Monday, October 8
5:00 pm - Council-Manager Dinner Briefing, Room 267
7:00 pm - Council Business Meeting, Meeting Chamber
Wednesday, October 10
12:00 pm - Housing and Neighborhood Development Committee Meeting, CH-14 CANCELLED
Thursday, October 11
12:00 pm - Restructuring Government Committee Meeting, CH-14. AGENDA: Public Art; Queen City Limits
Agenda Notes:
City Council previously set Monday, October 8th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at its Dinner Briefing for more discussion on the Urban Street Design Guidelines. The format for Monday night's discussion is proposed/set as follows:
6:00 – 6:10 p.m. Development Community/Business Community Presentation of Issues
6:10 – 6:20 p.m. City Staff Presentation of Issues
6:20 – 7:00 p.m. City Council Questions/Comments for all Persons Present
Other stakeholders will be present for the discussion as well.
Attached is the purchase contract developed with Lincoln Harris for the sale of the surplus arena land between Fifth and Sixth Streets. Note that where the agenda describes the City having use of the property through April 30th, the contract uses more specific dates that provide for the completion of light rail construction by Archer Western and staging associated with arena events during February and March.
Last year's budget for cankerworm communications/education was $3,000. This amount supported a grass roots campaign but will not be sufficient to mount an aggressive campaign this fall to inform the public on the importance of tree banding as an essential method in controlling the cankerworm. Corporate Communications is recommending both a grassroots and targeted marketing effort to communicate to the public about the fall and spring campaigns. Attached for Council information are additional details about plans for the two campaigns.
On the October 8, 2007 Council Agenda there is a change order for the Southwest Water Main (Phase A) project being installed between the Franklin Water Treatment Plant on Hwy 16 and Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Part of the project included installing pipe under Billy Graham Parkway via a tunnel. However, due to soil conditions the tunnel cannot be completed and it will require the pipe to be installed by trenching. This will require all lanes of Billy Graham Parkway to be closed from November 2nd through 4th. Detours will be in place for through traffic and airport traffic.
Message boards will be posted on Billy Graham Parkway and on Interstate 85 at least a week prior to the lane closure. Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Billy Graham Library were contacted and alternative routes discussed. Local media will also be updated throughout the weekend.
During October one lane may be closed intermittently as well for preparatory work.
When complete, this large water transmission main will carry drinking water from the Franklin Water Treatment Plant in northwest Charlotte to homes and businesses across western Mecklenburg County and improve the city's overall water distribution network.
Information Items:
Due to the October City Council Zoning meeting being held on Wednesday, October 17th, the Zoning Agenda Notebooks will be delivered to the Mayor and City Council on Friday, October 12th.
During the Council Workshop on Monday, September 4th, several members of Council requested information on the following items:
- SBE Utilization on CMU Projects from 2004 – 2006
- A plan to assess the SBE Certification Application
- Evaluation of the Personal Net Worth Statement required for SBE Certification with the City of Charlotte
Below is a brief explanation of each of the attached items:
SBE Utilization on CMU Projects from 2004-2006
The spreadsheet (attached) outlines contractors who were awarded CMU projects, the SBE goal established by the City, the contractor committed goal at bid time, and the actual goal attained at completion of the project. Although some contractors do not commit to achieving the City established goal at the beginning of the project, in most cases, the contractor meets and/or exceeds the established goal by the completion of the project (25 of the 32 listed projects met or exceeded the goal at project completion). Notice the average SBE goal established by the City is 4.88% and the average SBE goal achieved by project completion is 5.43%.
SBE Certification Application
The attached SBE certification application is used to certify small businesses for the City of Charlotte Small Business Development Program. Page four of the application provides a
checklist of information that each business must provide to become certified. To further assist small businesses to become certified with the City of Charlotte, the Small Business Office plans to:
- Evaluate components of the application that may need to be edited based on feedback and concerns raised from clients about the lack of clarity of the application.
- Provide exemplary customer service through trained/knowledgeable certification specialist to small business owners who come to the Small Business Office seeking assistance with completing the application.
- Provide successfully-completed sample applications for small business owners to use as a reference during the completion process.
Personal Net Worth Statement
The City SBE Policy limits the owners Net Worth to $750,000. This amount excludes:
- $500,000 of equity in primary residence,
- The value of the business
- The value of the owner's and spouses' retirement savings.
The dollar amount of this limit was an issue of great debate by the SBO Stakeholders Committee organized to evaluate the formation and processes of the Small Business Office. The dollar limit represents a consensus recommendation of that Committee. With this in mind, the Small Business Office plans to review this limitation in light of market changes in the past few years to determine if this amount significantly limits small business from being certified. We will also contact peer cities and the SBA to see if their guidelines have changed.
As you recall, the FY 2007 budget included the development of a show for Council members to allow for in-depth discussion and exploration of important issues, Council priorities and focus areas, policies and neighborhood concerns. After the program's referral to the Restructuring Government Committee for discussion concerning format and production, the committee recommended and Council approved:
- A pilot program consisting of a 30-minute program for six months.
- One show per month.
- Keep the format issues-driven.
- Staff should provide Council with a list of topics and guests for the upcoming shows.
- Staff will work with the Council to evaluate the success of the program.
If the concept is renewed, the program will begin again in January 2008.
To that end, Corporate Communications created Queen City Limits, which launched in March 2007. A total of seven shows were produced and completed airing in August 2007.
In order to measure the effectiveness of Queen City Limits, Corporate Communications is developing a survey for Council to assess whether production should continue on the show, and
if production continues should any changes be made. The survey will be presented for review to the Restructuring Government Committee meeting on October 11. The goal is to issue the survey in an electronic format for Council's input by October 25. The results and recommendations will be provided to the full Council in November.
As part of the City's effort to educate the public on bond projects, signs will be installed at bond project locations during the beginning of construction. Project managers will work with CDOT's Operations division to have the signs produced and installed during the month of October.
The signs will be placed in high visibility areas. In most cases, one sign will be utilized; for larger projects, two signs will be posted.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services (CMSWS) has received a national award for its water quality education and public involvement campaigns.
At its annual convention held on October 2, 2007 in Newport, Rhode Island, the National Association of Flood & Stormwater Management Agencies (NAFSMA) announced that its first place water quality award for excellence in communications was awarded to CMSWS.
CMSWS' public involvement campaign encourages citizens to be proactive in protecting water quality. The award recognizes Storm Water Services' multi-prong approach to public involvement through the Adopt-A-Stream, Storm Drain Marking and Big Sweep programs.
In fiscal year 2007, CMSWS' successful public involvement programs have resulted in:
- 60 groups completing 94 stream clean-ups through the Adopt-A-Stream program,
- 1,106 volunteers gave 2,525 hours of time to pick-up approximately 22,000 pounds of trash and report pollution in local creeks
- 454 volunteers participating in Big Sweep, a one-day event that cleaned approximately 13,500 pounds of trash from 69 miles of lake and stream shoreline, and
- 200 hours spent marking 1,640 storm drains with the message, "Do Not Dump – Drains to Creek."
Public surveys indicate the campaigns are paying off. Awareness of storm water issues in Charlotte-Mecklenburg is at an all-time high of 65%, up more than 20% in the past five years. Additionally, 70% of the population stated during the survey that they would pay more in storm water fees to clean up creeks.
In 2006, CMSWS was the recipient of the President's Award for Excellence in Communication (recognizing water quality and flooding communication) from NAFSMA.
It was reported in the September 21st memo that staff was working with the Eastway/Sheffield neighborhood on a Neighborhood Matching Grant (NMG) for a project that included neighborhood identification signs. We have been working through the encroachment issue and other concerns regarding the application. The neighborhood has decided to delay submittal of the grant request until the spring. Staff will continue to work with the neighborhood for the next NMG cycle.
