Extra Space Storage, Presidents Row Room
658 South Venice Blvd, Venice, 90291

Note: (i) The Administrative Committee does not address or consider the merits of proposed agenda items. Its function is to determine whether a proposed agenda item will be placed on the next Board meeting agenda, postponed, referred to a specific committee for review and recommendation, treated as an announcement, or considered and resolved as a non-Board administrative matter. (ii) The Administrative Committee has the discretion to reorder consideration of matters on the agenda to accommodate stakeholders or for other reasons. (iii) Unless otherwise noted, the President abstains on all votes.

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

2. Approval of the Administrative Committee Agenda

3. Approval of any outstanding Administrative Committee minutes submitted by the Secretary

December 7, 2009 Administrative Committee Meeting Minutes
(see http://venicenc.org/files/091207VNCAdComMinutesRev.doc)

4. Announcements & Public Comment on items not on the Agenda
[15 min, no more than 2 minutes per person – no Administrative Committee member announcements permitted]

5. Old Administrative Committee Business

A James Murez (murez@venice.net) & Jed Pauker (310-839-9209; jed@jed.net): Presentation of a case tracking system for LUPC (15 min) – See AdCom Exhibit A [Referred to 2/8 AdCom Mtg]

6. New Administrative Committee Business

A Administrative matters:

o Linda Lucks (310-821-7922; Vicepresident@Venicenc.org): Read the list of published names of Venice NC members published on the EmpowerLA web site: www.empowerla.com, LACityneighborhoods.org to determine discrepancies. This is important given the self reporting of 100 % of VNC board members. It is up to board members to submit certificates of completion, given the board’s recent vote to prohibit voting on land use and fiscal matters within 55 days of taking office.

B Consideration of DRAFT January 19, 2010 Board Agenda (see below)

7. Announcements & Public Comment on items not on the Agenda
[15 min, no more than 2 minutes per person – no Administrative Committee member announcements permitted]

8. Adjourn

Draft – Board of Officers Meeting Agenda
Westminster Elementary School (Auditorium)
1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, 90291
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 7:00 PM

BOARD MEETINGS: The Venice Neighborhood Council holds its regular meetings on the third Tuesday of the month and may also call any additional required special meetings in accordance with its Bylaws and the Brown Act. All are welcome to attend.
TRANSLATION Services: Si requiere servicios de traducción, favor de notificar a la oficina 3 días de trabajo (72 horas) antes del evento. Si necesita asistencia con esta notificación, por favor llame a nuestra oficina 213.473.5391.
POSTING: The agenda and non-exempt writings that are distributed to a majority or all of the board members in advance of regular and special meetings may be viewed at Groundworks Coffee (671 Rose Ave Venice, CA 90291), Abbots Habit (1401 Abbot Kinney Blvd. Venice, CA 90291), the Venice Library (501 South Venice Boulevard, Venice, CA 90291), Oakwood Recreation Center (767 California St. Venice, CA 90291), the VNC website (http://www.venicenc.org), or at the scheduled meeting. For a copy of any record related to an item on the agenda, please contact the VNC secretary at secretary@venicenc.org.
PUBLIC COMMENT: The public is requested to fill out a “Speaker Card” to address the Board on any Old or New Business item on the agenda and the Treasurer’s Report. Comments from the public on these agenda items will be heard only when that item is being considered. Comments from the public on other agenda matters or on matters not appearing on the agenda but within the Board’s subject matter jurisdiction will be heard during the Public Comment period. Public comment is limited to two (2) minutes per speaker, unless modified by the presiding officer of the Board.
DISABILITY POLICY: The Venice Neighborhood Council complies with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and does not discriminate on the basis of any disability. Upon request, the Venice Neighborhood Council will provide reasonable accommodations 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.

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

2. Approval of the Agenda

3. Approval of outstanding minutes submitted by Temporary Secretary, Kristopher Valentine
December 15, 2009 Board Meeting Minutes
(see http://venicenc.org/files/091215VNCBoardMinutes_KVFinal.doc)
[Committee Reports are provided in written form when available]

4. Consent Calendar

A LUPC De Minimis Projects See Exhibit A
[Referred to 2/8 AdCom Mtg]
Challis Macpherson (Chair-LUPC@VeniceNC.org) on behalf of LUPC: Challis Macpherson moves that VNC Board of Officers send the VNC Standing Rule 5A Form Letter, stating No Opinion & No Recommendation Without Prejudice, regarding entitlement applications listed in Exhibit A.

5. Treasurers Report accept report as presented See Exhibit A

A From Budget Committee Hugh Harrison (310-487-2533; chezhaha@aol.com)

1. Los Angeles City Budget Survey: The Los Angeles City budget survey is on-line at http://labudgetchallenge.lacity.org/budgetchallenge/sim/budget_master.ht…. All stakeholders & members of the Board are encouraged to provide their input for this important public tool for creating the City budget.

2. Return of $300 previously allocated to the Presidents’ Row: The Budget Committee voted unanimously to return $300 previously allocated to the Presidents’ Row from the Board designated to community improvement projects to the unallocated budget for that purpose. The reason for this motion is to free up funds for other projects as this project did not occur.

3. Motion to approve funding for Santa Monica Airport

6. Scheduled Announcements (no more than 1 minute per report unless otherwise stated)

A Governmental Reports

• DONE: Deanna Stevenson (Deanna.Stevenson@lacity.org)
• LAPD: Officer Peggy Thusing, Senior Lead Officer (310-622-3968; 25120@lapd.lacity.org)
• State Assemblyperson Ted Lieu: Jennifer Zivkovic, Field Representative (310-615-3515; Jennifer.zivkovic@asm.ca.gov)
• Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: Jennifer Badger, West Area Representatives (310-479-3823; jennifer.badger@lacity.org)
• City Councilperson Bill Rosendahl: Arturo Piña, Field Deputy (310-568-8772; arturo.pina@lacity.org)
• PlancheckLA: Challis Macpherson (Chair-LUPC@VeniceNC.org)
• LADWP/MOU: VNC Representatives DeDe Audet

B Community Improvement Projects Report
Ivan Spiegel (310-821-9556; ivan13147@verizon.net): Report and announcement of upcoming CIP events.

C 2010 VNC Election Marc Saltzberg (outreach@VeniceNC.org) See Exhibit C

D Community Improvement Project Applications See Exhibit D Ivan Spiegel (310-821-9556; ivan13147@verizon.net) on behalf of neighborhood committee: The applications for the 2010-2011 Community Improvement Project funding will be ready at the Board meeting. (See also:
http://venicenc.org/files/COMMUNITY_IMPROVEMENT_PROJECT_APP_(BOARD_VERSION)-3.airport%20survey.doc)

E Flood Awareness Month
Linda Lucks (310-821-7922; Vicepresident@Venicenc.org) on behalf of Neighborhood Committee: January is Flood Awareness Month – www The focus if FLOOD AWARENESS for the month of January. Please post on your web sights, share at your neighborhood meetings and e-mail out to your members.

7. Announcements & Public Comment on items not on the Agenda
[15 min, no more than 2 minutes per person – no board member announcements permitted]

8. Old Business

9. New Business

A Decision on current Board member participation in 2010 election Ira Koslow (310-392-0868; ikoslowvnc@ca.rr.com) on behalf of REC: Motion: The VNC approves the policy of current VNC Board members prohibition from acting on the 2010 elections as soon as they declare their candidacy.

B Delete SR 17 – Definition of Factual Basis Stakeholder under LA City Ordinance 179680 Ira Koslow (310-392-0868; ikoslowvnc@ca.rr.com) on behalf of REC: Since the Bylaws state the current definition, SR 17 is redundant and should be deleted: A Factual Basis Stakeholder is defined for all Venice Neighborhood Council purposes as an individual who lives, works, or owns property within the Venice Neighborhood Council boundaries.

C Neighborhood Watch Campaign/Let there be Light in Venice Linda Lucks (310-821-7922; Vicepresident@Venicenc.org) on behalf of Neighborhood Committee: Create an Ad Hoc Committee to work with the Neighborhood Committee and local businesses to establish a Venice wide Neighborhood/Watch- install sensor Lights and sign up for Emergency Preparedness. suggested chair: Daniel Samikow.

D No Dog Park at Oakwood Rcreation Center (ltrs at: http://venicenc.org/files/CommMember-DogParkLetters.pdf) Carolyn Rios (310-450-2554; crlynrios@ca.rr.com): Motion that the VNC send a letter to both the Department of Recreations and Parks and Councilman Bill Rosendahl supporting a Park Advisory letter that the Oakwood Recreation Center never be considered for a Dog Park & endorse circulation of the following petition:

OAKWOOD RECREATION CENTER PARK ADVISORY BOARD
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT SHEET PAGE 1
COMMUNITY MEMBERS WHO UTILIZE OAKWOOD RECREATION CENTER AND WANT
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF RECREATION & PARKS AND COUNCIL OFFICE 11 TO KNOW THAT THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN HAVING OAKWOOD RECREATION CENTER BECOME A DOG PARK

NAME ADDRESS SIGNATURE DATE SIGNED

E Possible Cuts In NC Funding
Linda Lucks (310-821-7922; Vicepresident@Venicenc.org): Board discussion of strategy by VNC to address possible cuts in NC funding due to extreme budget cuts.

F Regarding Cellular Tower Installations
Challis Macpherson (Challis.macpheerson@verizon.net): Challis Macpherson, VNC Board Member, moves that VNC Board of Officers’ respectfully recommend, with the City Attorney’s guidance and consistent with his recommendations, that the City enact a comprehensive new ordinance with clear and consistent standards and procedures regulating all wireless telecommunications facilities in the City, authorizing regulation of aesthetics and providing protection to communities and residential neighborhoods to the full extent of the law.

G LUPC to Hear St Joseph Center Request fot Change in Conditions
Phil Raider (310-399-4449; philraider@msn.com) on behalf of LUPC: The St. Joseph Center is seeking several substantial changes to the CUP for their center on 3rd St. The existing conditions were hammered out after numerous community meetings and several appearances before the West LA APC. These changes should be presented, for review and comment to the entire community with the VNC/LUPC acting as the forum for this exchange. Please mandate that the LUPC make this happen.

H LUPC Motions
Challis Macpherson (Chair-LUPC@VeniceNC.org)

1. 3221 Carter Avenue, APCW 2002-7626 CDP SPP SPR MEL, Council File 04-0939: Challis Macpherson, LUPC Chair, moves that the VNC Board of Officers accept the LUPC staff report and recommendation as voted upon January 13, 2010.

2. 1010 Amoroso Place, ZA 1999-0645: Challis Macpherson, LUPC Chair, moves that the VNC Board of Officers accept the LUPC Staff Report and recommend approval of this renewal application as presented. LUPC vote unanimous.

3. 709 Fifth Street, APCW 2009-2142 SPE: Challis Macpherson, LUPC Chair, moves that the VNC Board of Officers accept the LUPC Staff Report and LUPC recommendation that VNC Board of Officers NOT make any recommendation because making any recommendation to approve would violate the Venice Coastal Zone Specific Plan. LUPC vote 3-1-1.

SYNOPSIS: This project, owned and developed by Mark Baez, violates the Venice Coastal Zone Specific Plan in height, density, second floor set backs and illegal curb cut. (VCZSP sections quoted below). Existing Fifth Avenue curb cuts also violate the Venice Land Use Plan, certified by the California Coastal Commission June 14, 2001. Owner/developer has rented units in this building without a Certificate of Occupancy for several years. Applicant volunteers to close curb cut on Fifth Avenue, and make all vehicle entrances from the alley.

Page 18, Section G. 2 DENSITY, a (1) R2 Zone.
Page 19, Section G. 3, a, HEIGHT.
Page 10, Section G. 3. a, ACCESS.

LUPC Staff Report to be emailed to board on or before January 14, 2010.

10. Announcements & Public Comment on items not on the Agenda
[15 min, no more than 2 minutes per person – no board member announcements permitted]

11. Adjourn (approx 10:00PM)

AdCom Exhibit A – Neighborhood Council – Case Tracking System
Pilot Overview V1.0, September 6, 2008 (Murez)
[Referred to 2/8 AdCom Mtg]

The Land Use and Planning Committee (LUPC) has matured over the past several years. It has evolved from one meeting every couple of months with only one or two projects on the agenda to now responding to a Memorandum of Understanding with the City to submit a written determination report on every permit issued within the VNC geographic region. The committee has become more educated about the planning process and is now working towards a 2010 target of revising the Venice Coastal Zone Specific Plan.
Along with these growing responsibilities, the workload of the committee has increased from one or two projects being calendared every few months to the present level of hearing three to five projects twice a month. On average, what does this mean to each of the eight volunteer members that make up this committee, a workload that includes preparing 27 staff reports per month.

The process to analyze and prepare a project for hearing is fairly simple; contact the applicant, convince them to submit their plans for review, research the variances sought and flush out any that were not realized, organize their information and post it to the LUPC website, engage the potentially impacted neighbors and prepare a synopsis to post for Brown Act notification. Now multiply this process for one project 27 fold and the amount of information gathered and disseminated through this eight member volunteer committee becomes massive. What started out as a simple endeavor has now grown into a complex task with time sensitive details that must be accurately managed.

Automation to the rescue… with this sort of workload, managing details calls for a computerized case tracking system. What is needed is a centralized system that all committee members can access when they have volunteer time to give, that can reduce or eliminate many of the mundane tasks, and that will help engage the general public in the process. The system needs to enforce the policy rules of the VNC Board and the committee, while ensuring Brown Act laws are adhered. And, finally, the system must be available to all Venice Stakeholders and the City at large.

A pilot proof-of-concept system is being developed to address many of these needs. The system is being designed as a collaboration tool that will be managed over the internet. System access will be regulated through User Accounts that are grouped into security levels, starting with the general public then moving up the access ladder to project applicant, followed by registered stakeholder, committee staff member, committee chair, system administrator and program developers. Each higher group will be granted more access to functionality and system capabilities.

The system will track information by assigning case numbers to each project. The project or case files will be stored in a database and accessed through their respective case numbers. The routines that extract and modify the stored information will vary based on the individual access rights. The system will offer read-only reports to the general public while allowing stakeholders the rights to post feedback about issues they might have with any given project. Applicants will be assigned temporary access to upload their information and respond to feedback. LUPC staff members will be able to monitor all aspects of the cases, including being able to publish their findings, track correspondence and write recommendations (tentative motions) for the VNC Board to approve. Search and mapping functionality along with tracking key indicators will enable statistical analysis of accumulative impacts to be graphically generated. The VNC Board members, besides inheriting all the rights of the lower groups, will be able to post their final motion decisions and generate reports required by the City.

In addition, the audio meeting minutes that are digitally recorded will be divided into segments that correspond to the each project and posted into the case file along with any other archives.

In a nutshell, the LUPC Case Tracking system will automate the flow of information through the Neighborhood Council in a consistent, easy to understand format, while relieving a lot of the tedious tasks volunteers must perform at present. (follow up with PowerPoint overview and system demonstration.)

Exhibit A – LUPC De Minimis Projects
Exhibit B – Treasurers Report

Exhibit C – 2010 VNC Election

Candidate Issue of Your Venice

Description and Publication Rules

The VNC will publish a special edition of its quarterly newsletter, Your Venice in late March, 2010, prior to the Board Election Candidate Forum. The VNC will publish candidate statements and their pictures so that stakeholders can get to know the candidates for each office. Candidate statements will be sorted by office and alphabetically within each office. Each statement will run with a picture if one is available.

The first page of the issue will be devoted to an article about the election and an article about the Candidate Forum. There may be room for additional articles; depending on the number of Candidate Statements submitted. The Newsletter will probably be an 8 page tabloid sized publication instead of the booklet size we’ve been publishing to provide approximately twice the content capacity.

Publication rules for Candidate Statements:

• Candidate statements submitted for publication must be presented digitally in either a standard text or MS-Word format.
• No image formats or “locked” formats (such as .pdf) will be accepted.
• Candidate Statements must be submitted on or before March 14, 2010.
• Statements must be 150 words or fewer.

Any statements submitted that do not conform to these rules will be rejected.

The VNC will format Candidate Statements to conform to VNC Newsletter standards (e.g. font, margins, and columns) but text will not be altered (so check your spelling and grammar!). Submitted statements cannot be changed or withdrawn by candidates.

NOTE: Statements in may be submitted in any language for publication. Statements in alternative languages may be submitted for publication on the internet. The rules for internet publication are the same as for print publication. Statements in alternative languages must be substantially the same as statements submitted for print publication.

Publication rules for candidate pictures:

• Candidate pictures must be submitted in either .jpg, bitmap, or .pdf formats
• Candidate pictures must be submitted on or before March 14, 2010.
• Candidate pictures submitted should be “publication ready” (300 dpi, color corrected, etc.) The VNC takes no responsibility for the quality of the image).
• Candidate pictures must be of the candidate; cartoons, drawings and other “non-representative” images will be rejected.
• Candidate pictures will be resized for publication. The VNC will not alter images in any other way (except those it takes at the Candidate Information as a service to candidates – see below).
• The VNC will take pictures of candidates who do not have a publication ready image at the Candidate Information Meeting, scheduled for March 14, 2010. Note: the VNC will make best efforts to make pictures it takes at this meeting publication ready. This may involve color correction and cropping. Candidates will have an opportunity to approve pictures taken at the meeting prior to publication, but there will be no opportunity to re-take photographs.

All Candidate Statements and pictures will be posted on the VNC website.

Exhibit D – Community Improvement Project Applications

To Venice Stakeholders:

I have received several inquiries about this so in lieu of having to answer everyone individually I am making this available to you.

The 2010-2011 applications for Community Improvement funding will be rolled out at the January Board meeting (Jan 19). I still have to finalize the date, but if we follow the precedent they will be due back on Monday, March 1. This allows six weeks.

In regards to distribution, copies will be given to all Board members at the meeting and everyone is encouraged to distribute them around the community. The application will also be available at the library and at Vera Davis, and on the VNC website. I also expect that there will be several e-blasts.

FYI – the Neighborhood Committee decided to follow last year’s format. Funds will be awarded up to $2000 per project. Previous recipients of funding may apply again but they will have to provide a one-to-one match. The total amount available for this year is again $20,000.

In the meantime, please start spreading the word and encouraging stakeholders to come up with great ideas to improve the community.

Ivan

Location(s)

Attachment	Size
Letters Opposing Using Oakwood Park For Dog Park	125.33 KB
Community Improvement Project Application - Board Version	137.5 KB
January 11, 2010 VNC Administrative Committee Agenda	153.5 KB