HomeMy WebLinkAboutFebruary 12TOWN OF LOS ALTOS HILLS
Community Relations Committee
Tuesday, February 12 1213, 7:30PM
Chair Barbara Waldeck called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m. on Tuesday, February 12, 1213.
Members present were Barbara Waldeck, Roger Burnell, Barbara Cannon, Karen Emerzian, and
Ron Knapp. Associate member Roy Woolsey was present. Sarah Gualtieri, Town Staff Liaison
and Courtenay Corrigan, Council Liaison also attended the meeting.
Introduction of Members of the Public
Karen Drucker, Art Curator, Richard Lee, Town Finance Manager and Mansour Moussavian
attended the meeting.
Review of Committee Minutes of November 13, 2012 Meeting
The date of the picnic was corrected in the minutes of the November meeting. They were
approved unanimously as corrected on a motion by Roger Burnell and seconded by Barbara
Cannon.
Appointment of Associate Members for 2013:
Bill Downey, Jamie Lucia, Bob Mabe, Linda Seidel, Marc Sidel and Roy Woolsey were
appointed Associate Members for 2013 on a motion by Roger Burnell seconded by Barbara
Cannon and approved unanimously. Later in the meeting Mansour Moussavian was appointed an
Associate Member on a motion by Barbara Cannon, seconded by Ron Knapp.
Introduction of New Business
Agenda Item 10 was moved to the beginning of the meeting. Barbara Waldeck began the
discussion by saying that the Committee had been asked to formulate a policy for the Town
concerning the acceptance of gifts, particularly memorial gifts and artwork. Sarah Gualtieri
reported that Town Staff is working on putting up some new sections of the Tile Donor Wall
since many residents have asked about donating a tile. Karen Drucker explained that the problem
of a policy on gifts had arisen because Mr. Sharma, a long-time Town resident, had approached
her wanting to donate a piece of sculpture in memory of his late wife. Since accepting his
generous offer would establish a precedent, it was deemed necessary to implement a policy.
Karen stressed that any artwork would have to be tasteful and well done. She felt that a person or
a committee needs to work in conjunction with residents to produce appropriate artwork. There
are many places that could be enhanced with artwork such as the lobby of Town Hall or in front
of Town Hall along the road. Roger Burnell made a motion that an ad hoc sub committee be
formed to draft general guidelines for accepting gifts offered to the town to be completed within
two weeks to present to the Council at their February 28th meeting. He offered to Chair the ad
hoc committee. His motion was seconded by Karen Emerzian and passed unanimously. Karen
Drucker and Barbara Waldeck will assist with the guidelines. It was suggested that some of the
surrounding towns be queried as to their policies on accepting gifts.
Barbara Waldeck reported on her interaction with Foothill College. Judy Miner, President of
Foothill/DeAnza, and Gary Waldeck, Mayor of Los Altos Hills, asked her to meet with Laura
Woodworth, Associate Director of the Foothill/DeAnza Foundation, to see what could be done to
enhance relations between Foothill and Town residents. Together they came up with three
suggestions. First, Foothill College will have a column in each issue of “Our Town” to inform
residents of what is happening at the College and of events they can attend. Second, we will
work to set up a lecture series to be presented quarterly in Council Chambers on topics that might
be of interest to Town residents. And, third, Barbara Waldeck informed Laura that there was an
opportunity to request grant money from the Town each July. Laura will make an application this
year for money to help students who can’t afford them buy textbooks.
Review of City Council meeting:
Courtenay Corrigan could not think of anything that came up at the January Council meeting that
would affect our committee.
Comments by Members of the Public:
Richard Lee explained that he was not attending the meeting as Finance Manager but as a student
pursuing a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. His project is to find ways of increasing
citizen participation in local government. He would like to interview members of the committee.
We were all happy to help and hoped that in the process Richard would come up with some
suggestions we could implement.
Subcommittee Reports:
New Resident Outreach:
Jane Kawasaki, who offered to take over from Roy Woolsey the job of getting the names of new
residents from Green Waste Recovery and delivering labels to the Town to use in sending them
welcome letters, has found that she does not have the time to do this. Barbara Waldeck said the
Town Staff has taken over this chore. It seems more efficient to eliminate the middleman.
2013 Picnic – June 2, 2013
Entertainment: Roger Burnell has arranged to hire Mike Stroud, the magician we had in 2005
to entertain us again. He will perform a 30 – 40 minute magic show and do ½ hour of strolling
magic before the show to drum up interest. He will charge $500, the same price he charged in
2005, and he will need a stage. Roger also reported that he has been in touch with Nick Golden
of Stars and Stripes. He has agreed to provide us with the train in addition to inflatables. Roger
will work with him on which inflatables and the price. We would like the dunk tank again if the
weather is good and we would like the large obstacle course.
Music: Ron Knapp has been in touch with the San Jose Metropolitan Band. He will try to
reserve them for the picnic and report back at the March meeting. They will need a 20’ by 30’
stage but probably won’t need amplification. The question of ASCAP fees was raised but Roger
and Ron pointed out that since no money is exchanged at the picnic we do not have to pay
royalties.
Drinks: Ron Knapp will handle this again. He would like some help with the soda. He
wondered if it would be easier to have a soda machine instead of cans of soda. Barbara Waldeck
thought that this would create more lines for drinks as you could only serve one person at a time.
Courtenay Corrigan offered to donate 4 cases of local red wine and said she would like to make
sangria. Both offers were gratefully accepted. Ron will have an estimate for stem less wine
glasses for the March meeting. He thought 1000 glasses would be plenty. If we run out, we run
out.
Games: Jamie Lucia will handle the games. She has been in touch with Nick French, who ran
the games last year, and has already planned what games will be offered.
Food: Roy Woolsey reported that the Fire Fighters are taking the year off. Barbara Waldeck has
been in touch with several alternatives. Armadillo Willy’s will provide food for $12 per person
but do not seem to be able to provide a vegetarian option. Le Boulanger will provide a sandwich,
potato chips and a pickle for $7 per person. This option would eliminate the need for us to
provide plates, napkins and utensils. Subway will provide a similar meal for slightly less. Ron
Knapp suggested letting people make their own sandwiches from cold cuts. This suggestion was
eliminated for many reasons. Ron also thought that we should contact Togo’s and Chef Chu to
see what they can provide. Barbara Waldeck will do this and we will make a decision at our
March meeting. Whatever we decide will have to be included in the picnic flyer that will need to
go to the printer in early April.
Ice Cream: Marc Sidel will not be able to handle the ice cream this year since his wife is having
a baby about the same time as the picnic. Mansour Moussavian said he loves ice cream and will
take over from Marc. Courtenay Corrigan said that a new ice cream store is opening in Los
Altos. She thought we ought to contact them as well as Baskin Robbins.
Dottie the Clown and Wendy of Neverland Faces: Sarah Gualtieri has a contract in hand for
Dottie. She will ask Wendy if she would like to do face painting again this year without a tip jar.
Climbing Wall: Sarah Gualtieri has a contract with Mobile Rock in hand. She will complete it.
The cost is, once again, $800.
Bookmobile: The Bookmobile would be welcome to set up at the picnic again. Currently, it is
stopping at Gardner Bullis every other Friday.
Car Show: Bill Downey and Bob Mabe have offered to be in charge of the Car Show again this
year.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Waldeck, Chair