- Okay, so 11-11, we did it. Here we are. We're here, figured it out. Okay, okay. So I thought I would
- leave the minutes to the regular. Yeah, that's fine. Thanks. Yeah, okay. So first things on the agenda
- are approval of the agenda. I don't think anybody can run their own sheet there. Actual attendance will
- fall. What? It's on the agenda too.
- Oh, gotcha. Totally thoughtful. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we should do that. Does anybody want to start us off?
- Yeah. Do amendments to the agenda or? Okay. I move we adopt the agenda as written. Yeah. That and Adam.
- Okay. Hold on. It's sad that the other half's gone, but it is nice to be here.
- Okay. All right. I hope to prove it. Pauli? Yes. Arminis? Yes. Brown? Yes. Geyser? Yes. Fester? Yes.
- Canoas? Yes. We're deciding on a different word. Okay. Well, great. Glad we are moving forward. And
- then we can hit the project and move on to the next thing. All right. Pauli? Here. Cartina? Here.
- Okay, sir. Thank you. Yeah. Great. Okay. Well, this is super fascinating and I appreciate everybody
- making time for. Well, I got a couple of items on here. One is first one is a working group discussion.
- Do you remember that's been a conversation we've had in different ways over the last year. So I will
- pass it over to Matt. Do you want to hit us up? Sure. I can introduce this item. So at the moment, the
- only standing working group or
- to be considered a subcommittee that we have is ECPC, which is Environmental Commission Planning Committee.
- We haven't had any real reason to meet for the last several months, and it's my understanding that at
- the end of the calendar year, any subcommittees are gonna ask for approval from the Office of the Mayor
- to have them. That's not the reason I wanted to have this discussion today. Due to all the headaches
- we had in the past with working groups,
- What I was going to suggest today is formally disbanding PCPC and just adding planning committee report
- to the regular agenda and report section so that if staff or anyone else who gets the agendas for BZA
- or planning commission sees anything that would be
- of use to us, they could present it at the regular meeting. We could decide if anyone wants to write
- a memo, can delegate the ability to write a memo at that time. But I just don't think we need a standing
- subcommittee for it also because it would present issues with say the chair and the vice chair having
- a conversation. If they're both members of a subcommittee, suddenly that would be for them and not noticed
- meeting. So yeah, my proposal today was,
- to formally end ECPC in name, in subcommittee form, but to still monitor it. And I'd be happy personally
- to bring those updates each month. We just have to get it in the regular agenda in a different form.
- So happy to hear people's thoughts. Quick question. What do we have to do exactly to abolish it? Handbook
- somewhere and just press it out? Nothing.
- It doesn't list our active or not active ones. There's nothing wrong with the text regarding working
- groups in the handbook. So there's actually nothing to amend. We just agree to kind of dissolve it.
- And previously we had said we were not dissolving it, like specifically that. We were kind of like making
- the decision of like, nevermind, let's dissolve it. Yeah, as previously, right, water and biodiversity
- and whatever, we normally ended everything
- for practical purposes. And now I think this is, we're realizing this falls into the same basket, but
- it's still a thing we want to do, but having it exist as a working group or subcommittee would be a
- hurdle to regular functioning. So, right, still happy to do some of that legwork and keep an eye on
- those other boards.
- agendas in case I think there's anything noteworthy, but I don't think we need it anymore as a formal
- subcommittee. So, again, we'd love to read the temperature of the road. What is the question?
- Yeah, it seems like over the last several months, I just keep adding things to the reports section and
- removing them from other sections. But I don't know, I've liked all the agenda tweets so far, the way
- we do our reports. And so at this point, yeah, it would be, you know, obviously our liaison would always
- be able to bring something to our attention if she thinks it's relevant, but also I want to be respectful
- of staff time. And so I can also do it during that report portion.
- regular meeting if that if that ends up being a better fit. And Melissa Herzl is the one that sent out
- the email saying like here are all things coming through BZA and and you can get on it mailing list
- if you want to but Matt is already on it. I think I might have missed at least one because there was
- a planned commission one I didn't see but I looked at each of the last couple BZA ones and didn't think
- there was anything that we'd be looking to write a memo about so I'm going to continue to monitor it and then
- bring that information or lack of information to each federal. Any other questions or thoughts on this?
- I just want to comment that I think it's great that you're volunteering to do this. There's nothing
- material that will prevent any of us from also monitoring and bringing up essential environmental permission.
- I don't think you're guarding that down for yourself. I just want to point out to everybody that you
- wanted to also monitor that would be an option.
- I think it's a great point. Anybody can keep an eye on any of those things. It was more my, my fear,
- you know, in case someone was concerned that it was just going to slip away, say, I'm, I'm happy to
- report on it, but yeah, absolutely correct. Everyone is welcome to pay attention to any.
- or move it to the vote? Yeah, I think we treated that as the discussion. So we're ready. Aldi? Yes.
- Martinez? Yes. Brown? Yeah. Pfizer? Yeah. That's sure. Yeah. Owens? Yes. Senator? And Albright? Yes.
- Thank you. Cool. Yeah. And we'll talk to all of the people, you know, if they're safe. Sure,
- for the process. Yeah.
- Yeah, we always appreciate her updates. Yeah. Great. Well, then we're going to keep moving on to the
- handbook amendment section, and I was going to open the floor to whoever it is that would like to kick
- off this conversation. Happy to handle this one as well. Yeah. So now you guys
- basically looking to propose a one-word change to our handbook. But first, I want to put into the record
- a little bit of background. We had our first real farm issue that I can remember, and I've now been
- on nine years, back in December of 24. So in February of 25, we convened, again, with just seven members,
- and we tried to amend
- form in our handbook. I wanted to make it clear that it was the number of appointed members in attendance,
- not just members of the 12 seats. I did a thing that I hated the other day. I rewatched these meetings.
- The emphasis was very clear. A representative legal was in the room. No one
- seemed to have an issue with it and we passed it on that day. Then again, had a different set of handbook
- updates brought about in March of 26. I was trying to make changes regarding elections and also to remove
- a de minimis clause that I didn't think was very useful to our definition of form. Legal had also
- brought a number of changes, and we had a representative with her again, and we were informed by Rachel
- that, in a homeless, the legal department was firm on the fact that the sentence, a quorum means that
- a majority of the members serving on the commission are in attendance, means a majority of the 12 total
- seats. I just wanna make clear, I still do not feel that that is what that sentence says in plain English.
- I don't see how,
- Um, an empty seat can be a member and I don't see how it can serve. Um, so today's amendment is I just
- want to put the word appointed back in there. So it would be actually expanding a little further. The
- chair of the commission will determine whether there is a quorum prior to the start of the meeting.
- Quorum means the majority of the appointed members, certain amount of commission are in attendance.
- No official votes may be taken unless there's quorum. Again, that is verbatim for what it currently
- is minus the added word.
- And so that opened the floor to any discussion or questions on this change. I think it makes a lot of
- sense. Hypothetically, for a second we thought Mitchell resigned. It's okay. If he did that, we would
- not ever be able to think for him unless we got someone else appointed, which is kind of out of the question.
- and that seems silly. Sorry, I didn't hear anything. I would just like to comment that the way we have
- it now, I don't believe, I don't have to believe like you Matt, I don't believe it's the crack interpretation
- of quorum. But even if it is, it's not in the spirit of open door laws. I don't want to be explained
- by that. Right now we have seven of the 12 saints filled. Technically speaking,
- If any one of us were to walk out the door, the rest of us could then convene sub-forum meeting, make
- a decision, and then without any public input, then vote on that the next meeting. That practically
- cuts the public out, and I am very interested in keeping the public abreast of what we're doing and
- making sure that they have a proper input. So I am in support of a forum being defined as the appointed number.
- I'd like to provide just a little bit more background. It's like boards and commissions and their advisory
- capacity. It's complicated. There's a variety of them. There's some that are created by state statute.
- There are some that are not. We are not. We are one that was created by the city back in the 70s, which
- means our bylaws are what we run off of unless they're in conflict with city code, which this
- determination of parole is not in conflict with anything in city code. So there is no legal reason.
- In fact, it's consistent with some, excuse me, with some PAC decisions that looked up. This isn't something
- that shouldn't stick in our handbook. This is something that is completely acceptable by code and for
- us to adopt and do our own bylaws. I covered my bases site, that a fair amount of homework and checked
- in with Deputy Clerk, Jennifer Broussley,
- Um, she said it was fine that we are not the only commission, but it's already being done by at least
- one other commission. Um, so this, this shouldn't, this shouldn't cause any headaches. Um, hoping it'll
- just be a straightforward change. Can you preface it with a phrase that is well familiar to Steve? 12.
- I think I already had too much attitude in my skull just now. I'm finding the simple long word change
- for actual handbook. This can be for what Rachel returns, but actually the current version of our handbook
- on our website, I think is updating because it still had the de minimis of five lines. By the moment
- it was posted, it looked like our meetings wouldn't have had to be canceled for August anyway.
- But again, I understand the interpretation and why the cancellation is sent out, and this is just making
- it clear so that in the future, so long as we have a majority of the actual appointed seats filled here,
- that we'll be able to conduct our meetings and have quality. It does say the number of commissioners
- in our bylaws. Like I said, the commission is made up of 12, so that's up to anybody who wants
- to double-check our map. That can only be changed
- Do you want to change the literacy class? Personally, I do not have an appetite for that. I do want
- to comment on that. I'm sure that we thought of it. It was, I think, presumably, we thought of it in
- our last meeting. Council is considering changing the literacy in 70C. The council on the subcommittee.
- They are currently considering that. We will pick up that question again after we're done with all the
- budgetary stuff.
- But that's something to keep in mind that they are considering to do just because we do have a severe
- vacancy issue. Do the board have vacancies right now? It looks like they do, to my left side. Not as
- severe as ours currently, although ours is old and recent that we have such a severe vacancy itself.
- We've been hanging out for months on this. We've just lost a lot of people in a short time. And it's
- been a really hard two years of going through our lot.
- I think that's a great point. I think part of the reasons that some members may roll off is it feels
- like we're not getting anything done and being able to consistently meet forum. And, you know, no clearly
- defined rules, what we're doing allows us to suddenly kind of find identity again. So I think that this
- will, you know, I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point.
- Ease the problem in a way that doesn't necessitate reducing the members of the commission. But at the
- end of the day, that'll be up to council and I hope they seek our feedback or just deciding. But again,
- that is that would be an issue for them. Yeah, so people who are here showing up where we have our farm,
- I feel like having the extra seats is great for when community members want to apply to join. And if
- they don't, then we will continue to grow and do good work and
- invite others to probably be part of it. So. I don't know if there's a city where you got this
- new definition. I don't know if there's really a downside to having more possible seats. Because the
- issue was just that both seats and those seats were full. Same. And I don't know what the turnover ratio
- is across the various boards and various commissions and things like that. And I assume that the conversation
- of reducing
- commission sizes, I assume, will factor that in, or, you know, what is the average tenure of a,
- I'm not sure, whatever. And I think that's a valid number to look at, but I would love to believe that
- for the difficulty that we've had in the last couple of years, I do feel like there are some very committed
- folks, and the folks who have been on the bus have been working with it a long time, and then, you know,
- they retire or they move or whatever.
- So this measure that Matt is proposing here also allows us to stay operational. If, for example, one
- of us were mentioned to show up today, we wouldn't have a quorum. If one of us were quick to quit today,
- the EC is essentially not a functionalist body. And I think that doesn't just serve us to sedate a citizen,
- but wouldn't tend to have an EC essentially shut down based on our interpretation of quorum.
- There's a school at the university that has a fire, and maybe people have an interest in it. Yeah. I'm
- going to put some fuel in that also, and find out if they're on board with the school or not. But we'll
- see if they're fired, if they're fined, I don't know. Is there other departments that I mean? We have
- people from Sphere, like the aliens. Yeah, but it's a club application, so we'll be in those branch
- with a badge. Sure.
- I think it's a good, I mean, obviously we want to, we want to increase the number of members no matter
- what, but this right, this change makes it so that, you know, if one of us gets hit in the parking lot,
- we can still have a meeting. Come on, what if it's the lottery? That's the lottery. That's your bet.
- Do you believe that you see if you won? No, I would give all of my way to the local community and the
- inter-directed.
- I don't think there's a huge downside to opening this up and I think that knowing that we have smaller
- numbers right now and knowing how hard it is to schedule meetings, schedule a joint meeting, have an
- entire commission trying to help coordinate this update will only help us keep our momentum.
- Further comments, questions? Mitchell, do you have anything you want to share?
- to get to work, to pass a joint resolution, to do whatever table and stuff, to do whatever's on our
- horizon here. So I suppose with that, I would move that we adopt this change thing out. So there. Those
- are your two? Yeah. Marking this? Yes. Brown? Geyser? Yes. Fester? Yes. Owens? Yes.
- So that means we're going to get seven, we have to have four to the meeting. At least three of them
- would have to be there. You'd have to go on, mine's tough. That's the question, how's the math for that?
- Pretty sure in the jewelry you're supposed to be physically present. So I think we'd still need four
- in the room. Four of them. We're hoping the numbers get up one way or another.
- we're meeting these 50% of the seated commissioners in the in-person. So yeah and then any other members
- can be out. Okay great well my friends we've made it to the end of our very extensive agenda. Um as
- well as that we will um obviously we can't put our office meeting or no yeah office meeting um and we'll
- work with because to reschedule um the meeting to talk about it's in a resolution for
- I don't know if the cameras are falling at the start of the story or the light pollution. Okay, so the
- thing that we talked about at our last meeting, we talked about how we can support that. And we'll do
- that in September. Or we plan to have our next meeting in September. So. First of all, if you are interested,
- we are opening up public
- the pores of the water line if anybody can tell. This is the first time we're arcading publicly, so,
- sorry, in January. September 9th, so Wednesday. It's not online yet, but it'll be soon. We're just clearing
- up some hurdles on the transportation side of things. Would you mind sending the link to Jackie to share
- with all of us when it comes, when they actually ask for that? Yeah, probably two years ago.
- last year. Oh, that's very cool. Yeah, hopefully we'll do that a little bit more often. People
- are interested, so. Are you leading this work or? Oh, no. Yeah, it's definitely a cool experience. They
- can make this work. We'll see how our owner gets. It's one of the processes that not a lot of people
- see that they actually get there
- a topical, I fear that only a certain number of us will be able to attend to a forum. No. That's why
- I said I'm excited anyway. There will be forum. Yeah. Well, certainly there's substance to that,
- isn't there? Yeah. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. It's going to be
- fun. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. It's going
- to be fun. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun.
- Really quick announcement as well. There's going to be a lunar eclipse tonight. It will peak just past
- midnight. It's not going to be total, but it doesn't quite matter as much of a lunar eclipse as it does
- with the solar eclipse. It'll still be right and cool. It's 96%. So it's like almost 13 in the morning.
- Like you'll see it start getting darker before. So I thought I was going to be clear last time.
- Cool. Anything else? Any other cool events or updates you want to share before we get out of here? Okay.
- Okay. We'll be adjourned. Perfect. Thank you. 736. Thank you so much, everybody. This was awesome.
- Thank you, Mitchell. Your is a natural treasure.