NAG Meeting Notes 3/20/13

NW NAG Meeting Notes 3/20/2013

Attendance: Cindy, Laura, Melissa & Cybele at Melissa's house

1. North Lake Update from Cindy, a report on what was discussed at the 3/18 meeting with other neighborhood stakeholders. (such as Christy Zamari, Tarek Shawky, owners of Imabi building) 
1. Theatre w/ low income
2. Parking zoning (possible Rio Grande & Lake lot)
3. Pilot program w/ a zoning change to see if it works 
4. Read email Cindy sent 3/19/13
5. Plan of Action for North Lake:
1. learn about zoning
2. How to by pass them
3. Review mission street, sierra madre for samples of other types of zoning
4. April 8th General plan meeting & specific plan will be changed
2. Report from Melissa’s regarding her meeting with Michael Beck, City Manager. 
1. He likes NAG idea. 
2. Melissa has his cell number now. 
3. Code Compliance has issues, needs to be cleaned up. 
4. He is open to our ideas and wants to meet with us in future
3. Report from Laura & Cybele on Community Policing, meeting with Lt. Jason Clawson on 3/10
1. Discussed wanting more officers/community policing with “Broken Window” theory  as guide
2. Needs more officers- we are down to 7-8 officers for the whole of Pasadena during some shifts ($14 million has been cut since 2008)
3. CAPS program is a possible short term solution- get neighbors to attend and set up a patrol of neighbors
4. Plan of Action for Community Policing:
1. Long term goal is to get more officers on the street. To that end, we will put together a strategy to advocate for more police officers (Cybele & Laura)
2. Short term goal is to get more neighbors through the Citizen Police Academy program (each neighborhood association), perhaps bring this to PNC to support
4. Formalizing NAG discussion
1. Cindy recommends we all read this book: Building Powerful Community Organizations
2. Cybele read from Let the People Decide (by Robert Fischer), discussing 3 types of community based organizations
1. Social work based
2. Organizationally based
3. Neighborhood improvement based
4. We discussed that we hoped to be a hybrid of these; one that would address our constituents’/communities’ needs, has structure and is focused on advocacy and fairness toward the individual’s needs. 
5. We also discussed that we best fit into the 501(c)4 model
3. Plan of Action:
1. Melissa will find out what is entailed in becoming a 501c4
2. Cybele will write a first draft of a Mission/vision statement, upon advice from Melissa on what is required for 501(c)4 status
3. Laura suggested we begin thinking about branding
4. Then decide on short term campaigns (issues) Fireworks? Get out the vote?
5. Next meeting we will strategically plan  both our long and short term goals, backtracking from Mayoral election