RNCC meeting minutes, September 8, 2014
1. The meeting was called to order at 7:01 pm by President Don Woodrow. President Don Woodrow corrected the date of the October meeting to October 20, 2014 and asked George Schmidt to speak about the Candidates’ Forum that the RNCC, League of Women Voters and Bwopa on Monday, September 29, 2014. He also thanked Richmond Annex and Marina Bay for this evenings refreshments.
2. MSP approval of the Minutes from July 14, 2014.
3. Representatives from the following (15) neighborhoods introduced themselves and some gave reports:Belding/Woods, Eastshore, Fairmede/Hilltop, Hilltop villages, Iron Triangle, Marina Bay, May Valley, North & East, Panhandle Annex, Park Plaza, Pt. Richmond, Richmond Annex, Richmond Heights, and Santa Fe NCs.
4. City Department Heads/City Official Reports:
Mayor’s Office: Nicole Valentino told us that the new poet laureates will be honored at either the Sept 16th or Sept 23rd City Council meeting. Events coming soon are the Laurel Park Blues Festival and North Shore Annual Music Festival.
Police Department: Captain Manjit Sappal was here in Chief Magnus’ place and told us that crime stats are down from last year by 19.35%. Two categories that are up are battery (28%) and carjacking (13%), everything else is down, shots fired (45%) and residential burglary (31%). He reminded us to always report anything suspicious. RPD was selected to be a part of the Violence Reduction Project, where they work with other agencies and find what are the best practices. The agencies picked were Chicago, Detroit, Camden, Wilmington, Oakland and Richmond. This will give us a better shot at government grants. The officers will be taking classes about bias and they will learn better tools for seeing when bias is happening. They have also had some mixed messages about their “Johns on Facebook” and asked for our feedback.
Fire Department: Terry Harris – talked to us about what you do after there is a fire. First you call your insurance company then you call a public adjuster. If you are installing solar panels, make sure the company that is installing them goes to the Fire Marshall to make sure they are installing them to fire code.
Public Works: Yader Bermudez passed out the paving schedule for the next 3 weeks and talked about the 8th St. Greenway park. They are looking for grants to light the Greenway and the Richmond Swim Center’s demo work is 25% completed.
Planning: Hector Rojas talked to us about the huge surge in permit applications. There is the “Bottoms Project” at Terminal One and they are in the final stages of the Shoreline Specific Plan. They are going to divide some neighborhoods into sub-neighborhoods over the forty years. We should see the draft release for the sign ordinance in the end of October and the locations they are looking closely at Hilltop and the Hoffman marsh area. They will be located in C2 and at least 1500 feet from each other.
Code Enforcement: Tim Higares N/A
Environmental Manager: Lynne Scarpa reminded us about the Coastal Clean up and talked about fleas and cockroaches and the ways to manage them through IPM. Make sure you seal things up and vacuum really well and use sticky traps. Don’t use pesticides!
Engineering Services: Chad Smalley (Development Project Manager) gave us some updates on Capital Improvements. The Moody Underpass was started in July 2013 and, depending on the weather, it should be completed in May 2015. The job was shut down for about two months when the utilities still had work to complete and they could not work until it was completed. The underpass is about 60% completed at this time. They have begun on building the retaining walls and they will take about 4 months to complete.
City Manager/Community Coordinator: Rochelle Monk gave her time to Bill Lindsay to speak on Measure U.
5. Announcements from RNCC PIO: Garland Ellis told us about LEAP’s 30th Anniversary and the celebration they will have on Sept 21, 2014. We have received a letter from EBDMUD that there is a mandatory 10% reduction in water use for all water users. There was also a letter from Doctors’ Hospital to tell us about the reduced services they will have. There is a postcard about meetings for Measure U and a flier for Fix Our Ferals.
6. Presentations:
1) Bill Lindsay – Measure U. The City of Richmond (COR) is proposing a .5% sales tax increase on the November ballot. This is to help cover the budget deficit and should be used to get all of the paving backlogs taken care of. They will use the monies collected to leverage bonds to cover the cost of the paving work. The City Council will be the ones to decide how this money is used because it is a general tax with no sunset clause. This will always be on the books and there is (as of right now) a 10% cap on all taxes.
2) Elaine Welch – Senior Helpline was not available (there was a miscommunication).
7. Old Business: None
8. New Business: 2014 RNCC Nominating Committee was appointed by President Don Woodrow. The chair is Jerry Yoshida and the committee is Jan Mignone.
9. Adjournment: We adjourned this meeting at 8:45 PM
Respectfully submitted by,
Stanly Anderson Recording Secretary
The next General meeting will be Monday, October 20, 2014 at 7:00 PM, in the Multipurpose Room.
Next Board meeting will be Monday September 15, 2014 at 7:00 PM, in the Downtown Conference Room. Refreshments for the October meeting will be provided by Hilltop Village and Coronado NCs.