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CM MONTHLY REPORT FOR MARCH 2012
CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE
· PIO and 1Pro Media assisted in developing 30-second PSA for Fire Department’s 50th Anniversary.
· PIO completed 4 CapeCast 3-minute news updates and 4 CapeCast audio podcasts.
· CM office coordinated annual renewal of most of the cell phone stipends previously approved for City employees.
· Extended the CapeTV contract with 1Pro Media to the end of the fiscal year in anticipation of moving operations in-house in FY2013.
· PIO coordinated live, online chat with CM Marty McClain.
POLICE DEPARTMENT
· Command Staff and Officers took part in the annual “Read Across America” celebration at local elementary schools.
· A Marine Officer participated as an on-water, High-Speed Boat Instructor during a training for members of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Highway Patrol Marine Tactical Unit. The special purpose vessel will be used in counter drug and human smuggling operations conducted on the Rio Grande River and Coastal Waters of Texas.
· A Police Department Officer received the Law Enforcement Commendation & Medal from the Caloosa Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was nominated because of his lifesaving efforts in which he resuscitated a two-week old child and brought him back to life.
· To ensure the Police Department’s K9 teams are operating in accordance with the highest industry standards, three of the department’s six teams received certification through the prestigious National Police Canine Association (NPCA). The three other teams are still in compliance with the NPCA.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
· The Fire Department responded to 1,840 calls for service during the month of March:
61% medical, 7% accidents, 7% fire, and 25% other.
· The average response time for March was 6 minutes, 18 seconds.
· The Bureau of Life Safety conducted 5 fire investigations during the month of March:
2 structure fires, and 3 vehicle fires.
PUBLIC WORKS
· The fifth annual Canal Clean-Up was held Saturday, March 24. It was co-sponsored by Environmental Resources, Waste Pro, and Keep Lee County Beautiful. Approximately seventy volunteers collected about 1,400 pounds of debris from Cape Coral’s waterways and shorelines. Parks and Recreation staff helped transport volunteers to various sites. Take Pride in the Cape members volunteered to clean up the southwest part of the Cape. Papa John’s and CiCi’s Pizza again supported the Canal Clean-Up by providing lunch for volunteers.
· Public Works Maintenance started the sifting of 5000 CY of dirt at Festival Park.
· HONC has completed the Tiffany Canal spot dredging request.
· Stormwater has substantially completed the dredging of the Makai Canal.
· Sidewalk crews have started the Mariner High School sidewalk project.
· Public Works Maintenance has completed the resetting of heaved pavers on the south side of Cape Coral Parkway between Del Prado Boulevard and Coronado Boulevard.
· The Four Lane Paving Project started February 24th. To date the following roads have been completed: Jacaranda Parkway, N.E. 24th Avenue, Academy Boulevard and Wildwood Parkway. We are at 50% completion of Del Prado Boulevard/ElDorado Parkway. Two roads remain, which are Everest Parkway and Palaco Grande Parkway. Contract completion date is April 13th. It is the City’s belief that this project will not finish on schedule. Contractor is aware of Liquidated Damages.
PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT
· On March 24, the Police Athletic League held their second annual boxing tournament at the Youth Center. There were 16 boxing participants in the event, including local Cape Coral boxers and youth from around the state. The event was a great success with over 50 guests in attendance.
· The Guardian Angels for Special Populations hosted their 9th Annual Rock ‘n Roll Dance on March 31. This year’s dance raised $4,228 which is the most ever raised.
· The Special Events staff conducted a Movie in the Park, Jazz and Blues concert, and a stage rental during March.
· The Sounds of Jazz and Blues returned after 2 years. The event fostered a new partnership with The Resort at Marina Village. The results were 3,000 people in attendance at a beautiful new location. The event was a win for the city and the resort.
· The Fossils Show on March 31 at Rotary Park had 106 adults in attendance and approximately 80 children.
· The Malaga park’s first phase of development was funded by the CRA. The ¾ acre park is located on SE 46th Lane directly north of Club Square. The Parks and Recreation Department maintenance staff installed an irrigation system, sodded the whole area, added a walking path, and planted a few trees along with a landscape buffer.
· Ribbon Cutting Ceremony was on March 8 at the new Four Freedoms Park Beach. This was a jointly funded project by the CRA and the Parks and Recreation Department. For park users, a sandy beach was created along Bimini Basin. This is a sunbathing beach only which will provide a place for park visitors/downtown visitors, to relax, enjoy the sun, and take the kids to play in the sand.
· During the week of March 5, 2012 the Creative Cubs Daycare was awarded for their participation in a contest presented by the Early Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida. The 18 students from our Voluntary Pre Kindergarten classroom all participated in creating their own rhyming book which was submitted for the contest. The Wm Austen Youth Center’s Creative Cubs Rhyme book submission was selected as a winner and will be on display at the Early Learning Coalition and will be used as a sample in trainings.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
· For the Building Division, the total permitting is up 13.5 % over the same period last year.
· Single family home permits are already at 63% of 2011 totals which puts the city on pace for 300 permits for single family homes.
· Permitting activity for the month of March:
o Average of 138.5 customers per day
o Average of 183 transactions per day
o Average of 11.6 minutes wait time per customer
o Average of 11.9 minutes process time per customer
· Since its inception, Take Pride in the Cape completed cleaning the 797th property in March.
· The property registration program received $16,700 in March; year to date $151,850.
· Contractor Licensing activity for the month of March: 114 site checks, 12 warnings, 6 stop work orders, 12 citations, 7 court cases with $4,930 assessed in fines and $1,477.00 of fees as a result of stop work orders and double fees.
· Code Scout Volunteers logged over 72 volunteer hours in March.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
· The EDO Director collaborated with the Fort Myers Regional Partnership (Lee EDO) to host eight site selectors to the Lee County area to help promote the area for further development and expansion opportunities. Dana Brunett was one of the speakers selected to speak to the group and also participated in the familiarization tours conducted throughout the region.
· The EDO Director participated in the DEO Strategic Planning session to help formulate the economic development strategic plan for SWFL. This was a daylong event which brought numerous individuals together from economic development, job development and planning organizations. The local plan will be integrated into the statewide plan.
· The EDO Director was the keynote speaker for the SWFL Works conference and talked about his ideas for economic development in the city and his desire to work collaboratively with other organizations, local businesses and other government entities.
· Participated in the Southwest Florida Tech Expo and the Broadband Local Advisory Meeting during March. They also hosted the New Business Chats event and the Cape Coral Business After Hours events. The EDO also hosted a small group of Brazilian Investors interested in Florida.
· Hosted the Business Assistance Expo in cooperation with the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce, SBDC and the CRA and invited a variety of local agencies and organizations to attend. The purpose of the expo was to have all the support agencies and services for small business available in one place to answer any questions and to expand the outreach to the business community. This year’s expo included two speakers from the local community who spoke about their positive experiences in opening their businesses in Cape Coral.
· The EDO started work on a Commercial Property Portal through its website that will allow commercial brokers and developers to answer requests for information related to leads that the EDO office is handling for potential business clients. The EDO Director will host a business roundtable in April to gather additional information from this market segment.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
· A major upgrade to the JDE server infrastructure was accomplished in March. The JDE Tools set was upgraded to support Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008. This is a prerequisite to the next step which will be to move JDE Services from physical to virtual servers. This will let us easily expand server capacity for the JDE environment as needs dictate in the future.
· Annual Fire Inspections: Working with the Fire Department, we proposed that they use the CRW Code Inspection module to automate record keeping for the annual fire inspections performed on business premises. This process is now in test.
· ITS assisted Customer Billing Services to finalize an enhancement specification to provide more automation for handling parcel splits & combines in our environment. This specification has been submitted to AMX to provide a quote.
· We switched the Help Desk management system from the Computer Associates Service Desk application to Numara FootPrints in March. The new application has much better features at a lower cost.
· Kronos Employee Self Service Module: This module will let employees update various Human Resource demographic data elements from home as well as provide extensive web based queries. It will also let our Payroll group post pay stubs online as opposed to printing them and routing hard copies to employees. Kronos has configured the module for Human Resources and Payroll to test in April.
· In March, Public Wi-Fi coverage was extended to the City Complex and EOC buildings.
CITY CLERK
· Administrative staff supported 34 meetings in March 2012, an increase of 62% compared to March 2011. Staff has supported a total of 97 meetings year-to-date, an increase of 21% from the previous year and completed a total of 654 minute pages.
· The Citizen’s Action Center completed 1,630 tickets / 2,154 calls in March 2012, representing a decrease of 6% for completed tickets and an increase of 12% for calls received as compared to March 2011.
· The City Clerks Record Division processed 543 US Passport applications with an average of 27 per day. Total revenue generated for March was $12,175.00.
· The Records Division completed 677 public records requests in February, a 13% decrease from March 2011 (788). Additionally staff prepped and scanned 18,203 permit pages along with 1084 blueprints for a total of 19,287 pages. Compared to FY 2011 (7,709 pgs) that is an increase of 60%
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