BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES – Meeting of July 11, 2022

PRESENT:  Claire Adler, President; Steve Richman, Vice-President; Janet Finegar, Secretary; Shakirra Clark; Jeff Hornstein, Caitlin Marrazzo; Joe Mikuliak; Matt Ruben; Barbara Saverino; Kevin Wilkins.

ABSENT:  Alex Boland; Chastity Houston; Don Phillips; Matt Ochs.

The meeting was called to order by the President at 7:07 p.m.

Motion: By Steve Richman, seconded by Jeff Hornstein. “To approve the minutes of the June Board meeting as presented.” Passed 9-0-0

President’s Report: Claire Adler. Written report attached and reviewed.

• Steve presented a proposal for how we will handle bookkeeping for the near future. There was general agreement to allow him to continue with the proposal as presented.
• There was significant discussion about the details of the Executive Director job description and appropriate salary range. Jeff provided a short description of the anticipated process moving forward, including establishing funding for the position. 

Motion: By Matt Ruben, seconded by Jeff Hornstein. “To approve the Executive Director job description as modified and discussed at the meeting.” Passed 8-1-0

Motion: By Matt Ruben, seconded by Kevin Wilkins. “To include a salary range of $60-$70,000 with benefits in the Executive Director job description.” Passed 9-0-0

• There was a discussion of the proposed amendment to the bylaws, including a friendly change to require that a waiver be approved by a ¾ vote of the Board members voting. 

Motion: By Matt Ruben, seconded by Caitlin Marrazzo. “To approve the proposed amendment to the NLNA Bylaws: i.e.: To amend ARTICLE V: SECTION 4: B. to read '1. To be eligible for nomination to serve as President, Vice President, Secretary, or Treasurer of the Association, the nominee must have served at least one year on the Board of Directors, except as specified in Article V: Section 4: B. 2.   2. If there is no eligible candidate for a Board officer position, the Board of Directors may approve a waiver of the prior service requirement for a specific nomination of a qualified individual. The Board shall review the qualifications of the individual and approve the waiver through a three-quarters majority of those voting. The Board Secretary shall report the results of this vote to the Elections Committee no less than two weeks before the Elections Meeting.'” Passed 9-0-0

NB: The current process for amending the bylaws is that the Board must review a proposed amendment and then present the recommendation to the general membership in writing at least two weeks prior to the meeting where it is to be voted on.

NLNA President’s Report

1. PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT AND POLICY

• I-95: PennDOT will be hosting a meeting later this summer to present the trade-offs in the berm/viaduct alternatives.
• NL Rec Center Playground: Is now open! Huge thanks to Janet, many other NLNA board members, neighbor Coren Bomback, Venise Whitaker and others.

2. FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

• Accounting update: Lara may continue accounting-related duties as an interim to hiring an accountant.
• Hiring discussion: Discuss job listing sent by Matt and Jeff + next steps.
• Board recruitment: Great turnout at the meet-and-greet and thank you Janet for a continued outreach.
• Discussion of by-laws: See above.

3. EVENTS AND OUTREACH

• 2nd St Fest: August 7.
• NLNA Election: Fall, date TBD based on hiring progress.

Treasury Report: Written report distributed and reviewed.

• Steve detailed the discussions he and Barbara have had with a potential new tenant and on site manager. It was agreed that Kevin should would work with the two of them on finalizing the decisions.

TREASURY REPORT – JULY 2022

A. 2021-22 Budget: June Financials - table attached

• For the nine months ending on June 30, All Program and All Funds:
  • Income: $136,987  – $6,528 more than budgeted
  • Expenses: $127,547  – $6,668 less than budgeted
  • Net Income: $9,450 – $13,196 more than budgeted
• For the nine months ending on June 30, General Fund & Liberty Lands accounts:
  • Income: $122,903  – $8,103 more than budgeted
  • Expenses: $113,325 – $6,695 less than budgeted
  • Net Income: $9,578 – $14,798 more than budgeted

B. Variance from Budget: Explanation

• The current variance from the combined GF & LL budgets ($14,798) is largely attributable to the following positive and negative factors:
  • One-time insurance reimbursement of almost $8,000;
  • Higher than anticipated income from the plant sale (+$2,500), music fest (+$3,300) and community center rentals (+$4,000);
  •  Lower than anticipated income from grants (-$2,500), the Annual Appeal (-$3,000) and individual donations (-$2,000);
  • Lower than anticipated expenses for grants (-$1,000), communications (-$4,500) and staff (-$4,000); and
  • Higher than anticipated expenses for repair and maintenance (+$7,000).

C. Other Items

• Treasurer Position
  • There is still no current or past board member who has indicated an interest in running for Treasurer. Our current bylaws require one year of prior service on the Board to run for an officer position.
  • Interest has been expressed by at least one resident of the neighborhood who has not served on the board. A proposed bylaws amendment is attached for consideration.
• Staffing
  • Discussions are underway and are expected to conclude this month for independent contractors to handle financial responsibilities and building maintenance. Board consideration at the July meeting is proposed.

Motion: By Barbara Saverino, seconded by Caitlin Marrazzo. “To accept the Treasury report as presented.” Passed 8-0-1 

BID Report: Matt Ruben. Written report attached and reviewed. 

• Matt added to the written report that the 2^nd Street parking 6-month trial was only officially “begun” when the last signs were installed in mid-June 2022, so that there will be no data on the trial until the fall 2022. 

BID Update

• I-95: BID understands that NLNA needs to go through a process to possibly arrive at a position on the berm-viaduct question. Claire will update us on that this evening.
• 2nd & Laurel: BID is moving forward with design for permanent safety improvements and a small pedestrian plaza at this ugly and very dangerous intersection. BID is applying for grants to enable the process to move forward - and notably, one piece that must be funded before anything can actually happen is a community engagement process. In other words, the BID will not move forward to a shovel-ready project without first having a community-vetted plan.
• Spring Garden medians: BID has been working with area developers to try to get private funding for improvements to the medians. This is a tough time economically for construction so this is on hold for the moment and the BID is investigating smaller improvements for the short term.
• Corridor lighting: BID is contracting with electrical firm to prepare 2nd St for improved lighting and is also working on a plan for what that would look like. I will update our board when planning and design ideas surface.

Liberty Lands Committee Report: Janet Finegar. Written report attached and reviewed.

Liberty Lands Report  – July 2022

• Minutes from the last meeting (June 23rd) are incorporated in this report. A copy of just those minutes is also in the Google Drive folder for volunteers.
• The next meeting will be tomorrow, Tuesday the 12th, at 7 p.m. at the Community Center. If possible, it will be outside in the yard.
• Specific issues to discuss on the 12th: a dedicated versus general work day for the trash receptacles, volunteer management ideas, and improved signage.
• Park Management/Structure
  • It was agreed that meeting in person at 7 p.m. on the 2nd Tuesday of the month should be the plan going forward. 
  • We still need to clarify how to forward volunteer offers and information about problems at the park. The googlegroup is, for now, the best way to reach all the people who are active volunteers. It may be necessary to create some smaller sub-committees or for people to remove themselves from that group if they want. 
  • Michaela unfortunately had to step down as events coordinator, which means that role is open now, and we're still looking for someone willing to be the overall coordinator for maintenance (that would be the person who'd get the messages about problems at the park.)
  • Related to the above: the NLNA is actively working on a job search for an Executive Director who would be an employee who handled such things as maintenance and events coordination, so any volunteer responsibility for that should be fairly short term. 
  • The longstanding problem with the water bills for the park remains a problem with no further resolution. 
  • Jeff and Sydney are working on putting together a volunteer list and hoping to work with Claire (NLNA) to use that Constant Contact list for liberty lands volunteers. (From June: Bruce identified as important that we do a better job of gathering contact information from volunteers and also info about their skill sets. Jeff has collected some info already, got the list from the 2021 playground mulching from Liz, and is working on putting together a list that could be easily accessed from the Liberty Lands google drive. Maria has volunteers from the NLNA Membership committee to add, too. Ideal to ask people about their level of commitment/available time so that we can focus asks for things like special projects or build days. It was suggested that we could create a Google form for volunteers to offer their help (so that questions could be standardized and answers available to all) and a QR code at the park and on the website would take volunteers to that form.)
  • We've had 53 rentals of the park through June with another 30 on the books through October so far. 
  • Gary, Bruce and Tom are working on ideas for the trash corral situation: more updates at the meeting.(From June: Lots of conversation about trash. Bruce met with Tom, who carries out our trash now, and got a bunch of recommendations from him: that there should be fewer corrals and all the 3rd Street corrals should be removed, that the main trash corral on American Street should be modified/covered so that it is NOT accessible to neighbors and to eliminate the rat's nest, that the existing corrals be standardized so they all take the same cans. Tom also asked for a raise and the committee should confirm that that has been approved. There was conversation about implementing a carry-in/carry-out policy, removing the pizza box holder on one corral, and a suggestion to check with Penn Treaty to see how they handle trash (Bill noted that he'd tried to talk to their Friends group in the past for advice with no success.) It was noted that the lack of trash collection on the 200 block of Laurel adds to the trash problem at the park. Bill volunteered to spearhead an effort to get Sanitation to send a truck down the street. 
  • Hannah is developing a bunch of photos for social media and will be posting soon.  
  • There is a man regularly sleeping/camping at the park: he has been approached by Homeless Outreach and refused services. The group needs to review past policies and conversations about camping at the park (there is a lot of information about a particularly difficult situation in 2019 on Facebook – for those who don't use it, I pulled the postings from the Liberty Lands page, which are most relevant to park policy, and put them in a document on the Google drive). 
  • We need to increase awareness that the park is community owned – better signage, a banner that we put up at every event, etc. A signage sub-group (starting with Bruce and Jackson: others are welcome) will begin thinking about what information needs to be on signs as well as design and placement issues. **The group probably should review the existing park rules to make sure they don't need revision or addition. 
  • We should designate a sub-group to work on budgeting for the upcoming fiscal year. (From June: There is an annual operating budget for the park that includes funds for things like signage and repairs as well as for mowing, trash collection, etc. In the past, budgeting has been done by Janet with the NLNA Treasurer based on past years' costs and on anticipated needs. In 2022, the committee should try to go over a proposed budget together that can then be presented to the NLNA Board (there is currently no NLNA Treasurer).
  • Basic info on how to structure a new project at the park: Anyone can propose a project – if the group agrees to pursue it, a subcommittee (which could be just one person) should research, develop a plan and budget, and present that to the group. Bruce/the NLNA Board rep would be in charge of the mechanics of payment.
• Physical Maintenance:
  • One of the picnic tables was broken last week: Bill Russell fixed it.
  • Liz has met with two new volunteers (Charlotte,  doing hours for Tula Yoga's rental, and Kelly Costello). They are watering trees and the public gardens and Charlotte is weeding in the rain garden. They have hoses, etc., in the electricity shed behind the stage. 
  • Kirsten reports that a large branch fell from the pawlonia trees near American Street. Do we need to have a tree company check it out? (Liz could not see the broken limb Kirsten mentioned in the tree: Kirsten took the limb to the CPH.)
  • Next Workday is planned for August 20th. We need to start marketing this everywhere. Topic is still TBD.Maybe signage and/or trash corrals! It was agreed that nametags would be a great addition to workdays. Bruce suggested giving t-shirts to volunteers (and it was noted that there's a backstock of various NLNA/park shirts in the community center).
  • Ken informed us that: Venting for the Porta potty is complete; a memorial plaque was added to the bench with green arms, and Kevin has done some work on the garbage corrals but is holding off on more until there's a final decision about which to remove.
  • A leaky water pipe on the west side of the park was fixed thanks to Pat MacDonald of Onion Flats. There is a document with  information about the line and park water in the drive. 
  • Liz reported some issues from the park, some that she fixed. Remaining: futon mattress at the former CPFH; Propped up sign knocked over at the NE entrance to the park; “Don’t trash your park” sign taken off post (Liz has it at home now) 
• Community Garden: 
  • There will be a  garden work day sometime in July or early August. This will mostly be focused on making sure the compost space gets set up, and weeding the aisles. Ideally we’ll also have one in Sept/October to spread new wood chips.
  • Mary Claire is recruiting volunteers to take action on a collaborative composting model with the Liberty Lands community compost folks. The idea needs 2-3 people to handle maintenance of the garden output so that we’re not imposing a big burden on the community compost volunteers
  • City Harvest is officially being supervised by Luis Romero. He’s working on finding contacts for donations at Sunday Love and other places.
• Playground:
  • JD Alpert is concerned about the playground bridge – he and Brendan met to evaluate it and the rest of the playground. More details to follow.
• Upcoming events:
  • 7:00 Tuesday the 12th: Next meeting. 
  • The NLNA has a big fundraiser at the 2nd Street Festival and welcomes volunteer help on August 7th. Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0F48AFAA2FA1FE3-2ndstreet
  • August 20th  Workday 

Membership Committee Report: Shakirra Clark.

• Shakirra noted that the committee will be working on staffing the NLNA table at the 2^nd Street Festival. It was noted that tabling is part of the online signup genius that has been circulated. 

Operations Committee Report: Barbara Saverino. Written report attached and reviewed.

NLNA July Operations Committee Update

• Rentals 
  • NLArts June Summer Camp has started and will run again in August.
  • Karate rentals renewed through summer as well.
• Mailbox Store 
  • The space has been cleaned, repaired and painted as of July 4th weekend.
  • Some items and debris from the transition have also been removed.
  • NLNA as Landlord paid for painting, repairs and cleaning.
  • Thank you to all who helped get this done - especially Rachel and Steve.
• 2nd Floor Apartment 
  • Don has moved out and NLNA is preparing for new tenant
  • The apartment needs to a deep clean, removal of former tenant items including mattress and painting will also be need prior to new tenant 
  • We have received two estimates for painting/deep clean - approximately $3,500
  • Don has forfeited his security deposit  and will be used to offset our costs
  • Terry Fabian is very interested in renting apartment, working on lease - this will avoid the need to list it, saving the equivalent of one month's rent
  • Looking for August start 
• Maintenance Agreement 
  • Steve has spoken with Terry Fabian (one of our current contractors).
  • He has expanded his portfolio and expressed interest in position
  • Need to come up with an agreement and suggested compensation  (NLNA)
  • Steve, Rachel, Barbara and Monika will be discussing in coming week (8/11)
• Community Center Flashing
  • The Committee has been looking at repairing the flashing, stucco and possible roof.
  • It was determined that faulty flashing has been causing interior leaks and stucco cracking.  
  • Terry Fabian was doing a quote and finishing up work on the Mailbox store and looked at property. He agreed that the flashing was the problem.  Terry will be replacing the flashing to prevent future leaking in Mailbox Store and further stucco cracking.

Public Safety Report: Joe Mikuliak. Written report attached and reviewed.

Public Safety Report 

• The PDAC meeting returned to being virtual and was much shorter than usual but.more interesting than most.
• Very little crime news - no new carjackings in N.L. since the arrests of suspects in the two recent ones.
• The 6th district PDAC will provide hundreds of loaded bookbags to elementary school students next month.
  • I am asking the NLNA board to make a donation of $75 towards bookbags. The check should be made out to the "6th District PDAC."
  • One of our community relations officers,  Joe Ferraro or Julie Carpenter, will stop by the NLNA office to pick it up.  (A few years ago, they didn't even know we had an office.)
  • I brought up the Kearney School and Officer Ferraro said they delivered school bags there in the past and will do so again this year.
• Most of the discussion was on open carry laws.  Open carry of firearms is ok in Philly  with a permit and if a person is 21 years old or older.  It is permitted everywhere in Philly except "sensitive places" like hospitals and schools.  OK on SEPTA.  Other places must post a sign saying, "No guns allowed."
  • Police should not/do not ask to see a permit unless the person is acting suspiciously or appears to be under 21.
  • Rest of PA - No permit necessary for open carry..
• Next PDAC meeting late September.  There may be a walking tour of The Spring Garden Street corridor on Thursday with Captain Craig.

Zoning Committee Report: No June meeting/report.

Old Business/New Business

None.

The meeting was adjourned by acclaim at 8:48 p.m.

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