Meeting Date: 02/22/05 07:30 AM

Meeting Type: Regular

Location: Good Neighbor Resturant
South Room
3701 Cahuenga Blvd West
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Details: EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

Good Neighbor Resturant
South Room
3701 Cahuenga Blvd West
Los Angeles, CA 90028
THURSDAY, February 22, 2005 @ 7:30 AM
AGENDA

1 ROLL CALL

2 REVIEW AND APPROVE PRIOR MINUTES (VOTE)

3 TREASURER’S UPDATE AND RECOMMENDATIONS (VOTE)

4 UPDATE ON PLANS FOR THEATRE PARTY (VOTE)

5 UPDATE ON OUTREACH EVENTS (VOTE)

6 REPORT OF ELECTION COMMITTEE

7 REPORT OF RUNYON CANYON KIOSK AND VOLUNTEERS (VOTE)

8 DISCUSS STATUS OF 501(c)3 ORGANIZATION

9 UPDATE ON HOLLYWOOD STATISTICAL REPORTING AREA

10 GENERAL COMMENTS

11 PUBLIC COMMENT

12 ADJOURN

The public is requested to fill out a “Speaker Card” to address the Committee on any item of the agenda prior to the Committee’s 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 are within the Committee’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 Committee. Agenda is posted for public review at: Gardner Street Elementary School, Valley View Elementary School, on bulletin boards at the top and bottom of Runyon Canyon, Yucca Community Center, Los Angeles Library: Will and Ariel Durant Branch (Sunset Blvd) and electronically at 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]

Minutes
22 February 2005
Executive Committee Meeting
HHWNC

The meeting convened at 7:45 a.m.- with Mr. Bernstein, Mr. Cook and Mr. Connolly in attendance as voting members. Mr. Vitale was present as a non-voting visitor to the meeting with an interest in seeing his committee’s motions brought before the full Board of Directors. Mr. Vitale gave those motions to Mr. Bernstein and agreed to take the minutes.

The Secretary not being present to present the minutes of the last meeting, Mr. Cook presented the treasurer’s report. He distributed copies of a summary of the HHWNC budget and year-to-date expenditures, prior to Mr. Bernstein’s demand warrant applications presented today. Mr. Cook pointed to the line above “Perfected demand warrants,” showing a total of $52, 172.21 which is the amount budgeted but not yet spent for the fiscal year 6/30/05. Mr. Cook said we have so far spent $3,767 for the first nine months of the fiscal year. We are headed for the same situation as last year, in terms of spending our $50,000 annual budget. Our spending has not been ratable. About $25,000 is budgeted for Outreach and related accounts, which includes the mailings for and the expenses of the by-laws meeting mandated by DONE and relating to the annual election meeting.

Mr. Cook said there is probably $20,000 that either needs to be spent for the currently budgeted initiatives or reallocated to other projects by the Board of Directors. Mr. Bernstein pointed out that he had not been reimbursed for the renewal of the www.HHWNC.org domain name. Mr. Cook again asked for an original invoice for the expense. He said he will pay Mr. Bernstein out of his own pocket to quiet the matter of the duplicate web domain registration expense. He also pointed out that paying a director strictly requires an original invoice, not something printed from Mr. Cook’s computer.

The Board examined the budget sheet presented by Mr. Cook. There was discussion about the various lines related to the web site. Mr. Cook pointed out we had already spent the contingency fund.

Mr. Bernstein said we have extra money for the next meeting. Universal paid for the expenses of the last meeting. There was some discussion about the possibility of taking money which had been set aside in the budget for Areas and Issues committees which have not had meetings. Mr. Connolly suggested re-appropriating the unused money set aside for meetings which did not occur.

Mr. Bernstein moved that for the purposes of budgetary monies, HHWNC Executive Committee ask the Board of Directors to reallocate what is currently not spent by inactive committees to the contingency line of the budget, and present that to the Board as a re-appropriation of the budget. Mr. Connolly suggested working on the language of the motion. He suggested that the intent should be for unused budgets in the committee meeting line for the first three quarters of this fiscal year shall be transferred to the contingency fund. Mr. Cook suggested that we should avoid criticizing committee chairs as the Executive Committee already has a reputation for being punishing and dismissive of them. It was moved that the Executive Committee would ask the Board of Directors to reallocate $8,000 from committee meeting expenses to the contingency fund. Mr. Connolly and Mr. Bernstein voted in favor. Mr. Cook abstained.

Mr. Bernstein asked Mr. Cook to resolve the business card situation for issue committee chairs, so those directors who have not yet received their cards could receive them. Mr. Cook requested the digital file for the graphics on the card, in order to affect this. Mr. Cook pointed out that he would need the HHWNC logo art file in order to correct the errors in the first disk given to Kinko’s. Mr. Bernstein said he would attempt to provide it.

Mr. Cook suggested that the way HHWNC did the by-laws meeting and election meeting last year didn’t get enough people to participate in the annual meeting.

Mr. Bernstein questioned the $18,900 for general outreach, which is to be spent for getting people to meetings, especially the annual meeting and election. Mr. Cook pointed out that the big chunk of the money is intended for the postage related to the annual meeting. Last year postage was paid by DONE, but this year DONE will not pay for this expense. Mr. Cook suggested we must hire people to do the work on this. He pointed out that the budget, while inexact, had been voted by the Board and the effort to increase stakeholder participation in the election was of critical importance.

Then attention was turned to the $5,000 for kiosks and carryover from 6/30/04. Mr. Bernstein said we have to leave this on the budget, but Mr. Cook said he will not be pleased if the city charged us for the entire amount of expanded expenditures. Mr. Bernstein confirmed that the understanding is that HHWNC would pay only for the materials for the kiosk bases.

Mr. Bernstein said there is no problem of surplus money, since we’ll spend 20,000 on the election. Mr. Bernstein continued that we need to get the motions prepared to change the by-laws, and plan what we need to do with the elections in conformity with the recent guidelines. We should be drafting motions at the March Board of Directors meeting and circulating them for an early May by-law-change meeting. At that meeting, the election procedures should be ready to go into place for the election. At that time, we will know what kind of event and funding we need. As it is expected now, HHWNC will need mass mailings, postcards, Hollywood City Hall (not within our boundaries) or other site with easy parking and access.

The discussion went back to the motion on the floor. Mr. Bernstein suggested we hold off on the motion until we find out what our spending is going to be for the election. Mr. Connolly suggested re-allocating 3/4 (three-quarters) of the budget line. Mr. Cook agreed and said it relieves us from evaluating the directors. Mr. Connolly suggested neutral phrasing that whereas we are in the fourth quarter of our fiscal year and that some of our committees have not met, in order to give us flexibility, the executive committee suggests moving money from the meeting line to the contingency line in the budget. This would mean $8,000 of the $12,000 would be moved. $11,237.57 is still unspent in the budget. Given some un-reimbursed monies, if HHWNC drops the figure to $10,000, HHWNC will have another quarter which is $3,000, leaving $7,000 surplus. Mr. Bernstein seconded the motion.

Mr. Connolly suggested moving on the intent. Messrs. Bernstein and Connolly voted in favor; Mr. Cook abstained. The motion passed (2-0).

Mr. Connolly suggested that Mr. Cook give a report to the Board on 10 March 2005 on the progress of these discussions of the two committees of which he is a member dealing with the next and future Congresses of Neighborhood Councils. Mr. Bernstein suggested that 7 minutes of the agenda be allowed this topic.

Discussion continued related to the Archisphere $1,750.00 amount on the budget.

Mr. Cook said his understanding of unspent prior monies was that they can roll-over into the following year. Mr. Bernstein said Mr. Cook could bring this up to the Board, if he wants to.

Mr. Bernstein was critical of the amount of Executive Committee time that the Treasurer’s report had absorbed. At 8:30 am Mr. Cook left the meeting. Mr. Bernstein told Mr. Cook that he had no reason to be upset, and demanded to know if Mr. Cook wanted to continue as Treasurer. Mr. Cook replied that he would think about the matter.

A quorum no longer being present, the meeting ended, at which time visitor/minute-taker Mr. Vitale also left the restaurant.

Respectfully submitted,
Vince Vitale