Kingfield Neighborhood Association Board of Directors Meeting Minutes February 11, 2004

Board members present: Martha Ingram, Tony Aspholm, Rosemary Dolata, David Motzenbecker, Art Knowles, Ben Kristensen, Sean Wherley, Dave Muschenheim, Tom Buller, Erik Lindseth

Members absent: Paige Fitzgerald, Thor Anderson

Others present: Robyn Repya, Sarah Linnes-Robinson, and Liz Gibson-Gasset

The meeting was called to order at 7:09 PM.

No one was present for the Community Forum.

Vice President Rosemary Dolata was nominated and was willing to serve. She was elected unanimously with only her abstaining from the vote.

Secretary’s Report

The December minutes were changed to reflect Martha Ingram’s name being Martha rather than Margaret. The fund raising letter credited solely to Sean was actually a project of the whole board.

The January minutes should read that the conflict of interest material that was distributed went to the Ad Hoc committee. The group mentioned in the Corridor Housing Initiative is actually the American Institute of Architects Minnesota.

Both minutes were approved unanimously as amended.

Treasurer’s Report
Ben reported that we are sending out our tax form to the IRS.

Sean asked what was printed for $679.45 and what the event was that cost $2500. The event was a social service grant to the Underground who used it for an event. Grants will be listed on the reports as grants from now on.

The report was approved without dissent with Tom abstaining.

Other Committee Minutes
Tom asked if the Redevelopment meeting was as contentious as it appears in the minutes when the Corazon Community issues were discussed. The feeling was that the meeting was positive on the whole. There was a lot of consensus and coming to terms with what the building codes allow. City codes will not resolve this issue.

35W
Sean reported that the 35W Access Project was approved by the City Council on a conceptual level. There will be a public meeting in March on the environmental impact study.

The Crosstown/35W project will begin in 2005. Taking property will begin this summer. Light-rail transit has been removed from the plan in favor of highway lanes. Engineers say it will be at capacity when it opens. The Lake Street and Cross-town projects were defeated ten years ago. The project was divided into smaller pieces and promoted again. Senator Dibble and Representative Horenstein support a HOV or transit lane along the whole project. Funding for the project is $152M but there are no commitments yet for the funds. The City approved a fifth lane as long as it is HOV or transit. Kingfield is the only neighborhood opposed to the project. It is not clear who is opposed to the Cross-town project.

Sagrado Corazon Zoning
The meeting turned out well. David Motzenbecker believes KFNA has completed its role to facilitate the difficulties.

By-Law Changes
Several changes and clarifications to the by-laws were discussed and voted on.

Article 3: section E– the words “at a meet of the Members” will be inserted after the word business.

Article 4: section A– the words “residents of the neighborhood” will be replaced by the word “Members”.

Article 4: section D–the words “number of” will be inserted between the word highest and votes.

Article 4: section F–the word three will replace the word four to describe the number of meetings a director is allowed to miss before they may be considered for removal.

Article 6: section D–the words “a majority of the Board may assign to” will be struck and the words “shall perform” will be added after the words Vice President.

Article 7: section A–the words “the affirmative vote of” will be removed after the words resolutions approved by. The words “currently holding office” will be removed after the words majority of the Directors. The words “must be” will replace the word “are” before the words appointed by the President.

Article 8: section C–the word “keep” will be replaced by the word “retain”. The words “a period of” will be removed.

The above changes to the by-laws were approved unanimously.

Conflict of Interest
Erik mentioned that the Conflict of Interest policy needs more work. The recent proposal reflects policies at the Attorney General’s office.

Recruitment
Each board member is encouraged to find another person willing to run for the board.

Yemaya Insurance
Sarah reported that the insurance industry often values modern art as the price that was paid for it. Our insurance on the mural is for $3500 with a $500 deductible. This costs $25 per year.

E-mail List
We are testing a new provider. The service will cost $35 per year. It should be operating by the end of the week. The transition looks to be going smoothly.

Web Page
Les Phillips, a friend of Dave Brauer, will take over the web page this month. He will update the site and perform the work as a volunteer through the spring when the page will be reevaluated in terms of its use, format etc. We may then contract for the service with a provider. Typically people who maintain websites are not the people who design them.

Accounting Procedures
A vendor fixed a couple problems we had with reporting on projects. We now will be able to get past years data and be able to print forms.

Event Update
The Kingfield Cabaret has been moved to July 31, as this is when the mobile stage was available.

Hazardous Waste
The neighborhood pickup will take place at 3800 Bryant at the Park Board Building. Echo and Lyndale neighborhoods will collaborate on this project in the fall.

Board Coffee
David Muschenheim will host a coffee at his home on Wednesday, March 31 to encourage people to run for the board.

Committee Member
Margaret Sines has not been officially approved as a member of the Redevelopment Committee. David will appoint her. She was praised for the good work she has done for the committee.

NRP
There is a proposal to change the formula for determining funding levels for NRP funds from the formula used in Phase I. The first time the emphasis was placed 52% for the size of the neighborhood based on population and housing units, 30% on poverty, and 18% on the condition of the neighborhood. The new formula would be 30% on size, 35% on poverty and 35% on condition. Housing issues will receive 70% of the money in Phase II.

Affordable Housing Reserve Fund
The Corridor Initiation Project was cancelled leaving $4M to reallocate. The question is how to divide this up among the 68 neighborhoods. It was suggested we propose using the money to support projects along corridors in the City. This will concentrate the focus of the funds and encourage neighborhoods to work together.

Early Access Money
We used early access money years ago for housing projects. These funds would allow us to draw Phase II money early for a project of up to $100,000.

Community Oriented Police
The Police Department received $1M from NRP for the precincts to spend any way they want. We don’t have any safety strategies in place that we could ask these funds to be applied toward.

CHI
The Corridor Housing Initiative grant that KFNA received was the only one awarded in the City.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM.

David Motzenbecker, President

Tony Aspholm, Secretary and Minutes submitter

January 14, 2004

Board members in attendance: Sean Wherley, Rosemary Dolata, Martha Ingram, Tom Buller, Paige Fitzgerald, Ben Kristensen, Tony Aspholm, Erik Lindseth, David Muschenheim, Art Knowles, Thor Anderson

Board members absent: David Motzenbecker, Heather Martens

Others present: Sarah Linnes-Robinson, Liz Gibson-Gasset, Robyn Repya, and Dan Niziolek

Art Knowles called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM.

There was no community forum and no secretary’s report.

Treasurer’s Report
Sean asked how this year’s year-end balance compares to last year’s. Sarah replied that we have had more money in our bank account the last couple of years than is usual because the volume of programs is higher causing more money to pass through the account. Typically we have $50-100,000 in the bank. David Muschenheim asked how the money was invested. Sarah explained that NRP does not allow its funds to be invested. David suggested we put whatever funds we can in an ING savings account, which pays 2% interest and charges no fees. It was noted that last year we raised $3,000 in unrestricted funds and this year it will be about $10,000. Also there is $45,000 from a McKnight Foundation grant, which might be invested.

The fund raising letter has brought in $3800 from 88 donors and two business matches. It cost $1300 to send the letter.

The motion to accept the report was accepted unanimously.

Final Report of Auditors
The final report requests a response for three items based on the audit.

1. There is a double billing for $150 from 2002. A reversing entry will be made to correct this.
2. We don’t have adequate separation of duties. This was an issue last year also. We will continue to operate with as much separation of duties as the staff allows and will continue to maintain careful monthly scrutiny of financial operations with the treasurer and the board of directors.
3. We did not stamp every page of every invoice as paid. All invoices after April when we got the directive to stamp have been stamped. This policy will continue.

We will need an extension to file tax form 990.

Sean moved to approve the audit response. The motion passed unanimously.

NRP Funds
Sean complimented the Redevelopment Committee on the three proposals they developed for the use of $246,000 of NRP funds. Art reported that the committee is proceeding with planning while investigating the three options. The Housing Corridor project is a likely target for funding but we don’t have the final approval of this project as yet.

Calendar of Events
Sarah distributed a calendar of neighborhood events and wanted people to sign up for various things to increase board involvement. Dan Niziolek offered to do door knocking to recruit new board members.

Hazardous Waste Drop Off is an event that could replace the Clean Sweep of former years. The County has rigorous requirements for access at any site this event might be held.

June 5 is the neighborhood garage sale. Martha Ingram will help.

The Farmers’ Market begins in June and runs into October. David Muschenheim will help.

The Cabaret will be held Saturday August 14 at Martin Luther King Park. Sean and Thor will help.

The National Night Out is August 3. Erik and Rosemary will assist.

A Halloween Party is held October 31 at King Park.

There will be a Mural Project this summer that will include youth participation and up to ten businesses. They hope to do a mural a week through the summer.

The Art Show has been held in conjunction with the cabaret the last couple of years. Last year it was in the King Field Gym while all the other cabaret events and people were outside. The attendance was disappointing. The goal is to have the show be self-sustaining.

Conflict of Interest Statement
Erik distributed conflict of interest material he got from the Attorney General’s Office to use as a resource for out policy. The committee of Art, Erik and Paige will review it.

Transportation
A presentation on the Crosstown/35W work will be held at King Field Park on February 2 at 7 PM.

E-mail list
Our neighborhood list will be sent this week to a new provider and we should be back in business in a few days.

Accounting Procedures
A software expert from Peachtree Software will meet with the office staff in a couple weeks to discuss how to carry over balances beyond two years and avoid errors such as the Business Façade Improvement Program.

Fixed Asset Policy
Sarah is trying to get the value of Yemeya assessed. Art works will be a separate group of assets for us. Finding a qualified assessor is a challenge.

Corridor Housing Initiative
Our refined proposal is due back to them on January 26.

Rosemary will submit our name to a project from the Minnesota Institute of Architects who has a group of designers who create designs for non-profit housing projects.

The Center for Neighborhoods who is sponsoring the Housing Corridor Initiative offers a lot of technical support for projects but there is not a dollar amount for each group.

Redevelopment Committee
The meeting to discuss issues around Sagrado Corazon and the San Miguel School will be held at King Park on January 28. The City will send a representative from the zoning and redevelopment departments.

Yemeya
Art and Tom attended a celebration of the mural and its successful move on December 30 with 28 other people.

Vice President
An election for a new vice president for the board will be held in February. Heather Martens has resigned.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:17 PM.

David Motzenbecker, President
Tony Aspholm, Secretary Submitter of minutes