001Mr chairwoman uh we're ready to begin whenever you're ready to begin good afternoon and welcome to the Surplus property committee uh meeting on June July 26th I'd like to call the meeting to order at 5 PM and and really quickly before we jump to roll call I just wanted to clarify something on the agenda um so we have both items 4.1 and 5.1 items um item 4.1 is the uh the time for public comment and then 5.1 is the public hearing I just wanted to clarify for those that are here that have submitted public comments you may be asking which one should I be speaking during um so the first one you're free so again if it's on the agenda or not on the agenda but it's within the purview of the committee you're free
002to speak during that time if you would prefer if it's about the draft report specifically we would prefer that you do it um under 5.1 as a part of the public hearing but it's really up to you whichever item you would um you would prefer to speak during just just want to clarify thank you thank you for clearing that buying that for me okay and we'll move on to roll call Richard Brown Stephen Castro absent cortisone here Edward holdback here Vanessa Jones president Johnny Liu present Hector Miranda president Terry manjaraz here Sam Perdomo president Karen rugley absent Lori Ray she is on her way oh I'm sorry Karen is on her way Lori Ray is absent we will move on to you 3.0 approval of the minutes from the um Surplus property committee meeting held
003on June 21st can I get a motion for the approval of the minutes I make a motion to approve yeah can I get a second thank you all in favor say aye aye all opposed is there any discussion the motion carries [Music] we will now move on to 4.0 public comments do we have any public comments okay we had one blue card if you had a blue card would you like to speak thank you good afternoon up to the podium keep going up to the podium foreign yes and please state your name my name is Tom Devore um I'm kind of nervous right now I don't like talking in front of a lot of people I live near um that Memorial Park and Slauson School and they've closed the school I understand there are a
004lot of schools that are being closed and basically you got to figure out what you're going to do with the property um okay okay gotta figure out what to do with the property last week um at the at the park they had a music at the park thing go on I saw both baseball fields filled with um uh children you know the young young kids learning to go and play football and that's in both of the baseball fields with the fence going through it and I can't count how many times I've seen uh small children learning how to play soccer with uh you know little soccer teams can't play on the baseball diamond because there's baseball going there and the little league is going there and so they're they were playing on the grass in
005front of the uh the music stand and that and um it would really be nice I think if there was some way to go and take some of the property that the school property and turn it over to the parks for um soccer fields or uh the pickleball and you know um being that Slauson is right next to the park that would be a good use of the land right there that you could do um I know that Sacramento's has certain requirements that they want us to do and that's going to weigh heavily on what happens the property um but when you sell the property it's gone this is an asset that you have now and once you sell it it's gone there's no way you're going to get back that kind of space again
006later on um I just wanted to go on give my two cents worth I don't have an answer but you know if there was just some way that we could go and and uh use that property for something else now rather than spend it all and lose it thank you and you said that was the only blue card Mr chairwoman do we want to check uh online do we have anybody online we have no hands raised on Zoom okay thank you we'll move on to item 5.0 which is the public hearing at this time how do we there how do we do that okay so uh we'll just do the official like opening of the hearing um so we'll open the hearing officially at um 507 and if there's anyone that would like to speak
007during the during the public hearing now would be the time okay um yeah feel free to go to the podium did you have a comment card with you as well oh okay okay um I'll just have you pass that on to Hope just so we just so we have that information um yes yes we'll do the three minutes hi um my name is Liz van alstein okay my name is Melissa and Olson I'm calling in regards or talking regards to Ellington school and specifically um it is our neighborhood to where there's only two entrances into the complex of residential housing so that makes uh traffic getting to the school was reasonable since most of the kids did go to that school um if you were to sell the practice or property which I understand there's
008no kids around my concern is that what's going to go there to where there's again only two entrances into that area one does have a signal now that a little girl got killed because crossing the street um the other one does not have a just a stop line to go exit there is no sidewalks except at the entrance of clydebank to the school otherwise there is no sidewalks except around the school itself there is no street lights that we live in the county to where there's no street lights um there's most of the um streets are fairly short but the one from clydebank that goes all the way down it's a speed increaser to where you're you know residential should be 25 miles per hour it is not it's good 35 even 40 and the
009same thing on my street which is mass line um complained to the police they put strips and of course strips slows people down so no they don't see your problem but if you are having to sell it speed bumps in these long streets is a must sidewalks so we do feel safe so pretty much that's in a nutshell you know need to take those considerations of what you're going to put in there high density is not going to work because it just increases that much traffic unless you find another way to find an entrance and exit out of that area thank you if somebody else would like to come up is there anybody online yes we do have one hand raised on soon oh yes we can hear you okay great um hi everyone my
010name is anel and I all excuse me I also um am tuning in today to learn more about what's going to happen with the Surplus property specifically Ellington and like the person that was previously speaking I'm also really concerned about what your plans are to do with that property um as the person before me dated um you know we don't have sidewalks we don't have street lights and there's only two areas to come out of so I guess I'm mostly concerned if that property is sold and converted into I guess multiple housing facilities that's my biggest concern because the amount of traffic I mean if you ever come to Ellington in the afternoon that's where everybody in the neighborhood goes out for walks takes their kids off for walks you know the kids ride their
011bikes so I guess I'm I'm really concerned about losing that as a safe space for people around the neighborhood to walk around and enjoy with their families um I haven't heard about anything or where the committee is leaning towards or where the recommendations are going um so that's why I'm here and I guess really hoping that you're taking all of these concerns into consideration as you as you move on to the next step thank you we do have one additional hand raised on Zoom James you may unmute your mic thank you hi everyone my name is James Corte Rivera I miss you to share some information um as you make your decisions um I'm a member of the safe clean water program uh it's an L.A County program that funds storm water capture projects that
012we also do a lot of school greenings and the goal really is to create open spaces for communities that have several benefits of course the primary one is capture water which you know increases our local water supply but also provide benefits for residents including Open Spaces parks areas to walk in and so as you make your decision uh know that there are lots and lots of funds in L.A County um particularly if you want to redo some of these campuses we remove concrete for example plant in more trees make it more accessible to communities uh and so my thought is not necessarily about selling or not selling but how you can transform these schools into local community hubs one of our offices my agency is uh and an old elementary school I used to be
013an elementary school the Jeff Seymour family center now and that old elementary school closed and it became a community center each classroom now is occupied by a different non-profit it's also a community park people come in the afternoons they take care of the gardens and it's created a really really great community and so that's another opportunity too that I see to make it sort of a community center Hub um and really kind of open it up for for the community if you have any questions you can just kind of um look up say the Clean Water program La there's several committees that work in different regions I work in this region and you can just find our info online and that's it on mind thank you do we have any more we have one more
014hand raise on Zoom I apologize give me just one second you may meet your mic can you hear me yes we can hear you okay allowing me to speak um I live near Powell Elementary they don't have a lot of things to say but whenever the whatever the committee decided to do um I would suggest that you know these Surplus centers and facilities and facilities and location will just be continued to use for the educational purposes yeah you know could be anything but um but I don't like to see more residential um housing units dwellings and things like that I think we have enough in the Tucson already so um please consider continue using these facilities for educational purposes after school um homework centers or more Health Centers and so on and it's been some
015of the number of business organization you can partner with unfortunately thank you if you can come up to the podium so we can all hear um yes just feel free to go up to the podium like a comment or same same process my name is Joan Hamrick and I've been living on clydebank for about 35 years now so um I was told that um Alice Ellington left that school with the stipulation that it or left the property there a stipulation that it say that it'd be a school so was there some type of a time limit on that that allows us to change that to housing now so we know your your comment we you know it's not really the Forum to respond to questions directly but we certainly know the the comment is a
016part of the record and a part of the public hearing okay all right well I am concerned about traffic coming in and out of there um and what they're going to use that for if that's going to be multiple housing I mean people coming and going in the morning and in the afternoon coming back from work and we only have the two inlets and Outlets to get into the neighborhood that's going to make things uh unless they can you know put in more lights and put more of these sidewalks around and you know it's it's uh doesn't seem like it's gonna be very comfortable I guess so anyway thank you hi my name is Janet Leasing and I just have a question and again I know you said this is not a forum for you
017to respond but I didn't know if there was also part of this plan say you do sell the excess property is there a plan in place on how that money is going to be allocated or does a certain amount have to be forwarded to the state or is that money that is kept within the district that you could then apply to all of the remaining schools in the area so I just wasn't sure how that works when you sell that excess property so I don't know how as far as an answer is that something that would be addressed online in any sort of minutes or something like that at a later Point yeah so so I will say there has been some discussion of that in the current or the past operations of the committee
018we've um they they have talked about the use of surplus or the use of the revenue from the Surplus property um it is also addressed in some ways within the report itself so they did provide some recommendations um for the board with regard to the use of those revenues um so I would say those those are good places to go for um yes is the report then is that something we could go online you have it all posted online right now it is yeah because part of the agenda and I'm certainly happy to give you a copy right now as well and and also just to clarify um all of the meetings of the committee are posted on YouTube so you're free to watch those at any time to see those discussions and what's been
019discussed in the development of the report that we have here um no so all of the operations of the committee each of the meetings that they have had have been open to the public that's a good question yeah because this is when we're having a public hearing specifically I just wanted to know as well that the report is also attached um as an attachment for the agenda that was posted for tonight so it's it's also available there for the public for anyone that's not here currently but still wants to review hi my name is Jeanette fruta and I represent a non-profit called Mariposa Alliance um we were looking specifically for a property to share with other non-profits our program is directed at um youth within the ages between 16 and 24 who are interested in
020doing a type of apprenticeship program either construction or solar or hospitality and so when we thought when we saw that these schools were um what kind of empty so we're thinking along the lines of Mr Rivera and um joining up with other non-profits to share the property so we'll hopefully can continue a conversation and uh I look forward to hopefully having the opportunity to be part of that thank you Miss Sanchez you may I meet your Mike hi thank you for the opportunity to speak today my name is Margaret Sanchez I live near the Ellington campus off of Lark Ellen and uh just want to Echo some of the same concerns that some previous commenters in my neighborhood have brought up the fact that we only have two entrances into our neighborhood and traffic is
021already can already be an issue getting in and out um I'd also uh like to mention again that we don't have sidewalks here um it's not very accessible and um would also like to bring up the fact that these properties are meant for the enrichment of the community and children specifically in our neighborhood and something that I would like to hear addressed is how what is the plan to continue providing space and opportunities for children parks uh you know facilities Community facilities um a lot of the other properties in our area have been sold off in our gigantic town homes and our neighborhood really cannot absorb something like that thank you thank you do we have any other public comments online or in person we have no additional hands raised on Zoom okay so with
022that we'll do an official closing of the public hearing at 5 25. thank you okay at this time we'll move on to item 6.0 our action items item 6.1 is review and adopt findings and recommendations of the Surplus property committee and adopt final Surplus property committee report okay so the uh the draft report that we've talked about as the committee was made available as a part of the agenda um and this is the time if there's any additional comments from the committee or suggestions or changes or anything about the report that we think need to be made um this is the time to have that that particular conversation or if we're happy with the content of the report um we can also approve the findings and recommendations within and then we'll go on to approve
023the the entirety of the report itself um and I'll just remind um we had a our last meeting was really a deep dive into the content of the findings and recommendations we made changes to the the words you use the sentence structure the recommendations and the substance itself um and so all of those changes have been Incorporated and then brought back to the committee in the draft form that the agenda is in now Maybe like the time yeah in the minutes okay okay great great I'm glad we clarified is there any discussion about the about the report from the committee uh yeah I mean the only thing I can say is thank you so much for you know bringing us through this journey of making this report um just to kind of appease people in
024here I hope you get a chance to read the report um as a member of the committee um we were tasks on whether or not these properties were going to be Surplus that's really the one thing that we were asked to do um and then the the school board will then later on you know move from there and so I think reading this it gives enough flexibility and I really love that it gives some really good guidance and so I I would approve and thank you so much for that yeah great thank you I would also I would also add that I think when you look at the recommendation thinking about the comments that were made today I just returned back to point three which says that we desire to give the Board of Education
025the necessary flexibility um looking at things like neighborhood preferences and Aesthetics thank you surrounding amenities and access land value existing zoning General plan designations so I think as a committee we're trying to be as open and flexible recognizing what the the land looks like and the access um that that even the schools had in these areas and so I think as a committee we're trying to be considerate of what the neighborhoods would look like what works best in those neighborhoods but ultimately as Mr Liu recommended and said that's not our determination to make our determination is just to say that this is in fact a surplus School District or a school and that the district has the ability to do with it what is needed thank you does anybody have any anything else in the
026committee okay um so we'll take a vote on the findings and recommendations for the committee to officially adopt uh the content of the report okay can I get a motion for the for the um to adopt the findings and recommendations of the Surplus property um committee I moved I'm I moved to adopt the uh findings and recommendations of the Surplus property committee and adopt the final Surplus property committee report can I get a second second I'm all in favor say aye aye all opposed any discussion the motion carries moving on to item 6.2 which is to appoint representatives to present final Surplus property committee report to the board of education and discuss presentation of final Surplus property committee report to the Board of Education yes um so the next step in this process is for
027the committee to present it's it's um full report um in final with the recommendations and findings for the board of education so that the board can can officially receive and review those those recommendations that have come from the committee um so at this point we um you know can discuss really the logistics of that there are a number of different ways that committees have gone about doing that particular type of presentation for the board um sometimes they just send the chairperson sometimes there's a you know two or three committee members that would like to be there to do the presentation of the report um there's a separate item that gets agendas at the board meeting and then the committee uh you know one or multiple like representatives from the committee are there to do the
028presentation um some have wanted to do a full PowerPoint some are perfectly happy to just present the report and provide a really brief summary of the findings and the operation of the committee over over their meetings um so really up to the committee as to how you want to structure it but we do need to to adopt at least one person that is going to be there to present the committee report at the board meeting on August 8th ask a question does the school board tend to have a preference or is there a preference from the district on how they would like this material presented to the school board don't want to speak specifically for the board but I would say um somewhere between here you go and like you know something extensive I think
029the committee has done an exceptional job over the course of the last months to come where we are at and so I think I think we owe it to ourselves or you owe it to yourselves to be able to highlight the work that you did and so I do think it's proper uh and appropriate to to present uh something to the Board of Education [Music] and I was just going to suggest if it's at all helpful the structure I see most often is we have the chairperson and at least one or two other people that are there they they usually do a brief um a brief summary you know we we were a few members of of the uh the 11 members on the committee you know we met on these dates um this is
030our report that we desire to present um for the board and then a brief summary of the findings and recommendations you don't have to read them verbatim right but just you know summary of really the the intent and the substance there and that's that's really all that's needed on that day I'm the chairperson so let's go with that I'm okay with that and just to clarify that is a Tuesday and you said it what time um I believe the board meeting started oh at seven chairperson do you have a preference I am capable of making a PowerPoint but I'm in a visual aid I am capable of doing that I'm also capable of just summarizing um and reading aloud I think sounds right and if somebody would come with me that'd be great I'm I'm
031certainly also happy to help with the PowerPoint if you think it's necessary um otherwise I I think it's perfectly acceptable to just do a an oral presentation of the material um I do think if there's one other person that would like to to also be there to represent that would be lovely I would love to go I can also be present thank you great great can we be in the audience yes I have a question uh may I assume that the board of education has seen or will see the dcg presentation yes so um at the same time or just about the same time that you all saw the presentation from dcg the board also saw a very similar presentation so they they we've been kind of keeping them up to date about the content
032of those things throughout the operation of the committee um but dcg will also be appearing at a at a future um future board study session I believe to to give additional information to the board and to answer additional questions that they have now that we're at this part of the process thank you yeah so we should we should formally appoint those three individuals to be on the subcommittee that's doing the presentation of the report to the to the board is there specific wording settings yeah yeah so um you can you can like you can self a point if you'd like to or someone can move to um to have someone else on the committee have that position that's totally that's fine foreign Vanessa Jones Karen Redlands okay um to present to the board okay and
033can we get a second on that motion great all right so we've appointed our three members sorry all in favor are there any opposed okay great so we have our three members appointed to present uh the final report to the board of education and we'll move on to our next item okay we'll move on to uh 7.0 which is approval of date for presentation of the final committee report 7.1 um this action item so can well I'm going to restate it sorry um 7.1 is approval of date for presentation of final Surplus property committee report to be presented to the board of education on August 8th 2023. can I get emotion I move that the approval date for the presentation of the final Surplus property committee report be presented to the board of education on
034August 8 2023. can I get a second I said it all in favor aye all opposed any discussion the motion carries at this time we'll move on to adjournment um can I get a motion to adjourn this meeting at 5 37. I motion to adjourn the meeting at 5 37 pm can I get a second second all in favor aye all opposed any discussion the motion carries thank you foreign