RNCC Meeting Minutes, July 8, 2013
1. The meeting was called to order at 7:01 P.M. by President Don Woodrow.
2. President’s Report – Thank you to Pullman and Panhandle Annex for providing tonight’s refreshments.
3. MSP approval of the Minutes from June 10, 2013
4. Representatives from the following 18 neighborhoods introduced themselves and some gave reports: Carriage Hills North, Coronado, Eastshore, Fairmede/Hilltop, Greenbriar, Hilltop Villages, Iron Triangle, Laurel Park, Marina Bay, May Valley, North & East, Panhandle Annex, Parchester Village, Point Richmond, Pullman, Richmond Annex, Richmond Heights, and Santa Fe.
5. Announcements from RNCC PIO: Goretha Johnson reminded us about the July 22nd National Night Out deadline as well as announced the CERT training sessions upcoming. The next Music on the Main is July 24th and the Red Oak Victory Ship is still having it Pancake breakfasts, please check their website for the dates.
6. City Department Heads/City Official Reports:
Public Works: Warren Williams spoke to us about the paving schedule, the renovating of Lucas Park, the resurfacing of the tennis courts around town that have not been taken care of, and maybe some basketball courts too. They have been doing tree work on Castro Ranch Rd. and they will begin work on the Elm Playlot. Thursday, July 18th is Design Day and they have fixed the signal light at South 47th and Carlson Blvd. They are working on restoring the lights on the Richmond Parkway.
Engineering Services: Tawfic Halaby N/A
City Manager/Community Coordinator: Rochelle Monk wanted to let us know that there will still be money in the City budget for us to go to any neighborhood convention, whether it be NUSA or All-American City. They also thanked us for not exceeding the mailing and copying budget for the past fiscal year and we should still be able to keep doing about the same number of mailings in this new fiscal year. She would also like to see some of the neighborhood programs that we have be nominated for awards at the 2014 NUSA convention.
Mayor’s office: Nicole Valentine spoke to us about past events that the Mayor had attended and some upcoming events, like the LEAP graduation. The Mayor’s film series will resume again this year.
Police Department: Chief Magnus came to tell us about 2 things that he felt were very important to our community. He first spoke about the Medical Marijuana Dispensary that wants to open it’s doors in a C-2 zoning area. We need to step it up and protect our neighborhoods if we do not want these dispensaries in our neighborhoods. The second one was that it seems that City Council does not think that Code Enforcement is something that is necessary for our City. We need to stand up and be heard. They now have a Code Enforcement Attorney that has gotten over $2 million in fines for the City. Code enforcement has taken massive strides to clean up this city and we do not want to go back down hill. He also talked about a very important City Council agenda item that will bring all of the PG&E owned street lights over to the City from now on. Many neighborhoods that are older only have PG&E street lights to light up their streets and this will be a very good thing for many of our neighborhoods.
Code Enforcement: Tim Higares was not available (broken foot) but he sent Teresa Tingle, Code Enforcement Supervisor and she told us about their quest to hire someone to work only on ADA problems. They have been meeting with Warren Williams from Public Works/Streets to help with parking enforcement on Sweep days. They have also contracted with Richmond Build to install the parking signs needed to give parking tickets on street sweeping days. The Code Enforcement number is 510-621-1279.
Environmental Manager: Lynne Scarpa was not available but sent Joanne Ly in her place and she spoke about the single use bag ordinance and if you need to purchase a paper bag it will be $0.05 per bag. It will be a few years before restaurants have to follow this ordinance. NNO is having their “Green” competition again this year. You can sign up online and maybe your neighborhood or street will win.
Planning Department: Kieron Slaughter brought the proposed planning projects list along with some other meetings and planned projects in the works. One of the projects is the Richmond South Shore Specific Plan that is having a meeting on July 24th and the other project is the Mathieu Court Alley Project Design Charrette on July 18th. He also urged us to report any work that we see happening in our neighborhood that we do not see in the proposed plans.
Fire Department: Terry Harris spoke about people telling him that Walmart was selling fireworks in Richmond (there is a city and county ban on fireworks) and he went to the store and purchased what looked like fireworks but in reality were party poppers. He told us that the fire on the 4th of July that took 3 lives was either started by fireworks or cigarettes (it has not been determined as of 7/8/13). Once a fire starts you only have 3 minutes to get out of the building. He told us about a documentary called “Burn” that is about the Detroit Fire Department that almost bankrupted the city of Detroit.
7. Presentations:
1) Jim Mallory “The Trainer Guy” spoke to us regarding cpr training and the classes that he offers. He can come to your church (for a fee) and teach cpr/aed training. His classes are usually up to 5 people but he will also speak at your Neighborhood Council meeting to encourage people to get their cards which are good for 2 years and it is smart to renew them before they expire. He does charge a fee per person to do these classes and there are other places where you can take these classes too.
2) There was a miscommunication with the new General Manager at Chevron, Kory Judd, so we will have him speak at the September meeting.
8. Old Business: None
9. New Business: None
10. Adjournment: occurred at 8:59 P.M.
Respectfully submitted by,
Jan Mignone
Recording Secretary