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CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 8:04 a.m. by President Greenie Greenlin.

ROLL CALL: Board Members: Greenie Greenlin, Gerald Poppers, Elliot Wagner, Marsha Fontes
Members: Suki Lee, Amaroq de Quebrazas, Patricia Clark, Angela Hile, Maryo Mogannan, Lonnie Yee, Larry Forsburg
Visitors: Ronald Chim, Joel Luebkeman, Steve Balestrieri, Anna Balestrieri, Kit Powers, Mary Burns, Ron Saunders, Tom Taylor

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The Minutes of the January 3, 2001 General Membership Meeting were approved.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

TREES & STREETS: BANNERS: Holiday banners made courtesy of Charles Schwab for their donation. CitiSearch banners are being repaired in Colorado and will be alternated with the "Peace" banners until the war is over.

PARKING: Gerald Poppers reiterated that it is time to focus new energy towards 4 hour parking.

MEMBERSHIP: Dues for membership are currently out.

LEGAL: No report.

MEETING PROGRAMS: Don Callahan to come and discussion merchant options for bad checks.

POLICE REPORT: Denis O'Leary is going to replace Mike Yalon as Captain of Taraval Station. He is a 20 year veteran. Most recently he was working with the Crime Prevention Division. Burglaries are up in the Avenues. Arrests have been made in St. Francis Woods.

AVENUE UPDATES AND GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS - April 19th - 21st will be the West Portal Art Fair. There will be an Artist's Reception on the 19th at Wells Fargo. Kupferman will be moving from his street front space to join Zephyr in the old Ricochet space. His space will be leased by a Japanese toy store. Election Results - The 5 individuals receiving the highest amount of votes are: Greenie Greenlin, Gerald Poppers, Mark Shustoff, Darcy Babbitt and Suki Lee. New to the Board of Directors are Suki Lee of Charles Schwab and Co. and Maryo Mogannam from The Postal Chase. Also elected to the Board for another term are Art Belenson and Kam Leung.

SPEAKER: James MacLachlan, Fiscal and Policy Analyst and Taylor Emerson, Deputy Finance Director for the Mayor's Office of Finance were our speakers. The discussion began with the process of passing the City's Budget. The law requires that the City have a balanced budget. This year there is a 60 - 100 million dollar shortfall. Next year there is an anticipated 175 million dollar shortfall. The budget for this year is 5.2 billion. The City has been asked to make cuts from 5.5% up to 10% from every budget. A question was asked of what is the best possible way to get monies for projects or to have increased City involvement in West Portal's tree maintenance. The answer was to
1. Make friends with the advocates. Have advocates attend the City meetings.
2. Access the Board's agenda online
3. Contact your Supervisor
4. Write letters.
5. Make a unified presence at City meetings.

A question was asked about how much money of the City's budget comes from gross receipts. The answer is $260 million from Payroll taxes. The budget is due on February 20th. From March 1 to May 1 will be the first round of reviews. The City is hoping to have the Board of Supervisors' review the budget by April 1.

ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Dara Reed-Loomis
Executive Secretary