Board Members Present:

• Allan Rudwick
• Jimmy Wilson
• Jonathan Konkol
• Shireen Hasan
• Sue Stringer
• Pat Montgomery
• Jennifer Wilcox

Others Present:

• Elliot Parr and Vlasta
• Ruth Eddy
• Ali Hardy of Immaculate Heart Catholic Church
• Emma Holland and Jess Morgan
• Katheryn LePore
• Hillary Mackenzie
• Rachel
• Jessica Needham
• Angela Kremer
• Harrison Osbourn
• John Engleheart
• Alice and Andrew
• Cornelius Swart

Welcome & Introductions (6:32pm)

• Allan encouraged those in attendance to join committees including Land Use, Livability, or the Board.

Gladys McCoy Memorial – Hilary Mackenzie

• Hillary Mackenzie spoke briefly about the Gladys McCoy Memorial on MLK.
• If people are interested in helping with the upkeep of the memorial contact Hilary Mackenzie.  hilary@sundeleafmackenzie.com    

Dawson Park update

• Neighbors reported on updates to the situation in the park including shots being fired last night and bullets being found in two cars.
• Jimmy Wilson, Co-Chair of ENA attended a city council meeting with members of the neighborhood to express concern and ask for help with the Dawson Park situation and help for the neighbors who live on Stanton Street
• Cornelius Swart spoke about how this same problem was addressed many years ago.
• Suggestions of next steps included:
  • Building a coalition of partners including
    • Emanuel Hospital
    • Home Forward
    • Immaculate Heart Church
    • The corner grocery store
    • Cascadia
    • City of Portland Parks and Recreation department
  • Some neighbors are putting up fencing to keep people from sitting on their steps
  • Adding speed bumps to the street or a speed camera and sign
  • Putting in concrete planters to make it a dead end street
  • Immaculate Heart church is working on having the trees and parking removed
  • Creating a phone tree including all partners
  • Put up cameras in the park
  • Talk to the people in the park and find the root of the problem, understand their story
  • Contact the media
  • Ask for help from the office of neighborhood involvement
  • Be a squeaky wheel: every time something happens, contact city hall
  • Welcome people and connect them to services
  • Connect with each other one on one to build stronger community
  • Create a shared google doc to track what is happening
• Action steps:
• Have weekly meeting to talk about this issue. Allan will send an email to arrange the meeting.
• Work on letter to Emanuel and other partners to join the committee
• Cornelius will reach out to the media
• Elliot will write a letter to the City council about the shooting last night

Dialogue about racism – Angela Kremer

• Angela spoke about the need to learn to work together and address privilege and racism. 
• Angela, Sue, and Pat will talk offline to help make a plan. Angela will put together a proposal.

Old Business/Updates: 

– Livability – down to 1 member

• Sue willing to be the Board rep to that committee and get some of the adopt a block people on the committee. 
• Angela and Jimmy will meet about the Blazers money. 

Amended minutes from June meeting were approved.

Meeting ended 9:04

In the Saint Philip the Deacon Church, 120 NE Knott St, Portland, OR 97212

Board Members Present

• Jimmy Wilson – Co-Chair
• Allan Rudwick, Co-Chair  
• Jennifer Wilcox – Recorder
• Susan Stringer – Newsletter Editor
• Jim Hlava – Treasurer –
• Shireen Hasan – Community Outreach –
• Jere Fitterman   
• Jonathan Konkol   
• Sherry Staggs  

Board Members Absent

• Darren Holcomb   
• Patricia Montgomery   

Others Present

• Richard Hunter
• Johnny Engleheart
• Ernest Warren
• Dory Nafshun
• Merik Smith
• Micah McCrany Dennis
• Anthony Saunders
• Thursday Bram Cook
• Audrey Terrell

Meeting called to order:  6:37 p.m.  Food was available during the meeting including pizza provided by Mississippi Pizza.

Robert Boyer—Eliot Neighborhood Past, Present, Future

Mr. Boyer gave a presentation about the history of the Eliot Neighborhood Association which he helped to create. 

Byrd Cruz—Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2

Byrd is a Librarian, Researcher  and Founding Member of the Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2, EDPA2. EDPA2 is an ad hoc community based organization comprised of survivors and descendants of the Emanuel Hospital expansion forced removal. Byrd is a local expert on this issue and has devoted extensive study in this area toward advocacy for the descendants of this unresolved and painful era of Portland’s history.  Byrd will be giving a presentation entitled Reclaiming Stolen Black Lands in the “Whitest City” at the Eliot Center of the First Unitarian Church on March 31 at 7pm.

It was noted that the ENA has sent a letter to Emanuel Hospital requesting that land be donated to the community.

Garlington Garden

The Garlington Center includes a 2400 SQ foot vacant outdoor area which Cascadia intends to develop a 1200 SQ foot community garden and a 1200 SQ foot children’s play area.  Growing Gardens will partner with Cascadia to develop and maintain and teach gardening skills to Garlington residents, clients and the community.  Cascadia is applying to Metro, to City of PDX, Prosper Portland as well as a few small foundations.  Cascadia requests that ENA will support the effort in general and by getting the word out via their membership – in case there are some very interested in gardening who’d like to participate.

An offer was made for Constructing Hope to assist with building the garden beds.

Jere moved and Jonathan seconded that ENA edit the letter of previously written to support the garden and play area.  This motion passed unanimously.

People Stepping Down

Two people are stepping down from the Land Use committee. One is moving and the other has other commitments.  This leaves only 4 people on the committee.  Carla who is currently chair of the livability committee is planning on moving as well. 

Jere is stepping down as the NECN representative.  They meet on the 3^rd Tuesday of the month.  Someone will need to take over this role.

Thursday is stepping down as the webmaster.  Sue has agreed to do this on an interim basis.

Jim would like to step down as treasurer.

Jimmy suggested that there should be a mentoring/teaching process from those who are stepping down to help teach new people the role.  Should we have a nominating committee?  It is helpful to have a smooth transition and opportunities for job shadowing.

No motions were made on this item and no vote took place.

Blazers Money:

We have the contact info for someone with the Blazers.  Jimmy agreed to reach out to the Blazers to discuss continuing the payment they have given us in the past.  The Board agreed to support him in this effort.   No motions were made on this item and no vote took place.

Candidate Forum:

We discussed the idea of a candidate forum.  It was agreed to ask NECN to put one on. No motions were made on this item and no vote took place.

General Meeting:

We have a general meeting coming up.  Do we want to have a speaker?  Alan agreed to reach out to Mary Peveto to ask her to speak. No motions were made on this item and no vote took place.

Business Connections:

Susan recently talked with Corey Kaster who is interested in connecting the Eliot District businesses with each other.  The goal would be to help the owners know each other and work together.  Jimmy has been introducing himself to all the businesses in the neighborhood.  No motions were made on this item and no vote took place.

Minutes of the Previous Board Meeting: January 27,2020

Two corrections were made to the minutes.  Susan moved to accept as corrected. Jere seconded.

Alan reported that 4 candidates have requested to come to a meeting and he asked for clarification on what to tell them.  It was agreed that he could tell them the ENA meetings are open to the community and they can attend.  We may ask them a question and they would be given 5 minutes to answer.  We may also ask them to listen to our concerns.

Newsletter Report:

The deadline for articles is March 1. 

LUTC (Land Use Transportation Committee Report

This committee currently consists of Allan Rudwick, Brad Baker, Jonathan Konkol, and Phil Conti.

 There was a discussion of whose responsibility it is to report to NECN. 

Livability Report:

We have a relationship with Central City Concern’s Clean Start PDX program to help with community clean up.  If there are large items left out we can call them and they will come and take care of it.  They are doing a great job.  The adopt a block captains have their contact information.

Treasurer Report:

Jim will email the report.  He noted that at this point we have no income so our bank account total is slowly decreasing.

NECN

Jere is stepping down and we will need a new representative.  There was a discussion of the ENA’s responsibility to NECN.  Do we need to inform them of changes to the Land Use committee membership?  No motion was made and no vote was taken.

Next Board meeting: March 16th at 6:30pm

Meeting adjourned at 8:45pm.

Board Members Present                                            

• Jim Hlava – Treasurer
• Jimmy Wilson – Co-Chair
• Allan Rudwick, Co-Chair  
• Jennifer Wilcox – Recorder
• Susan Stringer – Newsletter Editor
• Shireen Hasan – Community Outreach
• Jere Fitterman   
• Darren Holcomb   
• Jonathan Konkol   
• Patricia Montgomery   
• Sherry Staggs  

Others Present

• Christian Rossnagel
• Sara Ober
• Johnny Engleheart
• Richard Hunterson
• Amir Hassan
• Al’ec’ia Hassan

Meeting called to order:  7:01 p.m. after a potluck and time for socializing.

Goals: All present introduced themselves and stated their goals for the group for the coming year.  Goals listed were:

• The work of the diesel committee/cleaning up the air
• Addressing the homeless situation/ creating affordable housing
• Design guidelines adopted
• Addressing Black people killing Black people in the neighborhood
• Livability/Adopt a Block
• Transition to a new treasurer
• Holding a social event/game night/ family night
• Holding a neighborhood clean up (possibly with other neighborhoods)
• Addressing the garbage truck after hours issue
• The community garden (possibly including indigenous plants)
• National Night Out/ Walk the Neighborhood
• Getting the community involved
• Debt forgiveness

New Business:

January Meeting: It was suggested that we should move our January meeting to a different date so that it does not conflict with Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations.  The group agreed to change the meeting to January 27^th.

Mayo House: The Mayo House will be turned into a museum “ARTchives.” There was discussion of showing “Root Shocked” and having architectural models or posters at our April general meeting.  A question arose about the impact of showing this documentary and the need to be prepared for people’s concerns.  Another idea was to have a series of films including “Lift Every Voice”, “Vanport: Lost City”, and “Priced Out.” It was suggested that we should show a series with the focus on where we have been, where we are now and where we want to be. Susan agreed to get in touch with Cleo about the architectural students’ work.

Helping the Homeless: There was a brief discussion about what we might do to help those who are unhoused.  Suggestions included creating a new Right2Dream or a tiny home pod.

Goals: At our meeting next month we will break into groups based on goals we would like to focus on and create action plans to address those goals.

Accountability: There was a brief discussion on the need to be accountable.

Emanuel Land: The group reviewed the letter from the Land Use committee requesting the Emanuel blocks be donated to the community.  Alan moved and Susan seconded that the letter be sent.  This passed unanimously. 

Next Board meeting: January 27th at 6:30pm

Meeting was adjourned at 8:36pm

Respectfully Submitted,
Jennifer Wilcox, Recorder

In the Saint Philip the Deacon Church, 120 NE Knott St, Portland, OR 97212

Board Members Present

• Jimmy Wilson – Co-Chair
• Allan Rudwick, Co-Chair  
• Jennifer Wilcox – Recorder
• Susan Stringer – Newsletter Editor
• Jim Hlava – Treasurer –
• Shireen Hasan – Community Outreach –
• Jonathan Konkol   
• Patricia Montgomery   
• Board Members Absent
• Jere Fitterman   
• Darren Holcomb   
• Sherry Staggs  

Others Present

• Johnny Engleheart
• Maria McDowell

Meeting called to order:  6:39 p.m.

Welcome and Introductions:

Pastor Maria McDowell from Saint Philip the Deacon Episcopal Church was introduced.  She spoke about the Leven Community Housing Coalition, a group of faith communities who are trying to leverage land they already own to provide housing for individuals experiencing homelessness.  They are looking to assess the needs of the community and advocate with the city for changes to conditional use codes so that they build housing on their land.  Saint Phillip the Deacon church is looking at what they can do with their current land.  They want to invite the Eliot Neighborhood Association into those conversations. 

The following ideas were discussed: offering activities in the parish hall in connection with the housing, build something over the current parking lot with housing, intergenerational housing.  A comment was made that churches are not focused on making money and can help address greater city concerns such as homelessness. Emanuel church in the Humboldt neighborhood is working on a similar project.  Prosper Portland has money available for these types of projects.  The Meyer Memorial Trust is wanting to connect with the community and look for creative ways to offer/create affordable housing.

New Business:

Clarifying our reimbursement policy: We do not currently have a reimbursement policy. The following proposal was made:

if there is an approved budget item outstanding, any receipts that seem reasonably related to the item should be approved and paid ASAP

 if there is not an approved budget item, the board should be contacted before reimbursement

It was noted that in the past if someone had a project they had to present a budget as part of the project.  A clarification was made that there are currently no outstanding projects that need to be paid or reimbursed.

Jonathan moved and Allan seconded that we have a small discretionary budget of up to $100 for smaller items.  The chairs would be able to approve payment for these items.  This passed, 6 in favor and 1 opposed.

Current funding: Jim noted that we have no current money coming in to the budget. We need to follow up on the Blazers money.  Shireen will talk to Angela to find out the name of the person at the Blazers and we will send a letter as a board to follow up.  Also Susan will talk to Jere to find out if they have a contact at the Blazers.  Jim noted in the past we have had a balance of $8,000-$12,000 which is a good amount.  We should try to be revenue neutral for now until we have a source of income. No motions were made on this item and no vote took place.

Procedures on having speakers at our board meetings: It was agreed that we should direct people who want to speak at our meetings to the Community Outreach Coordinator (Shireen Hasan)  or the chairpersons to get the person on the agenda for the next meeting.  The person putting together the agenda will reply to the Outreach Coordinator so they know that the message has been received.  It was also agreed that the agenda will be sent out a week before the board meeting so people have time to review it.  No motions were made on these items and no vote took place.

Procedures on having political candidates speak at our board meetings: There was some discussion about if we have had politicians speak at board meetings in the past.  Allen said there are two reasons not to invite candidates: 1) we as a board cannot look like we endorse candidates and 2) we would need to invite all the candidates so as not to appear to be favoring some and this would take up all the time for the meeting. It was suggested that we could have a candidate forum.  Alan sent out an email from the Office of Neighborhood Involvement with guidelines for having politicians address neighborhood board meetings.  He suggested we should review it.  Susan moved and Patricia seconded that candidates may attend meetings.  We may ask the candidate a question and they would be given 5 minutes to answer.  We may also tell them our concerns.  This passed 5 in favor and 3 opposed. 

Committee Updates

  Newsletter: Articles for the spring edition are due by March 1.  Ad copy is due by March 8.  The newsletter will be sent out April 1

  Livability: no report

  LUTC (Land Use Transportation Committee): The house on Vancouver and Page has been moved once and is up for demolition.  They are looking for someone to move it.  Three houses were just demolished, these were some of the last African American built houses in the neighborhood.  A letter was sent to the city in favor of infill.

  Clean Air: There was a brief discussion about data gathering.  The committee is putting together a letter to the trucking company the main contributor to the diesel pollution. There was also discussion about the need to make progress on this issue and that people want to be involved in the process.

  Community Outreach: Pastor Maria McDowell spoke earlier in the evening.

Minutes of the November 2019 Board Meeting:

Moved to accept: Susan         Seconded: Jim Vote Count: 7 in favor, no opposed

Minutes of the December 2019 Board Meeting:

Moved to accept: Susan         Seconded: Jim  Vote Count: 5 in favor, 2 abstained

Next Board meeting:  February 17, 2020 at 6:30pm

Adjourned at 8:37pm