Downtown
Minutes from
The regularly scheduled meeting of the Board
of Directors of the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association, Inc. (DMNA)
was held on
Without a quorum present, Jerrie
Hayes, Chair, convened the meeting at
Lisa made the following announcements:
¶ The great feedback she received regarding the downtown’s National Night Out and her regrets for not being able to attend due to her required attendance at one of the other 32 National Night Out events conducted in the 7th Ward.
¶ The next Lunch with Lisa to be held on Wednesday, August 27th at the Acadia Cafe; topic to be determined.
¶ The recent mailing of her newsletter “Spotlight On Seven” (see Attachment 1) to all 7th Ward registered voters (i.e., 15,200 people) that contains a survey requesting feedback on city services. Out of an annual office operating budget of $10,200, Lisa advised that this one bulk mailing totaling approximately $7,000 depleted her budget for the remainder of the year. Although this mailing could be paid for from campaign funds, Lisa felt justified in expending this amount from the operating budget because it is chock full of pertinent and positive information and requires a significant amount of time to compile the data, write, edit, print and distribute.
¶ Prompted by an inquiry from the Chair, Lisa advised she has a “ride along” program wherein anyone interested may sign up to ride along with Lisa throughout the day to see what a typical day is like for a councilmember.
¶
The imminent approval by the Transportation Public Works Committee
for the “wave design” of the LTR at Nicollet Mall on Thursday, August 16th.
In the meantime Xcel Energy is putting together its
plans to move utilities and as a consequence we should anticipate the permanent
closure of
¶
The unique aspects of the proposed new Minneapolis Central Library
including special section for teens and seniors. This project also consists
of a retail, residential and planetarium piece as well. The architect selection
process has been narrowed down to three local teams: Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates
(
¶ The proposed opening date for the new downtown Target Store is October 14th.
¶ The meeting she and Jackie Cherryhomes had with the Hennepin Avenue Streetscape Project committee regarding DMNA’s proposed participation. Lisa pitched that DMNA’s participation should be in the form of a loan versus a grant in order to direct the lump sum repayment toward housing.
¶
The approval of the
A. July Board Meeting Minutes
The Chair asked if there were any amendments, corrections or edits to the contents of the board minutes from July 2001. There being no objections to the contents, the minutes from July 2001 were approved by consensus.
B. Committee Reports
1. Land Use Committee Report. Mark advised
that due to National Night Out no LUC meeting was held. Mark extended congratulations
to Dee Cotten, Andy Hauer, and Sue Jahn for their coordination of the event. However Mark may
need to call a special meeting before the next regularly scheduled LUC meeting
due to
As a result of the two most recent LRT meetings he had attended, Mark expressed
his concerns regarding its engineering design, user experience, and impact on
the surrounding neighborhoods.
2. Housing Committee Report. No Housing Committee meeting was held and therefore no report was submitted.
3. Finance Committee Report. Mark submitted
and explained the attached July/August 2001 Treasurer’s Report (See Attachment
2). For further clarification, Mark explained that for record-keeping purposes
he will only pay whole invoices based upon amount of funds available. Therefore,
in the case of the Downtown Council, he submitted $4,796.25 because it was the
largest unpaid invoice. Thereafter he’ll pay the oldest and largest whole unpaid
invoice and so on (a letter to that effect accompanied the payment to the Downtown
Council).
In response to Dee’s inquiry regarding the resolution of last year’s National
Night Out unpaid reimbursements (i.e., $100 for entertainment, $20 for gasoline),
Mark advised that once he receives appropriate documentation for expenses incurred,
he would submit payment to the appropriate vendor(s).
4. Public Relations Committee Report. Carletta requested that the following stationary items be printed: 500 sheets of letterhead, 250 envelopes, and 500 business cards with the approved DMNA logo design (Attachment 3). The board agreed to such printing but at a later date since the first priority is to develop the post cards for the upcoming annual meeting in November. In the meantime to use the letterhead template and print out as required.
5. Ad hoc Employment Committee Report. Due to the extensive efforts of the Chair and the Treasurer toward compiling and submitting the 1999-2000 audit materials, no ADEC meeting was held. However, Mark will follow up with Barbara Lichness regarding this matter to discuss appropriate next steps.
6. Implementation Committee Report. Rocco advised
the board that the IC met to discuss drafting the Phase 1 Plan and from his
perspective Andy Hauer and George Rosenquist had
pulled together fairly similar plans (see Attachments 4 and 5). The Chair advised
that having received projects ideas from DMNA’s First
Step Plan, the MCDA, and city departments, DMNA now needed to obtain project
ideas from the downtown community. Unlike the procedure followed in the First
Step Phase wherein small task forces generated ideas that bubbled up through
the process and got decided upon, for the Phase 1 Plan the public and other
invested constituents will be asked via public notice to submit their project
proposals to DMNA in writing (via U.S. mail or email) no later than September
4, 20001, or alternatively to bring it to the next board meeting on September
11th. The Chair explained that these project proposals should contain definitive
ideas with project goals and values served, an implementation outline, timeline,
range of costs, man hours required, etc. Thereafter a booklet of all proposals
will be assembled for public review at the next regularly scheduled meeting
in October. After all projects have been presented, votes will be taken via
dotmocracy to ascertain prioritization. DMNA will
then use this priortization to develop its final Phase
1 Plan for presentation at the annual meeting on November 13th.
Given the time constraint for the Hennepin Avenue Streetscape Project, the Chair
took a straw vote to ascertain board support for loaning $350,000 to the project.
All six board members present voted in favor; Mark to follow up with Barbara
Lichness to determine appropriate next steps.
Dee Cotten and Monroe Bell advocated financial assistance from DMNA to obtain additional downtown public restroom facilities since public urination is an increasing public offense that CCNP Restorative Justice is encountering. The Chair advised that either CCNP or any some other concerned downtown constituent should submit their project proposal as explained earlier in the meeting by the due date of September 4th.
The meeting was adjourned at
Signed and approved by
______________________________
______________________________
Chair
Secretary
Attachment 1
[Spotlight on Seven dated August 2001]
Attachment 2
[July/August 2001 Treasurer’s Report]
Attachment 3
[DMNA logo]
Attachment 4
[Andy Hauer’s Phase One Plan for DMNA, Inc.]]
Attachment 5
[George Rosenquist’s Phase One Plan for DMNA, Inc.]
Attachment 6
[DMNA Web Master]