Board of Directors Meeting 10/20/09 06:30 PM

October 20th, 2009

Meeting Date: 10/20/09 06:30 PM

Meeting Type: Regular

Location: Women’s Club of Hollywood, 1749 N La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046

Details: HOLLYWOOD HILLS WEST NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
BOARD MEETING AGENDA

October 20, 2009
6:30pm

Women’s Club of Hollywood
1749 North La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90046

Directions: South of Franklin and North of Hollywood Blvd. – West side of the street. Accessibility: Building is accessible to the handicapped. Entrance at rear door. Parking: Free Parking is available in the adjacent 5th Christian Science Church parking lot located on 7107 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046. Entrance to parking lot is on La Brea Avenue.

The public is requested to fill out a “Speaker Card” to address the Board on any item of the agenda prior to the Board taking action on an item. Comments from the public on non-agenda and agenda items will be heard during the Public Comment Period and, within the discretion of the presiding officer of the Board, when the respective item is being considered. Comments from the public on other matters not appearing on the Agenda that is within the Board’s subject matter jurisdiction will be heard during the Public Comment period. Public comment is limited to 2 minutes per speaker unless waived by the presiding officer of the Board. Agenda is posted for public review: on bulletin boards at the top and bottom of Runyon Canyon Park, and electronically on the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council website ww.hhwnc.org and on the Department Of Neighborhood Empowerment (www.lacityneighborhoods.com). As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability and upon request, will provide reasonable accommodation to ensure equal access to its programs, services, and activities. Sign language interpreters, assistive listening devices, or other auxiliary aids and/or services may be provided upon request. To ensure availability of services, please make your request at least 3 business days (72 hours) prior to the meeting you wish to attend by contacting the Neighborhood Council Project Coordinator at 213-485-1360 or e-mail to [email protected]

ALL ITEMS LISTED ON THIS AGENDA ARE SUBJECT TO POSSIBLE ACTION, INCLUDING A BOARD MOTION AND VOTING ON THE MOTION.

AGENDA

1. Call to order by President (Anastasia Mann)

2. Roll call by Secretary (Bruce Gorelick)

3. Minutes – Review and approve prior July 29, 2009 minutes (see attachment) (Vote)

(5 minutes)

4. President’s Report by Anastasia Mann (20 minutes)

a.) Public Official Reports

i.) CD4

ii.) CD5

iii.) CD13

iv.) Other

b.) Office of the City Clerk, Election Division, potential Board action on the City Clerk’s 2010 NC election related item.

For up to date information on City Clerk – Election Division election related items please visit our website: http://cityclerk.lacity.org/election/ncdocs/website.pdf

c.) Hollywood Neighborhood Council Coalition (see attachment)

d.) DRAFT Hollywood Community Plan – Update

5. Vice President’s Report by Orrin Feldman (10 minutes)

6. Treasurer’s Report by Michael Meyer (10 minutes)
a.) Account Balances
b.) Budget/DONE Financial update (Possible motion and vote)

7. Universal/Metro Projects Ad Hoc Committee Report by Wayne C. Johansson
a.) Presentation and update.

8. Committee Reports (20 minutes)
a.) AREA COMMITTEES
i.) Area 7 (Cheryl Holland)

aa.) The Board is requested to approve a request for a joint public meeting between the City of Los Angles Parks and Recreation Department, Councilman Tom LaBonge’s office, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board, the LA Conservancy, Hollywood Heritage, and the stakeholders of Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council to discuss the operations plan, future vision, restoration, and revenue opportunities that the City of LA has for the Wattles Mansion & estate. (Possible Motion and Vote.)

ii.) Other Area Committees

a.) Reports by Committee Chairs in attendance (Optional)

    b.) ISSUE COMMITTEES
        i.) Emergency Services, Police & Fire (Valorie Keegan)
            aa.) Committee update

ii.) Other Issue Committees
aa.) Reports by Committee Chairs in attendance (Optional)

9. Public Comments – Comments from the public on agenda items and non-agenda items within the Board’s subject matter jurisdiction. Public comments are limited to 2 minutes per speaker.

10. Old Business

11. New Business

12. Adjournment

PROCESS FOR RECONSIDERATION: The Board may reconsider and amend its action on items listed on the agenda if that reconsideration takes place immediately following the original action or at the next regular meeting. The Board, on either of these two days, shall: (1) Make a Motion for Reconsideration and, if approved, (2) hear the matter and Take an Action. If the motion to reconsider an action is to be scheduled at the next meeting following the original action, then two items shall be placed on the agenda for that meeting: (1) A Motion for Reconsideration on the described matter and (2) a Proposed Action should the motion to reconsider be approved. A motion for reconsideration can only be made by a Board member who has previously voted on the prevailing side of the original action taken. If a motion for reconsideration is not made on the date the action was taken, then a Board member on the prevailing side of the action must submit a memorandum to the Secretary identifying the matter to be reconsidered and a brief description of the reason(s) for requesting reconsideration at the next regular meeting. The aforesaid shall all be in compliance with the Ralph M. Brown Act.

HOLLYWOOD HILLS WEST NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL

BOARD MEETING MINUTES

October 20, 2009

Women’s Club of Hollywood

1749 North La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046

1. Call to Order of HHWNC by President Anastasia Mann at 6:35 p.m. Anastasia acknowledged Councilman Tom LaBonge (CD4), who gave updates: a neighbor in the area is trying to acquire a large parcel of land for development; he will keep HHWNC apprised of the situation. One of the challenges of the district is to get Hollywood to support Hollywood. One example is the farmers market, where people get brought in from all over. One of the challenges for Mr. Garcetti’s office is parking in the area. Mr. LaBonge asked that HHWNC approach problems as a film’s Director of Photography would: to set the frame and focus on that frame, addressing those problems. Councilmember LaBonge and Field Deputy Stacy Marble, responded to a question from Michael Meyer concerning a letter to the DOT that has gone unanswered for more than a year, regarding switching a local turning lane into a third lane. Stacy said she will follow up with DOT and encouraged HHWNC to keep following up also.

2. Roll Call by Secretary Bruce Gorelick: Present: Anastasia Mann, Orrin Feldman, Michael Meyer, Wayne Johansson, Paul Ramsey, Terry Migliaccio, Patricia Weber, Paul Woolsey, PJ Pearce, Donovan Ryan

Anastasia announced that a quorum is not present. The swine flu has hit a board member’s family, and a couple others are caught up working elsewhere and may not be able get to this meeting..

3. Minutes – Review and approve prior July 29, 2009 minutes. This was tabled due to quorum not being present.

4. President’s Report by Anastasia Mann:
a) Public Official Reports

i) Stacy Marble (CD4, Tom LaBonge’s office), gave updates on several projects: There will be a cleanup, partnering with Gay for Good, in Runyon Canyon on 10/24 from 10-1. It will involve trash removal, trail maintenance, and tree planting. There will be a Hollywood Hills cleanup on Nov.7 from 8:30-1. Step Up on Second has purchased the Galaxy Hotel on Vine and Santa Monica. It will be a permanent, supportive housing complex housing 45 people. Dec. 4 is CD4’s open house in Toluca Lake from 5-8 p.m. Hollywood High dedicated lights for their football field last Friday, and now they will be able to have nighttime games. Cahuenga Peak is the office’s #1 issue presently, and the potential acquisition of private property in Runyon Canyon which Mr. LaBonge spoke of.

Bruce mentioned a spot of weeds and dirt on Franklin from Highland to Orange on the parkway. It was supposedly part of the Franklin re-do but it never got touched. Stacy advised that the issue may fall under CD13 and that Hollywood Heights might want to do some landscaping there. Michael advised that the city doesn’t have the money or programs to beautify street medians, and that they expect property owners and neighbors to handle it.
Anastasia thanked Stacy for coming and updating HHWNC.

ii) Haeyoung Kim (42^nd District) spoke about a new pilot project (AB-91) which requires ignition interlock devices to be installed on all first-time DUI offenders’ vehicles. The project will be implemented on July 1, 2010 and run through January 1, 2016. In states that require these, there has been a decrease in DUI-related offenses. In VA, there has been a 70% decrease in DUIs. In NM, DUI fatalities have dropped 35%. Also, Mike Feuer has been appointed co-chair of a select committee on reform, which will explore new ways for the state government to be efficient and transparent. Mike Feuer and Bob Blumenfield are introducing and promoting legislation that prohibits companies which conduct significant business in Iran’s energy sector from doing business in California.

Michael mentioned that Mike Feuer was instrumental in getting Measure R passed, but asked could his office keep on top of the matter of the subway, because that’s what we thought we were voting for. The subway is important. Ms. Kim said there is a link on their website to keep up with the matter, and that she also will mention it.

b) Office of the City Clerk Anastasia announced that Sandra Mendoza is not present. The election will be in May.

c) Hollywood Neighborhood Council Coalition Orrin noted that the planning department has more materials on their website which are drafts of proposals for updating\ the Hollywood Community Plan. There are hundreds of pages to go through. The Hollywood Coalition of Neighborhood Councils met last week and discussed possibilities of how to keep stakeholders informed. This 45-day public review and comment period will be ticking by. Much of the Planning Department’s proposals are aspirational, but there are many sections of conditions. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what areas are being referred to, and the maps are hard to read online. We’d like to have all Neighborhood Councils run informational sessions to go over the plan, and to talk with the planners (Mary and Kevin) about what they’re proposing. We think there’s value in using websites to collect questions and funnel them to the planning department. That way, questions won’t get repeated at meetings and info can be shared. These processes will all be going forward, so we need to deal with it in a timely manner. (A two-page info sheet was distributed.)

Michael asked if this coalition is a formal group that we’ve elected to be a part of, and Orrin said it’s informal, it consists of neighborhood council presidents and vice presidents, there are no votes taken and no records kept. It is necessary because there are some issues that cut across all of the Hollywood neighborhood councils, and we need to get the info to all the stakeholders. Anastasia remarked that the other councils are a lot more active in the coalition than we are. We’re not totally comfortable with the situation. We’re being very sensitive to the Brown Act. Orrin agreed that yes, we were prepared to walk out if there was a violation of the Brown Act.

d) DRAFT Hollywood Community Plan Anastasia said that she’s been given three copies. One went to Orrin, one to Michael, and one to Bruce. She has a couple copies of the original DRAFT but it has since been updated. She asked for representation from the Planning Department at this meeting, but they declined since their proposals were still in a draft form, and so we have no one to speak to us at this time. An info sheet was distributed, detailing new sections available for review online and in public libraries.
Orrin remarked that his main concern was the Franklin Corridor requirement being reduced from 600 sq.ft. to 400 sq.ft. This reduces the minimum from 1BR to studio, which could possibly change the character of the area. Michael responded that he thinks there’s been a misunderstanding; they can make however many units they want per unit of land. They can put more units per acreage of land. It doesn’t have to be a 400 sq. ft. studio.

Orrin noted that the single family homes on the hillsides have been left alone in the plan. The plan is full of aspirational language. One example noted that they want to avoid McMansion-ization, but then that’s only in a certain area. He wants to expand the area stated in the plan, and thinks we’ll want to write letters. Michael stated that you can tell that squeaky wheels got their own areas mentioned by name in the plan. Orrin noted that you want to make sure your concerns are voiced, heard and satisfied.

e) Anastasia welcomed Fabiola Vilchez (Central Area Director, Mayor’s office), who had just entered the room. Fabiola introduced herself, mentioned the LARX program and passed out prescription cards/flyers. The program was instituted in August and provides discounts from 3-50% on prescriptions at most pharmacies in L.A. County. There are no income or age requirements. There is a phone number on the card to call to get a list of participating pharmacies. Anastasia thanked her for coming and presenting info.

5. Vice President’s Report by Orrin Feldman:

Orrin announced that he and John Pogue visited the Houdini estate because they were concerned about large parties which involved fire dancing. They did not want flames to catch onto the hillside. They learned that the owner used it for guest housing and was offering it for community purposes, and that the situation is better with the owner’s new property manager(s)

6. Treasurer’s Report by Michael Meyer:

a) Account Balances Michael explained that he has been operating under the assumption that we’d get 45K. We have 42K available for spending on other things. Copies of the current Financial Statement were distributed.

b) Budget/DONE Financial Update DONE says the audit is complete and they’ll probably roll over the money. His estimate is that 107K will be rolled over. We should get word on that any week now. There is $1200 in the petty cash account. We bought neighborhood watch signs. It was going to cost $2000 but Valorie got a better company to go through. Orrin mentioned that she ended up getting 30 signs for $1500 – more signs for less money. Michael noted that the one outstanding demand warrant is the traffic one, and that if he could move to vote, he would ask Anastasia to write to DONE and ask why it hasn’t been paid yet. Anastasia said she thinks she can do that and it doesn’t need to be a motion.

7. Universal/ Metro Projects Ad Hoc Committee Report by Wayne C. Johansson:

a) Presentation and Update Michael Meyer recused himself due to conflict of interest. Anastasia advised that he doesn’t need to leave the room; he just can’t comment.

Summary of AD HOC Meeting notes was distributed to board and public.

Wayne reported that five of the HHWNC board members were present at the meeting: Michael Meyer, Paul Ramsey, Daniel Savage, Patricia Weber, and himself. They discussed the Thomas property project at the metro station. It used to be called “Vision Plan,” and now is called “Evolution Plan.” There are no changes to the applications to the city and county. The EIR draft will be out in the coming months. The master plan is for 391 acres and covers the Universal Studios lot, Citywalk, and a residential area. 25% of the project falls within city limits, and 75% falls within county limits.

The plan for Citywalk includes a 500-room hotel, a production studio, parking structures, and 145K sq. ft. of buildings, 300K – 700K of which would be retail space.

The plan for Universal Studios lot includes a video vault, production facilities, support facilities, and office space.

The plan for the residential area includes adding apartments and condos (most in 4-7 story buildings, but a couple buildings may be as high as 19 stories), and adding acres of open parks and trails.

$100 million would be spent on traffic improvements, and 10% of that will be set aside for studies and drawings. They want to add a southbound lane to Barham Boulevard and start shuttle services with Metro station at Lankershim Boulevard, also connecting the residential area to Hollywood and West Hollywood. The 10% set aside for studies and drawings will partly go towards examining the possibilities of adding additional lanes to the 101 & 134, an auxiliary ramp-to-ramp lane on the 101, and a re-alignment of the northbound ramp on Highland to the 101 (They want to change it from entering the freeway on the left, to entering on the right near the Ford Theater.).

Anastasia remarked that these points are nothing for HHWNC to debate. There is nothing we can do about it right now. Ad Hoc keeps this board informed of this project, which is highly controversial.

Paul Ramsey mentioned that they are proposing a ramp near Barham to create lanes for better transitions. If they do that, traffic will be alleviated on Barham for using Forest Lawn to get to the 134. Orrin remarked that CalTrans has always said that the proposed entrances and exits on that stretch would be too close together.

Anastasia mentioned that when this project first came about, all they wanted to talk about were buildings, so it’s nice to see progress and see them talking about traffic.
Patricia Weber reported that NBC Universal is actually selling off the residential property to individual builders and contractors. Orrin noted that that has been disclosed from the beginning. Patricia said they did indicate that housing would be a priority.
Anastasia thanked Wayne for the report.

8. Committee Reports
      a)      AREA COMMITTEES
           i)           Area 7 (Cheryl Holland)
                Anastasia announced that Cheryl asked that the #7 motion be tabled;

she is the board member whose family has been hit by swine flu.

ii) Other Area Committees none.

b) ISSUE COMMITTEES

i)          Emergency Services, Police & Fire (Valorie Keegan)
      Anastasia announced that Valorie was one of the people stuck in
      traffic, but she had been eager to show the signs to everyone.

9. Public Comments
Paul Darrigo, a volunteer with L.A. Animal Services, talked about their pilot program which needs $1500 per volunteer patrol officer for education and uniform. L.A.A.S. is under budget cuts, and too many animals are being put down.

Paul also mentioned the property at 1633 N. LaBrea, which may have filed for bankruptcy, and wondered if the sidewalk could be opened up until we know what’s going on with the building. Stacy remarked that her office is looking into the matter and that the property is now owned by someone in San Diego.

Jim Nelson introduced himself; he is a member of the Laurel Canyon Homeowners’ Association. He would like to be involved in HHWNC since there is a commercial interest in Laurel Canyon that is in HHWNC. Anastasia advised him to register on the website to be a stakeholder and to start coming to meetings.

Orrin remarked to Mr. Nelson that at the joint council meeting, everyone was trying to balance everyone’s interests and nobody came up with great ideas; so Mr. Nelson’s suggestions would be welcome.

10. Old Business -none.

11. New Business -none.

12. Adjournment at 7:38 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Jennifer Corley, AppleOne