Meeting Date: 09/20/04 06:00 PM
Meeting Type: Regular
Location: Will and Ariel Durant Branch
Los Angeles Public Library
7140 W. Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles CA 90046
Details: Agenda
Meeting of the
Environment, Beautification, Preservation and Aesthetics Committee
20 September 2004
Monday, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Will and Ariel Durant Branch, Los Angeles Public Library
7140 W. Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90046
1. Welcome, Sign-in and Introductions 6:00-6:30 p.m.
2. Approval of Minutes of Prior Meeting, if available.
3. Discussion of importance of the Mayor’s Budget Survey; distribution of surveys.
4. Discussion of Committee Goals for the Coming Year. Possible vote.
5. Discussion of West Nile Virus Impact on Hollywood Hills and response or lack thereof from City departments.
Possible resolution and vote.
6. Discussion of Suggestions Submitted to Chair prior to and at the Meeting. Possible vote/s.
7. Listing of Votes, Resolutions and Recommendations to the Board.
8. Next meeting time and date:
22 November 2004, Monday, 6-8 p.m.
Will and Ariel Durant Branch, Los Angeles Public Library
7140 W. Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90046
9. Public Comment.
The public is requested to fill out a “Speaker Card” to address the Board on any item of the agenda prior to the Board taking action on an item. Comments from the public on Agenda items will be heard only when the respective item is being considered. Comments from the public on other matters not appearing on the Agenda that is within the Board’s subject matter jurisdiction will be heard during the Public Comment period. Public comment is limited to 3 minutes per speaker unless waived by the presiding officer of the Board. Agenda is posted for public review: Gardner Street Elementary School, Valley View Elementary School, Yucca Community Center, on bulletin boards at the top and bottom of Runyon Canyon Park, Los Angeles Library: Will and Ariel Durant Branch and electronically on the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council website WWW.HHWNC.org. As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability and upon request, will provide reasonable accommodation to ensure equal access to its programs, services, and activities. Sign language interpreters, assistive listening devices, or other auxiliary aids and/or services may be provided upon request. To ensure availability of services, please make your request at least 3 business days (72 hours) prior to the meeting you wish to attend by contacting the Neighborhood Council Project Coordinator at (213) 485-1588 or e-mail to [email protected].
10. Adjournment at or prior to 8:00 p.m.
Minutes
Environment, Beautification, Preservation and Aesthetics Committee
Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Association
Will and Ariel Durant Branch, Los Angeles Public Library
20 September 2004
The meeting was brought to order by Chair Vince Vitale at 6:20 p.m.- following a short “schmooze” period. Present were Vince Vitale (Chair)- Dan Bernstein, Mary Prange, Charles Wainberg, Steven Price, Laura Fox and Marcie Boyles. These notes were taken by the Chair.
Chair began the meeting by explaining he wants the committee to be both easy and productive. The main vehicle will be the “suggestion sheet,” which should soon be posted as a PDF download on the Environment Committee page. The suggestion sheet, when properly filled out, gives the Committee all the necessary information for making a determination and vote for an agenda item to the Board of HHWNC. When filled out and returned to Chair, the suggestion will automatically be posted to the Agenda of the next meeting of the Environment Committee. Approximately two weeks prior to each meeting of the Environment Committee, Chair will send members the text of each agenda item, for consideration prior to the meeting. Chair emphasized the purpose of the meeting will be to make necessary changes to the suggestion and to bring each suggestion/motion up for a vote, and report those items passed to the Board of HHWNC for approval. He encouraged each member to give due thought and consideration to filling out the suggestion form at home, and to consider that time well spent. Chair suggested that agenda items may be organized to reflect which issues are most timely, and which issues could be farther down the list, or tabled for a future meeting. By doing all the homework on the sheet at home, it means less wasted time at meetings.
A discussion ensued related to the Brown Act and when speech outside of meetings is not permissible.
Marcie Boyle inquired about different committees cooperating on some issues. Chair responded that this is very possible, and that once a suggestion is made, other relevant committees can then be notified for co-sponsorship or transferred to another committee if no environmental issues. He emphasized that making the suggestion in one committee gets the process going.
Dan said at the Board level, if one committee makes a motion, as soon as that happens, it gets sent out to all the Chairs. Everyone is aware of what that committee is proposing. He said that what they do with that and where they put that on their agenda and where their committee’s interests lie is totally up to them.
Agenda Item #2: There were no minutes from the prior meeting, since there was no quorum, and ergo no necessity of minutes. Chair asked Dan Bernstein if it was permissible to post minutes, even if there was no quorum, and Bernstein answered in the affirmative. Chair promised to post minutes in the future, even if there were no quorum, since the minutes procedure is a means of communicating to non-present members what discussions took place at the meeting, regardless of whether there was a vote or not.
Chair expressed concern for the number of minutes which were absent on the HHWNC site, and addressed this to Dan Bernstein, who is also President of HHWNC. Bernstein said there are many minutes which still reside on a CD and have not been uploaded to the site yet. Chair registered concern that the pervasive absence of minutes does not reflect well on HHWNC.
Agenda Item #3: Mayor’s Budget Survey. Chair addressed the importance of filling out the Mayor’s Budget Survey, in that the HHWNC will only be considered part of the budget negotiations if we have delivered 200 surveys to the Mayor and approved said tally of surveys at the meeting of the HHWNC Board by 23 September. Chair distributed copies of the survey to those present and encouraged them to get people to fill them out and deliver them to HHWNC at the Hollywood Business Expo on 22 September or by delivering to Treasurer Bob Cook. Some issues related to e-mail communications were addressed.
Agenda Item #4: Committee Goals for 2004-2005. Chair requested those present to make suggestions regarding what the Goals of the Environment Committee should be for the coming year. He handed out a number of hard-copy suggestion sheets, like the ones which should soon be available on the Environment Committee website page. Future goal suggestions will be made through the process of the suggestion sheet. However, for the purposes of this meeting, verbal suggestions were requested. The following suggestions were made:
a. Cahuenga Pass and the Banana Bungalows. Laura Fox addressed the wildlife displacement of this project, among other environmental concerns, like the quality of life in the corridor and the run-off from Mulholland. Dan made a suggestion regarding making a path at the run-off from the Universal side of the property to Mulholland, where people could use it during the day so as not to have to walk along Cahuenga, and wildlife could use it at night. Chair asked Dan to prepare a suggestion sheet related to the requirement of a construction of a path.
b. Runyan Canyon and the dog poo issues. Laura Fox suggested we should be doing something to protect the environment from dog poo around there, because it is the only off-leach dog park in the county, which turns significant portions of land into large sesspools. There are also issues of people coming in and cutting switchbacks and destroying the trails. Some people are not respecting the dirt and the ground and they are degrading the resource, rather than maintaining the resource. Dan mentioned that HHWNC is in the process of buying doggy-bags for the park, because Recreation and Parks has no budget for that, so our neighborhood council is doing it. Dan also mentioned the “environmentally sensitive” parking lot which Tom LaBonge is building in Runyan Canyon, inside the park. Chair asked Laura Fox to draft a suggestion sheet or sheets related to these issues.
c. The Large Puddle which settles on the road in Runyan Canyon being an environmental hazard. Dan suggested that Charles Wainberg contact Tom LaBonge’s office and speak to Jonathan, who is responsible for building and safety issues. Chair asked Charles Wainberg to do the research and write up that suggestion. Dan emphasized that the resolution of this sort of issue becomes an important thing for us to publicize as a success for the committee.
d. Publicizing the Bulky Trash “311” telephone call as a great little-known community resource. Mary Prange complained of potholes in the sidewalks where she lives at Cherokee and Franklin, and also complained about couches and other large items left on the street. Laura Fox pointed to the existence of the bulky trash and graffiti line, by calling 311 on the telephone, regardless of who owned the trash. Chair asked Laura Fox to write up that suggestion.
e. A Hollywood Walk where families come out and clean up the neighborhood and possibly have a party afterwards to celebrate the clean-up. Chair asked Charles Wainberg to write up that suggestion. Laura Fox suggested that the Hollywood Beautification Team and Sharon Romano be used as a resource for that. Dan suggested creating a clean-up model for people to use as a turnkey way to do a clean-up in an area. Dan also suggested that people participate in the event at Runyan Canyon on October 16th, which is geared towards people appreciating Runyan Canyon more.
f. Creation of a Recycling Center for Hollywood. Mary Prange complained that there was nowhere to recycle things for apartment-dwellers in Hollywood, as there is in Santa Monica. Laura Fox added the importance of re-cycling environmentally dangerous things. Chair asked Mary Prange to draft a suggestion sheet for this.
g. Composting in the Community. Charles Wainberg added that we could create some community involvement for small areas of Hollywood to participate in composting. Chair asked Charles to write up that suggestion on what to do to create that involvement.
h. Barham and Cahuenga East Excess On-ramp and Off-ramp. Dan added some historical notes about neighborhood council involvement in an advisory related to this issue. He suggested looking under the Traffic Committee minutes on the website.
Agenda Item #5: West Nile Virus Issues. Chair handed out several informative resource sheets related to West Nile Virus. Otherwise, the hard information which has been available related to the actual impact which WNV has had on Hollywood has been difficult to ascertain. There was no consensus on exactly how WNV has impacted on our community, although it was pointed out by Charles Wainberg that the city posted a sign in Runyan Canyon related to the issue. Marcie Boyle voiced concern related to a report that there is a twelve million dollar commission going on since 1999 to evaluate the WNV. She said it was difficult finding any information related to this commission. No one had any knowledge of spraying in the Hollywood area. Chair requested cooperation from committee members in creating agenda items in the future, if an issue should come up related to WNV.
Agenda Items #6 and #7: Chair commended members for their suggestions and suggested that there would be a number of worthy suggestions on which to vote at the November 22nd meeting, but not at this meeting. It was suggested we could possibly quickly draft a resolution related to a Recycling Center for Hollywood, but after further consideration it was decided to postpone this until the November meeting, pending proper drafting of a suggestion.
Agenda Item #8: The next meeting of the Environment Committee will be:
22 November 2004, Monday, 6-8 p.m.
Will and Ariel Durant Branch, Los Angeles Public Library
7140 W. Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90046
Agenda Item #9: Public Comment. Marcie Boyle addressed some issues related to the number of committees in which a stakeholder could be involved and how to change membership information with HHWNC, especially for people with limited computer access. Dan Bernstein offered to help her with the issue.
There being no further business, Chair called for a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn was made by Mary Prange and seconded by Laura Fox. The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m.