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Scribe Notes (ZOOM Meeting) By: Hermann Welm (There were 33 participants signed on for the meeting.) President Chris “Top Gun” Gallagher opened our fourth meeting of his term by reminding us his year’s Rotary International President is Holger Knaack from the Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln, Germany, and our theme is “Rotary Opens Opportunities.” Our Greeter, Chris Gayler, led us in the Salute to the Flag and his Thoughts for the Day: Visiting Rotarians: Art Kubal, checking in from Palm Desert. He and Sandy moved there some 18 months ago. They celebrated their 45th anniversary last week. He has his Weld Shop and Sandy is busy with the homeowners association. Also, our speaker, Mayor Bill Clarkson. Guests: Jake Brown, newly-added to the Sentinels of Freedom staff, and soon-to-be applicant to join our club. Dr. Jane Baxley, a chiropractor who is practicing in the community and is looking for a club to possibly join. She has had Rotary experience in the past, while employed as a loan officer. News You Did Not Hear: a new segment by Top Gun??? A quote from Paul Harris: Also mentioned was that Alpine climbers had to rescue their rescue Saint Bernard, Daisy, who fell ill during an outing. Four of them took five hours to carry her down off the mountain on a stretcher. Top Gun failed to mention what happened to the person this rescue team, with its trusted dog, was supposed to assist! And then there is the kangaroo that got loose in Fort Lauderdale; it was corralled by police and carried back to the zoo in the back of a squad car! Lastly, Top Gun noted that Burger King is highlighting in ads that it is reducing bovine flatulence, thereby saving the world, by feeding its cattle lemon grass. Some-un musta takin’ de time to study dis-here thing, findin’ a 33 percent lowerin’ in dat smelly stuff! This Scribe really hopes that Top Gun will continue to pore thru trivia so as to delight us with these “need-to-know” facts! Announcements: Top Gun allowed this Scribe to describe the outcome of last week’s generous offer by Fred Nevarez to “drop off two pieces of wood” at his home. Fred showed up yesterday with “two pieces” but it was a chair that had essentially broken in half as he plunked his big butt on it. What he really wanted was to have the chair repaired. For the devious, outlandish, over-the-top way of approaching this, Top Gun “recognized” Fred for $50.00! Serves him right! PP Colette Lay updated the members about the progress of “City Walk,” the Rotary-sponsored installation of 20 stations along the Iron Horse Trail in Central Park where the Library will post stories for the public to read. City staff is moving along, albeit slowly, in getting the stations installed. Colette believes that they will get to this next week. Norbert Walz noted a committee for the Online Auction for Education has started to meet to get this fundraiser started. The goal this year will be to raise $60,000. Top Gun indicated that the well-attended Tuesday Happy Hour will meet via ZOOM twice a month with each month having a different “sponsor.” August will have Carolyn Degnan hosting. PP Dennis Harvey reported that the Meals/Shields/Facemask program is winding up. Well over $1,000 was raised and 17 Senior care homes plus 60 caregivers were given free protective gear. Priya Jhingan noted that an additional 80 face shields were donated to the John Muir Medical Center by way of this initiative. Recognitions: Terry & Christine Koehne celebrated their 26th anniversary ten days ago. Pat Patterson was reminded that Lady Ann’s birthday was coming up tomorrow; he had actually remembered (or maybe Lady Ann reminded him) and they are taking a trip to Lake Tahoe. Program: Terry Koehne introduced Rotarian and Mayor, Bill Clarkson. Bill was raised in Oakland, attended San Jose State and served three terms on the San Ramon Valley School District Board of Director prior to running for mayor in 2011. His final two-year term will run out in December. Bill was a member of this club until he left to start the Dougherty Valley club ten years ago. Mayor Clarkson started by telling us about the impacts of the COVID-19 fiasco on the City. He noted that most of the facilities are closed to the public but that staff is busy tracking and supporting about 1,250 Senior Citizens, ensuring they have what they need during their shelter in place status. The City is also taking a financial “hit” because of reduces sales tax and activities revenues, however, it is much less than is being reported by other cities. By way of background, we are a “low-sales-tax” City with most of the revenue coming from property taxes. These have essentially not been impacted. The net effect is that in the Budget of around $56 million the shortfall will only be $1.7 million. With the City having a $20 million Reserve the impacts on services will be minimal. In fact, the Police Budget has actually been increased. As for the “Defund the Police” movement playing out in other cities, it is quite clear that San Ramon residents value and respect their officers. Other issues Bill touched on before opening it up for questions were: - We have 5 or 6 homeless persons in the City, many of whom are local residents who have been asked to leave their homes because of mental and/or addiction problems. The city is working with them as best they can to resolve their issues.
- The Mayor’s Breakfast ZOOM meetings have been well-attended. They are held every two weeks on Friday mornings at 9 am.
- Similarly, the City Council meetings on ZOOM have much better participation. Typically a good number in the Council Chamber might be 20; via ZOOM there are frequently more than 100 participants. A recent School Board meeting had 7,000 participants!
- The “City Walk” rezoning proposals being worked on are an effort to remove the 4,500 State-required new housing units out of neighborhoods, open space and hillsides and focus them in the Bishop Ranch area.
Questions for Bill Clarkson: - Gary Sloan asked about where Budget cost reductions will occur. Since shortfalls will be relatively manageable, not filling “open” staff positions (except for Police) will be the primary action.
- Colette Lay asked if there have been many complaints about the San Ramon PD since she has heard from Cal High students that they sometimes get hassled. In the years that he’s been Mayor there have been no complaints about policing that have reached the City Council level, nor were there any during the eight years this Scribe was on the Council.
- Dennis Harvey asked about the status of using recycled water in parks and street corridors. Most of the public landscape spaces have been re-piped to purple, however, it was discovered that the salt build-up in the soil when using recycled water severely damages some landscaping, particularly Redwood trees. Fixing this problem requires not only saturating the soil with regular water to leach out the salts in the short run, but also re-piping areas back to regular water.
- Chris Gayler asked about the demolition/construction going on at the intersection of Alcosta and Bollinger. The fountain that was there needed heavy repairs and the HOA responsible for 70% of the cost chose not to foot the bill. So the City, having only a 30% say in the outcome, agreed to a their less costly landscaping proposal. Further, the Iron Horse Trail brides across Bollinger and Crow Canyon Roads are undergoing environmental review.
- Pat Patterson asked if there were any plans to repave a bumpy section of Alcosta, at the south end. Bill had no specific knowledge of this particular section of roadway but reminded all that the City has a budget of from $6 to 7 million for annual repairs and upgrades.
- Gary Sloan asked if Bill had any further political aspirations. NO. He’s looking forward to returning to “regular life!”
Raffle: NONE, again! Next Week’s Program: Another ZOOM meeting featuring an update on the activities of the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District. Our Greeter will be George Gayler!!!!!! |
