Recreation and Park District
Regular Meeting October 19, 2010
I came in a little late and grabbed the comfy chair in the corner. Due to heating issues at the regular location, the meeting was being held at Anderson Hall. I suggest they always hold the meetings there. It’s a much more congenial environment.
Present were the entire board: Jeffry Fawcett, Michael Ming, Seth Murchison, Lynn Watson and Cathie Anderson. Joining them at the head table were accountant Cheryl Doran-Girard and attorney Malcolm Manwell. There were quite a few members of the public present, as well. Over ten, I would say.
Board President bows out
The Board was discussing opening a bank account for the District when I came in. It was not on the agenda, so I don’t know how the discussion started, but it may have had something to do with the Paypal account that is being opened to accept rental payments on Anderson Hall and perhaps other things as well. But we’ll get to that in a moment.
First, the big news is that Board President Jeffry Fawcett has decided to step down after nine months in office. The meeting was being run by Seth, who was learning the ropes as he went and doing a fine job of it. After some discussion, during which Jeffry suggested splitting up the two main functions of the Presidency and sharing the load, Lynn agreed that she could take on half the job and Jeffry moved that she be named President. Seth was there with a second and there were no dissenting votes. Jeffry was named treasurer after being nominated by Michael. The new officers will assume their positions in January.
Then came public comments, always interesting and this time particularly so. A woman named Dani Sheehan (I'm not certain how to spell her name) stood up representing the volunteer fire department. She had an odd request. The Board usually provides $400 for raffle prizes to be given out at the annual fundraising dinner. Dani wanted to put an item on next month’s agenda requesting the money. But as she put it, the money would have to be awarded, “…posthumously, as the event will have already happened.”
Dani then sat down and immediately stood up again, saying that now she was speaking for herself and not for the fire department. She told the Board, and, it seemed, Jeffry in particular, that she expected more and better things from them. She went on to compare them unfavorably with the previous administration.
“I’m disappointed that after 14 years of leadership you guys are folding,” she said. “You staged a coup and won and now you are not showing leadership.”
Gary Helfrich, the leader she was referring to, quickly distanced himself and the fire department from her comments. “I know how challenging being on the Board is and there was no transition from the old Board and this one,” he said. He then mentioned that one quarter of the proceeds from the upcoming benefit will go to injured Bodega volunteer Ben Hakala. There was general acclaim at this suggestion.
Seth took a moment as he got the meeting back on track to suggest to Dani that it is not exactly politic to attack the people you just asked for money. Not that he would let that influence his decision, he assured her; it was just an FYI moment. Directly afterwards, the minutes were accepted without changes.
System operator has the answers
Cheryl presented the claims and warrants which the Board voted to pay. She reported that the audit would be done on the 26th and that the District had received a worker’s comp pamphlet from the County. In other correspondence, Mendocino informed the District that it was taking water out of the Russian River and the proof of publication regarding the rate increase notice had arrived.
Jamie Dunton from Russian River Utility gave his report next. “I actually have something to report this time!” he said enthusiastically. On September 26, between the hours of 3:30 am and 7 am, there was a chlorinated water discharge from the tanks on Morelli lane into a tributary of Dutch Bill Creek. He explained that a level gauge had failed and the booster pump at Alliance Redwoods had not turned off, pumping an estimated 2400 gallons of water over the tank’s capacity.
“There were no fish kills,” he assured the Board. In fact, the creek was pretty dry at the time and though the spill brought the level up, most of the water quickly percolated into the creek bed. There were no traces of residual chlorine and the Department of Fish and Game took no action.
The Board took a very active interest in this faulty gauge. Both Michael and Seth suggested installing some kind of overflow alarm, but Jamie pointed out there is no electricity at the site, only a small solar panel and battery. Seth suggested doubling up and creating redundant systems, an idea that Jamie liked. “I’m old school,” he said, “I like float valves.” He promised to look into it and report back.
Malcolm, the attorney, spoke up. “This is the second incident in one year,” he said, wondering aloud if the problem was “…recent construction that might not have been as good as it needs to be.” He suggested an inventory of the system.
Jamie said he couldn’t comment on the quality of the construction, but Malcolm kept pressing. “Are we facing potential problems in the future? I feel we dodged a bullet on this one.”
“We dodged a bullet on all of them,” Jamie responded, “This kind of system is prone to these incidences.” He went on to detail how they had tested the batteries and transducers at other sites and determined that they were okay. Jeffry suggested putting a quality control inventory on the agenda anyway and Jamie agreed that was a good idea. “The system is 15 years old,” he noted.
But Jamie was still in the hot seat. Cathie had a question for him. “We have a customer who has a very bad leak,” she said. “What can we do?”
Jamie suggested taking a soft approach at first, gently reminding them that they had a leak. After that, try the conservation approach, reminding them that they are paying for water that they are not using. “Then we can threaten them with turn off,” he said.
Malcolm jumped in with another question. He pointed out that over half of the current receivables, some $15,411.81 out of $26,846 total, are from past due accounts. He found this figure outrageous and wondered if it was an anomaly this month or a regular occurrence.
“My understanding is that the aging on the accounts receivables is very small,” put in Jeffry, ever the voice of reason. Jamie agreed, saying it was maybe 15 or 30 days. Cathy pointed out that $4000 of the past due accounts are 30 days or less.
Nancy, a member of the public whose last name I didn’t catch, suggested that a late fee could be assessed as an incentive for timely payment. Jamie didn’t like that idea. “People in this district are struggling,” he said, adding that a late fee would make an already difficult bill even harder to pay.
“What you are doing is penalizing those of us who pay on time,” Nancy shot back. “I’m sorry that people are struggling, but you are making everyone struggle. Camp Meeker is not the welfare department.”
Here came the voice of reason again. Jeffry suggested making an agenda item for next month’s meeting to discuss some sort of “dunning system.” He was also empathetic for the plight of people in dire straits, he said, and recommended that the Board adopt some formal procedure to allow people in need to communicate and work out some arrangement instead of “…being silent and not paying.”
Nancy was in favor of some money coming in. “We should not be giving water away,” she said.
Jumping around the agenda
Seth took charge of the agenda at this point, skipping forward to discuss the tables and chairs that the fire department is storing in space that Cathie wants to use for her History Project. Gary Helfrich had to leave and the questions were ones only he could answer. He reported that the basement at the fire hall is being reorganized to make room for the tables and chairs. He promised it would be taken care of by the first of the year.
“Point of order,” came Jeffry’s slightly flustered voice. “I’m having trouble understanding why this is on the agenda.”
“Can’t the Board just ask Gary to move?” asked Seth.
“I’m not certain what decision the Board can make,” answered Jeffry. “I’m not sure why we are deliberating on this. Isn’t it just an administrative coordination thing?”
“I just wanted to discuss it,” Cathie retorted. She seemed a little miffed. Gary reassured everyone that he would take care of it by the first of the year and then left the building.
Cathie then asked for more money for the History Project, $300 seed money to print some fundraising calendars. After they sell, the money will come back to the District and the Project will be able to print the next batch.
“There’s $1000 in the budget for the History Project,” Jeffry reminded her, adding that $500 had already been earmarked for a new hard drive. After a discussion about how and where the calendars would be sold, Michael moved that Cathie’s request be approved. Lynn seconded. There were no dissenting votes.
Now we jumped back in the agenda to the play equipment repair. Seth said he had the perfect person in mind and couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to him earlier. He promised to contact his guy and put a quote before the board. “This needs to be done expeditiously,” Michael reminded him. “It is a safety concern.”
The future is now
We spent the next 20 minutes hearing about the new website. Jeffry is understandably proud of his efforts in this regard. He said it will be operational in 2-3 weeks. The various content areas will each be managed by a different Director, and we spent some time hashing out who was going to do what.
Dani spoke up again, wondering why the Volunteer Fire Department wasn’t listed as a content area. Jeffrey and then others explained to her that the VFD had its own website. The Board was not responsible for the content on the VFD site. “There is a link to the VFD. On every page of the site,” Jeffry reassured her.
The portable toilet discussion was very short. Cathie moved to leave it where it is. Lynn gave her a second and there were no dissenting votes. Cheryl added that it cost the District $77.90 each month. The heater discussion was even shorter. Cathie said she had talked to Tommy and he’s getting the permit. “I told him I want it yesterday,” she said.
The new web site will be able to accept reservation requests and deposits for Anderson Hall, which Jeffry is very excited about, and it needs a Paypal account to do so, which was the next item on the agenda. Cathie was a little less enthused about this intrusion of the future on her present. She stated that she was perfectly happy with the system the way it stood. Jeffrey’s partner, who was in the audience, spoke up, saying that she herself had experienced some difficulty with the reservation process, particularly getting calls back from Cathie.
Michael Ming wondered about liability issues of accepting credit card information, but was reassured to find out that Paypal handled all the data. In the end, most everyone seemed excited about upgrading the reservation system and making it more user friendly. Seth even hailed it as the wave of the future. Jeffry made a motion to open a Paypal account. Michael Ming seconded. There were no dissenting votes.
From hard plans to wild fantasy
Jeffry had to run, so we jumped to the last item on the agenda: a task list. Jeffry is concerned with keeping track of ongoing tasks, so he wants to establish and maintain an Action Item list that will be referenced at the beginning and end of each meeting to keep the Board apprised of what each member is working on. Jeffry moved that the Board create an Action Item List. Michael seconded. There were no dissenting votes.
As to installing parking stops near the Post Office, Lynn reports that the next step is developing a site plan and a discussion of the options. Cheryl said she had a map of the area that could be used to mark out where the barriers would go. “Site maps are easy,” said Jeffrey, “you can draw one on the back of a napkin.” Cheryl agreed to liaison with PRMD, because she says she is always in and out of their office.
And the last agenda item: the Chenoweth property. Seth has the bit between his teeth to purchase the $1.6 million property and turn it into a park. He has talked to the Sonoma Land Trust and left messages for the Open Space District. He has a real estate agent gathering the necessary phone numbers. “No one is very encouraging about this,” he admitted. “All I’m doing is the investigation. It seems to fit in with our mission statement.”
There was a lot of helpful advice thrown his way. Interestingly, it appears that the owners of St. Dorothy’s Rest have had their eye on the property for some time. Seth suggested that it might even be possible to work out a collaboration with them, but there were some in the audience who thought that was a very bad idea.
From the horse’s mouth
Director’s reports finished off the evening. Cathie got a complaint that the stove in the Hall was not working and called her guy to go take a look. He reported that someone had turned the gas valve off when they left and that was why the stove didn’t light. Cathie had some strong words for people who turn the gas valve off when they use the building. Apparently, it has happened more than once.
Michael reported that the water delivery contract with Occidental will be up for renewal soon. He said he is not sure what the level of urgency is, but he will keep the Board informed. “It’s politically heavy,” he said. “Water rights, etc. We want to make sure it is done properly.”
Jeffry expressed his pleasure that the Board had won a victory over communism. He was being a bit sarcastic, and I’m not sure to what, exactly, he was referring, but it earned him chuckles from Seth and Michael, so it must have been good.
Seth reported that the Halloween supper club would be the last dinner of the year. November and December have enough food, it seems. This dinner will be run by a catering guy he knows, but he couldn’t remember the name or the menu.
Meeting adjourned 9:15
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