02/05/2021 City Manager’s Update

City Manager’s Update (pdf)
February 5, 2021

Greetings, all. It is glorious out! And this weekend will be spectacular. I hope everyone has an opportunity to get out and about to soak up the sun and fresh air.

I wanted to share 5 primary focus areas for the organization that will guide our efforts in service to the community consistent with Council direction.

• - Fiscal Stability: Ensuring the City delivers municipal services within available resources.
• - Community Engagement and Transparency: Incorporating opportunities for community engagement and enhanced public information to reinforce confidence in policy development and municipal affairs.
• - Economic Development: Working with the community and private sector to leverage opportunities to attract, retain and grow businesses here in Winters to promote sustainable wage job creation and a diversified revenue base.
• - Community Development: Encouraging a vibrant, integrated community and high quality of life for all through “placemaking.” Excellent link: Four types of placemaking | CNU
• - Organizational / Operational Excellence: Ensuring that City business is conducted in a transparent manner, consistent with policies, procedures and norms, and that the organization is poised to deliver services efficiently and effectively that are responsive to community needs.

To maximize our limited resources and make sure our efforts are strategic, effective, and aligned, we will use these five focus areas to guide our efforts.

To that end, we have heard you! Reaching City Hall has leaned to the frustrating side, and after reviewing the phone system set up and looking at our website, we are reprogramming the phone system to reflect current staffing and will update the contact list on the website. More work will be done on the website later this year.

Please note:  We are operating out of City Hall even though the lobby doors are closed to walk in traffic. So we’ll make sure it is easy to reach us by phone or email.  Appointments are available upon request.

COVID-19

Good news! Yolo County has more vaccine clinics available and more clinics are on the horizon! The County has over 28,000 residents over the age of 65 and just started vaccinating residents in this age group last week. With limited vaccine supplies, the County has been prioritizing those most likely to be hospitalized and die from COVID-19, which is the over 75+ age group and then the over 65+ age group. As the vaccine supply chain stabilizes, the race is on to vaccinate as many people as possible.  More information is available on the County’s website at https://www.yolocounty.org/coronavirus-vaccine.

Free COVID-19 testing is available at the Winters Community Center on Fridays from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. No registration required; you can just walk in. The more we test, the more we know so asymptomatic people are not inadvertently infecting people who won’t be so lucky and get sick.

Please Note:

Yolo County has announced a restaurant fee waiver to assist local restaurants impacted by COVID-19. The following eligibility requirements include:

• • - The business is a permitted business by the Yolo County Environmental Health Division that has or will pay fees for permit renewal for the period of July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021.
  • - The business is permitted or will renew their permit as a restaurant, bar, restaurant/bar combination, or bakery.
  • - The business was previously permitted and is not a newly permitted business (permitted in the prior year of July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020).
  • - The business has experienced a revenue loss associated with COVID-19 which is greater than 25% of gross revenues.

Eligible businesses can access the application at www.yolocounty.org/environmental-health and must apply between February 5, 2021 and June 30, 2021.

Did You Know?

 Do you have a special talent in the kitchen, craft room, or just want to run your business out of your house? It’s super easy to obtain the right permits from the County and / or the City of Winters.

 You can sell certain homemade foods with a permit from the County Health Department. Information for a Cottage Food permit is available here. There are two types of permits:

• - A Class A permit is for selling food directly from your home to individual customers. There is no home inspection required.
• - A Class B permit allows you to sell to retailers who then sell the food you prepare. This permit requires an annual kitchen inspection.

To sell from your home, or run a business from your home, you will need a business license from the City of Winters and a Home Occupation Permit.  For more information about City permits and licensing, please contact (530) 795-4910, x0.

Don’t Miss Out!

The Chamber is sponsoring a Scavenger Hunt to help support local businesses. Cards are $10 each and are available at the Chamber Office at 201 First Street or Steady Eddy’s at 5 E. Main Street. Fill in the rows to earn raffle tickets and WIN the grand prize! (I don’t know what it is…)

And while you’re scavenging, do some shopping! Don’t quite yet want to interact in public, you can shop online for local goods through individual store websites, social media, or the new Yolo.Boutique. (You can scavenge for them online…)

Want to go to New Orleans? And support the Winters Chamber of Commerce? Buy a raffle ticket for $50 and you could win a trip for two, including air fare, hotel, attractions, meals and transportation to and from the airport. Even better, you can pick your travel dates for 2021 or 2022. For more information, click here.

Upcoming Council Meeting

• - The next Council meeting is February 16. Agenda items still in the works…

Woot Woot!

 Visit Yolo works on behalf of Yolo County cities and the countryside to promote tourism, which helps support local businesses. The team’s efforts are partially funded by our Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID) assessment, which is a 2% tax hotel guests pay when they stay here.

The Visit Yolo team has been working with Visit California to provide more information about Yolo County opportunities. They recently showcased Yolo County with

7 Fun Ways to Eat, Drink, and Support Local Businesses in California | Visit California and created a landing page for Winters www.visitcalifornia.com/places-to-visit/winters/, noting that the “Farm-to-fork culture runs deep…in a farm town that also has a sophisticated foodie palate.” Love it!