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employees for your information.
Whenever there is an emergency situation or an item of
interest in any department that may generate inquiries from
citizens or the media, the
City Manager should be notified as soon as possible in order
to notify City Council. In this manner, we can assist
our elected officials in their response to such inquiries.
The City’s website needs immediate
updating and upgrading. Our MIS Coordinator, Karen Johnson,
will put together a team with one person from each
department. They will meet for the first time no later
than next week. The team will develop an action plan for
enhancement to the web site and a process for
maintenance/updates. Department Directors will be
appointing their representative on the team. Please forward
your suggestions to your department team member.
Parking rules at the City Hall Annex
remain the same and will still be enforced. The three
middle parking spaces (of the five marked spaces) should
remain open for visitors to the building such as
Councilmembers and people coming in to do business.
Administrative Services is looking into expanding the
parking lot to the north, parallel to the building.
We will be implementing process
improvements that change how we handle projects. Currently,
Community Development serves in a dual capacity in many
instances – planning and project management. We need to
refocus their attention to planning issues. The following
project management duties have been reassigned:
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Landscaping on US 41 – Procurement will bid out
landscape maintenance services. Our Public Works
staff are currently performing landscape maintenance
on an interim basis and, if I may offer a quick
assessment, are doing quite an admiral job on such
short notice. Our staff will evaluate whether they
may want to compete with the private sector for the
maintenance contract. |
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Laishley Park – Public Works will handle project
management duties. Kimley Horn/ATM is under
contract to design the park and marina facilities.
Project timelines are forthcoming. |
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Public Works/Utilities/Billing &
Collection/Fleet & Warehouse Facilities – Benjamin
Alexander, Long Term Recovery Coordinator for FEMA,
working out of Charlotte County will facilitate
project management. The team assigned to undertake
this project will be our Finance Director, Utilities
Director, Public Works Director and Administrative
Services Director. |
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Helen Street Housing – The City initiated an
effort to construct two houses for affordable
housing; they were torn apart in the Hurricane. We
will now prioritize getting the site cleaned up.
Community Development and Legal will be
communicating with the contractor on Monday to clear
up any outstanding issues. Site clean up will occur
immediately thereafter, pending no legal obstacles.
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City Council would like to receive a
Weekly Highlights report. These are issues that we have
worked on during the week and things that will be coming up
in the near future. Departments are to submit to the City
Manager’s Office on a weekly basis their highlights report
by Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. The City Manager will
submit the report to City Council, and our goal is to
provide the information on the City’s web site.
Police Department has received calls from as far
away as California regarding their Adopt-A-Sex-Offender
program. One offender has already moved back to New Jersey
after the police officer contacted him and he read about the
program.
Human Resources has four applications in for City
Attorney. There will be a motivational speaker for
employees on storm related stress management scheduled for
May 11 and 12. There is also scheduled a safety committee
meeting on Tuesday, May 3. We have an obligation to
employees to create a safe workplace and, at the same time,
to enforce proper safety procedures. Police Department has
a chaplain for counseling if other departments need his
services. In August and September, HR will hold a Benefits
Fair to communicate to employees their benefits package.
More information will be forthcoming.
Fire Department’s third repaired truck comes back
today. They are doing refresher training on fire safety.
They have been doing additional training at the Punta Gorda
Housing Authority’s damaged buildings. This allows them to
practice cutting holes in a roof, spraying water into
buildings, etc. Police Department has also done SWAT
training at the same location.
Community Development will send out informational
letters to realtors, engineers and Charlotte County Builders
Association regarding the new Land Development Regulations.
Community Development will set up a design assistance team
for private development projects in the very preliminary
“talking” stages. Staff will also brief our Building
Inspectors on the new regulations.
Public Works received a letter from the State stating
we will receive a $77,000 grant for street light
maintenance.
Finance will be setting up meetings with Departments
to go over their FY 2006 budget requests. Departments will
meet with Finance before they meet with the City Manager.
The 2004 CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) is
completed and on the May 4 Council Agenda for receipt.
Comments from Marilyn Smith-Mooney....
You may direct your feedback, regarding this "City
News" information, directly to our City
Manager Howard Kunik at:
citymgr@ci.punta-gorda.fl.us . Your feedback to
him from the "customer's" perspective is, I'm sure,
his most valuable measure of his own performance --
such as: degree and speed of responsiveness,
leadership style, different or new
policies/procedures he institutes, etc.
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