Minutes of September 9, 2009
Southeast Uplift Board Meeting, 7-9pm

Members present:
Marianne Colgrove, Ardenwald-Johnson Creek, Chair
Paul Leistner, Mt. Tabor, Past Chair
Pete Jacobsen, At-Large, Treasurer
Jeff West, Buckman, Secretary
Anne Dufay, Executive Director
Roy Hartley, Richmond
Dan Weiland, Sellwood-Moreland
Alex Bassos, HAND
Aubrie Abbott, Reed
Moshe Lenske, Woodstock
Bryan Agee, Mt. Scott-Arleta, Vice-Chair
April Burris, North Tabor
MJ Coe, Laurelhurst
Ruthann Bedenkop, Communications Program Manager

Guests:
Don MacGillivray, Buckman
Nancy Oberschmidt, Buckman, Washington High School CAC
Mark Bartlett, Mt. Tabor

Quorum established at 7:05 pm and meeting called to order by Marianne.

Seating new directors: Aubrie Abbott (Reed) gives brief introduction, Paul moves she be seated as representative from Reed, seconded (Bryan), passed w/o dissent; Pete moves Dan Weiland be seated as representative from Sellwood-Moreland, seconded (Bryan), passed w/o dissent; Pete moves MJ Coe be seated as representative from Laurelhurst, seconded (April), passed w/o dissent

Minutes from last month: No corrections to minutes suggested. Motion to approve (April), seconded (Roy), one abstention (MJ).

Neighborhood Grant Program: Marianne notes the program will run similar to previous years, with the only significant change being the committee has been reduced from 7 to 5 members and will officially include 2 board members.  Alex and April volunteer to sit on committee as official board representatives.  The deadline will be November 2nd for grants between $500 and $5,000.  Criteria is applicant must be a neighborhood association or non-profit within SEUL territory, with favor given to those oriented towards increasing capacity and engagement – information is on the SEUL website along with examples of past grant recipients.  Ruthann notes forms have gone out via distribution list to NAs.

Picture Contest: Ruthann details the rolling out of photo contest, which was born from the current energy around making the building more inviting and welcoming.  The contest will run from September 30th through January 15th, although photos taken within the last 10 years will be accepted.  Anyone who lives, works, visits and/or plays in the southeast area is eligible, and photos must be taken within coalition boundaries, with the winners reflecting neighborhood culture, recreation, human interests and/or community.  There will be one winner from every neighborhood, and there will be a gallery type event to display winners, which will be framed and permanently displayed in SEUL.  Would like to initially take the gallery “on the road” and be displayed in all 20 neighborhoods (in coffee shop, public venue, etc.).  Ruthann asks board for help getting word out to neighbors, recommendations for judges (local professional photographers from area, etc.) suggestions for gallery locations and volunteers for planning,

Washington High School Community Center – Nancy Oberschmidt (Buckman, Washington High School Advisory Committee) gives update on ongoing public process regarding plans for the Community Center at the old Washington High School site at SE 12th & Stark, which has been in the planning for a long time.

The Advisory Committee and Portland Parks & Recreation have been meeting since April and there have been two open houses in that time.  At the most recent open house, Parks presented three different options, including building an entirely new facility and leaving the old high school out of the plan (A), a hybrid of a new facility which incorporates portions of the old high school (B), and renovating/updating the existing high school as the community center (C).   Options B and C are more challenging since Parks does not own high school building and would involve some sort of exchange between Parks and School District.  

Most recent meeting (September 8th) focused on programming and community in favor of having a lot of art programs, medium size rooms, catering kitchen, swimming pool (including leisure, lap and spa pools), gymnasium, child watch area, etc.

Don notes artist renderings are on Portland Parks website, Nancy notes renderings are just arrangements and don’t refer to way the designs will be built.

Mt. Tabor request re: reservoir issues:  Mark Bartlett (Mt. Tabor) gives brief background on the ongoing transparency issues with the Portland Water Bureau and the federal regulation that requires cities with open reservoirs to cover and treat them.    Mt. Tabor unanimously requested to asked city to give access to public documents about what work is currently going on, including making a formal document request on August 24th.  Water Bureau has not been cooperative citing extraordinary use of staff time and associated costs.

Paul notes that document request has been going on for awhile, and the Mt. Tabor group has an intimate knowledge of the process and that this request is not a “fishing request” – record requests have revealed things in the past.  Paul also notes that Ombudsman has not been helpful because of the politicized nature of the issue.
Paul moves that SEUL issue a letter of support for Mt. Tabor’s document request to the Water Bureau and that any fee associated with the request be waived.   Seconded (Alex). Motion passes with one abstention (Pete).

Roy makes a motion that SEUL send a second letter to the City Council urging that the City – specifically the Water Bureau – provide public documents be made available upon request.   Seconded (April).

Jeff, Bryan, Pete and MJ raise concerns during discussion about the broad nature of the statement and the outcome we would be looking to achieve vis a vis the Mt. Tabor letter.  General feeling is that there is broad support for the issue, and issue could be revisited pending how the Mt. Tabor request to the City is resolved.

Motion does not carry, with three “yes” votes (Roy, Alex, April),  six “no” votes (Marianne, Bryan, Pete, MJ, Aubrie, Jeff) and three abstentions (Dan, Paul, Moshe)

Mark also distributes some background materials hoping to raise awareness about a public hearing happening in the next week regarding the City’s land disposition and the transparency of the process when land gets sold.  Mark cites Mt. Tabor’s concerns that Portland Public schools have knowingly violated zoning codes and have since precluded any public involvement in the process.  Paul suggests the Land Use Committee investigate the issue and advise the Board.

Director’s Report:   

Personnel policy – Anne notes the process began with Paula and she has overseen the final versions.  

•    It is noted that the word “draft” be removed from the footer of the document

•    Paul inquires about access to personnel file (on Page 4, Section 8A of policy document) as this has been an issue in the past.   Anne notes that access is limited to board members, the executive director and employee – and any medical information is confidential.  Marianne also notes that access is controlled.  Bryan suggests that this issue should be a board policy instead of an HR policy, and clarity of who has access should be included in job description of the executive director.

•    Paul suggests adding phrase to “with approval of the executive director” in regards to reimbursement of expenses (Page 5, Section 11)

•    Dan notes “evaluation” needs to be inserted after “performance” in the last line of Section 6.

•    Dan also notes that Section 15 does not include the phrase “up to and including termination” where it pertains to the supervisor (as it does with employee).

•    Marianne notes this policy will standardize vacation and benefits and move away from the individual “memo of understanding” for each employee

Pete moves to accept personnel policies as amended, seconded (Marianne), one abstention (MJ)

Staffing: Anne notes she will be speaking with speaking with a senior community service program who received a federal grant to re-train seniors for the job market.   SEUL will act as a host agency and will have a receptionist in the front area welcoming people for 20 hours a week (10-3pm, Monday through Thursday) at no cost to SEUL.

Leasing: Moshe inquires about space rental in the building.   Anne notes a second storeroom was leased and that a second crime prevention person will likely be joining Havilah for the rest of the fiscal year (although the city has no money to pay for the space).  Anne notes Crime Prevention may be interested in renting the ground floor in the future (populating it with more staff).

Insurance: Anne provides update on insurance – SEUL has historically had cheaper insurance than the other coalitions; provider is now figuring out they underbid SEUL and are in the process of recovering their costs via riders and additional costs (ie, the Woodstock Festival cost an additional $900, the Belmont Street Fair an additional $400, etc.)

Marianne asks which events need extra riders and does organization have discretion to cover them?  Anne notes these would include larger events outside of normal activity and which include other organizations who want to be insured.  Anne suggests we need clarity and a policy is needed regarding who is covered, costs, etc.  Marianne suggests this issue be handed to the Executive Committee.

Facilities update: Pete notes furnace is finished and we have received several bids over the last month to address removing the leaking oil tank underneath the playground.  Work days were successful and there is an upcoming voluntary safety inspection from OSHA, where they will provide a list of things we can work through without citing us for violations.  Upcoming projects should include lighting program to replace lights, updating of bathrooms, more painting and updating technical capabilities in conference room.