Along with the board of directors from both the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association (MHNA) and the Nicollet Island-East Bank Neighborhood Association (NIEBNA), the Southeast Como Improvement Association (SECIA) board approved a merger of the three organizations in August 2024. 

This affirmative vote was based on the work carried out by a task force of representatives from each organization, through conversations with each association’s respective community, and feedback from other neighborhood organizations and non-profits.

You can read more about this project at our website: www.secomo.org/merger.

SECIA will be hosting a second Community Discussion of this board-approved merger on Thursday, September 19, 2024. This will be online via Zoom, and will begin at 6:30 pm. Please see our calendar for Zoom information.

There will be additional opportunities to engage at the upcoming Como Cookout. At the end of the Cookout, electronic ballots for Southeast Como community voting will be distributed by email. You can request a ballot here; you will receive it on September 28th.

• Voters will have 72 hours to complete their online ballot (the SECIA voting period ends at 3 pm on Tuesday, October 1, 2024).
• Ballots can be requested while the Como voting period is open, from September 28 – October 1.

Because we expect a number of questions in the month of September, SECIA would like to receive as many of these as possible in advance. Responses to these questions will be posted to a dedicated webpage, and will be shared at our discussion meeting on September 19th. 

By fielding questions ahead of time, we hope to maximize the time we have at the meeting for new questions.

The following are questions received by SECIA: submitted questions will be in bold.

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1. In the past 2 weeks a large number of keep Como going signs have appeared in my neighborhood. the majority of these signs appear to be on mom rental home owned taxpayer property This led me to conclude that a merger is not something long time residences of the area want and in directly speaking to Como residence I came to the same conclusion, Such a merger could result in a loss of identity and the know your neighbor feel that could come as a result of becoming merger. I has emiled SECIA for more information but was only told that SECIA supports the merger but no statements as to why (K.L.)

• A large number of long-time residents actively support the merger of neighborhood organizations, as they believe that it will lead to the long term stability of the organization that is created. Neighborhoods and their identity are not eroding because a potential merger of organizations takes place. They will most certainly erode if there is not a stable—and strong—organization advocating for the neighborhood.
• What has been reiterated many times is that this is a merger of organizations, not the erasure of neighborhood identities. The “Keep Como Going” campaign is misleading, because no matter what happens, “Como” still exists. The City Planning department will still recognize this neighborhood as Como, elected leaders will still talk about the Como neighborhood, and residents (both long term and short term) will still call this neighborhood “Como” or “Southeast Como.”  But as structured, and funded by the City of Minneapolis and other agencies, this neighborhood association “SECIA,” will not be able to advocate for any Como identity, because this organization will no longer exist.
• What is possible through this partnership is a way to continue to advocate for the Como neighborhood, with a functioning staff, resources, and strengthened volunteer base. 
• A note about yard signs — a significant number of them have been illegally placed in the city’s right-of-way, violating Minneapolis Ordinance 560.230(g).
• You emailed asking for a yard sign from a campaign that we don’t support or endorse. My role is to support and work on behalf of the SECIA board of directors (most of whom are long term homeowners, and a majority of whom support the East Bank Neighborhoods Partnership). If you would like information on how a merged organization (not merged neighborhoods) could work, I would point you to our website: www.secomo.org/merger. And specifically these documents:

• Plan of Merger Summary
• Report: East Bank Neighborhoods Partnership: Merging Organizations, Not Neighborhoods
• Presentation: East Bank Neighborhoods Partnership: Merging Organizations, Not Neighborhoods (to be presented in September 2024)
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Plan of Merger (approved by all 3 boards in August 2024)

2. What I look for in a neighborhood association is an opportunity to meet neighbors and build community. When I know my neighbors and they know me they are more likely to clear their yards of trash, sweep their curbs and gutters to clear storm drains, clear their sidewalks of snow so I can walk to the bus stop, and watch my property when I am away. Would an east side partnership target those interests as effectively as a Como-based association? I do not think so. (S.P.)

How has your existing neighborhood association been effective over the past 5+ years to achieve the goals you outline?

Likely not much, as limited staff are either overextended, under qualified, or are simply out of touch about how a neighborhood association should actually function.

Neighborhood associations should be about events and placebuilding, but instead they have often become places of bureaucratic paperwork, assessments, and screenings. When you have a team of staff (not interns who have little professional training and myriad preexisting competing interests), you would have employees who could organize multiple site-specific events and meetings, tailored to a neighborhood or set of blocks. The East Bank Neighborhoods Partnership project has never believed that all residents from all neighborhoods will become best friends, but we do believe that they all share the same baseline interests — keeping the neighborhoods safe, keeping the sidewalks clear, and getting rid of trash…minimally — there are countless livability examples to mention.

Each neighborhood has continually stressed the need to keep alive the idea of neighborhood specific events — whether that be cookouts, dog parades, or ice cream socials. Those will not go away with a partnership, but will be made stronger because you will have multiple staff members not only participating, but effectively and efficiently finding volunteer assistance to make such events possible. 

3. Would Mid-City Industrial neighborhood be officially a part of this merger? (E.S.)

Yes, the Mid-City Industrial neighborhood, currently represented with SECIA, would continue in the new partnership with the same rights and privileges that the neighborhood currently has. Mid-City Industrial residents / businesses would still have the same opportunities to access grants, like the Mississippi Management Watershed Organization or the Good Neighbor Fund, as two examples.

4. How will the needs of each neighborhoods be prioritized? (A.S.)

The Como neighborhood (including the Mid-City Industrial neighborhood) will have 3 dedicated board seats available on the potential new organization. Only individuals from the Southeast Como and Mid-City Industrial neighborhoods can be elected to these seats. Additionally, any new organization would have 6 at-large directors seats available, these 6 six seats would go to the highest vote recipients across the territory of the entire partnership. Neighborhood priorities should be filtered to the Southeast Como / Mid-City Industrial directors, but they can also be brought to the attention to the entire board. Existing priorities—those already in place in SECIA will continue to be honored by the new organization.

5. Will all the same programs continue in the Como neighborhood or are certain things being phased out – like Como Kids, Como cookout, etc. (A.S.)

All programs will continue in the new partnership, and will hopefully be made more efficient and effective with increased funding brought about in eliminating the redundancies that each organization currently pays for on their own.

6. Will the separate neighborhood associations still exist in some capacity? If so what will that look like? (E.A.)

The existing neighborhood associations will merge to form one association that will cover the current boundaries. The programming will remain the same, but there will not be three separate board of directors. There will likely be continued neighborhood committees that continue (three distinct land use, or environment committees, for example), with some programming that might consolidate to be more efficient (merging the utility box wrap programs, as one example).

7. It sounds like a big reason to merge is pooling resources. How would that work in future when currently stipends / grants go to individual neighborhood associations? Would we end up receiving 1 stipend (for the merged group) vs 3 in future? (E.A.)

All existing obligations will continue to be honored in their areas in which they were created. The M.W.M.O. grant that Marcy-Holmes currently works with will not, and can not, merge with the M.W.M.O. grant that SECIA currently works with. The existing Good Neighbor Fund grants across multiple organizations will continue to exist independently until those projects are complete. For future grants, the new organization would receive the dedicated, site-specific funds that are applied for. If the Como neighborhood wanted to apply for a grant to promote stormwater management near East Hennepin Avenue, the new organization would apply for those funds, and if received, would only used those funds on East Hennepin.

8. How will the merger affect funding towards neighborhood events? (S.R.)

Existing neighborhood events will continue into 2025 and beyond. We anticipated that there will be more funding for these established events because the pooled resources of the current associations will allow us to stretch funds further. Rather than each neighborhood association spending $1000 a year on website hosting, maintenance, etc; each neighborhood would be splitting the cost of a single website (1/3 of $1000), leaving the remaining 2/3s to be more wisely spent. Instead of 3 insurance Directors and Officers Insurance Policies, there would be 1. Each example allows for the idea that funding can be put towards events and programming.

9. Will the merger place a larger focus on programing for college aged residents? (S.R).

One of the intentions of this partnership is to give a more consistent opportunity for college aged residents to have a voice in a neighborhood association, through the 3 directors seats dedicated the Dinkytown / University Neighborhood community displayed below.

All three areas of this partnership have college-aged residents, but within the Dinkytown / University area they are a distinct majority. By dedicating, these seats to only residents / community members from this area, they will always have seats available to them, and not for example, but occupied by others from the green or blue areas above. We believe that by reserving these 3 seats, minimally, for college aged residents, we will be better be able balance the programming of the overall organization.

10. Will the merger increase programming offered in SE Como or decrease it? (S.R.)

Programming levels will remain the same for all the areas, and we believe that programming will improve (or even increase), because the partnership has more available funds to invest because the operational burden (overhead, insurance, office space) will be shared across the neighborhoods.

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