BUILDING STRONG NEIGHBORHOODS COMMITTEE
Meeting Report
September 15, 2003
PRESENT: Chair Cindy Chavez,
Councilmembers Ken Yeager, Nora Campos and Judy Chirco
STAFF: Jim Holgersson, City Manager’s Office;
Sara Hensley, Scott Reese, Joe Cardinalli, Yves Zsutti, Margaret Wagenet and
Rick Stanton, Parks Recreation & Neighborhood Services; Pat O’Hearn, City
Clerk’s Office; and Avo Makdessian, Mayor’s Office.
The meeting convened at 1:33
p.m.
a.
Discussion of Trails Prioritization (Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood
Services)
Deputy
Director Scott Reese introduced himself and Yves Zsutti. Mr. Reese presented a PowerPoint
presentation on the Trails Program. The
three month update included:
-
Project
Inventory
-
Grant
Inventory
-
Trails
Report Card
-
Interim
Trails
-
Santa
Clara Valley Water District Grant Awards
-
Web
Site Update
Mr.
Reese distributed a copy of an Available Grants/Funding Sources chart to the
Committee for their reference. The next
report to go before the Committee will include an annual work program, progress
report update, and web-site.
Councilmember
Ken Yeager requested staff to inform the Committee on details of projects the
City is applying for. He would like the
Committee to be part of that discussion prior to submittal instead of after the
fact.
Mr.
Reese stated that in the upcoming meetings with each Council District, staff
priorities will be in a much more detailed basis. We want to discuss with each Councilmember the segments that lie
within their areas and potiential funding opportunities.
Councilmember
Yeager stated he cannot understand clearly what the timeline is on due dates
and the decision making process. Staff
should also consider coordination of applications with the Sacramento lobbyist
Roxanne Miller, as well as with the Senate and Assembly delegations. This will assist in making the most
informative and active presentation as possible.
Councilmember
Yeager requested an informational memo at some point to City Council on the
entire plan for the Proposition 40 funds.
Mr.
Reese informed the Committee that staff is currently working on the plan due to
the variety of things the funding can be used for. Staff is trying to use the categorical specific grants initially
and then work backwards from there to use the discretionary grants where we
would think our projects would not be as competitive. Many of our projects, because of the nature of our cooporative
endeavors with other agencies may receive a higher score. We will bring back to Council the entire
funding plan.
Councilmember
Yeager asked if the process of the contracts could be faster with the Water
District. For the most part if we had
the contracts in place, there may be some levies that could be opened for
public use.
Yves
Zsutti addressed the Committee regarding Guadalupe River from Highway 101 to
Alviso being delayed due to the construction work on raising all the
levies. The City does not want to open
them for public use until the construction is done. Knowing the construction timetables, we are using all our
resources to time the agreements for completion in sequence when construction
is done and ready for public use. The
boilerplates are standard and staff is working out details in advance of
execution.
Councilmember
Yeager inquired on the status of Coyote (237-Montague); if you had to put a
date on the construction contract timeline what would it be.
Mr.
Zsutti stated staff is working to clarify with the City Attorney’s Office an
issue on indemnity clauses. A contract
may be possible five to six months considering the other agreements that are
lined up and we need to construct the budget setup before the contract can be
executed.
Councilmember
Yeager stated any amount of detail you can provide us would be helpful.
Chairperson
Chavez stated she wanted to follow up on two items: 1) If the Council Offices
and Mayor’s Office can offer their assistance such as the issues with
Cal/Trans. Jim Webb and Department of
Transportation meet on a routine basis and this may help with coordination; 2)
The Trails Chart as distributed, it is still unclear on who is responsible for
searching out money and applying.
Information easily accessible for whether it is a trail or a park,
different types of funding that are already assigned that can be drawn down by
a certain date. Once Council can access
the web-site and understand any gaps, then they can identify that there are
areas where they can assist.
Sara
Hensley stated staff is in the process of addressing those concerns. Under Scott’s direction, staff will keep
track of current grants and close monitoring of those grants having those
reporting mechanisms complete in time so the gap does not close and we loose the
funds. Identifying grants are being looked
at strategically whether it is a park or trail or even a recreation facility or
senior program that will have staff to identify the actual grant program we
used in the past, funding agency, any previous experience with that area. Staff will look at the process with writing
the grant and connect with the Budget Office making sure we are strategically
aligned with the Intergovernmental Cabinet so we are not duplicating some
efforts. PRNS staff is currently creating
a process that would give Councilmembers a strategic layout of how we are
getting to the grant processes and how we add dollars together to equal a
project.
Chairperson
Chavez stated the benchmark she is setting to be comfortable would be six
months with gaps being closed within PRNS and some closure as it relates to
DOT. I recognize how incredibly
complicated agreements are but given that we are sharing a lot of land with a
lot of people and trying to accomplish all these trails we really do have to figure
out a little bit more of a formula on the methodology approaching this problem
so that each Council Office and staff coming and going have something easy to
reference with history, almost like a Parks for Dummies easy reference.
Mr.
Reese added the grant database is being designed with project, funding sources,
funds accesses and status. The data is
being collected and being put into a simplistic spreadsheet so it is all in one
place and use it as a comparison tool.
This was an
informational report and no formal action was taken.
b.
City’s Volunteer Program (Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood
Services/City Manager’s Office).
Jim
Holgersson stated the Volunteer Program has really been an interdepartmental
effort and PRNS stepped up to the line to lead the Volunteer Program. The Volunteer San Jose booth at the Mayor’s
Volunteer Event was active in bringing more volunteers into the City
program.
Deputy
Director Joe Cardinalli introduced Margaret Wagenet the Volunteer San Jose
Coordinator. Mr. Cardinalli addressed
the Committee on the progress that has been made and elaborated on the
highlights that have been accomplished:
-
Technical
Team
-
Inventory
of all programs and what the needs are
-
Volunteer
databases to be merged as one
-
Volunteer
web-site
-
Marketing
-
How
do we make this a positive experience
Mr.
Cardinalli reviewed the PowerPoint information on the Volunteer Program that
included website access. PRNS is
planning on developing a Citizen Advisory Committee to get input from the
citizens on the various volunteer programs and how they work.
Ms.
Hensley stated that as we move forward, PRNS volunteer programs that are
scattered throughout the department are being consolidated under the direction
of Joe Cardinalli. Staff is looking at
volunteer databases to obtain information that would be helpful to Boards and
Commissions. Ms. Hensley stated that
this is a major undertaking but the product will be a huge benefit and then the
City can move forward to address businesses.
Once the City improves its coordination and implementation of strategy
is underway, the City can move forward to address how it should promote public
outreach through the PRNS brochure.
Councilmember
Campos asked if adult and high school volunteers can access information on-line
and get assistance from staff by telephone.
Mr.
Cardinalli stated anyone can access volunteer information on-line and review
what they may be interested in. They
can also contact PRNS or call center staff and they will walk them through it. Staff will discuss with them their interests
and age groups to assist in their decision.
Councilmember
Chirco asked if Boy Scout Groups could work on group and ongoing projects
compared to one-time projects and, once they have a project, are they aware of
the requirements needed.
Mr.
Cardinalli stated the program has a lot more opportunities than
volunteers. They will have partners
that guide them through the project.
Mr. Holgersson added there
is a structure in place for orientation.
Councilmember Yeager asked
if Cal/Trans accepts volunteers. How do
you get volunteers out there especially to work on the heavy littered areas of
the highway.
Mr. Cardinalli stated that
Cal/Trans is one of the links that you could access if you wanted to
adopt-a-freeway.
Ms. Hensley stated to begin
with fines are being given to the untarped vechicles spotted littering the
freeway and the dump sites are informing them that they need the vechicles
covered. Cal/Trans has experienced
cutbacks and we are trying to think of ways we can partner with them to get the
freeways cleaned up.
Councilmember Yeager asked
who the people are out there cleaning up.
If a segment is adopted by a group, can you call up and ask when the
crews would be out there next.
Rick Stanton stated
Cal/Trans does have the Alternate Work Program, Adopt-A-Highway (organizations
adopt a two mile stretch). The
organization goes out or they hire a company to go out. That type of clean up is once a month and on
a highway that does not keep up with the volume of debris. A project of volunteers can receive a long-term
permit to work on a section of highway.
They come out when they want to cleanup. Anti-Graffiti and Litter Program (AGLP) has referred residents to
Cal/Trans and they do a Saturday orientation and distribute equipment before
being able to actually go out on the section of highway they want to pickup.
Councilmember Yeager asked
if we include Neighborhood Associations that have some of these freeways with
this information.
Mr. Stanton stated that we
have been working with the Neighborhood Associations trying to get the 100 Hot
Spots Adopted and do include the Cal/Trans permit process in the information
provided. We just do not find too many
people eager to do the work on the freeways.
Councilmember Yeager asked
if we include the Cal/Trans information in the volunteer effort on the web
page.
Ms. Hensley stated the
Cal/Trans information will be included as a link and staff is working on
creative ways to assist Cal/Trans.
Chairperson Chavez suggested
getting the recruitment of high school volunteers that have a community service
requirement of 40 hours. Working with
school districts and fraternities to coordinate volunteer groups would be a
great resource. Councilmember Chavez
would consider hosting a school district board member to breakfast to provide
information to them.
Councilmember Yeager
suggested a public announcement could be used to make the drivers aware of
volunteers out on the highway.
Ms. Hensley stated we have
begun having a rovering staff member set up information booths discussing
opportunities at various functions on campuses. Another forum to use would be the Youth Advisory Commission. They could help us to look at volunteering
and have it be a part of their curriculum in leadership development, working
with their peers across the city in volunteer opportunities.
Upon
motion of Councilmember Yeager, seconded by Councilmember Campos, the Committee
accepted the Volunteer San Jose Program Update, with direction to staff to
include in the next update:
·
Cal/Trans
·
High Schools
·
Special steps taken to assist volunteers
c. Joint Report on Strengthening the Boards and Commissions (City
Manager’s Office/City Clerk’s Office).
Mr.
Holgersson stated the City Manager and City Clerk’s Office teamed up to address
the Commission on the eight areas that they were requested to collect
information and report on. Pat O’Hearn,
City Clerk’s Office, Nadine Nader, Brook Myre and Deanna Santana, City
Manager’s Office assisted with the report as well as the Interdepartmental Task
Force. Strengthening the City’s Board
& Commissions will include developing workplans, commission improvements,
and reporting mechanisms. Mr.
Holgersson stated the status of vacant positions has no real formal process. This area will be in review so that everyone
involved will be better informed of where the vacancies are and move quickly to
fill them.
Councilmember
Chirco asked if the Boards & Commissions were volunteers. Mr. Holgersson informed the Commission that
the majority of them are seated by volunteers.
Councilmember
Campos inquired on how effective is project diversity. With her review of commissions there seems
to be no diversity.
Councilmember
Yeager asked when you receive the application form does that help you with the
diversity selection.
Pat
O’Hearn stated the applications are very helpful to the Project Diversity
Screening Committee. They cover other
information that may be needed as well as diversity that may be supportive of a
commission. In recruitment, a vast
city-wide mailing of 800 notices is sent out every six months. The City Council is informed every six
months if they want to include additional contacts or sources. The City Clerk’s Office can concentrate on
any area that Council may specify. The
Boards and Commissions Roster is on-line.
Councilmember
Yeager stated there should be a better way to inform the Council Offices on how
the recruitment is progressing.
Mr.
Holgersson stated the task force focused on training opportunities. Some boards and committees have better
guidelines than others and there is room to create a formalized orientation
approach. The City Service areas could
be a way to approach the boards and commissions and simply for the purpose of
linking more directly to the way we are structured in the City. There are four existing policies that in
some areas may overlap. In review we
may be able combine them into one.
Chairperson
Chavez stated the recommendations were very well done. I would like to see alignment with Business
and Master Plans. Also an assessment
why commissioners do not attend meetings would be helpful in the determining
how functional the commissions are.
Councilmember
Campos stated within the SNI areas they have established committees. If the Council Office had the Clerk’s Office
packets available they could commission recruitment when we go out to the
public.
Ms.
Hensley stated PRNS is currently revising the NDC work plan and staff can add a
component talking about boards and commissions. Then a link with the Volunteer San Jose web-site could assist
with information for these boards. We
could have and NDC staff member attend meetings with Councilmembers to discuss
leadership components and development, other opportunities to volunteer, boards
& commissions information.
Councilmember
Chirco stated the expertise and knowledge would be great to have at Homeowner
Association meetings.
Avo
Makdessian questioned how many commissioners are serving their full terms.
Ms.
O’Hearn stated that currently the limit is 2-3 year terms. The majority of applicants want to serve on
the Arts and Human Rights Commissions.
Mr.
Holgersson asked if there were any issues in the report that the Committee did
not want them to pursue.
Chairperson
Chavez stated if during the review of issues you find something does not work
that a short reference as to why would be helpful.
·
Involve the Council Offices
e. Oral
Petitions.
None.
f. Adjournment.
The meeting adjourned at 2:58
p.m.
Cindy
Chavez, Chair
Building Strong Neighborhoods Committee