March 1, 2016 HRB Monthly Update and Meeting Minutes

Attendance: HRB members: Steve Cauffman, Brad Conley, Sandrine Scherson, Hobart Taylor, Richard Haier, Sabine Kunrath, Bill Schmitendorf.  ICHA: Andrew Herndon, Ron Reid.  Guests: UCI PD Chief Jorge Cisneros, outgoing board members Barbara Taborek & Katie Pugel.

Summary/Minutes:

·         Conversation with Police Chief about community policing and UH traffic

·         Thank-you to outgoing members, welcome to new members, selection of chair, secretary, committee membership, and general housekeeping items.

·         Upcoming events:  Easter Egg Hunt (TBD). Earth Day Event (4/30).  Yard Sale (May). Summer swim lessons at Urey pool.

·         Construction update (Area 10 pool construction March-September.  Area 11 grading begins in July.)

·         Discussion of ICHA/HRB interface issues, and other ongoing topics (police relations, dispute resolution, ICHA finances).

Details:

UCI PD Chief Cisneros attended the beginning of the meeting, to introduce himself to the new board. UCI PD has an upcoming training on Implicit Bias scheduled for April.  Chief Cisneros is also going to implement an advisory group to weigh in on departmental policies, training, and hiring, and hopes this will include representatives from the community.  Andrew is working with UCIPD and OCFA to organize a fire safety program of interest to all community members, but especially those whose yards abut the nature preserve.  Recent listserv reports about suspicious vehicles repeatedly circling the neighborhood and people peering into parked cars were discussed, and the Chief encouraged residents to call the police (Dispatch: 824-5223, Emergency: 911) to report such activities immediately.  Reckless driving (particularly the increasingly common habit of blowing through stop signs at full speed) was discussed.  The Chief offered to look into historical citation data to see if most such citations were issued to residents or non-residents.  The Chief explained that he promotes a philosophy of "Prevention (1st), Intervention (2nd), Enforcement (3rd)".  If gentler efforts at prevention and intervention are not effective, then stricter enforcement may be implemented, which could include more frequent ticketing at dangerous intersections.

There will be further community-police dialog to build on results of December’s forum series, with the format of future events to be determined.  Increased participation of police in community events is a mutual goal, to build stronger ties.  One Board member suggested that perhaps officers could hold safety training events for young kids, to teach them how to cross the street safely, and how to bike safely.  All agreed that such events would be extremely valuable relationship-builders. 

Outgoing board members were thanked for their service.  Election results were summarized.  Last year 112 ballots were cast, out of 1001 eligible households; this year there were 158 out of 1046 eligible households.  (The increase reflects the addition of 45 new homes in Area 10-2). In previous years, detailed breakdowns of election results have not been published, but after some discussion, it was agreed to post a pie chart summarizing overall election participation and providing an indication of the relative apportionment of votes, out of the total possible number of votes (1046 households x 4 votes per household = 4184 potential votes).  Names of candidates not finishing in the top 4 were redacted.  The board continues to discuss whether, and to what extent, additional details should be published (options ranging from “no further details” to “release of the entire de-identified ballot dataset”).  The pie chart is available on the uhills.org website, as a news item, and is reproduced here:

Election Pie Chart

Consensus was established that Steve should continue to serve as Chair.

Brad volunteered to serve as secretary.

Steve, Sandrine, and Hobart will continue on the Police Relations subcommittee.

Sabine will take over as the point person on the Vista Bonita Playground committee.

Rich and Brad volunteered to serve on the Dispute Resolution Process Development Committee (a joint ICHA/HRB effort to explore ways to improve the handling of disputes).  Jane and Andrew, as well as at least one ICHA board member, will also participate.

Website Committee – no-one volunteered, so we will reach out to community members interested in helping us establish requirements/priorities for a new-and-improved uhills.org.

Entertainment Committee – Hobart, Sabine, and Sandrine volunteered, and will also reach out to community members interested in helping to organize and plan community social events.

Eight residents won tickets to see Kei Akagi in our recent random drawing. 

The UCI ARC will hold swim lessons for residents at the Urey pool again this summer. Andrew clarified that swim instructors are covered by insurance.  Andrew also clarified that HRB members are covered by ICHA insurance (copy to be provided).

A follow-up survey on the election will be conducted, and will provide another opportunity to confirm/update homeowner contact info ICHA has on file.

HRB is delighted that Lori Greene is willing to oversee an Easter Egg Hunt again this year, provided that enough helper bunnies can be recruited. The Board approved a small budget for this event.

A spring cleanup/earth-day event will be scheduled for April 30.  (Shredding, e-waste, large item disposal, free mulch, prescription drug disposal).  A spring yard sale will be scheduled for May.  We tried it in the fall last year, thinking there would be more demand for hand-me-down items among incoming grad students at the start of the academic year, but that seemed not to be the case.

Grading for the Phase 10 pool and pool building, near the Alturas townhomes, will commence in March, with expected completion in September.  Grading for Area 11 will commence in July. 

HRB agreed to request modification to the long-standing practice in which the HRB chair or a designated alternate regularly sits in on ICHA board meetings as an observer.  Recognizing that there is value in the continuity of having the same person attend on a regular basis, but that it is also valuable for other HRB members to understand ICHA proceedings, the HRB proposes that in addition to the chair attending ICHA board meetings regularly, other HRB members will rotate their attendance, so that two HRB members are attending.  We also propose that, while ICHA meeting materials are not intended for widespread distribution, such materials should be made available to HRB members for review. 

Andrew reported that the revised signage is now posted at the tennis courts. At this time, Mike Haier is the only ICHA-approved instructor. A second instructor is expected to complete the required paperwork by March 8th. Residents are reminded that only ICHA-approved instructors are allowed to give lessons on the UH courts.

A concern was raised about whether the HRB meeting minutes are too long and verbose.  We are going to try to be more concise, perhaps by breaking the minutes into a short summary (the “minutes” proper would resemble the bullet-points in the summary section at the top of this month’s update) and a longer account when appropriate (resembling the “details” section of this month’s update).  Feedback on the HRB’s communications is always welcome, whether positive or negative.  Direct it to Steve using uhills@cauffman.net]

Here ends the March HRB update.  Respectfully submitted by Steve Cauffman.