11/3/09 Still Blogging After All These Days

Rise and Shine

8:00 we had a dress rehearsal for our next community meeting in the Lowell neighborhood (11/16). Each department presented their activities from the past 4-8 months. This turned out to be a great exercise. None of us were satisfies with the information or presentation. Our saying is the Lowell is the place where Fresno learns neighborhood revitalization. The departments within the City have really been delivering effort and results in Lowell. Now we are figuring out how to to communicate the information to the community. This is not nearly as easy as you might think. But, the effort to communicate effectively should yield great results. Revitalization is an effort made by people, so having good communication is paramount.

9:15 I had my one-on-one meeting with the City Manager Andy Souza. As a Department Director, I report directly to the City Manager. The one-on-one meetings are a time to get specific feedback and direction as well as a time to get management guidance. As a newly restructured department (10 months old) it it vital.

10:00 We (Elliott Balch and I) had a meeting regarding the operations and maintenance of the Fulton Mall. The meeting included city Management and the PARCS Dept. We are discussing some ways to improve the coordination of events on the Mall, and some opportunities to spruce up the Mall while were working on the larger policy issues during the Specific Plan process.

11:00 Neighborhood Revitalization Manager Elaine Robles and I had a meeting with the Mayor and representatives from The California endowment. Fresno is one of 14 California cities that TCE has decided to focus attention and resources. Our meeting was largely informational, but it will also be necessary to coordinate our neighborhood revitalization efforts like our Lowell neighborhood and Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan ( which has a nearly identical footprint to the TCE targeted area). Our community has some huge needs, we need to use every resource that come our way as effectively as possible, to get the best results. That was the conclusion of this meeting.

12:00 Local Business Initiative Manager Amy Huerta and I had lunch with the Mayor's Chief of Staff Georgeanne White (reminder: I do not expense these meals). We talked about ways that we can use individual issues that local businesses face to improve processes within the City, and how to make the changes between departments.

2:00 We had our internal management meeting. Today we had Elaine, Amy, Elliott and me in the meeting. We talked about a broad issue, how to keep our fire and vision as a group while we are working toward long-term goals. We also get around to some of the more mundane daily issues too.

3:00 Weekly full staff meeting. This was a short meeting. We had a late start and we finished early. There was no need to meet for the whole hour if things were humming along well. Kelly Trevino has the California Enterprise Zone statewide conference in Fresno Wednesday through Friday. They are bringing about 170 people to town for this convention. We had a couple of people out this week, too.

4:30 We had a Fulton Mall/Downtown walking tour with a group primarily from Fresno State. Administrators, Faculty and students participated. This is leading up to our strategy lunch on Thursday. Fresno State's engagement in downtown and the neighborhoods is going to make a gigantic difference. Their resources with faculty and students is incredibly deep. We also had David and Lupe along for the tour. Elliott came along and so did a special guest the Honorable Judge Mike Price (and his two adorable girls).

6:30 Time for a quick motivational meeting with Holly Carter before heading home.