August 10, 2010 Area 3/EMS/Beautification

6671 Yucca Street, Yucca Recreation Center 6:30 p.m.

Unapproved minutes

50 stakeholder attended/23 signed in

Call to order, then there was a Round Robin of introductions of everyone in the room. Valorie Keegan , the EMS chair gave an overview of what the EMS Chair does as well as spoke about what services were out there for the community. Maria Rychlicki stood up and gave an over view of what she did and she asked for the audience to give her feed back on what issues they needed addressed. Larry Gross, executive director of Coaltion for economic Survival gave a presentation on tenant’s rights. He discussed issues of lead in buildings and the bed bug epidemic in the city of Los Angeles. At the end of his presentation he had a question and answer period with attendees. One of the attendees at the meeting asked questions referring to discrimination towards him and he was told by Mr. Gross to talk more in depth with him out side of the meeting. There were several questions that concerned 1830 N. Cherokee also known as the Commodore, which included concerns black mold, lack of maintenance and the lack of communication between management and tenants. Another concern that was brought up was whether or not a new owner was as responsible for relocation fees as the old owner. Mr. Gross assured the attendees that the new owner must pick up where the old owner left off meaning that they needed to follow through with rent increases at the correct time, pay for relocation fees and add interest to the security deposit. One of the questions raised is whether or not there could be a tenant clinic in the area. Mr. Gross said no because the clinic was very close at Plummer park and that all of the staff and attorneys were volunteers There were so many questions that I asked if Mr. Gross could answer these questions outside, so the meeting could continue and he agreed. At this point in the meeting Alison Connell, the Beautification chair introduced herself and described her duties for her position and let the attendees know that she would be there for any questions or concerns they may have. Mr. Ted Otis, did a short presentation on Solar Energy and panels for homeowners. Several questions were raised by both Schelley Kiah and Alison Connell. The next topic that was raised was the noise coming from the nightclubs. Ted Otis raised the issue of the loudness of the music coming from the Las Palmas Nightclub. Also, brought up was the fact that residents have called 911 when they saw an active fight and that there was little or no response. One of the attendees Nicole brought up that she felt that the club security should be responsible for the behavior of the clientele in the clubs. An attendee asked about getting permit parking in the area, Valorie said to her understanding that the permit program was dissolved. At that time council field deputy Sharon Shapiro had said that it was not that the permit program was dissolved, but that the city was not taking new applications. It was noted that there was conflicting information coming from CD13 and CD4. It was raised by Aaron Epstein that the clubs should be better regulated and that there should be a complete stopping of issuing licensing to the clubs. He suggested that we invite representatives of city council and legislature to help to stop issuing licenses. Valorie Keegan let everyone know that it was everyone’s part to notify to city. There were questions raised about parking enforcement procedures in the area. It was asked of Sgt Martinez from DOT to come to the front of the room and answer questions directly. What was asked of Sgt. Martinez was why monthly parkers were being towed from the city parking lot. She said that she would speak with her Captain and they would get back to us with that information. She also gave out the number for issues with preferential parking which was 213-485-4184. One of the questions asked of Sgt. Martinez was asked was why a person who has sat in the same area for over 72 hours was not towed. She explained that sometimes people go out and erase the marked vehicles so the vehicle may be there a little longer. A question was asked about people sleeping in the vehicles and Sgt. Martinez referred that to LAPD. There was a presentation by Priscilla Lane about RSVP. She was there to get people over 55 to volunteer for the program. There was one question for public comments section and that was how many other people had their buildings for sale. There were several who said that their buildings were sold and Jeff Papes who is running for Housing Chair had said that there are people in the community being pushed out of their apartments to be forced into homes that they can’t afford. The meeting ended with me thanking everyone for coming to my first meeting. It adjourned at 7:55 p.m.