April 2025 Community Meeting

Type of meeting: 
Community
Meeting date: 
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Status: 
DRAFT

  1. Welcome/Announcements

  • Sincere thanks to Chris Conlon for organizing Opening Day cookout 

  • Also thanks to those who joined me on the neighborhood walkthrough with Forestry. The City has agreed to remove all stumps throughout the neighborhood this summer, and to plant trees in the empty tree pits this fall 2025.

  • First Friday Happy Hour will be at Pickett Brewing (1130 S Paca Street) at 5:30 PM on April 4th, with craft beer, wine tasting featuring The Wine Collective and Sparked Together, live music from Sarah Larsen, and Taste 410 food truck.

  1. Quorum/Conflict of Interest Statement – Nicole read statement

Nicole Dungee read the following “Conflict of Interest Statement”

“As I announced last month, going forward, I’ll begin meetings with a Conflict of Interest Statement.  

A conflict of interest means having a relationship that could impair (or could be perceived to impair) your impartiality with a given topic, or when a person’s duty to one group conflicts with their duty or responsibility to another.  This could include having other interests or relationships, like in a competing organizations, financial conflicts, or otherwise.  

A competing neighborhood association was registered with the city in February. The RDA Board of Directors determined at that time that being the founder or involved in the formation of the competing association or a leading member (i.e, chairs or leaders of committees) with the North RD Action Committee is a conflict of interest. I respectfully ask those individuals to recuse themselves from voting and discussions. 

Does anyone have any conflicts to disclose for the record?”

Gerri Salley stated that a lawyer reviewed policy, says null & void, not tailored for this group, doesn’t apply, nothing in bylaws. Nicole Dungee noted the comment and for discussion at board meeting.  Everyone can attend board meeting.

Minutes for March 5, 2025

  1. Zain Islam-Hashmi, Office of the Mayor 

Speaking on officer retention, public safety, and a community survey.  

Shrinking police force.  Cannot answer demand from city – property crime, etc.  People feel like police aren’t able to reduce crime. Loss of police officers is an issue  - 127 officers left last year. 1/3 of who left had 0-5 years on force. 

Part of the project is defining the role of the police officer in the community – to do this he is visiting communities for their input. Asked residents to complete an online or paper survey. Handout provided with QR code link. Also please reach out to him with questions/concerns.

Bill Reuter asked– what are main reasons officers are leaving? Common answer is that pay is not enough for what they deal with.  Lack of respect from department.  Department makes it harder for officers to do their job – there is a lack of resources.  Also, policies have been re-written to prevent corruption in the police department – but a lot less flexibility allowed. Officers are not treated like human beings.

Paul Rubenson asked – Does city pay as well as other departments? No, county pays more. Some local jurisdictions always make their pay a certain percentage higher than Baltimore City.  Officers work overtime to make additional income -  but it creates burn out.

  1.   Proposals for $10,000 grant award through Phylicia Porter’s office. 

Presentations from community members:

  1. Gerri Salley – Tree stumps being ground, new trees.  15 tree pits north, 1 south.  City is coming to take care of.  If you have funding, you can expand small pits.  $700 per pit.  Forestry would coordinate with city for approval. Need exact number of pits/total $ needed.
     

  2. Celine Brundridge – proposed creating a community garden.  Proposal to find empty lot, etc. Begin with playground tot-lot. Community maintained. Need to test soil, need compost and topsoil. Companion plantings. Remington Village Green, also in Curtis Bay. Composting initiative. Baltimore compost collective. Involvement of children. Coordination with city. Baltimore greenspace. Donation to local food pantry.  Base cost - $1,000 to start.
    How would food be distributed? – assigned plots or need to get input from other community gardens.
     

  3. Ben Marks (read by Nicole Dungee) – proposal to replace Ridgely’s Delight Sign on corner of MLK and Washington Blvd.  Solicit proposal from sign company.  $1,200-$3,500, working on estimate with contractor. Similar design as to what is there today.
     

  1. Community input, plan for voting on use of funds – Nicole Dungee

 

An outline will be provided at the next meeting with critical details and the cost for each proposal.  

As we move forward in this discussion, please keep in mind that some proposals are for far less than the 10,000 and some are for the entire allotment, which complicates voting.  For example, some people may want to spread the money among a few smaller projects and some may want to spend all of the money on a single project. 

Ranked voting has been suggested as an approach, which can be advantageous because it allows people to submit more than one preference, and without throwing their votes away.  However, it is very complex to correctly evaluate ranked voting results.

I’d like to suggest an alternative approach: 

Begin the voting process by doing 3 pulse surveys of those present, asking people to indicate their top preferences (either by show of hand or on a whiteboard). (allow people 3 or fewer votes)

This will give people a chance to see neighborhood preferences. If one of their preferences receives very few votes on the first round, it will give them the opportunity to switch their preference on the next pulse survey so that their vote isn’t wasted. 

For example, if I voted for Street Paving on the first round and saw that I was the only person who wanted to spend the money this way, I would know that this would not be chosen and could switch my vote on the next round.  

Repeat the pulse survey 3 times, which will hopefully show a clear consensus on how the majority of the community wants to spend the money. After 3 times, open the floor for a motion.  Then, if a decision cannot be made, it will move to the RDA board to decide based on Pulse Survey Results. 

Paul Rubenson motioned to approve this voting proposal, Paul Koprowski seconded. 15 in favor, 1 opposed. 2 online in favor. One abstention. Passed

  1.  Public Comment  

  1. James Quigley – Opening Day party was successful and he’s asking the neighborhood  for feedback. There was a comment that the party looked like it was a good time. Warren Dungee thanked him for coming in to speak to group.

  2. Jasmine Kimball Baltimore Department of Planning, Baltimore Casino LDC. Casino Fund gives a few million dollars per year to this group.  Advisory body to mayor about spending of funding.  To give City agencies grants for different projects – infrastructure, public safety, etc.

    Membership application available right now. Service on LDC for term of one year, up to 6 years. Must attend meetings August to December in evenings.  Must share information with respective communities.  Abide by Baltimore City ethics requirements.  Closes Aug 27th. Purpose is to be part of process to look at funding and how it would be spent. Review proposals, part of deciding how funds are allocated. Jasmine to send flyer and link to application form. Four residents to be chosen from applications.

  3. Motion to adjourn, seconded.  Board meeting in 5 minutes

Attendees:

Julia Dumont
Paul Rubenson
Maia Tatinclaux
Paul Koprowski
Billy Hufnell
Nicole Dungee
Clarissa Howison
Deb Oneill
Gerri Salley
Julia Lebherz
Linda Smith
Celine Brundridge
James Wright
Sharon Reuter
Warren Dungee
Bill Reuter
Syrus Razavi
Kim Ahern
Nazary Nebuluk
Peter John
Anastasia Ternovskaia
Catherine Drovetsky
Victoria Carter
Navi Singh
Sandy Anderson

Need 21 people for Quorum – we have Quorum