Capitol Hill Community Council
General Meeting Minutes: March 19, 2009
In Attendance: 13 including 2 officers (Justin and Charlette, Hong is on vacation)
Opening and Introductions
Open Floor
Jeff Munnoch
Demolition has begun on the Cap Hill station – six buildings are down now. This will continue for the next four months. 75% of the materials from demo is getting recycled. SDOT is waiting until demo is done to start talking about what, if anything, will be done with the land while it is vacant/ before construction starts.
Jet art and Ellen Fourney painting will be in station, no more commissioned art planned.
SGN mentioned that there is an education gap on how long the construction will take, and suggested more outreach should be done. Jeff reiterated that every time they talk about the project they state that the project will take at least 8 or 9 years. Jeff said that more and larger signage is being created (home of light rail station) soon.
John asked what streets are being closed and what streets will get a lot of construction traffic. Denny between 10th and Broadway will be closed. Trucks will go up the Hill on Denny, and down the Hill on Olive. Jennifer said that the SDOT Pedestrian and Bicycle group is tentatively looking into putting a crosswalk at Boylston on Olive and Denny – more to come.
Nancy mentioned the struggles of the communities surrounding the Othello and Martin Luther King Way Stations during construction.
SGN asked is a seismic study was done to see what would happen to the jet during an earthquake. He also asked whether the planned First Hill Streetcar will run along 12th Ave or Broadway, and said that the community should be involved in the First Hill Streetcar conversation now.
Justin Carder
Events: SDOT Forum on March 25th concerning what will happen with the land on top of the light rail station when is goes up for sale in 2015. Main question from the Council: should it contain a public space? Main uses that have come up are meeting space, performance space or open public space. Another possibility – allowing buildings to be a little taller to create a great viewpoint and as a bonus
Feb Meeting Min./Finance Report
Committee Reports
Technology Committee Report - Justin
No major pages to the website. Usage of the site is down significantly this last month (down 25%). Activity is mostly on the forums and the homepage. 500 visit per month is the average.
Arts & Events Committee Report – Cap Hill Pride Festival - Charlette
Kami and Charlette extensively surveyed businesses on Broadway, and 25 businesses are signed on saying they support the Festival. US Bank and WaMu are very interested. Bailey Coy said they were hesitant to support the event. Charlette is also communicating with LGBTQ groups like Lambert House and the Dyke March to see how they can support the Festival. A major vodka company is interested in sponsoring the event.
Karl of Julia’s has been very active in the organization of the Festival, along with Kami and Charlette – he brings his extensive connections to the LGBT community and his event organizing experience. Karl pictures the event as a neighborhood block party as well as a Gay Pride event.
Charlette is still trying to figure out how to apply for a small and simple Neighborhood Matching Fund to finance the insurance for the event ($300) and the day charge from Parks and Recreation ($465).
SGN asked if the Broadway businesses are willing to put forward funds for the Festival. Karl mentioned that any event on Broadway on Gay Pride weekend will bring money to businesses on Broadway, so they should step up to help fund the Festival.
Main fundraising ideas: asking for funds from Broadway businesses, applying for the Small and Simple Neighborhood Matching Grant, renting booths to community organizations for a fee, possibly running some small fundraising events.
Karl and Kami and Charlette all say: keep it small, keep it simple, keep it from being too expensive (2-5K)
Lambert House asked – how will you ask us to be involved? Will there be a place for youth if one of the sponsors is a vodka company?
Charlette – we’re not in the business of building a beer garden (Julia’s is already doing that), and the event is during the day (11-4pm) which is more family friendly than at night. As for participation, the CHCC is just reserving the space and creating the playing field – we want the LGBTQ community groups to fill it. Any alcohol sponsorship would not make the Festival unfriendly to youth.
Vote on going forward putting in application to Parks and Recreation for the Festival, so we can create a space for the Festival to be held on Pride weekend:
Yea – 7
Nay – no opposed
The rest attending abstained.
The Council will go forward in putting the application to Parks and Recreation for the Festival.
Open Space Committee Report
The park will be put out to bid in September, no matter what. Open House went well, we’re planning on doing a brick sale.
Discussion Topics
The Capitol Hill Bill - Buy Local Campaign - Charlette
Wamu is interested in distributing the bills. Harem, Masai, India Imports, Table 219 are interested in participating in the 10% coupon. Biz rules: for a biz to participate, they just have to place the bill in their window or on their door. The bill is valid once per visit. It cannot be used for tobacco or alcohol. It can be reused and copied for general use.
$120 covers (8 on a 8.5”x11”sheet) – 800 bills (?)
Approval of $120 budget for first printing of the Capitol Hill Bill, a 10% coupon at participating businesses on the Hill:
In favor: 6
Opposed:1
Motion carries.
SGN said we should set a goal on how many participating businesses we can get by the time we do the printing.
Bylaws Review & Ratification – Becki Frestedt
There have been six sessions of the Bylaws Committee and 2 public review sessions discussing changes to the CHCC Bylaws. The final version of the new bylaws is officially presented to the Council. The present Bylaws require that the Council and the community be allowed a month to look over the final version of the new bylaws before it goes to a vote. Therefore, we will not vote on the new bylaws until next month’s meeting.
Following are unresolved issues in the bylaws:
The suggested annual membership fee was kept in the bylaws because it is an opportunity to raise money for the Council. However, not paying the fee will not in any way prevent people from obtaining membership.
No consensus was arrived at as to whether or not officer meetings need to be public or whether they can be private.
Quorum is made when there are a majority of Council Officers and at least 4 CHCC members present. This is to guarantee that no motions can be passed by the officers alone.
Robert’s Rules of Order will not be used to govern the Council, but no alternative was suggested – this needs to be discussed.
A topic that came up time and time again was that four officers was not enough – more were needed to properly run the Council and represent the community. The new bylaws add 3 at-large officers in addition to the original four (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer). No consensus was made as to where exactly the at-large officers would come from (whether they should be picked from certain areas, or not, etc.). Until the election occurs, present officers could nominate community members to fill the at-large positions.
Terms limits are presently defined as not allowing one person to hold an officer more than two terms in a row, terms are thirteen months long with one month as a transition period. There was no consensus on whether or not there should be further term limits.
Some felt that using a coin toss to resolve a double tie was too arbitrary. Becki reminded the Council that having a tie two times in a row is highly unlikely.
There was no consensus on how long the Council would have to be dormant for the process of active dissolution to begin. Also, “dormancy” needs to be better defined.
The words volunteers and students will be included to the groups of people who are eligible to be voting members of the CHCC, as listed in Article 3, Section 2.
All in favor: 6
All opposed: 0
Motion so moved.
As the chair of the CHCC bylaws subcommittee, Becky is trying to the best of her ability to retain complete neutrality. Becki sees her role as a facilitator of the process.
Close