MINUTES FROM SEPTEMBER 22nd 2022
1. Call to Order and Reading of Community Council’s Mission.
The Chair called the meeting to order at 6:00pm and read the Mission Statement.
2. Roll-call of Board members and Certification of Quorum.
The President called roll and certified quorum.
Voting Board Members Present: Maryam Zar, David Card, Jenny Li, Randy Young, Beth Holden-Garland, Joanna Spak, Steve Cron, Haldis Toppel, Karen Ridgley, Sue Kohl, Karyn Weber, Cathy Russel, Reza Akef, Mary Mueller, John Padden, Shirley Haggstrom, Eric Dugdale, Courtney Macker, Andy Frew, Ryan Craig, Kevin Niles, Cliff Roberts, Janet Anderson.
Non-voting Alternates Present: Andrew Wolfberg, Cindy Kirven, Kimberly Bloom, Barbara Kohn, Jessica Rogers, Richard Blumenberg, Bob Benton, Nina Kidd.
3. Introduction of attendees.
Candidates present for the Council District 11 candidate meet & greet were introduced.
4. Approval of Minutes – Approval of Minutes – September 8, 2022.
Amended minutes, as sent, were approved without objection.
5. Consideration of Agenda & Upcoming Meetings.
The Agenda was considered as presented.
6. Treasurer’s Report.
Randy Young announced that the new PPCC bank account had been successfully created for nonprofit that can easily be transferred from leadership to leadership. Our bank balance remains at $55,022.54.
7. General Public Comment. None
8. Reports, Announcements and Concerns.
8.1. From the Chair/Presiding Officer.
8.1.1. Applications for Area and At-large Alternates are underway, with Sept 30 deadline. Current Alternates also need to apply by the deadline in order to be considered by the Three Chairs Committee of Card, Kohn and Boyers. There is no automatic re-appointment.
8.1.2. Look for Awards and Events Committee appointments next time and be thinking about awardees. We will have a holiday gala this year.
8.1.3. We are putting up historic PPCC documents as we receive them. Please take a look at the new tab on our website. [https://pacpalicc.org/index.php/documents/historic-documents-ppcc-est-1974/]
8.1.4. Deferring Chamber discussion until Oct 13 or Nov. 10, time permitting. See item 8.1.6 below.
8.1.5. The President has reached out to all newly elected reps and welcomed them. Per the Bylaws, sent them a link (modern-day copy) to Bylaws and Standing Rules, and informed them about the upcoming orientation they can expect to be part of.
8.1.6. The Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber item, per last meeting, will be addressed at a later date. The President has recently received some substantive answers from Chamber presenter (Barbara Bruderlin) and will share with the EC. A recommendation (or not, as they determine after review of the new information) will be forthcoming for discussion and vote.
8.2. From Officers
8.3. From At-Large and Area Representatives
8.3.1. Karen Ridgley, Area 4 – Thanked Noah Fleishman from CD11 for his help in cleaning up the dumping site along Temescal Canyon Road over the weekend. But today (Thursday) there is dumping left there again. Seems to be an ongoing problem, from 2017. We need a solution!
8.3.2. Sue Kohl, Area 5 – Wanted to tell us all how thankful and grateful she’s been to be on the Council for several years, grateful for the friends she’s made on the Board, specifically George Wolfberg. Lamented the meetings in person at the library. Has enjoyed her time on the Board during challenging and good times – she will miss her involvement but hopes to stay involved as an Alternate. The Board thanks Sue for her service.
8.4. From Organizational Representatives
8.4.1. Ryan Craig, Resilient Palisades – Tomorrow, Friday, in concert with the Global Youth Climate Strike, Resilient Palisades has organized a demonstration, the Palisades Climate Strike, on Swarthmore to include speeches and music. Students with the Human Rights Task Force will be present to sign up people to vote, and encourage people showing up to speak up on behalf of the climate.
8.5. From Government Offices / Representatives
8.5.1. Janet Turner, Office of Congressman Ted Lieu – The Congressman was honored to vote for the Presidential Election Reform Act. Reminder that the Congressional App Challenge is on, with a deadline of Nov 1st. Go to www.liwu.house.gov. Also, for applications to receive letters of Recommendation for the Military Academy, the deadline is October 14th. Finally, solar credits up to 30% rebate are still available for 2022. Batteries will be reimbursed in 2023. Contact office of Janet Turner to discuss. (see contact details for government offices on our website under the Resources tab.)
8.5.2. Brian Espin. LAPD Senior Lead Officer for Pacific Palisades – We are doing well as a community. Crime and burglaries are down. The only category that is up is the rape category (total of 6 this year versus 3 last year). Usually alcohol or narcotics are involved, and none were Palisades residents. Some car theft was up along PCH, but still lower, year to date. The Area 2 Rep asked about a “burglary hot prowl” in the Highlands. SLO Espin explained that someone was home and the burglar entered the home. No confrontation or physical altercation took place. LAPD responded and took the suspect into custody while he was in the process of fleeing.
8.5.3. Noah Fleishman, CD11 District Director, City Councilmember, Mike Bonin – Not Present
8.6. From PPCC Advisors and WRAC Representatives
8.6.1. Krishna Tanghavelu, WRAC PSEPC representative – The PSEPC met and considered a number of priorities that the members brought to the table. Krishna also contributed to that list of ideas. She will keep us posted on projects that they prioritize. Communication and awareness building in communities is a focal point.
8.6.2. Jessica Rogers, WRAC Board Alternate representative – WRAC Exec meeting had Officer elections: Robin Greenberg, President; Chris Spitz, Vice President; Secretary, Tyler Laferriere-Holloway. No other business was conducted at the meeting.
9. Reports from Committees.
9.1. Bylaws Committee.
PPCC Bylaws Committee (David Card, Chair) presented the second distribution of proposed Bylaws Amendments and explained that four of the eight amendments originally proposed had been withdrawn, while the other four remained unchanged. An amended redline as well as a clean copy were distributed. The following documents were presented and reviewed: (linked and distributed via PPCC email and posted on the PPCC website):
1) Committee Report: https://pacpalicc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Bylaws-Committee-Report-September-2022.pdf
2) Amendments “Redline”: https://pacpalicc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Draft-PPCC-Bylaws-9-5-22-redline.pdf
3) Amendments “Clean”: https://pacpalicc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Draft-Bylaws-9-5-22-PPCC-clean.pdf
Since the first distribution, the Bylaws Committee has withdrawn the following proposed amendments to the Bylaws described in the Committee Report of September 2022 (see link above):
- 3rd bullet point in the Report: the timing of the Treasurer’s reports to the PPCC Board.
- 4th bullet point: deleting a standing rule requirement regarding check signing.
- 7th bullet point: adding a procedure for removing an Organization from the Board.
- 9th bullet point: amending Attachment A to allow voting by mail.
The remaining proposed amendments were described and presented to the Board as four (4) separate motions for consideration and discussion, per below.
Shirley Haggstrom, the Primary Representative for TCA called for a postponement of the vote in order to confer with her organization. After some discussion and several appeals for her to withdraw the request as it applied to the three motions which do not impact her organization — including an appeal from the Historical Society Alternate, Barbara Kohn, the PRIDE Primary Representative, John Padden and the Council President, Maryam Zar (all of whom acknowledged Shirley’s objective to challenge the motion that would impact TCA but not these administrative motions that were intended to clarify roles and processes) — Shirley agreed to withdraw her request to postpone all four votes, and retained the prerogative to object to the motion which would impact TCA’s seat as the only member of the Environment category.
A. Changes in Appendix A: Reorganize the list with respect to the following organizations’ places in the categories described below:
(i) Civic Organizations: Move Resilient Palisades from the Civic Organizations category to the Environment category and move American Legion from Service Clubs category to the 2nd position of the Civic Organizations category. American Legion to serve as the primary member through the term ending September 30, 2022. The Civic League remains in the 1st position of this category, and serves as primary member starting October 1, 2022. They become rotating members in this category.
(ii) Environment: Resilient Palisades moves to the 2nd position of this category, serving as the primary member through the term ending September 30, 2022. Temescal Canyon Association remains in the 1st position of this category, and serves as primary member starting October 1, 2022. They become rotating members in this category.
(iii) Service Clubs: American Legion moves out of this category, leaving the Optimist Club, Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club and Rotary Club as the remaining members, in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions, respectively. Rotary Club serves as primary member through the term ending September 30, 2022. The Optimist Club becomes the primary member starting October 1, 2022. After considerable discussion and presentations made by the TCA President, James Alexakis, and Primary TCA Representative, Shirley Haggstrom, the TCA Primary Representative withdrew her request for postponement, and a vote was taken. The motion passed with 19 votes in favor, three abstentions and one nay.
B. Splitting the office of Secretary into a Recording Secretary and Corresponding Secretary. The Recording Secretary will serve as a voting officer on the Board and on the Executive Committee. The Corresponding Secretary will be a non-voting Board Member, appointed by the Executive Committee with the consent of the Board, but not an officer and not on the Executive Committee (Bylaws Article VI, Sec. 3. A., B., and C and other miscellaneous places). The roles of each and their coordination is described in the amendments.This motion passed unanimously with one “friendly” amendment which clarified the definition of a “Member” in the Bylaws, with the addition of the words, “”MEMBER” shall mean a voting Member of the Board as described in Article V.1.A and the non-voting Corresponding Secretary as described in Article VI, Section 3.B.”
C. Parliamentarian. The Chair may appoint a Parliamentarian with the consent of the Board, as a non-voting advisor. The same person may serve as Parliamentarian and Legal Advisor or may be two different people. (Bylaws Article V, 1. D. and E.)This motion passed unanimously with one “friendly” amendment which clarified that the Parliamentarian may or may not be the same person as the Legal Advisor, with the addition of the following language in Article XIII, Section F: the Legal Advisor shall: “Serve as acting Parliamentarian for the PPCC unless and until a Parliamentarian is appointed by the Chair pursuant to Article V, Section 1.D.”
D. Minor revisions, regarding officers’ terms and how the Board meets.
(i) Clarifying that all officers are elected for a one-year term (Article VII, Sec. 4.C.)
(ii) Not requiring that Board and certain other meetings be in-person, allowing the Board to decide between in-person and alternate remote means of meeting, and eliminating the determination of exigent circumstances (Article VII, Sec. 5; Article IX, Sec. 1).After considerable discussion, this motion passed unanimously.
10. Old Business – None.
11. Informal New Business (from 6-6:45)
11.1. CD11 Candidates Meet and Greet (remarks and some Q/A).
The candidates for the Council District 11 race for City Council were present for a 45-minute presentation and question and answer period from our Board and audience. At least 100 people tuned in and were in attendance for the event. The candidates presented their points of view clearly and succinctly, within the allotted time and took 10 questions curated from the Board and Palisades community. See the forum recording here: https://youtu.be/XvjiJLKqEs0
12. Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 9:00pm.