RNCC Meeting Minutes, January 9, 2017

1.  The meeting was called to order at 7:03 pm by President Stanly Anderson. The President’s report included an opening on the Executive Board and that Richmond Heights’ Rock Brown has expressed interest in the position. If anyone else is interested in the Executive Board position, please contact Stan Anderson.

2.  MSP approval of the Minutes from the November 14, 2016 meeting with the correction name of Fire Department personnel Marcus Rayon.

3.  Representatives from the following (14) neighborhoods introduced themselves and some gave reports: Belding/Woods, Castro Heights, Fairmede/Hilltop, Greenbriar, Hilltop District, Iron Triangle, Marina Bay, North & East, Panhandle Annex, Park Plaza, Pt. Richmond, Richmond Heights, Richmore Village and Metro Square, and Santa Fe Neighborhood Councils.

4.  Announcements from RNCC PIO: Madalyn Law told us about the Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service on Monday January 15, 2017 at the Greenway, there is also a AC transit event and the City of Richmond is still working with the National Park Service to get Every Kid in the park.

5. City Department Heads/City Official Reports?:

Engineering & Capital Improvements: Tawfic Halaby talked about what the streets department was doing during the rain and they were filling potholes. He could not answer many of our questions but he was willing to take people’s names and questions, find out the answers and email to President Stan Anderson to send out to the group.

City Manager/Community Services: Bill Lindsay spoke to us about the changes that Measure L (which went into effect on 12/30/16) will have on the City of Richmond since it passed.  The role of the Rent Board will be to regulate rents and just cause evictions within the City.  The rent control is only for multi-unit housing that was built before 1995. This does not include single family homes or rooms that are rented but they are included in the Just Cause Evictions. The new base rent will go back to the rent from July 2016 so many people are already getting rent relief from their landlords. All rent increases will happen in September once the tenant has received a 30 day notice and the amount of the increase is Base Rent + 3% CPI (2016 Annual General Adjustment).  There is an office within the City Offices being run by City Staff until the Rent Board has been appointed and decides how all of this will work.  The Rent Board will have the ability to approve rent adjustments, charge and collect fees and mediate  disputes.  The Rent Board is a five member board and hopefully they will be approved by the City Council on 1/17/17.  This Board will be run separately from the City and will hire their own Executive Director to work for the Board.
There will be a Community Education meeting in the City Council Chambers on Wednesday, January 18, 2017 from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm.  All the money that will be used to pay for staff will come from the fees they receive from the landlords.

Mayor’s office: Alex Knox told us about the food census that the Mayor’s office is working on to make sure everyone has access to healthy foods, they are also involved with different groups regarding immigration, like Advocacy Immigration, Cities for Action and Cities Thrive Coalition.  They are also trying to get the East Bay Parks to install horse stalls and have horses at Point Pinole as a way for the underprivileged to have access to horses.  You can contact the Mayor’s office to sign their petition.  The Mayor’s Office also co-sponsored a forum on hate and exclusion in December with John Gioia and Tony Thurman.  They will have more in the future to keep the dialogue going.  The Mayor will have his annual state of the City address on January 24, 2017 and next Tuesday, January 17, 2017 will be the swearing in ceremony for the newest Council people and it will start at 6:00 in the Council Chambers and the reception will follow in the Richmond Auditorium lobby.

Police Department: Felix Tan was at the RNCC meeting to support the Diagnostic Center but he was able to tell us the crime overall for 2016 was down about 12%.  They had 24 homicides in 2016 and two were investigated by the CHP, but they have made arrests on many of the cases.

Dept. of Infrastructure and Maintenance and Operations: Tim Higares – N/A

Planning Department:  Jonathan Malagon brought the monthly Under Review Planning Projects List and Staff Directory but was unable to stay. He has an unwell child.

Fire Department: Adrian Sheppard gave us a summary of the 2016 year and they had 12,000 calls in 2016, 7,972 medical calls, 662 fires and 456 service calls.  He wanted to personally thank Bea Roberson for all the work she did to make the Toy Drive a success.  He talked about the Gertrude wrecking yard fire and even though the fire was not in Richmond, the smoke was and they had help from Chevron Fire Department and the County as well to get it under control quickly.  He wanted us to know that they had been inspecting warehouses within the City before the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland and they will be doing more inspections in the coming months.  They are doing promotions in 2017, we will have some new Captains, Engineers and Battalion Chiefs.  They are keeping an eye out for trees that might be at risk for falling and they have sandbags at Station 64 (Bayview) and you can call them and they will help get you sandbags.

WCCUSD: Marcus Walton told us the kindergarten registration opened today, January 9, 2017 and you must do this to be eligible for open enrollment with occurs from February 1st thru the 14th.  The District will begin a Mandarin immersion program soon and the Town Hall meeting will be at Pinole Middle School on 1/11/17 at 6:30.  Nystrom School Library received a James Patterson grant.

6.  Presentations:
1) Angela Jackson-Castain from the US Department of Justice; Programs Diagnostic Center which was established in 2012. The RPD Chief of Police Alwyn Brown reached out to this group for direction and to see what we are doing right and wrong.  They work with the RPD to understand what they need by studying the gun violence data, Quantitative data, shotspotter data and the Community Policing template they are working from.  The PDC also uses as holistic approach but speaking with the community, the faith based organizations and any other group that might bring a different perspective to the table.  They do ride alongs, run focus groups and send out surveys for resident feedback.  Questions that the General Membership of the RNCC brought up were: 1) Are there enough officers on the force and 2) Would walking a beat make any differences.  Another idea was to use the Explorer program more effectively by using the School Resource Officers as a way to expand the program within the other high schools in Richmond.  Right now it is only in existence at Richmond High.

2) None

7.  Old Business: We need more NCs to sign up for refreshments for 2017.  If you do not sign up you will be added to the list anyway.

8.  New Business: There is an Executive Board vacancy and if you are interested, please contact President Stanly Anderson.

9.  Adjournment: This meeting was adjourned at 8:49 by President Stanly Anderson

Respectfully submitted by,
Jan Mignone Recording Secretary

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