Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation

Board Meeting Minutes

June 8, 2020 – Virtual Meeting via Zoom

Meeting called to order at 6:32pm by George

Blair Taylor Reporting.

Present

Board: George Mayl, Loretta Koehler, Blair Taylor, Hank Bootz, Maggie Price, Emmett Hobley, Drew Dutcher, Steve Nissen, Jane Potts

Committee Chairs: Cindy Johnstone, Jane Potts, Christine O’Connor, Joel Noble, Amy Duclos

Quorum Present

May Minutes

Motion to approve May 11, 2020 Board meeting minutes by Hank, seconded by Emmett. Passes Unanimously.

Treasury – Steve Nissen

Motion to approve May Treasurer’s Report by Emmett, seconded by Jane. Passes. Approve =6, Abstain = 1. $33,147.29 in CDs, $792.63 in Savings, $880.43in Checking for a total of $34,820.35 of the May 31, 2020 Balance.

Elections

Discussion at length of how to handle elections included: Problems with Zoom/Survey Monkey, the need for temporary change of the bylaws, to ensure RNOs response and follow ups with outreach. INC needs a quorum of 20 responses from RNO delegates to make vote official. Jane Lorimer and Maggie will create the election process.

Maggie made a motion to make a temporary change to bylaws electronically; seconded by Jane P. Motion passed: Approve=8, Abstain = 1.

** Election process and communications sent to delegates following the June meeting are included at the end **

Current Board who wish to run for positions

President: Loretta who is current VP

Secretary: Blair (Incumbent)

Three open Directors- At-Large seats:, Emmett, Maggie, Jane P. (Incumbents running for second term)

Notes: President can appoint the Vice-President from pool of delegates

Nominations from outside the Board were solicited with deadline July 5

Steve made a motion to approve that new members after the February 28th date specified in bylaws are not included into ballots for the election; seconded by Loretta. Motion passed unanimously.

** new members defined as those who were not paid up by February 28th

Recommended future bylaw change to read instead of specifying February 28th…. “the last business day of the month preceding the annual election.”

New Business

Discussion on Black Lives Matters!, Race and Antiracism and how INC will be involved. George asks the board to internally look at “Where are my prejudices?” INC will start a dialogue with a small committee to address race and speaking sessions. Resources for the public will include books, videos, YouTubes, people/change-makers in the community to capitalize on network.

Resource Suggestions

Evicted

The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Fruitvale Station

The Devil in the Grove

White Fragility

https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/PPC-state-fact-sheet-Colorado.pdf

Tulsa Riots movie 1921

Shinook Foundation

Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus | JSTOR Daily – https://daily.jstor.org/institutionalized-racism-a-syllabus/

Meeting adjourned 8:30pm

Subsequent Actions

Treasury

Steve Nissen resigned as Treasurer June 20. George asked for a motion to approve Greg Sorenson as Treasurer on June 23 via email voting. Maggie made a motion; Drew seconded. Approve=7, Abstain = 2. Motion passed.

Zoning and Planning Committee

ZAP presented a request to approve sending the following letter to the delegates. Approve=8, Disapprove=1. Motion Passed.

TO: INC DELEGATES

FROM: INC Board of Directors

DATE: July 7, 2020

RE: Vote required at July 18, 2020 INC meeting re Resolution passed by ZAP

PLEASE READ PROPOSED RESOLUTION AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND BE READY TO DISCUSS AND VOTE AS THERE IS A FULL AGENDA AND INC WILL BE HOLDING ELECTIONS THAT DAY

RESOLUTION FROM ZAP MEETING 6.27.2020 to be voted on 7.18.2020

INC’s Zoning and Planning Committee, having held a meeting and discussion regarding the latest proposal to amend Article 11 of the Denver Zoning Code (referred to as the Group Living Amendments), hereby recommends that:

• Denver de-bundle the household definition portion of the proposal and the residential care portion of the proposal

• Denver not move forward on the new household definition portion of the Text Amendment without a concurrent regulation creating a Rental Registry. Such a Registry (under Excise & Licensing) could require registration, licensing, inspection of all properties being used as rentals.

• Denver rethink, and make mandatory, outreach by Community Planning & Development (CPD) to minority communities, to persons not active in RNOs or receiving communication from RNOs or through social media, to the broader community not reached in the four town halls, and to renters, so as to proactively gather input from all corners of the City. INC also strongly recommends that CPD be required to include black, indigenous, and people of color and renters in full discussion for every planning initiative and for work on all proposed text amendments.

Background: At the June 27, 2020 virtual Zoning & Planning Committee (ZAP) meeting, there was extensive discussion regarding:

• formation of the Group Living Advisory Committee (GLAC),

• the process followed by Community Planning & Development (CPD) for outreach in this process and other planning processes

• composition of, and participation/voting by, the Group Living Advisory Committee,

• the complexity of the proposed citywide Zoning Code Changes and divergence of opinion on elements of proposal

• potential unintended consequences of these amendments

The June 27, 2020 meeting can be accessed on the INC YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/eoOkVmWBedU The first hour of the meeting featured Neighborhood Inspection Services but discussion might be of interest as it addressed impacts of Group Living proposals. The Group Living discussion begins at Minute 00:57:18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoOkVmWBedU&list=UUd9nLOqSyWj3BBun1-kYzBg&index=1&t=3438s.

Proposed changes to both the number of unrelated people per housing unit and to the Code regulations for residential care (includes assisted living, shelters, community corrections) are still evolving. The official proposed Text Amendment will be issued and noticed to Registered Neighborhood Organizations on July 17^th or thereabouts. This official proposed Text Amendment is called the Redline, because the Redline takes Article 11 of the Denver Zoning Code and –in red ink – crosses out portions or the code and inserts new code language. It is difficult for ZAP or any RNO to take a position on this complex group of changes to the Denver Zoning Code (still not final) until the Redline is issued.

The current estimated timeline is that the Redline will be released July 17, and Planning Board scheduled for mid-August. Although only two weeks’ notice to RNOs is required, CPD is providing 30-day review period, a courtesy that INC was instrumental in obtaining, and which provides more time to review text amendments.

The resolution was introduced by Christine O’Connor, seconded by Gertie Grant, and approved (see vote tally below). The INC Board approved forwarding the Resolution to the INC Delegates for a delegate vote at its (virtual) July 18, 2020. If approved by INC Delegates, it will be forwarded to CPD, the Planning Board, the Mayor and City Council. After the motion was made (Christine O’Connor) and seconded (Gertie Grant), discussion followed, a vote on calling the question passed, and then a vote on the proposed resolution was taken, with 12 ays, 4 nays and 2 abstentions (Joel Nobel and Sean Brady). By the time the vote was taken after two hours of meeting, approximately 20 attendees remained.

Bylaws vote and election process Email sent June 24, 2020 to qualified delegates

LOOK FOR YOUR (Bylaws Vote)
YOU WILL HAVE 5 DAYS TO COMPLETE THE SURVEY MONKEY BALLOT

As you know, due to the on-going concern to hold public gatherings, INC has delayed its annual meeting and election of the board of directors’ positions.  This year, INC will hold a multi-step process to accommodate both the Annual Meeting and election process.

Step 1: INC requests delegation approval to adjust our bylaws in order to hold the board election via electronic means (Survey Monkey).

Step 2: The election of the Board of Directors will be held prior to the Annual Meeting via Survey Monkey and results will be announced at the annual meeting.
Step3:  INC’s Annual Meeting will be held virtually via Zoom on Saturday, July 18, 2020 at 9:00 am

To accomplish this in a simple manner, the INC BOD is proposing a temporary bylaw change to Article XIII to eliminate items B.3 and B.4 for the purpose of allowing the Board election via Survey Monkey for this 2020 election. This change will allow us to send you a single ballot containing names of the candidates for each office rather than elect officers in the order currently contained in the bylaws.

 

Step 1: INC will send an invitation to vote on the temporary bylaws change. This vote will be sent as an Email invitation from INC along with a link to Survey Monkey to capture your vote.  Please monitor your email for the ballot regarding this temporary Bylaws change. 

ARTICLE XIII – ELECTIONS

ELECTIONS

A. Nominations.

Nominations shall officially be made from the floor at the annual meeting unless otherwise directed by the Board

B. Elections.

1. Elections shall be by ballot, voice, roll call, hand vote or acclamation.

2. A majority of votes cast is required to elect officers.

3. Election of officers shall take place in the following order: president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and delegates-at-large.

4. Each office shall be voted upon prior to electing subsequent offices.

5. The nominee(s) receiving the highest number of votes for delegate-at-large shall be declared as elected.

Step 2: Assuming the bylaws change is adopted, you will receive an invitation to vote for a slate of candidates via Survey Monkey; Step 3 is the Annual Meeting with election results announced.

IMPORTANT:  If you are interested in running for President, Secretary or one of the three At-Large positions for the INC Board of Directors, please email the INC Board of Directors bod@denverinc.org by July 5 so that your name can be placed on the ballot. You must currently serve as a delegate from your RNO to INC in order to run for the Board.

Email to delegates to vote on change to bylaws on June 24^th reads:

Dear INC Delegate

You are receiving this email invitation to vote on bylaw changes advised in prior emails from Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation.  Please follow the instructions below to access the ballot for voting.  Please vote by 5:00PM June 30, 2020. Results:

Total delegates who voted = 54 (quorum)

Approve 51 (94% met the two-thirds requirement for approval of change to bylaws)
Disapprove 2 (4%)

Abstain 1 (1%)

Email sent to delegates announcing Bylaw Results, Election and ZAP Resolution Announcement regarding Group Living Ordinance proposal changes on July 7^.

Election Ballot Follow up

Election invitation ballots were emailed from INC to current list of eligible delegates from member RNO’s on July 8 for vote deadline at 5PM Thursday July 16. The ballot format was setup via Survey Monkey with reminder email only to those who have not responded as of July 14. Candidates who had submitted by the July 5 deadline were listed. There were none beyond incumbents who submitted. There was no write in added since we stated a deadline for nominations in previous communications.