1. The meeting was called to order at 7:03 pm by President Stanly Anderson and he noted that this evening’s snacks were from Shields/Reid and Parchester neighborhood councils and April’s snacks are to be provided by Fairmede/Hilltop and Iron Triangle. He also asked for volunteers to join the RNCC Executive Board, if interested please come to the next Board meeting on March 19th at 7:00 pm. He reported that this meeting may be video recorded and shown on Facebook. If you do not want to be video recorded please let either President Stanly Anderson or Cesar Zepeda know.
2. MSP approval of the Minutes from the February 12, 2018 meeting.
3. Representatives from the following (16) neighborhoods introduced themselves and some gave reports: Belding/Woods, Castro Heights, Coronado, Greenbriar, Hilltop District, Marina Bay, May Valley, North & East, Panhandle Annex, Parchester Village, Park Plaza, Pt. Richmond, Richmond Annex, Richmore Village & Metro Square, Santa Fe and Shields/Reid NCs.
4. Announcements from RNCC PIO: Madalyn Law announced CCC Senior Forum at the Richmond Auditorium from 9 to 12. The 23rd Street Streetscape reboot on Saturday, March 24th is from 10 to 2 at Richmond High. There is a Leadership program happening from January 29th through June 6th at BTA. The Iron Triangle NC is having an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, March 31st at the Nevin Center and there will be another Easter Egg Hunt at BTA on the 31st from 11 to 1. There will be adult craft time from 2 to 3:30 and Richmond Rent from 10 to 12 on Saturday, March 17th. The Spring CERT program will begin on April 3rd with registration beginning at 6:15. Earth Day is April 21st at Grant School and Shields/Reid.
5. City Department Heads/City Official Reports:
Engineering & Capital Improvements: Dane Rodgers has been with the City for some time, mostly working with the storm drains and such but has moved over to Engineering and is in the Roads Division. He told us that they are restriping Castro Ranch Road.
City Manager/Community Services: Rochelle Monk told us about Recreation Information Day on March 24th and they are hiring 2 part time senior lifeguards. They promoted 3 recreation supervisors that were already working for the CSD.
Mayor’s office: Sequoia Erasmus gave us some updates for the March 24th “March for Our Lives” that will begin at 11am. Bike and Pedestrian update regarding the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge and the third lane of traffic and no bike and/or ped lane. There is also a draft ordinance for multi-use trails like the Greenway and the Marina Bay trails to make these areas available and usable by all. The 37th Street bike/ped pathway is to begin soon and be completed by Summer.
Police Department: Lt. Terry Mollenbrand told us that crime was down 6% from last month and 11% YTD. They are still working with the residents of Richmond to make them target hardened by making suspicious activity reports. There was a slight uptick in street robberies in January, but the RPD is using Community Safety Alerts and Pound the Beat walks to help residents take back their neighborhoods. RPD is also working on a Celebrate Safe Fireworks campaign.
Dept. of Infrastructure, Maintenance, and Operations: Tim Higares talked about the retiring staff in his department and how it will affect the City itself. He will be hiring for about 6 positions including Utility Worker, Building Trades worker, Groundskeeper as well as replacing the Stationary Engineer and the Stationary Engineer Supervisor. As of last count there are 12 illegal transfer sites in Richmond.
Planning Department: Lina Velasco, Senior Planner talked about the Sharing your Vision a 23rd Street refresh and green infrastructure. She was also looking for nominations for the Historic Preservation Awards and the nominations closes on March 30th. The Planning Department is updating the Cannabis Ordinance using best practices and inclusionary requirements. AB827 is a statewide bill that will include all transit districts to be aware of.
Fire Department: Adrian Sheppard – N/A
WCCUSD: Marcus Walton talked about the Citizens Board Oversight Committee is still looking for more members with one being from Richmond, there will be a teacher’s job fair at DeJean Middle School on 3/19 from 4 to 6. They will also be celebrating Earth Day on the 21st from 11 to 2 at DeJean. The Richmond HS soccer team came in second at the State Tournament, Teachers will be getting a 5% raise and one of the Charter Schools (John Henry HS) has received a notice of violation for 5 issues.
6. Presentations:
1) Zee Handoush from Seven Stars talked about their experiences with Medical Marijuana and Recreational Marijuana and what this new law has done to their business. At first they were not going to offer recreational marijuana but many of their patients did not want to stay as patients, so they decided to be open to both. To be a medical marijuana patient you need to sign up with the Dept of Public Health ($100) and then another $100 to your MD. and this is to save you the sales tax. Over the month of February they only had 10 medical patients. Many of their patients are seniors that are using MM to get off their prescription drugs and some just for the pain relief. CBD is for pain and there is no high using, CBN is good for sleep and there is very little high there nad THC is if you are looking for a high. There are so many ways to use marijuana and most of them do not involve smoking it.
2) Jill Rodby from Sims Metals Management to talk about their fire last month. The fire occurred in what they call the “Tin Pile” and it should not have had anything that would have burned like it did. The Tin Pile is household metal goods so there might have been something that they missed. They did not have any medical issues from people in the surrounding area and they are purchasing a compressed foam air compressor that will help their ability to fight fires like this one. They are offering to give plant tours to anyone that is interested and they will speak to any neighborhood council that is interested in hearing from them. They have been asked to notify the NCS in the area when they are exporting their goods from the plant to the ships. They have been asked to find a better way to get alerts out to the community.
7. Old Business: We passed out the new By-Laws to all neighborhoods
8. New Business: None
9. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned by President Stanly Anderson at 8:55 pm
Respectfully submitted by,
Jan Mignone
Recording Secretary