Mayor and Councilmembers:

This is the weekly report for the week ending November 30^th, 2007.

1.         Meeting Notes

The next regular City Council meeting is Tuesday, December 4^th.  It will begin at 2:00 PM with a Study Session on the General Plan, followed by a short recess in advance of the routine City Council meeting agenda.  This agenda begins with a Closed Session at 5:00 PM, followed by a short Study Session, a Redevelopment Agency meeting, and then the regular Council agenda at 7:00 PM.  Please note that there will be a special meeting of the City Council on Tuesday, December 11^th.

2.         Oil Spill Response Costs

The Finance Department has issued forms to all City employees to report costs incurred in responding to the recent oil spill.  Cost information has been received from the Public Works Parks Division, Engineering Department, Fire Department and the Port of Richmond, and Finance is following up to see if additional cost components can be incorporated.  Staff is still inspecting the City’s shorelines and initiating responses to identified impacts from the residual oil in the Bay.  Also, in concert with the City Attorney’s Office, the City is collaborating with other jurisdictions to identify cost elements, valuation methodologies and recovery strategies as the City seeks to identify the most effective way to obtain recovery of the City’s expenses incurred.  Finance is working to compile the first summary of expenses for November by the end of next week.

3.         Sales Tax Revenue Report — 2^nd Quarter 2007

MuniServices, the City’s sales tax consultant, presented to the Finance Department staff an analytical overview of the sales tax revenue collected for the City by the State Board of Equalization for the 2^nd period of 2007 which ended on June 30^th.  The City’s sales tax revenues grew by 7.4% over the prior year compared to the County-wide increase of 2.3% over the same period. The revenues collected for both the regular sales tax and the additional half cent sales tax were both at all time highs for the City.

4.         LEAP Outreach

LEAP staff recently visited Nystrom, Lincoln, and Chavez Elementary Schools, distributing 150 children’s books to the Pre-K groups and approximately 75 books to the adults/parents who attended the meeting.  LEAP staff introduced the library and the resources to the group, and handed out backpacks with school supplies and age-appropriate books.  In addition, they provided a storytime for the families together.  These book distributions and children’s and family activities support both the programs for First Five (working with the pre-schoolers on site) and the ELLI grant, a California State Library-funded program that reaches ESL families through schools.

Beginning in December, LEAP will be expanding its presence at Shields-Reid with a literacy/basic/GED group in the afternoon on Tuesday and Thursday, from 3:15- 4:45 PM.  The Center for Human Development will be helping with the outreach to bring in students.

At GRIP, LEAP will be offering a program for students on Monday-Wednesday from 1:30-3:00 PM at the Resource Center on 22^nd St.  They will also be offering a monthly family program to GRIP participants, including information about how to use the library, library programs, and a storytime.

On-site, LEAP’s English as a Second Language (ESL) program has between 15-25 students daily.  The students are happy with the program, noticeably, as they are returning on a regular basis.

5.         Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) Activities

The following are some recent actions and activities by the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS):

Street Outreach

·         As part of implementing its street outreach strategy, the City of Richmond’s recruitment for the Neighborhood Change Agent (NCA) and Peace Keeper positions (outreach workers) will remain open until December 7, 2007 5:00 PM.

·         In partnership with ONS, the RPD Police Chaplaincy program will be accepting donations to provide care baskets to the families of survivors of violence.

Collaborative Efforts

·         The Office of Neighborhood Safety Director participated in the first of an ongoing 18 week Positive Minds Group (PMG) training series.  PMG is a group of youth and young adults supporting each other through the study of self-mastery, media, politics, spirituality, history, psychology and positive thinking.  Opportunity West and The Mentoring Center are collaborating to bring this nationally recognized youth development and violence prevention model to the Nevin Community Center for Richmond youth and young adults.  The ONS Director greeted more than 15 youth on the opening evening and will continue to participate with the students throughout the 18 week period.

·         The ONS participated in a meeting convened by Supervisor John Gioia’s office at the North Richmond Young Adult Empowerment Center attended by County, City, youth and community leadership and stakeholders.  The meeting was established to provide information to the North Richmond community about current gang/violence prevention efforts including the opening of the North Richmond Young Adult Empowerment Center, law enforcement activity, the work of North Richmond Youth Build, the AMER-I-CAN program, the Bay Area Peace Keepers, Street Outreach and various Mentoring efforts.  ONS will continue to provide City leadership and coordinating support for gang intervention/violence prevention activity within this initiative.

·         The ONS is working with the City’s Community Services Recreation Division to establish comprehensive afterschool programs that integrate sports with cognitive behavior change groups for youth participants.  ONS will also work with Recreation Leadership to support the development of joint program training and staff development opportunities where appropriate.

·         The ONS is establishing points of coordination and collaboration with West Contra Costa Unified School District including the Superintendent’s Office and Police School Resource Officers (SRO’s).  This coordination will be specific to identifying and directing adequate and appropriate City support and service provision for the Districts most high risk/disconnected youth including youth chronically truant, expelled, and those reintegrating/returning to school from extended absences.

Meetings with Stakeholders

·         The ONS presented and participated at the Contra Costa Health Services “Violence Hurts Everyone” training workshop held at the Morning Star Community Church in North Richmond.  This training convened both public system leadership and community stakeholders.

·         ONS continues to meet and schedule meetings with a vast collection of community and faith based agencies/leaders within the City to better identify meaningful partnership, collaborative and coordination opportunity pertaining to homicide reduction and violence prevention/intervention activity in Richmond.

Resource Development Strategies

·         At the request of local philanthropy, ONS prepared and submitted a grant application to receive support for the City of Richmond Street Outreach Strategy.

·         ONS continues to work with other public system and community based leadership to develop a grant application for the California Gang Reduction Intervention Program.  This program will provide a well coordinated, comprehensive service model for youth and young adults to reduce/prevent gang and street violence in Richmond.

6.         RichmondWORKS Training Workshop on “Success with Ex-Offenders”

 “From Jails to Jobs: Success with Ex-offenders” is the title of a training workshop scheduled for December 14, 2007 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the RichmondWORKS One Stop at 330 25^th Street.  The presenter, Mr. Larry Robbin, is a nationally recognized trainer in workforce development. 

The training will cover:

·         Successful employment models for serving ex-offenders;

·         Job search and job retention strategies;

·         Common mindset of people coming from the correctional system;

·         Resources related to ex-offenders and employment.

The training is targeted for:

·         Case managers;

·         Job developers;

·         Counselors;

·         Outreach workers;

·         Community organizers.

This free training workshop is being sponsored by RichmondWORKs and the Office of Neighborhood Safety.

7.         General Plan Activities

The following are two recent events related to preparation of the General Plan:

Local Artists working on the General Plan Update

Last Monday, six local artists met with representatives of MIG to discuss the process for preparing illustrations for the General Plan. These artists will attempt to reflect the community’s collective vision, above and beyond the limits of photographic simulations. Their work will be placed throughout the final document and be displayed on the City’s General Plan WEB page.

General Plan Advisory Committee Meeting

On Wednesday, November 28 the General Plan Advisory Committee met to hear from representatives of the Bay Area Water Transportation Authority and from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, who discussed plans for expansion of ferry service.  The GPAC also reviewed the draft Natural Resources and Open Space Elements, Historic Resources Element and Arts & Culture Element. The next GPAC meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 5^th.

8.         Community Meeting on Wireless Facilities

A second community meeting was held this past Thursday evening to gather community input and present a comparative analysis of submittal and approval processes for wireless facilities in other cities.  Facilitators provided by MIG will summarize both meetings and pass this information along to the Ad Hoc Committee recently appointed by the Mayor.  The meeting was attended by members of the community and representatives of the wireless communications industry.

9.         Neighborhood Design Standards

Draft design standards for Richmond’s heritage homes have been posted to the Planning Department WEB site. Spanish Revival, Richmond Bungalow and Craftsman styles are on display. The Richmond Tudor style and the ‘post war ranch’ style are still in development. The Consultants have also discovered that Richmond hosts a respectable number of ‘International’ style homes that were designed during the optimistic post war period. A community meeting will be held on Monday, December 3, to present the standards and gather additional community input. Opticos is also preparing guidelines that will help residents to match fence styles with Architecture type in Richmond’s ‘Heritage’ neighborhoods.

10.       Planning and Building Services Department Audit Follow-up

Zucker Systems is preparing a year-end progress report on implementation of the 125 recommendations made by their firm to improve business processes in the Planning and Building Services Department. The report will be available in December.

11.       Update on Sewer Lateral Repairs to Homes Sold within the Richmond Sewer Service Area

In August of 2006, the City adopted an ordinance requiring that, at the time of the sale of a home within the Richmond sewer service area, the sewer lateral must be inspected and repaired, as necessary.  To date, Engineering has issued 283 certificates of compliance for the repair of such sewer laterals.  Except for the sale of a new home or a home built within the last 5 years, every house that has come in for the certificate has had to have their lateral repaired.  It is estimated that broken sewer laterals contribute to at least 40% of the inflow and infiltration problem we have in our system.  This is one method that the City is using to reduce this problem.

12.       Public Works Department Activities

On Friday, November 30, 2007, the Public Works Department participated in a partnership with Police Department in a joint clean up operation including graffiti removal, tree trimming, weed abatement, and illegal dumping on1st Street between Main and Florida.  Other significant activity in the Public Works Department this past week included:

·         Resurfacing 32^nd Street from Rheem to Tulare and potholing Park Plaza area;

·         Responding to 400 graffiti abatement incidents, including along the Union Pacific and Greenway corridors;

·         Beginning in-field work at Judge Carrol Park;

·         Trimming trees along 600-800 Barrett Avenue;

·         Placing decorative chips at the Plunge and Library in Point Richmond;

·         Completing hanging of lights and banners for the Main Street Annual Holidays;

·         Working with PG&E to add additional lighting on 11^th Street south of Florida to increase security at Richmond College Prep Schools.

·         Continue installing “reporting phone number” strip signs on multiple signs around the City.

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