Thank You, Thank You, Thank You...

...To Lisa Gladstone and Dr. Milt Owens who provided a warm and inviting location for Saturday's informational meeting on the Zone 2 Draft Environmental Impact Report.

...To Jim Knight who provided background, information, explanations, ideas about and insight into the report.

...And to all our neighbors who turned out for the meeting and asked questions, provided information and expressed enthusiastic interest in our community and its future. More people showed up for the meeting than I've seen in the last two years at the monthly Board meetings!

More information, including important points to consider in the E.I.R., will be coming out of that meeting in the next day or two. Watch this space.

Until then, a reminder: Final written comments on the draft E.I.R. are due by 5 p.m. November 20. That is 10 days from now. If you have not already written to the City Council, start organizing your ideas now.

The document is here:  http://www.palosverdes.com/rpv/planning/Zone_2_Landslide_Moratorium/EIR.cfm  If you don't want to read the entire document, at least read the summary. When writing to the City Council about this, remember to relate your comments directly to specific points in the E.I.R.

Finally, there is a new communication tool only for residents of Portuguese Bend. Check it out  here: https://portuguesebend.nextdoor.com/join

Confused About the E.I.R? Saturday Meeting Should Help

The Zone 2 Draft Environmental Impact Report has been available for some time. If you have not seen it, it's here: http://www.palosverdes.com/rpv/planning/Zone_2_Landslide_Moratorium/EIR.cfm  It's huge and it's technical and for the average person (me), understanding all the jargon about geology and hydrology is a major challenge. 

So why bother? Well, if you live in Portuguese Bend, it affects you. So it really would be smart to have some understanding of what it says. You can make things a little easier on yourself by downloading the executive summary and plowing through that. But even that is a hard read.

The PBCA Board held a Town Meeting several weeks ago and fewer than two dozen residents showed up to hear a presentation by an RPV planner.  The RPV City Council heard citizen comments on the document last night.

But many people still have questions.

So this Saturday, November 10,  everyone  can get answers and hear ideas at a  3 p.m. meeting at 18 Cinnamon Lane where Lisa Gladstone has offered to host the event. 

Jim Knight, a Bend resident as well as former Planning Commissioner and incumbent RPV City Council member has agreed to lead the discussion. He really knows the ropes  and we're lucky to have him in our community.

All residents are welcome to attend and bring their ideas and ask questions. Those who already have written to the city regarding the document are asked to bring their letters to share. 

And Lisa has asked those who come to bring a lawn chair. We hope it will be crowded.

See you Saturday, I hope!

There's an OOPS In Our PBCA Election

At the January  PBCA Board Meeting, an association member announced that she had told a member of the nominating committee that she wanted to run for the Board in the upcoming election, but, she pointed out, her name was not on the ballot, which had arrived in most members' mailboxes that day, along with annual reports and an annual financial report.

The reason for the omission was not clear, but might have been related to the fact that the usual procedures for conducting an election were not followed this year. Ordinarily, the Board names a nominating committee in December and sends information about the upcoming election to all association members immediately afterward. This mailing normally includes information about dates for applying to run for office as well as forms to fill out and filing instructions for potential candidates.  Once the cut-off date has passed, ballots are compiled and mailed to all members well in advance of the February annual meeting, at which time all ballots are counted and election results are announced.

None of that happened this year. 

There was an announcement on the two community bulletin boards that the annual meeting would be delayed until March because of a problem with the annual financial report.

An announcement giving the names of nominating committee members was posted on the bulletin boards several weeks before the ballots arrived in the mail.  In fact, that notice was still up on the bulletin boards the day the ballots arrived.

In view of all this confusion, the board decided at the January meeting to have a "do over."

In response to my inquiries, an email from Board Chairman Bob Cumby, received last Friday said: "The repeat nominating/election process is in motion.  A community notice will go out as soon as the dates are set.  Tentative date for the Annual Meeting is April 17.  Nomination mailings will go out today or tomorrow."

If you have had second thoughts about running for the board, you now have a second chance.

If you have already voted--sorry; you get to vote again later.

If you have not voted yet--don't worry. That first ballot is no good anyway. Pitch it, but save the annual reports. 

Mark your calendar for April 17, tentatively, for the PBCA Annual Meeting and election.

Watch for new election information in your mailbox.

Does Anyone Know What's Going On Here?

The members of the Portuguese Bend Board of Directors are our neighbors, all of whom have volunteered to do the jobs in our community that need doing; additionally, they all have busy private lives, and they are trying hard to be of service to our community, and so, out of respect for that and a desire to "get along," I have bitten my tongue and remained silent. 

For too long.

Even though I have been to almost every board meeting for the last two years,  looking back, I realize that I have very little idea of what is going on, for a variety of reasons. 

First: it is hard to keep track of the players. Over the last couple of years three board members--Casey Porter, Mike Cooper and Tim Kelly...resigned. The remaining board members chose to replace them with Suzanne Black-Griffith, Joan McClellan and Bob Cumby. By and large, these replacements arrived unannounced and un-introduced until, at one meeting, a resident asked who was who and what was going on.

Second: It is often difficult to follow the board discussions. At the February board meeting, I thought perhaps I was going completely deaf until someone behind me called out, "Are we supposed to be able to hear you?" The response was something to the effect that the board was meeting and we were guests and guests would be heard from at the end of the meeting. The four board members in attendance did not make any attempt to raise their voices and thus, most of their discussion was unintelligible to many in the audience. 

Third:  The first part of every meeting is devoted to architectural committee business which always is confusing for a variety of reasons.  In the first place, the committe membership changes from month to month. Most recently it appears to consist of Bob Halderman, Gordon Leon, Mike Cooper and Kim Nelson, who hasn't been there since it was announced that she has returned to the group.  Additionally, the meeting consists of conversation about addresses, names, private conversations with builders and building progress, which are unfamiliar, at least to me. 

Fourth: The architectural meeting is followed by the regular board meeting, which begins with board members each reading a copy of the minutes silently and approving them. Copies of the minutes of both the architectural committee and the board are unavailable for audience members. Copies of architectural committee minutes never have been available. However, up until five meetings ago, a few copies of the board minutes and the financial report were available for the first few community members who showed up. Apparently, at the one meeting I missed, the board voted to discontinue this practice as a cost cutting measure. Two months ago, I asked if perhaps the secretary could email me a copy of the minutes. I was assured that she would. Nothing was forthcoming. It isn't clear to me why copies of the minutes could not be emailed to everyone in the community with one click of a computer key. If anyone knows why this is impossible, please enlighten me.

The same goes for the financial report. Minimal at best, because it has never included a check register to show who got what, it at least showed how much money was spent in various categories. Copies of it are no longer available either. Couldn't that be emailed to?

Fifth: There is little or no communication between the board and the community. In December, in anticipation of elections at the February general meeting, several people volunteered to be on the nominating committee. No announcement of the appointments, nor any announcement of board positions that would be open followed. 

Two days ago, a notice appeared on community bulletin boards telling residents that three positions are open on the board and anyone who wants to apply should contact Tim Kelly. Just how to do this is unclear.

And then today, an email message from Bob Cumby that is making the rounds, explained that the nominating committee has found people to fill the spots on the board. Evidently this happened BEFORE the general notice went up. I feel as if I came in on the middle of the movie and missed the most important clue as to who did what to whom.

The same bulletin board notice tells us that the General Meeting will be delayed a month because of the fire, which cut short the January board meeting, as well as a change in our Certified Public Accountant. Who knew? Does anyone know why that happened?

Does this mean we will have a February meeting of the board? Or nothing until March?

Another example of a communication problem involves the upcoming Palos Verdes Art Center Homes Tour in Portuguese Bend. At least one resident is up in arms because Jim York has applied for a Conditional Use Permit for his Event Center so that the Art Association can have a luncheon there for people who buy tickets for the tour.  Representatives of the Homes Tour approached the Board at least a year ago, and subsequently made a presentation at a Board meeting during which they explained how they proposed to conduct the tour in our community.  Several PBCA members went on last year's tour to get a better idea of how it worked, and reported back that they were very impressed with the organization of the event, security and the entire operation. At that time, the Board approved the request. 

But no one told the community members about the decision. Too bad.

No one told community members when the Board voted to raise the assessments five per cent for the coming year, either.

In the past we had a newsletter. 

Later, we had a web site. 

Then we had occasional emails.

Now, we have nothing. 

Does anyone care?