On October 1st, bring your car and trash to Pinole Valley Park between 7 and 11 AM. You will need to provide proof of living in Pinole (usually a driver’s license) and unload your own trash. It may end early if dumpsters are filled, and you should expect to wait. Not allowed- mattresses, yard waste, tires, construction waste, household hazardous waste, car batteries, electronic waste.

https://www.ci.pinole.ca.us/news/what_s_new/dumpster_day_2022

Tomorrow, there will be a special city council meeting to discuss the draft contract between Contra Costa Fire and the City of Pinole to reopen Fire Station 74. You can find the agenda packet at this link, but the relevant pages are pages 4 through 14 (the staff report), 744-772 (the actual draft contract), 773-792 (the independent fiscal analysis), and 793-801 (the impact analysis).

If you would like to comment, you can submit a written comment to comment@ci.pinole.ca.us before 3 PM 9/13/2022 to have it added to the agenda packet online and sent out to the council. You can also join the meeting via zoom at this link or by calling +1 (669) 900-6833 or +1 (253) 215-8782 or +1 (346) 248-7799 at 6 PM, the meeting start time and entering the meeting ID: 893 3500 0272. Or you can attend the meeting in person at 2131 Pear Street, Pinole CA.

I believe that the contract is fundamentally solid, with the caveat that we should ensure that the county is committed by contract to at least $2 million in measure X funds per year for the lifetime of the contract. The cost escalation if that was canceled would be clearly unsustainable (785). I would note that on page 9, the county contract compared to the cost to the city of operating both stations shows that this contract is the only way we could sustainably open both stations. The cost for the city of doing it on its own would equal the seventh year estimated contract cost in the second year and go up from there.

The city would gain significant benefits- access to more fire engines (7, 746), considerably improved fire and medical response times in Pinole Valley (12, 800-801), better operational resources and command and control (12-13). In return, under most financial projections it would pay less than it does now in FY 23-24 through FY 26-27, with costs increasing after that (12 ,785). The main projection that leads to worse costs is if the county stops paying funds from Measure X- if that can be locked into the contract, the most negative fiscal outcomes are blocked (785).

Whether you agree or disagree with me on this, I would strongly encourage everyone in Pinole who can to comment on this item at tomorrow’s workshop. We need to hear the community’s input here.

The community engagement workshop is today, and will be covering the city’s draft communications and engagement plan, which can be found here (pdf). You can join the meeting by zoom link, entering the /Meeting ID:/*// *881 1151 2483/and Passcode: /825643 into zoom directly, or calling 16699006833, entering the meeting ID 88111512483#, and then entering the password *825643#. Once in the meeting by phone, you can raise your hand by pressing *9, and unmute by pressing *6 once called on.

Because the draft plan is 144 pages including appendices, I’m going to summarize the key points here.

1. All departments should plan out key communication points and have someone who is in charge of communication (page 6).

2. The city’s website needs to be redesigned, and information on it needs to be kept up to date. Someone needs to be in charge of the website. The city may want to change its web services provider (pages 7-8).

3. The city needs to gain control of and actively use all of its social media accounts. The city also needs to have a social media strategy and policies (pages 10-11).

4. The city needs to develop a unified brand style, not just a logo. The city should use Pinole Community Television to create video content about city events (pages 12-13).

5. The administrative report newsletter has some engagement, but could be simplified. A survey should be sent out to the community to see whether the cost of a printed newsletter would be worthwhile (pages 14-15).

6. The city needs to have internal and external social media policies. Someone needs to be in charge of enforcing those policies. Policies and how to contact key staff should be readily available (page 15).

7. The city needs to create a crisis management plan. It also needs to identify how outreach should be done in a crisis (pages 16-19).

8. The city needs to have a plan for media outreach, including a policy, frequent press releases and a point person for media contacts (pages 19-20).

9. Pinole needs to do better at providing language access. Have a process for identifying which documents should be translated, and how fully. Have a staff member or contractor who is responsible for this. Boost multi-lingual social media posts (page 21).

10. Pinole should create a resident academy to explain how the city works and how to engage with it (pages 22-23).

11. Pinole should use metrics to track what is working and what is not (pages 23-24).