Board Of Directors Minutes – Meeting of Nov 4, 2019

PRESENT: Matt Ruben, President; Claire Adler, Vice-President; Steve Richman, Treasurer; Janet Finegar, Secretary; Kristen Ainscoe; Melanie Coffman; Jacek Ghosh; Joe Mikuliak; Don Phillips; Barbara Saverino; Amy Sweeney; Renya Wasson; Kevin Wilkins.

ABSENT: Avery Amaya; Michael Coyne.

ALSO PRESENT: Kenny Cooper, student reporter for the Philadelphia Neighborhoods

The meeting was called to order by the President at 6:36 p.m.

Motion: By Joe Mikuliak, seconded by Steve Richman. “To approve the minutes of the October Board meeting as edited.” Passed 10-0-0

President’s Report: Matt Ruben: written report attached and reviewed.

NLNA President’s Report, November 2019

1. PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT, AND POLICY

• Construction Impacts – See Germantown Sewer Project.
• Business Improvement District (BID) – Early next year we should be able to have a joint BID-NLNA meeting sharing the results of the PPA’s neighborhood-wide parking study and discussing potential courses of action.
• Germantown Sewer Project – There has been some potentially interesting movement on the effort to keep one lane of 2nd St open during the Water Dept.’s major sewer work along Germantown Avenue. It appears we will be able to have a general membership meeting on December 5 where the Water Dept. and others will be able to share the latest, in some detail, with the community – this will be crucial because this is going to impact a lot of people for 3-6 months next year.

2. FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

• Office Management/Oversight – Updates in the Operations Committee report.

3. EVENTS AND OUTREACH

• October 24 General Meeting: The meeting, centered on homelessness issues, was sparsely attended but quite substantive and included a rich Q&A and discussion. It was very useful.
• Early December General Meeting. As noted above, we are aiming for a Dec 5 meeting (1^stThurs in Dec), to fit between Thanksgiving and the December holiday season.

4. OTHER ITEMS

• Annual Appeal – Michael sent me last year’s appeal letter, which I have edited and passed along to Kristen. There’s also a list of businesses to send the letter to, which Michael has repeatedly asked board members to review. I strongly encourage board members to do so if they have not already, and to suggest corrections and hopefully additions.
• Homeless Situation at Liberty Lands – The individual camping out at Liberty Lands left the park the day before or day of our October 10 deadline. He returned once to sleep there the following night, but then left permanently. Measures have been put into place to ensure that any future issue gets dealt with quickly.
• Board Polls – Ratification of any online or online board polls since last month’s board meeting.

Motion: By Steve Richman, seconded by Barbara Saverino. “To ratify any and all Board polls taken in the previous month.” Passed 11-0-0

Treasurer's Report: Steve Richman: written report distributed and reviewed.

TREASURER’S REPORT – NOVEMBER 2018

A. 2019-20 Budget

• The 2019-20 budget was adopted by the Board at the October meeting. There were no changes made by the Board to the budget that was recommended by the Finance Committee.
• The adopted budget projects approximately $174,200 in income and $188,400 in expenses in the General Fund and Liberty Lands accounts combined. In addition, the budget anticipates the availability of nearly $34,200 in prior year funds, leaves an additional $7,200 available to be programmed and recommends a carryout of $12,700 to 2020-21.
• Income and expenses recorded In October were generally in line with expectations. Notably, we received a $2,500 sponsorship grant from the PTSSD for the Fall Fest and the Parade of Spirits, and a quarterly rent payment from NL Arts of $800. In addition, we earned $1,700 in administrative fees from our co-sponsorship of Garden Hub’s Penn Treaty grant.

B. Other Items

• Accountant’s 2018-19 Financial Report and Tax Preparation – Our accountant starts work this month on preparation of our annual Compilation Report and Tax Return.
• Report on Account Balances – This month’s Treasurer’s Report includes a three-year statement of bank balances. Attached is a table reflecting activity through the close of the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Motion: By Don Phillips, seconded by Renya Wasson. “To accept the Treasurer's report as presented.” Passed 12-0-0

Communications & Marketing Committees Report: Kristen Ainscoe.

There was some conversation about the steps needed to begin the shift to a new website design. The new signs that go into concrete need to be hung by someone who knows what they're doing – Amy will talk to Bill Proud to see if he might be able to do it.

Fundraising Committee Report: Michael Coyne: written report attached and reviewed.

Fundraising Committee
Annual Appeal:

1. The appeal letter is being finalized.

2. Please take a few minutes, if you have not already done so, to review the list of businesses on the Google Sheets spreadsheet I shared with you. Please make any adjustments or corrections as outlined last month.

3. It would be good to have the letters ready to mail in the third week of November.

Matt added the reminder that the Winterfest is coming up in February and that he'd talked to a new bank that's opening in the neighborhood. 

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

Liberty Lands Report – November 2019

Park as a whole: 

• Northern Liberties/Liberty Lands was approved as a site for the new city neighborhood composting program! There are two training workshops in November – the two volunteers who applied for the program, Justina and Al, will attend them, but it would be great to have a Liberty Lands representative at them as well. The dates are  November 9 and 16 from 10-4 (yeah, it's a lot). Is anyone interested?
• Kerry has stepped up to work on the tree tag project. Jacek has offered to help with the project of fixing the American Street entrance – Warren has suggested extending the low brick wall between the trash corral and the potty shed to create a more attractive barrier from traffic there. Redrafting the park signs is a project still to be done. Getting permit parking on the park streets is still waiting to be done.
• Janet is starting the process of stepping down from being a co-coordinator for the park. Janet and Liz have agreed that the park as it runs now needs a different management structure, so rather than seeking a volunteer to take on the co-coordination role, we'd like to ask the people who care about the park – those on this list, but others as well – to consider what that new structure should be. We will schedule a meeting in January 2020 for people to discuss possibilities and also to volunteer to take on new roles. We envision this being a deliberate and probably rather lengthy process, and Janet intends to continue the volunteer work she's been doing during the process. At this point, though, it's appropriate for anyone and everyone to begin thinking about what kind of management might make sense for the future, and what role they'd like to play in that. 
• On October 10, Sokka packed his things and left the park with help from Paul and neighbor/Prevention Point outreach worker Alli. While he returned the next two nights and left items behind (which were cleaned up by neighbors Steph and Jared), he then moved to another location in the neighborhood without the police having to get involved. NLNA's general meeting about homelessness in mid-October was lightly attended but had good information. Liberty Lands still needs to adopt a policy on dealing with homeless people in the park. Based on the conversation from the September meeting and other conversations, I (Janet) am proposing the policy that follows and requesting comments/suggestions:
  • DAYTIME use without leaving things at the park is just use. There should be no distinction between users we believe to be housed or homeless. No one should use the playground equipment in a way that monopolizes it or makes it off-putting for children to use (sleeping on it, having a party on it, etc.). No one other than gardeners should be off the paths in the public gardens. No one should make a mess of the trash cans. A person sleeping on a bench during the day, on the other hand, is just a park user.
  • NIGHTTIME use of the park is forbidden to everyone other than for specific, park-authorized activities. Being in the park at night is against the rules for everyone.
  • Actions at the park that are illegal or threatening are an issue for the police regardless of who is doing them. (This actually includes having a dog off-leash, which is illegal in Philadelphia.)
  • Breaking park rules – doing things that are not allowed at the park but that are generally legal and non-threatening (like misusing the trash containers or being in the park at night) – require enforcement by park volunteers, and we hope that signage and social pressure will mostly keep people from doing these things.
  • Reduce incidence of issues:
  • Keep the existing “no camping” signs up. Improve other signage to highlight no nighttime use
  • NLNA regularly make basic information available to neighbors about best practices to help/respond to homeless people (calling hotline or 911)
  • Continue to not stress out about nighttime uses with no stuff left and no damage/threat
  • Respond immediately to any left items:
  • If there are dangerous items like needles, discard them immediately. If possible, talk to the person directly to deliver an immediate eviction. Bag any non-dangerous items left behind and leave them nearby with a 5-day note. Notify the police of the full interaction. (A 5-day note should include the date it was left, say that items can't be left at the park and that there is no camping/use of the park at night, and give the date when the things will be thrown away.)
  • If only non-dangerous items (like bedding) are left, bag them up and leave them as close as possible to where they were found with a 5-day note. 
  • Check bagged items daily: if abandoned, discard after 5 days. If opened/moved but still at park, go to hotline/eviction notice/etc.
  • Respond immediately to anyone regularly there at night/camping:
  • Call hotline immediately and include the fact that there's no night use allowed (follow up to confirm contact with outreach workers if possible)
  • If possible, have a conversation with the person and make clear that no night use is allowed
  • If the same person returns/stays after contact with outreach, contact the District Captain directly to ask for police intervention

Playground:

• A new spring for the seahorse is on order and due to arrive in the next few days. 
• Warren fixed the “racecar” panel that was donated a while ago. He and Janet met to discuss placement for installing it and decided that the easternmost corner of the toddler playground  (where two of the edgers come together in  a point) would be ideal. We propose installing the  racecar panel and the bell panel with a new third panel in a triangle (like the one up by the mural wall). We'll need to order the new panel and posts, and are seeking input  on what kind of panel people would like. Janet asked in the “Fall Festival” facebook event page, and will ask again at the Festival itself Sunday and also in the Liberties Babies event page. Probably we won't install the new piece until the spring, given how things  go. 

Garden:

• The community garden held a potluck for gardeners on October 19 which was lightly attended but a lot of fun. The garden coordinators have begun the process of renewing plots or reassigning them. Maria Bell did great things with City Harvest through the season and is willing to continue next season!
• There will be a mandatory meeting in February for all community gardeners (since that was successful this year).

Events:

• The Fall Family Festival was rained out from its original date and postponed to Sunday Nov. 3. To work around Soccer Shots and the football game, the time was moved up to 11:30-2:30. Big thanks as always to Sara and Priya for organizing! The Festival was a nice success, raising something like $1,000 and with good attendance even with the new date/time.
• Today was also the last Farmer's Market of the year –  Shazanna Goff was fantastic running the market all year – but she's hoping to do a few winter markets at the community center yard with meats.
• The Fall Love Your Park workday will be November 9. We have bulbs to plant and some general cleanup. If possible, we'll clear out the compost pile to help get ready for the new composters! Ideally we'll be able to re-install the seahorse as well. If people can think of other jobs that should be on the list, please send them to park@nlna.org

There was some discussion of Janet's announcement that Liberty Lands would be looking at restructuring management of the park. Janet asked that Board members think about possible management structures for the park and send ideas in writing (please!) to her before the January Liberty Lands meeting. 

Membership Committee Report: Michael Coyne: written report attached and reviewed.

Membership Committee: Paula Gansky provided the following information about the last two Meet & Greet events:

37 people signed into the May 29th M&G, 19 signed in for the first time. 39 people signed into the October 3rd M&G, 16  signed in for the first time, and about 3 or 4 new people from the May M&G also attended the October one.” I think first-time attendees of 19 and 16, respectively, to the Meet and Greet events are very good numbers. Thank you to all board members who were able to attend and make our new neighbors feel welcomed.

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

October 16 Operations Committee Meeting

Attendees:  Lara, Monika, Amy, Jacek and Barbara 

Website:

• Barbara shared that at the October NLNA board meeting there was a discussion and support to move forward with a revised and enhanced website. The enhancements would also include upgrades on the back end (this includes reservation systems for Liberty Lands and NLNA center).  More information will follow.
• Usage:  Committee discussed who currently rents that space and thought it would be good to review the information - this can help with marketing moving forward.  Our committee would like to assist Marketing Committee.  Action:  Lara will pull report.  

Old Business:

• Computer:  Barbara shared that the Finance Committee recommend having computer in the office checked out before a follow up request for replacement. Action:  Lara will follow up with neighborhood business on Fairmount Avenue.
• Sound Panels:  There was a suggestion from Membership Committee that we add more sound panels to room. Action:  Barbara will follow up with Larry Freedman to get his thoughts.

New Business:

• Lara shared that we will need to replace small fridge in main room at the center.  We are also looking to replace a printer.  
• Lara shared that Ira informed her that two tiles have to be repaired/replaced on the canopy in the yard.  They have identified someone to do the work.
• Monika shared that NL Arts has ordered three tables to replenish/replace our stock.  

OTHER:

• Barbara will ask Matt to do outreach to previous board members and request that if they have keys to the center that they return them.
• Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 20 at 7 PM. 

There was some conversation about signage for hours at the community center yard. Posting regular hours has become a bit more difficult than would be expected.

Public Safety Committee Report: Melanie Coffman.

Matt noted that there have been relatively few incidents on the recent 26^thDistrict crime reports. A neighbor in the 6^thDistrict has mentioned an ongoing issue with people using drugs/having sex/sleeping in the alleyway near her home. Joe will take that issue to the community meeting for the district.

Zoning Committee Report: Joe Mikuliak; written report attached and reviewed.

Joe reminded the group of the update he sent the Board about the Galloway project appeal. Although we lost the appeal, it seems clear that many lawyers who regularly argue in front of the ZBA took notice of our willingness to defend our agreements. It also established a precedent that ZBA provisos have to be extinguished by the ZBA and are not simply overwritten by new zoning code (as L&I had argued).

Motion: By Janet Finegar, seconded by Kristen Ainscoe. “To ratify the recommendations of the Zoning Committee in the matter of 1030 N. 2^ndSt., with the urging of the Board that the Zoning Committee make a strong effort to have a qualified attorney review the language of this proviso, in particular points 3 and 8, to ensure that it is adequate to stand. The ratified recommendations are: 'We will support a special assembly license and amusement permit for a new restaurant at 1030 N. 2^ndStreet when the following is agreed to in writing by the owner and becomes part of their conditional LCB license: 1) The main use of this establishment is to serve food. Other uses are accessory uses. 2) Music from the restaurant cannot escape the premises. 3) Except for the DJ, no dancing, no live music, and no live entertainment. 4) No lines of customers outside the restaurant. 5) Outside promoters cannot rent or use the restaurant. 6) Tables for a maximum of 64 patrons must be kept in place at all times while open. 7) Daily trash pick-up with all trash and recycling kept at the rear of the building.  8) DJs will not bring in additional sound equipment; they can only use the existing equipment in the restaurant, including the 16 – 6” speakers.  We also support outdoor seating for the restaurant on Liberty Walk and on the sidewalk next to the restaurant’s wall along 2^ndStreet. Five feet of open sidewalk must be maintained. We need to have the floor plan of the restaurant that includes the tables and bar, outside and inside. Our agreement with you and the floor plan must be attached to the letter of support from the NLNA.'” Passed 12-0-0

Motion: By Jacek Ghosh, seconded by Amy Smith-Sweeney. “To officially end the Urban Design Committee, with thanks to the members for their service.” Passed 12-0-0

Old Business

There was discussion about the question of Northern Liberties support of Kearny School, including some disappointments related to corporate funding the NLNA hoped to direct toward the school. Matt (and several other Board members) are planning to take a tour of the school and there is clear Board support for continuing to offer the kinds of basic help NLNA has been offering (free space use at the community center, promotion of events, etc.). For other support, Matt will ask the Principal for a sense of what specific needs the school has. 

New Business

Janet announced that Operation Santa deliveries would be December 21 and wrapping would be (at Board suggestion) mid-day on Thursday and again in the evening on Friday. 

The meeting was adjourned by acclaim at 7:56 p.m.

Addenda:

Zoning Committee Meeting - October 28, 2019

Members present: Larry Freedman chair, Joe Mikuliak rec. sec., Ira Upin, Kenny Grono, Charley Abdo, Scott Sperri, Abbey Spector (late) Members absent:  Sharon Richman, Melissa Magness, Christine Furman, Jared Foreman, Jonathan Sher, Chris Isaacson

1030 N. 2nd St. - A proposal to add an amusement permit to the LCB license and a request for a Special Assembly License for use as a restaurant (zoning already approved) Presentation by Michael Tang. He will be the owner and operator of the new restaurant. He currently owns two restaurants in Manhattan, Set and Break Room. His new place will replace Bar Ferdinand on the SW corner of 2nd Street and Liberty Walk. Michael distributed the menu for his restaurant, Set, but he had no floor plan or signage to give us. It will have tables seating 64 people and 12 seats at the bar. The public area is less than 1800 square feet. He would like to continue to have sidewalk tables on the walk and the 2nd Street sidewalk. Three neighbors attended and had questions about hearing music outside the place and trash. They had concerns it will be a nightclub. Michael said the restaurant will be a place to go for food and to watch sports on TV. They need the amusement permit and special assembly license to also offer music from a DJ “occasionally,” games like Quizo, and a room for events. He repeatedly said there would be no dancing, no live music, no live entertainment, and that music would be in the “background.” He agreed that no sound will escape the premises and trash will be kept in the parking lot behind the restaurant. During the private discussion the manager for Post Brothers, Randy Hope, (Michael’s landlord) introduced himself. He added there will be trash pickup seven days a week by  the Athena Company and how this tenant was thoroughly vetted by them after problems with their last tenant, Chalaco, including the wash room being made into an illegal apartment for three employees.

Motion by the group:  We will support a special assembly license and amusement permit for a new restaurant at 1030 N. 2nd  Street when the following is agreed to in writing by the owner and becomes part of their conditional LCB license: 

1. The main use of this establishment is to serve food. Other uses are accessory uses.
2. Music from the restaurant cannot escape the premises.
3. Except for the DJ, no dancing, no live music, and no live entertainment.
4. No lines of customers outside the restaurant.
5. Outside promoters cannot rent or use the restaurant.
6. Tables for a maximum of 64 patrons must be kept in place at all times while open.
7. Daily trash pick-up with all trash and recycling kept at the rear of the building.
8. DJs will not bring in additional sound equipment; they can only use the existing equipment in the restaurant, including the 16 – 6” speakers. 

We also support outdoor seating for the restaurant on Liberty Walk and on the sidewalk next to the restaurant’s wall along 2nd Street. Five feet of open sidewalk must be maintained. We need to have the floor plan of the restaurant that includes the tables and bar, outside and inside. Our agreement with you and the floor plan must be attached to the letter of support from the NLNA.   Passed 5-0

Ending a sub-committee of the Zoning Committee, the Urban Design Committee

Motion by Scott Sperri, 2nd by Charlie Abdo The Zoning Committee now ends the Urban Design Committee. We thank the members of the UDC for their service and ask that references to the UDC be removed from the NLNA website. Passed 5-0

The ZC bylaws will be reviewed by Joe, Kenny, and Charlie and changes recommended by them will be reviewed by the ZC at our next meeting.