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These draft minutes will be on the agenda of our 6-18-03 meeting for approval
Directors present were Andy Anderson, Neil Bethke, Charles Brink, Dorothy Boberg, Don Faber, Sandra Kardos, Willie Langley, Estelle Lit, Jane Lowenthal, Frank Mc Ginnis, Jim Mertzel, Walter Prince, John Ramadan, and Marilyn Stout.
Charles Brink called the meeting to order at 7:41pm. Jane Lowenthal arrived later after getting the certificates.
Andy Anderson gave the Treasurer's Report. We have $194.00.
Jon Lauritzen is our new trustee on the Board of Education and previously worked on the Chatsworth Community Council. He offered to provide speakers to our group from the Board of Education and the School Police. We are in school board area # 3 (below 118 freeway and west of the 405 freeway) and are included in sub-divisions A and C.
James Burkhardt of the mayor's office was present. He is the North Valley Director (north of Roscoe Blvd).
The city has to have a balanced budget per the City Charter, which is financed by property taxes. Due to cuts in property taxes, there will be 4 areas of revenue increases:
Increase zoo admissions by $0.75 Increase sanitation fees by $6 to $10 per container. The general fund now subsidizes trash collection fees.
Increase golf course fees by $5.
A total $31 million additional fees.
These new fees will free up more money for police. Charles Brink asked that since we lost 900 officers over the last 5 years, what happened to the money allocated for their salaries? $100 million went to other departments, senior lead officers, lawsuits and problems with the former chief of police apparently ate up all that money. LA is now the murder capital of the USA. We have a new police chief, implemented a flexible work schedule (allowing an officer to work 3 12 hour days (36 hours) and get paid for 40 hours, They also added new retirement benefits. They are expecting full classes at the Police Academy and want to hire 320 officers this year.
The new plan allows the city to hire officers for 6 months. They want to cut 1-3% from other departments Hal Bernson supports the mayor's plan. Even with 320 officers, the police will still be understaffed. Chief Bratton wants 12,500 officers in the department. We now have 9,000 officers Andy Anderson asked about getting a 2nd meter for reduction of sewer fees.
Mark Chapa, from the mayor's office covers North Hills, Panorama City, and Pacoima. He discussed Neighborhood Empowerment and Action Team Flyer run on stats from LAPD. Example: McArthur Park is an area of high crime.
He also discussed how LA is implementing a new telephone number 311 for non-emergency calls to free up the 911 line. The 311 operators will transfer you to the right department to handle your problem and they have a tracking form you can use for your calls. If he does not do his job and get your calls answered, you can have his job ($40,000 a year). His cell phone number is 213-359-2587.
Dorothy Boberg asked if he handled replacing street trees. He said DWP has trees available. You need to attend a 4 hour class and can get 4 trees for your property. He is not sure if you can plant them in the right-of-way. Jane stated that there was and 818 number to call for tree info, but didn't have it with her.
Jimmy Stewart of the Sherwood Forest Homeowners Assn asked a question about hanging electrical wires in his back yard. He also asked about filming in his neighborhood and was advised to contact EDIC (the Entertainment Development Industry Council).
Patty and Elias were introduces from Edible Arrangement. They were providing refreshments for the evening. They are a new business in Northridge located near Plummer and Reseda Blvd. The basket they brought costs $99.00 and feeds over 30 people. Their prices range from $29.00 to over $100.00.
Jane Lowenthal gave out Northridge Extraordinaire Awards to several outstanding Northridge citizens.
Barbara Blakely won the 2003 Teacher of the Year $1000 award from Wal*Mart. She is a National Certified Board teacher and is raising $50,000 for a new playground for Clalahan Street Elementary School. She was introduced by John Lorenson, our new member of the LAUSD Board of Education, along with staff from her school DeWayne Smith flunked out of Pierce and Valley College. He was selling cars and decided to go back to school. He took speech and got a scholarship. He was asked back to Valley College to teach speech. He won an award for Excellence in Teaching and as a Mentor. His student Amy Ellis won a gold medal in Informative Speech.
Odie _________ came to Northridge a Presidential Scholar and got tuition, room and board and a computer. He is biochemistry major and was on the Dean's List every year. He is going to UCLA for his PHD.
Adam Christen won the President's Association Outstanding Student of the Year Award. He does research on how the western diet affects diabetes. He believes resistance training can reverse diabetes. He is going to ASU for his PHD. His wife Kristen was also present.
Knowing Northridge In the fall CSUN will send students from 2 classes to map Northridge. Dr Martin and Victoria ---------- are asking for the community's help for the program called “Knowing Northridge”.
The program was mentioned to Joel Wachs - What is a Neighborhood? They are looking for a grant to get video cameras to record this. This will be part of our certification meeting in July. We've gotten 5 calls about filming. We need to set up a committee on filming.
Chatsworth Neighborhood Council was certified 3 weeks ago. They were cited for Extraordinary Outreach.
On Saturday May 31, Northridge Park will have a Salute to Recreation, and we will have a booth there. Flyers are being sent to schools. The PTA representatives at our meeting volunteered to handle distribution and said to contact other PTAs.
The Northridge Pool was also discussed. The Olympic size pool has been there since the 1960s. The pool has had a leak for years and it was never fixed. It has been closed for 5 years. Funds were available to fix the pool several years ago, but our Councilman, Hal Bernson never requested them. At the time the repair cost was from $150,000 to $250,000.
Recently the voters passed prop K and every council district got money for local parks. Our Councilman, Hal Bernson gave our $950,000 to the Porter Ranch YMCA, a private organization that supports his programs for the area. The Northridge children without their own pools, and thr families using a public pool got nothing. Maybe we could get Councilman Bernson, or his successor (and assistant for the last 23 years) to explain which a private organization got public funds.
There are 2 committees that deal with this, the pool committee (Porter Ranch (even through they are not certified and the pool is in our area, not theirs), is on this one, and the local committee for our park. Our council was never advised or asked to participated in these committees. They are now taking proposals to replace the pool at a cost of $6 million. There were only 15 people at their last public meeting.
Next Meeting: Door Prizes will be given out from Pep Boys, etc. and Alta Dena Dairy will provide refreshments.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 PM.
Submitted by Sandra Eve Kardos Secretary