This is the weekly report for the week ending April 6^th, 2007.

1.      Meeting Notes

The next City Council meeting will be on Tuesday, April 17^th.  Note that the City Council Finance Committee will meet at 9:00 AM on Monday, April 9^th.

2.      City Council Goal Setting Retreat

At its Study Session last week, at which the Council discussed establishing strategic goals for FY 2007-08, the City Council decided to schedule a strategic goal setting retreat to allow extended time for this process.  You should have received an e-mail from Administrative Chief Janet Schneider earlier this week requesting input on a proposed time for such a strategic goal setting meeting, and input regarding a facilitator.  We are still waiting to hear back from some Councilmembers regarding their schedules before setting a final date and time, but, at this point, the leading candidate is Thursday afternoon, April 19^th.  We have also not yet finalized a meeting facilitator, but have heard from at least one Councilmember that a meeting facilitator is really not needed for this process, and is an unnecessary expense.

Please advise either me or Janet regarding (1) whether the date of April 19^th in the afternoon is acceptable to you for a strategic planning retreat, and (2) whether or not you believe a facilitator should be retained for this process.

3.      Meeting with PG&E to Discuss Street Lights

Public Works Maintenance Director Willie Haywood, City Engineer Rich Davidson, Electrical Supervisor Ralph Lloyd and I met today with representatives of PG&E to discuss expediting projects to upgrade the City’s streetlights.  PG&E representatives were quite responsive to our expressed interests, especially with respect to replacing the antiquated “serial” wired lights that exist in several neighborhoods of the City.  They also indicated both an interest in moving forward with projects in other areas of the City, and in being flexible regarding design standards to allow aesthetically pleasing alternatives to the traditional “cobra-head” fixture.  We will keep you informed as we move forward on these projects.

4.      Civic Center Bond Financing

Finance Director Jim Goins has approved a forward rate hedge for the Civic Center Bonds, with an excellent interest rate of 3.586%. As you may recall, this financial strategy was approved by the City Council at their December 19^th, 2006 meeting.  By locking interest rates in today’s attractive market environment, the effect of rising interest rates on the affordability of the project is negated, and the financing team can more effectively analyze financing scenarios.

5.      General Plan Update

The third of four Community workshops was held last Wednesday, April 4^th, at the Hilltop Mall Community room.  Ninety eight residents and business owners shared their thoughts about alternative land uses in districts of the City that may experience a higher rate of change during the next decade.  The final community meeting of this series will be held on Thursday, April 12^th at St. Mark’s Church, 159 Harbor Way.  This meeting will be conducted in Spanish.

This round of meetings has been an unqualified success!

6.      Charitable Giving Campaign Award

The Local Independent Charities of America, along with other local federations who participated in the 2006 City of Richmond Charitable Giving Campaign, has awarded Finance Department staff member Theresa Austin, representing the City of Richmond, with a Certificate of Excellence Award for her involvement as the Campaign Coordinator.  The award reflects the diligence, enthusiasm and commitment of the City staff for their contributions and support to more than 300 agencies and people in the community.

Congratulations to Theresa and to all those who helped make this campaign a success.

7.      A New Flyer for LEAP

Attached to this weekly report for your information is the new flyer for the LEAP program.

<<leapflyer1.pdf>>

8.      This Week’s City of Richmond Website Fun Fact

Where in the world are they looking at Richmond, California?  For the first quarter of the year, 4.29% of website visitors were international.  The top five foreign country web site visits were from Canada, China, Switzerland, Australia, and the Netherlands.  These five countries together account for approximately 2.5% of all website “hits.”  (Yes, we are scraping this week to find a fun fact.)

            Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments about these or any other items of interest to you.

Have a great week!

Bill Lindsay, City Manager, City of Richmond

1401 Marina Way South

Richmond, CA 94804

Phone:  510-620-6512

Fax:      510-620-6542

e-mail:   bill_lindsay@ci.richmond.ca.us