1. The meeting was called to order, at 7:01 P.M. by President Don Woodrow.
2. MSP approval of the Minutes from the February 11, 2013 meeting.
3. Representatives from the following (15) neighborhoods introduced themselves and some gave reports: Carriage Hills North, Cortez/Stege, Fairmede/Hilltop, Hilltop Villages, May Valley, North & East, Panhandle Annex, Parchester Village, Pt. Richmond, Pullman, Richmond Annex, Richmond Heights, Richmore Village and Metro Square, Santa Fe and Southwest Annex.
4. Announcements from RNCC PIO: Goretha Johnson made announcements of events happening in and around the City. One of the events is a series of townhall meetings the WCCUSD is having to let us know what their future plans are. There will be an open mike at the Ryse Center on Friday 3/15/13 from 4:30 to 7:00 PM.
5. City Department Heads/City Official Reports:
Public Works: Yader Bermudez passed out the street paving agenda for the next 3 weeks weather permitting and another sheet with updates on what they have done in the City, including paving in front of JFK High School the week of April 1.
Engineering Services: Tawfic Halaby spoke on 2 of the major issues in the City; the Via Verde sinkhole and the Dornan Tunnel project. The Via Verde sinkhole is waiting for Comcast, PG&E and the others to finish their work and then the City can complete the street part of the project by the middle of April. The reinforcing of the Dornan Tunnel ceiling has become quite challenging. The largest open space above the ceiling is the size of a pickup truck and they are working with a group of engineers to find a way to reinforce the ceiling. It will most likely take all summer to repair.
City Manager/Community Coordinator: Rochelle Monk let us know that the Volunteer program has been officially launched and ncs and projects within the City can join the website. The City Manager is also asking NCs to open their meetings to the Finance Dept. to present the 2013/2014 budget. She also brought us the “new” bulk mailing procedures from the USPS. All labels can only say “current resident” no longer can they have the name or current resident. All newsletters must have either be sealed on both sides or 2 seals on the bottom.
Mayor’s Office: Nicole Valentine was unavailable but sent Jeff Shoji in her place. He brought us a list of future events that the Mayor will be doing during the next 30+ days.
Police Department: Chief Magnus was unavailable but Deputy Chief Brown came in his place. He talked about the increase in property crimes and what the Dept. is doing to combat them. He talked about the Byrne Grant and having the beat officers going to NC meetings to help residents secure their homes. He talked about a 3 year contract they have with a company to run the Predictive Policing program to tell the Dept. where to find the next wave of property crimes. They are also getting a new mobile command center to replace the very old one that they have now. He also talked about “The Ceasefire” program going along quite well so they are now targeting youth. The first phase is to talk with the youths and their parents and the second phase is to have the youth and their parents meet with all of the resources the program has to offer. The last bit of good news from the police Dept. was that they have hired 2 new officers from the sheriff’s academy and their names are Katie Walker and Brendan Hodges. They still have about 6 months of training with the City before they hit the streets.
Fire Department: Terry Harris was unavailable.
Planning Dept: Hector Lopez was our planner of the month and he brought the planning projects under review report as well as a letter concerning a new ordinance that would allow NCs to decide if they wanted formula businesses in their C-1 commercial areas.
Code Enforcement: Tim Higares brought us a PowerPoint presentation on what all code enforcement does within the City. He also talked about the first warrant they have received to demolish a burned out property at 127 Chanslor. This is the first of many blighted properties that they hope to demolish. They have also taken over the maintenance of the City owned property. The new ticketing company has shown an increase in 20% revenue for the City in people paying their parking tickets.
Environmental Manager: Lynne Scarpa asked who knew what was on the calendar for this month and it is inspecting businesses to make sure they are using best practices for keeping the stormwater clean.
6. Presentations: We were supposed to have Todd Groves from the WCCUSD board but he was given the letter inviting him to speak in April not March.
7. Old Business: None
8. New Business: This was our last meeting at this location. They have asked us to move to the Community Room in the basement of the City Council Chambers where our President Don Woodrow has had many a DRB meetings. It is not the most ideal place for us to meet and we will look for another location if possible. We also discussed what we decided at the retreat and discussed how we could get younger people involved in our neighborhoods and the RNCC.
9. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:08 P.M. We would like to thank the Richmond Heights and North & East Neighborhood Councils for this evening’s refreshments.
Respectfully submitted by,
Jan Mignone
Recording Secretary