2018

Badawi & Associates, replacing the auditor of six years, presents the FY 2016-17 audit 18 months after the year closed. The opinion is unmodified but carries a going-concern paragraph. The general fund is owed some $1.85 million by other funds (capital projects, recycling, housing, the former redevelopment agency) with no visible way to repay, making its available balance a deficit; the city bridges each year with a $6 million tax anticipation note the auditor calls 'almost a payday loan.' Statements had to be restated, the closing process was a material weakness, and the loans were never approved by the Council.

Councilmember Lyman puts reserves at 3% against a 10-15% policy and asks that Measure V's first months, about $50,000 a week, go to reserves. The Financial Advisory Board proposes a $6 million cash disaster fund. The auditor says the deficit must be covered first. Thirteen residents ask instead for fire prevention (dead hydrants in the Hillside Natural Area, evacuation routes, eucalyptus) and for a rent cap with just cause.

The Council approves Karen Pinkos's contract as City Manager at $19,166.67 a month, raises garbage fees 5.77% partly to repay the recycling fund's $449,000 loan, and unanimously denies a neighbor's appeal against a hillside addition on Arlington Boulevard over a 2-foot-by-9-foot corner, after staff explain there is no right to a view. An opioid presentation includes a Mayor Pro Tem's account of losing her stepfather to an overdose.

The fire chief reports this year's Hillside Natural Area work: slash burning with Cal Fire, 19 contracted projects, 21 hazard trees removed, signs and a fence at an illegal fire pit. Residents answer that the work came only after they complained, that three eucalyptus the city reported removed are nowhere to be seen, and that consultants' recommendations were never adopted. The chief warns that PG&E plans to cut power on high-risk days, and says PG&E could offer no evidence it had worked elsewhere.

Two Measure V opponents say the city is overspending and courting bankruptcy; one claims the transfer tax would cost him $30,000 to inherit his own house. A tenant advocate calls the Council 'very prudent'. Ten speakers ask for an emergency rent moratorium and just cause, citing Concord's failed rent review; one reports that no one answered at ECHO Housing, which staff later recommend to run El Cerrito's rent review.

The park district presents Measure FF and councilmembers endorse it from the dais. The school district explains its court-forced move to trustee-area elections: no jurisdiction that fought such a suit has won. EBMUD's director is asked why Richmond Street still waits for a promised pipeline. County Animal Services costs about $150,000 a year, or roughly $750 a call.

About a dozen hillside residents describe the Hillside Natural Area as a fire waiting to happen: eucalyptus groves with ladder fuels into the crowns, a fire pit used at least five times in eight months, streets overgrown too narrow for engines, and vegetation plans from 1986 to 2007 never carried out. 'Don't spend more money on another freaking plan.' Later, the fire chief confirms the 1987 and 1994 plans were never formally adopted, though staff still use them as guides, and that park maintenance has grown from $10,000 to $35,000 a year.

Another dozen speakers ask for an immediate rent freeze and moratorium on no-fault evictions: a tenant whose rent went from $1,100 to $1,600 and who became homeless in El Cerrito, renters facing 20% a year, and a survey showing only 1% of Concord residents had used its mediation program. Councilmember Lyman answers both groups with the case for Measure V, explaining that earmarking it for fire would have needed a two-thirds vote; a colleague says fire and 'disaster relief' are what win residents' support.

Also: EC STARS in its sixth year, now the model for the school district's internship program; the retirement of senior services supervisor Janet Bilbus; Arts Month; and a report that El Cerrito High no longer has a choir or theater program.

Under Pillar B of the 2017 Affordable Housing Strategy, staff present tenant protections in two buckets: near-term (non-binding mediation, one-year lease offers, longer notice, relocation for demolitions), mediation among them, which they say is 'really working' elsewhere, and medium-term (rent stabilization for El Cerrito's 2,800 pre-1995 apartments, binding mediation, just cause, harassment protections), costing up to millions and set aside as costly and contested. The Council directs staff to price the near-term tools, gather data on actual rents and ownership, and return in 90 to 120 days.

Renters and advocates ask for a moratorium: a tenant of 16 years at 73 facing a remodel, a physician given notice after a $700 increase, and a warning that talk of controls will bring a wave of increases. Landlords, several from Richmond's new rent control, describe 20-month waits for fair-return hearings and a program costing nearly $3 million; the Apartment Association opposes all controls but accepts mediation, lease terms and relocation. Only Mayor Pro Tem Pardue-Okimoto asks for stabilization and just cause.

Councilmember Abelson, wary of any cost, says the city has 'a measure on the ballot' because of its low reserves, to meet basic needs. Also: the first resident plea about fire in the Hillside Natural Area, MCE's $1.5 million EV rebates and a charge that the city has bought only gasoline cars since 2012, a second poet laureate, and RecycleMore at an impasse.

The Council places a single measure on the November ballot: a city charter and a real property transfer tax of $12 per $1,000, about $2.7 million a year, needing a simple majority. The City Manager says the city 'currently doesn't have an emergency reserve' and hopes the first six months of revenue go untouched. The pollster's survey (485 voters, 55% rising to 58%) finds fire protection and emergency medical services the most persuasive uses, with a disaster reserve in the second tier, while stating plainly that it is a general tax the Council may spend as it chooses.

The survey's most damaging criticism is that 'no guaranteed funds will be spent as promised', offset by independent citizen oversight. The City Attorney then finds the oversight clause missing from the ordinance ('I'm honestly just not sure how it happened') and the Council adds Financial Advisory Board review by motion. The Contra Costa Taxpayers Association calls it an attack on Prop 13 driven by a $59 million pension debt; a longtime commissioner notes that the state's recent municipal bankruptcies were all charter cities.

Also: City Manager Scott Hanin's retirement and Karen Pinkos's appointment; support for AB 1884 limiting plastic straws; National Night Out and a tribute to Crime Prevention Committee chair Molly Hazen; the annual weed abatement, with a councilmember framing Measure V as 'response money for fire emergencies'.

The Council and redevelopment successor agency sell the Cerrito Theater to Rialto Cinemas for $790,000, priced on what a theater can earn: a 99-year covenant keeping it a theater, protected historic features, twelve community days a year, and a city right of first refusal. The city's share is about 22%. The sale is timed so the local oversight board approves it before a countywide board replaces it on 1 July. The Friends of the Cerrito Theater call themselves its watchdog; a speaker notes it sold for less than many two-bedroom houses.

The 2018-20 budget, about $37 million in the general fund, passes 5-0 with the Financial Advisory Board's unanimous backing. Councilmember Lyman says it is balanced on eight vacancies, three or four in police and three in fire, with 38 capital projects unfunded; colleagues promise to add to reserves and spend nothing extra. Five months later the auditor adds a going-concern paragraph to the city's financial statements.

In public comment the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association warns of a $59 million pension liability and a tax voters will reject; an actuary argues the liability accounting overstates it; a resident opposes the transfer tax; and a Richmond man relays secondhand an allegation of racism at El Cerrito High. Also: the Sundar Shadi garden awards, all three to immigrant gardeners.

The City Manager makes the case for a charter so the city can levy a real property transfer tax: about $2.7 million a year, a general tax, paid at sale, for services and a reserve the city lacks ('we don't have an emergency reserve'). The City Attorney explains home rule and the charter committee's narrow draft, a 'toolbox' motivated by the transfer tax. Eleven residents respond: supporters praise the committee's process; others report two working days' notice, dispute the mailer's median rate, ask why rebates go to buyers rather than long-time owners, and cite charter-city bankruptcies.

Councilmember Lyman answers that earmarking the money for a library or public safety would make it a special tax needing two-thirds, which the City Attorney doubts would pass, and says the tax could bring the unfunded pension liability down 'pretty quickly'. Abelson: 'there is no plan B.' The Mayor says the senior center's forced move cost over $400,000 from reserves.

In the budget session, the Finance Director says about $5 million in federal and state capital grants in this year's projections is not expected to arrive. A resident asks whether the city will be 'gamblers or planners' on a disaster fund; Lyman asks the Financial Advisory Board to review council pay, 'less than minimum wage.'

The City Manager presents a two-year budget that has lived within plus or minus one percent for years, with ten positions held vacant, 76% of the general fund on personnel and less than 5% that could be cut without reducing services. Reserves are 'lower than we anticipated': the new auditor, Badawi & Associates, required a $1.278 million prior-period adjustment, mostly a final payroll period never recorded, so the reported $1.8 million fund balance becomes $818,709 at 30 June 2017, 2.4%. With the senior center move and dispatch costs, reserves going forward are about 3.4% where the city expected about 13%.

The City Manager explains the history: in the recession the Council chose not to lay off staff or cut services and drew on reserves, and ten years on the city has not recovered. In an emergency, he says, it would probably use restricted money in other funds 'and then deal with how to unsort that after.' The Finance Director says the city's last reserve disclosure to the state showed almost nothing in the general fund; Councilmember Lyman notes the vacancies are worth $1.3 million, more than the reserve, so 'we can't even afford full staffing.'

A $6 million tax anticipation note, about $170,000 in interest and fees, passes with no questions. Also: a condominium map for 128 apartments to be rented for ten years, over a resident's objection; calls to divest from companies that serve ICE, including license plate readers; a library at Plaza BART floated for the first time; and library use up sharply with Sunday hours.

The Council introduces an inclusionary zoning ordinance, 5-0: for-sale projects of nine or more units set aside 12% for moderate incomes, and rental projects of ten or more set aside 10%, split between low and moderate, or pay about $17 a square foot. The consultant says $17 keeps the hardest prototype at 6.02%, just over its target return. Lyman shows that a project of eight for-sale and nine rental units could escape both thresholds, and the motion directs staff to count contiguous projects together. On Pardue-Okimoto's amendment, any extra unit the formula yields becomes moderate income. East Bay Housing Organizations backs it 'strongly'; a resident calls it 'a modest step' and urges the maximum fee.

At the first of two charter hearings, City Manager Scott Hanin explains why a charter: a real property transfer tax at $12 per $1,000 would bring in about $2.7 million a year, and the city has no emergency reserve. He warns that a Business Roundtable initiative could require a two-thirds vote. Residents ask about council pay and whether to unlink the tax from the charter; Lyman: 'shame on us for not exploring it.'

Pardue-Okimoto's resolution backing AB 1793, which would move the burden of clearing old cannabis convictions to the state, meets a police chiefs' association letter in opposition and an estimate of 16,000 cases for one district attorney; Lyman calls the job 'herculean', and the item is continued two weeks. In public comment, a lot owner describes shifting planning objections, and Sherry Drobner describes two nights at Kaiser Richmond waiting for a bed, with none at Alta Bates or Summit either. Lyman reports MCE's $50 million surplus.

Ten speakers support a resolution asking Sheriff Livingston to reinstate the Freedom for Immigrants visitation program at the West County jail. Lyman cuts it to four whereas clauses and a single request; on speakers' suggestions it adds 'no new conditions' and a clause sending it to the sheriff and county. A volunteer describes a woman who spoke only Creole with no one to talk to when she was suicidal. One sponsor regrets that the sheriff is no longer named; Abelson recalls that the city's last letter drew a reply saying she should be ashamed, and a loss she puts at $350,000 a year. It passes 5-0.

The former redevelopment parcel at 1718 Eastshore goes to the Patels, owners of the neighboring Mira Vista hotel since 1987, for a second hotel of about 100 rooms that staff estimate would bring half a million dollars a year in hotel tax. The city keeps about 22% of the price, and 50% of the net if the buyers resell. Two new neighbors say they never knew the parcel was for sale and ask to bid; a councilmember floats a cooperation clause, and the City Manager warns against renegotiating from the dais. It passes 5-0 as written.

The fee schedule rises 3.5%. Fadelli calls the proposed EV and ADU discounts 'way too low', and the Council raises them to 50% for ADUs and for five or more chargers; a resident says the charger fee itself is broken, and staff concede a copying error on greywater fees. Library commissioners report twice the usual visitors in the first week of seven-day hours. Two police agreements give 3% a year and turn education pay into a percentage of salary, and Richmond agrees to drop from three RecycleMore votes to one.

Willdan Financial's study sets planning and building fees at full cost, with valuation-based fees for new construction at 85% until July 2019. Lyman shows the exhibit drops the consultant's units and notes: as printed, 'it's actually cheaper to put a 502 square foot deck in than a 499', and nothing limits the valuation tables to new construction. The comparison charts show Berkeley charging about three times as much, and a small office tenant improvement falls from about $7,550 to $2,950. The City Manager calls subsidies 'a zero-sum game' against police positions. After Howdy Goudey and Robin Mitchell object to a $1,000 appeal fee, the Council adopts 90% and a $500 appeal fee and asks for policy subsidies with the budget.

Child care moves to nine monthly payments, driven partly by minimum wage increases, after the recreation director finds formulas broken in the PDF that printed some fees at half price. The Mayor reads a letter from Sakura Kai: its 150 seniors, displaced from the senior center after 40 years, will move to Alvarado school. The Environmental Quality Committee reports the climate plan on track and the Deep Green campaign's success, plans a multi-family focus, and warns of tidal flooding along Belmont.

The library announces seven-day hours from 2 April, its first Wednesday opening since at least 1998. The historical society asks for a cultural resources survey and preservation ordinance; Howdy Goudey asks what happened to the housing strategy's tenant protections; and the Council retitles its support for Proposition 68. Abelson joins the policy committee of the Alameda CTC's San Pablo Avenue corridor project.

The redevelopment agency began buying the Mayfair block in 1987. The Council now approves a disposition and development agreement with Holliday Development and BRIDGE Housing: 156 market-rate homes with shops and all the parking, and 67 homes for households at or below 60% of median income for 55 years, entitled in eight or nine months under the specific plan. The market-rate building goes first; the affordable one waits on a state housing bond and competitive cap-and-trade money. Lyman goes through the schedule, the regulatory agreement, prevailing wages and a 68 that should be 67; the Carpenters Union supports it.

Because the school district ended the senior center's lease, the Council leases two modular buildings at the old temporary City Hall site: $103,800 up front and up to $10,000 a month for five years, plus site work. Lyman totals it at about 'a million dollars'. Howdy Goudey warns against buying the trailers and settling for them. Superintendent Matthew Duffy reports El Cerrito's schools outpacing the district, detracking at Korematsu, only three in ten third graders reading at grade level district-wide, and a board review of school resource officers. He cannot say why the board decided the senior center's fate in closed session.

In public comment, Al Miller says the streets oversight committee is down to one member, Robin Mitchell asks for money and grants to open the bequeathed Dorothy Rosenberg Memorial Park, a resident cannot find how to contest a parking ticket, and the tennis club asks for a restroom key at El Cerrito High. The police honor Officer Sarah Perez, records specialist Stacey Corr and volunteer Bob Rugaroni, and the charter committee holds its first meeting.

The public defender's office presents Stand Together Contra Costa, a two-and-a-half-year pilot costing about $1 million a year. It has a hotline and trained community responders to verify reported ICE activity, 3.25 lawyers for detained residents who have no right to appointed counsel ('the three lawyers are not going to be enough'), and hubs in West, East and Central County for know-your-rights workshops and family preparedness plans. The hotline is due by 1 March. The presenter cites a report of large-scale raids planned for Northern California; they come at the end of February.

LimeBike will launch a six-month dockless pilot with 100 bikes at $1 per half hour, at no cost to the city, under a memorandum the city can cancel on 30 days' notice. Councilmembers ask about BART, hills, weight, theft and parking. Howdy Goudey warns that bikes without explicit parking standards will block sidewalks, as Abelson in her wheelchair knows. A graffiti ordinance makes abatement an administrative process now that redevelopment no longer pays for it, with an optional deposit program; councilmembers and Goudey push toward something more like insurance, and staff agree to report back.

Fadelli, of Kennedy High's class of 1968, reflects on the King march, and a councilmember receives the Martin Luther King Dream Award. A resident says an eight-story project at the old Taco Bell will take his view. The new affordable housing analyst starts, the Hana Gardens waiting list opens by lottery, and a crosswalk grant gets its SB 1 match written in.