Murdock Neighborhood Association General Meeting
October 25, 2006

The meeting was called to order by President Bob Fanjoy at 7:20 p.m.

Announcements by President Fanjoy

• Bob acknowledged the presence of Council Member-elect Pete Constant and thanked him for coming to the meeting.
• The next General Meeting will be on Wednesday evening, January 31, 2007.
• Use the website at www.murdockna.org -- and thanks to webmaster Sigi Illes.
• MNA is looking for volunteer for all committees. The sign-up sheet is at the membership table with Treasurer Jenny Hsieh.
• You can renew your memberships now for next year – or sign up as a new member. January starts our new year, and memberships are $10/year – pay Jenny.
• Bob has a copy of the Treasurer's report for anyone who wishes to see it. We show a balance of $1,432 as of September 30, 2006.
• Doris Livezey will once again lead a group to plant daffodils in Murdock Park. The next date is this coming Saturday, October 28. See Doris and get the flyer about the project.
• The Fremont Union High School District will host a board candidate forum at Lynbrook next week.

Annual Election

• President Fanjoy introduced the Nominating Committee and thanked them for their service: Chair Charles Jones, Members Judy Boehm, Judy Guillford and Eugene Yu.
• The candidates were introduced: President – Larry Murchan; First Vice-President – Charles Jones; Second Vice-President – George Zhu; Corresponding Secretary – Cathy Draper; Treasurer – Jenny Hsieh; Parliamentarian – Doris Livezey. There is no nominee for Recording Secretary.
• President Fanjoy asked if there were any nominations for the position of Recording Secretary. Gabe Trejo nominated himself for Recording Secretary. There were several seconds from the floor.
• President Fanjoy asked for any other nominations from the floor. There were none. He then called for a vote to elect the slate of nominees. By voice vote, the election was unanimous.
• President Fanjoy thanked all those who had served on the Board during the past year and then turned the meeting over to the new President, Larry Murchan.

Open Forum

• President Murchan said he saw the purpose of the organization as making the neighborhood an even better place. He said with limited time and resources, he wanted to focus on what residents in the neighborhood want to see addressed. He then opened the meeting for an open forum to make suggestions to the new Board. The following items were put on the table (where possible, the speaker is identified):
• (Trixie Johnson) Have a joint project with Murdock/Portal School.
• (Mori Mandis) Let's do Movies in the Park in the summer, using the tennis wall as a screen perhaps.
• (Margie Murchan) Start a Neighborhood Help service to provide assistance to neighbors who might need help with gardening, painting, and such – especially seniors.
• (Amecti ?) A member of the District One Youth Advisory Council said they would like to help.
• (Robbie Smith) She and Cathy Draper have professional experience in elder service and can help with that effort.
• (?) Can the youth council help clean up the creek trail? Bob Fanjoy said that anyone was welcome to join the trail volunteer group whose job was to keep the trail clean.
• (Sigi Illes) Would the Youth Advisory Council like a page on our MNA website. (Trixie Johnson) Perhaps Amecti could explain what the YAC is? She explained the group is 2 years old and that they were high school students recruited by the Council Member. One member of the group serves on the city-wide Youth Commission and the others serve as a committee for working on District One projects such as book sales at the libraries.
• (Marge Papp) What's happening with Neighborhood Watch? Larry explained that we cannot have an all MNA meeting and fulfill the city's requirements. Each neighborhood street needs to do its own group, and those who have already had a meeting should be considering another one to keep the work going and to see that they reach the threshold size for a sign on the street.
• (Don ?) What about the weeds along the new creek trail? Bob responded with an update: Linda LeZotte's office had a meeting with city staff, and MNA is tracking the issue. The City needs to clarify which staff is responsible. We can help, but also need to be aware of limits set by the Santa Clara Valley Water District for working in the creek area.
• (Doris Livezey) Please leave us your e-mail for faster communication and more timely updates that we can do with the paper flyers.
• (Bob Fanjoy) Does the neighborhood want additional social events? Discussion covered a skit night, moving the annual picnic to the actual day of July 4 (not many preferred that option by a show of hands); more favored the weekend prior to July 4.
• (Charles Jones) We need to make the city more aware of issues like streets needing repair and the trash on Bollinger. Also he would like to see the neighborhood leverage its buying power by coordinating purchases of services to get discounts.
• (Larry Murchan) We should see if we can get another dumpster day.
• (?) The traffic on Castle Glen is fast and heavy. How do we get the traffic cops? Pete Constant suggested calling 277-4341 and telling the traffic unit about specific issues which they can target when they are in the area. Another suggestion was targeting U-turns on Bollinger.
• (?) Is T-Ping accepted and legal? What about egging? A resident of Glen Haven Court had this happen just after he moved in. There was much discussion that neither was legal, but that T-Ping was something of a tradition for local teens – even consider a back-handed honor by some. Neighborhood Watch can help – more aware of what is happening around you, but no guarantee that it will stop the behavior.
• (Fanjoy) Please report graffiti on the creek trail to us – we have the equipment to remove it. And please keep you eyes on the park at night.
• (?) What about teams using the park for organized sports? Judy Boehm suggested contacting their league and advising them that the park is not an allowed team sport facility. Also contact the City's organized sports staff.
• (?) Real nuisance with high school students using Castle Glen as a drop-off point. Used to be Lynbrook Way, and now moved to Castle Glen – just as bad. Judy Boehm explained that the change was in response to many complaints from Lynbrook Way residents. She will talk to the school staff member about working for better safety practices during drop-offs.

Program – City Arborist Ralph Mize – Street Trees/Tulip Tree Problem

Larry Murchan introduced Mr. Mize. Mr. Mize's number is 277-2762 and e-mail is Ralph.Mize@sanjoseca.gov. Primary points of his comments:

• The City's Department of Transportation is responsible for all streets and public rights-of-way and administer the street tree ordinance.
• Permits are required for planting, pruning and removal of street trees.
• Street trees add value to a neighborhood – shade, relief from urban heat, combat global warming – as recognized by the City Council's passage of the Cool Communities ordinance on planting trees.
• City works with PG&E to keep trees from wires. Do not plant varieties or in locations that will grow to have problems.
• Planting permit: inspector reviews the site and marks a green T on the curb for tree location. Permit issued/no charge.
• Pruning permit: Request by phone. No charge. Request the city's pruning booklet. Do not top the tree. This destroys its beauty and worse, the structure of the tree. New branches that grow are not attached to the inner rings of the tree and are easily broken. Hire an arborist for the job (ISA certified) and check their history and credentials. Joining with neighbors may help in bargaining for a better price.
• City pruning is rare, and there is currently no budget for this. It should be done every 4-5 years. Pruning should start when the tree is young and cuts can be small and heal faster. A list of registered trimmers is on the department website.
• Property owners are fully responsible for street trees, but city can offer limited help.
• The tulip trees seemed a good choice at the time, but they are native to the southeastern US and love water . Our dry weather stresses them. Eventually their natural pest, the tulip tree scale (which also attacks deciduous magnolia) migrated west. We first saw it in Willow Glen in 1999. Council District 6 started a program to attack them, but they still spread and have now reached our area. In addition to the scale, they attract a disease called sooty mold. The treatment program involved soil drenching and it has had mixed results. The city also funded a replacement program in coordination with Our City Forest. Budget cuts eliminated that program just as the scale moved to West SJ, probably spread by birds and squirrels. During the early phases UC also tried experiments with a predator wasp that were not successful.
• The trees have limited reserves. Every year it gets worse and after years the tree dies.
• The soil drench has worked in some years, though last year's heavy rains probably reduced its impact. This year the District One Council office funded an experimental injection program, but with poor outcomes that may have been a result of starting the treatment too late in the life cycle of the insect. The city has resources to try the injection test again in the early spring before leafing – a better time in the cycle. Again there will be treated trees and control trees and an evaluation after a period of time on its effectiveness.
• Injections or soil drenching only work for one season and only suppress the scale. They do not eliminate or control it. The best hope is to diminish the impact.
• The neighborhood and tree owners should be preparing for the possibility that the trees will die. He recommends that we agree as a group on a plan for dealing with losses, and that the worst/dead or nearly dead trees will be given removal permits.
• Many homes in the neighborhood have no street trees. A city ordinance requires at least one street tree per parcel and up to three trees if a corner or large frontage. Owners with no trees should be encouraged to plant trees now to lessen the impact of removing large numbers of trees in the coming years. The city ordinance is not punitive – but it strongly encourages planting. (Doris Livezey reminded us of last year's planting of 14 trees with Our City Forest, and said OCF would be happy to do more. We need a minimum of 10 trees to qualify for their help.)
• Currently, until the spring experiment, there is a moratorium on removal permits except for dead or dangerous trees. Some may only need pruning at this point to keep them safe.
• If the injections are successful, he suggested getting together for group prices. The current cost is $100 - $150/tree.
• The city will not approve mass removal, but will start considering individual trees.

Larry thanked Mr. Mize for attending and said that the neighborhood should form a committee representing all perspectives and work out a program to deal with the trees over a period of time.

President Murchan concluded the meeting at 9:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Trixie Johnson, Secretary