Acton Town Council Meeting Minutes, December 2, 2019, Approved

1. Call to Order, Flag Salute, & Roll Call – The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Vice President Tom Costan.  Present at the meeting – Jacki Ayer, Tom Costan, Troy Pieper, and Kelly Teno.  Absent – Pam Wolter, and Jeremiah Owen.
2. Community Comments – None
3. Minutes of the Last Meeting – Tabled
4. Treasurer Report – None
5. Sheriff’s Report – In November there were 10 incidents that resulted in reports.  Deputy Martinez also spoke about the Sheriff Department working with the School Board on safety at the schools.
6. AAUSD Superintendent Report – None
7. Library Report – The upcoming December Events were announced
8. Welcome To Acton Signs – Mr Aidan Vidic – Mr Vidic came to ask the council if we would like our logo and name on the signs with the other agreeing non profit groups. We all agreed yes to wanting to have representation on the signs.
9. Issues with Restricted Equestrian Use in Angeles National Forest. – Jacki gave a recap on what is going on with the restrictions.  She is not quite ready to move forward yet and wants to do  more research.  She requested to put this on the next agenda.
10. Officer Election – Jacki Ayer made a motion to table this until everyone was present.  Troy Pieper 2nd the motion. Motion carried.
11. Announcements and Correspondence – The ATC had 2 people contact  us showing interest in participating on the Santa Clara River Watershed Steering Committee on behalf of non-Santa Clarita residents.  Jacki spoke with Matt Frary about the composition of the committee and our goal of having of having non-Santa Clarita residents participate in some capacity.  She inquired about the mechanism for selecting and approving alternates and he indicated that there really isn’t one but it seems that the choice is up to the member. He acknowledged that the BOS is the entity that approved the committee members so they are the ones who made the decision to seat Community Stakeholder members from only Santa Clarita.  He suggested we contact the BOS which we have already done.  Jacki also inquired about the County-wide Water Plan.  The Water Plan was put on hold when the Sustainability Plan was initiated.  Since the Sustainability Plan has been adopted, it will be used to develop the Water Plan,  We received an email from a resident expressing concern for the dangerous driving conditions on Angeles Forest Highway due to speeding,  When children catch the bus at Tiger Mountain they are often in danger due to cars trying to pass on the left when the bus is turning left to drop children off.  Postal workers and residents walking and riding horses are constantly at risk because of passing on both sides.  The resident asked for speed bumps to slow cars down  or some other traffic mitigation.  Jacki suggested contacting Cal Trans and County Public Works as soon as possible.  An email was sent with pictures regarding the new signage at KOA.  The email indicated that the sign lights were shining onto Soledad Canyon Road and blinding drivers.  Also that the signs were large and do not follow the CSD.  An email was received by a resident very upset about the PSPS and desiring more meetings with SCE where they will answer questions and they also asked the ATC to participate in instant message forums.  Our response was that we will convene more meetings if residents wish but we cannot force SCE to answer any questions  and we cannot participate in IM forums for many reasons including Brown Act compliance and to force SCE to answer questions we agreed to participate in the Oll.  There is an opportunity for small to medium sized community based organizations and nonprofits to learn about becoming contractors with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.  An information session is being held Dec.5, 2019 from 6:30 to 8:30pm at the Lancaster Library.  Metro is offering grant assistance for Cycle 5 of the State active Transportation Program ATP which Jacki thinks may be the SRTS program.  The County announced a competitive grant opportunity from Parks and Recreation.  There is a workshop scheduled for Thursday Jan 23, 2020 at the Chimbole Cuktural Center.  LA County is updating the Floodplain Management Plan for the unincorporated areas of LA County. The Floodplain Management Program is an overall strategy of programs, projects, and measures aimed at reducing adverse impacts of flood hazards on the community.  An important part of the update process is to gather data on residents’ and business owners’ experience with flooding and their perception of flood risks.  Public Works has created a survey to help gather the data.  The website is www.surveymonkey.com/r/LAC FloodRisk.  Please send an email to the ATC if you are interested and we can forward to you the info we have.  Clean Power Alliance Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for Dec 5, 2019 in downtown LA.  WE had previously discussed attending that meeting and asking them to participate in the CPUC OII since they are the actual energy providers for the unincorporated areas including Acton.  according to their agenda, the public comment period is at the beginning of the meeting.  We had an email about filming at Middleton which appeared to be taking place on the illegally graded portion of the project that was understood to be off limits.  There has not been an opportunity to follow up.
12. Councilmember Comments – Tom made a comment about the large amount of LED lights popping up all over town.  It was also commented on if a resident wishes the ATC to know about a social media comment they should forward it to the [email protected].
13.  Committee Reports –  The following committees had reports  a. Planning and Coordinating, f. Community Standards/Decorum,and Trails, Open Space and Recreation –  We need to decide how to move forward with the concerning info from thee County CSD working group. Jacki spoke about the concerns with trails and Kelly spoke about the concerns with wanting to make all communities with CSD topics in common making them all look the same.  They seem to be ignoring the AV Plan about trails and not wanting to implement new changes if they are already in the code or in another plan.  Need to write an email asking for a meeting with Edel and Parks and Rec. h. Utilities –  We are included in the OII.  December 13, 2019 is the last day to submit a response to the OII.  It will be in our email on the 13th since we receive everything electronically.  Jacki will write our response letter after that.  o. Safe Routes to Schools – Since our plate is so full maybe we can convince the school district to take this up this year and we can provide help.  p. High Speed Rail – The ATC has received several emails from residents willing to help when the DEIR comes out.
14. Unfinished/New Business –  Letter on Homeless Shelter, Follow up on Metro.
15.  Items for Next agenda – Equestrian Uses, Officer Election, OII to work our response, CSD and Trails.
16. Adjournment – 9:12pm