GREATER VALLEY GLEN COUNCIL MINUTES
Regular Meeting
MARCH 6, 2006
 
Item 1
The meeting was called to order by Judy Price at 7:10 pm in the Cafeteria Conference Room at Los Angeles Valley College.  The Board said the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Roll Call:
Present: Adler, Anderson, Anton, Donobedian, Gatti, Jannol, Lavine, Laws, Nelson, Olive,  K Panahandeh, S Panahandeh,  Price, Shapiro, Sweet, Ueland, Viereck, Wehrli
Late arrivals- Freedman 7:35, Popenoe 7:13,  Poster 7:20 PM

 

The President called on John Smith, LAPD Senior Lead Officer from the North Hollywood Station (east of Coldwater Canyon) to give a report.  He reported on the local criminal activities in the area.  A trespass letter has been signed.  The LAPD is aggressively pursuing people using the freeway on-ramps and other freeway property as campgrounds.  Nine people were arrested near the Laurel Canyon corridor near Wendy Gruel’s office.  Homeless went from being in the 60’s down to the 30’s.
 
Van Nuys LAPD Senior Lead Officer George Flores (handling west of Coldwater Canyon) gave an update on his area.  There have been 35 to 40 places broken into a day from local people that were hanging out and doing home invasion robbery.  An apartment building on Hazeltine, north of Oxnard, was a big problem.  Three people were arrested and the apartment building was closed.

 

Item 2
Deanna Stevenson from DONE was next on the agenda.  She reported that an evaluation is being done on the neighborhood councils.   She said the Board should get together a list of accomplishments.  A letter would be coming out either next Friday or Monday.  She will let Judy know tomorrow.  She gave her phone number to the Board in case they wanted to contact her since this would be her last meeting.  Her phone number is 1-323-359-2608.  Judy Price then presented Deanna with a plant as a thank you and good-bye gift from the Board.

 

Item 3
A proposal was made by Terry Anderson to have transcription services provided by a professional agency, PDQ, for the Board meetings.  Cost would be $18.85 per hour with a four-hour minimum. After discussion, Charlotte Laws made the motion to enter into professional minute taking through PDQ Professional Services.  Matt Shapiro seconded the motion.  The motion was unanimously approved. Mary Lou Laws from PDQ was present and began taking the minutes using shorthand.
 
Item 4
There was a discussion and review of the February 6th meeting minutes.  Laurie said she had sent out the minutes to all members on February 13, 6:30 PM, and had not gotten any negative feedback from her minutes.   Laurie had viewed the videotape and the minutes were transcribed and sent out to all Council members for their comments.  Terry Anderson claimed he never recevied the February 6 minutes. There was some discussion about the minutes needing to be revised and corrected.  After much discussion, Neal Adler made the motion that Laurie Lavine resubmit the minutes for board review and corrections.  Terry Anderson seconded.   Then Neal Adler rescinded his motion.  The Board then decided that Laurie will make the corrections and resubmit the minutes at the next meeting.  Judy Price then thanked Charlotte Laws for taking the minutes for the previous Board.
 
Item 5
Minutes for February 13, 2006 were accepted as read with no corrections.

 

Item 6
The Treasurer Chris Ueland gave his report and said he, along with Terry Anderson and July Price, had taken the DONE Treasurer’s Training.  Reviewing the GVGC Budget, he discovered a discrepancy from the 2005 DONE audit of $4033.30.  The October through December reconciliation of 2005 is being worked on.  The new budget is due to DONE by June 1.  DONE will audit internal list of requirements, backup material and affidavits for next audit.  An audit on the Petty Cash will be done next week.  Everything is being cleared up.
 
A motion was made by Neal Adler to have Judy Price and Terry Anderson as second signers on the new debit card that will be coming next week.  Mickey Jannol seconded and it passed unanimously.

 

Item 7
Judy Price introduced Barry Pezzner to everyone as the President of the Miracle Center Parking Structure Association. Price stated that the SLO had good things to say about Mr. Pezzner and that merchant seats are always the hardest ones to fill.  Terry Anderson moved to nominate Barry Pezzner for one of the business seats.  Stakeholder said the Ad Hoc Committee should nominate for the business seats after verifying and finding out if people are eligible to serve.  It was felt that there needed to be an outreach to fill seats.  Laurie Lavine said the Ad Hoc Committee appointed by the previous board president was still in effect since it had not been dissolved and there was no final report.  There was discussion about who would be on that committee since some of those Board members were no longer on the Board.  Parliamentarian Neal Adler read the Bylaws to the Board and even after the reading, some members felt it was open to interpretation whether or not the previous Ad Hoc Committee was still in existence, since its reason for being had not been accomplished,  that being there were still 5 vacancies on the Board that were not filled by that committee.  Neal Alder suggested that this committee discussion be shelved until the next meeting.  Charlotte Laws then made a motion to postpone (table) this discussion until after the presentation that was on the agenda for tonight.  Arline Simon seconded.  The motion passed.  There was one ascent, Neal Adler.

 

Item 8
No public comments.

 

Item 9
The President skipped to Agenda Item 13

 

Item 10
The President skipped to Agenda Item 13

 

Item 11
The President skipped to Agenda Item 13

 

Item 12
The President skipped to Agenda Item 13

 

Item 13

 

The President skipped to Agenda Item 13. Lavine asked the Land Use Chair, Gary Popenoe if Chris Alan was here to make a presentation or to ask for an official act by the board.  Popenoe replied for an official act by the board. Laurie Lavine said there were numerous Brown Act Violations tonight, as indicated in her email earlier that day. Lavine stated she would file a Brown Act violation due to the vague agenda and lack of outreach on this subject. Popenoe replied it was not intentional. Matt Shapiro stated we are new to the board aren't trying to hide anything. We held a committee meeting which was open to the public. 

 

Gary Popenoe introduced Christopher Alan of Dasher Lawless.  He gave the Board an overview of a mixed use development that he was proposing to develop on the corner of Ethel and Victory at 13101 - 13219 Victory Boulevard.  A conceptual design was shown to the Board.  Commercial space on the first floor would be 78,000 square feet and the 2nd floor, 48,000 square feet. The plan was to start in 2007 and finish in 2008 (16 months in all).  For mixed use, he needs a zoning change.  The general plan of the city is amended twice a year, once between April 1 and May 15 and the other from October 1 to November 15.  As part of his outreach Mr. Alan  had 6 meetings with Wendy Greuel's office. He needs to know within this month if the community would support his project because he has to get his proposal approved and the general plan of the city amended to coincide with his proposal which would mean the 35 foot height limit for buildings here would have to be lifted.  He is now in escrow and has paid 14-1/2 million for the property.  Discussion ensued regarding the Board not sanctioning this proposal without more community involvement in the decision to have this development in our community or not. Diana Lipari agreed that outreach needs to be done because this is the biggest single development taking place in Valley Glen.
 
Anton made a motion to have the Communications Committee formulate a plan for outreach to the community regarding the project before taking action on the project. Seconded by Olive. Voice vote: passes.

 

Item 13 B-F
Item 14
Item 15
Item 16
Item 17
Item 18

 

Item 19
The meeting was automatically adjourned at 9:30 PM due to Board members leaving the meeting.
 
Judy Price announced that she would schedule a Special Meeting in the next few weeks to resolve the unfinished business on the agenda.

Secretary's notes:

The board's secretary received a letter from Jane Sarture, acting director for Activities for Retarded Children on March 13, 2006. Per Jane, this letter was approved by the ARC Board of Directors. The ARC letter is attached as part of this record.  The letter states that no one other than Jane Sarture or the Board of Directors has the authority to represent ARC.  Dixie Henrikson as of 1/1/06 was granted emeritus status and could not sign documents on behalf of ARC.

Minutes submitted by Laurie Lavine, secretary  April 3, 2006
     with additional minutes from Mary Lou Laws, PDQ