Good afternoon, everyone. A short week due to the Thanksgiving holiday yields a short report, but there have been a few things happening around city hall that I would like to make you aware of.
Key Meetings
-On Monday I attended the monthly chamber board meeting. The co-chairs of the Young Professionals Network gave a presentation, followed by normal updates from various chamber staff members.
-Afterward, staff from my office met with Parks Director Scott Garrie to review their list of capital equipment and projects for the next five years. We still have a couple of departments to meet with, but the project is ongoing.
-As indicated in last week’s report, on Monday afternoon, staff from our building division, AtCM Brian Kelly, and I met with Councilmen McCreary and Glaze to discuss their concerns about our building permit process. We discussed the length of time our permits are good for (six months), the process to get a permit extension, and the challenges of enforcing our permits when a homeowner/contractor cannot meet our deadlines. I have asked our intern to work with Mr. Kelly on surveying some other cities’ permit processes to determine where we fall on the spectrum of strict vs. lenient. After that information is compiled I will work with our building staff to develop any changes to our process, if warranted.
-On Tuesday, I visited with Dr. Ridder from Joplin Schools to see how things are going with the district. We are working with their staff on the sub-recipient agreement for the early childhood center project, which will come to you around March of 2016 (HUD still has to approve the amended action plan, we need to complete the Tier 1 environmental assessment as well, which will take us through February). The district is also making progress on a survey that they intend to conduct to measure the community’s opinions on the district.
Miscellaneous
-Bids were due on two projects this week that you may have received, or may receive, questions on, namely the library construction project and the affordable senior housing project. We received eight bids for the library construction project, and one bid for the senior housing project. Staff is in the process of reviewing the bids and will bring those to you at a future council meeting for consideration.
-Staff in our city attorney’s office has prepared the Blasters lease agreement according to the terms we presented to you at our last meeting, and we have provided the team with a copy for their review prior to the meeting. That item will be on your agenda for December 7th, and a copy of the lease will be included with your council packets.
-As indicated in last weekend’s article in the Joplin Globe, I am working with our IT director to develop a city-wide email retention policy. As you may be aware, our email is hosted by Microsoft and we have been in contact with their representatives to learn more about their system and retention possibilities for current and past employees. I will share a copy of that policy with you when it has been completed and adopted.
-We have received feedback from the Center for Priority Based Budgeting on several program inventories that were developed by departments. We will continue to meet with staff to fine tune the lists of programs as the CPBB’s feedback comes in, but next month we are on track to begin the process of working with you to develop our Results maps.
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