10/27/09 How I spent my day.

Well I'll start with a bit of an apology. This is, by its nature, very self-centered. It'll have a lot of I did this and then I did that. But then again, I don't really know how or why I'd be writing about someone else's day.



I also must remind any readers that I am not going to reread these. It is a simple post of my days activities. Nuff said.



I met with folks from the Salvation Army at 7:00 this morning. It was an unusual meeting spot for me, I'd never been there before. We met out at the Starbucks at Clovis and Herndon. The location of my second meeting was the reason for the location choice.



The Salvation Army is interested in how to coordinate any future plans of theirs with the revitalization plans that we have at the City. We discussed some urban design concepts, we discussed the upcoming Fulton Corridor Specific Plan. I suggested that they stay very involved with the Specific Plan as they consider future options.



8:30 Several folks in City management had a tour of the Cargo Bay out in the Clovis Technology Park. We went out to take a look because Case Lawrence has an interest in potentially coming downtown. I thought that it was important for people to see his existing projects. When I learn to insert hyperlinks I'll include them in these blogs. For now, you'd have to search for Cargo Bay Clovis to see what I am referring to (dangling prep...I know).

For the past couple of weeks we have been working with an existing downtown property owner who is attempting to attract a tenant downtown. Today is the day that the decision is being made. We made some calls and sent a letter over to the prospective tenant...hopefully we'll have something good to announce?

10:00 I have regular meetings with the five people in our department. for management folks it is called a one on one. Today I had a one on one meeting with our Administrative Manager George Smith. This is a time to discuss budget issues and internal working of City processes. Plus it is a time to see what is going on with the individuals who make up our team.

11:00 We had another meeting with the Redevelopment Agency to talk about another possible downtown tenant. This was a short meeting to stay coordinated on a very preliminary lead.

11:30 We have a 90 minute staff meeting within our department every week. We had Me & Ed's (not paid for by City) and Halloween candies (also not City sponsored). We use this time to keep everyone informed. I usually have some wisdom to share at the beginning and everyone patiently endures. We have an agenda, which I suppose I could learn to post in the future. Each week one of the areas will present their work plan, so that throughout the month, everyone is tracking.

1:30 We had out monthly coordination meeting regarding the City's efforts in the Lowell Neighborhood. As you may or may not know. The City and our department have selected the Lowell neighborhood as the place to begin our revitalization efforts. Our goal is to build a strong, sustainable effort in Lowell, which can then be customized and used in neighborhoods throughout urban Fresno. Today's meeting focused on 2 things: coordinating our efforts against slumlords (the Lowell area's 2nd highest priority) and preparing for our next meeting in Lowell on November 16th. We want to present the information and results in a clear way.

3:00 I met with the Redevelopment Agency and City representatives with a potential downtown tenant. Very preliminary, but we were scoping their needs for space, timing, and other considerations. The amount of time that we are spending with potential downtown tenants, investors and others is really very encouraging given the economy!

4:00 Our department presented our work plans to the City Manager and a Deputy City Manager. The work plans were done to help us to track the many activities and also to begin to plan ahead to make sure that we don't miss any steps. We hope to post them on our department's website soon, so everyone who would like to stay current with our efforts will have that option.

6:00 I met with Blake Konczal from the local Workforce Investment Board. We met to discuss ways to put unemployed construction workers to work in our downtown neighborhoods doing renovation and other projects. Blake thinks that it will be fairly easy and will get back with a plan. We also discussed his upcoming panel discussion at the State Enterprise Zone conference next week, which will be in Fresno. Our WIB and Fresno County have developed an on-line system for the Enterprise Zone which is is cutting edge. Blake is one of the great people and leaders in town, so I always enjoy a chance to get together with him for work issues and to talk about issues from travel to religion.

We met for dinner, and before anyone asks, I pay for my own meals, I don't expense them to the City and I don't let other people pay for mine.

10:30 Off to bed. I'm reading a very interesting book titled Mindset.