Memorandum – June 5, 2009

City of Willits.

MEMORANDUM

Date: June 5, 2009
To: Honorable Mayor and City Council
From: Paul Cayler, City Manager
Subject: Administrative Progress Report

The following developments may be of interest to you and the community-at-large. Please contact me at (707) 459-4601, if you have any questions.

STATE PARK GRANTS AND OTHER MATTERS

On Monday June 1, 2009, a check was received from the State of California equaling $359,159 for the State Park Grant related to the Kids Club Project. This is an extremely welcome event. There is hope that additional disbursement payments for other State Park Grant projects will be forthcoming too. In another positive development, AB1364 was approved by the California State Assembly moved into the State Senate as an urgency matter. This bill would permit State agencies administering grant agreements to extend statutory deadlines for grant projects that were suspended due to the State freezing payments. The City Council took action to support AB1364. The Governor has indicated that he is supportive of grant agreement deadline extension.

KIDS CLUB

This matter is closely related to the receipt of State Park Grant payments. City staff has been working on a City Council agenda item for consideration at the June 10, 2009, City Council meeting, wherein the project suspension and whether to paint the building is planned. City staff still plans to bring the Kids Club project forward for discussion at the June 10th Council Meeting, however as of the writing of this report it appears that the possible decision will center on lifting the project suspension and directing the contractor to proceed with all work.

BUDGET

On Wednesday, June 10, 2009, the City Council is scheduled to take up the budget matters related to Council Member and City Treasurer benefit reductions and Redevelopment Agency budget cuts. On Tuesday, June 2nd, the City Manager conducted an “All Employee Meeting” when City budget information was shared with all interested employees followed by a question and answer session. The group consensus of attendees was that the meeting was positive, and that there should be follow up meetings to keep the employees up-to-date.

LEAK DETECTION

The City Water Department conducted a leak detection program in the past two weeks. Seven leaks were detected in City distribution lines. As of the writing of this report, five of the seven leaks have been repaired. Eighteen leaks were detected in private water lines. Letters noticing the applicable customers of the detected leaks have been sent out. Also, all the City main lines in the area of Mendocino and North Streets were checked for leaks, and no leaks were detected. It is deduced that the wet area on North Street near Mendocino Street is not the result of leaking City water pipes, rather it is a surfacing groundwater spring.

PEDESTRIAN SAFETY OPERATION

On the morning of Thursday, May 21, 2009, an operation for pedestrian safety was conducted in Willits. Utilizing only on-duty personnel from the Willits Police Department, Sgt. Scofield, Officer McNelley, Officer Harris, Community Service Officer Gamble, and Investigator Warnock conducted a decoy operation on Main Street. One officer acted as a decoy and crossed the roadway in designated crosswalks. The operation was videoed.  The operation resulted in seven citations, one warning and a DUI arrest.