Minutes, June 15, 2021
Minutes from the June 15, 2021 Clarksville CDC Monthly Meeting
Board Members in attendance: BJ Friedman, Malcolm Greenstein, Paula Hern, Kim O’Brien, Mary Reed, and Gregory Tran
1. On a motion by BJ, seconded by Paula, the minutes from the April 20, 2021 annual meeting and the April 20 and May 18, 2021 monthly board meetings were approved.
2. BJ Friedman presented the financial reports. As of the end of May, we had $31,168 in our checking account and $168,780 in our savings account (of which $83,017 is earmarked for 1611 W. 10th, $52,049 earmarked for OWANA-funded projects.) We ended the month $4,500 in the black. There were no significant expenditures this month.
The Finance and Operations Committee did not meet in June.
3. Rose Gabriel, Director of Property and Finance, did not attend the meeting. Her written report was reviewed.
· Prak Property Management (PPM), the new property manager will be handling the City-funded Haskell House repairs. A meeting has been scheduled with Brad Prak, Rene Gonzalez, Mary, and Parks and Rec staff to discuss what needs to be done and how to move forward.
· There’s been no progress on the egress/ingress issues.
· A question was asked about expiring leases. We must agree with PPM on what lease we will use moving forward. In the meantime, all tenants with expiring leases will remain on a month-to-month until new leases are in place. PPM will do the annual inspections of the properties with expiring leases.
4. Regarding planning for the preparation of next year’s budget, Mary and BJ will meet and make recommendations to the board.
5. Under Other Business, the following items were discussed:
· A meeting will take place on June 21 to discuss zoning of the UT Gateway tract. The property is not currently zoned. The purpose of the meeting is to gather input regarding what zoning to apply--UT is making moves toward redeveloping the property. At this time, it is not known what UT’s plans are. A small group of CCDC board members and an OWANA representative met to develop a list of what is important to the neighborhood. The list has been shared with Councilmember Tovo and the City of Austin case manager.
· The poor condition of the front garden space at the Neighborhood Center was discussed. Much damage was done by February’s freeze and its current condition doesn’t reflect well on the CCDC or Pauline Brown. Mary has reached out to the community gardeners to see if they’d be interested in taking on the revitalization project, planting flowers, not vegetables. If the community gardeners don’t take on the project, BJ has a friend who has a landscape design firm. She will ask her if she’d be willing to take it on as a community project.
· Rose has handled rental of the Haskell House, making sure the property was clean, unlocked, etc. The board discussed asking Felicia Farnes to take on this responsibility. Rental payments/donations were discussed. We believe we have Paypal or Venmo accounts to facilitate this.
6. Upon adjournment of the meeting, the board met in Executive Session to discuss personnel matters.
Action taken via Electronic Vote:
On June 1, 2021, the board approved the renewal of our insurance coverage. The renewal had a June 1 deadline and could not wait until the June meeting.
On May 30, 2021, the board unanimously voted to hire Prak Property Management to manage all CCDC properties as well as to handle CCDC bookkeeping. The terms of the contract, including the start date, will be negotiated. This matter was time-sensitive and could not wait until the June meeting.