Executive Department

2nd Quarter Report

Fiscal Year 2006

Activities and Accomplishments

A) CSAFE Program: The Grants/Special Projects Director continues to serve as Lead Coordinator for this program. The Church Street Neighborhood Advocate position is being expanded to allow more time for involvement with other Youth Focused Organizations, such as Salisbury’s Promise to assist in developing the Mayor’s Youth Strategies Initiatives. The position is currently being advertised, as it is vacant.

The CSAFE program for FY 2006 is progressing with some positive efforts on the part of the Community Policing activities. Salisbury Police, under the narcotics buy/bust and prostitution sting activities have been successful in implementing their planned operations this second quarter. Activities have been conducted above and beyond expectations with 1,819 calls for service, 84 on view arrests, 236 arrest assists, 32 arrest warrants, 34 civil citations, 644 field interviews, 393 motor vehicle citations, 228 motor vehicle reprimands, 393 parking citations, 23 application for charges, 231 case follow-up hours, 127 case reports and 10,747 community contacts. Residents in the Church Street CSAFE area have commented on the positive changes that are occurring due to the increased community policy activities.

Community Mobilization – community mobilization outreach efforts are continuing to evolve as the Neighborhood Advocate works on developing a quarterly newsletter that will provide information on neighborhood events. The newsletter will also provide a list of community resources available to residents to include youth program availability, after school programs, Health Department programs, Department of Social Services contact information and services for the homeless available from Salisbury Urban Ministries, the Christian Shelter and Life Crisis.

The CSAFE Neighborhood Safety Team meetings continue to be held on the third Tuesday of each month, at 5:30 p.m., at Grace United Methodist Church. These meetings are organized and hosted by the Neighborhood Advocate, Ann Northam. Meeting notices and reminders are sent out before each meeting, along with minutes from the previous meeting. The CSAFE mailing list consists of approximately 120 agency representatives and area residents. More attendance by residents has been noted this quarter and hopefully this trend will continue.

The Lead Coordinator, Loré L. Chambers attends the CSAFE meetings for Church Street and the West Side, as well as the Weed & Seed meetings on the Westside of Salisbury. She monitors the different elements of this grant to ensure funding is utilized according to grant guidelines and that program needs are met. She also completes the quarterly reporting on-line and submits hardcopy reports to GOCCP, as required. The Lead Coordinator also attended the mandatory grants conference that was held on December 8, 2006, for the 2007 grant application.

B) Boundless Playground: The City of Salisbury received Honorable Mention for the Neighborhood Revitalization Award at the Governor’s Workforce Housing Conference on October 18, 2005. This honor was bestowed on the City due to the collaborative effort that was undertaken to complete this most noteworthy project.

The Newtown Neighborhood Association requested to use the corner of Broad Street to place a memorial garden. The Newtown Association is working on submitting a Neighborhood Matching Grant application to develop the memorial garden. They are working to raise funds and will work with the Chamber of Commerce’s Beautification Committee to design the memorial. Excess donated funds remaining from the City’s project will be donated to the Community Foundation on behalf of the Neighborhood Association for the development of the memorial garden.

C) Community Legacy – Chipman Center Elevator Project – The elevator project is complete and a final report was submitted to the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).

D) Community Legacy – Salisbury Neighborhood Housing Service, Inc Housing Demolition Funding. The grant requirements have been met, however, the closeout of the loan/grant will be determined by DHCD.

E) Tri-County Alliance for the Homeless – Loré L. Chambers attends the monthly meetings at the Somerset County Health Department to determine what activities are being undertaken by this multi-agency taskforce. In conjunction with issues facing the homeless population and the organizations that provide assistance, three grant applications were submitted to DHCD under the Emergency Shelter Grant to provide operating funds for the Village of Hope, Diakonia, Inc. and Life Crisis Center. The grant application for the Village of Hope was funded for $6,000 and the Diakonia application was funded for $10,000. The funding for this round went mainly to shelters and not supporting organizations, such as Life Crisis, Inc.

F) Federal Lead Hazard Reduction Program – The 1^st quarter report was submitted to the Department of Housing and Community Development with very positive outcomes. Three homes were submitted for approval and the outreach activities are underway. Progress is being made toward the goal of 25 homes to receive lead reduction services. This collaborative effort between the City of Salisbury, Salisbury/Wicomico Planning, Zoning and Community Development, the Wicomico County Health Department, and A Corporation for Healthy Homes is meeting expectations with positive outcomes.

G) Design Guidelines: The Maryland Historical Trust granted the City $12,000 for the development of comprehensive design guidelines to address renovation/rehabilitation of properties in the three historic districts. A bid package was completed and the first round of bids were received and forwarded to the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) for review prior to selection. The review committee at MHT determined the need to re-bid the project. This activity is underway.

H) City Park Footbridge: We have received instructions as to when a request for reimbursement can be submitted to the State Comptroller’s Office. As this project has to meet a certain financial threshold before the reimbursement can be requested, additional renovations on additional structures must be completed. The Beaverdam Bridge is the next structure slated for renovation under this grant.

I) City Living Marketing Campaign – The Steering Committee members are progressing toward the development of a statement of work for the request for proposal to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy for the City. The committee is made up of a cross-section of stakeholders who are working well together to produce the desired result.

J) SAFER Grant – The Mayor’s Office in collaboration with the City Fire Department submitted a grant application to the Department of Homeland Security to hire four additional full-time employees. We are awaiting notification of the outcome of this grant submission.

K) Community Parks and Playground Grant – Two applications were submitted to the Department of Natural Resources for consideration. The rehabilitation of the New York Avenue playground and the addition of bathrooms at the Boundless Playground were submitted on behalf of the city. We are awaiting notification of the outcome of our grant submission.

L) Community Legacy – An application was submitted to the Department of Housing and Community Development for the Isabella Streetscape project. This is the only project submitted in this round of funding and we are awaiting notification of the outcome of our grant submission.

M) Preserve America Communities – The City of Salisbury submitted an application for the designation of Preserve America Communities. Maryland Historical Trust staff prior to submission reviewed this application. If this designation is received, it will provide new funding resources to which the City will be eligible to apply to preserve historical structures.

N) Fire Service Agreement: At its November 14, 2005 meeting, the City Council approved a new Fire Service Agreement with the County. This agreement provides that the City will receive three emergency medical service allotments from the County, with each allotment being equal to the emergency medical service allotment given to each volunteer fire company that provides ambulance service. In addition, the City receives an allotment to recognize the additional specialized services that the City’s Fire Department provides to the entire County. These services include hazardous materials response, heavy rescue, and trench and confined space rescue. The City’s three volunteer corporations also receive allotments equal to the allotments provided to each volunteer fire company in the County. In return for this funding, the City agrees to provide fire and emergency medical services to the Salisbury Fire District, which includes the city as well as areas outside the City limits, and emergency medical service to the Fruitland Fire District. This agreement is for a three year period beginning July 1, 2005.

O) Salisbury Mall (Villages at Salisbury Lake): On October 11, the City Administrator and a group of City Public Works employees traveled to Gaithersburg to look at a development called the Kentlands. This development had been named by the developers of the Villages at Salisbury Lake as models that they had used in developing their concept plans for the redevelopment of the Salisbury Mall. The purpose of this trip was to gather information on how the concepts being discussed worked in actual practice. This trip proved to be very informative and helped the public works staff formulate their response to the development concepts that were proposed for the Villages at Salisbury Lake. Following this trip, the public works department met with the developers and they were successful in resolving several of the issues on which the two parties could not agree

On November 28, 2005, the first reading of the ordinance creating the proposed planned development district (PDD) for the Villages at Salisbury Lake was held at a City Council meeting. At that time, it was apparent that there were several design concepts on which the City staff and the developers had not yet reached agreement. The Council adopted the ordinance on first reading; however, it postponed the second reading until its second meeting in January to give the developers and the City staff additional time to work out the remaining design issues. At the end of the quarter, these issues were still being discussed.

P) Balanced Scorecard: On December 15, 2005, the City’s Balanced Scorecard committee met to discuss their trip to Charlotte and the recommendation they would make to the Mayor and Council about whether to pursue the Balanced Scorecard. The members of the committee were very supportive of the idea of the City pursuing performance management because they felt that it would help in the development of a more focused management system for the City. They were not ready to commit to the full Balanced Scorecard concept yet because they feared that the City did not have the resources at this time to devote to making the Balanced Scorecard system work. They preferred to delay implementation until the necessary resources could be generated so that, once the Balanced Scorecard was introduced, it would be successful.

The steps that the committee agreed to were as follows:

1) report back to the Mayor and Council on the Balanced Scorecard

2) provide an orientation/education session for the Council on the Balanced Scorecard, particularly for those new members who had been elected since the original orientation program was held

3) the Mayor and Council develop their goals for the upcoming year

4) ask for funding in the FY 07 budget for a citizen attitude survey and for membership in ICMA’s Center for Performance Measurement

5) ask the Mayor and Council to work on vision, values and mission statements

6) provide an orientation/education for employees on the goals, values, vision and mission statements

Q) North Prong: During the quarter, the Urban River Task Force continued to work on he City’s request for Priority Places designation for the North Prong redevelopment project. On December 1, 2005, a delegation consisting of the mayor, the task Force chair, Mike Abercrombie, Gary Comegys, Shanie Shields and Jan Wiseman, representing the Greater Salisbury Committee made a presentation to the Interagency Coordinating Committee for Smart Growth on our application. The presenters felt that their presentation was well received by the committee and that there was a good chance that the City’s application would be successful.

The task force also made a presentation to the Secretary of the Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) requesting the help of his department in relocating the Perdue Farms grain handling facility on the North Prong. Perdue had expressed concerns that the redevelopment of the North Prong would create conflicts between this facility and the people who may want to either live or create businesses along the North Prong. If a suitable location could be found for the relocation of the Perdue facility, and financing could be found to offset relocation costs, a major concern for the redevelopment of this area could be resolved.

R) Affordable Housing: The City and County continued to work on the development of an affordable housing complex on the City’s west side. This 96-unit development, which is being sponsored by The Shelter Group, has been named Westbrook Apartment Homes. Late in the quarter, the County adopted the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) arrangement that had been worked out between the City, the County and the developers. Under this arrangement, which had earlier been approved by the City, the development would make annual PILOT payments to both the City and the County for twenty years. After the twenty year period, the developers would make a lump sum payment to both the City and the County equal to all of the taxes that had been deferred during the twenty year period. This arrangement, which is more generous than that provided by the City in the past to affordable housing developments, was justified on the basis that the rents that would be charged for these units would be lower than those charged at other such developments. This complex would, therefore, be able to serve a lower income segment of the population than was being served by other developments. The developers agreed to maintain their rents so that they would be affordable for this lower-income population group for forty years. The City also agreed to grant an exemption for this project from the water and sewer capacity fees on the basis of its affordable status.

S) On October 6, members of the City staff and the City Council met with the developers of the Aydelotte Farm to further discuss the idea of financing the construction of the third phase of the Northeast Collector Road through a Tax Increment Financing arrangement. A follow-up teleconference was held on October 18. The developers received the results of a financial analysis which indicated that the Aydelotte Farm project would generate more than enough tax revenues to offset the annual debt service payments on the TIF bonds to build the road. Based on this analysis, the City Council, at its November 7, 2005 work session, indicated its provisional support of this project and the TIF financing, provided only that an independent financial advisor, to be selected by the City, verified the analysis done by the developer’s advisor. At the end of the quarter, the City was in the process of selecting the financial advisor. The Public Works Department staff was also in the process of reviewing the construction plans for the road. The plan would be to get the TIF in place in the spring of 2006 and to begin construction on the road in the summer of 2006.

T) Throughout the quarter the City Administrator and the department heads were involved in working on the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for the five year period FY07-FY11. The department heads turned in their CIP requests early in October. In the middle of October a series of meeting were held with the City Administrator to review these requests. Shortly thereafter, the City Administrator provided the department heads with instructions to revise their requests to fit into the City’s expected resources over the period. The preliminary CIP was reviewed with the City Council at a work session held on December 19. A follow-up work session was scheduled in January.

U) Pursuant to a directive from the City Council, the Mayor, the City Administrator and the Director of Building, Housing and Zoning (BHZ), worked throughout the quarter on preparations for the creation of the new Department of Neighborhood Services and Code Compliance. This concept for this department, which was to be split off from the BHZ Department, was reviewed with the City Council at its October 3, 2005 work session. At this meeting, they indicated their approval of the concept and the staff began working on the development of the budget for the new department and the necessary revisions to the Charter and the Code to accommodate its creation. These code changes were approved at the December 12 Council meeting. In the meantime, the recruitment and selection process began for the new Director of Neighborhood Services and Code Compliance.

V) Interviews were held on October 28 and 31 for the Procurement Director. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a suitable candidate and so the decision was made to initiate a second recruitment and selection round.

W) Interviews were also held for Finance Director candidates on December 1. Two candidates were selected for further interview with the Mayor. At the end of the quarter, the Mayor was reviewing the candidates prior to making a decision on whether to submit both candidates for interview with the Council or whether to submit only one name.