02-02-10 Corcoran!

7:30 Elliott and I met with the Downtown Association's Executive Committee to work toward aligning our efforts. There are many odd things happening in downtown and we need to make extra sure that we use our resources wisely and support our mutual goals. I hope that we continue to meet to keep the lines of communication open. It is amazing how much communication it takes, especially when things are moving as quickly as they are.



8:30 I had my one on one meeting with our Local Business Initiatives Manager Amy Huerta. I'll tell you right now, Amy is working on some incredible changes that are going to make a lasting improvement on our city and our City. Her work helping Licensed Contractors is growing support by the day. Stay Tuned. Amy is about to launch the Local Business Initiatives e-newsletter. Send her an email if you'd like to be added to the list: amy.huerta@fresno.gov .


9:00 Amy and I met with Joe Gray, our City Treasurer about the progress on the City's new business license software and how the City can begin to ask contractor's for the State License number when the get their City license..


9:30 We had two potential downtown property owners/tenants meet together to see if they might be interested in partnering on a project. I haven't written about these folks yet, so if you are keeping score at home, you can see how constant the interest level is becoming.

10:00-11:30 The Fresno Housing Authority gave an update to the Mayor and others of us from the City. The briefing included an overview of the HA activities from rental subsidies to public housing to farm worker housing. We also discussed alignment of City, Redevelopment and HA housing funds, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and other projects.


11:30 We had a meeting with the City Attorneys regarding the unlicensed contractor issue. Council Member Borgeas and Xiong staff members were on hand and have been helping in this effort.


12:00 I had lunch at George's in the Galleria with local businessman, downtown Hanford property owner and former neighbor Mike Hamburger. Mike owns a roofing company and wanted to get an update on the downtown plans and other downtown activities. As is the rule, we went Dutch and I do not expense my lunches to the City (in case you were wondering).


1:00 We had a meeting regarding the PIPES program which will streamline the planning and other departmental review processes. Former Clovis Planning Director John Wright has been assisting this effort. It is nearly ready for public review and comment.


2:00 Downtown and Community Revitalization weekly staff meeting. I asked the DCR staff to write suggestions for me to become a better director for our department. I did this about 6 months ago and the list was very helpful. We'll see how much progress I've made and how many new suggestions pop up!


Janet Heidinger just joined us a few weeks ago as she moved from a "permanent" position to one of our Temp positions. Janet announced that she has landed a new job. We are very happy to see our folks land on their feet. Janet's last day will be next Friday. Even though she has only been with us since the first of the year, her positive disposition has already had an impact on all of us. Congratulations Janet!


3:15 I hopped into my car and headed down the freeway to Corcoran. I was asked to speak to the downtown business owners by the Corcoran Chamber of Commerce. I had spoken to them about 9 years ago when I first started working in Hanford. I have kept in touch as they have improved their main street and done facade improvements to pretty much their whole downtown.


I had fun speaking with them and answering questions. Mostly we talked about marketing issues. We talked about cross marketing, the role of events, determining the target market, store window displays and merchandising store interiors. We also talked about the competitive advantages that small businesses have over the big box stores and the internet: Service, Product Knowledge, Relationships.


I got into the house at 7:30, in time to catch the end of Jeopardy.