CITY MANAGER’S REPORT

Week ending May 2, 2008

 

Follow up to media requests for NCAA Championship celebration information

City staff believes the most memorable numbers from the KU men basketball team's NCAA Championship are 75-68. In response to media inquiries, the city released the following information on costs associated with the NCAA tournament celebrations. Costs are associated with events on Sunday, March 30; Saturday, April 5; Monday, April 7; and Sunday, April 14.

 

Fire Medical

$14,281.84

Parks and Recreation

$6,400.00

Police Department

$29,052.00

Public Works

$3,928.12

City total

$53, 661.96

 

These numbers do not reflect regular wages of City employees, but do include overtime. As previously noted, the City received donated law enforcement assistance from several agencies outside of Lawrence. The City’s guest tax reserve fund will be used to supplement City department funds as needed for these unbudgeted expenses.

 

City employees graduate from Leadership Lawrence

On Friday, April 25, Lawrence Police Officer, Trent McKinley, Building Safety Manager Barry Walthall and Legal Services Director Toni Wheeler graduated from Leadership Lawrence. Toni was also elected by the graduating class to serve on the Leadership Lawrence Advisory Board.

 

Additional advisory board agendas and supporting materials go online

The Traffic Safety Commission agenda has been online since May 2003, however, this month launched the inclusion of all supporting materials online also. The May 2008 Traffic Safety Commission Agenda and supporting materials are available at: http://lawrenceks.org/advisory_boards/tsc/agendas/2008/05/03. Traffic Engineer David Woosley and eGov Coordinator Eric Gruber worked together to create a no-cost solution to post all materials.

 

In January 2008 the Planning Commission agendas and supporting materials went fully online. Since that time the Planning Division has reduced their monthly printing by approximately 10,000 copies. This has resulted in a savings of about $730/month in printing costs plus the staff time previously dedicated to printing, compiling and distributing the agenda materials for each meeting. With the new computer technology introduced in the City Commission Room in January, staff hopes to continue migrating more and more advisory board materials online and moving away from paper materials. This should result in cost savings, greater public access and better archiving of information.

 

K-10 and Farmer’s Turnpike area plan status

On May 2, the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Office plans to release a draft plan for property in the area of K-10 and Farmer’s Turnpike. The office will also announce a May 15 public meeting to present that plan at the Indoor Aquatic Center, 4706 Overland Drive from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

 

In addition to an online posting, letters are being mailed to more than 400 property owners and an announcement will be sent to the 48 people that subscribed at www.lawrenceks.org/subscriptions. Public comment will be accepted on the draft land use plan until May 21 by mleininger@ci.lawrence.ks.us or P.O. Box 708, Lawrence, KS 66044 or (785) 832-3163.