical meth dealing. Meth users are infamous for mail theft. Counter Narcotic Alliance has offered to host a meeting about meth. Only 8 SGNA meeting attendees showed interested on attending. Kirk will schedule meeting & send out post card.

DNR=Department of Neighborhood Resources is a division of the city set aside to deal with codes and associations, and is the interface between us and city services. They provide mailings of newsletters, handle slum abatement, and are in charge of graffiti removal. The new graffiti contractor now has computer generated paint to match original paint color ??“ not just white and brown. Roger stated that the city now removes graffiti w/in 72 hours of being reported. He??™s even seen turnaround within 24 hours. Last year, the city was cross-training inspectors when West Nile Hit. Some employees left during training, so 25 officers were reduced 20. Now, new Building and Fire permits are handled separately from DNR ??“ all others are handled by DNR.

SGNA was initially on edge of West Nile, and then in the Hot Zone. 6 people within the Hot Zone contracted West Nile and 1 person died. There was a disconnect between mosquitoes and the weed inspectors. There was a 3 month delay between rain and weed season. We can expect a good crop of seeded weeds this year. Anecdotal information was spoken about DNR ??“ lack of consistency, not knowing code, why are you calling?, SGNA proposed to create a report card on categories of DNR??™s service, focusing on service, responsiveness, and effectiveness of DNR.

Welcome to the Neighborhood handouts were described, replacing the previous full packet. People can contact a SGNA board member to deliver the Welcome to the neighborhood publication.


Voting for Officers

Robin moved to disband association ??“ postponed to new business.

Voting for Officers continued. Each office only had 1 nominee. Voting Results:
President ??“ Kirk ??“ 6 Yes / 9 Opposed
Vice President ??“ Edgar ??“ 4 Yes / 11 Opposed
Secretary/Historian/Treasurer - Nathanael ??“ 5 Yes / 10 Opposed

Nathanael presented KIVA as an organization that lends low-interest loans to individuals in 3rd world countries. He suggested that SGNA lend $200-$300 to KIVA participants that will pay back the loans within 10 months. The attendees voted (10 in favor) to do their own research on KIVA and discuss and vote on any fund participation at the next SGNA meeting. Others mentioned that treasury funds could be moved to an interest bearing account, Money Market account, or use to fund speed bumps

Reminder that Ward 6 is sponsoring a public West Nile Virus awareness meeting on March 28 at 6:30-8pm at the Ward 6 office.

Kirk offered attendees to review historic status information packet. Attendee asked ??œCan we get historic status ??“ does it restrict changes???? Another participant suggested talking to Marty McKewan, and there are some advantages and some disadvantages to being declared a historic district.

New Business:
Robin put forth a motion to dissolve the neighborhood association, which was seconded. Kirk asked Robin to state why. After several minutes of conversation, it was apparent that a particular group of attendees generally had issues with only 1 board member. Interpersonal conversations and statements occurred over roughly the next 45 minutes, at which time it was pointed out that we were running out of time since the meeting space closed at 8pm. A Ward 6 representative stated that dissolving a neighborhood association could be a mistake and the entire subject should be tabled and taken to a future meeting. The group decided to table the matters, suggested a meeting date 30 days in the future, and retain the 2006 SGNA board members.

Meeting adjourned at 8pm.