-
|
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
-
|
| E-Mail Forum |
| RETURN |
| City Manager's Weekly Report for the Week
Ending October 26th, 2007 October 27, 2007 |
|
Mayor and Councilmembers:
This is the weekly report for the week ending October 26th, 2007.
1. Meeting Notes
The next City Council meeting is a special meeting scheduled for Tuesday, October 30th, beginning with a 5:00 PM Closed Session, followed by a short Study Session, and then a very limited Special City Council Meeting agenda. The next “regular” City Council meeting will be on November 6th.
2. Kozy Kove Update
As you may recall, at the most recent City Council meeting, the City Council continued the hearing on the appeal for the Kozy Kove (125 to 127 Western Drive) parcel map, and also directed the City Manager to work with the applicant and appellants to determine if issues of concern regarding the proposed subdivision could be resolved. During the past week, I have had both separate and joint meetings with the applicant and the appellants, all of whom are working very hard and very cooperatively to resolve issues. Because resolution of some of the issues requires some additional data gathering, the parties have agreed to request that the Council continue the matter from the October 30th meeting, with the provision that the matter will be heard during the month of November when all parties can attend the meeting. I will keep you informed.
3. Southern California Wildfires
The Richmond Fire Department has committed two Engine Companies to the firefighting effort in Southern California. The first company, consisting of Captain Victor Bontempo, Engineer Rico Rincon, Firefighters Jeremy Booth and Rodell Desemparo, left the Bay Area early Monday morning with engines from San Ramon, El Cerrito and Crockett as a Contra Costa County Strike Team. They were assigned to the Rice Fire in San Diego County. On Tuesday evening, a second company, staffed by Captain Terry Harris, Engineer Dwayne Jurado, Firefighters Anthony Woodards and Jesse Gonzalez, were sent along with engines from Chevron Fire, Contra Costa County Fire, and San Mateo Fire as a Task Force to the Grass Valley Fire in San Bernardino County. It is uncertain how long Richmond’s Fire Companies will be committed, but the normal deployment is usually one week to ten days.
4. Community Meeting Concerning County Health Center
This past Monday, October 23rd, City and County staff, with meeting facilitation help by the City’s General Plan consultants, MIG, hosted a community meeting at the Recreation Center at 33rd and Macdonald to receive input on potential sites for a new County Health Center. The meeting was well attended by approximately 60 residents, who asked good questions and provided a wealth of knowledge and ideas concerning this issue. MIG is preparing a full report for the November 6th City Council meeting, which will be accompanied by a staff report making recommendations based on the community input received. County staff will also be soliciting input from Health Center staff members and current Health Center patrons, which input will be shared with the City.
5. Update on the Bay Trail Gap Closure from Point Molate to Point Richmond
As you may recall, City Engineer Rich Davidson is participating on a multi-agency committee that is working to close the Bay Trail gap from Point Molate to Point Richmond. You may recall that Mr. Davidson attended a site meeting several weeks ago to visit three of the gap closure options outlined in the Point Molate to Point Richmond Bay Trail report prepared by Questa Engineering. The main focus of this meeting was to come up with a trail location that addressed everyone’s concerns related to safety, security, trail continuity, and providing an enjoyable trail experience. The committee agreed that a modified version of “Option 2” would work the best. This option would take the trail user, starting in Point Richmond at the end of Tewksbury Avenue near Marine Street, through Chevron’s undeveloped area known as “office hill” and then along a proposed cantilevered bike path section off of the I-580 overpass over Chevron’s Long Wharf to the existing trail that takes users under the freeway to Western Drive.
The advisory committee reconvened this past week to meet with representatives of Questa Engineering to discuss how they envisioned the trail to be constructed along the I-580 segment. After much discussion, the committee members determined that cantilevering the trail along the I-580 support structure is still the preferred option. Caltrans stated that this portion of the support structure and deck is slated for an upgrade in the FY 2010-11. Caltrans agreed to discuss with their structural engineers any impacts that this upgrade would have on the proposed cantilever plans. The next scheduled meeting for the committee is November 14th, and we will continue to keep you informed.
6. I-80 Shopping Center Expansion Stakeholder Meeting
As requested by the City Council, on Tuesday evening, October 23rd, Redevelopment Agency staff met with stakeholders that could potentially be impacted by the expansion of the I-80 Shopping Center. The purpose of the meeting was to gather input and answer questions about the process of choosing a Master Developer for an expanded development site that would include the existing County Health Center and old Toys-R-Us building, as well as a number of adjacent parcels. Based on input from the meeting, staff will be doing some research to more accurately determine the footprint of the real estate required so as to minimize the impact on local businesses. Due to the time required to complete the research, staff will be reporting out to the Agency Board on November 20th rather than November 6th as originally planned.
7. Meeting with CCISCO Regarding Crime Prevention in the Iron Triangle
City staff representing the Police, Recreation, Library, Public Works and Engineering Departments met this past week with the Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization (CCISCO) and residents of the Iron Triangle to follow up on a June 2007 meeting to discuss street lighting, blight and trash abatement, youth programs and the Police Department. The purpose of the meeting was to report on what the City has done in regards to their previous requests and what is the timeline to accomplish these tasks.
With regard to the street lighting issue, the concern of the neighborhood is that too many street lights are not working and there are too many dark areas making their neighborhood unsafe to go out into at night. To address this concern, City Engineer Rich Davidson is working with PG&E to increase the wattage on light fixtures in this neighborhood. A pilot project site, that borders Lucas and Pennsylvania Avenues to the north and south and 5th and 10th Streets to the east and west, has been selected for the installation of new light fixtures. This area will have all of the 70 watt bulbs changed out to 150 watts. At the intersections and along Peres School and Lucas Park, the light fixtures will have 250 watt bulbs. Once installation at this pilot project site is complete and evaluated, Engineering staff and PG&E will work systematically to replace all the lights in the neighborhood. Mr. Davidson will report back to CCISCO regarding the status of this project on Nov. 16th.
8. 2005 Pension Obligation Bonds Interest Swap
As you will recall, in November 2005, the City issued $114 million of its Pension Obligation Bonds (POB’s), Series 2005, to fund the unfunded accrued actuarial liability. The issuance of these bonds resulted in the City saving approximately $17 million in PERS costs. The City has since improved these savings by an additional $4 million by receiving an interest rate reduction in FY2005-06 when the 2004 and 2005 audits were completed, and the City’s credit rating improved.
These POB’s are set to revert to a variable mode of interest beginning in 2013, leaving the City some exposure to higher interest rates at that time. By continually monitoring the capital market, Finance Department staff has determined that today’s current interest rates are attractive enough to warrant an interest rate swap on the future variable rate securities. Finance staff will facilitate this transaction to remove the risk of higher interest rates in the future.
9. Public Works Department Activity
Public Works Director Yader Bermudez reported the following significant activities during the past week:
· Continuing pothole operations, crack sealing, and striping on Castro Ranch Road. · Painting red curbs along 23rd Street. · Continuing work on the re-habilitation of administrative office at Main Library. · Repairing lighting systems impacted by wire theft at Edwards and Vincent Parks. · Abating weed/litter on Golden Gate Avenue in Point Richmond. · Installing 11,000 sq. ft of sod at the Marina at Regatta and Marina Way South. · Installing wood chips in median on Cutting Boulevard. · Continuing grounds work on North Richmond Ball Field.
10. City of Richmond Annual “2007 Charitable Giving Campaign Kick-Off”
The City of Richmond launched its annual Charitable Giving Campaign on Thursday, October 18th. The Charitable Giving Campaign is an organized effort to encourage City staff members to make donations to organizations that support the Richmond community. The kick off event was well attended by City staff as well as local federations and Richmond charitable organizations, and provided an opportunity for City staff to learn first hand about charitable organization in the community. The following organizations were present with brochures and free give aways:
· Local Independent Charities · Bay Area Black United Fund · Richmond Improvement Association (RIA) · Richmond Police Activities League (PAL) · Community Health Charities · Richmond Youth Academy · Richmond/El Cerrito Firefighters Toy Program · Girls, Inc
11. Arts and Culture Program Update
The following are excerpts from the most recent Arts and Culture monthly report that you may find of interest:
1) The Neighborhood Mini-Grant program is wrapping up its 2006-2007 season, and about to begin the 2007-2008 program. Highlights include:
a. Ceramics program at Shields-Reid Community Center that involved the community and trained several student “teachers” who now teach others in ceramics techniques, and helped teach a class during the summer; b. Writing workshop on Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech that will culminate in a sculpture to be installed at the MLK Community Center; c. Exhibition at the Richmond Museum of History done by Iron Triangle youth comparing antique jewelry to current day “bling”; d. Time capsule concept that is now transforming into a quilt that will be done by Parchester Village seniors using Richmond as the theme.
2) “City Studio” program – an art program run by the SF Art Institute at the Nevin Center in partnership with Opportunity West – began in fall 2005. Iron Triangle Youth 14-20 years old attend art classes at the Nevin Center two days a week, and classes at SFAI twice a month for college credit.
a. It is now in its 4th semester teaching youth digital and video techniques at the Nevin Center and the SF Art Institute campus in SF. b. Three City Studio students are now enrolled at SFAI with full scholarships c. New students are currently being recruited to study digital and video art, and do a special poetry component with an audio computer program capturing “the sounds of Richmond”.
3) Richmond Art Center classes in the Community Centers
a. Two Art Center classes are being relocated at Booker T. Anderson and Point Richmond Community Centers during the Civic Center renovation b. These programs are pilots for an expanded series of art programs at additional Community Centers c. Performing arts will also be included with teachers from East Bay Center for the Performing Arts at the Community Centers as part of the expanded program
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 |