The city has set up an online survey to solicit ideas from residents regarding a new top city cop. Police Chief Ron Ace announced in December that he would be retiring, and agreed to stick around until a successor is found. The process is expected to take until early summer.

The three questions asked:

1. What qualities and characteristics should the new the Police Chief have in order to receive your respect and be most effective as a community leader and Hayward’s “top cop”?

2. What would you like potential candidates to know about your community?

3. What community issues would you advise the new Police Chief to focus on during his or her first year on the job?

According to the city’s website, “The feedback received will help inform the recruiter about the qualities of a Police Chief and community leader that are most important to Hayward residents, as well as help identify community priorities for the City’s next law enforcement leader.”

While the HayWord and its readers would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section, it’s probably more important to let the city know on the survey site. Why not post on both?

Read the rest of this entry »

Yikes, once again I find myself a day behind on the calendar post. Here’s what we have/had on tap for the  week. Of note: There’s going to be a Hayward Cesar Chavez event and teach-in at at City Hall starting 5 p.m. Thursday, a new Hayward Arts Council exhibit opens Friday, also at City Hall, featuring the artists at right and for the next four Saturdays, Big Read events, again at City Hall. Read the rest of this entry »

The City Manager included the latest “rolling 12-month comparison” in her report from last week. It compares the most recent yearlong period for which stats are available — in this case February 2010 to January 2011 — the the same period of a year prior.

As you can see, most crime in Hayward is on the decline. Violent crime down 11 percent. Although there is an increase in murder and rape, the police chief previously said that the murder stat is an anomaly caused by a particularly nasty first part of 2011. Rape is up 39 percent, with the numbers being a difference of 13 cases.

While property crime is down 14 percent, there’s been a large increase in residential burglaries, to the tune of 39 percent. The uptick is significant in terms of numbers: 546 vs. 758. As Chief Ron Ace mentioned at the state of the city event earlier this year, there’s been a similar rise in many other surrounding cities.

San Leandro Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli talked crime stats at a neighborhood meeting in that city last week. You can watch it on this blog. She said San Leandro has seen a drop in crime of 8 percent, but burglaries have gone up 15 percent. Unclear whether she’s talking total burglaries, in which case Hayward would have a similar increase, of 14 percent, thanks to a sizable drop in nonresidential burglaries.

Another big decrease: Auto thefts. I wonder if $4/gal gas will have a further cooling effect on car snatchings or if thieves will steal a new car everytime they run out of fuel…

Here’s that report from the city manager that was requested by Mayor Mike Sweeney following some incidents at Hayward nightclubs the last weekend in February. And to kill more topics in one post (been busy this week and haven’t had much of a chance to blog), we had a story on the noise ordinance moving forward and another on Caltrans’ preliminary finding regarding the Bunker Hill property it owns. Going back further, had some stuff on HUSD moving toward a qualified status, and here’s a related Katy Murphy overview of what schools are facing.

Back on the topic of nightclubs and downtown, I was talking to Councilman Mark Salinas the other day on unrelated matters, and he mentioned that restaurants down there have been booming on weekends. Said he tried to go to the Kokyo Sushi Buffet, found it packed, went to Buon Appetito, same story, and ended up waiting in a sizable line over at Chef’s Experience. Anyone else been out to eat on a prime night lately and seen an uptick?

Oh, and a final bite on the topic of Hayward eats, the Merc had a nice piece recently on the glorious milkshakes served by Val’s Burgers.

Without further adieu, find the nightclub info after the jump… The Discussion section cuts to the chase about what’s going on. Read the rest of this entry »

A little late, didn’t have a chance to post yesterday. Note that tonight the Hayward City Council will be talking about proposed amendments to the city’s noise ordinance, as we discussed late last year here on the HayWord. Read the rest of this entry »

There were three nightclub related incidents last weekend: a shooting at a Mission Boulevard karaoke joint, shots fired and fights in the downtown area. There have been a couple other incidents on B Street in the past month, including a Pizza House employee being punched in the face and shots fired in the alley next to the building.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Mike Sweeney asked the city manager to prepare a report on what’s going on. Fran David said she’s already talked with police as well as nightclub owners and will have that report for them by the end of the week, I’ll watch for it. Read the rest of this entry »

The City Council voted to have staff write up an ordinance that will ban any medical marijuana dispensaries from moving into town. That will make them the seventh Alameda County city to do so — Alameda, Dublin, Emeryville, Fremont, Livermore and Pleasanton have such bans in place, according to a staff report. Dispensaries are allowed in Albany, Berkeley, Oakland and unincorporated Alameda County. There are two nearby AlCo dispensaries, in San Lorenzo and Cherryland.

Hayward remains the biggest AlCo city that doesn’t have a policy one way or the other.  The city was considering prioritizing the matter last year, but did not do it. There was no mention of medical marijuana during the priority setting process this year.

Cities such as Oakland are looking at the industry as a potential boost to city coffers. Oakland has a business license tax on marijuana dispensaries, and it was estimated at San Leandro’s meeting that it brings in about $1.4 million each year, based on gross sales of $28 million.

Find Hayward’s story from last February after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Hayward Unified launched a truancy campaign last week, here’s our story from Sunday. It’s going to be discussed at Wednesday’s board meeting, you can find the report and accompanying information here, starting on page 116.

As was mentioned in the story, there are other ways to combat truancy, including the city’s daytime curfew ordinance that was passed a year ago. And as Mr. Kyle has mentioned, a new law went into effect Jan. 1. Sen. Mark Leno’s SB1317 ups the previous penalties for parents of habitually truant students. Parents could be jailed for up to a year and fined $2,000 if prosecutors can make a case that they didn’t adequately encourage their child to make it to class. Applies to kids up through 8th grade.

Essentially, it adds truancy to a list of neglectful things that parents can be jailed for, a list that previously included stuff like not providing adequate clothing, food, shelter or medical assistance.

It is up to the District Attorney’s Office to pursue the penalties offered by SB1317. A year ago, when Hayward passed the administrative fines, one of the reasons given was because while govt. code provided the power to fine parents through the courts for their kids’ truancy, it was seldom used because it would tie up the courts.

The HUSD campaign is more of a carrot than a stick approach. Actually, more of a “get out the word” type of deal, and it’s important to note that the district is talking about the importance of minimizing excused absences as well — whatever the reason class is missed, lessons are not learned nor attendance funds banked.

Would like to hear your thoughts. Here’s some additional truancy information.

Hayward is holding a community meeting Thursday to discuss amending the city’s noise ordinance to bring it into the modern age. The current ordinance was drafted in the 1950s, and is vague. The city hopes to include language that will give it more teeth.

There’s concern over enforcement — it’s one thing to have an ordinance on the books, another to have the resources to go after what many consider a low-level concern.

“It’s probably going to be a work in progress,” said Assistant City Attorney Maureen Conneely, who prepared the draft ordinance brought before a council work session in October . “We’re going to have to see how to implement it, and it may need some adjustments depending on whether it is easy or difficult to enforce.”

At the Oct. 26 work session, the noise ordinance drew support from the council, although members spoke about how they or family members could well be current or past violators. Read about it after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Hayward city officials, along with HUSD and HARD representatives, have been meeting with residents in neighborhoods all over town to hear what their concerns are and what should be done to improve their quality of life.

Officials say the Neighborhood Partnership Program has been a big success. Here’s a presentation that explains what’s going on. The goal is to have an initial set of four meetings facilitated by the city, then turn the reins over to the residents. So even if the meetings have already been held for your area, you should be able to get in contact with people who have set up an action team. For more information, call Neighborhood Services at 510-583-4227 or e-mail director David Korth at david.korth@hayward-ca.gov.

And just as a reminder, you can also use the city website’s Access Hayward feature to file complaints or suggestions of things that need work.