MPACC kick-off notes
The 4th Precinct held their MPACC (Mayor’s Participation and Communication Corp) kick-off meeting at Linwood Holton Elementary. The Mayor as well as a ton of City officials were on hand to introduce the program, answer questions, and begin the process of solving residents’ problems — which is what MPACC intends to do.
The MPACC program operates on the Broken Windows Theory — that relatively minor urban decay (graffiti, trash, etc) can lead to more serious crime. By focusing on seven commonly reported problems MPACC hopes to improve life in the city and ultimately reduce the more serious crimes. Here’s the list of seven reportable offenses:
- Potholes
- Overgrown property lots
- Abandoned cars
- Streetlights
- Open & vacant properties
- Trash/bulk pickup
- Illegal dumping
More details and notes after the jump.
Again, the focus is on common and relatively simple to fix issues. More complicated and serious issues — drugs, public safety, green space, etc — may be incorporated after the program takes off.
There will be three groups, one for each 4th Precinct sector, responsible for filtering requests up from the neighborhood level to the City level. Each group will have an appointed co-chair (co-chairs serve one-year terms and can only serve two consecutive terms) that will serve as a liaison between the area and the City.
4th Precinct co-chairs are (I may have missed one):
- Sector 411 — Horace Anderson
- Sector 412 — Barbara Abernathy
- Sector 412 — Matt Peanort
- Sector 413 — Charles Finley
Some miscellaneous notes:
- The co-chairs will meet with their groups monthly (neighborhood association collaboration is encouraged) and meet with the Mayor periodically.
- Police Precincts were chosen because they cross Council District lines and are hopefully less political.
- The City sees this as a major upgrade to the current, and aging, 311 service. Previously you could submit a ticket to 311 and have it lost to the bureaucratic ether. Now, if you submit a ticket the City will update you frequently as to the progress and estimated completion date.
- You can submit tickets via RichmondGov.com, to your co-chair, via 311, or through the SeeClickFix mobile app.
- Most issues should take between 7-10 work days to fix
- There were several representatives from neighborhood associations present. There seemed to be a lot of concern whether MPACC would replace, or usurp, the associations
My understand there were more city officals at this meeting the residents. Mainly due to late notice of the of the meeting.
If they going to meet once month when and where is the first meeting? Who are the cochair? Another half baked idea from the Mayor.
@Richard, It was probably evenly split. The City brought a lot of people from a lot of departments mainly to take service requests from citizens.
I listed the co-chairs in the article (no contact information was given unfortunately). The meeting times and places are going to be announced in the next three weeks. The co-chairs are going through some “training” first. I imagine we’ll hear by the end of next month.
In the mean time you can submit tickets via the City’s website or the mobile app. I encourage you to do so and be vocal about your experience and the results.