02-11-10 Last Thursday

7:00 Met with Preston Prince, Eileen Neely, Rollie Smith, John Raymond, Keith Bergthold. This is our weekly meeting to coordinate housing, planning and revitalization efforts. It doesn't happen every week, of course, but that's the goal, when everyone is in town at the same time.



8:00 We had some breakfast goodies to celebrate Janet's time with our department and to welcome Sandy. Janet came to us through the first round of layoffs. She took a temp position, but has now landed a job out there in the private sector world. Sandy was laid off but has come back into the City to fill this temporary position. Primarily this position works on the vouchers that are used by businesses who take advantage of the Enterprise Zone Employee Tax Credits.


8:30 Prime Time for Business is a time that a local business gets to showcase what they do in front of the City Council. This week it was Vision One http://www.v-1.com/About.html?p=225  a company that does a lot of different things but we focused this presentation on their ticketing capabilities. Another worldwide company, headquartered in Fresno that many people don’t know about yet.


10:00 Dawn Steele and I went to Fresno State to meeting with their host of people who are involved in the Lowell Revitalization Project. From the Provost and Vice Provost, Professors from Communications, Political Science, Psychology, Theater (lighting), Women’s Studies, Library, Civic Engagement, Mediation, Engineering….all are working on their curriculum and efforts in focusing on Lowell! I keep saying it, folks…this is HUGE! We also had several nonprofits at the meeting: Hands On, FUND, Every Neighborhood Partnership.


11:30 Dawn and I stopped by for some Mexican food after the meeting, it’s a new place at Cedar and Barstow, I had recently heard about their handmade flour tortillas (like my grandmother used to make).


1:00 I met with Rick Mirigian. Rick is running The Penthouse in Chukchansi Park’s 600 Club. I think that Rick is going to be a valuable downtown events promoter and partner.


1:30 I met with George Smith about our upcoming mid-year budget. We have to submit our Fiscal Year 2011 budget next week. The City budget runs from July 1 to June 30th.


2:30 I had a one on one meeting with Alex Villa, who also is new to our department. He came over from Retirement and started after the first of the year. He is doing great work and has jumped right in.


3:30 and 4:30 I started the process of the annual reviews for Amy Huerta and Wilma Quan. This is a more formal type of process than I’ve eve done in other positions. It is interesting to learn.


5:15 I went by Austin’s to check in with the HYEFEST Committee.


6:00 I went out to the Edison Social Club to be interviewed and sworn-in as a member. This is a really great group of folks. I’ll be promoting the club’s activities in this blog. It gives me a slice of the Fresno that I remember. It is very real.  http://www.ahsgr.org/fresno/speech.html


8:00 Miguel Arambula came over to the house to get a letter of recommendation for a school that he is apply to. Miguel used to work for me at One by One Leadership for a couple of years. It’s always great to see Miguel.