RNCC Meeting Minutes, October 20, 2014
1. The meeting was called to order at 7:03 pm by President Don Woodrow. The President thanked Hilltop Villages and Coronado for this evening’s refreshments.
2. MSP approval of the Minutes from September 15, 2014.
3. Representatives from the following (11) neighborhoods introduced themselves and some gave reports: Belding/Woods, Fairmede/Hilltop, Hilltop Villages, May Valley, North and East, Parchester Village, Point Richmond, Richmond Annex, Richmond Heights, Richmore Village & Metropolitan Square, and Santa Fe.
4. City Department Heads/City Official Reports:
Public Works: Yader Bermudez was not available but Warren Williams from the street part of Public Works was and he told us about the Marina Restroom and the work on the Richmond Parkway lights should begin the first week in November. They are paving Orchard Ave in May Valley and they have received a grant to do a few large paving projects like Macdonald Ave at BART. These projects will occur in the Spring.
Engineering Services: Tawfic Halaby was not available and no one was there in his place.
City Manager/Community Coordinator: Rochelle Monk spoke about NCs needing insurance for any event they have in their neighborhood except for National Night Out as that is a City event. The City will work with the NCs to help with the cost of the insurance. Instead of using a park or closing a street, you can have the events on your own property and save the cost of insurance.
Mayor’s office: Nicole Valentine was out sick but did send her updates from the Mayor’s Office which Don will send out to all.
Police Department: Chief Magnus was not available but Deputy Chief Medina was and he told us about a meth bust that the City was a part of that took about 6 years to complete. They arrested 22 people, confiscated 500 pounds of meth, 50+ weapons as well as cash. This drug bust was a pipeline from Mexico to Antioch. The 2 crime stats that have increased from last year are battery with serious injury and carjacking. Violent crime was down 21% and property crime down 18%. The major reasons that crime is going down is crime prevention, Project Ceasefire, the citizens and businesses being more involved. They also had a conference on Women in Policing from the woman’s viewpoint and it was to see how to get more female officers.
Code Enforcement: Tim Higares gave his time for to Erwin Reeves and John H. Knox to talk about a new project that Code Enforcement, Richmond Community Foundation, and SparkPoint are putting together. (See Presentations)
Environmental Manager: Lynne Scarpa was not available and no one was there in her place.
Planning Department: Jonelyn Whales talked about the Nevin project, the LED sign ordinance as well as the Point Pinole Business Park that is now being built out, all 785,000 sq. ft. as distribution space. The old big blue buildings are being torn down to make room for new, modern buildings.
Fire Department: Terry Harris was not available but Fire Inspector Eric Govan spoke to us. He is one of two fire inspectors that are imbedded in Chevron. He is there two days a week and another inspector is there two days a week. They inspect everything that goes on in Chevron, annual maintenance, fire permits, construction permits, they work with planning and review all of the construction to happen on Chevron property. They do building inspections and pull hazardous materials randomly to make sure everything is up to code. As for investigations, the City is now involved in all investigations at Chevron. Training to be a Chevron inspector is continuous and there is a team from the City that is imbedded in Chevron.
5. Announcements from RNCC PIO: Garland Ellis told us about an EDMUD meeting regarding rate increase on 10/25/14. There is a planning project at 830 Marina Way and Wright Ave. were they will be tearing down the old warehouses and building townhouses instead. City Council will be discussing being able to build closer to creeks and drainage.
6. Presentations:
1) Tim Higares; Code Enforcement, Erwin Reeves; Richmond Community Foundation and John H Knox; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. They presented a new rehab project for all the boarded up homes or “zombie” homes in Richmond. This is a partnership between the City and RCF to rehab these boarded up homes and sell them to pre approved Richmond residents. They started this by working with property owners that had property that needed fixing and now it has expanded to the “zombie” properties all around the City. They (RCF) will purchase the properties with the help of the court to lower and/or write off the property taxes. Once purchased, the City helps them get rehabbed and Sparkpoint helps get the people ready to own their own home.
2) Joel Mackey; The ED Fund talked with us about their summer program that they believe will help keep the lower income children on the same level as the middle income children. The project is called the “Out of School Time Initiative”. They ran these over the Summer at Nevin Center and Shields/Reid. They make it fun to learn math, science, art and music. The idea is that those children that do not have other options of things to do over the summer, will be taught and that it can be fun.
7. Old Business: None
8. New Business: The nominating committee (Jerry Yoshida and Jan Mignone) presented the 2015 RNCC slate. It is as follows:
President – Don Woodrow, Vice President – Jerry Yoshida, Treasurer – Bea Roberson, Recording Secretary – Jan Mignone (N), Corresponding Secretary – Stanly Anderson (N), Sergeant-at-Arms – George Schmidt, Public Information Officer – Garland Ellis, and the Directors at Large; Naomi Williams, Janie Holland, Paul Connor (N).
9. Adjournment: This meeting was adjourned by the President at 8:42 PM.
Respectfully submitted by,
Stanly Anderson
Recording Secretary