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Sister City 2010/07/26CITY OF ANAHEIM SISTER CITY COMMISSION MINUTES July 26, 2010 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Joseph Aihara, Sandy Day, James Dinwiddie, Russell LaHodny, Carrie Nocella, Anna Piercy, Kyoko Smith, Henri Soucy, Carolyn Yellis COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Randy Amiri, Elaine Cali, John D. Nguyen, Brian O'Neal, Swati Patel, One Vacant Seat STAFF PRESENT: GUESTS PRESENT: Greg Garcia, City Manager's Office Sjany Larson -Cash, Community Services Maggie Solorio, City Manager's Office Wang Weiya, General Manager of the Mito City International Association Kim Tulleners, Former Sister City Commission Member Agenda Posting: A complete copy of the Anaheim Sister City Commission Agenda was posted at 3:00 p.m. on July 23, 2010, at Anaheim City Hall. Public Input: Vice Chairman Nocella explained that members of the public are invited to address the Anaheim Sister City Commission and will be called upon under Agenda Item No. IV. Public Comment. I. CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Anaheim Sister City Commission was called to order at 4:10 p.m. on Monday, July 26, 2010 at the Anaheim City Manager's Office, City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd., 7th Floor, Anaheim, California. II. OATHS OF OFFICE — NEW MEMBERS Vice Chairman Nocella gave a warm welcome to newly appointed Commissioner James Dinwiddie. Everyone in the meeting introduced themselves and gave a brief synopsis of their background. Greg Garcia administered the Oath of Office to Sandy Day, James Dinwiddie and Henri Soucy. Anaheim Sister Citv Commission July 26, 2010 Page 2 III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION Commissioner Yellis offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Piercy AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 8 -0, Abstained: Nocella, Absent: Amiri, Cali, Nguyen, O'Neal and Patel and One Vacant Seat) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve the June 21, 2010 Anaheim Sister City Commission minutes correcting Commissioner Yellis' first name to Carolyn. IV. PUBLIC COMMENT Mr. Wang thanked the Anaheim Sister City Commission on behalf of the students and the chaperons for hosting them. They had a great time that day visiting the Police Department and the Fire Training Center. V. TREASURER'S REPORT Vice Chairman Nocella indicated that Commissioner Soucy in anticipation of knowing he was going to be late to the meeting because he was going to be with the inbound Mito Students, submitted the Income Statement -Cash Flow Analysis and the Inbound Student Exchange Current Budget. Vice Chairman Nocella asked the Commission to review the documents and noted that the only cost thus far for the Inbound Mito Student Exchange has been the Sea World and San Diego Zoo tickets and that there is a cash balance of $18,545.50. The donation from Mito for the 2010 Inbound Mito Student Exchange was $10,124.88. VI. APPROVAL OF BYLAWS Greg Garcia noted that staff has not had a chance to get input on the bylaws from the rest of the Commission members so this item will be continued to the next Sister City Commission meeting in order to give the Commission an opportunity to review and comment on the bylaws and take a formal vote. VII. SUBCOMMITTEE UPDATES Commissioner LaHodny reported that the Economic Development Subcommittee's main focus right now is on the Mito Business delegation that is coming out in November. The concept of that delegation trip is for Mito to bring businesses that are interested in connecting with Anaheim local businesses. On August 4 at 1:30 p.m., the Economic Development Subcommittee is going to meet with Mr. Wang to discuss the list of delegates and give the Subcommittee an idea of what their background is and what sort of services and or goods they provide so that they can be matched with the proper businesses in Anaheim. Anaheim Sister Citv Commission July 26, 2010 Page 3 VIII. STUDENT EXCHANGE UPDATES Vice Chairman Nocella reported that the Government/Cultural Exchange Subcommittee had a difficult time finding host families because the program started 2 months later than normal and it was necessary to pay $150 per student/adult hosted. A copy of the 2010 Inbound Mito Student Itinerary was handed out and Vice Chairman Nocella thanked Commissioner Soucy for the tremendous amount of work he put into it and applauded his efforts on such a great j ob in such a short amount of time. Vice Chairman Nocella invited the Commission Members to the Sayonara Dinner at the Downtown Community Center on Friday, August 6. It's a great opportunity to talk to the delegation and to represent the City. Greg Garcia went over some of the activities scheduled for the inbound students including a behind the scenes tour of the USA Volleyball Team, the Anaheim Police Station, the Anaheim Fire Training Center, and the Tiger Woods Learning Center that morning. Greg indicated they were presently at the Dad Miller Golf Course. Greg also noted that the other City activity that staff prepared for the delegation is going to the Angel Game on Wednesday, July 28 with a VIP tour of the stadium prior to the game. The students are also going to do an Anaheim Scavenger Hunt followed by some ice skating on August 2. The City has never been involved in the Student Exchange, so this is a new way of establishing the City and getting more involved. Staff is going to get feedback from the students to determine if they should continue having the tours. Commissioner Soucy arrived at the meeting at 4:45 p.m. and gave a rundown of the day's events with the inbound students. He indicated the students and chaperones thoroughly enjoyed all the tours and lunch at the Anaheim White House Restaurant. Commissioner Soucy also reported that on August 4, he and Mr. Wang are scheduled to meet with Colleen Beck, a teacher at Sunkist Elementary, to talk about starting the Pen Pal Program with Mito in September. Commissioner Soucy reiterated the invitation to the Commission members to attend the Sayonara Dinner at the Downtown Community Center on Friday, August 6. IX. MITO DELEGATION VISIT /COORDINATION Vice Chairman Nocella reported on behalf of Commissioner Amiri that a lot of thought is being put on how to maximize the Mito Business Delegation visit in November. The Executive Committee wants to make sure that they engage City Anaheim Sister Citv Commission July 26, 2010 Page 4 Officials and Council members to interact with this delegation. The goal is also to provide an opportunity for the business delegation to make some manufacturing or business connection that would both benefit the City of Anaheim and Mito in the long term. They are creating a business side of the Sister City Commission. X. SISTER CITY CONFERENCE Greg Garcia reported Chairman Nguyen will be attending the Sister Cities International Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from July 29 through 31. The Chairman has already made a lot of connections. The Chairman has been copying Greg on all the emails with people at Sister Cities International, D.C. and Regional. The Chairman already has his itinerary set up with side meetings regarding local sister city programs and he will be making great use of his time. It will be very helpful and he is going to come back with a wealth of information for the Commission. The one issue that Chairman Nguyen asked Greg to bring up was that he wanted to see if the Commission could pick up the airfare and hotel costs. The Chairman was able to get the registration fee cut in half to $400 because he fell under a certain age group and he got the young professional rate. At the last meeting, the Commission authorized reimbursement up to $1,000.00 for registration costs. MOTION Commissioner Yellis offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Piercy AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 9 -0, Absent: Amiri, Cali, Nguyen, O'Neal and Patel and One Vacant Seat) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby authorize the use of $600.00 (remaining from the previously approved $1,000.00) to be credited towards the Chairman's airline and hotel out of pocket expenses for the Sister Cities International Conference. Total authorized amount including registration, airfare and accommodations is $1,000.00. XI. COMMISSION LOGO UPDATE Vice Chairman Nocella reported that her team at Disney came up with some logos, but that they had been given very little direction. Carrie has now given the team additional background and is having the team go back and redesign additional logos. The Commission will get to see all six logos and vote for them at the next Commission meeting. XII. ASCA UPDATE Greg Garcia reported that as everyone may be aware, staff has been working with the Anaheim Sister City Association (ASCA) to make sure that they are officially Anaheim Sister Citv Commission July 26, 2010 Page 5 dissolved so that there is no confusion on which group is representing the City of Anaheim for Sister City activities. ASCA has been working with the State Attorney General's Office for a number of months trying to get a letter of dissolution so that they will no longer be a non - profit organization. The Attorney General's website states that the dissolution is pending, however, they haven't "officially" been granted the dissolution of their 5016. So the dissolution is still pending and staff expects it to happen in the next few months. XIII. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Commissioner Soucy asked for an update on the Sister City Commission website. Greg Garcia indicated Cynthia Chuang has been working with Commissioner Amiri to get it going and that the Commission would get a full report from Commissioner Amiri at the next Commission meeting. Commissioner Soucy also noted that Cynthia Chuang did a spectacular job in putting together the City tours for the inbound students. She has been great to work with and a great City employee. Commissioner Aihara also noted that with regards to the inbound and outbound Student Exchange Program he remembers ten years ago that there were some good things going on, but Commissioner Henri in the last few years has raised it to another level. Mr. Wang and he remember a decade ago having some challenges, the things Commissioner Soucy has done are just wonderful and he really appreciates that and all the tremendous amount of time he is putting into it. Commissioner Soucy noted that at the next Sister City Commission meeting on August 23, the Outbound Student Exchange students and the chaperon will present a memory book to the Commission and talk about their trip to Japan. XIV. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:01 p.m. to August 23, 2010 at 4:00 p.m. at the City of Anaheim, City Manager's Office.