Manchester Community Council                               www.manchesterwa.org

PO Box 173

Manchester, WA  98353-0173                           “it’s a great place to live…”

 

Minutes of the MCC Executive Board meeting of May 12, 2005

 

Those in attendance: B. Ballard, R. Ballard, JB Bartel, B. Larsen, P. Paquette, R. Rada, M. Rebelowski, D. Trudeau, 
J. Winslow

Absences: D. Kimble, C. Kowalski, B. Lamb, R. Robinson

 

Action Items:

1)      Welcome letter to be issued to new members as soon as the draft is finally approved by Bob.

2)      Phil to download State regulations for non-profits for our education.

3)      Appoint a “Robert’s Rules warden” to help keep our meetings on track.

4)      Ron Robinson to discuss potential re-naming of the working groups.

5)      John Winslow to prepare press releases for distribution on ~6/15 on working groups.

6)      John Winslow to prepare a review of Plan goals versus sub group charters for 6/9.

7)      JB Bartel to send thank you to Jim Avery after the 5/24 meeting.

8)      Ron Robinson to facilitate the formation of the working groups at 6/28 meeting.

9)      Carol to seek D-W-T input on how our Conflict of Interest Bylaw should be worded.

 

Minutes:

The meeting was called to order by Chair, Bob Ballard at 7:01PM.   

 

Old Business:

 

Follow-up items from previous meeting:

Bob reported that we have not as yet sent out any new member welcome letters.  A copy of the draft was not available for review.  A copy of that draft will be attached to the draft of these minutes.  Once Bob has approved the letter, they will be sent to all new members upon payment of dues.

 

TREASURER”S REPORT: John reported that Carol had called in earlier and reported no new member’s dues paid this month, and a total of approximately $25 in new expenses for easel and copying.  The treasury balance should therefore be just under $600.  Carol also reported that Davis-Wright-Tremaine had reported no new progress on the non-profit effort, but that a new associate will be helping achieve some results forthwith.  Phil volunteered to download the state regulations governing 501(c)3 non-profits.

          There was no new mail.

 

SEWERS SUB-COMMITTEE REPORT: Ron Rada reported that the LID #8 is currently in the engineering firm selection process.  Firms in contention are Norm Olsen and RH2 Engineers.  There is no headway to report on LID#9.  The “frequently asked Q&A’s” are still being reviewed by Rick Gagnon of the County.  Ron has also prepared a letter to the County for Bob Ballard’s signature requesting the addition of seven “Entering Manchester” signs at key locations to help raise awareness of our boundaries.

 

CRIME PREVENTION SUB-COMMITTEE REPORT: Bud Larsen said that Under Sheriff Bonneville attended this week’s Crime Prevention meeting.  Bonneville voiced support for the way-station concept but saw funding issues as a barrier.  Bud also mentioned that Travis Baker of the Kitsap Sun visited last week and got a general update on activities of the group.  Bud is also working on Dick Todd, the Captain of Citizens on Patrol, to get more presence in Manchester.  Bud said that they will perform home security checks while citizens are on vacation if requested via the Sheriff’s office.  In the area of enforcement of Port Resolutions, Bud said that the Resolutions must be approved by the County Commissioners into the Criminal Code in order for the Sheriff to enforce the Resolutions.  The Port attorney, Ron Thompson has requested members of the community to suggest ideas for new resolutions that may be needed to minimize criminal activities at the Port (you can submit these to Bud Larsen, preferably by June 13th meeting).   Ron Rada has arranged for a public tour of the Kitsap County Jail facilities during August.

            The Crime Prevention group will have the following activities at the Father’s Day Salmon Bake on June 19: Fingerprinting/ID for children, Aid car, Fuel Depot Fire Truck, and Animal Control (with puppies for adoption); volunteers to help with these efforts are needed (contact Bud/Wanda Larsen).

 

PUBLIC FACILITES SUB-COMMITTEE REPORT:  Bob Lamb was not available to report.

 

BUILDING HEIGHT SUB-COMMITTEE REPORT:  Bob Ballard stated that the group currently consists of seven individuals.  They have agreed that ambiguities exist in the Manchester Plan’s building height requirements and the group is planning to propose clarifications to simplify the enforcement of the requirements.  The group is still looking for a chair, although it was thought that this group could be blended into one of the newly forming working groups.

 

WORKING GROUPS SUB-COMMITTEE REPORTS:  We all expressed disappointment that we were unable to get the group formation underway at the April meeting as intended.  Our weakness in understanding and executing proper Robert’s Rules protocol got in our way of moving forward.  Chairman Ballard read the section on making motions from the Robert’s Rules web-site (www.robertsrules.org) to help with our future understanding of the proper procedures.  It was agreed that having a Robert’s Rules “warden” might be helpful in keeping our meetings running efficiently, so we need to find such an individual.  One key suggestion was the recommendation that either motions should be submitted in writing, or the Secretary should record the motion and then read it back to insure clarity.  Finally we talked about whether the working groups should be re-named, but left that on the table until Ron Robinson’s return.

 

New Business: It was agreed that Jim Avery, County Treasurer, would be the guest speaker at our May 24th meeting.  A motion was made and carried to facilitate the election of Members at Large to our Executive Board, the voting process will occur prior to our guest speaker, and then results will be presented after the speaker.  A further motion was made, but not approved to offer absentee ballots for the election.  The draft ballots presented by John were approved.  Alternate nominations from the floor will be taken prior to the election.  The election monitors will be the members of the nominating committee (B. Lamb and B. Larsen) plus one volunteer member from the floor.  During the business section of the meeting, we will have a two minute presentation from each of the working group “sponsors” to help enlighten the membership in choosing which area they would like to participate.  In June we will form the working groups.  John Winslow will prepare press releases prior to the June meeting highlighting the objectives of the groups.  Bob Ballard offered to prepare and distribute flyers for the May 24th meeting.

          Chairman Ballard expressed concern on how the working groups would line-up with the objectives stated in the Manchester Plan.  John will review the Plan sections relative to the sub group charters and provide input at the next Executive Board meeting.  We were reminded that the five working groups need to head to the Fall community meeting (potentially October) with a presentation on goals.

            JB Bartel offered to send a thank you note to our May 24th guest speaker after the meeting.

            Topics for future meetings were reviewed, and we concluded that our June primary line of business will be the formation of the five working groups and their activities should be at the forefront in future meetings.  It was suggested that Ron Robinson would be the ideal facilitator for the formation of the groups.

            We then discussed the activities of the Haida Park group.  It was decided that we need to have monthly presentations on progress of that group’s activities to insure there is some clear direction and activity.  Debby will discuss this with Bob Lamb to determine who will be leading the Haida group, so that person can be invited to present results at our future meetings.  We envision that this group would prepare a plan of what could be done, and then present it to the County Public Works Department for action by the County.  Neither the MCC nor the Haida group is intended to take on liability responsibilities for this County owned property.

            Next we discussed the proposed amendments to the Conflicts of Interest section of our Bylaws.  Carol had provided input earlier from D-W-T that suggested that we need to retain a Conflict of Interest section in the Bylaws.  We discussed the matter and felt that if any individual feels there is a potential conflict of interest in a specific matter, they should raise that issue while the matter is being discussed.  The object of the potential conflict would then address the issue of conflict and if consensus is that a conflict does exist, then the object of the conflict should recuse themselves from any vote on such matter, but participation in discussions would be allowed.  Realizing that we were getting into a legal issue, there was a motion approved to run this by our legal counsel for recommendations on the entire Conflict section.

There being no further business, Chairman Ballard adjourned the meeting at 8:38PM.

Our next regular meeting will be Tuesday May 24th at 6:30-8:30PM in the Manchester Library and the next Executive Board meeting will be Thursday June 9th at 7:00PM at a yet to be determined location. 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

John Winslow, Secretary-Manchester Community Council