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Home My Public Portal AboutCM Dept Report JulyMemo / To: City Council From: Anette Spickard, City Manager Date: Aug 1, 2022 Re: Monthly Department Report – July 2022 Novel Corona Virus Response: City staff continue to monitor the status of the pandemic and the Police Chief is providing written updates to council. City facilities remain open with in person meetings allowed. Effective May 23rd, physical distancing is not required. Masks are recommended but not mandatory. According to the state department of Health and Welfare, 52% of Idahoans ages 5 and up are fully vaccinated as compared to 71.5% nationwide. The vaccination rate for zip code 83638 remains at 72%. As of August 5th, the Centers for Disease Control list Valley County at a medium transmission level. When the transmission level is medium, CDC recommends: Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines. Get tested if you have symptoms. Wear a mask if you have symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19. Wear a mask on public transportation. You may choose to wear a mask at any time as an additional precaution to protect yourself and others. If you are at high risk for severe illness, consider wearing a mask indoors in public and taking additional precautions. Council Priorities Status updates for the council’s adopted priorities for 2022 are: Local housing and workforce initiatives Local option tax for future election to support housing initiatives. Research and determine ability to ask voters to approve a new ordinance – Work session to be scheduled in fall 2022. Housing Action Plan/Housing Advisory Committee initiatives – Plan was presented to Council and adopted on June 30, 2022 Broad look at managing growth, through development codes, work with county on the cooperative planning initiative and shared impacts beyond our city limits. Relationship with county is high priority. – City staff are continuing to work with County staff to identify the policy issues for council and commissioners to consider. A special work session on this topic is scheduled for Friday August 26th. Studying traffic demands and updated transportation planning, including continued partnership with ITD for the Highway 55/Deinhard-Boydstun improvements – The traffic study for east side of McCall is under way with a final analysis and report by fall. City Engineer continues to work with ITD on intersection improvements related to Deinhard-Boydstun to set the stage for future re-routing of truck traffic onto that road facility. ITD staff recently conducted a Road Safety Assessment for Hwy 55 through McCall and we expect to receive their report soon. Environmental management/climate resiliency actions Explore transition to a city EV fleet – The Chief Mechanic position has been filled effective May 2nd and he will be responsible for fleet management. This task will be a future project for that person in cooperation with CED staff responsible for implementation of the city’s overall sustainability plan. Evaluate City Campus for public EV stations – as part of the Library Expansion project, staff is evaluating locations and financing for public charging stations. The remaining public parking lot between the library project and the senior center is being designed and evaluated for placement of EV stations as well. Wildfire Resiliency and Planning – Councilor Nelson will begin attending the Valley County Fire Working Group meetings. The City Manager continues to work with McCall Fire on the Woody Debris program and supporting joint communications to the public about debris removal and disposal. Try to re-establish the EAC to implement the Climate Resilience plan – CED Director has been assigned this task and will propose to Council a renewed EAC committee charge prior to recruitment of volunteers. An internal review and revamp of the bylaws is the next step. Follow through on Lake Management and Waterways Plans/water quality policy and action items identified through those planning processes. –Council and the Commissioners will meet on October 21 at 3:30pm in Cascade to review the draft plan with staff and consultants. Establish a Youth Council using the Association of Idaho Cities model as a guide. - CED staff continue to meet with the High School to develop a framework for the Youth Council and what credits will be available depending on the tasks completed by members. Staff expect to hold a work session with Council this fall on the creation and operation of the Youth Council. Neighborhood quality improvements in response to concerns residential neighborhoods are being overrun by visitors. What are ways to increase community/good neighbor culture? Create pocket neighborhoods for workforce housing with full time residents and apartments for workers, larger units for families with affordable rents Can we reroute commercial/construction truck traffic away from residential? What can we regulate regarding UTV traffic on city streets? According to Chief Palmer, these vehicles are allowed by state law on streets less than 45mph and have to follow traffic laws. Children under 18 have to wear helmets. Officers routinely stop UTV’s to educate operators on the law. Traffic enforcement, traffic calming devices? What impacts happened from right turn only at Railroad last summer? Thompson Ave impacts. Results were provided to Council at the June 9th meeting. Bollards have been installed for the season. Creative community engagement efforts, make sure we are getting shared thoughts from the community, and they can participate with council. – The communications manager has developed a variety of community conversation opportunities for the summer called “McCall in Focus”. The first focus group was held on August 2nd. The City Manager has budgeted for a half-time communications assistant to support the community engagement efforts of the city. Applications are being accepted. Participate in Sewer District Master Plan process. – Staff, along with Councilors Nielsen and Nelson, attended the second workshop on May 11th. Minutes from that meeting have not been received yet. Advocating for a share of federal dollars received by the state for housing and infrastructure. Legislative advocacy through the Resort Cities’ Coalition – the coalition met during the June AIC conference with Councilor Nielsen and Mayor Giles present. The coalition will begin meeting on the second Wednesday of the month with the first meeting set for July 13 to discuss housing and short-term rental issues. Community Health and Well-Being remains a value. Promote opportunities to be healthy and active. – Recreation staff are actively promoting this year’s opportunities for physical activities and events. Golf Pro Hiring Process: After Council’s approval to bring the Pro Shop services portion of the golf course in-house, I worked with PGA Career Services, our Golf Superintendent and HR Manager to prepare a job description and recruitment package. The position is advertised on our website and on the PGA website. Applications are being taken until 5pm on August 19th. Interviews are planned for late August and will incorporate the Golf Advisory Committee and restaurant owner. I hope to select the top candidate and make a conditional offer in September to allow time for background checks to be completed with an anticipated start date of early October. The Pro and Superintendent will be a team that reports to me. Communications Manager Update: Communications started July with “know before you go” 4th of July and summer messaging. Ramped up recruitment for PD, Parks, and Streets adding in some additional social media postings. Coordinated sign plans for library construction and worked on ads and planning for the upcoming groundbreaking celebration on August 17th. Launched McCall in Focus and a new way to connect with the public where they are and where they want to focus. Coordinated public engagement for the ADA Transition Plan, Waterways Management Plan, PROS Plan, and the Public Art Library Project. Human Resources Update: Human Resources is preparing for Insurance Open Enrollment in August where anyone covered by our benefit plans can make changes to their elections. An email will go out to all employees and Council notifying of the date and time representatives from III-A insurance will be on site to answer questions and help with paperwork.