The meeting was opened by a welcome from Tom Novotny, acting chairman of the LPOA board. Tom introduced the first guest speaker, San Francisco Fire Chief, Joanne Hayes-White. 

Joanne Hayes-White introduced herself, not only as the Fire Chief of the San Francisco Fire Department, but also as a neighbor who lives on Stonecrest. She reported that the SFFD were mid-way through EMS repartitioning with the good news that this will provide better response times for our neighborhood. She also mentioned areas of concern for our neighborhood including growth concerns with the development of the SF State campus and Stonestone mall. Addressing the question, whether the dense construction and focus on downtown would affect the SFFD's ability to maintain response times within the city. Joanne Hayes-White noted that a new station was due to be built downtown in 2009 but, even before that station was completed, response times would remain between 3 to 5 minutes city wide. The fire chief stated that, unlike the police, the fire department was not suffering from staffing shortages; there will be 75 retirements that will be replaced this year. In response to a question about disaster preparedness and available training, Joanne Hayes-White directed residents to the the city's Neighborhood Emergency Response Team training website. The 20 hour investment in training was well worth it in her opinion and we hope some of our residents will be able to take advantage of this training opportunity. 

Next to speak was Sergeant Jeffrey Barry from the Taraval Police Station, who too, introduced himself as a spokesperson for the SFPD and a neighbor who lives in Lakeshore. Sgt. Barry answered questions from residents about robberies and break-ins especially to cars in our neighborhood. He suggested that we report these incidents to the Taraval station even if we did not need to do so, so that they could track trends and patterns. To avoid these incidents as much as possible Sgt. Barry suggested we make our vehicles as unattractive targets as possible; not leaving anything of value in our cars, especially not leaving anything visible to temp opportunistic thieves. Several questions were posed to Sergeant Jeffrey Barry from the floor:

• Concerning traffic on the Junipero Serra frontage road and Winston Way; more committed traffic units have been assigned to Taraval and they are aware than a lot of this traffic is students hurrying to class.  If people want more signs to be posted to slow down traffic they should take the issue up with DPW.  Sergeant Barry told the LPOA that speed bumps are taboo these days for speed control. 
• Concerning panhandling were the 280 empties onto 19th Avenue; the homeless is a politically sensitive issue that the city struggles with every day.  The police suggest that residents do not give panhandlers money and ask that visitors refrain from doing so too. The police ask panhandlers to move on when they see them but there is always someone else waiting to take their place.
• The issue of enforcing the 2 hour parking restriction in our neighborhood was raised.  Sergeant Barry said that Sunnyside, although larger, had a similar problem with city college and that they got a dedicated parking office assigned to them.  He will work to get parking officers out to Lakeside more often.

The next visitor to address the LPOA was Supervisor Sean Elsbernd. Supervisor Elsbernd told the LPOA about the MUNI project that was announced at our meeting last year, which was completed just 2 weeks before our meeting with the trains now running much more smoothly.  The next associated project will be to repave the intersection at Ulloa.  Following this the next major project in this area will be at St Francis Circle but this could be a year or more out as it has not been budgeted for yet; Supervisor Elsbernd will have more to tell us at next year's meeting. Supervisor Elsbernd drew residents attention to the completion of the West Portal Library renovation.  The next library project is a new library to be built at Ocean and Plymouth. The money for the building itself has already been budgetted for and fund raising for the internal fixtures and fiitings was already underway.  There are budgeting problems for the work required at our own, Merced, library. Work on our playground is due to begin any day now and Supervisor Elsbernd suggested residents visit Atlas playground at Ocean to see a nice new playground of the kind we will benefit from once thew work is complete.

Supervisor Elsbernd then addressed the work on Junipero  Serra.  The work on the median has been completed.  In the week following the meeting 25 diseased trees will be removed from the green belt area between Juperio Serra and the frontage road.  Although reponsibility for this area is still under discussion, on a possitive front, water pipes for irrigation have been installed and Supervisor Elsbernd would have keys available for a member of LPOA for access to this utility in a month. Supervisor Elsbernd also informed LPOA members that the city would repeat the trow away day for large domestic trash again this year and that our area's day would be some time in October.  More frequently there are electronic waste days at City College.

Supervisor Elsbernd then took questions from LPOA members:

• Regarding the intersection at Sloat; Bond G provides the monies for this project.  Work will begin in the late fall from Portolla Drive up to Twin Peaks during which time residents should expect bad traffic.
• A LPOA member asked that signs over storm drains be posted indicating that dumping was not allowed as are posted elsewhere in the city.  A few days after the anual meeting these signs were posted in our neighborhood too.
• The incendary subject of the trees on the green belt of Junipero  Serra was again raised.  A LPOA member disputed the claim that 25 trees were beyond saving and wanted to know who the contractor charged with the work of removing the trees was.   Supervisor Elsbernd said that the trees were assessed not only by the cities own arborist but also by an independent arborist commissioned by the board of directors and the difference between the two assessments was only 1 tree out of the 25. Supervisor Elsbernd said that the city must reply on these professional opinions.  The contractor will be Arbor Well.   Supervisor Elsbernd said that the city may be able to work with the LPOA like they already do with Lakeside 1 to maitain the green belt going forward.
• Regarding easements and costs being shared or their repair with Sunset Scavenger, etc. Supervisor Elsbernd said he would work with us if we got in touch with him.

Supervisor Elsbernd left us with his contact information:

• Tel: 415 554 6516
• email: Sean.Elsbernd@sfgov.org

Our final visitor was Jason Porth who is responsible for Government & Community Relations for SFSU's master plan project.  Mr Porth introduced himself as both a representative of the University and resident of the neighborhood as he lives on Broadmoor.  Mr Porth outlined SFSU's plan for expansion.  He detailed some of the advantages of having SFSU as a neighbor including $3 a semester degree programs for those aged 60+ and their beautiful campus and large library.  He also documented the importance of SFSU as an institution including the facts that 7 out of 10 teachers in San Francisco come from SFSU and that 80% of graduates remain local residents.  SFSU intends to grow 2.5% over the next 10 years; if they cannot achieve this it will become harder for candidates to get in to SFSU.  They intend a building program that will take place between 2010 and 2020.  This will include residences for 2200 more students.  SFSU intends to try to manage the increase in traffic by making public transportation better and more attractive and my having more students live on campus. The expansion plan includes a 1600 seat theater and a new construction at Buckingham and Holloway that will have residences above retail space. LPOA members are invited to review the plan and monitor any decisions and progress.

Barbara Nolan, the LPOA accountant was next to speak and go over the LPOA accounts.  Barbara Nolan told members that our account ran a large deficit in 2006.  Only 83% of LPOA members paid their dues so we had to write off $5600 in outstanding dues.  Barbara Nolan suggested that we place a lien of properties belonging to owners not paying their dues but that this will cost $80 per lien.  Addresses of properties guilty of non-payment may be published on the website.

Questions were raised about why the LPOA was responsible for the expense of tree pruning if only 20% of member's homes had trees that the LPOA looked after.  The LPOA's fees are very competitive with the dues other comparable home owner's associations dues but we will look in to a change in the CC&R's about the trees.  

Questions were also raised about a larger penalty for non-payment of dues and again, the LPOA will look at our bylaws to see if this is possible.  The other large expenditure is insurance; this was hard to acquire and is expensive.  The board will look into possibilities of cooperating with other local home owner's associations and other options associated with this expense. Insurance is required for the LPOA to be able to get meeting spaces etc.

Joyce Richardson then spoke about the trees the LPOA is responsible for.  The cost to prune a tree from a professional arborist is $205 per tree and it requires the use of a cherry picker to do properly; damage to the trees was inflicted by other services who did not have this specialized piece of equipment available when they did the work previously.  43 trees were pruned this in 2006.  When trees fail the LPOA pays to have them taken down and have the stumps ground out.  The LPOA also provides a $100 to LPOA members to buy a replacement tree.

Martin Taylor demonstrated the new LPOA website that recently went live.  The LPOA hopes that members will find this cost effective means of sharing communication useful and we will use this resource in addition to newsletters in the future.

Finally the discussion was thrown open to the floor.  The resurrection of the LPOA welcoming committee was proposed and Patti Taylor and Joyce Richardson will look into this.

Tom Novotny brought up the possibility of raising dues to repair the LPOA finances.  He will look into our bylaws to see how this is achieved.  We can survive this year on reserves but we will need to revisit this issue at next year's annual general meeting.  Our budget is based on 100% payment of dues which we are not achieving.

The request for new board members was sent out.  Diane Mason stepped up to the challenge.  Monthly meetings are held every 2nd Monday of the month at an office provided by Stonestown mall while the playground clubhouse is under construction.  All LPOA members are welcome and are encouraged to get involved with their neighborhood.