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| City Manager's Weekly Report for the Week
Ending March 2nd, 2007 March 5, 2007 |
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Mayor and Councilmembers:
This is the weekly report for the week ending March 2nd, 2007.
1. Meeting Notes
The next City Council meeting will be on Tuesday, March 6th, beginning with a Closed Session at 5:30 PM, Redevelopment Agency meeting at 6:00 PM, and the regular City Council meeting at 7:00 PM. Note that there is no morning session this coming Tuesday due to there being only one Closed Session item for the agenda.
2. Point Richmond Shores Design Charrette
The third design charrette for the Point Richmond Shores Project (Terminal One) was completed last Saturday morning, February 24th. During this meeting, the consultant, MIG, reviewed the design principles that were developed from the first two sessions, and these were further reviewed and discussed by the charrette participants. Among the key points of consensus was that the “main” road – that is, the road that would handle the major traffic flow in the ferry point area – should be the scenic, shoreline road, and not the existing (or a reconfigured) Brickyard Cove Road.
Also of significance, Toll Brothers had completed a revised design of the project based on the input from the first two sessions, and presented a building mass analysis of this conceptual design. The strong consensus by the participants was that the proposed changes to the building mass were a significant improvement from the prior Toll Brothers design of the project, and that this new conceptual design should form the basis of a new design submittal by Toll Brothers.
The participants also took a visual preference survey of nautical-oriented architectural styles that can be incorporated into a revised project design, and these were collected by the consultant at the end of the charrette (there was no time for discussion of these surveys).
The consensus of the group seemed to be that the charrette process was successful in leading to an improved project, and that the City should consider taking this design approach with other significant development projects.
3. Meeting Regarding Utility Users Tax Audit
Finance Director Jim Goins, City Attorney John Eastman, and I met today with Bob Cross of the law firm of Sideman & Bancroft to discuss the progress of the City's audit of Chevron's utility user tax payments. Mr. Cross has negotiated a final draft of the confidentiality agreement, which staff expects to include on the March 20th City Council agenda for consideration. At today’s meeting, we also reviewed various proposals and selected a firm to conduct the field audit of Chevron’s tax payments.
4. Tree Planting on the Richmond Parkway
During the last part of February, City of Richmond Parks staff planted 110 replacement trees along the Richmond Parkway in the area of Castro Street and Hensley Street. New trees include coast redwoods, coast live oaks, scarlet hawthorns and flowering pears, and are quite noticeable as one drives this area of the Parkway. Understory landscaping was also planted to add additional color. Replacement trees and landscaping were needed following repairs of irrigation systems that had been vandalized. The total project was completed at a cost of $8,000 and 400 worker hours.
Additional trees will be planted along other stretches of the Parkway as more irrigation systems are returned to service by Parks staff. Parks, Public Works and Police staff are now collaborating on a monitoring program to check vandalism along this highly visible corridor of the City to protect investments made in irrigation systems and landscape materials.
Congratulations to Tony Norris, Parks and Landscape Superintendent, and his staff for bringing spring to the Parkway.
5. Ferry Service Planning
Joseph LaClair, Senior Planner with the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), met with the Planning Director Richard Mitchell this past week to express the BCDC’s interest in supporting the ferry boat planning effort. BCDC is joining an on-going Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Bay Area Water Transportation Authority (WTA) study of terminal locations and possible service levels for Richmond to San Francisco Ferry Service.
6. Winters Building Design Review Approval
The Design Review Board (DRB) reviewed and approved a façade modification for the Winters Building proposed by the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. Rather than restore the façade in a conventional sense, the Center is proposing to replace the existing stucco façade with large posters to be located behind glass that would ‘wrap’ the corner of the first floor. The posters would show a range of activities that regularly occur within the structure.
7. Design Review Procedures Survey
The Planning Department has been working for the past several months on a multi-city survey of design review practices, which will be submitted to the City Council shortly. The results will assist staff with its effort to restructure the process according to direction recently received from the City Council that will combine the Design Review Board and Planning Commission into a new 9- person Planning and Design Review Board.
8. Status Report on Phase II of the Central Richmond Greenway Bicycle Trail
The Authorization for Construction packet for Phase II of the Greenway bike trail (23rd Street to San Pablo Avenue) has been completed and submitted to Caltrans and the Federal Highway Authority for their review and approval. This review should take approximately one month to complete. Once approved, the City will have the authorization to bid this portion of the trail for construction. The cost estimate for this phase is between $1.5 and $2 million and is funded by an MTC grant and the Richmond Community Redevelopment Agency.
9. More Recognition for the Finance Department – Capital Improvement Budget
The Finance Department was awarded the FY 2006-07 “Meritorious Budget Award” from the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers. The Capital Improvement Budget was reviewed for accurate and consistent numbers, impacts of projects on operating costs, highlighted policy, economic and legislative issues facing the City, recommended actions to resolve these issues, and organization and completeness of the document. Congratulations to the budget team of Jim Goins, Herb Pike, Vrenesia Teal and Pamela Cagler as well as all Finance Department staff members who assisted in making this budget a success.
10. Civic Center Financing
The $70 million debt issuance for the Civic Center renovation remains on schedule to be completed by May 3rd. On March 26th, Finance Director Jim Goins and I, together with the financing team, will meet with rating agencies Standard & Poor’s Credit Corporation and Moody’s Investor Services Inc. to review the City’s financial condition. We remain hopeful for an upgrade of the City’s existing investment grade credit rating, which will lower the cost of the interest on the bonds.
11. Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006 has been received and is included on the City Council agenda. As a result of the timely completion of the CAFR, the City was able to meet deadlines for submission of the document to the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and California Society of Municipal Finance Officers (CSMFO) Award Programs for Outstanding Financial Reporting.
Changes from FY2004-05 to 2005-06 include the consolidation and/or closing of over 75 excess funds; the closing of over 175 excess general ledger cash accounts; the clearing up of over 10 million dollars in negative cash balances and the implementation of Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) 44 (Statistical Section presentations) retroactive to the year that the City implemented GASB 34 (Government-Wide) reporting. The chart below summarizes the net changes in the City’s fund balance at the end of the past four fiscal years:
12. 7th Annual Black History Luncheon
City staff celebrated Black History Month on Friday with the well-attended, festive and entertaining 7th Annual City of Richmond Black History Luncheon. Ron Wiley served as the Master of Ceremonies, music and poetry were provided by Minister Cynthia Harris and Deborah Dias, respectively, and Dr. McKinley Williams provided the keynote address. Thanks to all those who helped plan this great annual event, especially the Black History Luncheon Committee Members Deborah Jenkins, Delores Murray, Sandra Thompson, Sharon Scott, Tammi Edwards, Theresa Austin, and Charlotte Dennis (I hope that I did not leave anyone off of this list).
13. Fire Department Personnel News
On Thursday, March 1st the Fire Department promoted ten personnel; seven to the rank of Captain and three to the rank of Engineer. Their names are as follows:
Captains: Victor Bontempo, Elizabeth deDios, Manly Moulton, Jr., Luis Padilla, Dane Poteet, Paul Schmidt, Edward Valdivia
Engineers: Jason Flaum, Dwayne Jurado, Shawn McCombe
This past January, five other personnel were promoted to the rank of Engineer: Robert Giaramita, Aaron Osorio, Germain Gomez, Marc Palachek, Casey Shott and Erin Perez.
The Fire Department is planning a swearing-in ceremony for these staff members during the first week of April.
14. Special Events Calendar
I have attached for your information and planning purposes a list of the City of Richmond Recreation Department sponsored special events currently planned for the 18-month period from January 2007 through June 2008.
15. This Week’s City of Richmond Website Fun Facts
This week we take a look at from where the City’s website visitors are being referred.
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 |
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