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HomeMy WebLinkAboutABC Minutes: 01/14/2021 ARCADIA BEAUTIFUL COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, January 14, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. ARCADIA BEAUTIFUL COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING CALL TO ORDER – Chairperson Miller called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. virtually via Zoom. ROLL CALL OF COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Robert Miller, Gary Brewer, Burton Brink, Sheryl Hunter, Barbara Lyle, Lee Shimmin ABSENT: Ethel Laczko SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION FROM STAFF REGARDING AGENDA ITEMS- None PUBLIC COMMENTS – None. REPORT FROM ARCADIA BEAUTIFUL COMMISSIONERS- None REPORT FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER LIAISON- Council Liaison Paul Cheng said that the City recently did a homeless hub information meeting to update residents on the hub at the Par 3 Golf Course. Council liaison Cheng also said that he has been working with the Herald Christian Center to coordinate their group to give vaccinations in Arcadia if a large enough venue can be provided. Council liaison also stated that the bond issue is filed at the court and should be approved soon.. Commissioner Laczko joined the meeting at 4:13 p.m. and asked Council Member Cheng what the Council was doing to help the homelessness issue. Council Member Cheng said that the homeless count in Arcadia had risen over the past few years from 12 people to 200 people. Council Member Cheng said that there was a homelessness informational seminar to discuss the issue, and that it was well attended by residents. Council Member Cheng also said that there is a Homeless Resource Hub on Las Tunas Drive east of Santa Anita that is open every Thursday to allow homeless people to come to take a shower, and to obtain assistance on finding alternative housing. Council Member Cheng said that Arcadia has always been a city that has been very proactive in addressing issues. A grant was given to the city to fund the HRH. Commissioner Laczko said that the city needs to gather more information and statistics regarding the homelessness issue. Council Member Cheng said the City spends $2500 a day policing homelessness, and that the City accepted the grant money to assist with efforts in trying to solve the homeless people and assist them with their needs. Staff Liaison Shakarian said that approximately $800 to $1,000 was spent on the holiday awards which was less than in past years since the Santa Squad portion of the holiday awards could not be carried out due to Covid. Staff Liaison Shakarian said that the remaining balance of the $3,500 budget is about $2,500 but that she would provide the commission with the exact amount once she balanced the account. Chair Miller asked what the overall response to the holiday awards was this year. Staff Liaison Shakarian said that she received positive feedback and that the holiday video brought a lot of joy to the award winners. Commissioner Laczko thanked Mark and Laena for the holiday video suggestion, and for all of the commissioners who participated in the video. Chair Miller asked if there were any more calendar updates for upcoming events. Staff Liaison Shakarian said that there are no changes in dates of meetings and that she would send an update to commission. Commissioner Laczko said that the commission talked about holding longer meetings to allow for more time to discuss certain items. Staff Liaison Shakarian said that this meeting was started an hour earlier to allow more time for discussion. Commissioner Laczko asked if law enforcement letter was sent to police department. Staff liaison said that the letter was sent to the Police Department and Fire Department. And that both departments were very appreciative. Chair Miller asked if there were any status reports on 47 tree issue on Fifth Ave. Commissioner Laczko said that she spoke with Dave Thompson who said the City will not be cutting down the trees at this time. 1. CONSENT CALENDAR a. Approve the Regular Meeting Minutes of October 8, 2020. It was moved by Commissioner Shimmin, seconded by Commissioner Brewer, and carried on roll call vote to approve the minutes. AYES: Commissioners Brewer, Brink, Laczko, Miller, Shimmin NOES: None ABSENT: None 2. DEBRIEF OF 2020 HOLIDAY DECORATION AWARDS Chair Miller asked if anyone had comments regarding the holiday awards and video. Commissioner Miller thought it was a fun idea. Chair Miller asked if awards were delivered or if the winners came to the office to pick up yard signs and gifts. Staff liaison indicated that winners were contacted and asked to pick up items from the City Manager’s Office. Chair Miller asked if any commercial properties were nominated for awards. Commissioner Brink said he nominated a commercial property but did not see on final list. Staff liaison Shakarian said that the commercial property had won in past four years so was not eligible to win again at this time. Chair Miller asked how commissioners felt about using photographs to judge properties. Commissioner Brewer said that he did not like using photos. Commissioner Shimmin said he thought it was difficult. Commissioner Laczko said that it was not the optimal way to judge properties, but it was the best way that it could be done this year. Commission Shimmin said that he would prefer view properties in person in the future after pandemic. Chair Miller said it was more fun to see properties in person and that it was hard to get pictures of entire properties. Chair Miller also said that there were very few decorated properties in his area. Commissioner Brink said that he was disappointed that there were not more decorated properties in his area, and also agreed it was hard to capture decorated properties with pictures but based on what commission was able to do this year, it worked ok. Chair Miller said it was difficult to do justice to properties with just photos. He said he liked the pictures as a supplement but prefers to drive around and see properties in person. Commissioner Laczko said she liked the idea of using pictures as backup. Staff Liaison Shakarian said it was helpful having the photos in case street direction was clear on judging forms when there was a need to confirm. Commissioner Hunter asked if in the future that the prior list winners could be listed by districts so that it would make it easier for commissioners to locate prior winners in their particular area. Commissioner Hunter said it is easier and more fun to drive around to judge properties in person, and that she drove around to see all of the winners after they were chosen. 3. DISCUSSION OF 2021 ARBOR DAY CELEBRATION Chair Miller asked if Dave Thompson was still with the City as his emails to him bounced back as undeliverable. Staff liaison said that to her knowledge he was still employed with the City and would confirm. Chair Miller said that the Arbor Day Proclamation was scheduled to be presented at the March 2 Council Meeting and asked if the Commissioner could present the Proclamation in person. Staff liaison Shakarian said that it was unlikely there would be live presentations at March meeting. Chair Miller said the commissioner needed to come up with a way to do a virtual Arbor Day event. Chair Miller said that the commission makes this event too hard to do. Chair Miller said that he would really like to get the schools involved and to do Arbor Day tree plantings at the schools with the students but couldn’t do last year due to Covid. Staff liaison Shakarian said the school district had been contacted regarding a possible Arbor Day tree planting at schools, but that the school showed some resistance regarding the event and ultimately did not express interest in having such an event. Staff liaison said that schools could be contacted again in an attempt to try again to coordinate an Arbor Day event at a school in the future. Commission Laczko said she spoke to environmental teacher at Arcadia High School who did show interest in an Arbor Day event. Commissioner Shimmin said that the committee did make an effort to coordinate Arbor Day event at Dana Middle School and Longley Way but pandemic issues put a stop to the plan. Commissioner Shimmin said that he would be willing to pursue the idea of planting at the high school. Chair Miller said he thought would be a great idea to plant at any of the schools and to involve the students once the pandemic is over. Chair Miller said there are other things commission could do. Commissioner said the City of Monrovia put out notice to their residents indicating that the City of Monrovia was accepting applications from their residents and business owners to have trees planted near their homes and businesses. Chair Miller suggested that the City of Arcadia do a similar program to offer tree planting to Arcadia residents and business owners. Commissioner Shimmin indicated that he liked this idea, as did Commissioner Laczko. Commissioner Hunter liked the tree planting idea that Monrovia is doing. Chair Miller said that Council Member Cheng could help the commission to obtain revenue and authorization to help purchase larger trees that could be planted on the boulevard, to plant 25 to 50 trees. Chair Miller said we also need help in advertising the City offering to plant trees as in the past there has been difficulty in getting public participation. Chair Miller said that the committee should focus on specific areas that need trees including parks or the city hall grounds. Commissioner Shimmin and Commissioner Laczko said is a good idea. Commissioner Brewer said it good idea and that in past the Commissioner gave out 100 trees at City Hall for residents who wanted them. Chair Miller said that he would like the committer that includes Commissioner Shimmin, Commissioner Brewer, and Commissioner Hunter to continue their efforts in coordinating a tree planting program, and that he would send a copy of Monrovia’s tree planting program to see if it would work for Arcadia. Commissioner Laczko asked if a rep from the Arboretum could help with the commissioner efforts to coordinate an Arbor Day tree planting. Commission Shimmin said the management at the Arboretum could be contacted for discussion of this event. Commissioner Shimmin said committee had reached out to arboretum previously and their staff was supportive of the idea. Chair Miller said that if Arcadia is a Tree City that the committee should be planting trees. Council Liaison Cheng asked to be excused from remainder of meeting at approximately 5:00 p.m. as he needed to attend another meeting. Council Liaison Cheng said he would send bond issue report over to staff liaison Shakarian to clarify earlier statement. Chair asked staff liaison Shakarian if motion is needed to move forward to appoint committee to move ahead with Monrovia type tree planting and fallback plan. Staff liaison Shakarian said that there could be an all-encompassing motion with everything commission discussed in regards sub-committee and over all scope of event. It was moved by Commissioner Shimmin, seconded by Commissioner Brewer, and seconded by Commissioner Brewer. Chair Miller asked staff Liaison what the deadlines are for this. Staff liaison Shakarian said that she had tentatively put March 2nd as the council presentation. Staff liaison Shakarian said that the sooner the better the commission has the information as the more time there is to publicize the event the more people can be reached. Staff liaison Shakarian said that she would share publication deadlines with the commission. Staff liaison Shakarian said that if everything is finalized by next month this would be good to stay on track for deadlines. Commissioner Lyle asked if there was a city plan where there are specified trees to be planted on specific streets. Commissioner Brink asked if a sponsorship of Arbor Day could help to supply funding. Staff Liaison Shakarian said that she thinks this would be allowable. Chair Miller said that commission needs to come up with plan for Arbor Day and what action will need to be taken if not much interest shown by residents for tree planting. 4. DISCUSSION OF 2021 SPRING HOME AWARDS Chair Miller said that the City’s objective is for water conservation but that spring awards involve judging the flowers and landscaping of a yard. Chair Miler said that he thinks the spring awards and watersmart awards should be one and the same. chair Miller says properties should be judged by their beautiful yards but that these properties should also show that the homeowners are using less water. Staff liaison Shakarian said that her understanding of this conversation is that watersmart hero awards should be eliminated and just add the component of water conservation as part determining factor for nominating spring home award winners. Chair Miller said that instead of eliminating water smart awards that possibly the spring awards could be renamed to reflect that it includes beautiful property that includes water conservation. Commission Shimmin said that he suggests that if person puts in drop system that homeowner should receive award for reducing water usage. Commissioner Laczko said commissioner should be looking at beautiful homes that are also conserving water. Chair Miller said that judging criteria could include water conservation, and perhaps give the property owner two awards. Staff liaison said that Arcadia residents have come to know the Spring Home Awards program and that it should not be changed too much. She also said that maybe the watersmart awards could just be added as a component to the Spring Home Awards. Commissioner Hunter said she would like to see the Spring Home Awards consistent with what they have been in the past, but when commissioners are driving around to judge properties that another list could be made of properties that look like they are saving water, and could also be included as a possible spring award nominee. She said that staff liaison Shakarian could confirm if these properties qualified for award. Chair Miller said that the consensus is to continue with the spring home awards as in the past adding an element of water conservation declining use of water, and a separate award for folks who have made major water conservation changes. Staff liaison said it is very difficult to determine if a homeowner is conserving water just based on looking at the property. Chair Miller said that we have the traditional spring awards for beautiful yards and we have the watersmart awards that have landscaping that it appears to be conserving water and has water bills that reflect the fact. Chair Miller said have the usual spring awards with a component of water usage declining and watersmart hero awards showing factually that the property owners are actually conserving water. Commissioner Lyle said that the City has the water statistics and can give to commissioners as was done last year, and then the commissioner could drive around and look at the properties that were actually saving water. Chair Miller said that it sounded as if consensus was to leave the spring awards and the watersmart awards as is, and that the commissioners could look at properties for both awards at same time. Chair Miller said that pictures of the beautiful award nominees should be taken at time of judging, as sometime flowers or plants die off by the time awards are presented. Chair Miller said the liaison Shakarian would provide judging zones to each commissioner, as well as a list of folks who qualify for water conserving water smart awards. It was moved by Commissioner Shimmin and seconded by commissioner Hunter to keep the awards as is. AYES: Commissioners Brewer, Brink, Laczko, Lyle, Hunter, Miller, Shimmin NOES: None ABSENT: None 5. ARCADIA BEAUTIFUL COMMISSION BRANDING Commissioner Laczko said that since commission is saving money that funds could be put towards branding that creates a culture that shows transparency to the public about the commission’s service, increase morale of group, ensures consistency and legacy of the group. Commissioner Laczko said to review the group’s mission and that an Arcadia Beautiful Commission logo could be created that could be added to Arcadia Beautiful posters, gifts, t- shirts, stationery, stickers, and awards. Staff liaison Shakarian said that none of the other City commissions have their own branding because they are an extension of the City of Arcadia, but that it could be considered if this would be a possibility. Commissioner Shimmin said that he agreed with staff liaison Shakarian and that the peacock is the City’s logo that should be continued to be utilized. Commissioner said she was coming from a school perspective to have your own logos for each group. Commissioner Laczko said that she would like staff liaison Shakarian to look into this matter further. Staff liaison said that a motion should be taken on this matter. Commissioner Laczko made a motion to create an Arcadia Beautiful Commission logo. There was no second motion made on this matter. Chair Miller said this motion failed, but that perhaps staff liaison Shakarian could ask the question just to see if possible. Chair Miller said that he would like the next meeting to begin at 4:00 p.m. again if convenient for the other commissioners. Commissioner Laczko said that Thursdays are busy for her so she would always be running late. Staff liaison said that it sounds like 4:30 time works for the commissioners. Chair Miller moved to close the meeting at 5:52 p.m. and was seconded by Commissioner Brink to close the meeting at 5:52 p.m. ADJOURNMENT Chair Miller adjourned this meeting at 5:52 p.m. __________________________ By: ____________________________ Robert Miller, Chairperson Laena Shakarian, Staff Liaison