Council Manager Memo #56 - August 20, 2008

Calendar Details:
   (See Below)

Information Items:
- Caldwell Street between Third and Fourth
- Small Business Opportunity program Benefit Kick-Off - August 28
- Police Department Community Meetings
- Community University - September Workshops
- "Outstanding Planning Award" for Dilworth Land Use and Streetscape Plans
- Report on City Street Condition Survey and Impact on Asphalt Costs
- Airport Parking Rates to Increase
- Utilities Retains Superior Bond Ratings

Attachments:
- Council Follow Up Report 6/16/08
- August and September Calendars
- Community University Brochure

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Calendar Details:
Monday, August 25
     5:00 pm - Dinner Briefing, Room 267
     6:30 pm - Citizens' Forum, Chamber
     7:00 pm - Business Meeting, Chamber
Wednesday, August 27
     5:30 pm - Metropolitan Transit Commission, Room 267

 

Information Items:
Caldwell Street between Third and Fourth Streets
Resource:
     Scott Hudson, 704-336-3938 or jhudson@ci.charlotte.nc.us

On Thursday August 14, the left lane of Caldwell Street from south of Third Street to Fourth Street including both left turn lanes at Fourth Street was closed to traffic. This was necessary to provide safety for the public due to the large void under the turn lanes that was caused by a leaking storm drain pipe.  Crews from Blythe Development began work Thursday morning setting up the permanent lane closure with water barrier, cones and fencing.  It is anticipated that the network of underground utilities will slow the work to expose and rectify the storm drainage problem.  Work is anticipated to be complete by the afternoon rush hour on Wednesday August 20, 2008.

Small Business Opportunity (SBO) Program Benefit Kick-Off- August 28
Resource:  
     Alicia Jolla, 704-336-2116 or ajolla@ci.charlotte.nc.us

Council members are invited to join us for the SBO Benefit Kick-Off to be held on Thursday, August 28 from 6pm-7pm in the lobby of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center.  The kick-off aims to highlight resources in the community pertinent to building capacity in small businesses. Partnering organizations such as the Charlotte Chamber, Self-Help, and the Metrolina Minority Contractors Association will host tables to provide information relevant to small businesses in the community. 

Please RSVP to Jerrianne Jackson at 704-432-1311 by Tuesday, August 26, 2008 if you plan to attend. 

Police Department Community Meetings
Resource: 
      Chief Rodney Monroe, 704-336-2337 or rmonroe@cmpd.org

The Police Department is hosting a series of community meetings in each of its thirteen patrol divisions. The meetings are designed to give citizens in each division an opportunity to meet Chief Rodney Monroe, hear details of the department's reorganization plan, and ask questions about issues in their neighborhoods. Council members are invited to join Chief Monroe at these meetings.

Meetings were held in the Metro Division on August 12 and the University City Division on August 19. The next three meetings in the series are:

Police Division	Date/Time/Location
Hickory Grove Division	September 2 at 6 p.m. Independence High School 1967 Patriot Drive
North Division	September 9 at 6 p.m. Trinity United Methodist Church 6230 Beatties Ford Road
Eastway & N. Tryon Divisions	September 16 at 6 p.m. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School 500 Bilmark Avenue

Additional meetings will be scheduled at a later date.

Community University Announces September Workshops
Contact:
     Cynthia Woods, 704-336-2646 or cwoods@ci.charlotte.nc.us

Community University announces its September workshop schedule. The fall/winter series runs through January 2009, with the initial classes to be held at the Hickory Grove Recreation Center, located at 6709 Pence Road in Charlotte, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

• Thursday, September 4, Developing Vision and Mission Statements
• Tuesday, September 9, Financial Management for Neighborhoods
• Wednesday, September 17, Methods of Neighborhood Communication
• Monday, September 22, Increasing Participation and Teambuilding

Citizens may register online at http://neighborhoods.charmeck.org or by email at neighservs@ci.charlotte.nc.us. The fall/winter 2008 brochure is attached and available in electronic form.

Community University is a neighborhood capacity building program dedicated to providing high quality training to Charlotte residents to improve the strength and vitality of neighborhood organizations and the overall quality of community life.  The courses are intended to engage, inform and equip participants with the training and assistance needed to help them improve and maintain their communities.  All workshops are free and open to Charlotte residents.

Dilworth Land Use and Streetscape Plan Receives "Outstanding Planning Award"
Resource:
     Kathy Cornett 704-336-4845 or kcornett@ci.charlotte.nc.us

The Planning Department was recently notified that the Dilworth Land Use and Streetscape Plan has been selected to receive the 2008 Marvin Collins Planning Award in the Comprehensive Planning (Large Community) category.  The award is given by the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association (NCAPA) in recognition of plans of unusually high merit. The award will be presented to the City at the NCAPA's annual conference in September.

Report on City Street Condition Survey and Impact of Asphalt Costs
Resource:
      Layton Lamb, 704-336-5128 or llamb@ci.charlotte.nc.us

CDOT received the latest Street Condition Survey from USI, Inc., the private Engineering Firm hired to evaluate City street pavements. The FY08 survey reports that Charlotte's overall weighted average pavement condition rating is 82. This is down from an overall weighted average PCR of 86 in the FY05 report. The Transportation Focus Area Plan establishes a street rating goal of 90.

The pavement condition survey has been performed approximately every 2 years since FY85 when the overall PCR was 96. Surveyors ride all City streets to identify and quantify eight (8) pavement failure conditions prevalent to asphalt pavements. This information is entered into a database program. The program weighs these failure conditions and produces a Pavement Condition Rating for each block of each street. The rating range is from 0 (worst condition) to 100 (best condition). These street segments (blocks) are further grouped into the following range:

PCR range 91-100 = Very Good (currently 39% of total system down from 56% in FY05)
PCR range 81- 90 = Good (currently 37% of total system up from 19% in FY05)
PCR range 66- 80 = Fair (currently 20% of total system up from 16% in FY05)
PCR range 51- 65 = Poor (currently 9% of total system up from 6% in FY05)
PCR range 0- 50 = Very Poor (currently 5% of total system up from 3% in FY05)

According to Charlotte's pavement condition rating history, city street conditions are in a declining trend. This is despite recent efforts to reverse this trend by 1) adding $4M to the annual resurfacing fund for the last 2 years, 2) increasing the subdivision land development pavement thickness standard, and 3) implementing a utility cut pavement degradation fee which is used to supplement the resurfacing program. Since we implemented these measures only recently, we expect 4-6 years will be necessary to realize results that would impact the rating.

The volatility of asphalt costs over the last 2 years has led to increased resurfacing funding. CDOT's resurfacing contracts allow for increases and decreases in liquid asphalt cement to protect the contractor and the City from the volatility of asphalt prices. The liquid asphalt prices on the current CDOT resurfacing contracts have gone from $361.54 per ton in March of this year to $793.08 per ton in August. The prediction is this price will exceed $1,000 per ton before the end of the current resurfacing contracts. Staff deleted a number of streets from the contracts to free up funds to cover past increased asphalt costs. We anticipate deleting up to 15 to 20 miles of streets from the contracts to fund an anticipated $2.5M asphalt inflation adjustment on these two contracts before they are completed. Attached is a graph with information regarding history of street resurfacing.

Airport Parking Rates to Increase
Resource:
     Jerry Orr, 704-359-4000 or tjorr@ci.charlotte.nc.us

• Effective September 15, the parking rates will increase in the Remote Lot and the Long Term Lots. The current and proposed rates are listed below.

Parking Lot	Current Rate	Proposed Rate
Hourly	Free for first 30 minutes $1 per additional 30 minutes Maximum daily rate of $16	No Change
Daily	$1 per hour with a maximum daily rate of $6	No Change
Remote	$3 per 24-hour period	$1 per hour with a maximum daily rate of $6
Long Term	$3 per 24-hour period	$4 per 24-hour period
Curbside Valet	$4 for the first 30 minutes $1 for each additional hour Maximum daily rate of $19	No Change
Business Valet	$4 for the first 30 minutes $1 for each additional 30 minutes Maximum daily rate of $10	No Change

• The purpose of raising the rates is to regulate demand for distinctive parking products. The current price of the Remote Lot is unbalanced in comparison with the price of the Long Term Lots when the convenience of the Remote Lot (highly convenient) is compared with the Long Term Lots (less convenient). An adjustment in this price/convenience disparity is necessary to regulate demand for the Remote Lot.
• We expect the rate changes will rectify the imbalance that currently exists in demand for parking in these lots.
• The lowest daily parking fee at other airports in the Carolinas is $6.00.

Utilities Retains Superior Bond Ratings
Resource:
     Doug Bean, 704-391-5070 or dbean@ci.charlotte.nc.us

During the past week, three of the nation's leading financial institutions renewed their high vote of confidence in Charlotte-Mecklenburg's water and wastewater operations by issuing superior utility bond ratings – two AAA ratings and one Aa1.

According to Fitch Ratings, which awarded one of the AAAs, Charlotte's "superior planning and management have resulted in positive financial operations and strong liquidity." Fitch added that our water and wastewater treatment plants are "well-maintained" and "utility rates are well below average compared with those of other local systems and similarly sized utilities throughout the southeast."

Moody's Investors Service – which awarded the Aa1 – concluded in its rating report that Charlotte-Mecklenburg's leadership "appears to have effectively managed through the drought that has affected the entire southeast this year. While water demand decreased by 37 percent, financial margins are reportedly still solid given a 15 percent rate increase approved by Council in May.

"Moody's expects the system will maintain its history of strong financial operations, evidenced by healthy coverage levels and strong liquidity, given solid year-end fiscal 2008 projections and five-year projections indicating continued strong coverage levels in the face of restrictions."

Retaining these top ratings is great news for our community. The ratings – awarded by Fitch, Standard & Poors and Moody's following visits to Charlotte last month – will lead to lower interest rates and debt service paid for by water and sewer ratepayers as we finance more than $1 billion in needed capital improvement projects during the next five years.

The City Manager and Finance Department worked closely with Utilities to successfully present the health and vitality of our growing community, its solid economy, well-maintained infrastructure, long-term planning and strong leadership. Only a few utility systems nationwide have attained multiple AAA bond ratings, which come during a struggling national economy and despite local revenue challenges brought on by a record drought and water use restrictions that became necessary a year ago.