On to the meeting notes...

The meeting tonight was sparsely attended by both citizens and city staff.  The full Council was in attendance but the meeting went on without Police Chief/Acting City Manager Graham Hill (out on family emergency), Public Works Director Jim Hale or Accounting Supervisor Gordon Elton.  John Miller and George Williamson of Planwest provided the only input from the staff table as well as the later presentation on the annexation.  City Council candidates Debra Garnes and Susan Davis were both present as well.  *Good article in the Reporter regarding the candidates.

The meeting began earlier with a closed door session of the CDBG loan advisory committee.  The meeting included discussion of Smiley's Take and Bake Pizza, a discussion of the future of the First Time Homebuyers Program and a status update on the housing rehab loans.  *There will be a public meeting discussing the CDBG block grants and future projects to be held Monday the 25th at 5:00pm in the Council Chambers.  This is a huge pool of money that can be used for specific projects around town and be a huge benefit to the community.  The city needs your input!

The consent calendar items were passed unanimously including the standard "water emergency" proclamation.  *Quite a few meetings ago, Jim Hale from Public Works commented that he was hoping to end the "water emergency" soon since the infrastructure project has been moving closer to completion.  We haven't heard any mention recently on when anyone thinks the city could stop charging triple the rates for water over the allotment.  Other communities have had to implement higher rates for water usage over their set allotment but I have never seen a community that limits families to the same amount of water as a single person. 

There was only one item in the Ordinances/Special Resolutions category; resolution no. 936-2006 authorizing the Mayor to sign the Planwest Partners contract amendment.  The item passed after a brief discussion between Council and John Miller.  Special Call Items were next with pay request no. 13 in the amount of $165,103.97 to John N. Petersen for the raw water intake project/filter facilities and authorize the Acting City Manager to sign paperwork.  This item was passed despite the "nay" vote of Marc Barsanti.  The second item on the agenda regarding an agreement between the city and SHN was pulled from the agenda. 

The meeting stopped for a few minutes while the presentation to follow was set up.  During that break, a citizen addressed the Council since they were unable to stay until the public presentation time at the end of the meeting.  Trudy began by telling those present of the successful recreation program she was involved with at the Rio Dell school this summer.  The kids were given the opportunity to learn gardening, yoga and many more interesting activities.  Trudy said that there is a grant available for the city to expand some recreational activities in the community.  More information on the programs can be found at the Rio Dell Community Resource Center at the school.  They need suggestions and input from citizens on what activities they would like to see offered in Rio Dell.  Trudy also spoke of a field trip her group took from the school, down Chase St. to Painter St. and then over to the Community Garden.  The walking conditions were dangerous as people use Painter St. as a speedway.  Trudy lives on Painter St. (as we do) and is very concerned that children, pedestrians, and animals are in danger from the speeders that frequent Painter St.  She asked that the City look into a stop sign on Painter, perhaps at Chase St.  This would provide a safer crossing for the school kids as well as other pedestrians and serve to slow down the traffic that comes zipping off the freeway.

The presentation on the annexation was next and it was delivered by John Miller and George Williamson of Planwest.  A slide slow accompanied the presentation that focused on land use issues and other annexation related issues.  Some of the topics discussed included the need for a design review board to oversee the future development of Scotia and preserve its unique character.  There will need to be strict CC&R's (covenants, codes and restrictions) in place that homeowners would have to abide by.  Council members Melissa Marks and Julie Woodall both stated their desire to have a design review board over Rio Dell as well as Scotia.  *This has been brought up in the past when a citizen was asking about the new subdivision that has been built on Painter St. near Wildwood.  The eight houses built by Meyers Construction are all identical except for the paint color and there doesn't appear to be any infrastructure improvements like roads required.  It was said that the project was approved as individual projects and not as a subdivision.  A design review board may have been able to require some variation on the house plans so that there wasn't one cookie cutter used for all of them.  There will need to be very distinct guidelines on the two communities and any future development.  Former Council Member John Lane pointed out the difficulties with regulating two such different towns.  For instance, the noise regulations for a small community with no industry like Rio Dell is very different from a factory town such as Scotia.  It will be a major challenge to try and integrate such different needs and considerations.

Public presentations were next.  *We have removed this section from the video due to the safety concerns of the residents and upon their request.  They approve of our speaking about their situation but we will not give their names.  We normally would not censor the tape since public presentations are part of the public record, but we agree that there is a real fear of retaliation and there is little help from the police for this family and their situation. 

First, some background...the public presentations at the meeting held on Sept. 12th included a citizen who had moved, with his family, to Rio Dell and purchased a home to fix up in the downtown area.  The very overcrowded residential area is slowly making progress away from its very seedy past as new families move in and the homes are cleaned up.  There is a "gentleman" who lives in his car parked on the street in their neighborhood.  In fact at some point he had multiple cars parked along the overcrowded street.  The police know exactly who this person is and that he is "loosely affiliated" with one of the residences on the street.  The couple have asked the police for help numerous times and are told that there is nothing the police can do about it.  The husband presented their situation to the Council and asked for any help that could be offered.  He stated that sometimes the police will roust this person in the middle of the night and he will drive away, wait a few minutes until the police are gone, and then come right back and park in the same spot.  The family is told to file police reports, which they have repeatedly but always are told there is nothing that can be done.  Since the car has no bathroom facility, you can guess where this person relieves themselves.  At the meeting of the 12th, the Chief of Police advised the citizen to look into getting a restraining order against the car dweller.  *I found this to be a pretty incredible piece of advise from the police force that have refused to enforce a restraining order we have against a certain building inspector.  The police say the stay away order is "vague" so there is nothing they can do.  Also, this is forcing the family to take on this very shady character personally as well as any households they are affiliated with. 

Tonight's public presentation was given by the wife, again asking for help with their situation.  She stated clearly that they are not comfortable with the advice of a restraining order as it will put their family up against this character and anyone else they are associated with.  The family is at wits' end on what to do since there is no police assistance.  Council Member Julie Woodall stated that after the last meeting, she had contacted some other officials from other towns to inquire as to what they do in similar circumstances.  They mentioned things such as anti-camping ordinances, vagrancy ordinances and such.  They stated they make the living situation "uncomfortable" for the person who usually then goes looking for a new location where they aren't bothered.  Things such as frequent night patrols by the police, rousting the person and making them move on, then continuing to do this again and again until the person goes for easier territory.  Ticket them for public urination, any parking violations, vehicle violations, etc.  The person stays in this area because they know they can and it is comfortable enough for them to remain.  There is a anti-camping ordinance for people staying over 3 nights and the person can be made to move.  They only have to move a short distance in order to comply but it again would make them uncomfortable.  The goal here is to inconvenience the person to the extent that they go elsewhere.  If there is really nothing the police can do about this type of behavior in the most heavily populated residential areas, then the police need to go to the Council and request they pass whatever ordinances they need so that they can do something.  This should not be left up to individual citizens to fight the battle, it is what the police force are there for.  The City of Rio Dell already has an "anything goes" reputation in the County and the inability (or unwillingness) to remove a transient living in their dilapidated car and using our city as their bathroom will do little to dispel that image.

We encourage this family to continue to press the city for some help.  It is very discouraging, we know from our own experiences, but it is important to continue to push for change.  There are other families that will be better protected because of the attention brought to this issue and any changes that come about as a result.  Rio Dell has had a long standing problem with all kinds of "interesting" people camping out here because they can.  It is time that the city enacts any ordinances it needs to begin to combat the long standing problems here in Rio Dell.  We need to be able to protect the families of Rio Dell and the law abiding citizens rather than any shady residences the trouble makers may be "loosely affiliated with." 

Mayor Bud Leonard read the items to be discussed in closed session.  This includes the recent addition of "potential litigation-infrastructure."  We are not sure what exactly this refers to. 
 

Thanks for reading.  Hope to see you at the next meeting.

Sharon