At the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council’s monthly meeting on Wednesday, August 12, the board spent the majority of its time debating whether or not to rescind a 2011 motion opposing a 4th Street Greenway proposal that would alter traffic control methods at the intersections of 4th and Highland, and 4th and Rossmore Aves. In the end, the board voted to let the previous opposition stand…but the discussion took so much time that the only other business the board got to that night were its necessary monthly budget votes, and a vote to confirm several recommendations of its Land Use Committee. Other items on the agenda were postponed for a continuation session that was held this week, on Wednesday, August 19.
At that meeting, returning briefly to treasury-related business, board members discussed whether or not to re-convene an Ad Hoc Budget Committee to help decide how to deal with potential budget overages and adjustments in the face of significant budget cuts this year. The motion passed by a wide margin, but a proposed amendment to make the committee permanent did not find a second, so was not voted on.
In a report from the Outreach Committee, an agendized motion to allocate $200 in funding to provide Spanish and Korean translation services for GWNC agendas also did not find a second, as it was reported that the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, which oversees the City’s Neighborhood Councils, provides this service for free.
Also in the Outreach discussion, Board Member Joseph Suh presented a motion calling for the Department of Sanitation and the City Council to provide and maintain sidewalk trash containers in high-density residential areas. But after several board members questioned where funds for the containers would come from, and whether the city should provide sidewalk trash receptacles in residential areas (where individual property owners are generally responsible for maintaining their own properties), the motion was defeated by a vote of 3 in favor, 7 opposed, and 6 abstentions.
Next, the Board voted to approve a new set of protocols for its Transportation Committee.
And a Sustainability Committee motion to support a City Council motion calling for an inventory of which city insurance vendors do business with fossil fuel companies, and a creating scoring system for that inventory, passed with 10 voted in favor, 2 opposed, and 4 abstentions.
In the final votes of the relatively short meeting, the board voted unanimously to award $500 Neighborhood Purpose Grants to the Koreatown Youth & Community Center (for personal protective equipment for its field staff) and the Anderson-Munger YMCA (to help pandemic-related food distrbution efforts). The minutes of the Ad Hoc Neighborhood Purpose Grants Committee, which chose the grant recipients from a larger pool of applicants, were also approved.
The next meeting of the GWNC board will be held on Wednesday, September 9, 2020, at 7:00 p.m., via Zoom.
