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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWeekly Newsletter Date: December 10, 2010 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: UW-O PREPARED TO SUBMIT REQUEST FOR ELMWOOD PEDESTRIAN MALL 1. : Staff recently met to discuss conceptual plans that the Universit y of Wisconsin-Oshkosh had submitted to the city, requesting consideration for the construction of a pedestrian mall on Elmwood Avenue. As previously reported, we shared with UW-O our concerns about the impact of changes to the University's Master Plan on traffic going around and through the University. Additionally, there are concerns that we have regarding public safety access to destinations in and around the University. Following this meeting, staff provided UW-O with information about general conditions and parameters that would be needed for the pedestrian mall, assuming that the University will not be requesting a vacation of Elmwood. Transportation Director Chris Strong is taking the information to the Traffic Review Board to review the impact of closing Elmwood to thru-traffic. Meanwhile, the University will be submitting an application for a privilege in the street permit to construct a pedestrian mall, likely in 2012. The Plan Commission will review the request for the pedestrian mall, afte r which the Council will approve the privilege in street permit. Any permit will be subject to review of the final design by the city to ensure compliance with public safety concerns. Meanwhile, city staff will continue to work on plans to reconstruct El mwood in 2011. Assuming that the University proceeds with this plan, city staff will make adjustments to the plans for Elmwood Avenue and temporarily pave that section of Elmwood in 2011. This will allow the University to construct the pedestrian mall at their sole cost in 2012. For the long term issues, we will be asking UW-O to develop a plan to move traffic through the University area. This plan will depend on UW-O's success at acquiring the Axle Tech property, and other proposed road closures. We have used a traffic study prepared for the University and forwarded it to East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission to develop traffic projections. Through this information, we will assist the University in preparing a revised Master Plan to incorporate into our Comprehensive Plan. While I feel confident that we can work this out, there remains a lot of work that needs to be done in order to address all of the short term and long term safety and traffic issues to accommodate the University's requests, and eventually incorporate them into city-wide transportation goals. If you have any questions regarding this issue, please contact me. Weekly Newsletter December 10, 2010 Page 2 USPS RESPONDS TO CITY'S FOIA REQUEST, SORT OF 2.: On Thursday of this week, the city received a copy of a draft AMP study by the USPS regarding the possible closure of the Green Bay facility to merge into the Oshkosh facility. As you may recall, this study was suspended at the last minute, without explanation, back in July. At first, the USPS indicated that the study never got off the ground. They have now reported that that statement was in error, and that a study had been started, only to be stopped by the USPS for reasons that have not been fully explained. The remaining response to the FOIA request was to provide us with three letters that effectively stopped the study. However, none of these letters provide any detail at all as to the reasons why the study was suspended. Meanwhile, Assistant City Attorney Dave Praska had made a request to extend the comment period regarding the closure, as the information we requested was not received until after the public comment period was scheduled to close. The USPS's response was received today, and does not appear to allow us more time to respond. I find it hard to believe that our FOIA request, which included requests for e-mails and other internal documents, only turned up one report and three brief memos. The USPS did not indicate that this was everything we requested from our FOIA request. We will continue to monitor the situation and report back to you as we can. ECONOMIST TOUTS BENEFITS OF SINGLE FAMILY HOUSING DEVELOPMENT 3.: On Wednesday, Community Development Director Davis, Planning Director Burich and I, along with several Council Members, attended a seminar sponsored by the Winnebago Homebuilders Association regarding the benefits of single family housing development. Elliott Eisenberg, an economist with the National Homebuilders Association, provided inform ation regarding the tax and economic benefits of single family housing. Please find enclosed the Power Point summary of Dr. Eisenberg's presentation. Dr. Eisenberg's points are certainly intriguing, and there are many factors to consider in evaluating th e benefits of single family housing. Mr. Davis and I briefly discussed this information, and we believe that each community circumstance is different, and we need to analyze the benefits of single family housing on an individual community basis in order to reach all of the conclusions proposed by Dr. Eisenberg. If you have any questions after reviewing this information, or if you would like additional information that Dr. Eisenberg provided to us, please contact Community Development Director Davis. HEALTH DEPARTMENT MERGER UPDATE 4.: Council Member Steve Herman, Health Advisory Board Chair Stan Kline, Interim Health Director Mark Ziemer and I met this week to discuss the next step with respect to our discussions with Winnebago County. We identified a tentative list of items that we would like to discuss with Winnebago County. Chairman Kline will bring this list to the Health Advisory Board at their meeting next week to finalize it so that we have identified all of the major issues that would need to be di scussed before we meet with the County Health Department. Obviously, the top of the list for items to consider are financial, followed by personnel/labor issues, reconciliation of environmental health services, and a reconciliation of fees charged by the respective agencies. I will inform the Council when these initial meetings are scheduled. If you have any questions regarding this issue, please contact me. Weekly Newsletter December 10, 2010 Page 3 CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT TRAINING UPDATE 5.: Over th e past two weeks, Department Heads have participated in a training session entitled, "Lean for Leaders". Department Heads were excited to see how continuous improvement practices can be used with the city's Strategic Plan to assist us in implementing the goals of the Strategic Plan. I reported to Department Heads that Council was supportive of efforts to implement the Strategic Plan, based upon comments provided to me during my review this past week. By the end of the session, we had evaluated the city's ability to proceed with a continuous improvement program. The next step for us will be to identify projects to use for continuous improvement. Once we have identified the project(s), we will identify employees throughout the organization that may be able to assist us in this effort. The Department Heads are enthusiastic about venturing into the continuous improvement process on a more formal basis. I will continue to provide Council with periodic updates as we progress in this effort. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 6.: Other items I'm enclosing with today's Newsletter include the newly revised "Employee Handbook", prepared by the city's Human Resources Division. This is an action item for Tuesday's Council Meeting, so please bring your copy with you. I am also enclosing a letter to the Council from members of Toward Community: Unity in Diversity, commending the Council for your decision regarding the mosque and community center on Eagle Street in Oshkosh. I am also enclosing an article from the Municipality Magazine regarding frequently asked legal questions regarding a city's boards, commissions, committees and authorities. I thought this information would be helpful for you in defining the role of our local committees. The next item I'm enclosing is the latest issue of The Crime Reporter. I'm also enclosing Museum Director Larson's memo to the Public Museum Board, explaining the Museum's activities over the past week. The last items I'm enclosing are the th meeting notice, agenda and background material for the December 14 Traffic Review Advisory nd Board meeting; and the meeting notice, agenda and background material for the December 22 Transit Advisory Board meeting. th UPCOMING MEETINGS 7.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of the December 13 include the following: On Monday, at 7:30 a.m., I will be attending a meeting of the Chamber Governmental Affairs Committee. On Monday, at 10:00 a.m., Community Development Director Davis and I will be hosting a meeting with representative s from another community to discuss development best practices. On Tuesday, at 12:00 noon, I will be attending a meeting of the Winnebago County Conflict Resolution Center Board of Directors. On Wednesday morning, at th 7:30 a.m., I will be attending a meeting of our Board of Health. On Thursday, December 16, at 12:00 noon, I will be attending a fundraising drawing at the Seniors Center. At 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, I will be attending a meeting at which city staff will be making presentations, along with other Winnebago County communities, on sustainability efforts to date. At 4:00 p.m. Thursday, I will be attending a joint meeting of the Chamco and OAEDC Boards. At 6:00 p.m. Thursday, I will be appearing on Cheryl Hentz's "Eye on Oshkosh" show. On Friday, at 10:00 a.m., I will be in Neenah, meeting with various representatives from the county and cities of Neenah and Menasha to evaluate proposals for a consultant to perform a study o n the possible merger of all of our respective Health Departments. If you have any que stions regarding my attendance at any of these meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me.