Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Office Hours in the Community - tomorrow March 1st
Friday, February 23, 2007
CERT Training March 3rd & 10th - sign up now!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Update on various items
February 17th Strategic Planning Meeting: The Town Council and Economic Development Advisory Committee met with Michael Mackintosh, owner of the Marin Town and Country Club, in an open and public meeting to discuss how to move his proposals forward with the Town and the community. Mr. Mackintosh received input and ideas from the community, the Council and the Committee, including the suggestion that he conduct community outreach and facilitated meetings introducing proposed development designs to the community. At this meeting, the Council discussed the recent police consolidation study, and directed staff to communicate to the Town of San Anselmo that we are interested in exploring shared services and cost savings not only with respect to police services, but other town department services as well, and also directed staff to work with San Anselmo staff on a recommendation for a financial consultant to conduct a financial analysis of potential consolidation/shared services agreements.
Meeting with FEMA: Recently, Mayor Larry Bragman, Council Member David Weinsoff and I met with FEMA representatives and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey’s aide Tom Roth to discuss the outstanding issues that the Town has with our FEMA projects and monetary reimbursements. We received advice and information and made suggestions as to how the process of assisting disaster stricken cities can be improved, including expediting payments and greater communication.
Office Hours in the Community: The next session of office hours in the community will be held Thursday, March 1st from 8 – 11:30 a.m. at Barefoot Café, 1900 Sir Francis Drake. I hold office hours in the community one morning a month at rotating locations. No appointment is necessary. Feel free to stop by to discuss any issue of Town business or just to say hello.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Home Safety Emergency Plan available!
The brochures are now available at each business that contributed to the project, plus at Town Hall and the Police Department. This is a project of the Fairfax Citizens' Disaster Council.
Please join me in thanking the following businesses and organizations for their monetary support of this project to raise disaster preparedness awareness:
- Marchant Chapman Realtors
- Good Earth Natural Foods
- Fairfax Lumber and Hardware Co.
- Ross Valley Insurance Agency
- Fairfax Police Officers' Association
- Ross Valley Firefighters' Club
Please stop by the above businesses and pick up your free Emergency Plan brochure!
Friday, February 16, 2007
Ross Valley Watershed and Flood Protection Project proposed mail ballot
At the third Ross Valley Watershed community meeting held on February 10th, engineers explained that in
The valley-wide project costs, including continuing the hydraulic modeling into critical reaches of the creek such as Fairfax and Sleepy Hollow, are currently estimated at $100 million and can only be undertaken with sufficient funding. Last year, the local
In the Ross Valley Watershed, creeks and streams are part of the natural drainage system that sends stormwater runoff to the Bay. In order to provide initial funding and matching funds for the high cost of completing the many proposed projects that would reduce flooding risk, a storm drainage fee is proposed to be taken to the property owners in the
Under the proposed fee, the vast majority of single-family residential properties in the
If the Marin County Board of Supervisors determines that the Ross Valley Flood Protection and Watershed program stormwater user fee should proceed with a vote of the property owners, ballots could be mailed in early May. Each ballot will contain the exact fee for a property. In conformance with
This effort is an opportunity for the
Monday, February 12, 2007
Creek Road Bridge update
Saturday Strategic Planning Meeting
10:30 a.m. - Ideas for economic development from the community members of
11:00 a.m. - Council discussion and consideration of the POST Police
The IJ has printed more than once in the In Your Town section that the police consolidation study portion of the meeting starts at 9 a.m. but the Town never told them that.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Update on various items
Flood Control District: At the February 7th Council meeting, the Town Council voted to remove the condition which was keeping the Town from full acceptance into the Marin County Flood Control and Water Conservation District No. 9. The resolution of annexation now has a clause as follows: “The Town Council provides concurrence to the annexation with the understanding that during the feasibility phase of any proposed project within the Town of
Strategic Planning Meeting: The next strategic planning meeting of the Town Council is scheduled for Saturday, February 17th from 9 a.m. to Noon in the Women’s Club. The first part of the meeting from 9-10:30 a.m. will be combined with the Economic Development Advisory Committee, and
Floodgates: In order to encourage the installation of flood gates, the Town Council recently approved the waiver of permit fees for the installation of floodgates for any structure in town, a savings of approximately $80 per installation. Floodgates can be an effective and quick way to protect storefront properties during the threat of flooding. Floodgates are also much more effective than sandbags at keeping high water from damaging your property and are much less time consuming than filling and stacking sandbags. The Town has a sample plan for floodgates available at no cost. The plan is an example of a typical floodgate, but not necessarily one that is appropriate for every property. Installation of these gates is a worthwhile investment, and while they are most typically installed for business structures, some residential structures may also benefit depending on the design on the home. Our staff is eager to help with any questions regarding floodgates. Please feel free to contact Mark Lockaby, the Town’s Building Official, at 458-2370.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Creek Gauge installed
We were able to purchase this from some money saved on the siren pole which was donated by PG&E and through using a paging system for siren activation as opposed to computerized activation. The emergency warning siren is to be installed within the next two weeks, and I will provide more information here when we get to that point.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Council meeting Wed., Feb. 7th
http://www.town-of-fairfax.org/TownCouncil/TownCouncilPacket/February%207,%202006%20TC%20Agenda.pdf
The packet is here http://www.townoffairfax.org/TownCouncil/TownCouncilPacket/
Email me if there's an item you'd like to see that is not posted electronically and we can email or fax it to you.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Police Consolidation Meeting summary
The Town Councils of Fairfax and San Anselmo met on January 31st at Drake High and heard a report from the State of
1. Consolidation or contracting between the departments is feasible, and may be desirable. Cost savings are possible, depending upon the form of consolidation.
2. No “significant event” (e.g. loss of a chief executive, internal turmoil, or political agenda) has taken place that would often stimulate immediate discussion of potential contracts or consolidation. Recent flooding has resulted in financial troubles for both towns and may have prompted discussions, particularly from a cost standpoint.
3. Information and presentation of what consolidation is, its various forms, how it works or can work, and how services can be provided to the community without the loss of local control and input is vital to the success of a possible consolidation. Without an outreach effort, the concept has little chance of approval or success in any form.
Inform participants of preliminary information on consolidation to allow them to decide if there is sufficient reason to continue dialogue and to continue to study and evaluate the consolidation option.
Identify the issues that need to be resolved to make informed decisions about consolidation.
Identify the necessary steps that must be taken to successfully accomplish planning and implementation of consolidation.
2. Determine if there is sufficient support for additional study of consolidation; if so, what form of consolidation or contract. If, after sufficient public discussion, it is determined by the agencies to be feasible, pursue a more detailed cost/benefit analysis and other studies of the “approved” forms of consolidation/contracts.