Downtown
Minutes from
The regularly scheduled meeting of the Board
of Directors of the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association, Inc. (DMNA)
was held on
I. Call to Order
With a quorum present, Mark Moller called the meeting to
order at
II. Vaudeville Collaborative
Sarah Sawyer explained that the Vaudeville Collaborative
is a group of about five variety performers brainstorming about how to bring
a series of lunch-hour performances to downtown of
After discussing funding sources and venue options, it was recommended that this group contact Target Corporation to fill out the appropriate funding request forms, and the Downtown Action Network at www.d-a-n.com.
III. Q&A with Councilmember Lisa Goodman
Lisa announced and discussed the following matters:
¶ The
¶ A big victory this week with Block E. McCaffrey and the Crown Theaters have agreed to put adaptive audio and visual equipment into two of the theaters; one to be paid by McCaffrey and the other to be paid by Crown Theaters.
¶
The Hennepin Avenue Streetscape project passed the Transportation and Public
Works committees. One issue that came up was expanding the Theater District
from
Barbara announced that since the Planning Department had canceled the Art Mural
project, those funds would be available if the board chose to divert funds to
that purpose.
¶ The Central Library will be closing on
¶ Natalie Johnson Lee is suing over the recent redistricting. Redistricting, however, does not effect until the next election. Therefore downtown will continue to be represented by Wards 2, 5 and 7 until the 2005 election. However, there is also another lawsuit pending to ask for an election in 2003 based on the federal fair voting right challenge which says if the districts are more than 5 percent off in either direction there needs to be another election. So there is a good chance that there could be another citywide election in 2003.
¶ The
City is working on a plan to settle the three Gaviidae loans. There will be
a recommendation made, which Lisa supports, that essentially says rather than
accepting pennies on a dollar they should just foreclose.
Under the previous administration, Gaviidae had proposed repayment as follows:
on the first loan (the Saks building), pay $4 million of the $11 million; on
the second loan of $17 million (the Gaviidae building itself), don’t pay anything;
and on the third loan of $36 million (the Neiman building Gaviidae portion),
which isn’t due to 2008, prepay and give another $4 million to settle the other
loans, or a total settlement of $29 million due to a cash flow crisis. As a
condition of this arrangement Gaviidae had further asked that half the money
go back into tax increment contributions. The MCDA at that time turned this
proposal down, and after many months of negotiations under the current administration,
the message remains the same.
¶ Opposition to public funding to help pay for a baseball stadium. Although Lisa is not against user-based fees and parking revenues to do so, the main problem is the suburban legislators do not want their constituents taxed and because they are the majority in the house, they will not support these taxes to be enacted in the seven county area.
¶ Lunch with Lisa is on summer break and will resume in July, August, and September.
IV. Committee Reports
1. Staffing. Mark advised that due to a disconnect with NRP, the ad for the part-time staff position did not make it into the May NRP Link, however it was re-posted on the their website and on their office bulletin board. Mark ensured he would publish the ad in the newspapers previously discussed. After discussing the terms and conditions of the prospective employee’s contract, Barbara agreed to send an example of such a contract via email to Mark.
2. NRP. Barbara advised that DMNA’s master
plan was approved and a favorable legal opinion rendered. The contract for the
theater district streetscape project is on R.T.’s desk. The contract for the
senior center is going through the system. She just received the scope of service
and budget for the thermal imaging equipment from Chief Forte.
Tom advised that an assessment hearing was held last Thursday before the Transportation
and Public Works committees on the Hennepin Streetscape project and the full
city council should act on it on Friday, which means the project is a go. It
includes new paving from 5th to 10th Streets, ornamental pedestrian-scale surface
and street lighting, benches, bicycle racks, garbage cans, railing around newspaper
boxes, planters and trees. The property owners along
3. Finance. After entertaining questions on
the F2002 Preliminary Budget vs. Actual included in the board package, the Chair
moved to approve the Citizen Participation Year 28 budget that begins June 1st
and the NRP administrative budget. The motion was carried unanimously.
Gerry moved and
5. Land Use. Three projects were reviewed at the LUC on May 9th:
a. The preliminary proposal for the
b. The conditional use permit required for the proposed WISE K-3 charter school on two floors of the Flour Exchange building presented by former City Council president Jackie Cherryhomes and Joann Heryla, Vice Chair of the Board. The Chair moved and Tom seconded to approve the conditional use permit. The motion was carried unanimously.
c. The updated site plans for the Downtown
4. Governance. Discussion of the proposed changes to the Bylaws was postponed to the next regularly scheduled board meeting.
6. Public Relations. The marketing program has been temporarily set aside until the hiring of a staff person. In the meantime, it was agreed to support National Night Out again this year.
V. Old Business
1. CCHT/DMNA Housing Conflict of Interest. Andy moved and Carletta seconded to send a letter to Natalie Johnson Lee asking her to seek a legal opinion from the city attorney related to the conflict of interest issue (i.e., clarification of disclosure versus exclusion). The motion was carried by majority of vote with Andy agreeing to send the letter to Natalie.
2. DMNA Board Vacancy Nominations. Since no nominations were submitted it was agreed that nominations would remain open until the next regularly scheduled board meeting.
3. Board minutes. The board accepted minutes from August through November 2001, and the minutes from February through April 2002 were approved.
VI. New Business – Liaison Reports
Andy announced the CCHT annual meeting on Tuesday,
May 21st at St. Mark’s Church beginning at
Mark attended the Downtown Action Network meeting where he was asked if DMNA wanted to man a booth at their upcoming events. He will continue to participate in order to gain more detailed information and exposure on behalf of DMNA.
Any advised that the Skyway committee is working on getting uniform hours established throughout the skyway.
Tom advised that one of the issues related
to Streetscape is that the properties owners believe the City should take a
closer look at the level of police services provided on
The Chair moved and Andy seconded to oppose additional new taxes for downtown residents to pay for a new ballpark. The motion was carried by majority vote.
VII. Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting
was adjourned at
Signed and approved by
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Chair
Secretary