During the city council meeting on July 10, the City approved an employment contract with Police Chief Neil Cervenka, making him the assistant city manager as well as the police chief. This additional role includes a 5% pay increase, a severance package, and 40 hours of sick leave. If City Manager Peggy Ducey cannot act as City Manager, Cervenka will step into the role.
A few members of the public were wary of this resolution. Former city council member Jessica Morsell-Haye commented that she could foresee problems with succession down the line, saying that the City was “backing itself into a corner.” Other public comments disapproved of the additional expense of this contract.
The council members themselves also saw some problems with this resolution. Council member Lindy Peters voiced his concerns about one person having two different roles. “I think they (the roles of the city police chief and city manager) should be separate. We can’t have the same person being the boss of another.”
Vice-Mayor Jason Godeke agreed. “We don’t want our police chief serving as our city manager as a regular thing; that’s just not a healthy state of affairs,” Godeke said. “I think this is something that our city council would need to be vigilant about.”
On the other hand, Mayor Bernie Norvell brought up that the council was overall happy with Cervenka’s leadership and trusted Cervenka to step into the role of city manager as needed.
After voicing their concerns, the council approved the contract, with only council member Marcia Rafanan voting no.
The council also approved a Letter of Intent with Syserco Energy Solutions for the Facilities Solar Project. This project will add solar power to six different Fort Bragg facilities and be grandfathered into a more favorable metering system.
Generally, solar power creates abundant power in the summer and less in the winter. Under the previous Net Energy Metering, or NEM 2.0, any excess power produced during the summertime would credit to the solar system owner during the wintertime. However, regulations recently changed to NEM 3.0, which would remove much of that benefit. Earlier in the year, SES submitted interconnection applications with PG&E so that the City would be grandfathered into NEM 2.0 for the next 20 years.
SES will be adding solar power to the city hall, the corp yard and water treatment plant, the CV Starr Center, the fire department, the police department, and the wastewater treatment plant. This project must be completed by April 15, 2026. As there is a long lead time for materials, the city staff needs to finalize all the project details as quickly as possible.
The council also accepted the bid of Argonaut Constructors for $4,611,831.45 for the 2022 street rehabilitation project. This project will include two miles of new pavement, three miles of pavement marking and striping, replacement of the decorative crosswalks in the Central Business District, and safety improvements along North and South Harold Street.
The primary funding source for this project is Special Street Sales Tax. However, other funding sources include the Local Partnership Program with State Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act funding.
The council also adopted a resolution approving a budget amendment accepting a grant from the Department of California Highway Patrol. This grant focuses on DUI enforcement and pays for two changeable message signboards and eight DUI saturation events over the fiscal year. Four of the saturation events will be advertised with signboards, and four will not be. The City will study to see if advertising the saturation events makes a difference in the number of DUIs.
A saturation patrol is an increased number of police officers patrolling a specific area to look for impaired driving behavior. This funding does not pay for DUI checkpoints, which involve stopping many vehicles to check for DUIs. According to Chief Neil Cervenka, DUI checkpoints often catch other bystanders that are not dangerous on the roads, and he personally doesn’t like them.
This funding will include additional DUI investigation training and public education events near local bars. These public education events will have bar patrons guessing their BAC to win small prizes so that people will better understand their own BAC level.
(courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)
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