City Focus Winter 2019 volume XXXIV, no. 1 A RepMoret fsrosma gthee Cfirtyo omf M tohnteer Ceyi ttoy it sM Ciatinzeangs aenrd -F r iends M eet -up w it h Neig hb orhood Presid ent s After a few year hiatus, Mayor Roberson and I reintroduced meet-ups with Neighborhood Association Presidents. The first get-together was held Wednesday, January 30 in the Council Chamber. It provided a great opportunity for us to introduce our new Finance Director, Lauren Lai, and new Parks and Recreation Director, Kristi McClure-Huckaby. Assistant Police Chief Bill Clark was also in attendance to answer safety and crime related questions. The evening was very productive, with all but one neighborhood represented. We talked about priorities, challenges, and interests. We listened to concerns, perspectives, and expectations. The biggest priority for the City is the budget, because everything else that happens rests on being fiscally solvent. Other big topic items that are a priority for the City include: adopting a new wireless ordinance, obtaining the Old Capital site, and resolving homeless issues, especially at Laguna Grande Park. Broad topics of concerns and interests expressed were undergrounding utilities, maintaining our quality of life and making sure we don't overdevelop the waterfront, public safety, housing and homelessness, jobs, water, continuing the infrastructure improvements through Measure S, catching up with the backlog of Neighborhood Improvement Program (NIP) projects, and the congestion and gridlock caused during Car Week each August. At the end of the evening, I think each person there learned something. We appreciate the commitment by the Neighborhood Presidents, and we assured them that we are working to do the best job we can for the community and to maintain our high quality of life. We will be establishing a quarterly meeting schedule, and we look forward to continuing the important dialogue. A heartfelt ?Thank You? to our Neighborhood Presidents for volunteering and always helping our community to become better. If you have topics or concerns for future meetings, I encourage you to reach out to your neighborhood president and tell them your concerns and ideas. If you don't know how to contact your neighborhood president, please check the Neighborhoods page on monterey.org or call the City Clerk's Office at (831) 646-3935. We have the contact information, and while the neighborhood associations are not official city managed associations, they have given permission for us to give their contact information. As always, we appreciate your involvement in helping us maintain our small town feeling with big town amenities. ~ Hans Uslar, City Manager photo by Curt Tipton M ont erey .org / Let s-d o-it - M aint aining M ont erey ' s Qualit y of Lif e Park s and Recreat ion Dep art m ent has new d irect or Kristi McClure Huckaby became the new Parks and Recreation Director in November 2018. Ms. Huckaby has over INSIDE THIS ISSUE 25 years? experience working in and managing Parks and Recreation FEATURE STORY M essag e f rom t he Cit y M anag er Departments in Southern California; PAGE STORY cities both large and small, including the cities of Long Beach, Downey, Signal 2 New Park s and Rec Direct or Cut t ing Day 2 0 1 9 Hill, Placencia, Sierra Madre, Chula Vista, 3 New Finance Direct or and most recently the City of Corona. Fiscal Healt h Resp onse Plan Huckaby was born and raised in 4 Em erg ency Ev ac Sum m it Be St orem -read y Monterey, and her very first job in Recreation was part-time in Monterey's recreation program before she left for college in 5 W ireless Ord inance Up d at e M eet ing s Aired & Reb road cast Southern California. 6 Recent FCC Ruling on W ireless NIP M eet ing Sched ule Huckaby has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies and a Master of Public Administration from 7 Af f ord ab le Housing Up d at e M PD M ont hly Rep ort California State University, Long Beach, where she is also a 8 Plast ic Disp osab les Ban lecturer for the College of Health and Human Services. In Sew er Lat eral Insp ect ion addition, she has a Certificate in Human Resources Management 9 Trash Cont rol from the University of California, Irvine, as well as a National 1 0 Trash Cont rol, cont inued Recreation and Park Association Directors School and Grad Reb at es f rom M BCP School Certificate from North Carolina State University/ Oglebay 1 1 Yes on S Training Center. Huckaby has held numerous leadership Nort h Frem ont Project Up d at e positions within the profession, including serving on the state 1 2 Fit ness Trend s f or 2 0 1 9 board as the 2016-17 California Park and Recreation Society 1 3 Int ernat ional Int ern Persp ect iv e President. Watch for much more about the new Parks and Sum m er Job s in Recreat ion Recreation Department in future issues of City Focus. and on 1 4 Colt on Hall Ev ening M usic monterey.org. Series CERT New slet t er Feat ured Vid eo 1 5 Cem et ery GIS Project Cut t ing Day and Hort icult ure Faire Conf erence Cent er W eb sit e M arch 1 6 , 2 0 1 9 f rom 9 a.m . t o noon 1 6 New d irect f lig ht s Lib rary ' s Chocolat e and W ine Mark your calendars now for a favorite 1 7 Ot t er p ics city-sponsored event - the 63rd annual Cutting Day and Horticulture Faire! Friday, March 16 - click on the flyer to view larger, and find more information on monterey.org. CITY FOCUS - WINTER 2019 2 In August 2018 we welcomed Ms. Lauren New Finance Lai as Monterey's New Finance Director. Lai is a California Certified Public Direct or Accountant (CPA) with 22 years of financial Lauren Lai and government leadership experience. She was previously Finance Director for the City of Capitola and most recently at the City of Marina. In Marina, she led the City Council and executive team in successfully eliminating a 25% structural budget deficit, while maintaining existing service levels, establishing a 20% general fund emergency reserve and establishing a pension stabilization fund. In addition to a CPA license, Lai has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting from San Jose State University, and is expected to earn a Master in Public Administration from the University of Missouri in 2020. She serves on the League of California Cities Tax and Revenue Policy Committee. For four years, she served as a leader of the Monterey Bay Chapter-California Society of Municipal Finance Officers. She mentors and works closely with California State University of Monterey Bay aspiring accounting students on internships and career guidance. A new biennial (two-year) budget will be passed by Fiscal Healt h the City Council in June Resp onse Plan 2019. The City of Monterey - Let ' s Do It ! Fiscal Health Response Plan (FHRP) will provide FY1 9 -2 1 strategies to help us solve b iennium b ud g et the fiscal challenges and p rocess preserve Monterey?s quality of life. A City Council Retreat took place on January 14, 2019. The two hours was spent discussing important city services, priorities and financial sustainability. The focus of a Council Retreat was team building, group dynamics, governance, and process. A video replay of that meeting is available on the City Council VoD page of the Monterey Channel on monterey.org. Upcoming at the February 27 City Council meeting will be the City FY18/ 19 mid-year report and fiscal study session. We encourage residents to stay informed and participate in the FHRP. Collaboration is key to our success. Let?s do it! Visit www.montery.org/ lets-do-it to learn more, and subscribe to Budget News. 3 CITY FOCUS -WINTER 2019 On Thursday, January 24, 2019, the City of Monterey and the Monterey Fire Department hosted the Monterey Peninsula Regional Evacuation Summit at M ont erey the Monterey Conference Center. Over 60 community leaders and subject host s reg ional matter experts met to discuss emergency evacuation plans in the event of a disaster in the region. Attendees included City of Monterey Mayor Clyde em erg ency Roberson, District 5 Monterey County Supervisor Mary Adams, several City ev acuat ion Managers, Police and Fire Chiefs from all of the various public agencies, sum m it military leaders and many more. BY ADMINISTRATIVE Topics discussed included developing and improving communication tactics ANALYST JAY PUNKAR between emergency officials and members of the public, formalizing traffic and transportation plans on a region-wide basis, creating scenario-based training sessions to test and educate personnel, and to expand the involvement with other community stakeholders including area hospitals, emergency service providers and utility companies. Members from the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services were in attendance and affirmed their support of these efforts and will continue to improve emergency evacuation plans from a regional approach. As a result, work groups comprised of members from various agencies will be formed and will work together to improve and develop action plans to deploy emergency evacuation plans. It's important that each of us is aware of what to do in case of a storm Be emergency, and that we know where st orm -read y to go to find the information we need.