Kingfield Neighborhood Association
Board of Directors Meeting
October 12, 2005
MLK Park
Minutes
Attendance
Board Members Present:Â Ben Kristensen, Darrell Gerber, Dave Saddoris, Diana Schleisman, Erik Lindseth, Martha Ingram, Niki Valens, Pete Hallstrom, Thor Anderson, Mark Hinds. Ryan Raleigh, Sean Wherley, JobyLynn White-Wiedow
KFNA Staff Present: Sarah Linnes-Robinson
Community Members Present:
Board Members Absent:Â none
Meeting Called to Order:
Lindseth called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m.
Community Forum:
Eric Blake with Financial Freedom Realty introduced himself. They are going to be doing a condo conversion off Grand and wanted to thank the neighborhood. The development will be helping to get younger people into the neighborhood. They will be fliering community stores soon to. There are still 17 units renting in the facility. Erik assured the board that they are not kicking any renters out until the lease expires and that the renters are offered an opportunity to buy at that time.
Nick from RT Rybak’s mayoral campaign introduced himself. He wants to plug into active neighborhood groups and find out what’s going on.
Reports:
Secretary’s Report:
Minutes approved with no changes
Treasurer’s Report:
The 990 has been completed and is ready for signatures. There will be no audit this year. No bank statement this time as it was not available soon enough to reconcile. It will be available at the next meeting.
Redevelopment Committee Report:
Minutes are draft without approval of the committee. Several errors were noted including: Chris Rydrych’s name was misspelled, angle on ramp was incorrect, size of the lot was incorrect, and there were inaccuracies in reporting of Lander negotiations. There were several misspellings of KFNA and other minor errors.
NRP Committee Report:
No discussion
King Bridge Committee Report:
No discussion
Farmer’s Market Committee Report:
No discussion
Green Committee Report:
No discussion
Jurisdictional Partners Presentations
Only two emails received by from jurisdictional partners: Public works and NRP. Sarah will contact Beth Emily, Planner for Southside, to try to get feedback again.
Public Works: The lighting project is the only capital works projects next year. They also mentioned something about construction on Stevens due to Crosstown construction. Sarah will clarify with her and report back next month.
Library: They want some money to support the local libraries.
NRP: Peg, our NRP liaison, introduced herself and presented a number of items. She got a call today about Limited Equity Coop on Nicollet. They have 8 affordable units with some equity position that are empty they want filled. Warren Cramer passed it on to Melody. Suggested that she speak with Sarah and present something to the KFNA board at a later date.
The Lyndale Ave S plan presented last night. The 121 spur will be added. They will also be opening up some more open space. There will be two new commercial node developments. Lyndale will be opened to two-way traffic the whole way. There will be some reconnecting of the grid, too. Streetscaping will be added. It is a viable project but will be purely market driven. No plans to use eminent domain or use of redevelopment money from city. People have had their eye on 121 area for some time due to all the undeveloped land. There has been a good amount of public input taken. A question about street lighting and commitments from the neighborhoods to contribute toward new installations was asked. Peg answered that there no money planned from neighborhoods so most will come from county. KFNA will need to consider about street lighting along Lyndale. The neighborhoods will need to do a lot of work to help residents petition to get help funding. KFNA will put in our plan and keep in mind coordinating with the other neighborhoods.
Old Business
Mural Contracts:
Have been working since June to get a contract everyone agrees to. Artists have approved a version but the business owner sent back some points they were not happy with. Main point is they don’t want to carry liability insurance for people on their property. They would need an additional rider to cover the extra people doing the work. Other businesses doing murals in the past haven’t had these concerns. This is a different project, though, with the tiles instead of painting. Independent contractors are typically bonded and insured so the business owner is expecting this of the artists.
The artists warrant work for 6 mo. after which time the business owner is responsible for repair. Artists wanted to be consulted for non-minor repairs, however, the business owner added they would do it for free. The copyright issues ironed out adequately where KFNA will be able to use images of the mural for our own purposes as long as we don’t make a profit of more than $100,000.
There was considerable discussion about resolving the liability issue. Opinions were that we should try to not force the artists to get the insurance. Sarah will investigate the cost of getting a rider through KFNA and report at next Board Meeting. She will also investigate more what it will cost the building owner to get a rider. If business doesn’t want to move on insurance we can consider going somewhere else.
The other contract was briefly reviewed. There was a question on how artists are paid. Sarah answered that a grant is made to the business for work and the artists are paid by the business. KFNA pays artists for the supplies. The business owner will pay for fixing the wall in preparation for the mural.
New Business
Fundraising Letter:
Motion by Pete:†Change to start with ‘you know Kingfield is a great place to live’ and Move #1 to #12.†Motion was amended with the following: move #5 to #1, add a ‘PS. Many businesses will match your donations‘, Erik will fix second sentence ending with a preposition, change to ‘City funding…..is scheduled to end….’, bold the sections ‘tax deductible…’ to the end, change #3 to ‘pedestrian lighting’, correctly state that three murals were done this year. Motion carries unanimously.
Mark Hinds moves that “KFNA will have a telemarketing/fundraising party where board makes calls using a Hinds soft-sell script. Calls will be made to prior volunteers and prior donators. Sarah will investigate places to make calls in the meantime. Sarah will determine how many people are on the proposed call list and present at the next Board meeting.†Hinds argued that follow-up calls significantly improve response rate to fundraising mailings. Several board members stated they were squeamish about doing telemarketing calls. Hinds brought us that it is also a chance for the board member to make another connection to the people within the neighborhood. We should not only ask for money bust also find out if there are any concerns they feel need to be addressed. Motion passes unanimously with Martha Ingram abstaining. It was also suggested that the mailing not go out until after the November 8th election.
Soccer report:
Michael couldn’t be here so Sarah forwarded letter. Marsh Ingram stated that she things the problem of so many more kids from outside the neighborhood using the program than from inside is with open enrollment at the schools. Kids are scattered around the city and they tend to do sports where their friends go. Erik asked if this is a marketing problem? Sarah answered that it probably is. Since the park took over they have not done much advertising of the program. KFNA is not putting any money into the program but is providing a volunteer to train the coaches and run the program. We also printed t-shirts for them and got a little money back. Hinds moves to “postpone indefinitely until a park representative and Michael can be there to discuss†Motion passes unanimously. Thor suggests we should consider value of the program and to reflect our appreciation in his work and the program. His service is important to Kingfield and we must consider how to help him and support him.
Employee Review:
Six month evaluation of Joanna Hallstrom. Evaluation was forwarded to the Executive Committee. Joanna returned good feedback. A new computer is to be purchased a new computer. There was considerable chaos in the office when she started due to employees coming and going that made it tough to begin. She knew that going in, though. She has done thorough and careful work. Honest caring for people in the community she works with. She’s a great asset to the neighborhood. Sarah, Executive Director, recommends rewarding her with a significant raise of 10% ($16.50/hour from $15/hr) retroactive to September 1. She would stay in the same position where she manages and provides support for 4 committees. Previous person in job was at $18.20/hr when she left. Pay raise would put her at the high end of what other Project Organizers make in other neighborhoods. Hinds asks what is the budget like and how does the board deal with raises? Ad hoc or part of budgeting process. Sarah answered that this is late happening since she was on a probationary period. Reviews will fall to year end after this (Sarah’s and others). The raise comes out to $140-150/mo. extra. We’re over-budget due to staff working extra hours this year and there is concern about making that even worse by giving one of them a large wage increase. Diane moves that we “Post-pone the decision to next month when budget discussion takes place. Make the salary increase stay retroactive to September 1.†Motion passed unanimously. Pete abstained consistent with conflict of interest as husband of Project Organizer. Sarah will meet with the Executive Committee prior to the next Board meeting to make sure the information they and the board will want is available by the meeting.
Meeting Adjourned:
Meeting Adjourned at 9:00 pm
Minutes respectfully submitted by Darrell Gerber
KFNA Board Secretary Thor Anderson
KFNA Board President Erik Lindseth