Mayor and Councilmembers:

This is the weekly report for the week ending August 3^rd, 2007.

1.         Meeting Notes

The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 11^th, absent any matter of urgency that requires a special City Council meeting during the month of August.  I appreciate the time and effort that was put forth by the City Council and City staff in “clearing the slate” of agenda items to the maximum extent possible with a long meeting this past Tuesday that spanned two months (from July 31^st to August 1^st), with 66 substantive agenda items and 4 Study Sessions.  I especially appreciate the work by Assistant City Manager Leslie Knight, who served as Acting City Manager for this meeting, and by Administrative Chief Janet Schneider, providing agenda report review and agenda coordination duties, during my absence.

2.         Bond Buyer Article on Upgrade to City of Richmond Credit Ratings

Attached is an article that was published today in the Bond Buyer, which is a daily trade newspaper that covers public finance issues, reporting on the recent upgrades to City of Richmond credit ratings from both Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s Investor Services.  The article is a good history of the activities that led to Standard and Poor’s upgrading the City’s Issuer rating two notches, from “BBB+” to “A”, and Moody’s assigning the City’s Issuer rating at “A2”, which is a one-notch upgrade from “A3”.

3.         Civic Center Revitalization Project Financing

The Bond Financing Team is conducting a final review of all documents relating to financing the Civic Center Revitalization Project.  AMBAC Assurance Corporation, an “AAA” rated bond insurer, has been selected to provide insurance on the bonds.  Pricing on the bonds is scheduled for August 13^th, with the bonds to be sold on August 28^th.  As a result of the interest rate lock executed this past April, when interest rates were considerably lower than they are now, the City will save approximately $2.5 million in interest costs on these bonds from what they otherwise might have been.

4.         City Receives Competitive Safe Routes to Schools Grant Award

The City of Richmond has learned that it received an award of $412,167 in Safe Routes to Schools funding from the State Department of Transportation for a proposal developed with the assistance of the Glen Price Group. The process was an extremely competitive one, in which only one in five applications received funding.  Grant funds will provide for engineering improvements in the vicinity of Ford, Grant, King, and Lincoln Elementary schools that will increase the safety of children walking and biking to school.  Key elements of the project include the installation of raised medians, in-roadway warning lights and the upgrading of crosswalks and pavement markings.  The project also incorporates education and encouragement provided to students and parents, along with increased enforcement of traffic violations in the vicinity of school sites.  Special recognition goes to Steven Tam and Rich Davidson, who put in extra hours over the December 2006 holidays for a grant with a January 2nd due date.

5.         Progress on Health Element of General Plan

This past week, I attended a very interesting meeting of the Technical Advisory Group for the Public Health Element of the City’s General Plan.  As you will recall, the California Endowment has provided a $255,000 grant for a project to include a Public Health Element in Richmond’s new General Plan, which will make Richmond the first city in the State to include this element.  The grant is being administered by PolicyLink, a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, specializing in social equity issues and strategies to improve community health, and is being led by MIG, Inc., the land use planning firm for the City of Richmond’s General Plan Update, in consultation with Contra Costa Health Services.  From my perspective, a number of interesting and important issues are emerging from the work being done by the Technical Advisory Group for this project.  In particular, proposed policies and implementing actions related to 10 community planning objectives for Public Health are being developed in great detail.  These planning objectives are:

1)    Access to recreation and open space;

2)    Access to healthy foods;

3)    Access to medical services;

4)    Access to public transit and safe active transportation;

5)    Access to quality affordable housing;

6)    Access to economic opportunities;

7)    Completeness of neighborhoods;

8)    Safe neighborhoods and public spaces;

9)    Environmental quality;

10) Green and sustainable development.

Many of these planning objectives cut across other elements of the Genera Plan, but many are unique to this new element.  I will keep you informed on this and other aspects of the General Plan update as this process it moves forward.

6.         Baxter Creek Clean-Up

This past Thursday, volunteers from the Watershed Project, Urban Creeks Council and Friends of Baxter Creek performed a clean-up in Baxter Creek adjacent to Booker T. Anderson Jr. Community Park.  These volunteers were assisted by staff from the City Parks Maintenance division with equipment.  Among the items removed from the creek were two large appliances and several shopping carts, along with invasive exotic weeds.  Of note, some veteran volunteers noted far less debris needed to be removed this time than in previous years.

7.         Restoration of Shields-Reid Playground

Much needed restoration work has been completed at the playground of Shields-Reid Neighborhood Park.  The work was completed by McNabb Construction, as part of a collaborative building process which also involved the North Richmond community, Parks & Landscaping division staff, and financial resources from the North Richmond Waste and Recovery Mitigation Fee.  As part of the project, the KaBoom organization sponsored a Build Day at which local volunteers and businesses helped assemble the play equipment structures.

7.         Fire Department Promotions

There were two recent promotions made in the Fire Department.  Fire Inspector Doug Murray was promoted to Deputy Fire Marshal and Engineer Harry Thompson was promoted to Fire Inspector.  Both Doug and Harry have already started in their new positions.  A badge pinning ceremony will be held on Tuesday, August 6^th at 3:30 PM in the City Council Chambers, with a reception following in the Shimada Room.  The Mayor, Council Members and City Staff are all invited to attend.

8.         Website Fun Facts

Since rolling out the new website nearly one year ago, the interest of community members, as measured by web site visits, has steadily increased.  As indicated below, web site visits were approximately 3½ times greater in July 2007 as compared to August 2006.

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