Everett Council of Neighborhoods

Council of Neighborhoods Meeting Minutes Jan 23, 2017 Meeting was called to order at 4pm. Agenda and minutes of the previous meeting were approved. Attendance: Karen McAllister, Roger Hoot, Jeffery Parfitt, Dee Anderson, Michael Trujillo, Kari Griffith, Steve Bugge, Carol Gogarty, Tom Norcott, Colleen Kain, Michael Rinner, GeorgaDee MacLeod, Shelley Weyer, Art Olson, James Prissel, Andrea Tucker, Victor Harris, Mary Alexander, Dennis Dudder, Jim Grieco, Ethel McNeal, George Lockeman, Teresa Schultz Excused: Carol Jensen; Elly Smith Guests: Gayle Patterson - Riverside City Staff: Carolyn Urbanchock – Everett Transit, Jaimee Hudson – Everett Neighborhoods, Eric Hicks - Everett Fire Citizen Comments: None Mayor Stephanson: Mayor described a very busy year last year. State of City address is available on line with lots of good information there. Lee Brandt, Mayor’s assistant, has sent out list of neighborhood visits Mayor will make in coming year. Happy that Council President Tuohy has set up liaison relationships for city council members. Mayor thanked two Vision Committee members: Ethel McNeal and Michael Rinner, who are on the Council of Neighborhoods. He applauded Council President Tuohy’s plan for council liaisons to the neighborhood groups. Upcoming events: Everett Reads program is about drug addiction with author David Sheff, discussing his book Beautiful Boy, about his son’s drug addiction.  ALLIED event, co-hosted by NAACP, will be on Saturday, Jan 28 from 11am – 2pm, at Evergreen Middle School to dialogue and stand up together to oppose all forms of hate, discrimination and harassment. Mayor plans to attend.  Downtown streetscape project on Rucker is underway – including adding sidewalks and pedestrian friendly features to improve Hoyt Ave and Rucker.  Breaking ground this spring on Grand Ave Park Pedestrian bridge. Stay tuned.  Mayor described city plans for Purdue lawsuit which was authorized last week by city council. It’s a complicated problem for all of us to understand, but important to realize that a pharmaceutical company knowingly put OxyContin into the black market and then into our community. Those who got addicted turned to heroin when they couldn’t get the prescriptions anymore. Many have been harmed. Has affected every department who have to clean up the mess; the police, EMS medics, the Hospital ER, public works. City wants to make the case that Purdue needs to be accountable for housing, treatment for these individuals and needs to make us whole as a community, whether about mental illness or addiction services – impact is very costly.  Mayor remarked next on Kimberly Clark plant and demolition permit responsibilities. KC didn’t follow those responsibilities. Considering action against KC to clean up the site. KC is a bad actor, it’s not how corporations should act. Mayor responded to several questions about lawsuits, funding for toxics clean up, safety at the library, jail handling of intoxicated people who are arrested by Everett PD, local business BIA, public restrooms in downtown, homelessness.  City Council Liaison: Council President Judy Tuohy, liaison for Council of Neighborhoods, reported she is pleased to be able to be the liaison for the group. She feels it is so important to have people involved, she thanked the reps for serving. She explained that Council liaisons are assignments the members get every year to link with boards and commissions. Council president makes the assignments and this year she chose to be liaison to Council of Neighborhoods. She saw an opportunity to make connections through setting up liaisons with neighborhood groups, for each council member beyond visiting their own neighborhoods (2-3 each per councilmember). She sees an advantage for council members to reach out, engage and increase relationships. She reported that councilmembers seemed excited and some will go every other month to meetings, depending on their schedules. They can also communicate through email and other ways. Her goal is to get more civic participation for all neighborhoods. City and Community Reports: New Everett Fire Chief Eric Hicks – Chief Eric Hicks was welcomed by the council and introduced himself and described several new programs and his plans for expanding fire service programs.  The Car Seat check program will be expanded to evaluate car seats.  He is hiring a public educator who will be a car seat technician, well trained.  He also wants to set up a new After a Fire program, to share information with nearby neighbors, so this type of incident doesn’t happen again. Will host after fire meetings in neighborhood to talk with residents about what happened, what we can learn from this….helps with healing.  He plans on holding open houses at fire stations, to make Everett Fire a more community based fire service provider. He commented that for fire fighters, fire service in our blood, we get defined by our work. Makes it hard to retire. Eric responded to several questions about fire service and plans. Question about ratio of medical, vs fires. 70% medical calls. Monitoring units out of service and where needs are to match response. Teamwork: Mini Grant Apps: Jaimee reminded folks that the applications are due next Tuesday – she has received a few submissions on line of ideas for grants which were dispersed to appropriate neighborhoods. She is looking forward to receiving the applications and acknowledged Valley View which turned in their application at the meeting. Monte Cristo update: Jaimee announced that the planning for Monte Cristo begins in next month. She requested volunteers and invited people to consider joining the committee. Michael reminded people of importance to be involved in Monte Cristo committee since the council insisted on keeping the event going. Jaimee said it’s time to start looking around for nominees. Look citywide for nominees. School-Neighborhood Links: Council reps reported on various connections and budding partnerships with schools. Carol Gogarty – Lowell Elementary school, Carol helped parents prepare for a craft/art event to connect with parents. She will help with crafts and art teaching, 5th grade class. Andrea – Port Gardner had participation from principals at Sequoia and Jackson schools. Easter egg hunt will be at Sequoia High School. Ethel is planning a project at Cascade High School and will share more news soon. Michael has met with Cathy Woods at Cascade and Paul Edwards, from Emerson Elementary. Discussion by the Council: Meeting time for Council of Neighborhoods Chair Shelley Weyer led a discussion about considerations for changing time of the CoN meetings. This topic has been raised and discussed off and on for several years. Comments included: Young people can’t attend due to time of day and conflicting work schedules. City staff people who attend CoN meetings are off work after 5pm. Some members have to take time off work to attend currently. Millennials don’t attend meetings due to work and family. Those with day jobs can’t attend. Some people can attend day meetings because they are retired. Suggestions were made to survey people, beyond the Council reps, to learn about better times to meet, etc. and find out what keeps people from participating. Citizen comments could be easier if meetings are held after 5pm. Constraints are: commute time challenges, parking constraints with 90 minute parking, door gets closed at 5pm with security guard and meetings immediately after CoN. Length of the meetings might be barrier if it starts at 6 or 7pm and goes until 9pm. Suggestions for gathering input, making Council of Neighborhoods more visible, and for recruiting: Ask people at your meeting whether they can attend. Need to make more people aware of the Council of Neighborhoods – used to have “business cards”. Highlight on website to make application on line. Consider outreach at community functions, farmers markets, music events. NNO events haven’t attracted meeting participation in some cases. Millennials tap into Facebook and social media. Need to be visible there. Some are using Next Door to reach out to new people. Next Door is good for people because they don’t have to come to meetings. Still connected to people without going to meetings. Victor is willing to participate on a survey committee. Recommendation from Council members is to survey this group, and post survey link on city website to get input from much broader group. Vision Committee – Michael and Ethel spoke about Vision Committee – tonight is the third meeting, which will focus on Economic Development. Non-committee members can’t speak at meetings, but can submit written comments, which are circulated through group. Ethel asked people to let her or Michael Rinner know about concerns and what issues there are in neighborhoods. Some north/south info was discussed. Michael commented that the Committee will comment on menu of strategies, not specific items. Neighborhood Reports: View Ridge – no police report, met on Jan 4 - there were 12 in attendance. Focus of presentation was on emergency preparedness talk given by Roger Hoot, with a BrookHill neighbor who co-lead the presentation. April 15th –plans for Easter Egg hunt at Praise Chapel. Valley View, 12 people attended. Police report with new police officer. Twin Creeks and Cascade View – had 14 in attendance, Police report, Council member Paul Roberts attended, also guest speakers were from League of Women Voters. South Forest Park- had St Nick Party in December, no meetings in Jan or Feb. Riverside – Holiday event in December, January meeting no police report, small turn out to do planning on mini grant. Port Gardner –, about 30 people attended no police report, speakers from area businesses introduced themselves - Goodwill and The Loft local businesses. Planning to hold Easter Egg hunt at Sequoia High  School. Held a live auction at Christmas time raised $1600 for local schools. Partnership developing with area schools. Pinehurst Beverly Park – Kevin King from Big Brothers/Big Sisters will be guest speaker. Northwest – No police report. Port of Everett presented about all their work, 40 people attended. Next month Mayor is guest. Planning an, Easter Egg Hunt. Lowell - 8 attended, no police report, discussed mini grants. HSG – Kevin King from Boys and Girls Club spoke in January and Roger reported on emergency preparedness drill. Not many people participated in drill, but lessons were learned and helped emphasize the need for more neighbor to neighbor outreach. Delta – Elections were held, Jan mtg had 13 people, had police – guest speaker Sgt. Kevin Allen, north precinct admin. He gave an overview of issues including police use of force, and what’s considered self- defense, citizen response, etc. Bayside – 17 people in attendance at Everett High School in library. Guest speaker was Sarah Lavelle, Everett Emergency management - very good speaker. They will hold Easter Hunt at Clark Park. Planning to use mini grant for pedestrian flags for Rucker Ave because of problems with near misses with car- pedestrians. All leadership/officer positions filled. Raised $200 with auction for charity. Announcements: ALLLIED – Jan 28, 11am – 2pm - Special event community dialogue about opposing hate and racism at Evergreen Middle School Facebook workshop - Jan 30 - 6pm – 7:45pm - Social Practical at Library on using Facebook to promote neighborhood groups. March 4 - 9am – 4:30pm – Outreach and Inclusion all-day workshop with Jim Diers, at Evergreen Middle School Top 5 Items to report: 1. Mayor Stephanson reminded us that his State of the City address is available online. 2. New Council President Judy Tuohy has assigned council members to be neighborhood liaisons. 3. New Fire Chief Eric Hicks is hiring a civilian Public Educator/Public Information Officer who will also be a Child Passenger Safety Technician (carseat tech). 4. Jaimee Hudson reported that the Monte Cristo planning starts in February, so if you, or someone you know, is interested in helping, contact Jaimee, and start looking for houses and businesses to nominate. jhudson@everettwa.gov 5. Wendy reported that the Jim Diers workshop is March 4th and volunteers are needed, so if you, or someone you know, is interested in helping, contact Wendy, and please plan to attend. wmcclure@everettwa.gov Meeting adjourned at 6:10pm. Next meeting on Feb 27, 2017 Minutes prepared by Wendy McClure