Lake Merritt/Uptown District Association - Board of Directors Meeting

Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - 8:30 A.M.

Cathedral of Christ the Light Room B- 2121 Harrison Street
Minutes
Present:

Deborah Boyer, Laurie Cooperman-Rosen (by phone), Melissa De Boer, Aliza Gallo,
Don Rogers, Ben Weinstein, Ke Norman, Ramsey Wright

Absent:

Robert Wilkins, Steve Douglas, CJ Hirschfield, Michelle Lane, Samantha Stires

Staff:

Andrew Jones, Tori Decker, Tamiko Garner

General Counsel: Daniel Schacht

Guests:

Dan Pitcock, Yvette McCoy (BART), Kim Bardakian (Kapor Center), Jamie
Choy(Signature Development),

Discussions held and decisions made by the Board of Directors

SUBJECT
DISCUSSION

ACTION?

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 8:39 a.m.

Public comment and

announcements

Staff mentioned that the last in the series, 3rd

Thursday at Latham Square, is to be held on
October 20, 2016.

Approval of the minutes of

the August 3, 2016 meeting

The minutes of the August 3, 2016 meeting were

presented for review.

Deborah Boyer moved

and Ke Norman
seconded the motion
to approve the
minutes of the August
3, 2016 meeting as
presented. The motion
was approved
unanimously.

Financial Report

Tori reported that the prior year reserve and

assessment income total $1,411,823.32. We
received our third and final disbursement from
the City on August 31 which was $32,916.54
more than budgeted. Excluding our reserve of
$77,392.77, and less a payment made from
reserve totaling $13,000 for B Shuttle
sponsorship, total cash available is

Deborah Boyer moved

and Aliza Gallo
seconded the motion
to approve the
financial report as
presented. The motion
was approved
unanimously

LAKE MERRITT/UPTOWN COMMUNITY BENEFIT DISTRICT

388 19th Street Oakland, California 94612
Phone 510.452.4529 Fax 510.452.4530 info@lakemerritt-uptown.org www.lakemerritt-uptown.org

$1,321,430.55. The DISI Committee year to date

expenses total $42,345.40, ORG Committee
year to date expenses total $199,326.17 and
SOBO Committee year to date expenses total
$826,946.78. This leaves total cash remaining of
$452,812.20. The SOBO variance is a result of
the June billing for Block by Block not having
been paid due to some billing inaccuracies that
staff is working closely with BBB to resolve. In
addition, there is a significant underspend in the
SOBO watering line item as the need for
watering has reduced significantly since
transitioning to the succulent only hanging plant
model.
Tori reported that year to date expenses for
Ambassador services at the Fox Theater are
$2,978.90.
a. Approval of 2017
Proposed Annual
Budget by Category
to be submitted with
Annual Report to the
City of Oakland

Board elections
a. Review of open
seats and nominees

We are being asked by the City to once again

submit a board approved budget along with our
Annual Report before the end of our fiscal year.
Staff has prepared a collapsed budget that will
give us structure, but will allow us to develop the
full operating budget when we know our actual
carry forward and have an opportunity to meet
with individual committees. These numbers have
been pulled directly from a 3-year budget
projection that staff generated last year and was
reviewed by the ORG Committee.

Deborah Boyer moved

and Ben Weinstein
seconded the motion
to approve the
proposed 2017 budget
to be included in the
annual report. The
motion was approved
unanimously.

a. Nominees whose seats are expiring: Laurie

Cooperman-Rosen, Aliza Gallo, Steven Douglas,
Don Rogers, CJ Hirschfield, Ke Norman, and
Ramsey Wright.
Of those whose terms are expiring, only Don
Rogers, CJ Hirschfield and Ke Norman have
submitted nomination forms.

b. Approval of
currently seated
property owner
nominees

b. Approval of currently seated property owner

Don Rogers to the board of directors for a twoyear term.

b. Melissa de Boer
moved and Deborah
Boyer seconded the
motion to approve the
currently seated
property owner Don
Rogers The motion
was approved
unanimously.

c. Approval of new
property owner

c. Approval of new property owner nominee

Jamie Choy to the board of directors for a two-

c. Deborah Boyer
moved and Ramsey

nominees

year term.

Wright seconded the

motion to approve the
new property owner
Jamie Choy to the
Board of Directors for
a two-year term. The
motion was approved
unanimously.

d. Approval of
business tenant
nominees and
Community at Large
nominees

d. Approval of business tenant/community-atlarge nominees CJ Hirschfield and Ke Norman to

the board of directors for a one year term.

d. Deborah Boyer
moved and Aliza Gallo
seconded the motion
to approve the
business tenant and
community-at-large
nominees CJ
Hirschfield and Ke
Norman to the Board
of Directors for a oneyear term. The motion
was approved
unanimously.

e. Approval of
nominations
solicited from the
floor

e. Approval of nominations solicited from the

floor: Ramsey Wright, Dan Pitcock and Kim
Bardakian.

e. Deborah Boyer
moved and Ramsey
Wright seconded the
motion to approve the
new property owner
Dan Pitcock and Kim
Bardakian to the
Board of Directors for
a two-year term. The
motion was approved
unanimously.

Nominations of officers for

the coming year

a. President

Chris Curtis resigned his board seat last month

after the sale of his building on Broadway as he
no longer represented a property within the
district, Laurie Cooperman-Rosen will be moving
out of state and will not continue to serve on the
board in an official capacity.
a. Motion to approve the nomination of Deborah
Boyer to the office of President.

a. Don Rogers moved

and Ramsey Wright
seconded the motion
to approve the
nomination of
Deborah Boyer to the
office of President.
The motion was

approved
unanimously.
b. Vice President

b. Motion to approve the nomination of Don

Rogers to the office of Vice President.

b. Melissa de Boer
moved and Ke
Norman seconded the
motion to approve the
nomination of Don
Rogers to the office of
Vice President. The
motion was approved
unanimously.

c. Secretary

c. Motion to approve the nomination of CJ

Hirschfield to the office of Secretary.

c. Don Rogers moved

and Ke Norman
seconded the motion
to approve the
nomination of CJ
Hirschfield to the
office of Secretary.
The motion was
approved
unanimously.

d. Treasurer

d. Motion to approve the nomination of

Samantha Stires to the office of Treasurer.

d. Melissa de Boer
moved and Deborah
Boyer seconded the
motion to approve the
nomination of
Samantha Stires to
the office of
Treasurer. The motion
was approved
unanimously.

Discussion of RFP for

Renewal Release Date and
Strategy

December 1, 2016 is the planned release date

for the renewal RFP. Staff will convene a
meeting with the newly restructured ORG
Committee to do another full review prior to
release and will circulate to the board.
Andrew briefly reviewed the Renewal Timeline,
highlighting that our current BID term ends
December 31, 2018 and that we will ideally have
a selected consultant in place by early 2017.

Removal and addition of

check signers on all
LMUDA bank accounts

Tori explained that due to board turnover, we

need a motion to remove Chris Curtis, Laurie
Cooperman-Rosen, and Robert Wilkins as
authorized check signers on all district bank
accounts and add Don Rogers, Samantha Stires,

Jamie Choy moved

and Don Rogers
seconded the motion
to approve the
removal and addition

of check signers on all

DOA bank accounts

and CJ Hirschfield.
SOBO Updates

Andrew explained that our Master Encroachment

Permit is still in a holding pattern and staff is
continuing to work with Aliza and her contacts
within the Public Works Department to move it
forward.

DISI Updates

Steve announced that we have successfully

promoted the 3rd Thursdays at Latham Square
event series through the Oakland Central
platform and activated this tremendous district
asset by programming it once monthly with live
music and a downtown retailer showcase/tabling
opportunity
We placed a beautiful ad in the latest Visit
Oakland guide published by Diablo publications
and, due to its immense popularity, we updated
and did another run of our Downtown Shopping
Guides that are placed on the Free B Shuttle and
throughout downtown.
Staff, working with our creative consultants at
Circlepoint, continues to refine and refresh the
Oakland Central brand and manage the content
development of the website.
Additionally, we are creating a welcome kit
postcard to welcome new businesses to the area
and to let them know how we can promote them
through the platform and a new welcome poster
for large employers to share with employees
about all there is to do in our great downtown.
So far in 2016 we have tabled at a number of
events in addition to the Latham Square events,
including Art & Soul, where we had a very
engaging booth that attracted hundreds of people
eager to spin to win O.C. swag. We gathered
hundreds of new subscribers for our OC email
marketing and grew our social media following.
For our final marketing push of the year, we will
be working with SF Gate on the creation of a
Story Studio piece, essentially a blog that is
embedded into their regular editorial content and
is geo-fenced to reach our target audiences. We
will promote the OC platform through the ad and
link out to the website by means of a quick quiz
that will generate 4 specific downtown Oakland
specific visitor itineraries. The idea is to drive
traffic to the website and engage with audiences
outside of our immediate area. Included in the
package is a one-time print ad to appear in the
Chronicle in a section of our choosing.

Other
Next Meeting Date

December 7, 2016

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 9:43 a.m.

Minutes taken by: Tamiko Garner, Administrative Coordinator