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Sister City 2010/06/21CITY OF ANAHEIM SISTER CITY COMMISSION COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: MINUTES June 21, 2010 Joseph Aihara, Randy Amiri, Sandy Day, Russell LaHodny, John D. Nguyen, Swati Patel, Anna Piercy, Kyoko Smith, Henri Soucy, Kimberly Tulleners, Carolyn Yellis Elaine Cali, Marge Conway, Carrie Nocella Brian O'Neal STAFF PRESENT: Greg Garcia, City Manager's Office Maggie Solorio, City Manager's Office Cynthia Chuang, City Manager's Office GUESTS PRESENT: Sue Soucy, Member of the Public Agenda Posting: A complete copy of the Anaheim Sister City Commission Agenda was posted at 3:00 p.m. on June 18, 2010, at Anaheim City Hall. Public Input: Chairman Nguyen explained that members of the public are invited to address the Anaheim Sister City Commission and will be called upon under Agenda Item III. Public Comment. L CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Anaheim Sister City Commission was called to order at 4:14 p.m. on Monday, June 21, 2010 at the Anaheim City Manager's Office, City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd., 7 th Floor, Anaheim, California. II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION: Commissioner LaHodny offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Patel AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 8 -0, Abstained: Piercy and Yellis, Absent: Aihara, Cali, Conway, Nocella, O'Neal) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve the May 24, 2010 Anaheim Sister City Commission minutes with the following corrections: Anaheim Sister Citv Commission June 21, 2010 Page 2 1. (Page 2): 11. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Correct the Vote to indicate that Commissioner Day was present, as follows: (Vote 10 -0, Absent: O'Neal, Piercy, Yellis, Conway, Patel). 2. (Page 2): IV. TREASURERS REPORT: Replace the word "graft" with "gift ". 3. (Page 4): Correct the spelling of the Student Exchange Chaperone's last name to "Maguire ". 4. (Page 5): The date of the student's presentation should be August 23rd in the second paragraph. 5. (Page 6): It states that "Day brought up the idea that we should proceed with caution..." this is not accurate as she is opposed to the Commission being involved with this event in any capacity. Corrected the record to state the following: "Commissioner Day stated that although supportive of arts related non- profit groups and events in our city on a personal level, Day is opposed to this Commission being directly or indirectly involved with any fundraising efforts on their behalf. Moreover, this Commission should not be utilized as a liaison for such efforts as it could potentially injure our relationships with our current Sister City partners." III. PUBLIC COMMENT None. IV. TREASURER'S REPORT Commissioner Soucy went over the May 20, thru June 21, 2010 Treasurer's report. He explained that is the form that he will be using in the future and labeled it Anaheim Sister City Commission Income Statement -Cash Flow Analysis. He explained that $6,000 were deposited to the ACF Sister City Account since last month, totaling $16,000. The students fundraised $250.00 each. There were no expenses and the cash balance is $9,872.00. MOTION Commissioner Yellis offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Piercy AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 10 -0, Absent: Aihara, Cali, Conway, Nocella, O'Neal) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve the Treasurer's Report, as presented. Anaheim Sister Citv Commission June 21, 2010 Page 3 V. SUBCOMMITTEE UPDATES Commissioner Amiri handed out a Scorecard and reported that the Goals and Objectives for the 5 -year Plan have been completed. There are four goals and objectives. The first goal is to enhance the relationships with the current sister cities in all three areas as defined in the Sister City Commission Mission Statement; the second goal is to add three new sister cities within that five year period; the third goal is to contact three new businesses each year to engage in commerce and achieve a positive trade revenue; and, the fourth goal is to enhance cultural relationships by a minimum of three additional components. These goals and objectives have been translated into something that can be tracked as shown on the Scorecard. The Executive Subcommittee is leading the Organization portion. Three of the goals under the Organization portion have been completed thus far. As far as recommending sister cities, they are pursuing only 1 sister city, but they will submit a minimum of 3. Two cities have been submitted for consideration. Bill Daly recommended Wittgenstein, Germany. Verona, Italy is also being considered. The subcommittee is still open for additional submittals and the deadline to submit additional cities is August 30, 2010. The Scorecard will be updated on a quarterly basis and presented to the Commission at a regularly scheduled meeting. Commissioner LaHodny met with his Subcommittee to discuss the Mito delegation coming in November. The Subcommittee will be focused on making the business connections and finding the suitable matches for the businesses that are coming out. They are also looking at setting up a couple of events, including a mixer and a lunch where the Mito and local delegations can come together. They are also looking at defining fund raising opportunities for the group. Commissioner Soucy advised that with the objective of enhancing the cultural relationship with Victoria - Gasteiz, he will be initiating a Youth and International Pen Pan Program with Victoria - Gasteiz. Commissioner Soucy reported that with regards to the Assistant English Teacher, Lisa Hansen arrived in Japan on June 3. She is in her apartment and she started working at an elementary school. The head of all the Assistant English teachers in Japan indicated he is very surprised by Ms. Hansen's command of the Japanese language and he is really pleased with her and thinks she will be accustomed very soon to the Japanese lifestyle. This is Anaheim's first Assistant English teacher ever. Anaheim Sister Citv Commission June 21, 2010 Page 4 With regards to the Pen Pal program, Sunkist Elementary is ready to start and Mito Kasahara Elementary School has been identified as the Pen Pal partner. The kids there would like to do a video letter because they are not quite ready to write. Sunkist students will write all the letters and send them all at once. Mito Kasahara Jr. High has been identified as the Pen Pal junior high school partner in Japan and Sycamore Jr. High School is being considered in Anaheim. Commissioner Aihara has offered to run the Pen Pal Program at Western High School and Mito Sakuranomaki High School is being considered as the Pen Pal partner in Japan. Hopefully by late July or early August they will have three schools on each side starting the Pen Pal Program. This would meet the goal and once they get the process down they will roll it out to another three schools and they'll just keep adding. Commissioner Soucy also noted that his Subcommittee will be discussing the student exchange updates immediately after the Commission meeting that day. VI. STUDENT EXCHANGE UPDATES Commissioner Soucy indicated that for the outbound program, the students are ready to go to Japan and they will be presented to the City Council on June 22 at 5:00 p.m. They will be leaving to Japan on Thursday, June 24. Mito, Japan has put together a really good itinerary and they are planning a lot of special surprises for the students. On August 23r the students and the chaperone will present each of the Commissioners a memory book from their two week experience and talk about the trip. With regards to the inbound program, Mito asked to increase the students from 10 to 12 and Commissioner Soucy agreed to it. Three of the girls are high school students and five are junior high school students. Three of the boys are high school and one is junior high. Right now they are in the process of placing them with host families. The preliminary total cost is $9,521.00. Mito has said that they would cover the hotel and the admissions, which right now that cost equals $4,259.00, so the Commission's net cost would be $5,263.00. Because Mito is so pleased with the Student Exchange, they are so happy with the Assistant English teacher, the Pen Pal and the Business Exchange, Commissioner Soucy believes that their gift will be more. He has provided the ACF account information to Mito so that they can transfer the funds electronically in July. It's coming along really good. It's going to be a great strident exchange and it's the best itinerary every put together for Mito, Japan. Anaheim Sister Citv Commission June 21, 2010 Page 5 Further, it was agreed that the gift for Mayor Kato from Mayor Pringle and the City Council would be an Angel Baseball jersey with Hideki Matsui's name and number embroidered on it and signed by Hideki Matsui. The gift is going to be presented by the students and the chaperones during their visit in Japan. There was discussion regarding the availability of tickets for the July 28 Angel game for the inbound students. Staff is going to follow up. Commissioner Soucy clarified for Commissioner Day that the goal to get a Pen Pal Program started at Victoria - Gasteiz is by the end of the year and that a student exchange program could be explored possibly in 2011. Commissioner Day asked about the possibility of running a student exchange program with Victoria - Gasteiz parallel with the student exchange with Mito, Japan in 2011. Commissioner Amiri advised that although this would be a great idea and it would be easier to do it all at the same time, the concern is whether or not Spain will come up to speed. Spain originally wanted to send out a one - person delegation, and the Commission declined the proposal. If Spain is not able to perform at the level of expectation that the Commission has for this relationship then the Commission may have to reconsider whether or not to continue with the relationship. VII. MITO DELEGATION VISIT /COORDINATION Commissioner Day proposed having a representative from Spain here as an observer when the Japanese delegation comes in November. Commissioner Amiri agreed that is an excellent idea. That way Spain could see how serious Anaheim is about this. Commissioner Soucy indicated that the last email he received from Spain, they indicated the soonest they could come would be December. Commissioner Soucy is going to follow -up with a request to have a representative here from Spain in November. VIII. SISTER CITY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Greg Garcia reported there is a Sister Cities International Conference every summer and this year the conference will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico from July 29 -31, 2010. Since this is the first year as anew Commission, Chairman Nguyen and Greg were thinking that it would be a good idea for someone from the Commission to attend. There are going to have good workshops and a lot of cities from all over the world looking for other cities. It would be an opportunity to see how that relationship works when the Commission starts looking for other cities. Chairman Nguyen was thinking about attending with Greg Garcia. Anaheim Sister Citv Commission June 21, 2010 Page 6 MOTION: Commissioner Piercy offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Yellis AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 11 -0, Absent: Cali, Conway, Nocella, O'Neal) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby agree that it would be a good idea to send two representatives to the Sister Cities International Conference, a City staff member and a Commission member. MOTION: Commissioner Piercy offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Yellis AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 11 -0, Absent: Cali, Conway, Nocella, O'Neal) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approved funding up to $1,000 to pay for the registration fees of Chairman Nguyen's attendance at the Sister City International Conference if the City does not fund the registration as well as Greg Garcia's. IX. COMMISSION APPOINTMENTS /RE- APPOINTMENTS Greg Garcia noted that Commission Members Amiri, Conway, Day, Nguyen and Soucy are up for reappointment at the June 22, 2010 City Council meeting. All five commissioners have been contacted and they have all indicated they are interested in being reappointed. Council can chose to reappoint or not to reappoint and /or appoint someone else. The term is three years and this is 15- member Commission. X. WEBSITE UPDATE Greg Garcia indicated Disney is creating a logo for the website. As soon as the logo is ready, it will be loaded up onto the website. A template has been created for the Commission to use. Staff needs information from the Commission to build it. Cynthia Chuang from the City Manager's Office was in attendance at the Commission meeting and she will be assisting to build the web page. Greg asked that Commissioner Amiri email Cynthia and him directly to get it going. Commissioner Patel added that she has been working on a Facebook page and Linkedin page that can be incorporated into the website. XI. ASCA UPDATE Greg Garcia reported ASCA wrote a letter to Mayor Pringle indicating that the Sister City Commission is the new entity for Sister City activities and a similar letter was also sent to Sister Cities International. Anaheim Sister Citv Commission June 21, 2010 Page 7 The dues for Sister City International came in and Greg mentioned to Chairman Nguyen that since the City of Anaheim is actually a member of the organization, the City could pickup the dues rather than the Commission. The dues are $1,100. XII. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Commissioner Day noted that at the last meeting, the Commission talked about the bylaws being reviewed and asked about the status. Commissioner Amiri replied the bylaws have been approved at the Committee level and will now be forwarded to the rest of the Commission members for review. The bylaws will be placed at the next agenda for adoption. The Executive Subcommittee is going to review the two sister city submissions to make sure that the criteria has been met and then present the cities to the Commission for consideration. Greg Garcia announced that after the City Council makes the appointments /reappoints in June, the Commission will vote for officers at the following Commission meeting and that this would apply every year. XIIL ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:16 p.m. to July 26, 2010 at 4:00 p.m. at the City of Anaheim, City Manager's Office. Respectfully submitted, Maggie Solorio City Manager's Office