Friday Update on March 23 2018

Friday Update on March 23 2018

All,

Today is a long one:

City Council Agendas:

April 3, 2018

• Starbucks Final Acceptance & Notice of Completion
• Youth Day Parade Permit, Amplified Sound & Request for Annual Donation
• Nature Park Extension Project Approval
• Budget Discussion
• 2^nd Year Submittal for SB1 2018/2019 Project List

April 17, 2018

• Homeless Coordination Project 3-Year Contract
• Public Works Presentation
• Budget Discussion

Department Updates:

Public Works Activities:

• Backflow testing is occurring City-wide and affects most businesses. This is a requirement of our water utility and is a foundational element of insuring public health.
• Four electric vehicles (2 GEMS and 2 Miles Electric cars) are going to auction next week.
• The Toddler play structure (formerly at City Park) is being installed at Valley Oak Park on 3/29-3/30.
• Finishing pulling wire for new lights inside the playground area at City Park.
• Staff is spraying weeds, replacing street signs, repairing sidewalks, installing (2) ADA ramps.
• SB1 Street Projects are going out to bid in the next 2 months.
• The State of California has a new item for maximum contaminants- 1,2,3,-TCP Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL) has been issued by the State Water Board.  The MCL is 3 per 1 trillion parts. The City had a positive hit at one of our wells (which had recent maintenance and replacement of parts) resulting in a re-sample, which will be taken on Monday and inspected by the engineers at the Department of Drinking Water (DDW).
• The Waste Water Treatment Facility Master Plan will go to the Planning Commission in April, then on to the Council.
• Staff met with the Green River Tap Room Partners about water and sidewalk improvements.
• A new  soil cap, monitoring plan, and annual funding for the Old City Landfill are now being required by the State for the landfill.  A public hearing at the Water Board is scheduled for the end of May.
• Staff will be meeting with the Yolo County Consortium proposing a energy purchasing alliance called Community Choice Aggregation.

Economic Development/Housing:

• Staff met with our consultant for the Winters Older Adult Programs and Services to receive an update on her progress.
• Staff will attend a Homeless and HPAC meeting in Davis.
• Staff will be presenting an update on the senior center to the Winters Senior Foundation Board meeting next Wednesday.
• Finalizing the Prop. 84 grant for the construction of Walnut Park.
• A commercial broker for a national auto parts firm is interested in coming to Winters.
• TCAC (Tax Credit Allocation Committee) is recommending the award of a 4% tax credit for the Blue Mountain Terrace Senior Apartments.

Planning:

• 11 sets of plans for the Callahan Estates models have been received in Building office.

Police:

• Both Police and Fire met with the WJUSD in regards to their emergency operation planning and will move forward with a tabletop exercise in the next year.
• An agreement has been established with the WJUSD regarding nonstudent crossing guards has been signed.  Police Department will provide training and will then be able to enforce any vehicle code violations.
• Officer Jose Hermosillo was recognized and honored as Officer of the Year at the American Legion Post in Woodland.
• March training for the Police Department includes defense tactics and active shooter training.
• As part of department outreach, Community Services has given two senior fraud presentations and upcoming events include Burger-with-a-Cop, Youth Day, WMS Popsicle-with-a-Cop in conjunction with
• Officers are wearing mourning bands for two officers killed in the line of duty in Pomona and Marin County.

Fire:

• The Yolo County Fire Chief’s dinner, hosted by Winters Fire on March 13^th, was well represented and a big thanks to all staff members involved in putting this event together.
• The annual Public Safety Awards dinner will take place on April 7^th.
• Staff read to kids at the Winters Community Library yesterday and had a good turnout.
• Captain Matt Scheckla will be working through this year and next year to receive his Chief Officer Fire Certification by attending (4) week-long classes and initiating a task book.
• Consortium meeting to be held at the Yoche de He Fire Department to determine training.
• At the Fire District Board meeting last week, Don Rominger, who has served nearly 50 years, submitted his resignation letter. He will be honored at the annual Fire Appreciation Dinner and by the City Council.
• Expanding skills in EMS services and what EMT’s are allowed to do re: patient assessment.  Department now has a glucometer to check blood sugar levels in patients, EPI pens and can administer Narcan, which is also on board the ambulance.
• A grant has provided for two mass casualty rescue task force/trauma kits which are now deployed on board the service engine and the squad.
• Dana Carey, Yolo County OES and Cal Fire representatives held a community meeting last week to talk with property owners along Hwy. 128 about mitigation efforts and to get permission to work on their property.  The meeting was well-received.
• Winters Fire will be coordinating a regional training program in water, high angle, search and rescue called the Monticello Drill which has been scheduled for April 22-23.  Staff are working with Yolo County Sheriff’s Office regarding off-road, horseback and aircraft rescues.  Staff continues to move forward in planning this multi-jurisdictional exercise.

City Manager:

• Staff is working on means for updating portions of the City’s General Plan. At the City Council Meeting, Staff was asked to research resources through the State which was done this week. Lot’s of resources are available for some pretty complex issues.
• Staff is evaluating various elements of the general plan guidelines and will work some update elements into the upcoming budget and work plans. Kind of a general plan update “light” to make sure we are in a good position.

General Plans are essentially, the goals and vision for a community and represent the overall “business plan” or “blue print” for how a City will evolve and develop itself.

Staff spent a number of hours this week going through the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) Website which has many tools and resources for updating general plan documents. It’s a pretty good website with lots of information and suggestions on policies and formats for document preparation. The “guides” are very well written, mostly by researchers and law schools with addendums which refer you to other websites, the government codes and more documents. It is the proverbial trying to get a drink of water from a fire hydrant. If you are into the malaise of bureaucratic speak, policy nuances and legal ease, this is cyber nirvana!

While the City’s current general plan policies are pretty solid vision statements for the wants and desires of the City, there is a direct conflict between some of the service, park, jobs and amenity goals and the sustainability aspects of the land uses permitted in the City. Kind of like having a goal for an Olympic swimming pool only allowing for a 5 gallon bucket of water to fill it.

General Plans are individually unique and complicated. They work to implement the goals of many stakeholders into one plan. Many of the State requirements are heavily politically motivated and try to meet the very diverse needs of jobs, housing, industry, the environment and politics within the realm of a single planning document for each community.

They are extremely expensive! Every aspect of a general plan is required to be studied, justified and legally worded which means lots of consultants and attorneys who charge extremely high rates. The development of these plans is governed by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the Government Code and many aspects of legislation. The key is the constant threat of litigation from any number of sources, many of whom have very little stake in a local community, except for the general plan process. Planning (not necessarily doing) is a massive industry which is fed by the requirements of the State.

In many respects, general plans become a self fulfilling prophecy for the industry it feeds. One thing I have learned about California is that the way you become wealthy is to have legislation passed which makes people (especially government and taxpayers) buy your services or product.

See everyone at Coffee Fest this Saturday.

John