June was a busy month for us as we kicked off our summer activities and worked on preparing the 2023-2024 Fiscal Year Budget, and closing out FY 2022-2023. The Budget was presented and approved by Council on June 20th.
On that same day, the Council was presented with the prestigious All-American City Award by former Hayward Mayor and National Civic League Board Member Barbara Halliday.
Housing Efforts
• In support of the Council’s housing priority, the City Manager entered into a $9,500 contract with Design Path Studio to design a pre-approved set of Accessary Dwelling Plans (ADUs), that will be made available to the public for a low fee with the goal of assisting the community to build more local housing. The pre-approved plans will be made available in early August.
• The City Manager, along with the City’s housing consultant, met with the Ad Hoc Housing/Development Committee to provide updates and receive policy direction on upcoming key items. The committee is active and is diving deep into the housing and development work.
• The City Manager is reengaging with DR Horton to better understand their feasibility study process and where it stands. The City is also planning a follow-up meeting with the School District to assess potential for alignment as housing is a critical need for their workforce. • The City Manager and Community Development staff have engaged with the Housing Element consultants from 4Leaf to move the work along in order to meet the State’s established deadline of December 2023. The Element’s approval can influence and make available housing monies. As part of its public engagement process, a team of folks were out at the Fourth of July event conducting surveys to gather community input for the document.
• On June 27th, the City Manager and Community Development staff attended MBEP’s Housing Summit where there was a robust conversation around the Housing Element, potential policies, and impediments to housing construction. The conversation was productive and there were key individuals in the room that can help make shifts at both the local and State level to ease some of the restrictions on housing development. At the meeting, the City Manager also connected with CHISPA staff to discuss the senior housing project on Alta Street that has been on hold for some time.
Community Center Complex
• The work on the Community Center continues to move forward. The Agreement between the Consultants from Otto Construction and WRNS is almost finalized.
City Manager’s Report
June 2023
• On the financing part, the City Manager met with representatives from the California National Resources Agency to discuss the funding for the Teen Innovation Center and the draw down process. The Capital Campaign is also moving along nicely. We just received another commitment of $25,000 and in the month of June, we received $7,500; with the total of cash on hand being $4,064,605, and a total pledged of over $6.4 million.
Revenue Generation
• The City Manager is engaging with partners at the County and the Community Foundation for potential funding opportunities that may be able to support certain aspects of our Community Health Worker program.
• The City is also working to adjust some of our fees to bring them up to industry standards as many of our fees have not been updated in quite a few years. This includes the reinstatement of our water fees and shutoffs since during COVID-19, we did not conduct any shutoffs.
• The City Manager and Community Development staff will be meeting with a Legacy Signs representative to continue the discussion and exploration of a potential digital sign for the community. This billboard and communications opportunity can bring in upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the community, and serve as a communications tool if the Council decides it’s something that can be of benefit.
Community Engagement
• The City Manager attended MBEP’s Digital Equity Workshop on June 2nd. The Workshop aligned with our efforts around broadband access and our work on the Middle Mile. The discussion was interesting and intriguing as information was provided on potential upcoming grant opportunities.
• The City Manager also met with the local School Superintendent. We are beginning to plan for next year’s GYC and are working to collaborate more efficiently on issues that affect both entities such as housing, the GYC, and community beautification. A joint meeting of the School Board and City Council is scheduled for August 8 th
.
• The Gonzales City Manager has been appointed as an Alternate to Steve Adams (City of King, City Manager) on the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency representing South County.