City of Emeryville Memorandum
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CITY OF EMERYVILLE MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor and City Council (lr) FROM: Patrick D. O'Keeffe, City Manag~ SUBJECT: Progress Report -September 2008 The following provides the City Council and staff with a summary ofthe activities of each department for the prior month. CITY MANAGER • Staff is still working with the City of Oakland to develop a new library services agreement. Staff submitted a second proposal to Oakland in late September and expects a response sometime in October. • Staff has been working with the cities of Berkeley and Oakland to finalize the Community Choice Aggregation of Electrical Power (CCA) Phase II Report and develop a joint staff recommendation on whether the three cities should move ahead and establish a CCA program. Staff expects that the Phase II Report and staff recommendation will be released in October. The report and staff recommendations are scheduled to be reviewed and discussed at a special Utility Committee meeting on October 27. nd • The AC Transit/Emeryville Liaison Committee met on September 22 • At the meeting, AC Transit presented a proposal to establish a hydrogen fueling station at the AC Transit Bus Yard along 45th Street (below San Pablo Avenue). The Planning Commission will be reviewing the proposal in October, followed by a presentation to the full City Council in November. In addition, the Committee received an update on the City's Public Art Bus Shelter. Due to staff turnover at AC Transit, many of the other committee agenda item were tabled for later discussion. • The "2nd/4th Friday E-Bulletin, the City's new electronic newsletter was distributed on September 12 and 26. Highlights included information on the City's new Community Events Permit Ordinance, the Annual Shoreline Cleanup, the new North Hollis Parking Facility, and the upcoming Emeryville Arts Exhibit. The October editions will be posted on October 10 and 24. Interested community members can read the electronic newsletter on-line from the City's website: www.emeryville.ca.us or can subscribe and have the newsletter sent directly to their email address. Information on how to subscribe is listed at the bottom ofeach e-newsletter, • Staff was asked to participate on a panel at a Urban Land Institute Conference in SF on Transit Oriented Development. Also on the panel was Jeff Heller. We presented the Emerystation development including the train station on the east side of the tracks, as well as the LEED Platinum master plan for the redevelopment of the MarketPlace center on the west side ofthe tracks. CITY CLERK OFFICE 1) The City Manager/City Clerk's Office is in the process ofrecruiting an Executive Secretary/City Clerk Technician. We hope to have the position filled in early November. Filling this position is critical to successfully implementing the many in-progress and planned City Clerk Office technological improvements, especially those related to expanding the consistent use ofthe Internet to disseminate public information. 2) Thanks to our recent technological upgrades, the City is now able to regularly schedule ETV programming. In the future, the City will schedule broadcasts of a wide variety of public programming, including special City events, such as the grand opening of the Emeryville Arts Exhibition and the annual City Manager's State of the City address as well as informational/educational videos from regional/state agencies such as the East Bay Regional Parks and Stopwaste.org and "horne-grown" videos on public safety and other public interest topics. Below is ETV-Channel 27 new schedule for broadcasted public meetings. City CouncillRedevelopment Live - 1st and 3rd Tuesday 7:15 pm Replay - Wednesdays 6:00 pm Planning Commission Live - 4th Thursday 6:30 pm Replay - Mondays 6:00 pm Emery School Board Replay - Fridays 6:00 pm City/Schools Committee Replay - Saturdays 4:00 pm General Plan Committee Live - 4th Tuesday 6:30 pm Replay - Sundays 4:00 pm. 3) Staff expects to begin using streaming video technology ("web" or "pod" casting) to broadcast public meetings (in addition to broadcasting through ETV-Channel 27) starting with the November 4th City Council/Redevelopment Agency meeting. Podcasting will enable access to live and/or delayed (after meeting) broadcasting of public meetings to anyone who has access to the Internet. With this technology, viewers of live webcasts will be able to simultaneously refer to City Council, Redevelopment Agency, and Planning Commission staff reports while viewing the meeting. Viewers of rebroadcast/archived Council, Agency or Commission meetings will be able to ''jump'' to specific agenda items rather than having to view the entire meeting. Podcasts as well as the accompanying staff reports and handouts will be archived for future reference as well. In addition, all other ETV-Channel 27 programming, such as special events and public information programs will be viewable through the podcast. 4) Staff continues to work with the Information Technology (IT) Office and CivicPlus, a widely used public agency website consultant to update the City's website. The website redesign will be compatible with the City's streaming video (podcasting) plans and future intentions to convert to an electronic-based records management system. With the new system, departments will be able to take direct responsibility for updating and amending their department websites through user-friendly templates. MEMORANDUM DATE: October 9, 2008 TO: Patrick D. O'Keeffe, City Manager FROM: Melinda Chinn, Community Services Director SUBJECT: September 2008 Community Services Monthly Progress Report COMMUNITY SERVICES ADMINISTRATION City/School Committee Meeting The City/Schools Committee meeting was held on September 4th at the ESS Atrium. Agenda items covered in this meeting included parking strategies at Ralph Hawley school site, construction updates for the new Anna Yates campus, parking needs report for the Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL), Academic Performance Index report, scope of work for the City/School PLUS Fellow, Toastmasters high school program proposal, cost estimates for ECCL, enrollment trends, and finally a presentation by Field Paoli/HKIT on the current public information presentation for the ECCL. Partners for Community Life, Co-Chairs Meeting The Co-Chairs of the Partners for Community Life Sub-Committees met on September 18th at the Recreation Center. Topics discussed were re-grouping the leadership team given the change in staff leadership, discussion on the Emeryville Center of Community Life and respective outreach, and setting timelines/tasks for future work. The next meetings of this group was tentatively set for October 18th and November zo". Partners for Community Life, Finance Sub-Committee Meeting The Partners for Community Life Finance Sub-Committee met on September 25th at the Emery Secondary Theater. Topics discussed were the updated cost estimate report on the Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL) from Field Paoli/HKIT, Townsend Public Affairs report on outside funding opportunities, EUSD and City funding reports, ECCL outreach strategy for outreach concerning cost estimates, and tasks to be completed before the next meeting on th November 5 . Partners for Community Life, Outreach and Communications Sub-Committee Meeting The Partners for Community Life Outreach and Communications Sub-Committee met on September 30th at the Emery Secondary School Atrium. Topics discussed were the regrouping of this committee and reviewing the reasons for the committee, brainstorm ideas for better Community Services Department Progress Report September 2008 communications, formal committee membership and participation, the first community event, and the next steps to complete for this committee. The next meeting is to be determined. ECCL Field Paoli Architects made several presentations regarding massing concepts for the Center of Community Life to teachers at Anna Yates and ESS, the General Plan Steering Committee and the City/Schools Committee. The site plan, program elements and potential costs are being refined in preparation for the community outreach meetings that will begin in January 2009. PLUS Fellow Scope of Work Director Melinda Chinn and Administrative Analyst Kevin Laven met with Ariel Bierbaum and Deborah McCoy ofthe UC-Berkeley Center for Cities and Schools to create a scope ofwork for the Fellow. The Fellow is a Cal graduate student who is interested in helping cities and schools work together. This is the first year the City has taken on the roll ofbeing the project manager. Staff looks forward to help with research/assessment of pre-k and school age services in the many Emeryville communities. The Fellow and scope of work for Emeryville will be finalized in early October. PLUS Leadership Workshop on Joint-Use Facilities h Administrative Analyst Kevin Laven attended a full-day PLUS workshop on September 1i • The workshop focused on current best practices, State budget projections/funding for joint-use, and work with representatives from the EUSD to continue work for the Emeryville Center of Community Life. CPRS Regional Meeting Administrative Analyst Kevin Laven and Senior Center Manager Cindy Montero attended a morning meeting on September 9th at the Studio One Arts Center in Oakland. The meeting focused on networking local professionals, introducing important State and National legislation that supports parks and recreation efforts locally, reports by each section within the region and finally a guided tour ofthe City ofOakland's newly renovated Studio One Arts Center. New Community Services Department Logo The City of Emeryville City Council approved the Community Services Department use of a new logo. The new logo will be phased in slowly over the next 12 months as signage, uniforms and other logo items need to be ordered or replaced. Web Design Team Participation Director Melinda Chinn and Administrative Analyst Kevin Laven have been chosen by the IT Division to serve on the City's new website development design team. Melinda and Kevin th th attended the first two meetings on September 16 and 30 • These meetings consisted ofworking with a small team ofemployees from IT, City Clerk and Police Department to make basic design and content decisions.