SUPPLEMENTAL REPORTS & COMMUNICATIONS
Office of the City Clerk
City Council of the City of Napa
Regular Meeting
May 2, 2023
FOR THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NAPA
AFTERNOON SESSION:
SUBMITTED PRIOR TO THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING
4. PUBLIC COMMENT:
1) Email from Jim McNamara received on April 30, 2023.
2) Email from Kirk Mann received on May 2, 2023.
From:
James McNamara
To:
Clerk
Subject:
5/2/23 City Council Meeting
Date:
Sunday, April 30, 2023 7:35:46 PM
Sure wish I could make it to the meeting to witness the Proclamation of Older Adults Month, but I do have to work.
A question I do have however is when exactly will the groundbreaking for the traffic circle cactus be taking place?
I do believe it was explained to be installed as a
tribute to the many field workers who contribute greatly to make Napa what it is for all of us.
Our neighborhood houses a great many of those workers and it is in grave need of something uplifting for ALL people who live in it.
Please do something to make us think you care,
Jim McNamara
[EXTERNAL]
Item 4. Public Comment
From:
To:
Subject:
Date:
Attachments:
kirk mann
Clerk
Written comment for May 2, 2023 City Council Meeting to be read or submitted as per standard practice Tuesday, May 02, 2023 10:54:24 AM
City Council Mann - 5-2-23.pdf
[EXTERNAL]
Word count less than 500 words
Thank you.
Hello. I am a native Napan with 8 years commercial property management experience with the State of California and 15 years in the private sector prior to that. The total of the line items listed below would be less than the new City building you recently floated.
City buildings – If research (publications) reveal specific operating costs are excessive, older buildings are updated via new ceilings, flooring, paint inside and out, remedial maintenance of deferred maintenance building systems, updating restrooms, reconfiguration of hard wall office interiors if necessary, and new building façades and. The same concepts can be applied to school facilities.
1. Parking – metered parking would be a net loss to the City and negative influence on Napans going downtown and bay area people making one day trips here. The goal of meters is to direct people to paid public parking, usually structures.
2. Safeway – The blight condition of the vacant downtown Safeway violates current building code. Force action; the City has the power to get it remedied and leased. Any toxic issue can be fenced and tested annually by an agency as I observed in buildings I managed.
3. Update Fuller park – restrooms, two tennis courts, outdoor weather proof gym equipment, proscenium for aggressively marketed summer music programs.
4. Install outdoor gym equipment in appropriate spaces downtown.
5. Update green spaces or parks in north, south and east Napa as in Fuller Park above, as space allows.
6. Evans bus service – re-establish
7. Local bus service – re-establish and fight the scourge of loneliness associated with an aging population.
8. Buy, convert or build multi-use arts center driving film and blues festivals in Yountville back to Napa, and giving local theater a downtown performing space.
9. Convert to one way one lane streets with wide sidewalks and access for service or transport vehicles, and “cut outs” for allowable vehicles parking unloading/loading.
Choose streets not just servicing tourists.
10. Current budget
-adding an assistant DA in a town with declining crime rate associated with an aging population makes no sense.
-half a million dollars for a backflow - I never saw a commercial backflow cost of more than $1800.
-if administrative costs were 60% of City revenues a decade ago they shouldn’t be 60% now. Administrative costs do not increase with increased revenue. That’s “make work.”
11. Put pre-school programs where needed.
12. Create other senior centers appropriately located and modernize the existing.
I have observed all of the above in towns in the US, whose proud citizens seem to enjoy a shared place to live, legacies to be proud of. Your proposal for a new City building would exceed the combined cost of the above thus one can’t argue about the costs of the above
A citizen-focused forward-thinking City Council with professional support these and other pressing items and encourage us all to get out of our homes and enjoy our town.