The good news is that City Manager Bill Lindsay requires department heads to provide monthly written reports about what they are doing and tracking progress on various initiatives. Some of these are provided as computer files that can be downloaded and transmitted to constituents, such as the Community and Economic Development (CED) monthly report.

Other departments have extensive websites chock full of detailed information. Planning is probably the best (http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/~planning). Also, click on http://www.cityofrichmondgeneralplan.org/ for the latest on the ongoing general plan update process.

Next to Planning, Engineering has information people are most interested in, but I can’t seem to get them to convert written reports to PDF files or post the information on their website. I have scanned and attached a couple of them – the list of streets that will be repaired or replaced in a $7 million project that will begin this summer. Also attached is a list of capital improvement projects that are currently in the design phase (Note that “PSE” is engineering speak for “Plans, Specifications and Estimate.”).

Finally, I attach a schedule for neighborhood cleanups for 2006.

I don’t know why the City can’t simply post all this information on the website and keep it updated. I guess it keeps me out of trouble if I have to spend a lot of time on it.