12/17/2021 City Manager’s Update

City Manager’s Update (pdf)
December 17, 2021

Greetings, all. In this final update for 2021, a hearty Happy Holidays to all of you from all of us at the City of Winters. May your holidays be bright and merry. Happy New Year!

This & That from City Hall:

• Yippee! The replacements parts have arrived for the Blue Oaks Park playground equipment. Fingers crossed the equipment will be open for play next week. Contractors have been identified to install the basketball half court and overhead park lighting, once the weather clears and the area dries out a bit. Hopefully, the added lighting will help deter some of the vandalism to the new play equipment…
• Security fencing has been installed at Three Oaks Park to help let the landscaping settle in without wear and tear. We are thankful for all the rain; however, the boggy conditions do make the area
• more susceptible to damage. There is more work to do, followed by a maintenance period. Thank you for helping us protect the park during the rainy season.
• Finance is going live with our new online Business License platform, which will allow for automated renewal notifications, and online applications and payments. Renewal forms will be mailed out before the holiday closure. Look for the account and PIN number in the area “Online Renewals Now Available.” Please let us know if you have any questions by calling (530) 795-4910. Manual renewals / applications will still be available at the counter or by dropping off a completed application and payment in the drop box.
• People can sign up to receive an auto-notification that the Council agenda packet has been posted by signing up through our Granicus platform here. It’s easy peasy and then you’ll receive something that looks like this. You can unsubscribe or change your email at any time. The agenda will include links to all the items in the packet so you can easily click through to items of interest.

Don’t Miss Out!

• Rumor has it one of our local residents and her brass Downtown Quintet will kick off a roaming performance starting at 5 p.m. tonight, beginning at Railroad & Main next to the holiday tree. Music, some last minute shopping, a relaxing glass next to a heater on Main – sounds like a great way to kick off the evening, especially since we have a break in the weather.

COVID-19

• The Omicron variant is the cause of a COVID outbreak at a West Sacramento high school. Six people thus far have tested positive. Public health officials are very concerned by the transmissibility of this variant and the combination of cold weather and holiday gatherings, bringing people together indoors. Masks are now required indoors throughout the State until January 15, per a recent state-wide health order. Please vax, mask, boost and / or test – all strategies that help slow the spread and lessen illness. The Winters school district hosts a testing location in the Railroad parking lot at the library on Tuesdays and Thursdays 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Winters Healthcare has walk in service for testing and vaccinations. Stay well.

 Upcoming Council Meeting

Our next meeting is December 21^st and we have a lengthy agenda; the consent and discussion sections both have a number of items. The link to the packet is here. Consent items include relocating the PG&E Community Resource Center from the Public Safety Facility to City Hall’s large conference room, creating a new employee classification for Executive Assistant / Deputy City Clerk, appointing the City Manager as City Clerk, awarding a contract for executive recruitment services for the Director of Administrative Services, Annual and Five Year AB 1600 Development Impact Fee reports, repurposing a $100,000 SACOG grant to support the paseo park project, and approving the 2022 Council and City Hall closure schedule. Two ordinances are also on the Consent Calendar for second reading: increasing the Council stipend effective after the next Council election in 2022 and moving Council elections from the primary ballot (alternating March and June) to November’s general election ballot.

Discussion items include the SB 1383 mandated edible food recovery program, introduction of an EV Charging Station Ordinance, Rescindable Notice of Intent to Withdraw from the City’s risk pool, a resolution approving street name lists, and formally establishing the Hispanic Advisory Committee and the transfer of HAC funds to a new community foundation.

Woot Woot!

Each year our public safety team warms our hearts with two programs: Shop with a Cop and Toys for Youth. The Winters Police Department takes children from families in need holiday shopping, not for themselves, but for their parents, helping these children bring joy to the entire family. There is a valuable lesson in there about the gift of giving. The Fire Department staff and volunteers have the children covered. This year they will provide children’s gifts to about 100 families (200 children) in town, unbelievable! Santa helps deliver the gifts Christmas Eve morning. Thank you to everyone who donated, helped wrap, and supported these programs. And thank you, Winters Police and Fire Departments for leading with your hearts.