Gowanus CAG Administration Committee meeting, January 15, 2020
Held in the Carroll Park Park House.
Present:
Ben Jones
Maryann Young
Katia Kelly
Rita Miller (on the phone)
1) The first item on the agenda was to change the language of one proposal to a Charter change previously brought to the full Gowanus CAG.
Background:
At the December 2019 meeting, the CAG passed ALL the proposed language changes to the Charter, but wanted us to tighten the language on one point.
Below is the paragraph we need to review. It was felt that the first two points were way too much for committees to realistically implement.
It was suggested that we change the language to “reasonable efforts shall be made for committees to maintain written record of the drafting process” and lose “all relevant discussion and change/edit history.”
It was also suggested that we clarify in the two last points that everything needs to be submitted to the full CAG seven days prior to the upcoming CAG general meeting. I have already edited that in bold.
Under Charter Section 8.1 Email Conversations at the Committee Level, the text currently reads: Committees shall abide by the following protocol when drafting and proposing resolutions for the CAG to consider and vote upon:
That when drafting a resolution, Committees shall maintain a written record of the drafting process, including all relevant discussion and change/edit history.
That throughout the drafting process, this written record shall be shared with all Committee members on an ongoing basis.
That the final draft of the proposed resolution must be shared with all Committee members at least 7 days before said resolution is presented to the full CAG, with any dissents recorded accordingly.
That in order to qualify for consideration by the full CAG, the Committee must present the final draft resolution, any dissents, and the written record of the drafting process at least 7 days prior to the upcoming CAG general meeting.
2) The second issue was 2019 membership and attendance.
The CAG Charter states under paragraph 5.2: Responsibilities of CAG membership that:
“CAG members are expected to attend at least half of all CAG general meetings during a calendar year. CAG members are also expected to attend at least half of all committee meetings for their appointed committee(s) during which time they are a committee member.”
The Admin Committee did an analysis of the records kept by Doug Sarno and determined that eleven CAG members did not fulfill their membership obligation this past year.
(please see the 2019 attendance sheet attached)
The members are:
Sabine Aronowsky (Friends of Thomas Greene Park)
Paul Basile (Gowanus Alliance)
Karen Blondel (Red Hook West)
Beverly Corbin (FUREE)
Eymund Diegel (member at large)
Michelle de la Uz (Fifth Avenue Committee)
George Fiala (member at large)
Raphael Gomez (member at large)
Ben Jones (member at large)
Betty Lester (Gowanus 4 Life)
Triada Samaris (member at large)
One member, Margaret Maugenest has officially asked for, and was granted, a temporary leave of absence from the CAG for personal reasons.
It was noted that the following CAG organizational or at-large members never responded to the Admin Committee’s yearly membership survey indicating if they wanted to serve in 2020. (Three emails were sent out in total)
At large:
Eymund Diegel
George Fiala
Rafael Gomez de Luna
Organizations:
| Carroll Gardens Association | Buddy Scotto |
| Furee | Beverly Corbin |
| Friends of Thomas Greene Park | Sabine Aronowsky |
| Gowanus 4 Life | Betty Lester |
| Gowanus Tenants | No Representative |
| NYCHA United | No Representative |
| Red Hook East | No Representative |
| Red Hook West | Karen Blondel |
| Wyckoff Tenants | No Representative |
The Admin Committee will submit to the CAG the list of members who did not fulfill the Charter’s minimum attendance requirement in 2019. With the full CAG’s recommendation, those members will be sent an email thanking them for their service, and indicating that they can reapply again at a different time.
It was decided to ask for Outreach’s help in identifying contact information for the organizations that currently have no representative.
3) Two new CAG applicants have submitted an application recently. It was decided to forward Mike Song’s application to Doug Sarno and to schedule him for an interview at an upcoming CAG meeting. The second application was sent back to the applicant to ask for more details.