January 2022

Farmers Market Stakeholders Association Meeting Minutes

Meeting Information

Date

January 11, 2022

Location

Rex’s Seafood Market

Time

6:00 PM

Directors In Attendance

  • Lawrence Sweeney, President
  • Ivy Sweeney, Secretary

Minutes

  1. Introductions – everyone around the table introduced themselves
  2. DPD Neighborhood Report –Crystal Morganfield and Corey Barnes
    1. Vehicle burglaries and stolen cars are still a problem; take items out of your car and lock your car
    2. There was a murder at 7700 Cadiz/St. Paul streets on 12/24/21 – it was an argument over donations being given out to homeless
    3. Street people are continuing to congregate around the Stewpot area, the trash/litter is an issue
    4. Crime is ok otherwise
    5. The street racing task force is still active, it’s a problem all over the country; Crystal has discussed getting speed bumps w/ the city and requested a survey
  3. Code Compliance update – Johnny Garcia
    1. He is the liaison to the general code office; their office is at 320 E Jefferson; they have over 900 city ordinances for code violations
    2. Call 311, or go to the ourdallas app or dallascityhall.com for reports/service requests/etc.; they ae address-specific, so leave your name, phone number and address for the issue
    3. Code stats were reviewed – graffiti is the largest concern – they have a consent form program for abatement
    4. They have a couple of task forces for code compliance; they’re looking at entertainment districts and the noise and overcrowding issues
    5. They are working with DDI on focus areas of concerns – certificates of occupany, signs, etc.
    6. A large area of concern are the homeless encampments and litter, the Office of Homeless Solutions deals with that; Brenda of the Stewpot indicated there is a team decommissioning the camps, and the debris/mess that comes with the homeless is being addressed
  4. Johnny’s phone number is 469-515-0830
    1. Funding for housing the homeless – Brenda Snitzer/The Stewpot
    2. They have been able to raise funding from the Affordable Care Act and other resources
    3. The Real Time Rapid Housing project is successful, helping people across the city with affordable housing, with wrap-around case management to get them back on their feet 
  5. Report on the FMSA – Lawrence Sweeney
    1. Gail Crawford, out-going treasurer, is no longer here, so Lawrence went over the initial numbers which are subject to review– we made a profit of $1.09 this year; $1,200 in membership dues; $180 in t-shirt sales; biggest expense was the $500 D&O insurance; $440 spent on meeting socials; $290 for Quickbooks; we started with approximately $5,000 in the bank and ended up with $4,850
    2. We started the year with Zoom meetings due to Covid, then in June went back to in-person meetings
    3. We have a new website, and the meeting minutes will be made available there
  6. Elections – Lawrence Sweeney
    1. Lawrence went over the candidates (Charles Dicks/President, David Alpuche/Secretary, Jody Rivera/Treasurer, and for Board at Large – Barbara Gee, Levi Hooten, Mark Ruibal and Susie Marshall); a call for those in favor of electing all mentioned to the board was made there were no objections and all members were in favor – the motion carried unanimously.
  7. Upcoming events and the Market – Lisa Ferri
    1. February 12th there will be a wine tasting from 1:00-5:00 pm inside the Market
    2. Savannah is doing farm visits and we will have new farms coming the Market
    3. They are also looking at staying open later
  8. Membership – Karen Pierre asked about recruiting new people in our community, and Lawrence encouraged all to recruit to our neighbors; Karen also recommended having a marketing/social media person and offered to assist with that
  9. Message from new President – Charles Dicks
    1. Charles gave a message of appreciation for being voted in as President and he’s looking forward to serving our FMSA
    2. Many thanks were given to Lawrence and Ivy Sweeney for their years of service on the FMSA by Tanya Reagan, Brenda Snitzer and Barbara Gee
  10. Meeting adjourned at 7:00 pm