Northridge Neighborhood Council |
We welcome everyone in the area. Click here if you want to be added to our E-mail list. |
These draft minutes will be on the agenda of our 8-20-03 meeting for approval
Directors present were Charles Brink, Sandra Kardos, Marilyn Staub, Willie Langley, Don Faber, John Ramadan, and Jane Lowenthal.
Regular Monthly Meeting 7-16-2003 at Holmes Middle School Some Guests did not sign in: Other Guests that did: Steve Slutzah, Leonard Shapiro, Bernard Schmidt, Weny Schmidt, Marc Israel, Harriet & Jim Jones, Elayne Volmar & Arthur Chilton, Christine Rogers, Mathew Fitzgerald (DONE), Rolando Cuevas (DONE), and Sandy Winger (came but left early)
Jane Lowenthal called the meeting to order at 7:46 PM. She discussed the success of the outreach at Northridge Park Salute to Recreation and that we sponsored the parking shuttle with Mayor Hahn and she brought in the banners that were on the shuttle buses to show the audience.
Sr Lead Officer Don Graham was scheduled and couldn’t come to the meeting, but he did call Jane during the meeting. Sr. Lead Officer Bishop came in his place (it was his 3rd meeting of the night). He is one of 9 Sr Lead Officers who cover the north valley’s 55-56 sq miles form Woodman to Fallbrook, from Roscoe north to the county line. They are on a 12 hr watch from 6AM to 6PM. There is also mid-watch from 3AM to 2:30 PM. There are usually 9 two-man units each day.
Highest incidents they respond to:
Car Burglary. They use a spring loaded device to break the windows or throw the porcelain part of a spark plug at the window to break it.
Stolen Cars. Camrys and Toyotas are the most popular cars to steal. Most car thefts seem to be late night or early morning.
Traffic deaths are now higher than homicides.
Most officers work 12 hour shifts 4-5 days a week, then they are off 4-5 days. Officer Bishop is on a 10 hour day but usually works 14 hours a day.
A standard arrest can put a car out of service for 2-3 hours or more.
The Valley Communication Center, which handles 911 calls in the Valley will not open for 1-2 years.
College fraternity parties are a big problem in our neighborhoods. A judge ordered 3 groups to cease operating as a fraternity. CSUN now has a Fraternity Council to hopefully deal with these matters.
Someone asked about abandoned vehicles. Call 311 regarding abandoned vehicles. They have to move over 1 mile in 72 hours. Police come and check on the car over a period of time before it is towed away.
Officer Bishop briefly discussed the CPAB-Community Police Advisory Board.
Chuck asked if he could check why cell phones will not connect you with 311 in a non-emergency situation. He said he would check.
Jane reviewed the situation of the Northridge Pool. It has been closed for the last two summers and will be closed at least this summer and next summer. She said she was despondent on how the pool was maintained and how Prop K money was spent. Porter ranch YMCA got $950,000 and Northridge Park got only $138,000. She introduced Marc Israel, Director of the Northridge Park.
He said he had no answers on the pool. He is in the middle and supports our group. He has been with the city for 22 years, came to the Valley in 1999 and considers it a great assignment.
They serve 300 kids a day in summer camp. In basketball, 600 people wait in line from 2 AM to sign up for the a league team. They also have ballet, tap, art & crafts, karate, Camp Kaleidescope in the summer, which starts next Monday. Enrollment is down due to having no pool. They have day camp, sports camps, pre-school (#-5 yr olds), theater camp, and a teen camp that takes frequent day trips. His office space is limited. They have licensed day care, a new director Sylvester Eduardo, and they have a bus to pick kids up. They also have a senior club on Fridays. Marc previously worked at the Fairfax Sr. Center and the Van/Nuys/Sherman Oaks/VanOwen Sr Centers.
The tennis courts are open until 10 PM.
Ice Cream trucks are a problem. They are not allowed on park property, but they can be on the street. He said some places like Balboa Park des issue permits to let the ice cream trucks on the grounds.
There is a Committee for the Northridge Pool and Marc gets to appoint someone to the committee. The LA City Council appointed members from the certified council south of us and the un-certified council north of us, but made no mention to our group of this committee.
Marc has arranged for limited use of the Granada Hills pool for this summer for 4 days a week. He will bus 3000 kids a week to the pool for the summer. Our normal users are 16,538 people a week for 7 days a week, for the 3 months of summer.
Jane said there was an article in the Daily News on a new Prop K for funds for the Valley. In August they will poll the community on the Northridge Pool. We’ll only get $1-1.2 million, so we’ll have to raise funds privately. Chuck estimates the pool won’t open for 7-10 years. Jane thinks only a couple of years, 7-10 years of we don’t push LA City (they have a 2-year cycle for raising money).
Prop K
State Bill SD40
Private Foundations
Council Berson’s replacement Greig Smith was asked to our last meeting and to this meeting and refuses to come. We were told he does not go to un-certified councils, but he not only went to the Porter Ranch and Lake Balboa Councils, but also gave the Porter Ranch Council money for expenses.
The newly revised bylaws will be reviewed and voted on tonight, and again at a special meeting before the certification hearing on 7/1/2003. The meeting will be held at Holmes Middle School, but in the auditorium, McKenzie Hall.
Chuck Brink went over the by-law changes. Chuck and Jane were on the phone with Darren Martinez, asst city attorney, Saturday night (6/14/03) from 7:30PM to 11:00 PM making the changes he requested. They made all the changes he requested except same day registration for voting.
North Hills has already been certified. Northridge accepted an orphan area none of the other councils wanted. Lake Balboa and Winnetka both have areas with Northridge zip codes, and after discussion with these groups it was decided to leave these areas in Northridge, unless the residents voted otherwise.
Steve Slutzah asked about our web site. He wanted to know who owned it Chuck Brink owns the web site and does all the work to maintain the site. He donates the cost which is over $400.00 a year plus $20.00 a month to maintain the web site, not counting his labor, and if the Council wanted to pay the cost, they could buy it. Don Faber offered to lease it for $1.00 a year and donated the $1.00. No formal action was taken.
Jane asked if there were any objections to the changes in the by-laws. There were none, so Marilyn Stout moved to approve the by-law changes. Don Faber seconded it. The vote was 11 for approval, and 1 against.
LA Unified School Police Office Fontenette dropped by to tell us about the school police. They have been operating for 10 years and have 305 sworn personnel. Their Valley office is at Monroe High, and their main office is in LA. They work shift covering 24 hrs a day, answer alarm calls in 910 schools with 256 officers. They are applying for grants for more officers. They cover 708 sq miles. There are 3 mini-districts. The chief is Alan B. Kerstein. Their telephone number is 818-893-6754. District A is handled by Sargent Sandoval, District B by Sargent Bill, and District C by Sergeant Kent. Northridge is in Districts A & C. There are 50 officers in the Valley, 8-10 officers during the day. Their web site is www.laspd.com. Vandalism, theft and burglary are the predominant crimes, and Northridge is at the low end. Drugs, marijuana, and crimes against persons are big issues. Traffic is a major problem. They now have a motorcycle unit and a canine unit. To report a crime at a school call 213-625-6631 24/7, or call LAPD or 911 if an emergency. They don’t co-ordinate with neighborhood watch. They are only permitted to issue truancy tickets between 8:30 AM and 1:30 PM.
Mathew Fitzgerald of "DONE" has been with them for almost 2 years, said we were fortunate that we were able to go over the by-laws with the city attorney. If we wanted to make changes to the by-laws later, we could, but we may need DONE’s approval. It is important to work with other neighborhood councils. He said he was here to answer questions. Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council is also on the agenda at the certification meeting on 7/1/03 here at Holmes Middle School.
Fitzgerald said the Commissioners are looking for explanations on what our boundaries are and how they were established. He asked, "What will impress the Commissioners?"
Jane told Fitzgerald he could get the information and the revised by-laws off our web site. He said it was not his job. He told Jane to give it to Rita or Mathews. Chuck said he would deliver a new copy of the by-laws to him tomorrow and get a receipt.
Fitzgerald noted that some groups had over 250 people at their certification meetings.
Fitzgerald said he doesn’t have any by-law revisions in his file. Jane said Rita Moreno has the by-law changes from Nov or Ded’02. Rita stated she had a copy at the North Hills certification meeting.
Fitzgerald said the Commission would be weighing the application, asking for boundaries, history of the community, what outreach has been done to different groups, looking at diversity, where postings for meeting locations are, and the hours they are open, a contact list of board members. One physical location where the notice is listed, Northridge Park. Holmes School was not listed. Public Notice locations (5 for other groups), 8 locations found.
Fitzgerald said we need 200 + signatures and addresses. Chuck told him they were turned in over 2 years ago. Fitzgerald said there was nothing in our file. He suggested representatives of the council speak on different areas such as age, renters, students, and businesses. Fitzgerald said we need to show support of the stakeholders for the neighborhood council.
Rolando Cuevas was introduced by Fitzgerald as our Project Coordinator after the certification meeting on 7/1/03. This was Fitzgerald’s first meeting with our council, and apparently his last.
Things got into a heated argument as several board members questioned Fitzgerald as to what happened to all the data we had submitted to DONE over the last 2 ½ years, since he said out file had no data in it.
Marilyn Stout started to talk about the Neighborhood Council Forum on 5/17/03 with speaker Eric Garcetti and Kon Howe of the Planning Dept.
Bill Christopher is head of BONC (Board of Neighborhood Commissioners).
Leonard Shapiro, a reported with the Tolucan said we should explain at the start of each meeting what the council is doing, so new members and visitors can know what is going on.
Corrections to the minutes were listed, as the names of some of the Extra-Ordinair awards were incomplete. The minutes were approved unanimously with those changes.
Next regular meeting we will have the exra-ordinaire awards again.
A program to replace the internship program for adult management at the Northridge Park to help with the kids ages 10-21 as the library has cut their hours and the pool is closed.
Steve Slutzah said be came to our original meetings of the Northridge Council 2 years ago, and came back tonight. He is a stakeholder in Reseda. He became very derogatory and argumentative toward the council.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:21PM
We passed the hat and collected $18.00 plus $1.00 for the purpose of renting our web site from Chuck Brink. Jane said she will think it over as to whether she wants to rent the web site. The Secretary, Sandy Kardos is holding the funds since the treasurer, Andy Anderson was not present.
Submitted by Sandra Eve Kardos Secretary