RNCC Meeting Minutes, April 8, 2013
1. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by President Don Woodrow.
President Woodrow made a quick presentation on what to do if we have a fire as we are now in the basement of the Richmond City Council Chambers.
2. MSP approval of the Minutes from the General Meeting March 18,2013.
3. Representatives from the following (16) neighborhoods introduced themselves and some gave reports: Carriage Hills North, Fairmede/Hilltop, Hilltop Villages, Iron Triangle, Marina Bay, May Valley, North & East, Panhandle Annex, Parchester Village, Park Plaza, Point Richmond, Pullman, Richmond Annex, Richmond Heights, Santa Fe, and Shields/ Reid.
4. Announcements from RNCC PIO: Goretha Johnson announced that the Red Oak Victory Pancake breakfasts will begin again starting this Sunday. The East Bay Center for Performing Arts will be presenting “Lost Secrets of the Iron Triangle” in May.
5. City Department Heads/City Official Reports:
Public Works: Yader Bermudez was unavailable.
Engineering Services: Joel Camacho spoke about several projects that they are working on such as: the Nystrom Elementary School lane narrowing, the Dornan Tunnel and the Nevin Center Alley project that will green the alleyway.
City Manager/Community Coordinator: Rochelle Monk gave her time to Alex DiGeorgio from MCE to talk about the opt out/opt in campaign that MCE has started regarding the change in energy procurer for the City of Richmond and it’s residences.
Mayor’s office: Mayor Gayle McLaughlin spoke about a few events that are upcoming: Richmond Tales Fest in the Civic Center Plaza on April 20th, Cesar Chavez Day on the greenway at 16th and Ohio April 27th, the Chevron meeting on April 19th in the Richmond Auditorium at 6:30 pm and a EBCPA air quality workshop on April 24th.
Police Department: Chief Magnus was unavailable but DC Brown was there in his place and he talked about our biggest crime – property crime and residential burglaries. They believe that there is a correlation between stores that buy gold and residential burglaries and the DA has put a hold on any more “Gold” stores in the City. He talked about CPTED, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and how this can make a big difference in whether a house gets hit. He also talked about “Predictive Policing” and that they would have theirs up and running by the summer. RPD is working with BART for a better partnership since the BART shooting. They have already had one public meeting about this and will have another in a couple of weeks and it will include Supervisor Gioia. They are also getting a computer program that helps management identify issues with officers that can be corrected now before they become bigger issues or concerns.
Fire Department: Terry Harris spoke about kitchen fires as over the weekend almost all the calls were kitchen fire calls. The #1 cause of fires are kitchen fires and smoke detectors are our best bet for survival. Nowadays the fabrics on furniture will burn fast and hot and make it very hard to stop a fire.
Planning Department: Hector Rojas spoke about the types of building inquiries that they have been getting, multi-family, senior housing and other multi-unit dwellings. The “Livable Corridors” form based codes should be out for public review within the next 2 months. There are also people going around the City doing a tree inventory and you might see some of them or they might stop and talk to you. Bea reminded him that we had been promised quarterly meetings with Planning to keep us up to date to what is happening in Richmond.
Code Enforcement: Tim Higares was unavailable.
Environmental Manager: Lynne Scarpa started her presentation asking what was on the calendar for this month and it is stopping discharges from going into the storm drains, things like motor oil and garbage. She then proceeded to talk about IPM for mice, rats, gophers, raccoons and skunks.
6. Presentations:
1) Todd Groves from WCCUSD School Board came to us to have a discussion regarding a planning effort for which public involvement is sought. We gave him many good ideas of things that had worked in the past; i.e. Verde Involved Parents as one internet source. They are having town hall meetings that they are using to engage the community in an unprecedented way to develop this 5 year strategic plan. They will collect data from the community until the end of May, then spend June through August processing it and in September we should see what all their hard work has developed as their 5 year strategic plan.
7. Old Business: No Old Business.
8. New Business: The Richmond Art Center is showing the 48th Annual WCCUSD Art Show, now through June, check it out. Reminder to clean up after yourself as we are in a new location. NAACP is having an event on June 6th, see Naomi for more information.
9. Adjournment: President Don Woodrow adjourned the meeting at 9:02 PM and thank you to Carriage Hills North and May Valley NCs for this evening’s refreshments.
Respectfully submitted by,
Jan Mignone
Recording Secretary