12-18-09 The week Finale ends

No run this morning. I got up early to write the blog for Thursday. I couldn't connect to the internet. I was finally successful, just as it was time to get ready and go to my first meeting. I don't think that I've mentioned this. Our dog Ellis is allergic to profanity. I can mutter a cuss word under my breath and she will come from another room and stare up at me with a pathetic look. This makes working with technology (or fighting with technology) very difficult. Computers and swearing go together like steak and cabernet.


I started at the Chicken Pie Shop at 7:00 with investors who are interested in buying and renovating an apartment building in the Lowell neighborhood. I told them about our desire for quality, in appearance and also in management. This is a particularly symbolic apartment complex because a few months ago it was inhabited by gang members. It is now vacant after the Police Dept. cleared out the trouble-makers. It would be great to have it fixed up and have it become a contributor to the neighborhood, rather than a detractor.


8:30 Elliott Balch, Donna Gavello and I met with Gordie Webster at the Business Journal. We were meeting to discuss the BJ's participation as a sponsor in downtown events and festivals. As always, Gordie is very supportive of revitalization efforts and will help us with our event promotions.


10:00 Elliott, Elaine, Amy, Wilma and I met to regroup after Tuesday's City Council meeting. We took a look at how this chaotic week went, what worked and what we could have done better. And, what we need to do between now and the January 28 meeting when the Specific Plan and Community Plan will go back to the City Council for consideration.


We all chipped in for some pizza and had some time for the whole department to get together to celebrate the four victories for downtown from the day before.

1:30 The Mayor, City Manager, Public Works, Public Utilities, Planning Director and I met to continue the improvement of internal processing of development applications. I'm at these meetings to make sure that the downtown projects stay top of mind as the whole system is redone.


2:30 I had word from the Personnel Department that two of our departments team members would be on the receiving end of a bump caused by layoffs. Amy Huerta and I delivered the bad news to our co-workers. And then we pulled together the rest of our team to share the news. We know that this is happening everywhere, it's not just our department or just the city, still it is a difficult thing to lose people who are really great at what they do and who are an important part of our work family.


3:00 Wilma, Elliott, Elaine and I met briefly with the City Manager and Nicole Zieba, Deputy City Manager, to work on our strategy for the Specific Plan and Community Plan. There will be a great deal of work for Wilma, the City Attorney's office and our consultant team to bring more options to the council on the 28th of January.


4:00 We had one final meeting to try to get everyone back together and to get a clear picture of what we need to do going forward. All of you who manage groups of people know, the effort put into keeping people moving together in unison, working toward a common purpose, takes a great deal of thought and resource, but is the only way to accomplish big things. Today was certainly a reminder of this fact.


We'll miss our two friends and co-workers, but will do all that we can to help them find new work. They are both wonderful and will land on their feet. We'll welcome the two new member of the team after we return from the holidays and furlough. Ultimately it is the mission of downtown revitalization, neighborhood revitalization and creating a strong base of locally-owned businesses that drive our mission. Regardless of the ups and downs that happen along the way.